Year round fountains, church storks, roll on the floor

1. In Spain, the fountains are never turned off. They continue to gurgle water even when sub zero temperatures threaten to freeze everything else. It´s as if Spainards want to deny the cold, ignore the winter.

2. After reading about how storks seem to flock and nest in church crevices, Miranda France, author of ¨Don Quixote´s Delusions,¨ ponders that perhaps storks are the spirits of deceased priests and cannot drift away from these holy buildings. As I´m walking one afternoon, I see a stork return to its nest on the church and fold its wings. I´m glad to be reading literature that is immediately relative to my surroundings.

3. There don´t seem to be any toilet paper holders in Spanish bathrooms. In every place I´ve stayed, the roll either just sits on the toilet itself or on a shelf. Why bother? Sometimes I don´t care, but sometimes it´s a hassle. Either way, I love noticing tiny cultural differences.