Primer dia de los clases

Today was my first day of classes! I had Geografía Humana General from 4-6 then Historia Universal Contemporánea 8-9pm.

The benefit of not having class til 4pm was that I could be productive beforehand, and get my mind off of how nervous I was. I took the fifteen minute trek to the post office so I could mail a birthday carta to my wonderful boyfriend Ricardo...

I wish I had brought my camera, because the post office was just collosal. I even mentioned to the man next to me that the post offices were much smaller in the US, haha. The ambience of the Correos is much like that of the DMV in America. Upon entering, you are prompted to take a number based upon four options (regular mail, banking, business, etc.). Once I figured that out I waited for about 14 minutes. I asked the guy next to me if I needed some sort of slip because I saw that a lot of people had gotten them to put with their letters. He explained to me in a super-thick accent that the slips were a form of insurance (like delivery confirmation) that costs more but is for use with important mail; he showed that he was sending his mail to a bank. So, I didn't need one. It ended up being ,85 per card.

It was such a nice walk back; it was sunny and I felt accomplished for having gone alone and done something a little outside my comfort zone.To reward myself (?) I stopped at the grocery store: 

• "Frosties" (Frosted Flakes, Tony the Tiger is even on them!)
• can of ravioli
• chocolate "digestive" cookies
• soja sauce (soy)
• 2 kinds of pasta sauce
• 4-pack of fresh,warm wheat rolls
• agua
• leche
• honey
• 2 microwave pastas
• powdered ginger
• 2 chocolate pastries
• yogurt
• "digestive" mint tea
• 2 gala appples
• carrots

The most expensive things were the honey and yogurt, still less than 3 euros each.

After I made a cream cheese & banana sandwich (I'm experimenting), I left for class half an hour early even though it only took 5 minutes to get to class (obviously I was pretty nervous). The classroom was already full because in Spain the teachers rotate classrooms and the students stay there! So, that was awkward.

I paced outside the classroom for half an hour, frequently pinning my ear to the door frame to try and hear if the teacher was still talking (I thought there might be a back door where the teachers would leave and enter). I asked the consejería who basically advised me to chill out ("se quedan dos minutos"--'there are still 2 minutes left'). I eventually just waited for the teacher, and a few students, to leave the classroom before I entered.

I sat in the front row, by myself, awkwardly for a few minutes. When I saw that no one else sat there, I moved back a row, next to a seat with a purse in it. The girl shortly came and took her purse and moved to a different row...awkward. Then a guy sat next to me, in the newly-vacant seat. After awkwardly sitting there for a few more minutes I gathered up the courage to converse.

Here is our awkward conversation: 

Me- "Eres de Murcia?" (Are you from Murcia?) 

Him- Si, jah grfkua gyeriuhbadfklj gvblakjrgtiauh
        jhfjdshfkjh ajkghakjhg hmnc mu iu rk (I understood about 40%)

Me-  Oh...pues, soy una estudiante internacional, de los Estados Unidos...

Him- (uhh, why are you talking to me...?)

Me- (oh geez this is awkward)

So I may have dramaticized it a bit, but that's pretty much how it felt. He asked me a few questions (Are you from New York?) but it was mostly just me asking questions that he didn't understand or him answering me in a way I didn't understand. I couldn't tell if he just wasn't interested in talking to me or if he just didn't have the patience. Hey, I was nervous!

It kind of sucked but at least I tried...I would have felt worse if I just didn't say anything.
The good news was that I understood most of what the profesora said and the class seemed pretty interesting! I introduced myself to the profesora (who made eye contact with me at least 40% of the time). Now, to keep myself awake for the whole two hours...

The next class was about the same except that we had no awkward time to wait...class started promptly (late because the last profesora ran 10 minutes late). This profesora was also nice and seemed interesting. Natalia is in this class with me which is okay because I don't think we will have much time to socialize with Spaniards anyway (it's only an hour long & this teacher means business).

Tomorrow I have my first tourism class 9AM-11AM. I'm glad I emailed my professors because I thought we started class next week, but it actually starts tomorrow. The only problem is, I haven't even been to that campus yet and it is a 20 minute walk away. I know I am going to get lost.

Well, I'm sure tomorrow will be just as nerve-wracking as today.... good night!

Nueva Condomina

Today I went to the mall with Kayla!
Unfortunately, not much exciting to blog about. Uh, oh...is life in Spain becoming normal?

