Daily Life

Practical guides to the rhythms of everyday life in Spain as an American. This section covers Spanish phone plans and which operators offer the best value for new arrivals, how to set up internet and what to do during the installation wait, grocery shopping and what the supermarkets are called, the meal schedule and shop hours that reorganize your day, and the public holiday calendar with its regional differences. We cover bringing pets from the U.S., mail and package delivery, tipping, and the social norms that differ from U.S. expectations.

We also cover the language: how much Spanish you need in Madrid versus Málaga versus a smaller town, resources that work, and the regional languages in Catalonia, the Basque Country, Galicia and Valencia. The aim is to shorten the period where everything takes twice as long because you do not yet know how it is done here. Every guide names the operator, the shop or the office it refers to, with prices dated to the month we checked them.