bmgray’s blog

Madrid

Posted on February 19th, 2008 by bmgray.
Categories: Uncategorized.

I am so happy that we took a week to see Madrid because there are so many things to do and see there! Right before I left I met with my landlady to pay her for the next couple months. She told me she had just gotten back from visiting her Mom. I asked “Oh great, how is your Mom?” She says “she’s dead” and then bursts into tears! I don’t know what to do so I just give her a hug. I had no idea what to say but I remembered Dr. Latorre teaching us once how to say “Mi más sentido pésame” or “My deepest sympathies” (Thanks Dr. Latorre!). The poor thing just sat on the couch wrapped up in a blanket crying. I am so lucky to have such a nice landlady.

On the way to Madrid we missed our bus and had to take a taxi to the airport. We arrived in Madrid and had no trouble finding our hostel that we had booked before we left. The first day we went to the Prado and the Reina Sofia. We spent the whole entire day in both of the museums, from open to close. It was absolutely amazing! We also wanted to go to the third museum on the art walk but there wasn’t enough time. In the Prado we saw all of the famous paintings by Velázquez in a special exhibit they have right now called Fábulas de Velázquez Mitología e Historia Sagrada en el Siglo de Oro. There was also an exhibit showing the Greco paintings in the Prado. The last time I went with Dr. Skoglund’s group at school my favorite painting was “The Descent from the Cross” By Van der Weyden. This time I had a new favorite and it was “Los hijos del pintor en el salón japonés” by Mariano Fortuny 1874. If you have some spare time you should google it! Goya’s “Third of May” was off limits which is really a shame because we studied it a great deal last semester in Dr. Braysmith’s class. The Reina Sofía had a big Picasso exhibit and also a vanguardia/flamenco exhibit. There was too much too look at! At first I was full of energy and super excited about every piece we saw, but as the day dragged on my head was spinning! Our hostel was in the “Little India” district so we had Indian food twice while we were there. I love Spain, but if there is one thing that I would improve it would be the food because it is extremely bland. Indian food in Madrid was like a gift from God! The next day we took the metro to the bus station and drove out of town to the Escorial. The Escorial is a huge monastery outside of Madrid that was begun in 1563 and finished in 1584. It was built by Felipe II with the intention of building a mausoleum for his father Carlos V. The monastery is absolutely amazing from the outside. There is not a lot of decoration on the outside and it is completely built with stone, the building is cold and austere. We saw the bed where Felipe passed away. From his bed he could look out and see the mass being held in the huge Cathedral in the center of the Escorial. We also went down to the mausoleum and saw the tombs of all of the Kings, Queens, and family members, it was pretty creepy! Our tour guide was a Spanish women who was at first pretty hard to understand but she slowed down significantly after realizing we were foreign. We spent the third day wondering around the city. We went to Plaza Mayor, Puerto del Sol, and the Palacio Real. It was nice to slowly explore the city, stopping to drink a coffee or browse in a little shop. The last day we took a bus to Toledo and spent the day there. We went to the Cathedral and also went to the smaller church Santo Tomé to see the El Greco painting ¨The Burial of Count Orgaz¨. Toledo is an enchanting town, it takes you back to medieval times!

When we got back to Murcia I spent Sunday catching up on sleep because our real classes started on Monday. The first day was fine, my teachers were a little difficult to understand but nothing too bad. Today I woke up and went to my empty classroom and sat there until 15 after. Finally there were students, but I didn’t recognize them from the day before. Finally the teacher walked in and shut the door. That’s when I realized he wasn’t my teacher and I was in the wrong class. In our pre-semester intensive class our professor told us that the classes here are different than in the U.S., it is a “Clase Magistral”. According to our professor in this type of class the students don’t speak, they just sit and listen attentively. They are not allowed to leave the class or come in late so I just sat there until the end of the class. The class was pretty small and they had already had a class the day before and a reading assignment that they were discussing. I had no idea what this man was saying. He was the most animated human being that I had ever seen in my life. He paced all around the classroom yelling and flailing his arms. He would get in the students faces asking “me entiendes” and then look at all of us and ask “me entendéis”. (Do you understand me?) All of a sudden he would stop, say something, and then laugh for a good five minutes. I was clueless. I was in the class for a full hour and I still couldn’t tell you the actual subject matter, something to do with literature or poetry? I ended up taking some notes though (trying to be less conspicuous), why not? I wanted to laugh/cry the whole class. I will be sure to look at the number on the door next time before I assume it is the right class. This weekend I am going to visit Mathilde in Paris and I am very excited! Right now I better go look up some of the words my teachers used today because I am pretty lost, it is almost humorous that I am even able to be in these classes. Adios!

