A New Lifestyle

For the past four years of my life I have been busy as hell with classes, research, and a state of juggling countless projects and involvements at one time. I am currently in my second week of work at the Colegio, and it still feels weird coming home, finishing up any errands, cooking, and still having several hours free to do anything I want before going to sleep. In fact, I sometimes don't know what to do in those hours, because hanging out with friends is not considered work (rightly so), so I feel "uncomfortable" doing it every evening.

It sounds ridiculous, and it's a bit difficult to explain if you've never been in the same situation. Before, I would only watch sports or do something leisurely in an effort to maintain sanity from my other work. In other words, leisure activities were used to alleviate my work-heavy lifestyle. Now, with a normal work schedule the work-heavy lifestyle is gone, and leisure activities have less purpose and attractiveness. Taking a "global news and facebook-ing break" when studying was an act of relief, but now it's "just another news article" or some ridiculous status update from someone I forgot to block.

So, then, what have I done? I started offering private lessons to two sons of a couple that lives in my neighborhood (Arguelles) for when I come back from work at the colegio. It's just an hour Mon-Thurs with each son on alternating days, but it should help my transition to this "new lifestyle." Generally, however, I think I'm easing into this new lifestyle. There are many things to get involved with in the beautiful and large city that is Madrid. Truthfully speaking, this less-stressful and slower-paced lifestyle (not to offend anyone working normal hours like humans should) is something I wanted for my gap year, though I knew it would be a challenging transition.

If you were wondering about how my new job is going, the flat I moved into, life in general in Madrid, other interesting elements of Spanish society, and the past two weekends in Lisboa, Portugal, it's all been great and interesting (with respect to Spanish societal characteristics). I'll get to that stuff in other posts.

Peace

Ameer