The Spanish schedule: the jury is out

I like the idea of breaking up a work day into two chunks with a good meal and maybe a little nap in the middle. (Spanish shops typically close between 2 and 5 p.m. and are open from 5-9 p.m.) But if you can't go to bed until midnight (no one here seems to; you even see little kids out and about after 10 p.m.), how are you supposed to wake up for an early run? Theoretically that mid-day break is a good time for a run, except that the break coincides with the hottest time of the day (by design, of course). And since exercising after dark is an activity I reserve for cities I know well, I'm not sure when it would fit into a normal workday.

Fortunately for me, I'm just a student here. And though the program I'm in is advertised as 'language immersion', which might conjure up images of a dozen hours of classes per day, things are a bit more laid back than that (this is Spain, after all). Thus, we have three hours of classes from noon until 3 p.m. The three hours is actually rather intense: we have a class of two, which means there's no sleeping, daydreaming, or slacking off involved!

That leaves a couple of hours in the morning available for running (woohoo!), even if it is a bit warm by 9 or 10 a.m. when I get out the door. And this morning I even discovered a decent running route that heads out of the city along a river. The best part is that the return is all a slight downhill! I'm hoping to have a bit more time to explore tomorrow morning; with any luck I'll manage to fall asleep a bit earlier tonight (before 1:30 a.m., that is).

So, all in all, this schedule is pretty ideal for me right now, but I'm not sure how I'd cope if I were working in Spain: would I manage to find a place to live quiet enough that I could get to sleep before 11? If so, this might be a pretty sweet place to live! But then, there are a few other factors to consider... which I'll have to save for next time!

Buenas noches!