Mazarrón, Spain

Today, we decided to take a day trip to Mazarrón. The bus left this morning at 9:30am and it took about an hour and a half to get to the port city of Mazarrón. On the way there, the radio mentioned something about the earthquake in Chile and then started playing "We are the World." As cheesy as it may sound, at the moment, everyone on the bus went silent and was silent for the whole song. It was amazing to be driving through these little streets and seeing little beach towns and houses, but it was sad to think that in less than 20 minutes it could all be destroyed. Once we were at the port city, it was cloudy outside and because it was in off season, there weren't many people around. Basically, the summer beach town felt very apocalyptic.

 

Some of the streets and houses looked like this.

Some of them looked beautiful. 

A lot of the streets were lined with summer houses that were empty for the season. 

The only people on the beach were young surfers (surfing what, I don't know) and families. 

Overall, Mazarrón is the sort of town that comes alive in the summer from what the postcards and scenery make out. This photo is from google.

This week will be my final week to figure out my classes and credits. Technically, we should get our stipend tomorrow after a month of living out of our own pockets. By the end of the week, a post will be dedicated to classes and the beautiful campus. 

Italian Coffee Maker (Moka Pot)

Highlight of the week: In order to be more economical during this "hora de crisis" or "crisis time", I've learned how to make coffee using the only tool available in the apartment...an Italian coffee maker/Moka Pot. It was nerve wrecking at first, but after the second try, I had very strong espresso ready to drink. 

Cartagena, Spain

This past Monday or Tuesday, my new roommate, Deniz, from Turkey moved in. Both her and the other girl from Turkey, Sinem, are graduate math students. Because they're both in their mid-twenties, it's hard for us to be social with each other; however, because Sinem has been gone for a week and won't be back for a couple more, Deniz and I have been able to build a friendship before the apartment is ruled by Turkish. Before Sinem left, we had started talking more, so I'm thinking things might get more fun once we're all on the same page. The only difficult thing is having to play translator between my landlord and the roommates. Last night, I had to sit in my shower towel translating between my landlord and Deniz. I wonder if I could start charging a fee? On a lighter note, my new roommate has introduced me to a lot of things...

Turkish Candy

Turkish Coffee

From Friday to Sunday, Murcia has been in a full blown carnival celebration. After the first week of classes, it felt like everyone was ready to have a good weekend. On Friday, we had a welcome lunch/wine of honor ceremony with the president of the university. It lasted about 30 minutes and at the end said "Now, let's go drink some beer and wine." Only in Europe would a university president encourage the students to raise a glass to a good semester. The appetizers were delicious and chatting with some of the other students and professors was great fun. 

That night, we went to Badulake for a carnival night. Since during carnival you're supposed to dress up, Megan, Isabella and I dressed up as the 3 Blind Mice (Los Tres Ratoncitos Ciegos). We found mouse ears for 1 euro at a convenience store and thought it would be a great idea. At the bar, they played a lot of Portuguese music since carnival is big in Brazil. It was possibly the best night at that bar because the music was great, there were live Portuguese drummers every once in a while and everyone was dressed up and having a good time...until the next day when we had to wake up at 8am to go to Cartagena at 9am with all the other international students. 

Cartagena started off great because the sun was actually out for the first time in weeks and it was warm enough to wear a light jacket rather than a heavier coat. I have never been so excited to see water in a very long time. When we got off the bus and after roaming around the city, I was shocked at how beautiful Cartagena actually was and how close to Murcia it actually is (45 min.). After visiting the old theater and other buildings, we had lunch right in the center of the main plaza, outside, in the sun, with a checkered table cloth and with a delicious, unhealthy 8 euro meal. It consisted of a glass bottle diet coke with a lime, bread, fresh potato fries, a boiled egg and breaded calamari. The setting and the food was worth those 8 euros. After lunch, we walked around the port, sat in the sun, had some ice cream, visited a museum about a ship from about 2,700 years ago that they are just now excavating under the sea, browsed the shops and people watched. Overall, it's hard to describe Cartagena in words. It felt good to get out of the city of Murcia and into such a different atmosphere. I'm sure once summer starts, we will be taking plenty of bus trips down to the beaches of Cartagena. Since I'm failing miserably at describing Cartagena, I hope the pictures do it justice. 

