The Rain in Spain Falls Gently on the Plain

Hello everyone! Yes, it has indeed been raining and a little bit colder, but it's not so bad. Today after it stopped raining it seemed to get a little bit warmer this afternoon and evening. Plus, I asked my landlord if I could get a space heater for my room, and one appeared inside my door today. It's so amazing I can't even tell you. I can sit on my bed and type this without being under all the covers or with my jacket and scarf on. Something that's very neat about the Spanish but also a little different than home is that people here are very big on conserving energy. I think it's great, but it's very different to walk up a staircase in my apartment or a friend's apartment because it isn't constantly lit. Instead, when you walk up the stairs you have to turn lights on. In mine, just one light for the whole staircase. In Angie's apartment, a light for every level. Also, whenever you leave a room you turn off the light. It's a little less homey, but it also saves money when it's time to pay the electric bill!

I haven't really talked much about every day life here in Spain very much, and for those of you who don't know, it's a little different than in the U.S. Here we eat breakfast in the morning, but lunch isn't until 1, 2, or 3. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day (for a lot of people), and then there is a siesta. Most of the stores close from 2 to 5, except the pharmacies and most restuarants and cafes. For the most part, everything else is closed. They open up again at 5 and stay open generally until 8 or 8:30. Therefore, dinner isn't until late - usually 9 or 10. When people go out dancing or to bars, then, they don't usually go out until 12, and it's not unusual to stay out until 5 in the morning. Today when we told our Spanish teacher that bars in the U.S. close around 2, it was a very different idea for her.

Anyway, yesterday we started our language intensive class. My profesora's name is Elena, and she is great. She speaks at a good pace and without the famous Murcian accent, which drops the 's' sounds on the ends of words and changes the 's' sounds within words to 'th.' Therefore, the word for thanks (gracias) is pronounced 'grathia.' It takes some adjusting, but I'm getting better at understanding people. She told us today that people in Murcia don't really speak other languages besides Spanish, so when we don't know how to say a word in Spanish, we have to describe it rather than say the word in English and hope that someone will understand it. The class goes from 10 to 1:30 with a half hour break in the middle, and then we're free for the rest of the day. Yesterday I went to the Mercadona, which is kind of like our version of Kroger so that I could buy groceries. That was fun! I'm having to buy parts of meals and the basic staples rather than the snack food that I'm used to buying. I've been experimenting with my cooking, though, and so far it's been going really well. The past three nights I've gone over to friends' apartments or they've come over to mine and we've eaten dinner together. My roommates generally make dinner and eat in their rooms, and I really like to eat with people, so it's been a lot of fun. Whoever goes to the other person's apartment brings something too and we switch, so it's even and also a ton of fun.

Today after class a group of us went to lunch at a little place called Cafe y Te. I had a sandwich that was great, but the most interesting part was the chocolate that I had. Here, hot chocolate is super duper thick, kind of like melted chocolate. It's very common to eat it with churros, which is what I did, and it was delicious! After that, we went to an art museum in Murcia that has free admission. Manuel and Lara walked around with me and we talked about all of the different works of art. I really enjoyed seeing how art differed from century to century depending on what movements were happening around Europe, as well as what was happening politically and with the Church in Spain. It made me excited to take some sort of art history or history of Spain class this semester.

Each day I love Spain more and more, and it's becoming more comfortable for me. I'm getting to know my friends on a deeper level too, which is awesome. Tomorrow one of my goals is to buy or rent a book written in Spanish that is just for pleasure reading. I'll let you know how that goes!