Life in Murcia

Coffee!

Trueno/ Thunder!

Roberto's pumpkin is rotting :(

My favorite dessert ever! Arroz con leche. Rice pudding!

In Roberto's dining room

Roberto's Front porch.

At Roberto's House, His living room.

The front porch

The pool

His Dad's little garden

Drinking some tea/wine on Lisha's terrace.

Lisha's terrace again.

The amazing view from Lisha's terrace.

A random building in Murcia

A street in Murcia

Plaza de Europa (My apartment is just to the right of this Plaza!)

Plaza in front of the Cathedral

Part of the Cathedral

A park

Cathedral's Baroque façade.

In front of the Ayuntamiento

Another plaza close to my apartment. Plaza de Santo Domingo.

The old bridge.

I walk down this street with the arch everyday to get to my bus stop.

I walk past this street on my way to work too.

The pictures I posted above of Murcia are pictures from Meredith's (another American English language assistant here in Murcia) camera. Thanks Meredith!

This week was busy, but nice. I have been giving a lot of classes. Besides my classes at the elementary school in the morning, I give the classes at the cultural center Monday and Wednesday evenings and two private lessons every week. This week I got two more calls for private lessons. I might have to start saying no to save my free time! We made a video at the elementary school this week. We recorded the voices of all of the children saying "This is my..." and the various classroom objects.

http://cbmvirgendeguadalupe.blogspot.com/

Here is the link if you are interested! The kids are so cute! (most of the time) I hope you get the chance to look at it! It shows the classroom and some of the kids I work with.

There was a woman from London visiting the school this week and we ended up chatting and exchanging information. If I get the chance to go to London this year we might meet up for tea or something.

I spent a little bit of time this week with some of the other American girls in my program. They are all really nice and I hope to spend some more time with them this year exploring Spain!

I spent the morning planning my classes for next week. After that I went outside to write some cards in the sun, it is still 85 degrees here! Pretty hot for the end of October if you ask me! Roberto's Mom made lasagna and salad for lunch, mmm delicious! This afternoon I have a private conversation class and then Roberto and I are going to Cartagena to check out a bookstore. Tomorrow we are going to hike in the mountains! I can't wait. :) Hasta luego!

Monday Monday

I am at the café in the building where I teach English again. It is the best place to get online and have a coffee before I have to work! I stayed at Roberto's house this weekend and his Dad dropped me off at my apartment this morning. I made lunch for his family on Friday and it turned out pretty delicious, if you ask me! I made a salad and pasta alla carbonara!

I had a nice weekend besides the fact that I got sick again on Saturday and spent most of Sunday sleeping. I am determined to get better fast! I have been taking medicine, drinking gross syrup for my throat, making fresh orange juice twice a day, sleeping in a scarf and trying to rest as much as a can. Once the weather makes up its mind and stays the same temperature for more than one day I think it will be easier to get better.

Sunday we had one of my favorite Spanish foods for lunch! Migas! Migas literally means crumbs, but is a food that people traditionally eat in Murcia when it rains. Migas is a mixture of olive oil, water, and flour that is constantly stirred in a big pan until it has the consistency of stuffing or small dumplings. After that they put in Morcilla (blood sausage--I usually pass on this one, but I did try it once), regular sausage, and sometimes cabbage. Yum!

I love being in Spain. I love the beautiful old streets, the food, the music, the weather, and the culture, but no matter how much fun I have something is missing. I miss my family! I realize that if I were in the U.S right now I probably wouldn't be living in Evansville, so I still wouldn't see everyone as often as I did this summer. Most of my friends from Evansville are living in other cities and can't go home for Thanksgiving because of their jobs and then at Christmas they only get 3 or 4 days off. There isn't much difference, but I can't help feeling SO far away! Most young people in the U.S. these days are trying to move to bigger cities and find jobs far away from their families. It is almost as if the farther away you go the more successful you are. Everyone is worried about success and proving that they are doing something. I almost envy the Spaniards in the sense that most of them have no desire to move away from the city in which they were born. They can't imagine living without their families. Sometimes I think that many Americans are over ambitious and they forget what is really important.

My New Place!

The view from my bedroom window!
Me in my room
My Bed
My Roommates at lunch!
My Bedroom
My wall!
My hallway
View from living room window
view from living room window
Maria in the kitchen
Living room
Foyer
Outside of the apartment, front door


I hope you like my new apartment! I am at a little cafe right now that is connected to the cultural center where I give classes Monday and Wednesday nights. I really like it! It is all glass, so there is a lot of light and in the distance you can see the mountains. I just thought I'd put up some pictures of my "piso"! I am going to prepare my classes for tonight! I miss you all!

A Working Woman at Last!

I need Internet. It is impossible to keep in touch with everyone without it! I have been lugging my computer across town attempting to connect in the cultural center where I am teaching English, but if I am unable to get a hold of anyone at that particular moment I have to wait until the next day and try again.

Let me attempt to update everyone a little because a lot of things have happened since the last time I wrote!

1. I moved into my apartment. I live with two French girls, Diane and Maria Dolores. They are both sweet, but they leave for the weekend and I am alone in the apartment. I prefer to be in a family environment so I decided to stay at Roberto's house until Monday. We were living with another American girl, Lisha from Virginia, but she was unhappy with her bedroom and decided to move to another apartment. We are currently looking for another roommate and if we don't find one by November we will have to pay 70 euros more, which is a lot!

2. I started working. In the elementary school I teach 5 and 6 year olds and in the cultural center 50 and 60 year olds. Both age groups have about the same level of English. In both schools I only speak English. If they ask me a question in Spanish, I can answer, but I can't speak Spanish myself. They will learn a lot faster this way by picking up on phrases and words that go along with the gestures that I make. The kids in the elementary school are adorable! I can't wait to take some pictures for you! One little girl asked me if I spoke Spanish, in Spanish of course. I answered in English, "No! I speak English! Do you speak English?". To which she replied with a big smile, "Noooo, I'm Spanish!!!".

3. I got a few stitches. I was taking a shower yesterday morning and as I was getting out of the tub I slipped and fell. My head hit the tiled wall, the glass door cut my leg, and a nail in the wall scraped up my arm. I went to a health center close to the school and they fixed my arm up a bit. Nothing serious, but still enough to make me want to shower in flip flops from now on.

4.I got my hair cut :) I won't elaborate because I doubt anyone really cares, but I like it!

I really miss Fall in the United States. It still feels like summer here and even though it is 80 degrees during the day people dress as if it were 60. I guess they associate October with Fall and Fall with cool weather. If you walk outside wearing shorts people will look at you wondering why you aren't wearing your scarf and boots. It is October you know!

Tonight Roberto and I are going to carve pumpkins! He has never carved a pumpkin in his life, it is something that he has only seen on TV! I am going to try and make some pumpkin bread as well. I wish Grandmother was here to help me! Should I put sour cream in that too? Tomorrow morning I'm going to the open air market to buy fresh fruits and veggies for my apartment.

Now that I have started working I don't have as much siesta time as before. Even though I am only working at the Elementary school 12 hours a week and the cultural center 4 hours a week, I still need to spend a lot of time preparing my lessons. I have to prepare work sheets and vocabulary sheets for my classes and then print and make copies. A big chunk of my time is also spent on the bus or walking. I have to catch my bus at 8 in the morning to go to the elementary school in Guadalupe and then I am on the bus another 30 minutes or so before I arrive. I walk to the cultural center which also takes about 20-30 minutes. I will be there this week and hopefully I will have the chance to get online and write again!