My Daily Routine in Salamanca at Last

My typical day in Salamanca begins with my Senora, Tina, waking me up anywhere between 8:50 and 9:20 AM. She offered to act as my alarm clock during my first week here, so I asked to be awoken at 9:15 every morning. For some reason, she never actually wakes me up at 9:15, although I did say in my heavily accented Spanish "Nueve y Cuarto" which as far as I know should have been clearly 9:15. So now whenever she knocks, I look at the clock on my phone to see if I have more time to sleep or if I have to hurry up and get ready for class. When I do get up, I get dressed and go to breakfast. Breakfast in Spain is a tiny affair, so I always just have a small cup of yogurt, some warm 300% fat milk, and a few cookie-crackers. Then I brush my teeth, and am out the door on my way to class.

My first class is the History of Spanish Art, followed by Spainish Culture, and finally Spanish Language. The first two are taught by University of Salamanca professors, and the third by a University of Michigan professor. I am learning quite a bit in all of them, especially in the history of art. I am entirely ignorant of everything art related, so it is all new to me. Thus far we have tallked about the works of Velazquez, Goya, and Dali. Spanish Culture is always fun. We watch lots of youtube videos, and the professor is very enthusiastic, even to the point of demonstrating Spanish dances for us in class. And of course, Spanish Language is great, since we learn about profanity and go out to eat tapas.

After class ends, I walk back to my apartment to be there when Tina serves lunch. Lunch is always a big meal, although in my case rarely a good one, much like dinner and breakfast. Unfortunately, I do not often enjoy Tina's cooking, or I am embarassed to say, most Spanish cooking. I go for spicy food, which is severely lacking in this country. I know that will incite great anger in certain readers, so I apologize for my blasphemy. After lunch, I take a long siesta, usually about two hours, which is very long, but I am always dead tired at that time of day. I make up for the unreasonable nap by going to the gym right afterwards to work out. It takes about 25 minutes to walk there, and I usually exercise for a little over an hour, so the whole activity takes somewhere around 2.5 hours.

When I get back to my house, I shower and then do homework or any errands that have to be done. The homework is usually writing in a journal, making powerpoint presentations, or writing on this blog. The errands tend to be trips to the supermarket or to the telephone store to recharge my minutes.


At 9:30, Tina serves dinner, and I usually eat at home with her and the two other students in the apartment. On occasion, I will go out for dinner. A group of friends and I have a new tradition where we go out to Mexican food or Chinese food in Spain. We are always seeking spice, and never finding it, but we have a good time anyway.

After dinner, there are a variety of things that I might do. I often talk to people in the United States on the computer, either my girlfriend or my family. I also occasionally go to Plaza Mayor to read and have a soda. Or more interestingly, I sometimes attend cultural events such as Jazz en la Calle. Finally, I usually go to bed around 1:00 AM, and get ready to do it all again the next day.