December in Murcia

I visited a couple new places in Murcia last week. With my language conversation exchange partner, María, I went to Espinardo campus and Thader. Espinardo is the Catholic University in Murcia and Thader is a large shopping center. María did her undergraduate studies at Espinardo so she gave me a driving/walking tour of the place. My overall opinion is that it’s a very big, imposing campus with some nice grounds. At Thader, we walked around a bit and I took some pictures of the giant waterwheel that’s inside the mall. We got lunch at one of my favorite places, 100 Montaditos, and it was just as good as I’d remembered from my days in Sevilla. Actually, it was even better. So basically 100 Montaditos is a place devoted to little sandwiches. It’s fantastic because they range from a euro to at most a euro and a half so you can get a few different ones to try without spending tons of money. Probably the best thing about this place is the chocolate sandwiches. When I would eat them in Sevilla the options were normal bread with a piece of melted chocolate or melted carmel. Now this section of the menu has been upgraded to chocolate bread and yummy fillings that include cookies and cream or white chocolate. I chose a chocolate sandwich with cool whip, melted chocolate and strawberry sauce and needless to say it was incredible. My only regret is that I didn’t think to take a picture of it so that I could have proof that such a yummy thing exists.

Waterwheel!

Another exciting happening of the week was that I lost my voice thanks to a cold. Okay so it’s not exciting, but it made for an interesting Thursday at school. Everyone knew something was out of the ordinary when I showed up with a travel mug. Unlike in the U.S. where it’s super common to see someone carrying around a travel mug containing a hot beverage, it’s not really done over here in Spain. The same goes for getting hot beverages to go from coffee shops/cafes. There’s only one place I know of here that you can take your drink out of the cafe and that’s Piccadilly Coffee which is like the British version of a Starbucks. So anyway, back to my sudden loss of voice. I brought tea with honey in the hope that it would help me get through the day filled with talking. I survived it anyway, but boy was I glad that I didn’t lose my voice until the last day of my workweek. If I was dealing with that for multiple days of almost constant speaking, it would have been miserable. The kids seemed to get a kick out of my half rasp/ half squeak form of talking so I guess it would have brought enjoyment to some. The most inconvenient thing about losing my voice was that I was supposed to help the kids in fourth grade with the lyrics to the Christmas song they’re learning, and I was not able to be of much help with my lack of voice. The song they’re performing for the parents, next Tuesday, on the last day of school is “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas”, thanks to my suggesting it to the teacher. I know it’s kind of an obnoxious song when sung by that one kid on the radio, but it’s really quite entertaining to hear a classroom full of Spanish children sing it.  

On Sunday I went to Mass at Murcia’s Cathedral and then, although it was drizzling slightly, I took some pictures of the cathedral because I’ve been meaning to do it for the longest time. As I was standing in the plaza outside of the cathedral I noticed some huge statues of possibly two of the three kings, outside of the Episcopal Palace. So I walked over to take a look and saw a sign to see Murcia’s Belén (Nativity Scene) inside and since it was open to the public I decided to go in. It wasn’t as impressive as the Belén I saw in October at Salzillo Museum, but it was still very elaborate and depicted from the Annunciation up to the family at home in Nazareth after returning from Egypt. After leaving the Episcopal Palace, I wandered down Gran Via Alfonso X el Sabio (a main street) and there were a lot of stands set up with handmade goods to purchase as part of a Christmas market. It had many of the same types of goods as the Christmas markets in Sevilla: cheese, sweets, candles, perfume, jewelry, statues, shoes and the list goes on. Always a good time to be had checking out a Christmas market or just a market in general. 

 Cathedral

 Episcopal Palace

 Belén

Christmas lights

This week my cold was much improved and my voice was completely back. On Tuesday and Thursday I did Christmas projects with the two girls I teach in the afternoons, since this was my last week with them until after Christmas vacation. On Tuesday we made Rudolph, (the one where you trace your hands and one foot) and the girls really got a kick out of that. Thursday’s project wasn’t as successful. I printed out Christmas cards for them to color and give to their parents, but they weren’t as excited about that. I think the main problem was that their aunt and grandparents were over and they were distracted by wanting to visit with them rather than focus on English. However, when we ended they gave me hugs and María del Mar, the seven-year old, gave me a note that said “I love you”. They are just too precious. 

Rudolph

This week was a little on the sad side cause it involved two goodbyes. I was so fortunate this semester to get amazing flatmates and I really can’t imagine what it will be like this whole next semester without them. Ines and Lisa, both from France, finished their semester early so they left this week. Fortunately, I didn’t have to say goodbye to all of my flatmates just yet since Cecilia will be finishing the semester in January. But after that I’ll be the only original inhabitant of the flat with three newbies. So this week I made sure to spend some quality time with the girls before they left. We went to 100 Montaditos for chocolate sandwiches and I again forgot to take a picture. Such a bummer, cause we had a nice platter full of different kinds and it would have been a good opportunity for a photo. Oh well, a good time was had by all. It was sad saying goodbye on Friday to Lisa and then to Ines today (Saturday), but I’m glad I was able to get to know them and in this day and age, internet will help me to stay in touch. On a lighter note, I’m in the process of switching rooms since I had the smallest room and now that two have opened up I’m greedily taking the biggest one. It has drawers for clothing, unlike my other room, and the best part, a balcony! It will be just like my semester in Sevilla. I’m definitely moving up in life, haha. Well this is most likely my last blog post till after Christmas so Feliz Navidad a todos!