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Trip to Águilas

Posted on February 12th, 2008 by bmgray.
Categories: Uncategorized.

I have been having an amazing time here in Murcia. My new friends in my Spanish class are great and a lot of fun to be around. After class we usually go together and get a coffee or go get some tapas. Yesterday we went to a place called “The Tapa” in the Plaza de flores, the tapas were amazing. We tried the Murcian Salad, the various Russian salads with octopus and tuna, roast with garlic and tomato, and more. Olives and tuna are very popular in the food around here. In a couple hours I am leaving with two of my friends to Madrid. We are going to spend 4 days there and have plans to go to Toledo, the Escorial, Museo de Prado, La Reina Sofia, and more! Next weekend Mathilde is going to meet me in Paris. Never in my life did I think I would visit two world capitals in two weeks!

I really miss my dryer, I have to hang dry my clothes and takes 3 days for them to dry. Today I decided to try the line in the courtyard instead of using the rack in the salon. It rains about 5% of the year here in Murcia and of course it began raining as soon as I left the house to go to class after hanging all my clothes! A couple days ago our water heater wasn’t working and I couldn’t figure out how to relight the gas. I had to boil water on the stove and dump it into my bathtub. I also have trouble with the hard floors in the apartment. They are all marble and when I walk around in socks I constantly slip and fall, I am bruised up and down my legs! Right now there is a girl from the German part of Switzerland living with us until she can move into here apartment.

Last weekend I went to a town called Aguilas to celebrate the Carnival with a big group from Erasmus. We were with students from Norway, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Belgium, and more. It was the craziest party I have ever seen! The parade was huge and afterward everyone stayed out until 7 in the morning. Everyone was wearing wild costumes with their faces painted. The day before we walked from the train station to our hostel and it took us two hours! The second day after the carnival we had to walk back and we were so tired. The walk was breathtaking! We walked up and down cliffs along the Mediterranean Sea. I wanted to stop and take a picture every two seconds because everything was so beautiful. I love the “hustle and bustle” of the city but the feeling you get when you are in the middle of nowhere listening to the waves crash against the coast is one of a kind

When you go on vacation everything is exciting, and exotic. Studying abroad is such an amazing experience because at first everything new and then you start seeing things in a different light. You see the pluses and the minuses and you love the place for both!

Our intensive Spanish class is over and we start our regular classes next week. Today we had an exam and a presentation. I think the class was very helpful because I was able to listen to a native speaker 5 hours a day. Our teacher was always open to any question we had over the language and was willing to help us with everything. I think he did an amazing job keeping the class animated, he always had funny expressions! I have to go pack my bags for Madrid because our bus leaves in two hours! Besitos!

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Me encanta Murcia =)

Posted on February 3rd, 2008 by bmgray.
Categories: Uncategorized.

I am starting to feel a lot more comfortable here. I know the streets a little better and I am beginning to speak Spanish with ease. I am really glad I decided to take the pre-semester language class because I have met so many other students that are studying here. Each day my Spanish improves and that was my main reason for wanting to study here. I also really like the culture, la vida española. There are always people outside in the streets. Everything is done much later here compared to at home, breakfast is later, lunch is later, and people don’t start to go out until 1:30 am. Usually people leave the bars around 5 in the morning! Breakfast is very light and lunch is very heavy, their lunch is like our dinner. People eat lunch around 2 or 3 and dinner around 10 or 11. Everything closes around 2:00 in the afternoon because it is time for “siesta” and then re-opens at around 5. These days a lot of people don’t take the siesta, but everything still closes and people can go and eat some tapas and relax a bit.

