The customs of Spain

One of the customs of Spain I have grown to love is the siesta, a scheduled nap built into your day between the hours of 2 and 5. The siesta should normally last about 2 hours however, Becca and I have been extending our naps because of all of the activities we have been doing.

Another custom of Spain I have grown to not love as much is the hours of the day in which lunch and dinner are served. For an American waking up at 8 and eating breakfast is normal however, waiting until 2 or 3pm to eat lunch is an extremely long gap. You don't want to snack too much either because mine and Becca's senora makes extremely large lunches and it is considered rude to not finish your plate. (They will think you don't like their food) It therefore makes it extremely hard to adjust to the meal time differences. Spaniards do not eat dinner here until about 10pm which is another extremely long gap between lunch and dinner. For an American, 6 or 7 is usually dinnertime therefore also making it very hard to adjust to the new dinner time here. The first day we came home from class me and Becca said "we were starving" which for us is obviously an exaggeration but our senora thought we were so hungry she made Becca and I EXTRA food that we could barely finish. We have not said we were starving again!

Another thing we have been trying to get used to is the lateness of everything. No one seems to go out early here, it is not until at least 1pm that the clubs begin to fill up and even then they are not full until around 3pm. Because of this club promoters will offer free entrance until about 1:30pm which sounds crazy because in the U.S. the club would be completely packed by this time however, in Spain it is a totally different story. Unlike the U.S. the clubs do not close until 6am and many people will stay out until this time because it is also when the metro opens back up as well. Ironically, the metro closes at 1:30pm causing you to have to take a taxi home or wait until 6am to catch the metro again.

These are only a few of the customs I have begun to get used as I'm sure there are many more to come!