Me with my lovely French flatmates, Lisa and Ines

Sojourn in Sevilla

I took a walk down memory lane this weekend. With two of my flatmates (American and French) and three other lovely people from the country of France, I traveled to Sevilla, the beautiful city in Andalucía, Spain where I studied for three months in the spring of 2012. I was planning on only going once to Sevilla, in March when my good friend Paige comes to visit me, but when my flatmates decided to go I really couldn’t let them visit the best place in Spain without me, now could I? Plus I’ve never been to Sevilla at Christmastime so I was curious to see it in a different setting. Well the city was as great as I’d remembered. I was once again reminded why I love the place so much. This time around, I had a different type of experience, since I wasn’t with a host family but instead in a hostel. While the hostel had some drawbacks, such as one bathroom for everyone on the ground floor to share, overall it wasn’t a bad place and it was fun traveling with a group of people for a change. Plus, I guess I had to have the hostel experience at least once while in Europe. 

Okay, let’s start from the beginning. We took a 10 pm bus from Murcia on Thursday night and with a lot of little stops along the way, we didn’t get to Sevilla until after 6 am on Friday. It would have been better if I’d been able to get a good amount of sleep, but I barely managed a little over an hour, so I was exhausted when we reached our destination. Fortunately, everyone else was also craving some more sleep, so after finding our hostel we all crashed for a couple hours. Rejuvenated, we ate lunch along the busy Avenida de la Constitución right next to the cathedral, which was the next stop of the day. Sevilla’s cathedral is I believe the largest Gothic cathedral in the world and so we spent a good amount of time visiting it as well climbing the Giralda to get a great view of the city. The Giralda is a tower attached to the cathedral and is the only remnant of the mosque that used to be where the cathedral now stands. Then we stopped for Starbucks because while Sevilla has at least four, Murcia doesn’t have a single one, so we had to take advantage of the opportunity presented us. I had a white mocha frappuccino and in case you were wondering, it was delicious. Next up was a visit to the incredible Plaza de España which is probably my favorite place in Sevilla. It was as beautiful as I’d remembered. All the other plaza de España’s that I’ve visited in other cities have been a letdown after seeing this one. This was one of the first things I saw in Spain because I’m pretty sure back in January of 2012 I went on a walking tour the day after my arrival and got to see the plaza at night. Good memories. After spending some time back at the hostel (which provided free sangria) we ate supper at an Indian restaurant where I had a dish with a name I don’t remember but it was basically lamb in a super spicy sauce with rice. Now I love spicy foods, but this was probably one of the most intense things I’ve ever eaten, so I was grateful we’d ordered bread to help balance out the fiery food. 

 View from the cathedral

Orange grove in the courtyard

 The one and only Plaza de España, Sevilla

Las chicas!

The next day we took a bus to Italica, just outside of Sevilla, which was once a Roman town so there were a lot of ruins to behold. The best part was definitely the amphitheater which was a smaller version of the colosseum and we were able to walk around inside it. After returning to Sevilla I split up from the group to visit my host mother, Concepción. First of all, she is the sweetest person ever. When I called her ahead of time to tell her I was coming to Sevilla, she was so excited that I could hardly get a word in between her saying things like “guapa”, “mi alma” and other Spanish terms of endearment. So I met her at her apartment and she had two of her five grandkids with her (Martina and Fran) and they are absolutely adorable. I remember seeing Martina as a baby, so it was so cool getting to see her a little bit more grown up and with a toddler baby brother. We talked for a bit and then walked to a nearby plaza (known for its huge mushroom structure) where there were balloon houses and rides set up for kids. Of course Martina and Fran had to get in on the action so Concepción and I had a good time watching/helping them. On the way to the plaza, Fran had suddenly decided he didn’t want to go and just plopped down in the middle of the street and wouldn’t get up for anyone. So I helped out by carrying him. I felt so cool walking down the street with an adorable little Spanish boy in my arms. It was awesome. As we were leaving, I bought both the kids big balloons, and although they were expensive, it was worth it to see their excitement. Plus it was helpful in getting them to willingly leave the plaza. I’m not above giving a bribe for a good cause. After saying goodbye with a promise to visit when I return in March, I went to a vigil Mass for Sunday and then stopped by a Christmas market in Plaza de la Alameda de Hércules. There were all sorts of booths set up for anything and everything whether it be Christmasy stuff, jewelry and purses, food, or soap. There were also rides for children including some ponies and a string of camels. I also loved how all the streets had their Christmas lights turned on, which hadn’t yet happened in Murcia. After meeting back up with the gang, we stopped for some quick pizza for supper and then took the winding-through-little-streets way back to the hostel to avoid the crowds. I’m proud to say that I didn’t need to look at the map once to get us there. 

 Italica

 Concepción and I

With the adorable grandkids

Christmastime!

Sunday morning we bid the hostel farewell and settled in for the long bus ride back to Murcia. Around 2 pm we stopped in Granada for an hour break, which gave us just enough time to eat lunch before continuing onward. The scenery from Granada back to Murcia was incredible. Since it was night when we left for Sevilla, the return trip was my first time seeing the landscape. The Sierra Nevada was visible in all its snowy splendor on the right side of the bus and on the left side the terrain was dry with reddish-brown cliffs looking like something in Arizona or New Mexico. There weren’t many people on the bus, so I spent some time sitting on both sides to enjoy the views. Eventually we arrived back in good old Murcia. It was an amazing couple days spent with some pretty awesome people and in my favorite city in Spain. I already can’t wait to go back in March.

