bmgray’s blog

Sunny sunny Spain!

Posted on April 30th, 2008 by bmgray.
Categories: Uncategorized.

    The weather has been so nice lately! I wake up in the morning to go to class and I have to bring a jacket, but when I leave class the weather is absolutely perfect. It is going to get a lot hotter, I’m not sure if I will be able to stand it. I totally understand the siesta now! It is too hot during the day to function so the people have to sleep during the hottest part of the day and then stay up later at night.

I have been hanging out a lot with my friend German who is in two of my classes. He is super nice and always helps me when I don’t understand something or if I need notes that I missed.  Last weekend we went to Cartagena because a Spanish student in Rosaria’s class invited us to go eat with her family at her house.  When we first arrived in Cartagena we hung out by the port and walked up to a Castle on the top of a big hill.  In Cartagena there are also many Roman ruins, what was really cool was  the big theater.  We went to Miriam’s house and met her family there. Her Mom was a amazingly nice, almost too nice! She would never stop talking! She just kept saying “you are precious, you are gorgeous, what a sweetheart!”  Her Dad was pretty quiet and just sat on the couch, he would occasionally laugh out of nowhere or smoke a cigarette.  We ate Paella con Marisco (seafood), tapas, salad and strawberrys with cream.  The food was delicious!  After we ate we made a toast, or I should say the Mom made the toast and it lasted about 10 minutes.  Then she invited us to her “special place” and we went into this room where she had lit candles and incense.  She had soft music going and she began reading us poetry, poetry from books and also poetry that she wrote herself.  At the end she started crying saying that it was such a special moment for her. I wasn’t sure how I felt…it was kind of strange and at the same time very sweet!

This past week I went to a Sevillana dance class (Flamenco).  The word “flamenco” is Spanish for Flemish and is a bit confusing.  The people used to  mistake the gypsies here in Spain for Flemish people.  The dance is originally from the gypsies living in Andalusia, Seville in particular.  I suppose it’s a bit more “politically correct” to say Sevillana rather than Flamenco.  There are still a lot of gypsies living here in Spain. I also notice a lot of racism towards the gypsie people from the Spaniards that I have talked to.  In Murcia the majority of the gypsies live in a dangerous part of town.  The dance class was hard for me, that could have something to do with my complete lack of coordination.  At the end we were paired up with partners and my partner was a young girl, probably about 15 or 16.  I got so flustered that I began spouting things out in English.  The poor girl just looked at me like I was insane.  I would say “sorry, sorry, no left left!” Poor thing! I plan on going back again next week!

This past weekend my roommates and I went with German to a little church up in the mountains here in Murcia.  A friend of his, Fatima, works in the church and gave us a little tour.  We all went to eat together at this beautiful restaurant in the country.  The restaurant was big and had a huge terrace looking out over the scenery.  We sat a talked for awhile and then we went for a small hike in the woods.  I really like leaving the city and seeing the country!

This week has been pretty laid back.  Last night I made Paella with my friend Chris, from Saint Louis.  We brought it over to his friend Pablo’s where there were some other students watching the soccer game.  Today I went to a High School in a small town outside of Murcia to talk to some of the English classes.  It was strange because none of the students wanted to say anything in English, they kept insisting on speaking Spanish.  We asked them if they had any desire to study abroad or to learn another language and they said no, all of them!  I guess I would expect that from younger children, but not from high school students.  I would think that at least one student out of the several classes that I spoke to would like to study in another country, or even visit! They all said they just wanted to stay in their “pueblo” forever.  I guess it’s okay if that’s what they really want, if they all want to hey can stay in their town and breed amongst themselves.  Maybe they will change their mind!

Tomorrow morning I have to wake up early to catch our bus to Almeria and Malaga. I’m sure it will be a great time!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2072727&l=d3fa0&id=47202615

above are some pictures from the anything but clothes party and also from Cartagena

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