Fiestas de Letras

I am currently very happy, due to some great news just received from my Geografía Humana profesor.

Sally and I went to him to see if we could be given some sort of extra project en lugar de todas las practicas. He just sent us an email telling us that we can translate some academic research articles into Spanish! Instead of having to spend hours trying to figure out the practicas, we each only have to translate 13 pages. Although that will be a task in itself, it will be a much easier task! I'm so, so deeply grateful. One seriously heavy thing has been taken off my plate. I still have ten history practicas (~three pages each), a ten minute presentation for Técnicas de Comunicación, and several practicas for Turismo Sostenible, but this is monumental.

I'm going to head to the library tomorrow in attempts of printing out the articles so that I can bring them with me and work on them over Spring Break. Sooo great!

In more exciting news for readers, I have recently returned from las Fiestas de Letras! Because I have two Geography classes, I am part of this Facultad...not that that really matters because students from all Escuelas and Facultades come to the Fiestas.

Me, Sally, Kayla (it's just coke) & Natalia

Last week I bought the pulsera for three euros; it includes six cerveza tickets and a bocadillo. As much as I thought I would be able to fill my stomach with Spanish beer, I only drank three, and wasted the other half of my tickets. Oh well, at least I prevented myself from getting sick but was still able to have a fun time.

Like the Fiesta de Derecho, it was crazy. I kept thinking, "for real? This is a school event?" You can probably see in the picture below how many people there were. The whole plaza was full of people dancing, run around, drinking heavily. I wonder if this was what college was like for my parents...?

We gathered up the courage to talk to some of the students in our Geography (+History) classes. We noticed that Spanish students tend to become much more friendly under the influence of alcohol. How novel!

The folks in blue are from our geo/history classes! Sandy is next to me in red.

I talked to some Tourism students that I had never talked to, ever; they were so excited when they found out I was from the US. (I think the US is pretty great too) I also found it hilarious that the Spanish DJ played several American classic rock songs (like, Twist & Shout and Living on a Prayer). The Spanish students sang aloud as excitedly as we would have!

Enfrente de la Universidad

After we were sufficiently exhausted (of course not Sandy, because she is Spanish and therefore hardcore), we went to Come Come (pronounced Co-may Co-may; eat eat) so that Natalia, Kayla, and Sally could try pastel de carne (a pastry with meat, egg, cheese, etc). As usual, it was delicious!

As always with Sandy, we had some wonderful culture exchange conversations about school, drinking, daily schedules (when people eat, sleep, work), siesta, and more.

The first picture of me and Sandy!

Mr. Wok

I love these cute MENS socks at Corte Ingles! Flowers, rubber duckies, or puppies?

For Devin's last day in Murcia, we decided to walk around for a few hours before having an early dinner at Mr. Wok (a Chinese restaurant recommended by my friend Sally).

This was our second trip to a restaurant with "Wok" in the title; Devin loves Chinese food. 

We mozied around Corte Ingles, stumbled along some streets, then realized that we needed some caffeine if we wanted to make it to dinnertime. I took Devin (my best friend, visiting from the US) to Café Ficciones, the film-themed cafe that I'm in love with. The coffees were a suprisingly good deal: 3 euros for the both of them! 

'Bombón':--not sure what the three layers were;
coffee, chocolate, and milk/creme?

We had a few hours until Mr. Wok would open up, so we took the "scenic route".

Feria del libro--I wanted to buy everything!

I bought El Principito, "The Little Prince" in Spanish!

Cute, classy looking restaurant.
Maybe my parents will take me here next week? ;)

This bar/restaurant has a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf. I like!

The bizarre-o trees are finally blooming!

When we got home, Devin had a message from her sister telling her to "call home immediately." Uh-oh. Her mom had been reviewing Devin's travel information and discovered that her bus ticket was for the wrong date!
We spent a few hours trying to work it out but to no avail. We tried changing her ticket on Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Safari, had people try it on five different computers, and called several phone numbers. Pretty stressed, we left for dinner around 9:30pm--not so early after all!

 The highlight of our last day together was most certainly Mr. Wok. After the past few hours of stressing over Devin's ticket, we finally got to [sort of] nourish our bodies.

 

The entire way to Mr. Wok was kinda sketchy; not many people out, dim street lighting, etc. We were so pleasantly surprised when we found it! The buffet was 10,95 (it said 11,95 online; we were pleased) and soft drinks were included. We ate lots of Chinese food, but probably less than we usually would have if our stomachs weren't nervous from the ticket-stress. 

Plate one: note the banana sushi!

Plate two: "dessert"
(marshmallows, corn, kiwi, pineapple, jello, spring rolls, gummy "bone", fried rice, & cream puff)

The food was yummy but the atmosphere was my favorite. It was super bright, colorful, spacious, modern, very unlike the dingy Chinese restaurant I had pictured in my head. Thanks for the suggestion, Sally!

Somewhere along our way home, I realized that my Spanish credit card might work for switching Devin's ticket. When we got home, it totally worked...all that was incurred was a 2,50 ticket change fee. Who knew that Internet Explorer could save the day? hahah

Shopping with Sandy

So excited for Mickey-Ds!

 Today, Sandy came to the mall with Devin and me. We weren't really looking for anything in particular, but I wanted to take Devin there so she could do some Spanish shopping. It was great that Sandy could come with us, because we had plenty of time for some culture exchange!