 Sierra Nevada

Desert side of the highway

I've Got Plenty to Be Thankful For: Thanksgiving in Spain

Celebrating Thanksgiving outside of the U.S. was an odd but memorable experience. Certain elements were missing such as watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, eating cranberry sauce and carrot cake, and being surrounded by family. The strangest thing about this holiday though was that since it’s strictly American, there was no sense of a holiday here in Spain. It’s easy to forget it’s Thanksgiving when here it’s just another Thursday and everyone is continuing about their business as usual. I don’t think I wished anyone Happy Thanksgiving until the day was already half over because I hadn’t been around a fellow American until then. I tried explaining cranberry jello salad to one of the teachers at the school where I work and she thought the concept was extremely strange. Jello isn’t that big over here and if people do make it, it’s just straight up jello and in a mold, so adding stuff to it and calling it a salad is really weird for them. All I can say is they’re missing out. I attempted to make the salad for the Thanksgiving dinner that we hosted at our flat but it wasn’t quite up to par because I had to substitute cranberry juice for the water in order to get a little bit of cranberry flavor rather than back home putting actual cranberry sauce in the salad. It was better than nothing though. We had quite a big dinner with three countries represented. Three of us from the states, eleven from France and one from Britain. Thanks to the efforts of my lovely flatmate, Cecilia, we had turkey (the ham-sized format to fit in our toaster oven), stuffing, green beans and pumpkin pie. I contributed the jello salad of sorts, and my arm for mixing the heavy whipping cream. We had wine, bread and cake from our French friends, and mashed potatoes and gravy completed the spread thanks to an American/British collaboration. We ate around 10pm and managed to fit everyone around our table with a little bit of chair sharing involved. Everything was delicious and while not exactly the same as the Thanksgiving meal back home, it helped make the day actually feel like our American holiday. 

 Gotta love Thanksgiving leftovers

Other than Thanksgiving, not too much of note happened this week. I went to school and worked at my nanny-speaking job. With the two girls at my second job, we made hand turkeys and talked about Thanksgiving so that was pretty fun. I showed them a clip of Santa Claus at the end of the Thanksgiving parade and then they wanted to listen to the song “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” over and over again. I’m having a slightly difficult time keeping them focused during our lessons because they love watching videos on my laptop and so after I show them one song that goes along with what we’re working on, they want to keep watching other videos. Also they both have these similar to iPad devices and the younger one started crying when her’s stopped working and I had to spend about ten or more minutes trying to distract her from this tragedy. Technology can  often provide helpful resources, but it is also a bit of a pain sometimes. 

My hand turkey example

To practice my Spanish I’ve been meeting up with two Spaniards (María and Pilar) weekly and we do a language exchange. Usually we’ve been going to cafes and talking for around three hours each time, but last week for a change, I visited the Museum of Science and Water with María. We saw some turtles, fish, insects and a lot of exhibits geared towards kids and also viewed a presentation in the planetarium. It ended up being just us and the man giving the presentation so that meant we were on a first-name basis and we had to answer (at least attempt) all the questions he posed. Thankfully María did most of the answering since my Spanish vocabulary when it comes to planets and space is rather limited. We got to learn about a bunch of constellations and see what the sky looks like at different times of the night and since it was just us two, our host showed us what the sky looked like the day and year we were born. I have to say that I never would have had that memorable experience if I wasn’t friends with a Spaniard who knows about such places. 

On Saturday (yesterday at the time of this post) we had a flatmate bonding day and went to see The Hunger Games: Mockingjay or in Spanish Los Juegos del Hambre: Sinsajo. I had originally been adamant that I wouldn’t see it in Spanish, knowing that it would be super hard to listen to Spanish voices in the dubbed version, instead of the actors I’m familiar with. But when all my flatmates decided to go, I couldn’t be the only one missing out, so I hoped for the best and joined them. It actually wasn’t as bad as I was expecting and after a little while into the movie it was easy to adjust to the new voices. The only part where the dubbed version really bothered me was during a song that the main character sang and according to some reviews it was a super moving part of the film, but in Spanish it was kind of a fail. What was supposed to be a somber and moving moment, instead had me attempting to hold in a laugh and that was a fail as well. I even heard some of the Spaniards laughing, so the song just didn’t carry over well in the dubbed version. After the movie we had a late supper at a new thai restaurant across the street from where we live that was super classy and had live piano accompaniment. Then we ended the night with hot cocoa, marshmallows and heavy whipping cream leftover from Thanksgiving. Overall I’d say it was a pretty good week.

Milan: Rain or Shine (but mostly rain)

Now that I’ve actually got something new and different to write about I thought I’d add another entry. So this past weekend I ventured out of Spain for the first time since my arrival in September. I went to Milan, Italy with my flatmate, Cecilia and we had a very unforgettable experience. After an hour bus ride to Alicante we flew to Milan and right away there were some big differences from Murcia. From the plane I could see vibrant green countryside which you don’t really see in the desert region of Spain. Also, everything was very wet. We got off the plane and had to pile into a shuttle bus to bring us to the actual airport building because of the rain. After waiting fifteen minutes or so for the bus to start moving we basically drove for half a minute to reach our destination. I would have willingly walked that short of a distance but it wasn’t like we were given an option so oh well. We next took a bus from Bergamo Airport to the center of Milan. Oh and apparently Bergamo is only two and a half hours from Venice, which I didn’t realize until after I got back from Italy. If only we’d had more time, that would have been a cool city to visit. 

