when the power goes out

Unos minutos despues de llegar a mi casa despues de trabajo...

A few minutes after arriving at my house after work...

...the power went out.

I live in what we call "Hurricane Alley", where outages of power, water, cable, phones, etc. are just periodic parts of life. So before this evening, I'd already long since had to solve problems such as how to study Spanish when the power is out (whether for hours or for weeks).

A few tips from my experience:

Keep an iPod full of Spanish lessons, whether they be Pimsleur, Learning Spanish Like Crazy, FSI, or (preferably) a healthy collection. While you're at it, be sure to include a lot of podcasts for Spanish study.

Having ready access to a portable satellite radio receiver so you can listen to Spanish language programming is also handy. XM and Sirius both have at least some offerings of value, and I've got a receiver with enough spare batteries to last for around 12 hours of steady use.

Don't forget books, printed lessons, etc.

Light sources including but not limited to candles, LEDs, shaker lights, etc. are indispensable. And don't forget to keep a healthy stash of batteries handy, including some that can be (and are routinely) recharged.

And you can always do what we did first this evening, and head to a local eatery outside the outage area where you can converse in Spanish with the amigos you should have gotten to know by now.

Ciao.