I´ve been in Alcalá de Henares almost 2 weeks now, and I´m slowly getting accustomed to the life here. I didn´t think that I would have to do much "getting used to" because of the fact that I´ve been to Spain several times for decent blocks of time- but that´s not the case at all.
The sounds, smells, and people of Spain I am used to, but it´s the everyday life of a student that is different for me. Right now I am not in university classes but in intensive Spanish language courses*. As of now, my day consists of getting up at random times (always before 12, dad) and taking it easy around the house. I eat lunch around 2:30 and then shower and go to the Plaza de Cervantes at 3:30 to do homework before our 4:00 classes. I have to walk 20 minutes from my house to get to where everyone lives in the center of the city, so yesterday I left clothes and things in my friend Erik´s house and will continue strategically placing clothes in different people´s houses so that after class ends at 8:30 I don´t have to walk 20 minutes to my house, take a shower, get dressed grab a quick dinner, and run back to town to meet people in order to go out. The life of an Erasmus student, I´m learning, is quite different.
So, here I go learning how to live the life of a Spanish person. I know that everyone in the States has certain views on Spain- bullfights, siestas, and different meal times- I don´t have a great grasp of bullfights (just read hemmingway), but I think I´ve learned the reason for siesta and such: the sun.
The life in Spain is dominated by the sun. It´s so strong, and the days are horribly long. We eat lunch in Spain around 1 or 2 (I always eat at 2:3o), and then dinner at 9:30. This is strange to many people, but I think I realize why. At least for me, at 12:00, the sun is burning the brightest, and I NEVER feel like eating at this time- there´s no appetite. My friends feel the same way. As far as dinner, at 9:30 at night the sun is going down or is down and it´s cooling off- that´s when people eat.
Siesta is not as frequent in Spain anymore, but it is VERY common for the stores to close after lunch and reopen around 6. No one is out and about from 3 -4. After lunch, you´ve been tolerating the heat for a while and literally you feel drained by the sun, so you take siesta and avoid being out until it starts to cool down. I´m a huge fan of Siesta because of this reason. I´m usually pretty tired, so a 20 or 30 minute siesta is perfect.
During the morning and early afternoon I´m not doing too much, but starting at 4 I´m in class and then going out with friends. Everyone in Spain goes out at night- It´s so common to see small children in the Plaza at 1:00 in the morning. I´m usually out until 3 or later in the morning, so of course I sleep in. My dad hates this. When I´m at home he loves for me to get up early, and when I told him I´m sleeping in to 10 or 12 in the afternoon, I could see the fire in his eyes. The reason for this is because Spain isn´t the south of the United States. It´s easier for me to wait until it´s bearable outside and do my work and stay up really late and sleep when the sun is burning. Even my university classes all will start around 1 in the afternoon and go until later at night.
Finally, I want to say that it is different being a foreigner. It´s a strange thing when it is difficult to blend in. In Salamanca, when I was there for a month, I did notice it: people look at you differently, talk to you differently, and possibly treat you differently. Yesterday I had to go to the College of Law in order to get my student ID number and email address. I was in a line of 10 students from Alcalá, and I just remember going over what I was going to say in my head, practicing my pronunciation mentally, and such. When I get to the front of the line, I´m there with several people talking to people behind the desk, and I say what I´m doing and what I need- people literally stop and look at me and the guy behind the desk has a different look on his face. It´s not as if they´re angry or anything, it´s just the fact that they realize I´m a foreigner- and I know they know. People in Alcalá seem generally ok with foreigners (it´s a university town which is used to outsiders), but you can run into problems when you open your mouth and out comes this thick accent. I´m getting used to this.
I believe that this sensation of being a foreigner 4000 miles away from your home and living something different than what you´re comfortable with, should be experienced by everyone. It makes you grow as a person, learn to adapt, and also gives you the ability to UNDERSTAND how foreigners feel in our own country. Anything that brings you closer to your fellow man is a great thing. We´re all people- we may look, act, and think differently, but we´re people, and we all deserve each others respect. In the United States, we´re surrounded by foreigners, some of which will remain in our country permanantly. If possible, go out and see what it´s like to look or speak differently than the majority- it´ll change your perspective entirely.
*Classes are from 4-8:30 at night and are great. I have tested into the Advanced Spanish language course (just below the highest of Superior), and I have 2 great teachers: Vega and Alicia. Vega teaches grammar for 2 hours to our class of 13 and then, after a 30 minute break, Alicia comes in to give our 2 hour conversation lesson. On our first day of conversation class, Alicia taught us vulgar expressions and bad words- we actually legitmately arrived at the conversation after diverging from the lesson plan. She said that we should know how to respond to bad situations and how to be forceful ( it was mostly for the 10 girls in the class).
I left Friday bright and early with a girl from MSU and her host family to stay in Valencia in their condo. We came back on Sunday so that we wouldn´t be rushed on Monday. It was a very relaxing time on the beach. Madrid had seen a lot of rain and cold weather, so it was nice to get away and see the sun (although there is no sun in these pictures) and the warmer weather. 
( this picture on the bottom left is of Alcalingua taken across the Plaza de los Irlandeses- on the other side of the pictured building is the narrow street).