From the city center of Milan we took the metro to the stop that was one stop away from our hotel because it would have cost more to go further since it was out of the urban limit zone. If we’d known what would ensue, we would have definitely paid more to go all the way. So we walked out of the metro and of course it’s pouring cats and dogs and we walk in what we think is the correct direction aiming for the next metro stop where we just needed to take one left to get to our hotel. We passed the next metro stop and didn’t see the street so we kept going thinking it was just a little further. By this time we were fairly wet thanks to strong winds despite having umbrellas. Finally we both came to the conclusion that something was wrong since we still weren’t seeing our street. We asked a passerby where Via Fratelli Bandiera was and she understood a little English thank goodness and although she didn’t know exactly where the street was she said if we kept going we’d come to another metro stop (Precotto) where we could check the map. We then realized the awful truth. Precotto was a stop we’d passed on our way to where we got off, so the whole time we’d been backtracking and now needed to go back to the metro where we got off and walk the opposite direction to get to our hotel. This wouldn’t have been so bad if it was a nice day. But we were quickly becoming soaked to the bone and realizing we’d been going the wrong way the whole time was a little disheartening. So we began walking back and stopped in a little cafe to dry up for a bit and eat something. After staring out the window at the continuous downpour, we decided there was no point trying to dry off when we were most definitely going to get wet again so out we went this time heading in the right direction. About forty-five minutes later we ended up in the right neighborhood but were having a hard time finding the metro stop that was gonna guide us to our street. So we stopped in a store but the lady didn’t speak English nor Spanish so she tried to point us in the right direction. We understood sort of where to go thanks to her help, but stopped in a grocery store to pick up some food and ask for more directions to make sure we went the right way. After buying cookies, sweet bread and pop (yeah we were too miserable and wet to make healthy eating choices) we got directions and realized that our hotel was about two minutes away from the store. Over two and a half hours after we’d left the metro we finally reached our hotel and talk about a welcome sight. After checking in we decided to try and dry off (my pants and shoes were completely soaked as well as a lot of my clothes in my backpack) and rest for a few hours before going out for supper. However, the rain never let up even slightly and we both decided we’d rather stay dry and warm and eat our snack food than go back out for the night. It was a good decision because not long after a thunderstorm started and I was thankful to have stayed in. 

Sunday I woke up to the sun shining and knew it was going to be a great day. After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we took the metro to Piazza Duomo to visit the impressive Duomo (cathedral in Italian) so that I could go to Mass before we began sightseeing. After 9am Mass I took some pictures inside and outside the beautiful cathedral then we got in line to visit a nearby museum. The building that houses the museum is right next to the Piazza Duomo and it is where Mussolini would give speeches overlooking the piazza (plaza). After waiting for a half hour or so and the line was barely moving we opted to skip the museum and headed in the direction of Castillo Sforzesco or in English, Sforza Castle. After walking around a bit we stopped for lunch at a pizza place where we got personal pizzas that were huge! I was pretty hungry so I have to admit I ate the entire thing. At least it was a thin crust pizza so I don’t feel too bad about it.

 the Duomo

My giant pizza!

The rest of the day consisted of visiting Sforza Castle, Sempione Park, Arco della Pace (Arch of Peace) and Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. These were all pretty cool places and I took lots of pictures. The Galleria is right next to the Duomo and is basically the fanciest shopping center ever. It has a glass roof and is filled with super expensive shops among them Prada, Gucci and Louis Vuitton. Needless to say, I didn’t buy anything. Oh yeah and I also made a stop for gelato once I actually was hungry again after my super satisfying lunch. We took the metro back to the hotel in the early evening where we relaxed for a few hours before venturing out for supper. There weren’t a ton of restaurant options in our hotel’s neighborhood so after walking around a bit we gave up on finding a pasta place and decided to eat pizza again. For about seven euros a piece we split a pizza and a calzone. The food was delicious and super filling and this time I couldn’t quite finish everything. I definitely think my craving for pizza has been satisfied for awhile. 

 Arco della Pace

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

Monday, after packing up our backpacks and eating breakfast we bid adieu to Hotel Bristol. We made a quick stop to the nearby grocery store and while there we took pictures in the pasta aisle because it was Italy and just felt like the appropriate thing to do. The dude behind the meat counter witnessed us snapping photos and seemed to find it humorous. He asked us where we were from and upon learning we are living in Spain near Alicante he wasn’t too impressed. Apparently Alicante doesn’t have the greatest reputation or something. At least it’s not in the same region as Murcia so we’re good. Next we headed to the Duomo to go up to the terrazza (roof) and if it had been clear we would have been able to see the Alps but alas it was a rather dreary rainy day. Fortunately it wasn’t down pouring like Saturday, so we didn’t end up as wet and could still do a little sight-seeing. Despite not seeing the Alps, the view was still really cool from the roof and I went a little picture crazy. After descending, we stopped for gelato and as I was taking the first lick from my cone, the ice cream plopped to the floor. I was left staring at a cone completely devoid of ice cream. It was a tragic moment. Thankfully, a kind worker witnessed this disaster and let me get a another serving free. Yay for saving the day! I asked for a cup this time so that there wouldn’t be any danger of a repeat performance.

 On the roof of the Duomo

Looking down on the Piazza Duomo

The green line metro was having repairs or something at certain stations, so we ended up having to walk a ways from one stop to the train station where we were planning to buy tickets in advance for the airport bus the next morning. On the way we came across a nice-looking restaurant where we stopped for lunch. The drizzly day made me in the mood for soup so I had a nice big bowl of onion soup with tons of bread on the side. After lunch and buying our bus tickets we chilled (literally) in the cold train station for an hour and a half or so before taking the metro to Mediolanum Forum for the big event of the night. Thank goodness we left at five because the green line metro kept going the wrong direction and we ended up getting on and off multiple times before deciding to change to the red line and then connecting up with the green line further along. We finally made it to the forum about an hour and a half later and then we had to wait outside in the cold for about forty-five minutes for the doors to open.  The concert was worth the waiting and cold. The Kongos opened for OneRepublic and I only knew their song “Come With Me Now” but they weren’t bad. Although I saw the Native concert in the U.S. I didn’t mind at all going for a second time. Ryan Tedder is so incredibly talented and it was another fantastic performance. 

OneRepublic!

