Then, I don't each lunch until I get home from school at 2 or 3 in the afternoon! My schools do not have cafeterias, and most students will just eat snacks during their breaks, so they are still hungry for lunch with their families after school. I have been finding it very difficult to make it through a full day of teaching without eating a meal, but it does get easier every day. Because lunch is so late, most people do not eat dinner until 9 or 10 at night. This means that most restaurants don't start serving food until that time. At home in the United States, I was usually in bed by that time, not going out to dinner with friends! This has been a huge adjustment. I want to spend time with the friends I have met so far, but sometimes it is very difficult for me to stay up late and walk into the city center at a time that seems so late to me. I have been pushing myself to do it more often than not, so that I can get used to the schedule and live a life that is more similar to the people here.
Besides getting used to the the daily schedule, I have also had to adjust to the language. The first Spaniard I met when I arrived was my landlady. After talking to her for just a few minutes, I started panicking. I was having a lot of trouble understanding what she was saying to me. I felt like I was having an identity crisis! I know I am not completely fluent in Spanish, but I also know I can usually carry a conversation. It wasn't until days later that I figured out that she was speaking like many people from this region. She was mixing Asturiano words with Castellano words. Castellano is the word for the Spanish that we are used to hearing in the United States, and people from Asturias speak a dialect of Spanish known as Asturiano.
