Back to the Fall

By now everyone will have hopefully changed the time. Some of us only do it under duress. I mean our bodies hate it too, and it's so depressing seeing the night at 6.30 pm and daylight even later in the day. Usually at this time of day (4.30 p.m. more or less) I don't need artificial lighting but today I do. Well, we do have some cloud cover.

Last night (Halloween night) we were very cloudy. I went out in the afternoon to throw away some papers in the paper containers and decided to have a little walk around the neighbourhood. We don't get a lot of colour change in autumn, not like some places in the States, but we do see reds and some yellows. I was walking past the little park near my house where Zara and I used to go almost every day. There are the steps we used to go up. I don't know if you can see any reds here as the photo was so dark I had to lighten it. This park is small but has quite a few trees whose leaves turn a lovely red.

Years ago in the academy, I had a private student and his name was Iluminado (I suppose Enlightened One in Spanglish. There are some strange names here). He was one of the most polite students I've ever had; he always stood up when I entered the room. One day while we were reading a story that mentioned tree leaves, he got a puzzled look on his face. When I asked him what the matter was, he said, 'Where are the trees going?' I couldn't help laughing.

While I was viewing photos of Halloween and people's comments about the changing of the time, I realized more than ever the cultural differences between Spain and the US. People might get up early to be at work at 8 a.m. or earlier, but they sure don't go to bed so early. When I was in Ohio, I think the latest I stayed up was 11 p.m. or 11.30 the night we went to a play. Here I go to bed at 1 or 1.30 a.m. unless I have to get up at 5 a.m. 

On Thursday evening we were celebrating our friend Chris's birthday. Because she and another friend couldn't make it until 10 p.m., that's the time I reserved the Indian restaurant for. Of course, we didn't leave the restaurant until midnight. I don't like eating so late and usually try to have dinner between 9 and 9.30. I felt bad for Chris who had an early class, but I couldn't go to bed on a full stomach and stayed up reading until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.

We've had a mild autumn so far. A few nights it's been quite chilly, but I usually wear a hoodie during the day or Florida's winter jacket according to a link Terri shared on facebook. Almost every Monday we have rain starting to complicate traffic and tomorrow will be no exception - so glad I don't have to be in a huge traffic jam in the rain. The blogger of Secretos de Madrid shared this photo on facebook. I love it and hope he doesn't mind that I share it here.

You know we changed our clocks last week, so I hope the rest of you enjoy your 'extra hour' and have a good week too.