After the awesome concert there was a massive exodus in the direction of the metro and there were long lines to buy tickets, to say nothing of how densely packed the metro cars were. Once we finally were on the metro we rode it as far as we could, but due to maintenance it didn’t go all the way to the train station. So we got off and were dreading the long walk ahead of us, when I spotted a bus that said stazione centrale which is where we were going. We got on and apparently it was just following the metro route and since the metro wasn’t working we didn’t have to pay anything. So crisis averted and we ended up at the train station in no time. Then we shivered in the cold station for two and a half hours and learned what it felt like to be homeless since most of the inhabitants were exactly that. It was awful and I now have a renewed sympathy for the plight of homeless people. When we were finally about to leave we headed for the nearest exit only to find it locked. Slightly nervous we walked to the next closest exit and once again it was locked. After checking the third one we decided to go to the police office and ask them how to get out because it was a panicky sensation being trapped in that huge train station. We were close to missing the first airport bus as a result, but the police said there was one exit open and eventually we found it and caught the bus a few minutes before it left. From there it was smooth sailing and by 7:40am we were boarding the plane for Alicante. As we were taxiing on the runway, I could see the Alps from my window and I tried to take some pictures but the mountains didn’t really show up. Once we were up in the air though I could see the Alps through the clouds below and that was pretty awesome. Overall it was a good experience in Milan but I was definitely happy to get back and sleep after the exhausting end to the trip.

 The huge train station 

Flying over the Alps

On Wednesday, I had a hard time adjusting to classes because I kept feeling like I should be on the Tuesday schedule since it was my first day back to school. While working with the students in second grade, I was asking what foods they liked and I especially enjoyed the answer I got from Loli. Lollipop. How positively fitting. On Thursday, much to my horror, I learned that I’m actually going to have to do some work outside of class. What?! I didn’t sign up for this! Just kidding, I guess it’s about time I actually put some extra effort into this teaching assistant thing. So I have to come up with activities and a step-by-step structure for preparing fourth graders for the Trinity English exam. My coordinator gave me three rather large stacks of papers to read up on before undertaking this task, so now I’ve got plans for this weekend that involve me, a large mug of coffee and some “light” reading. Okay well I’m definitely ending this entry right now because I don’t want to write anymore and I’m sure no one wants to read this much. Arrivederci! 

Halloween in Spain

Well I had a lot of fun at school this past week. And I’m not being sarcastic. I had prepared a powerpoint of about twenty or so slides to teach the students about Halloween and I gave the presentation a total of nine times to an age range of six to eleven year-olds. In the younger classes it was a little boring because they don’t have as strong a grasp of English so they didn’t have many questions for me, but in the older classes it was better. I had a couple of kids ask me about throwing eggs at Halloween because apparently that is a big part of Halloween based off of the American television they’ve seen. One boy actually admitted to having been a part of egg throwing here in Spain. The teacher was surprised at this revelation and informed the children that if they witness any friends throwing eggs they should call the police. It’s interesting how the Halloween that has caught on over here is the darker side of it. For example, there is no dressing up as a princess or a puppy dog, only scary things like vampires, witches, frankenstein etc. Also, the lack of candy corn over here is rather depressing. I had a fun time trying to explain that candy corn is a sweet and not a vegetable. On Thursday it was basically fun day in preparation for Halloween, so I either was giving my presentation or helping with decorations the entire day. In one class we decorated the door to look like a mummy and in another class we made a witch and in the last class of the day I cut out the eye holes of masks. My hand was a little sore from that!

Gift from one of the students

On Wednesday my flatmates and some of their French friends and I went to see The Maze Runner and it was pretty good. I’m proud to say that for a movie in Spanish I followed everything rather easily so it felt like quite an achievement. Movie theater experiences are different here for a couple of reasons. First of all the lines to buy tickets are crazy long, but that may be because Wednesday tickets are only 3,90 euros. We waited in line for about fifteen to twenty minutes (you wouldn’t want to arrive late or right on time to movies here) and we were worried at first that we wouldn’t get tickets because there was a screen that showed how many seats were left for each movie and it said only thirty-two remained when we first got in line. However, practically no one in front of us wanted to see The Maze Runner because there were still twenty-eight spots left when we finally bought ours. Another different thing about the movie theater is that they wouldn’t open the door to the theater room until about five minutes before it started. Now this was kind of annoying because the hallway became quite crowded before we could at last go in. Also there was assigned seating, so you need to make sure and buy tickets together if you want to sit with the people you came with. I have to admit that although I liked the cheaper price for Wednesday movies, I prefer good old American movie theaters to the kind here. 

I didn’t do too much on Halloween, but in honor of the day, I thought I would watch an Alfred Hitchcock movie. I settled on The Birds which didn’t seem as scary as I had remembered but it does make you look at birds a little differently for at least a day or too. I also made deviled eggs, which I had been planning to make for the last week or so, and happened to be a fitting titled food for the day. I had a Halloween-themed day with the girls I teach in the nanny-speaking program and we made bats using toilet paper rolls. I also gave them Halloween stickers that I’d brought with me from the states. I had originally brought them to share with my students at the school, but that was before I realized how many students I would be teaching and I definitely didn’t bring enough. 

 My deviled eggs

A cute little bat

This weekend consisted of me catching up on some TV shows, writing essays for the master’s in education program I’m applying for, going grocery shopping and cutting my bangs (or as they say in Britain, my fringe). Really it was an uneventful weekend, but in two weeks I’m going to be off on a little excursion to Italy so I’m saving up my energy and spirit of adventure for that. Which by the way I’m super excited about! Sayonara until next week. 

 I thought I'd share a couple pictures of the view on my drive to school

It's like a desert with tons of sandy hills

Alicante Adventure

Wow, I can’t believe it’s already been more than a week since my last entry. It was a busy week but I’ll try to recap the things worth noting as quickly as possible. As far as school goes, it was a rather uneventful week. I’m finally working one-on-one with the students in all of my classes so yay! However, that may fluctuate depending on the new factors to the equation who arrived this week: the helpers. These helpers come from Scotland and Wales and are retired folk who volunteer in the English classes every year from the end of October till the end of the school year. So far they have been in different classes than me, but apparently we may cross paths from time to time, meaning there will be three English teachers (the actual teacher and two native assistants) for just one class. I guess in these instances, the helper will work with the students individually and I’m supposed to stay in the classroom and do who knows what. Awesome. Hopefully, there won’t be too many times where we end up together.

