A day in Spain

When asked what I miss most about Spain I find that even I am surprised by the answer I give. I miss Carmen. Carmen was my host mother. I  miss the way of life I had with her. She is a woman of 69 living alone in Spain. Her husband as well as one of her daughters passed away. Leaving her with only one daughter who is married with two kids. During my semester with Carmen I never met her daughter, but I did eat lunch practically every day with Carmen's two grandkids. I grew to be very comfortable there, which is something I didn't think possible. A typical day there for me would be to wake up and prepare for school and eat the breakfast Carmen would leave for me: A couple of pieces of bread to toast, as well as a coffee. Then my roommate and I would take a 15 minute walk to school down on Recaredo. I would remain there for about three to four hours for class where we would occasionally go on a field trip out and about Seville. Following class I'd return for lunch which was never earlier than about 2:30 or 3. Carmen was an absolutely amazing cook. We practically had something different for every meal during my time there. I learned so many different recipes from her. I have a book full. I loved watching Carmen cook. Following lunch it was customary to take a "siesta" which Carmen said was really more of a thirty minute rest time accompanied by family bonding time. You see during the hours of lunch and siesta the city closes down. There was really very little open, if anything, during the hours of two to five in the afternoon. So during this time I would watch tv with Carmen and get some homework done and then I would occasionally go and take a walk around the city so that I could get to know it better. I miss those long walks around the city, especially to the Plaza de Espana. I would usually go to a cafe pretty close to the school that I greatly miss visiting, they loved helping me improve my spanish. I typically would find somewhere to go and something to do until dinner time which fell at around ten to eleven every night. I'd watch/help Carmen prepare dinner and record her recipes then we'd all eat, talk, and watch tv together. Our program of choice... Pasapalabra. Some things that were very routine for us as well as all Spaniards were that for every meal the tv would remain on, we rarely ate outside of the home, and our meals were always comprised of several courses and always some sort of dessert. I can specifically recall Carmen, "Tu quieres yogur?" to which my roommate and I would reply, "Claaaaaaro!" My day always ended with skype dates and emails to/with family.