Saturday, January 30, 2010

Rebajas y castillos

Hello everyone! Whew! What a great few days I've had! So great that I've rarely been home long enough to blog about them :)

Thursday was a University holiday, so no class for me. Instead, I went with some friends to an open air market that is held every Thursday. Markets are always great places to find great deals and fresh produce, and this market did not disappoint. I bought a sweater dress (it's a little colder here than I thought it would be...), a clutch, sheets for my bed, and some vegetables. I made a vow that day to never buy veggies and fruit in the grocery store when I could buy it fresh at the market for a cheaper price.



I hung out at my apartment the rest of the day and took a siesta and caught up on some e-mails and such. I went over to my friends' apartment later that night to watch a movie with Katelyn and Megan. I brought the snacks - chips and salsa and Nutella with cookies - and we watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding in Spanish with Spanish subtitles. Have I told you that I got a library card from the public library? Megan, Katelyn, and I went together, and you can check out movies for 15 days and books for 45. I got a cookbook and a book called Primera Memoria - they're both in Spanish, and I figured it would help me. Anyway, we wrote down and looked up words we didn't know, as well as proceeded to eat the entire jar of Nutella and the whole bag of chips among the three of us. Walked home loving life :)

Friday we went as a group to get our NIE numbers so that our coordinator can open bank accounts for us here. After that, Sam and I went shopping because right now we are part of a national sale called "rebajas" where almost every store has pretty huge discounts. It's a pretty grand thing, I must say.

The next day we went to Lorca, which is about an hour and a half west of Murcia by bus. There was a huge group of us, and we went to see the Forteleza del Sol, a castle that has been under the control of both the Muslims and the Christians throughout the years. The walk up to the castle was beautiful, and the town of Murcia was absolutely amazing as well. There was an old cathedral under construction, but just breathtaking. One of the girls on our trip said that it's neat to see such an act of worship in the architecture of a church, and I'd never really thought of it like that before.







The castle was amazingly beautiful, and it was neat because it wasn't just ruins. It was well kept, kind of like a museum. The city of Lorca itself is very beautiful also, with narrow, winding streets and beautiful houses and buildings everywhere. We ate lunch in a plaza right by a fountain - beautiful, and a perfect one day trip.

This is getting pretty long, but just a few more updates! I went to church again (this time by myself because all of my other friends were on adventures elsewhere) and ate lunch with the missionaries. They had another family over for lunch also, and two of the boys are my age. After lunch we played Uno (they have some very different rules...) and Beto asked if we could get together so that I could help him with an English paper about an American city. We spent much of the day Monday together, and also Wednesday. I went over to his house and his mom cooked a traditional Bolivian dish (they're originally from Bolivia). Wow! Talk about great food! He speaks little English, and I'm still working on my Spanish, but even though we sometimes may have some comprehension problems, we can communicate well for the most part. It's good practice for sure!

Tomorrow I'm heading off to Milan until Wednesday! I'm excited to see some of the museums (including Da Vinci's The Last Supper), churches, and of course in the fashion capital of the world, shopping! We're planning a short day trip to Verona, which is supposed to be beautiful and is where Romeo and Juliet was filmed. It will be my first European country other than Spain. Wish me luck!

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