The Day of Siestas

June 23, 2009

 

Getting five hours of sleep last night put a strain on my energy supply for the day. I woke exhausted and feeling as though I was either catching a cold or (more likely) feeling the delayed effects of lack of sleep, not eating properly, and going full speed every second of every day. But breakfast was amazing and worth waking up for- glass half full. I guess they had been hiding the granola somewhere in the kitchen, but I finally had something to put in my plain yogurt this morning so I was excited. Those boxes flew off the counter the second they were put out, and there were “real” eggs (sunny side up, not those scrambled eggs made from a pre-made mixture). After this awesome breakfast which they saved for the last day before we made it to port, I went back to my room to take a 30 minute nap before Global Studies.

 

When I made it to my satellite classroom for Global Studies, my friend Ashley said she was going to go layout on the top deck after class until lunch. So I literally left class, since we were watching it on TV anyway, and went back to my room to change into my bathing suit. When I returned, 10 minutes had passed and the little man in the TV was just making his transition from the daily announcements to the start of the lecture. Halfway through the class my friend Claire suddenly looks at me and says, “Hey, is your shirt inside out?”… “Hmm…yes, yes it is,” I replied laughing. So that was entertaining. It was definitely one of those days. Haha.

 

The weather was perfecto (note the Spanish…Spain just can’t come soon enough) as we soaked up the sun on the 7^th deck. It was just the right temperature so that you were warm enough to be in a bathing suit outside, but you didn’t sweat at all. I took my second 30 minute nap of the day. A pattern was forming. At lunch we discovered the dining hall had been holding out on us yet again. A huge block of blue cheese appeared out of nowhere, and I made a nice big salad smothered with my favorite topping, cheese.

 

Ethnomusicology was interesting today as we studied the history of flamenco dancing and even watched some videos and heard some sound clips. Almost everyone in the class would be doing one of the flamenco field trips in Cádiz, so this was a good background. After class I took another 40 min nap. I even slept through my roommate and her friend, Amira, studying together on her bed two feet away from me…pretty impressive if I do say so myself. I felt like I had literally been sleeping all day long. This was definitely a day of “siestas.” I guess I was just getting in the Spanish rhythm.

*Siesta: For those of you that don’t know, in Spain there’s a certain time during the day where everyone just stops working and naps / eats. Everything just closes, and the streets are almost empty. It’s usually around 3pm and lasts for a couple of hours. Hard life.

 

In my art history class we finished up learning about Pompeii and Florence, and then he used the last 20 minutes of class to show us highlights of architecture in Cádiz, Sevilla, Córdoba, and Granada. Spanish-style dishes such as paella were served for dinner since we would be there in just a few hours. After dinner everyone filed into The Union for our pre-port discussion which covered what the crew called “vital information about the port and procedures.” This vital information included everything from the population of Spain (44.1 million), the weather (low 60’s to mid 80s), the name of our pier, the penalties for being late for departure, and the ship’s medical physician informing the guys to keep their “tallywackers” covered. Just to give you a mental image of the hilariousness of this statement: the physician is a 60-70 year old man from Mississippi with a heavy southern drawl. He went on for about 10 minutes about how the guys should keep from bringing any “unwanted Spanish souvenirs” back onto the boat. It was definitely entertaining.

 

To cap off the night, the dean’s memo for the day contained the following quote:

 

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” -St. Augustine.

 

It seemed appropriate for the day to come.