One thing that is funny for me to see is all the movies and television shows on T.V. with English dubbed in the background! It is so weird to hear Steve Martin or Diane Keaton speak Spanish while their mouths are speaking English!

I went out with some friends last night and it was very fun. The bars are so crowded you can’t even move. It’s funny because if you go out at 12:00 the bars will be completely empty, but if you stay until around 2:00 there are loads of people! Right now it is Carnival, a festival season. They celebrate Carnival here in Spain and also in several other places like South America, other parts of Europe and even U.S… hence Mardi Gras (Mardi Gras means fat tuesday in french). Carnival started as a big party before the beginning of Lent because people knew they would be fasting and abstaining from lots of different foods, such as meat. Now there are lots of traditions that go along with Carnival. Many people dress up and go out in costumes and there are also a lot of parades. The word carnival is suspected to have come from the late latin “carne vale”, which means “farewell to meat”. The most famous Carnival is here in Spain is in the southern city of Cadiz. In Cadiz some people (called chirigotas) train all year in order to put on shows in the costumes during Carnival.

Today my new roommate from France arrived. His name is Tomas and he is very nice. He was studying Medicine in Poland and now he is here to do is practicals at a hospital in Murcia. He has a girlfriend in Poland who might be visiting pretty soon.

Today was a great day! I woke up pretty late and met my friend Paulina at a café. We had a coffee, talked for awhile and then went to explore the city. She is a super sweet girl from the Czech Republic. She is about 25 and was working in a jewelry store in Spain during the summer when she decided she wanted to learn Spanish. She is studying economics here in Murcia. We went to a movie theatre that has lots of different movies. If one thing is cheaper in Spain, and only one thing because everything is is sooo expensive, it´s the movies. It is only 2.50 Euros to see a movie in the theatre…granted I´ll probably only understand every other word…but still! We went to a gallery where there was a photography exhibition. It was cool because in the gallery there were parts of the floor that weren´t tiled because there were parts of Roman ruins throughout the building! Afterwards we went to ¨tapear¨ (eat tapas) in la plaza de flores. We went to the tourism office to ask the lady where the best place to eat tapas is in town. The verb tapar in Spanish means to cover. “Tapas” are like a “lid” or a “cover…it originated when people used to use a small piece of bread to cover their wine glasses in bars to keep insects out. Now it is very common for people to go out and have the several small plates of food with a drink! We had four different tapas today and they were all delicious! One was a mixture of salmon, fish, and tuna with some pickles and capers. Another is called “tortilla” and it is my favorite, it reminds me of a quiche. I like it better plain, but today we had it with tuna. Another favorite is pork in a tomato sauce, it is called “magra con tomate”. We also had a plate of olives. When I went back to my apartment, which everyone here calls “el piso”, a guy from Italy that lives near us was making Spaghetti! So I ate again! We ate with our new roommate and afterwards Tomas and I went to meet some other friends in front of the Cathedral. We went to a couple different bars with Grace and Erica (two girls from the U.S.), Charlene and Morgan (from France), and Ana (from Portugal). I have been hanging out with Grace and Erica a lot and they are so sweet. It is nice to have other American girls here experiencing what I am experiencing. The girl from Portugal taught me lots of little Portuguese chants that they use when they are out drinking. They are pretty fun! Although I am happy to have other American friends, I am also extremely happy to have friends from other places because I can practice my Spanish with them. Even though it has only been 2 weeks I feel like I have improved a lot. I am even starting to think in Spanish! Yay! Tomorrow I think I will meet up with a guy I met from Spain named Roberto and get some coffee. He seems like a nice guy. Well, Hasta Pronto! Besos!

Here are some pictures.  The second one is a building called “Ayantamiento” It is next door to my apartment and is basically of government building. In the third a guy in a tapería asked if I wanted to listen to some of the American music on his cell phone (Celine Dion and Michael Bolton…wahoo!).  The fourth is my friend Violette from France and Erica from Washington hanging out in a plaza after our class.  The last one is a tree that I think is probably older than our country!

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