So since I've been MIA, I have definitely had my fare share of "oopsies" here in Murcia.. it is definitely not all flowers and rainbows trying to adjust haha.
For starters, I ended up testing positive for COVID the day before classes started. Fun fact: It turns out that it is very true when people say Europeans have a completely different concept of personal space. Normally this wouldn't be a bad thing, but when you have your mask off and are eating and drinking, it could easily go south. Basically I spent the weekend exploring new places with my friends, and by Sunday I started getting a slight sore throat. Monday rolled around and I still had a slight sore throat, but I figured it was just from adjusting to the sleep schedule still. Tuesday came around and I woke up with a fever and terrible headache, so naturally I bought a rapid COVID test -- which side-note, both a PCR and Rapid Test here in Murcia costs less than 3 euros! Unfortunately it came back positive, so I ended up having to quarantine until that following Sunday, meaning I had to miss all my first classes from Wednesday-Friday. Luckily my symptoms were gone by that Thursday, so nothing bad came from it. I even made my first ever soup in quarantine which turned out amazing! Shoutout to my neighbors for delivering me groceries 🙏
That Monday after quarantine I was finally able to make it to classes! Here I was thinking everything would go back to being nice and smooth and I would have no stress... that was cute. It turns out that the faculty in the same departments don't work together to make class schedules like they do in America, so it is very common that your classes will overlap by an hour or more, and not to mention if you want to take classes outside your main department (in my case Business) the classes could happen to be at the other campus which is a 30-minute Tram ride away. So there I was trying to figure out what classes I could take that didn't interfere with each other and met the credit requirements I needed for classes to transfer back at VWU... two words to describe this process: pure CHAOS! It was extremely difficult but here I am a week later and I am finally registered. I ended up having to take 5 classes instead of 4 which I might end up regretting, but I really didn't have another choice. On the bright side all my professors are extremely nice and welcoming, and the campus is beautiful!
To my surprise they also have discounted priced meals offered at the university. There is a cafeteria in almost every building and they even have outdoor bars on campus -- I found this extremely bewildering since you would probably never see your professors drinking a beer after class at a University Bar on a Thursday night... but apparently that's very common in Spain. The food in my business building is out of this world! I get this hamburger for lunch called the "hamburguesa súper." First of all its only 3 euros!!! In addition it's the best hamburger I've ever had, its served with cooked onion, lettuce, tomato, cheese, bacon, and a slice on ham on it... it's definitely too good to be served in a university cafeteria. I've also been taking advantage of the fact that I can order a 1 euro café con leche (espresso with milk) before class, in between classes, and even after class at 7pm at night! That is definitely something I will really miss when I go back to VWU.
Going back to my list of "oopsies," I ended up catching the heel of my boot on a sidewalk and definitely face-planted into a wonderful pile of asphalt... definitely not my finest hour. Not only did my poor face take the hit and get decorated with a nice black and blue aesthetic, but it was also the night before my adventure to Madrid. Unfortunately I was not in the mood to travel to Madrid for the weekend with cuts and bruises on my face, so I had to cancel my trip (although I definitely plan on going sometime soon regardless). Luckily I am okay and my face is almost completely healed. On the bright side, I had a nice weekend and was able to hang out with Andrew and his roommates and we met up with some of our local Spanish friends! I also made it to my first Discoteca which was very exciting. In addition, they are officially lifting the time restrictions this week so now all of the Discotecas and Bars will go back to normal operating hours!
Basically I've had an interesting and slightly stressful last couple of weeks which is why I haven't been able to post every Sunday like planned. However, now everything is starting to calm down and fall in place so I should be getting back into a routine with positing. Luckily all my classes are figured out and all is well, stay tuned for my next post!
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