Spain & Punctuality

Hello all.  The newest news is that I moved into my own place or 'piso' in Spanish and I'm quite happy with my decision.  Of course I miss some things about living with a family like the shared meals and endless opportunities to speak Spanish however, there's a sense of freedom that I've gained that feels great.  The place is small and cozy with a beautiful view of the olive trees and incredible sunsets.  There is one bedroom with a double bed, a bathroom with a small shower, a  mini-kitchen with a full stove range and oven, a living room with a brand new flat screen TV (too bad there's never anything good to watch here or anywhere for that matter), a cool circular glass table with matching chairs, and a large desk where I'm sitting now.  At the moment, I can't show you more than this one photo because Andreas has the camera.  Anyway, I assure you it's great and perfect for living 'sola' (alone f).

La buena vista de mi ventana.  I'm living in the top right corner of Siles which affords me this amazing view.  It is much more beautiful on a sunny day as you can probably imagine.

UPDATE:  here's the sunset photo thanks to an email from andreas

So tonight I had a nice long (30 minutes or so) conversation in Spanish (of course) about punctuality particularly among students and teachers.  To me, there is no such thing as punctuality in Spain and I don't mean it in a negative way.  Everyone seems to be so much cooler about time as I've mentioned before to the point where a shop says it will open at 5:30pm (after siesta) and in fact the shop keeper is just walking up to the door at 6:00pm.  And she does not seem to be at all in a hurry despite the small collection of customers waiting by the door.  It's just the way it goes here.  However there are people here who consider themselves to be punctual.  For example, I heard a teacher express his frustrations with his adult students who walk in late to their evening class.  A non-Spaniard offered him a solution to his problem and suggested that the door be closed and locked at 4:30pm when the class is said to start but it seemed too cruel.  The teacher realized that there might only be 4 out of the 20 students in class that evening.  Then worse when the teacher realizes his students are always going to be late the teacher begins to arrive late as well.  What a vicious cycle!  I especially enjoyed hearing from another teacher who also believes in being on time for things but she explained how it's difficult to be a hurry when she encounters her neighbors on her way to work.  They stop her, ask about the family, and share their own stories without any sense that she might be in a rush.  But to her it is just plain rude to look at your watch and explain how you are going to be late.  So she's hangs in there hoping that the conversation will end with enough time for her to walk into the building before the bell....and sometimes it doesn't but oh well.  So the bigger question was: "Can punctuality be taught in a place where it's not very important?"  For me, I was raised to be earlier than on time but Spain has taken a small toll on me.  I'm often 5-10 minutes late these days and I write it off as nothing.  ¡No pasa nada! (until I'm back in NYC)

Finally, Andreas was able to visit me in Siles which turned out to be quite fun.  We went to the school's training restaurant, took a few hikes in the olive groves and pine forests, had tapas with the locals (and my colleagues), and participated in a mini-flamenco festival in my former host family's house.  Now we are heading to Barcelona together at the end of February and afterwards I'll spend some time in Jerez and hopefully in Cádiz for the big and famous festival, El Carnaval de Cádiz.  More pictures and stories to come!