On Tuesday, my coordinator at the school told me something quite surprising. Apparently the assistant for another school in Mula couldn’t come after all, so a new assistant had just arrived to take the position. Anyway, the crazy part is that he’s from Omaha, Nebraska. I honestly thought I was most likely the only Nebraskan participating in the program. At the very least, I thought that if someone else from Nebraska was in the program, the odds are they would be in a different region of Spain. Murcia is one of the smallest regions. So it is super crazy that two people from Nebraska not only ended up in the same region but in the same town! I mean what are the odds? Loco, simply loco. We’ll have to meet up sometime and talk about the homeland.

Since I have to speak English at school and my nanny job, and at the flat we all tend to use English most of the time, I’ve had to go out looking for Spanish-speaking opportunities. I mean I get some practice in during the carpool to work and in the teacher’s lounge and the grocery store and so on, but it doesn’t feel like enough. So I’ve been doing conversation exchange with two Spaniards for the past two weeks now. Their names are Maria and Pilar and it’s a very laid-back sort of experience where we hang out together (walk, get yogurt, browse shops, etc.) and talk in English some of the time and Spanish the rest of the time. They both are really nice and it’s been fun so far; however, I’ve decided that from now on I can only meet with one a day. I meet with them separately, and this past week both were only available Friday. So I met with Maria from one to four-thirty and with Pilar from five to eight. Not that I didn’t have a good time,  but it was a little bit much on my poor brain to do the Spanish-English switch for practically six and a half straight hours. 

On Saturday I traveled to Alicante, a city a little over an hour away in the neighboring region of Valencia. I spent about five hours there, and really didn’t do a whole lot, but it was more relaxing that way. I visited the Santa Barbara Castle which is situated on a large hill in the city along the Mediterranean coast so the views were as gorgeous as ever. Apparently the castle was hosting an exhibit that consisted of someone’s private Star Wars collection. Although I’m a fan of Hans Solo, I was stingy and decided against paying to see a bunch of figurines. Instead I wandered around exploring the grounds of the castle and taking an excessive amount of pictures. That’s really quite a bad habit of mine. I take two steps and think the view has improved so of course snap another picture, only to take another two steps and again feel the view is better and on and on it goes spiraling out of control. Then I put the pictures on my computer and find myself staring at literally hundreds of similar photos. I feel like I should become a member of a photo-snappers anonymous group. Hello my name is Emily and I have a problem.

View of the city from the castle

View of the sea

Santa Barbara Castle

All that photo snapping made me hungry so I soon found myself sitting in a lovely cafe on the castle grounds with a beautiful view of the sea and eating tortilla española (potato omelet) with bread. So good. After satisfying my stomach, I set about with renewed vigor snapping photos, which included taking a photo for a dude from Colombia. I seized the opportunity to have him take a picture for me, since I find most of the time when I try taking pics of myself, I end up blocking most of the pretty background, defeating the purpose. The Colombian was rather talkative so I found out he had been studying in Barcelona and was visiting Alicante for the first time and was then going to return to Barcelona to begin hunting for a job. Seeing as I was sight-seeing on my own like him, he invited me to join him on his excursion to a Chinese art exhibition. As tempting as the offer of seeing Chinese art was, I told him that I was regrettably leaving in a couple hours and couldn’t accompany him. I’m sure he was a nice guy, but better to be safe than sorry. Plus, I really didn’t have much time left at that point before the bus I wanted to catch, so it was a legit reason to turn him down. 

Hello!

I eventually left the castle with my camera’s memory card a couple hundred pictures fuller and followed the long winding road back down to the city. The temperature was in the eighties and I couldn’t resist the temptation to stop at a frozen yogurt shop. As I was thoroughly enjoying myself I noticed that there was a ship resembling the type from Columbus’s era sitting in the marina. So I wandered over to take a look and sure enough there was a huge ship that from what I could tell was being used as a restaurant. I snapped some pictures (surprise surprise) before making my way back to the bus station for my return journey to Murcia. 

Ahoy matey!

Sunday, I didn’t do all that much, but it was nice. It was the end of daylight savings time and that extra hour of sleep was very enjoyable. I’ve been going to the noon Mass at San Miguel’s and it is the Baptism Mass. So far without fail, every Sunday there’s been at least one Baptism. Last Sunday was the newest record for most Baptisms with a total of five babies but this Sunday wasn’t too far behind with three. I feel like I’m transported back to the fifties when I see the babies in their super long christening gowns and bonnets and being pushed in adorable baby carriages. Carriages, not strollers. The type with ribbons and lace. Seriously, if I ever have kids someday, I’m gonna buy all my stuff from Spain cause everything is just so precious it’s unreal. Okay well I think this entry has run on long enough so cheerio mates. 

Rock Bands and Other Mostly Random Happenings

This entry is going to be short because I can easily sum up the highlights of this week in a paragraph or two. (Just kidding somehow this became a lot longer than originally anticipated) Classes went well for the most part. Two of the teachers are having me work one-on-one with the kids and I think that is my preferred method. It helps me better get to know the students, and is good for them since they have to make more of an effort to speak English when they are by themselves. The other teacher I work with has me just sort of assist on occasion in the classroom, mainly by helping with pronunciation or writing things on the board. I feel like I get to accomplish more using the other method and am glad that two out of the three teachers have me doing it that way. Who knows maybe the other teacher will change things up soon and I can work on an individual basis in every class. Keeping my fingers crossed. 

On a side note, it is always interesting to hear the things the kids come up with in class. The other day, one student was absent due to illness and then the kids started joking that they were all coming down with ebola. Leave it to eight-year-olds to find that funny. 

