Livin' la Vida Española

Schedules are different in Spain. We eat breakfast at the normal time, but we don't eat lunch until 2 p.m. (Most Spaniards get a little midday snack to tide them over.) It's the biggest meal of the day. There's a siesta, which is the most awesome power nap ever, and businesses close during that time . . . from about 2 to 4:30 or 5. Dinner doesn't come until 9 p.m., and it's lighter than the lunch meal.

The great thing is that it doesn't even start getting dark until about 10:30, so places in the Plaza Mayor (main plaza) stay open until as late as 2 a.m. The plaza is great . . . you'll see old couples walking along arm in arm, little kids playing and running around, younger couples . . . well, this is Europe . . . and there are bunches of stores and little cafes with places to sit outside. Ideal for people watching and just soaking it in. Anyway, last night a few classmates and I decided to have a midnight "study session" in a cafe at the plaza. Yeah, we got loads done.

Here's a gem right here--an automatic bathroom thing on the street that you have to pay 20 euro cents to use:

Additionally, no trip to Europe would be complete without a pseudo-crush. My crush of choice this time around? The front desk guy. Well, there are 3 front desk guys, but my guy is the one who's there in the morning. This morning he was telling a couple of us over breakfast about the music he likes, and he mentioned a reggae-ish singer named Shaggy. Except he pronounced it "Soggy." We were like, who? Finally he said, "You know Scooby Doo? The same name as Scooby Doo's friend." Oh, Shaggy! Awww.

More to come!