The old theater in Cartagena. It was so strange to see such an old building with normal apartments all around it. I saw a little boy running around with his soccer ball on the side of the theater like it was an everyday thing. 

Another view of the theater from a look out place. You can see all the normal apartment buildings around it. Imagine waking up every morning to see that. 

The water was so clear, I can't imagine what it's like to swim at the beach on the other side of the mountain during the summer. 

On a more educational note, I started classes last week and because we don't actually pick them until next week, I only went to a few to check them out. For two of my classes (Fotojournalism and Graphic Design), I have to take a 30 minute bus ride to the other campus two times a week. Riding the bus isn't that bad, it's actually nice to have 30 minutes to prepare your brain for class. I also went to a literature of the 19th century class and a journalism law class. Because spanish journalism laws wouldn't help me and the literature class mainly focused on poetry, the other two classes I'm probably going to be taking are literature figures of latin america and another class about Spain that is supposed to be enjoyable for exchange students. Once the weather is nicer, I'll post pictures of both the campus in the city and the larger one outside of the city. In that post, I'll also try to describe the differences between going to class here and in the states because it definitely feels different...a good different. 

Valentines Day

This valentine's day, I went to the movie Valentine's Day with a group of five other girls. The movie theater is at this entertainment center called Zig Zag. When we got there, they were playing a soccer match on the giant screen of the food plaza. Price wise, the tickets for a night show were 6.50 euros which is about $8.80 in the states. There is a small movie theater in the city center where we live but there is only one room and it was showing Wolfman. We ended up walking about 15 minutes to the Zig Zag place. 

Once at the theater, we bought candy at a candy shop outside of the theater and it is surprisingly acceptable to bring in outside food. There were only a couple of differences with movie theaters in the states:

1. The movie theater was very very warm inside. 

2. You get an assigned seat when you purchase your ticket.

3. No one talks during the movies (at least during this one. Except for my Austrian friend who talked to me throughout the whole movie).

4. The movie was in Spanish. Completely in Spanish. Except for the part where they sang I Will Survive. It wasn't the same watching Julia Roberts, Ashton Kutcher, Jamie Foxx, etc, speaking in Spanish...but it was very entertaining nonetheless. 

The first day of class is tomorrow, so it'll be like going to a new school all over again. I've been 

told girls in Murcia don't use backpacks, so I might have to follow the trend to blend in with the other students. 

Milan, Italy

The girls walking around Milan. 

Be warned. I should've written down day by day activities while I was there, so this blog post about the trip to Milan is going to be kind of scattered. 

Before traveling to Milan, Italy, I had images of glitz and glamour. I also thought it might be gloomy. Turns out, Milan is very expensive if you enjoy shopping in high end stores and eating in high end restaurants; however, if you scouted out the right places, it was very easy to enjoy yourself on a budget. A group of 7 of us (6 girls and 1 boy) went to Milan for five days. Most of us thought five days would be too long in one city, but one of the girls insisted that it was impossible to see Milan in just a weekend...that turned out to be false. We all knew of each other but only a couple of us were actually closer friends. 

The flight to Milan was possibly the worst flight of my life. I was already suffering from a cold and the flight on Ryanair made my ears do things they have never done before. It literally felt like they were bleeding from the inside. Once in Milan, we all regrouped and realized only one person in our entire group spoke a tiny bit of Italian and there were words being spoken around us that we didn't understand. For once, I felt just like the English students studying in Spain..dazed and confused.

 

The first day in Milan was probably the worst day for everyone. It had started to snow a lot and a lot of the people in our group hardly see snow because they live in the south. It felt like I was back in South Dakota and it felt very welcoming. After settling into our hostel and getting our free wine, we ventured out into the snow to find some Italian food. Mama Oliva served us our first Italian pizza. We hadn't had lunch, so each person at our table ordered his/her own pizza and every single person finished it off. The pizza I ordered had eggplant all over it. Absolutely delicious. 

On our way back to the hostel, we ran into a supermarket and ran in to grab some wine, chocolate, Nutella and cookies. That night, the only guy on our trip got a taste of what women do when they're cold and tired. 