I felt like having soup on Thursday, so I went shopping and then assembled the easiest possible version of corn chowder that I could find on the internet. It actually was pretty good if I do say so myself and with some crackers to thicken it up it was positively enjoyable. Thank goodness for easy recipes that even someone as inept at all things cooking-related as yours truly can manage to do with some measure of success. I was partially motivated to cook after some conversations I’ve had with colleagues at school where they were shocked to think I would go home after school and eat a sandwich and consider that satisfactory. I should clarify that in Spain, lunch, which happens between two and three, is the biggest meal of the day. Thus the surprise of my colleagues that I was eating merely a sandwich for the most important meal. Now I consider my sandwiches to be relatively substantial; however, I like variety as much as the next person so I’ve been trying to put a little more effort into meals at least a couple times a week. 

Corn Chowder!

Friday I went to a concert with my flatmate, Cecilia. It was interesting to say the least. We thought we were actually gonna be arriving a little late, but in typical Spanish fashion, the concert began later than anticipated and when we arrived we were so early that we had our choice of seats. By the way, the concert took place in the plaza de toros, or in English the bullring. Only in Spain. Nothing like the juxtaposition of listening to modern rock music while chilling in a place inundated with cultural and historical significance (also quite controversial nowadays). The first band to perform after the deejay set was rather horrible. They were known as The Crime and it felt sort of like a crime to permit them to go on singing. The next band to perform, Izal, was a big improvement and their voices were quite good. We left around eleven to check out a bar and meet up with some people before going back around midnight to catch the last act of the concert which consisted of a Swedish rock band known as Mando Diao. The band was a little strange. Among other things, the white scarf/cloths they waved about and the unusual lyrics to most of their songs, definitely gave the impression of drugs being involved. Thankfully I only paid five euros, because it probably wasn’t worth more than that. 

Mando Diao

As we headed back to our flat we couldn’t resist the tantalizing aroma of churros. Nothing like a late-night, or actually early-morning, snack of yummy, sugar-coated, unhealthy goodness. As if the concert didn’t have its fair share of strange occurrences, we had a weird encounter with a group of musicians dressed in medieval-looking garb hanging out on a street corner on our way back. As we were passing, they started questioning us and I think they were probably drunk, because if they were speaking in Spanish I couldn’t make it out. However, when we didn’t respond one dude started asking us if we spoke English and where we were from (in English) and when we didn’t acknowledge him he was like “Are you from Denmark?” Seriously, Denmark?! What?! Needless to say, it was a strange ending to the night. 

This weekend I didn’t do much, which was nice after traveling the last two weekends. However, the lack of beautiful photos to display is rather sad. I did go shopping and bought some cute boots that I may never wear because they have heels and those who know me, know that heels and me aren’t the best of friends. I just couldn’t resist them though. They were only fifteen euros which is pretty cheap for boots, so it won’t be too much money gone to waste if I don’t get a lot of use out of them. 

My impractical boots

This entry has, in typical fashion, carried on for an unnecessary length of time. So without further ado, I bid everyone adieu until next week. 

Introductions and Discoveries

I made it through my first week of classes! It was mostly good, although there were some awkward/uncomfortable moments mixed in. On Tuesday I was all set to give my powerpoint about myself and wouldn’t you know, the school’s computers were the 2003 version and my computer couldn’t save a version any older than 2009 so yeah that was a fail. Thank goodness I had the foresight to bring some photos of myself, family, and pets and I passed those around for the kids to view and ask me questions about. The questions they asked ranged from favorite foods and sports to whether I had a boyfriend, was married or had kids. Big families aren’t very common in Spain so there were many exclamations of surprise and excitement when they found out how many siblings I have. I will be working with about 200 kids, so in a week I only have two repeat classes and the rest are all different, which meant this week was introductions in every class. Answering questions about myself over and over and over…

Wednesday and Thursday were more of a success because I changed my powerpoint to a pdf file and that worked on the school computers so I could actually show those classes more about myself and things I liked etc. The kids were particularly excited when I showed them a picture of a tornado in a slide about Nebraska. They asked if tornados really existed, whether people would fly in one, and whether basements have oxygen. That last question was strange, but basements aren’t common in Spain, so going below ground is kinda weird for them. The second year class (age seven) drew pictures about things I presented on and their interpretations were really funny and cute. A lot of them drew my house, some drew me, or a cat and a bunch of them wrote I love you on their pictures which was kinda precious. That sort of elevated them to my favorite class at the moment. Oh and right after I came in to the class, Loli, one of the students, came up to me and gave me a picture of the Tin Man from Wizard of Oz that she had colored! She didn’t have a clue that I was a big fan of the movie/books. Apparently they had studied the Wizard of Oz last year so that’s kinda cool. 

Loli's picture

Okay, well enough on school for one blog post. I made chocolate chip cookies! They were a bit of a failure. In terms of U.S. chocolate chip cookie expectations, that is. My French flatmate said they were great, but myself and my American flatmate were in agreement that they didn’t quite measure up to our accustomed standards. Just to clarify in case anyone is concerned, I will be eating them, have no doubt of that! The chocolate is their redeeming quality so they won’t be wasted. But the texture was not quite normal and the flavor was a bit off. Everything tastes different in Spain that’s all there is to it. Sometimes it’s an improvement, sometimes it’s not so great. Like the milk. The milk here is definitely a downgrade from the U.S. as is the beef. But Spanish bread wins every time and they know how to make tortilla de patata to die for here. 

My cookies. They looked better than they tasted.

So on Saturday, I went on an outing to Puerto de Mazarrón which is a town/city right on the Mediterranean. It has tons of beaches! I believe I saw five in the course of the morning/afternoon I spent there. I discovered it is a very popular destination for British to have vacation homes. I probably saw just as many retired-aged British people as Spaniards and heard just as much if not more English than Spanish. I picked a cafe to eat lunch at and after I’d placed my order (in Spanish) the British invasion happened and I found every table around me quickly occupied with bearers of that quite distinct accent. Seriously if I closed my eyes I could swear I was listening to Angela Lansbury and Michael Caine. The poor waitress was struggling with getting orders down in English and in the course of things ended up using English when she returned to my table because everyone around me didn’t speak Spanish so she forgot I actually did, much to my disappointment. At least the British accents were enjoyable to listen to, so that sort of made up for my losing out on a Spanish real-life application experience.

