bmgray’s blog

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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