The next day was the big day. We had our ritual free breakfast at the hostel (yogurt, cappuccino, chocolate croissant) and headed out to find the electric tram that would take us to the famous and beautiful Duomo.

 

The Duomo is the type of thing that you want to try to take a lot of pictures of, but at first glance, you're literally taken aback by its enormous size and dark appearance. It's so large, that you would see it from a distance and feel like it takes forever to reach it, until you finally get right next to it and you feel so incredibly small and plain.

Overall, we saw the Duomo four days: in the morning, in the afternoon, at night and after a good night out with the locals. 

Minuscule me outside the Duomo.

At the hostel, we met two other American girls studying in Madrid and we went out at night with them. Here, we are all waiting for the tram to take us to the downtown area where all the locals go out. The other girl we met is taking the photo. (Top row: Me, Erin, Bella, Lauren. Bottom row: Amy, Megan, Brayan and Sam.)

The rest of the days were spent walking around Milan, eating and visiting museums. We went to a museum that had original Leonardo da Vinci drawings on displays. 

Verona, Italy, was probably the highlight of the entire trip to Italy. The story of Romeo and Juliet has always been one of my favorite ones. I've read the plays and loved all the movies, so it was amazing to be able to be in the city where it all took place. On the way into Juliet's balcony patio, people have written their names, posted pictures, etc with their names and their loved once. Since I didn't know exactly what to write, I wrote both my parent's names in a heart. 

Not only was the city beautiful, but the weather was amazing. On the way back, we ended up getting on a train that was too expensive for our tickets, so we hid in the middle of the cars until we could get off and hop on the right train. The next four pictures are of the Milan railway station, Isabella, Megan and I eating our first gelato (delicious), a street in Verona and of Juliet's balcony. 

This photo was taken inside the opera house in Verona. From the outside, it looks like a smaller colosseum surrounded by cafes and shops. 

Overall, you could say the trip to Milan was a success. There were only a few times where our travel book led us in the wrong direction and where some of us started getting tired and ill; however, if there had been less of us on the trip, it wouldn't have been the same. We had a lot of good food: pizza for dinner 3 times, gnochi, tortellini in Verona, etc. The worst food I had on the entire trip was the one food that should have tasted amazing. For lunch in Milan, we stopped at this small restaurant and I ordered a milanesa with potatoes. Let's just say, my mom and Uruguay in general make the best milanesas in the entire world. 

The group outside the Duomo.

Italian Dinner

Tomorrow morning I leave for Milan, Italy. Tonight, I made spaghetti a la carbonara for Isabella, Megan and myself. Once it gets warmer, we might have an international potluck with all the other students up on the terrace of my building. I invited my Turkish roommate Sinem to eat with us, but she insisted on taking our photo instead and going back to her room to study. The food was a success because even she thought it smelled delicious and the food she cooks smells ten times stronger and tastes that way too (it's delicious!). 

I'll be in Milan from February 5th to the 10th, so hopefully I'll have some photos by then; however, classes start on the 15th so my time might be spent getting ready and meeting my new roommate. 

I leave you with three photos, one of a cafe bon bon which is condensed milk with espresso and two photos from the meal I cooked today. 

Buona sera! 

Photos

Bridge to the other side of the city. If you don't need to go that way, hardly ever does one cross the bridge. On a slow Sunday, we went to the other side and turned right back around because it was very gloomy. 

My petite kitchenette. I know how to work the gas stove, but the oven is slightly broken. Every time I've had to cook something in the oven, I've used the oven at my friends house. Last night, I taught them how to make eggplant covered with bread crumbs and lemon with rice. 

This is the plaza where I normally go to catch the last rays of sun and warm up. There are A LOT of coffee shops, bars, restaurants, book stores, boutiques, etc around the area. The university is about a block from here. 

Isabella and I were freezing one afternoon and decided to go sit at the plaza in the sun and get some cafe con leche to go and split a chocolate bizcocho. It was absolutely delicious and worth the view of the plaza. I wish I could do this with all my friends and family in the states. 

This photo was taken from my terrace. I live on the 5th floor, so all I have to do is walk up a few steps and open the door to the terrace. There is a plaza right next to my building that has a stand selling magazines, papers, etc and the Salzillo museum right across the street.