Last week of Intensive Classes

This past week has been better in terms of the weather, today it was 65 and sunny and the sky was absolutely gorgeous. This afternoon I visited the Museo de Bellas Artes which is only a few blocks from my house. It has hundreds of paintings depicting Christ, the holy family, other religious figures, and religious events like the end of the world. I was not able to take pictures but there was no entry fee, which was really nice. The majorities of the paintings in the permanent exhibit were from the 15^th century and were absolutely amazing in their size and detail. The paintings were at least ten to fifteen wide and over ten feet tall. Many of the sculptures were life sized and the detail was incredible and left me absolutely speechless. After the permanent exhibit was the Murillo exhibit, which contained paintings from all over the world depicting Christ as a child and other religious figures like Saint Ignatius. The grand hall was absolutely amazing and the ceiling had to be over 100 feet tall and was ornately covered in gold and awe striking paintings. In the end of the museum and the grand hall is an absolutely enormous painting of the Magdalena Mary. It hangs about twenty feet high up on the wall and dwarfed me. The museum itself was absolutely gorgeous and I felt miniscule at every point. Tomorrow I am heading to some ancient Roman ruins that contain an amphitheater and some other cool roman architecture, I will be sure to take lots of pictures.

The other night I had one of the best dishes at a bar close to my school called Los Coloniales. It was fried eggplant served over a bed of vegetables sautéed in honey, it was absolutely delicious and so sweet and complex, yet very light and a wonderful post dinner snack that was perfectly complemented with a beer.

My recent commitment to all Spanish has been tough but I have most definitely noticed that I am learning the language much faster and becoming more and more comfortable speaking with the locals. It’s a great feeling knowing that I can be in a restaurant or bar and can converse well enough that the bartender or waiter does not have to speak slowly so that I can understand them, and can understand me clearly.

I am learning that I have been very blessed with my host family and my sister and I have grown closer and now can have more complex and less mundane conversations. This has been influential in my comfort leve with the family and the transition to living like a Spaniard.