I Love The Nightlife

The most difficult part about Spanish nightlife is not staying out all night. It is waking up the next day and realizing that it is already three in the afternoon. Here in Malaga, as in the rest of Spain, the Spanish regularly stay out on weekends until six or seven in the morning. Returning home at three a.m. is an early hour for them, and not necessarily one that they only see on Fridays and Saturdays. Nightlife is an integral part of Spanish culture, and they have made it an art like no other culture in the world.

Thanks to the flourishing language exchange scene, it is very easy for foreigners, especially those fluent in English, to meet locals and other foreigners in Malaga. The language exchanges are held at local bars in the center of Malaga, and are usually organized so that participants speak to each other for one hour in Spanish and then one hour in English. One of the best exchanges, or intercambios, is through the Pachange network. I have attended this exchange several times, and through it I have met Spaniards, other auxiliares, and nationals of other European countries. Pachange meets every Monday and Friday, and on Fridays the groups often go out for drinks after the exchange. On Wednesdays, there is an exchange at Casa Invisible, and Morrissey's holds an exchange of their own on Thursday evenings. If one were to look hard enough, attending an exchange every night of the week would not be out of the question.

Beyond the exchanges hosted by local bars, there are also numerous websites such as conversationexchange.com through which I have met locals here in the city. One of these individuals, David (in the photo below), has become a friend of mine. This past weekend he took me to some of the more popular bars in Malaga, in particular those where many of the students and young people hang out.

Through one of my roommates, Scott, I have also met more of the auxiliares based in Malaga. Though only two of us from the January orientation came to Malaga, more than one hundred auxiliares were placed in the province last September. I also have encountered US students on study abroad programs, and European students who are participating in the Erasmus program.

Right now it is still winter in Malaga, which means that it is sometimes rainy and windy. Compared to Chicago, however, the winter is very mild. Still, one of the other auxiliaries yesterday informed me that many Spaniards go out less during the winter, and that once the weather becomes more agreeable over the next few weeks, more people will meet up by the beach. I am very excited for this experience.

The upcoming week of classes should be relatively uneventful. Of the eleven classes that I teach, only one is difficult to manage. Since the other teachers give me so much autonomy, I plan to prepare a lesson on the Olympics in Sochi. Here in Malaga, the Olympics are being overshadowed by the Copa del Rey, a national basketball tournament that has overtaken the entire city. Since I don't follow basketball even in the United States, I am not much interested in the Copa del Rey. The Olympics are much more exciting, though I have not yet been able to watch many of the events, as NBC's content is not available outside the US. Hopefully, my students will find it interesting.