We took the tranvía to Nueva Condomina (el centro comercial) and I bought a bono-10 pass (15 rides for 10 euros, as opposed to 1,35 per way). It's a good fit for me because I'm sure I will use 15 trips, remembering that each trip is two rides. It lasts a whole year and is rechargeable.
The tranvía not only takes you to Campus Espinardo (I don't have classes there, but there is a gym and stuff), but it also takes you to IKEA and two malls (where there are cinemas and bowling) and to the Carrefour (like Walmart) along the way.

I was impressed! The mall seemed pretty big, although we didn't have much time to explore. Every Spanish store that I knew of was there, plus there were plenty of outside establishments (like IKEA) nearby. I definitely want to go back and explore!

I can't wait to eat here...I know...but the food is so different at the McDonald's in Europe!

I made a few purchases (maybe too many!): a shirt, a skirt, a pair of skinny jeans (that's all that anyone wears here), and two pairs of shoes. No worries, almost everything was on sale!

I finally feel like I might be ready to take on my first day of classes tomorrow, now that I can be somewhat dressed to impress. I also think that my two tourism classes don't start until February 6th, meaning that I will only have two classes this week! My classes don't start until 4pm tomorrow (I know that kinda sucks), but at least I will be able to chill and/or be productive beforehand.

Somehow the mall decorations really made me want to shop

It's nice to know that I will be hanging out with my friends tomorrow night after we all get done with classes (which, for me is 9pm). It's Josh's birthday and we are going to go out and barhop. Since I don't have to wake up early the next day, it will be a great way to wind down (and probably vent) after our first day of classes. 

Also, shout-out to Ricky--Happy 21st birthday, tomorrow :)

For dinner I had "pan pita con pollo" for only 3 euros...omg!

Where we ate our pitas...cheap,tasty and right next to campus!

Daytripper

Cartagena's city seal

Yesterday we took our first daytrip! We took a bus to Cartagena, a smaller, historic city about 45 minutes away. The bus rides were 3,65 per way, the seats were comfy and reclined really far, there were curtains to draw if you wanted to sleep, and it was warm. In other words, I slept like a baby the whole way...and I thought the value was pretty great.

When we got there, we had no plans whatsoever, only having done a tiny bit of research the night before we left. We mostly walked around and took pictures for the first hour, then we had to meet our friends Nicole and Mariana at the bus station because all of our phones were out of minutes and we couldn't find each other. Pay-as-you-go phones are interesting here: any minutes you have expire at the end of the month...so we plan to recharge on the 1st.

Big 'ol greenspace for exercising, playing, or walking dawgs

Right before we found the homeless caves

Next, we took a lift up the side of the mountain to el Castillo. It was a little freaky since I'm mildly afraid of heights, seeing the city so far beneath my feet! Although el Castillo ended up being kind of a bummer (it wasn't even a castle!) we got some good pictures looking down at the city from really high up.

After a little hiking around the city, Mariana found a restaurant that ended up being great! We ordered two of the menu of the day--it came with bread, drinks, a first course, second course, a dessert, and coffee for 11 euros each. I ordered Pechuga de Pollo, chicken breast that came with the obligatory fired egg, and salad topped with tuna. The desserts were flan and Natia; both were incredibly delicious...in fact, I'm craving them now!

La natia y flan

After we stuffed ourselves, we headed nextdoor to tour the Roman Theatre. The lady was kind of a butt... she wouldn't give us the student discount even though we showed her our visas and explained that our Universidad de Murcia IDs hadn't been issued yet. We all just decided not to go because it was too expensive and we were tired and cold anyway. We looked in a few shops and took pictures in the city center of Cartagena--there was a Zara, a Blanco, and some miscellaneous clothes shops. After we felt we had explored, and made our bodies sore, enough, we trekked back to the estación de autobuses.

"Enjoy today, it's later than you think"

After another cozy ride back, we all split up to our own apartments. We met back up around 9:30pm at Kayla's apartment to hang out and watch Spanish tv. I felt bad for Brad, because yet again, he was surrounded by "girl talk" and past roommate horror stories, hahaa.

Today's all-day siesta feels much deserved :).

Cue "We all live in a yellow submarine..."

Growing a palm tree?

Lol, thanks for specifying.

Vamos de Compras

Just looking at it makes my mouth water.

Last night, Kayla, Jenn, Brad and I met up at Natalia's to chill and play UNO while a lot of the others went out to the bars. We felt like we had gone out almost every night so far, and we just wanted to relax so we don't burn out. We asked each other all those lame get-to-know-you questions, but it was fun and we all feel closer to each other.

Today Natalia and I met up for a little shopping before the siesta started (everything closes and siesta starts around 2pm). First, we gave into our cravings for churros y chocolate. I finally got a good picture to show how thick and delicious it is! The churros taste kind of like funnel cake without powdered sugar. I actually prefer it with a croissant, because the fried taste was a little too much for me.

