My First Night in Murcia

Alighting from the bus, I received a warm welcome from Maria, who had invited me to Murcia to participate in a series of Language Workshops that she organises, and from Mari Carmen, with whom I would be staying for a week.

For the previous 4½ months, Maria and I had been using Skype to exchange lessons in English and Spanish and to discuss the Language Workshop and other related ideas for language immersion courses, with associated cultural visits, both in Murcia and here in South Yorkshire, and we decided that this would be a good way to try out these ideas.

Once I had dropped off my bags, Maria took me for a lightning tour around the centre of Murcia, which was lively and bustling on a Saturday night – especially the places where we wanted to eat. Although I still don’t know how to eat well in Spain, when going out and ordering for myself, everything that was recommended and cooked for me was well appreciated and tasted very good.

Having spoken in English all evening, with Maria, I was immediately thrown in at the deep end when I got back home and talked to Mari Carmen for a couple of hours, in Spanish.  Although she had visited England a couple of times to learn English many years ago, she had forgotten most of the language that she had learned.

Understanding maybe 30% of everything that was said to me, I had to reply and ask my own questions in an intelligent and inquisitive way, using my limited knowledge of Spanish grammar and vocabulary, but we managed to have a conversation late into the night...