Everyday Life in Spain: Part 1--Food and Daily Schedule (plus an update about Nicar!)

To me, the things that happen day to day are just that, things that I am used to and that are just part of a routine. I don’t think to write about them because they already seem pretty normal to me, but I’ve realized that those are the things that most people are probably most curious about. I’ll start by telling you about my daily schedule and the food we eat, as our daily schedule sort of revolves around meal times.

My class day begins usually at 9:30 each morning, and goes until 1:50 at the latest. Before school, we eat a small breakfast of ColaCao (like hot chocolate, it’s mixed with warm milk, and I love it) and either toast with butter and jam, galletas (cookies/crackers, but more like cookies), or muffins. The muffins, or “magdalenas,” are my favorite. It’s not common here to snack between meals, but I can’t make it to lunch without a snack (most of the American students have a hard time with that), so I typically take crackers or a mandarin orange with me to eat between classes. Our classes run for an hour each, and we could have up to 4 in one morning, although typically we have less than that.

At 1:50 my roommate and I walk back home (a 35 minute walk, it’s longer if you’re really hungry!) for lunch. Our host family eats at 1:30, and then our host mom sets the table for us and waits for us to get home. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day in Spain, consisting usually of 2 courses and then a dessert or fruit. In our house, we typically have a soup of some sort as our first course, and then some type of meat and red peppers as our second course. Then, for dessert, we have our choice of fruit (I prefer pears, but the oranges are extremely good, too). It was hard to get used to having fruit for dessert, but now I think I will eat fruit after my meals when I return to the states. Interesting how that works! We also have bread for every meal, just cut from a giant loaf that sits in the middle of the table. We always drink water, too, which was also hard to get used to. They drink milk usually only at breakfast, because they don’t drink fresh, cold milk like we do in Wisconsin! Their milk is processed so that it lasts for a long time and doesn’t need to be refrigerated before it’s opened, and I think that’s strange! It is packaged in boxes, so you can buy boxes of milk in bulk.

After lunch is “siesta,” which seems to be pretty well-known around the world. From the hours of 2ish until 5ish, all of the stores (with the exception of maybe a grocery store and the kiosks that are on the streets) close so that their employees can go home to eat lunch and rest. After siesta, most of the stores reopen until 8:00 or so. I usually take a little bit of a nap, and then around 5 venture back out to take a walk and window shop, or to explore a part of town I haven’t seen before. I return to my apartment by 7:30, as we eat dinner between 7:45 and 8.

Dinner is typically a smaller meal than lunch, but in our house it’s usually about the same size. Much like lunch, we have a soup as our first course, and our second plate consists of salad and another food, like fried ham and cheese sandwiches, tortilla española, croquetas, or empanadillas. I think that dinner is usually my favorite meal, because I have really come to like all of those foods!

After dinner is when most young people get ready and go out on the town for a drink or, in some cases, lots of drinks. I usually prefer to stay in on school nights and watch TV with my host parents and do homework. Even on the weekends, when it is typical to stay out literally all night (until 6:30 or so, as the discotecas here don’t even open until around 3), I am more commonly found sleeping safe and sound in my room. The night life here is probably the thing that, as of now, I will miss most. But the night life consists of more than partying---every night, people of all ages, all of your friends and neighbors, are out going for walks and gossiping and playing in parks. They think it is very silly that after work and school in the states, that we just go home. And now when I return I will think that it’s silly, too!

The doctors told Leo and Nicar today that the source of his pain is a herniated disk in his back, and that he will be having surgery. The date of surgery is yet to be known. This is good because instead of just taking pain medication for weeks and weeks, he will hopefully have a solution to the problem and be able to recover and get back to normal life. (That is, if the surgery is soon, and I'm not entirely sure how likely that is.) Leo hasn't mentioned anything yet about us leaving, so hopefully she is thinking that it won't be so bad having us there after all. Our host grandma is staying with us now but will leave on March 1st, and then my roommate and I will be traveling for our spring breaks, and things should calm down. Now it's tough because Grandma is very high maintenance, hehe. So yes, I am very glad to hear that hopefully things will get better from here on out, and that hopefully things will be back to normal (and healthy) soon. I really appreciate all your thoughts and prayers! He appreciates them, as well.

Until next time, hasta luego!