It was closed but, OMG I found a yarn store!

Afterwards, we hit Stradivarius, a store that I had actually been to several times in Portugal. It has super cute clothes for not too expensive. I bought a pair of skinny jeans on sale for 15,99 euros. I need some to wear with the cute shoes and boots that I have yet to buy. I also noticed that everyone wears skinny jeans here. Good thing I only brought flares and they are totally out of style, haha.

After we went in a few more places, we decided to head back to my apartment to use the wifi and make lunch. But, as we were walking back, someone came up to me and told me that my mochila was open. I turned around and it was Nadia, the Argentinian exchange student that we had met a few days before! We met her Argentinian friend Edgardo, who we thought was a Spaniard. Too bad...but, he did speak to us in en Español (Natalia and I were very happy about this)!

They asked us if we wanted to sit down and have a cerveza so, of course, we couldn't turn down an opportunity to charlar en Español for a lengthy amount of time. It was super fun! They invited us to a party at their apartment around 11:30 tonight. Hopefully, we will meet some Spaniards so we can practice before classes start!

Lunch I made: Gouda, cream cheese, and jamón asado (it tastes like bacon, mmm) from the Mercado.
The chips are "receita camponesa"--the yummy ones we had in Portugal!

Viaje al Mercado

After reading a few of my posts, you will probably come to understand the way I like to write! I always want to start from now, then go backwards. But, I try to start from the beginning just to help the reader. Anyways, I'm going to start from now.

After spending literally three hours on Skype with Mom, I think I have finally figured out a class schedule that works for me. Although I'm a pretty disappointed that I'm not able to take the classes I would like to take, I'm mostly just glad that I was able to find four reasonably-interesting classes and fit them into a schedule that is actually possible! My problem had been that the classes that I wanted were either too high levels or were offered only in the fall semester...among the other problems that I listed yesterday.

As of now, my tentative schedule is this:

1. Historia Universal Contemporanea (Modern World History)
2. Geografia Humana General (Human Geography)
3. Patrimonio Cultural (Cultural Heritage)



Bureaucracy is alive and well in Murcia

4. Gestión de la Calidad en el sector turístico (Quality Management in the Tourist Sector)

I should have sixteen class hours per week. Two classes are tourism, taken at the Escuela Universitaria de Turismo (15-20 min walk) and two are geography, taken at Campus la Merced (a 3 minute walk!). It's hard to express here, but it's a pretty big relief to know that I have a schedule worked out (hopefully).

Now to start from the beginning of the day! We met up at 9:00AM in Plaza Circular to ride the bus to the Oficina de Extranjeros in order to apply for our NIE (Numero de Identificacion Extranjero). After various steps of the process, split by waiting periods and photocopy-making periods, we spent a total of three hours in the Office. We chatted most of the time, but we were all pretty hungry and sleepy from getting home late after watching the Barca-Real game last night).

Top left

On the way back, the Elizabeths and I stopped at a pastry shop to fulfill one of my chocolate cravings. I had one of those pastry tubes with chocolate on both ends. It was exactly what my stomach wanted..and it made my day seem so much brighter, hah.

This is where I bought jamon asado...yummy

We made it back to one of Thursday's open-air markets that was actually surprisingly close to my flat (right near my favorite grocery store). I was so surprised and happy to see the huge selection of everything available at the market! There were all sorts of produce, pickled veggies, nuts, candies, leather, clothes, shoes, plants and more.

The Elizabeths buying tomatoes

Everytime I found myself saying "I wish they had...," I would find it!

I bought my lil cactus here!

My lil cactus was 75 cents

As I was leaving, looking down at a map, this man came up to me who I thought was trying to help me find my way. He was very friendly, telling me "I am from Nigeria, I'm not just a stranger, I am your brother." He ended up giving me a church pamphlet...I knew where this was going...and offered to "escort" me to wherever I was heading. I kept insisting that I was fine and that I was just making sure this was the main road (I actually knew where I was, but I wanted to see if there was a shorter route). He walked along the main road with me for a while, until I finally said "Thanks, but I'm going this way. I'll see you later..." Then he got it.

Such a mood-killer though. I was all happy that I was exploring the market and finding all sorts of cool stuff, then this creeper had to ruin it. It all ended up okay (I kept looking back to make sure he wasn't following me) and I got back to my apartment just in time for lunch and figuring out my class schedule.

Now, I'll just be more prepared to visit the Mercado next Thursday!

What I ended up with: too many green beans, a head of broccolli, three nanners,
a pomegranate (my first ever) and a mini cactus. Time for cookin!