"Spain is different."

You might remember me talking about how difficult it was to get accustomed to the daily schedule in Spain.  We have lunch (which is the most important meal of the day) at 2:30, then siesta, and dinner at 8:30.  And people stay up really late.  It is typical to say that the "morning" lasts until 14:00, and "afternoon" is 5-9 pm.  It is still dark when I walk to class at 8:30 in the morning, and the sun doesn't set until around 8 pm. (Of course, this will change this weekend when we change our clocks for the end of Daylight Savings Time.  I believe that it doesn't change in the US for another few weeks, so I will only be 6 hours ahead of Chicago during that time.)

Here's the schedule for a random shop I
passed today.  It's open in the "mornings" 10-2,
and in the "afternoons" 5-8:30.

Part of the reason time is so strange in Spain dates back to World War II.  Fransisco Franco, the dictator of Spain at the time, supported Hitler, and he wanted our clocks to match those in Germany, so our working hours would be at the same time.  If you look here, you'll see that Spain is actually pretty far from Germany, and it really doesn't make sense for us to be on the same time as them.  We are west of the Prime Meridian, and really should be in the same time zone as London (and Portugal).

We were discussing this topic in my Spanish class today.  This article blames our incorrect time zone for sub-par productivity levels in Spain. (Of course, if you mention the fact that Spaniards like to stay out all night, and being serious and hardworking are not highly valued personality traits, they'll get all upset about the stereotype that they're lazy.)  It talks about how the government is trying to change Spain to the London time zone, but it will be difficult to put into effect.  Spaniards are very set in their lifestyle, especially siesta.  This does make sense.  Siesta developed all around the Mediterranean, because in the summer it's just too hot to do anything during the afternoon.  But it also makes it more difficult to get anything done during the day and sleep at night.  When one girl in my class pointed out that if you didn't have siesta, and got home from work around 5 or 6 pm, then you would have more time to relax in the evening.  Our professor and student teacher were just appalled at this notion.  They taught us the term "arraigado," which comes from the word for "root," to express how they feel about their siesta time.  They are rooted into the idea of going home for a few hours to take a break in the middle of the day. I think that if Spain does change their time zone, it still wouldn't make a difference to the rhythm of the day here.