Spain has an unusual work "day", at least by American standards. The nominal start time is around 9:30 am - some work places begin a little earlier and some places begin later. (One American I met works for the Yahoo European research office here and he does not begin till 10:00 am.)
The typical worker then works for a few hours and then breaks for a *long* lunch. The lunch break is often two to three hours! Usually the lunch break is around 1:30 to 4:30 pm depending on the business. Then the afternoon shift is usually two or three more hours from 4:30 (16:30) till about 7:30 (19:30). Dinner time *starts* about 8:00 pm and some restaurants do not even open till 8:30 or 9:00 pm. No wonder the work day does not start till 9:30 . . .
Below I have posted signs from two nearby businesses that show their hours. The text is in the Catalan but the numbers are readable. The one on the left is from a car repair shop. The one on the right is from a ceramics shop that appears to have a sole proprietor so its hours are a little shorter than most.
Many schools have a similar siesta-based schedule with a two hour break in the middle of the day. Today I took a break from work at the university and noticed many more students out eating lunch at 2:30 pm than at 1:15 pm (my usual lunch time).
As for my own work, the first three weeks we made a lot of progress developing a new algorithm based on the movement of a flock of starling birds. The video below shows two independent swarms trying to get to the bottom of the surface. The interesting case is the red swarm as it takes a little time to finally spill into the deeper well.
The typical worker then works for a few hours and then breaks for a *long* lunch. The lunch break is often two to three hours! Usually the lunch break is around 1:30 to 4:30 pm depending on the business. Then the afternoon shift is usually two or three more hours from 4:30 (16:30) till about 7:30 (19:30). Dinner time *starts* about 8:00 pm and some restaurants do not even open till 8:30 or 9:00 pm. No wonder the work day does not start till 9:30 . . .
Below I have posted signs from two nearby businesses that show their hours. The text is in the Catalan but the numbers are readable. The one on the left is from a car repair shop. The one on the right is from a ceramics shop that appears to have a sole proprietor so its hours are a little shorter than most.
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| Car repair hours - open on Saturday! |
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| 4 hour lunch break - nice! |
As for my own work, the first three weeks we made a lot of progress developing a new algorithm based on the movement of a flock of starling birds. The video below shows two independent swarms trying to get to the bottom of the surface. The interesting case is the red swarm as it takes a little time to finally spill into the deeper well.
1 comment:
I've always known I should live somewhere in Europe! That schedule suits me perfectly!--Pam
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