I’m a student again! Back at school for an entire year of learning, and I am super exccited about it! Last year, I tried enrolling in a program called ‘Management of Restaurants’, but by the time I sent in the application, the course had filled up since it’s a small 25 person cohort. This year, I was that annoying person that keeps sending emails to ask when they are opening applications, but my persistance *and Luis’… he made some calls on my behalf… paid off! It is a 9 month course, all about how to open a restaurant. It includes everything from your business plan, to marketing, using excel, hiring people, getting licenses, your online presence, design, location, and more. It’s 3 hours per day, Monday to Thursday, and they heavily stress the importance of coming to class since it’s an in-person course and classes should no be missed. The school is a 2 mile bus ride or walk from where I live, so it’s insanely convenient, and being that my jobs are very flexible, I am able to work during the day and go to school later in the afternoon. Lastly, I am the only Amercian or native English speaker, which puts me at more of a disadvantage (or advantage), but it’s also giving me the chance to improve my Spanish with every class. You should see the list of words I have that are labeled ‘words I don’t know!’, but then I go home and look up their meanings and voila– it’s like an included Spanish class. It’s only been a week, but I am very much enjoying the class, I feel like I am making friends, and learning a ton. Let’s see where this year takes me!
^Luis took a first day of school picture, lol
Since it’s been a hot minute since I’ve done a day in the life post, I thought I would do one here. This is a glimpse into Thursday, which was a day I had to make and sell bagels, I had a tour, met Luis for lunch, had school, AND went out. It was a full day, but a good one.
7:05 am. Alarm goes off…snooze.
7:14 am. Alarm goes off again. snooze.
7:22 am. Alarm goes off and I get up, turn on the light, and make the bed (I do this first thing because it’s easy and makes everything feel calmer). The I go to the bathroom and put cold water on my face.
7.25 am. Go to the kitchen and prepare breakfast. I take out coffee (made th day before), milk, orange juice, and the ingredients to make a smoothie (frozen blueberries, yogurt, milk, chia seeds and oatmeal).
7.40 am. Before making the smoothie, I make a quick batch of almond milk because I soaked the raw almonds the night before.
7.45 am. Smoothie time. I pour one into a bowl to make for Luis, and the rest go into glasses for easy breakfasts this week. After I make the smoothie, I clean some of the dishes from the night before and then get things prepped to make bagels after Luis leaves for work.
I take the bagels out of the fridge, get out my pot to boil water and the pan for baking the bagels.
8:00 am. Breakfast with Luis. He has the smoothie, topped with sliced banana and homemade granola from last week (it’s so good!). Instead of a smoothie, I have a slice of healthy cookie topped with peanut butter, banana and granola and am so happy with how good it is! I am adding it to Bruja’s Bakery and I am so excited!
8:30 am. Clean up breakfast, say goodbye to Luis and start making bagels.
8:30-9:30 am. Boil, top, and bake bagels, while simultaneously updating Instagram.
9:30-11:00 am. Write blog posts, make appointments, and edit photos for Bruja’s Bakery.
11:15 am. Someone comes to pick up their bagels! They are still warm, so I put them in a bag but leave it open so they can cool.
11:20 am. Get ready for the day- shower, get dressed, etc.
11:45 am. Get ready to head to a tour that starts at 12:30 in Chueca. I eat a banana with peanut butter and a half of a bagel that is left over.
12:00 pm. Catch the metro to Alonso Martinez and then walk to Chueca.
12.20 pm. Arrive in Chueca and wait for my group.
12:25 pm. They arrive and we start the tour.
2:30 pm. We finish really early and I am very happy about it! They were nice, but didn’t ask me many questions so time ticked on by…
2:35 pm. Walk to La Colectiva Cafe to meet Luis for a quick, yummy vegetarian lunch together. He often goes to this place on his own after I showed it to him last year! It makes me happy that he likes vegetarian food so much (and no, I am not a vegetarian)
2:45- 3:45 pm. Lunch! it was delicious and left me incredibly full for the entire day.
3:45 pm. We go our separate ways- Luis back to work and I catch the metro to school. The metro only takes about 25 minutes, so I arrive wayyyy early.
4:25 pm. I am super early at school, so I read my new book (Little Fires Everywhere) on my phone with a cortado from the school cafeteria. It completely amuses me that everywhere you go in Spain, they have the most Spanish cafeterias. They always, without fail, sell tortilla, bocadillos, jamón, and coffee. I love it.
4.45 pm. One of my classmates arrive and we chat together and I show her my website 🙂
5:00 pm-8:00 pm. Class. We are learning about Business Plans, how to make them, and tools to make them more useful and comprehensive. We spend the first half of the class brainstorming ideas and the second half of the class is free time to work on our own business plans, which I do in a Google Docs. Since starting the class, my original business idea has already shifted, which is pretty interesting. The teacher gives us a few hours a week to work on our plan, which at first left me feeling like “ok, but I don’t really know my plan”, but this class has sort of forced me into trying to make it a real idea to see where it can take me. Yesterday, for example, I spent an hour browsing websites to see locations that are available… not that I am ANYWHERE near that point. I also spent some time creating a mock menu and thinking about each component that goes into each item (ie: if you plan to grill something, you will need a grill).
8:00 pm. Class is over! Usually I walk home, or take the bus, but Luis offered to pick me up. He shows up around 8:15.
8:15 pm. We head to the center of Madrid so that Luis can quickly return some sneakers and then without other plans, we go some bar in the center since Luis said it’s a good place. It was totally slammed with people, since the next day (Friday) was a holiday in Spain. We had a couple beers and some olives to go with it.
9:30 pm. We go to another bar, this time for some vino tinto (red wine) and some very mediocre tortilla española.
11:00 pm. Head home to bed! I was so exhausted.
