I've just got back from Barcelona, which was a fantastic place! Even though most of the time was spent working, the company I was with still managed to take me on a whistle-stop tour of the city, which was great since this was my first ever visit to Spain!!!

While I was there it struck me how at ease I felt, even though I can't speak a word of Spanish. I can't even count to ten, although I could just about manage no hablo espagnol, although only because I've seen people on american TV say it. The feeling of not being a total outsider contrasted quite strongly with my visits to the States, where I feel very much the foreigner. It's hard to put my finger on why though - I'd always assumed that language was one of the bigger culture shocks, but perhaps I'm wrong about that. Somehow I can't get completely comfortable with the way American waiters introduce themselves by the first name, as though they expect to become lifelong friends, or how the cities have no real centre, but are sprawling patches of motorway, roadside restaurants and shopping malls. Of course, there's also the jetlag - having your bodyclock completely thrown out of the loop probably doesn't help either, and would definitely be a subconscious unease. Maybe if I stayed in the States more than a week it might make me feel a bit more settled there.

When I first arrived in France, there was an awakening into realising that I'm a European. Not the dull Brussels European of measuring bananas and giving farmers money for empty fields, but a sudden realisation that despite leaving the UK, I was still home somehow. That feeling seems to extend to Spain and Italy, and, I should imagine, plenty of other countries on the continent, but no further. How strange that it's so indefinable?