Spaniards definitely know what they are doing when they structure their day.
My typical day starts at 8:30 a.m. with an enjoyable, slow-paced, breakfast of baguette topped with olive oil and tomato. Then, no more than 10 minutes before class, I stroll out of the house. Even though I am always 5-10 minutes late for my first class, I never cease to beat the teacher.
My favorite part of each day is the afternoon siesta. Almost all the stores are closed from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m., so I take advantage of this downtime by going to the gym, babysitting, studying or meeting with friends. When I am not babysitting, I have the entire afternoon free. I usually meet with friends for coffee or go exploring. Even after living here for more than 6 months, I still find new things I love about Granada every day.
I also really enjoy spending siesta time with my new friends, who have been easy to meet in my classes. During my first semester in Granada, I developed a great group of friends. Unfortunately, they were all from the United States, so we always spoke English. So, at the start of this semester, I made a resolution to befriend more Spaniards in an effort to enhance my Spanish. To my surprise, as soon as I befriended one Spanish student, I was immediately welcomed into the entire friend group. These days I speak Spanish regularly and I am learning quickly.
I studied Spanish for three years in high school and for one year at UW before I arrived in Granada. Despite four years of studying, I came to Spain with a very elementary level. Thus, my study abroad began with a month long intensive Spanish course. The language course was helpful, but I must say that I learn much more Spanish outside class by talking to my Spanish friends and family than I do inside the classroom.
After immersing myself in the language, I am now able to take my classes entirely in Spanish. The culture classes are very interesting, and I am happy to announce that all of my classes are much easier than at UW.
If you are thinking about going to Spain, here are three common phrases that you will want to know, but will probably not learn in a Spanish class: “No pasa nada” (It is OK. /Do not worry about it), “Que guay! /Que chulo!” (How cool!), and “Este es un rollo” (this is so boring).