She is one of the few people I have met here that seems to have a general interest in American culture (aside from entertainment).

When I mention American customs to Spaniards, they often seem disinterested. Sandy asked me about differences between Spanish and American school systems, customs, culture, fashion, etc.

It works out really well because I want to learn as much about Spain as I can while I'm here! Another great thing about Sandy is that she teaches me new vocabulary (I teach her some English words too). I learned that she is actually Ecuadorian, but came to Spain when she was little...awesome because she can teach me differences between Latin American and "Spain" Spanish. Believe me, there are plenty. 

Devin in front of the "Mexican" bartender

Elizabeths, Natalia, and me @ Badaluke

I ended up buying the most at the mall... an orange, summery shirt and a dress. Devin bought a lace bandeau top and Sandy went home with nothing. I probably should have witheld...

We chilled for a while, bought milk at the chino, then met at Karla's for Mexican food and pregaming. The food was delicious and luckily, there was a lot of it! We had chips & guac, steak fajitas and pasta- yummm! We headed to Badaluke (or something), the international bar for Mexican night.

Palacio Episcopal

 On Wednesdays I have a lot of gaps in between my classes so I am always looking for places to go and things to do to kill the time. I have an hour break between my two tourism classes, so it's not really worth walking twenty minutes home and back.

This time, I decided to grab breakfast somewhere and study Sustainable Tourism a bit. I went back to the creperia that Ricky and I hit before our play. They have a breakfast deal that gives you a hot drink (coffee, hot chocolate, tea, etc) and a breadish thing (biscuit, toast with mermelade or butter, or a mini crepe) for 1,60; pretty cheap! I got a café con leche with the pancake thing you see above. It had cheese and ham on it, but you could get a sweet one with chocolate or honey. I was suprised to have the same waiter! I asked him about the Palacio Episcopal across the plaza (we are right in next to the Cathedral). He was super nice again, warning me that the beggers might try to tell you that you have to pay, but it's totally free!

I had been wanting to go inside for a long time, but I was nervous/confused about entrance. Since I finally knew it was free and I could just walk in, I did it! I didn't have any sort of guide or map, so I had no idea where I was allowed to go. Most of the doors were shut, so I didn't open any. I think I'm going to go back and ask the lady at the entrance if I can go in any of the rooms! I just walked around and took a few pictures; the place was empty! I still had like fifteen minutes before I had to be back in class, so I took a backstreet and found some cool boutiques. All these photos were taken with my phone, so pardon the quality; I just wanted to sneak a quick blog in before this weekend. :)

I'm going to Valencia Friday through Tuesday morning for Las Fallas, so I will have plenty more blog up soon!

Inside the Palacio Episcopal

Neato mannequins!

Last day with Hunky :(

Such a nice day!

"Stunna shades"

Feria Gallega del Marisco

For Ricky and my last day together, we decided to go for a little chill exploring around Murcia. We headed toward the river but some ridiculously loud bagpipe music lead us inside the Plaza de Toros. They were having a seafood festival! Although it looked interesting, seafood isn't quite my cup of tea, so we marched on toward el Rio Segura. 

Rio Segura

 There wasn't a whole lot going on alongside the river, but we kept walking because I had never explored in this direction and was curious. Walking west leads toward the Tourism School and the center of town.

After we returned home and I consulted the map to see where we had conquered, I discover that we had traveled off the map. Perhaps that's why there was not much action!

Eventually we happened upon a line of fisherman from across the river. We specualted if they were homeless people or actually legit fisherman.

My Hunk.

At the end of our walk, we found a McDonalds and a grocery store/mall. We each got a kid's meal and an ice cream--definitely enough to fill me up; it comes with so much food! 

Kit Kat McFlurry--OM NOM NOM

Watching the ducklings

Momma & da babies

On our way back, walking along the other side, we discovered that they were actual, hard-core fisherman! That had intense equipment and poles that practically reached halfway across the river! Some of them had lunches, leading me to believe that they sit there all day.







Ricky's attention was caught by a mother duck and her fuzzy, yellow ducklings. We stood there and waited for them to jump in the water for, like, twenty minutes. Luckily, they eventually did. (Ricky may have threw some sticks to convince them).

Legit fisherman!

After plenty of walking, we returned home for a much-needed siesta. I bought some bread and a doughnut for Ricky on the way! He took a nap and I got a little studying and blogging done.

Pulpo=octopus

A few hours later, we went out to El Togo, the delicious tapas restaurant that I went to during one of my first weeks in Murcia. Ricky treated us to a Tinto de Verano, and three tapas: pulpo (octupus), mini hamburguesas (you might guess), and dátiles con bacon (dates with ham). It was super yummy! We came home and head Magnum almond ice cream bars, Ricky's favorite. 

Miniburgs

I already have a pulpo pic, but I just
thought he was too darn cute

Dátiles con bacon!

12:30AM rolled around so we headed to the bus station. We got there nearly forty minutes early, but the machine kept screwing up so the time worked in our favor. We had to get change from a restaurant because it wouldn't accept our credit cards or take more than 20-euro bills.

It was very sad seeing Ricky off :( Now we have four months until we see each other again, even if he can come back in June. I'm already ready for him to come back!