Day in the Life

Thanks to the multiple messages I received from people telling me I need to blog more, I'm finally writing this! :) This is for you guys! Oh, and shoutout to the Spanish classes back home reading this ;).

It's amazing how normal my life is here. On my drive to school in the morning, or at dinner with my family, it doesn't even register to me that I'm living in SPAIN, in EUROPE. And then sometimes it hits me and I get these butterflies in my stomach- like just the excitement of living my dream. I'm only 7 weeks in, but it's amazing how quickly those weeks have passed and how much I have already learned.

My Spanish is improving. Without a doubt. Although I would hope so, since I am surrounded by it. But it's not as easy as you would think- being immersed in a language doesn't mean you'll just naturally pick it up. I think it's because English is everywhere- it's like I can't escape it. All the shirts have writing in English, only English songs play on the radio, and everyone knows at least some English. Plus I obviously still have to think in English, and translate everything I want to say. The thing I struggle with the most is pronunciation and the accent. People here are very insistent that I get the Spain accent, which is definitely a good thing. I can think of the words in my head, but then I don't know how to pronounce them.

But I love when someone's talking to me in Spanish and I just respond without thinking in English or translating anything. It doesn't happen often, but it's a really cool feeling.

So here's what my typical routine here looks like:

7:25 am: Wake up. I still can't get over how wonderful it is to wake up an 1 1/2 later here than the time I had to wake up in the US. It's going to be a hard readjustment when I return.

7:45 am: Go downstairs for breakfast. Breakfast doesn't change too much, and it's definitely the simplest meal of the day. First we (my mom, sister, and I) have a kiwi, or if we've run out of kiwis we have a banana or other fruit instead. After, we have some type of baked good- sometimes store bought, sometimes homemade. It can be some type of sweet bread- like bizcocho that my mom has made, or toast with homemade jelly, or almendras (almond cookies), or fruitcake. *Funny story about the fruitcake- when my dad brought it home from the store my friend Shannon was over (another AFS student from California), and as soon as we saw what it was we burst out laughing. Since fruitcake is kind of a joke in the US because nobody likes it and everything. We explained this to my family and everybody started laughing. And then they insisted we try some right there on the spot, and it's delicious! Like the taste is actually really good- I can't believe I've lived this long not realizing how delicious it is!* Anyways, back on topic, we also always have one glass of milk in the morning, and that's all the milk there is for the day. We don't drink milk with lunch, or dinner, or with a midnight snack, or at any other time.

8:15 am: Leave for school. Well, this is when we are supposed to leave, but it's usually more like 8:20-8:25 am. Maria gets dropped off first at her school (she goes to a private school), and then I get dropped off at mine. When we leave the house at 8:25 am, I usually am running into school well after the bell rings.

Then I have my classes: 3 classes of 50 minutes each, recreo for 30 minutes, and then another 3 classes of 50 minutes each. The next post will be more detailed about this and the description of my classes.

2:15 pm: School ends. At a wonderfully early hour. Maria and I typically walk home- which is only about 15 minutes- but it's not so fun with our heavy backpacks and the fact we haven't eaten since 7:45 am. Honestly, I am always so hungry at this point in the day.

2:30ish pm: We get home, and eat lunch. Lunch is always exquisite and delicious. It's the biggest and most important meal of the day for Spaniards. We have a first course of salad or soup, with little appetizers. Then we eat some type of meat or fish, everyday. And it's a lot of meat, always accompanied by something like vegetables or potatoes (although vegetables aren't eaten very much here). Oh, and there's always bread, the white type of Italian loaf bread that is delicious. Bread is a necessity because you have to break off a little piece to use to move food the direction of your fork. We only drink water with this meal and dinner, which is actually something I hadn't even considered until writing this post. It seems so normal- the fact that we never drink juice or pop, it's only milk with breakfast and water the rest of the day. (Although I do miss having other drinks in the house.) Finally, to finish off the huge meal, we have "postre," or dessert. Typically it's fruit, or yogurt, and sometimes chocolate.

After lunch: I usually talk with my mom and sister for a while. I really like this time because it's one of the few times during the day when I can actually talk and improve my speaking skills. My afternnon/evening schedule really changes all the time. Some days I have extra Spanish classes from 4-5:30, sometimes I have rhythmic gymnastics at 5 or 6, sometimes my sister and I go to the gym at 7, or sometimes we all just take siestas and study. I don't do much homework, because as everyone has told me it's better to spend my time learning, talking, and listening to Spanish instead of putting in hours to memorize all the bioquimica terms for Biology.

Around 6:30 pm: We usually eat a snack. This doesn't happen everyday, depending on what we ate for lunch. Typically its ham from the fridge with some bread, an apple or other type of fruit, or cookie-type things. It's really up to each person individually whether or not they want this snack, it's not like a time when the whole family gathers in the kitchen.

Between 9-10:30 pm: We eat dinner. Dinner is much smaller, usually some type of leftovers, or an egg and some meat, and afterwards a yogurt. A lot of times we watch TV during dinnertime, as everyone's pretty tired. There's no dessert after dinner, I really think of it more as a winding-down meal.

After dinner: We either play a few games of dominos or Uno, (I think it's great that I'm actually in a spanish- speaking country playing Uno, the first time I thought of this I laughed.) or watch a little TV.

11 pm: Bedtime. And I need all the sleep I can get, so it really is lights out.


Well, that's what a day in the life looks like! I hope you enjoyed it! And remember, if you ever want to ask me anything, you can always post questions in the comments :).

Besos, Lani.