bmgray’s blog

The weather is outragous

Posted on June 26th, 2008 by bmgray.
Categories: Uncategorized.

The weather here right now is shocking. I have been taking 2 cold showers a day and live in front of my fan but still manage to have trouble breathing because it is SO HOT! Trying to study in this heat was the worst of all! We went to the beach yesterday for the first time in awhile to celebrate the end of our final exams. The water felt so incredibly nice! My finals were pretty hard. I studied a lot for all of them but I only felt super comfortable in 20th century art (the class I studied the least for). It turns out that I didn’t even pass my Baroque art class! I’m not sure if this will affect my GPA at home. I hope not because it seems wrong to be penalized for taking a chance with classes in a foreign University with foreign students in a completely foreign language. I learned more in that class, even though I didn’t pass, than what I would have learned at home. Not because our classes at home are not up to par, because they are, but here I had to stay completely on top of everything to make sure that I would understand. I have one exam left but I think it will be okay! I liked the class a lot.

I can’t believe this amazing semester is coming to an end. I want to stop time! It will so strange to be home again and I will miss being here. A lot of the American students have already been gone for about a month. This weekend there are several “fiestas de despedida” (good-bye parties) for other European students who are going home. I hate good-byes!

“Don’t be dismayed at goodbyes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again after a moment or lifetime is certain for those who are friends.”

Leslie and Courtney came to visit me a couple weeks ago and it was so fun to be able to show them around Murcia. They were suprised, they thought it was going to be a lot different. I got to take them to my favorite place to eat, a little tapa bar called “El Palomo”. It is dirty, cheap, noisy and you eat on paper but I absolutely love the atmosphere. We also went to climb the bell tower of the Murcia Cathedral…that is something that I have never done! The view was so pretty! The students that I study with here all speak Spanish so when they came it was weird to have to translate. Sometimes I would just stare at them and wait for them to respond to someone, just assuming they understood, but then finally I realized that they didn’t. I felt so dumb! While they were here we had a party at my apartment so they could meet some of my friends. A Spanish guy was leaning in the give Leslie the typical “dos besos” (2 kisses)on both cheeks when he met her. Leslie had no idea what he was doing and freaked out a bit and then stuck out her hand to shake his. They were both so confused, it was hilarious!

Right now I just have a couple weeks to hang out here in Murcia until I have to take my last exam. After that Exam Roberto and I are going to Amsterdam for the weekend. That will be interesting! Last night Quentin (my Belgian friend…he is from the French part of Belgium but he also speaks Dutch..and English fluently…and Spanish…geez!) made me a list of Dutch phrases that I can use while I am there. It is amazing how similar it is to English! For example “Where is?” in Dutch is “War is?”…there are many things that seemed like I was just speaking English with a funny accent. I guess it won’t be too difficult to understand!

I have been kind of worried about the way my classes are going to transfer back at home…I hope okay! This experience that I have had here is worth any bad grade or change in my GPA. I have learned so much and have a different view on life and the world. =)

“Imagine we are all the same. Imagine we agree about politics, religion, and morality. Imagine we like the same types of music, art, food, and coffee. Imagine we all look alike. Sound boring? Differences need not divide us. Embrace diversity. Dignity is everyone’s human right.”
–Bill Brummel (Documentary filmmaker),

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness… Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
–Mark Twain

“For if every true love affair can feel like a journey to a foreign country, where you can’t quite speak the language, and you don’t know where you’re going, and you’re pulled even deeper into the inviting darkness, every trip to a foreign country can be a love affair, where you’re left puzzling over who you are and whom you’ve fallen in love with.” -Pico Iyer

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2078011&l=ff737&id=47202615–  a mix of photos from the whole semester

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2078012&l=baef2&id=47202615 –recent photos!

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