With cute little white houses on the beach, who wouldn't want a vacation home here?

Overall from my day at the beach, my favorite spot was this lookout called Cabezo del Gavilán that I happened upon. It took a good amount of walking to get to that beach and I didn’t realize when I headed in that direction that there was such a lookout, but thank goodness I did because the views were breathtaking. It definitely was worth seeing and I went picture crazy a little bit there. Another memorable part of my excursion was actually at the very end when I was waiting for the bus to head back to Murcia. This little old Spanish man came and sat down next to me and started up a conversation. I learned that he is originally from Castilla-La Mancha, he now lives in Murcia and his favorite region is Madrid because of the women. He asked if I was married and when I replied no he said then that’s why I’d come to Spain, to find a boyfriend. Yeaahh, that’s the reason. It was an entertaining way to pass the time and also good Spanish practice. 

Doesn't get any more gorgeous than this.

Well I think that about sums up this past week. Oh and I started my second job (Nanny Speaking) and so far I think it went very well. I spent an hour playing with (but also teaching) two adorable little Spanish girls and they did very well with English. Almost too well, because by the time the hour was up I was completely out of all my activities I’d planned and all the extras as well. Now I know to come more prepared for next time. Okay, this is me saying over and out until (hopefully) next week. 

First Few Weeks on Foreign Soil

Hey everybody! I have been living in Spain for three weeks already and I’ve decided that now is as good a time as any to start one of those blog things. I’m not much of a writer, so my apologies in advance if some entries are boring or if there are long gaps without an entry. This is basically a blog for two purposes: to help me remember my awesome year in Murcia and to keep family and friends updated. 

Okay, now to quickly recap what I’ve done in the last two and a half weeks. First of all, getting to Murcia was a time-consuming and slightly stressful process. It was easy enough to get to Madrid, but finding the hidden little doorway to the train platform for Murcia was a major nuisance, especially when lugging around my giant suitcase and humungous-can’t-believe-I-got-away-with-it carry on. (I actually almost didn’t get away with it, because I sort of snuck past the person checking the carry-ons when I saw that mine was not gonna fit in the tiny little measuring thing). Anyhow, I made it onto the train for Murcia and then had to deal with finding a place to stash my luggage. This was no easy matter as the compartments meant for this purpose were completely full. However; the ticket checking dude took pity on me and let me leave my suitcase sort of in the aisle/exit so it was all good. At last I made it to Murcia and Alicia, a teacher at my assigned school, was there to greet me and take me to her home in Monteagudo which is right outside of Murcia. Needless to say, pretty much the first thing I did once I was shown to my temporary room was crash after the full day of traveling.

Shrine of the Virgin of Fuensanta

I stayed for a week with Alicia and her daughter Bea and their cute little dog Saya and was able to enjoy the awesome view from their place of the Christ placed on top of the hill the town surrounds. Alicia showed me some cool places in Murcia, like the Shrine to the Virgin of Fuensanta, and we went to a festival in Mula where we witnessed a procession and later enjoyed some Spanish dishes which included my personal favorite, tortilla de patatas. Thanks to Alicia’s help, I found an apartment in the city center fairly quickly and bid farewell to Monteagudo.

The Christ of Monteagudo

It took no time at all for me to move into my little room and promptly make a mess. I like to think of it as organized chaos. I spent the first week in my new home getting to know my three flatmates: Inés and Lisa from France and Cecilia from Minnesota. They are super nice and I think we will all get along splendidly. It’s been fun switching off with making food because I’ve already had a couple of legit French foods: ratatouille and crepes. 

I also was pretty busy going to the Oficina de Extranjería (Foreigner’s Office) to get my TIE (foreigner card of residence) as well as getting a bank account set up. The Extranjería wasn’t too bad of an experience but it took most of a whole day because I had the wrong size photos and had to take a bus back to the city center, get my picture taken, then catch another bus back to the office. After getting my temporary TIE, the next thing on my agenda was to open a Spanish bank account. I had heard good things about EVO so I opened an account with them and so far I haven’t regretted it. There was a little bit of an upset with them putting in my email wrong and I had to go back and straighten it out, but now everything is good and I already received a debit and credit card and transferred some funds. I can take out money from any ATM in the world without fees so hip hip hooray! 

This entry is becoming much longer than necessary so I will sum up anything else of importance in as short a manner as possible. I went to Mula (carpooled with some very nice teachers) only on Wednesday (Oct. 1st) and I just observed so it was exciting to meet the kids but not very eventful on my part. I sat down with the teachers I will be working with and we determined my schedule to be Tuesday through Thursday. Oh did I mention I turned 23? Yeah, that happened. I’m getting old, end of story. Anyway, I went to a long and boring orientation on Thursday so I didn’t go to school. Over my long weekend I did a number of things including an after midnight churros and chocolate run, a visit to Salzillo Museum in Murcia and a trip to Cartagena. Cartagena was really cool! I walked around a lot, and felt the effects the next day, but it was worth it. I saw a huge Navy Arsenal, visited a Mediterranean marina, saw hundreds of palm trees and snapped way more photos than necessary. 

Cartagena Mediterranean Marina

That pretty much sums up the last three weeks. Oh yeah and I got another job. I will be participating in Nanny Speaking, which will involve me going to families’ homes and doing educational games and activities with the children to help them learn English in a natural way. So far I will be teaching two little girls on Tuesdays and Thursdays and three little boys on Mondays. Well I’m relieved to say I’ve finally come to the end of this entry. I promise the next one will be shorter! Hasta luego.