20th March: Nights Out and Days Off

Having finally crawled into bed at 8am that morning, I spent most of Sunday catching up on sleep. When I woke up at 1.30 in the afternoon, I was still exhausted but knew that if I slept any more, I’d never get to sleep that night. During the afternoon I caught up on some emails and reading, eventually leaving the flat at 10.30 in the evening. The darkness seemed more like the cause of a solar eclipse than anything else because, to me, it felt like the middle of the day. The whole thing was very surreal, and when we entered the packed Irish bar celebrating St Patricks’ Day, it felt even more unnatural. We stayed just long enough to meet Ali’s parents, who were in Murcia for a long weekend, and to have a few drinks, before the tiredness hit and we admitted defeat.

On Monday I put my alarm on to try and get back into some sort of sleep pattern, however painful it might be. When I say “put my alarm on”, however, I should clear up that the alarm was on for 9.15, and I didn’t actually get out of the house and go for a run until gone 11. By this time it was boiling hot outside, especially on the new route I was inventing, through the central streets of Murcia. It didn’t turn out to be a particularly successful course either, since I kept getting close to the flat and having to extend it.

In the afternoon I met up with Annalisa and Lina for a picnic in the sun. Having bought a bagful of provisions from Mercadona, we headed to the park by Annalisa’s flat and whiled away the afternoon snacking and chatting. I was more than reluctant to leave at 4.15 to go and teach, and got there only to discover that two of the three boys couldn’t have a lesson that day. Instead, I was left to teach Roberto for an hour-and-a-half. It’s hard enough trying to engage a fourteen-year-old boy for an hour, so this was nigh-on impossible. I just about managed to get through it but was relieved when it was over.

I should mention that, since the Spanish had been up to their usual trick of finding an excuse for time off work, I had no classes that day or the next. Since the Tuesday was El día del padre (Fathers’ Day) and a bank holiday, most of the university classes were cancelled on the Monday too, in what they call a puente (‘bridge’). So, because none of us had classes the next day, we decided to make Monday a big night out. We named it a Greek Night because we were doing a Centurion, but in reality the only things that were vaguely Greek about the evening was the bowl of feta cheese and a hashed attempt at making togas. Despite the absence of things pertaining to Greece, we had a really good night and got back at some time in the early hours the next day.

No one was up to doing much the next day, and I spent most of it sitting in the living room of my flat with Giorgos and Fernando. At 3pm I met the girls outside El Corte Inglés and we went to a nearby park to discuss plans for summer, which was looming ever-closer. Naturally, we didn’t actually manage to decide on anything and ended up in Plaza Santo Domingo (or Smöoy Square, as Ali has affectionately named it) eating frozen yoghurt. It was at that point that we all realised we hadn’t actually done any work so had to spend the rest of the evening catching up.

It was a struggle to get out of bed today, but I managed it in the end and even went on a run as planned. Weather-wise, today was one of those disappointing days, when it looks warm from your window but when you actually get outside, you realise you were being really over-optimistic. The river is also really exposed to the elements, so any tiny bit of wind is magnified and it feels like you have to work twice as hard to run against it. At least it’s good exercise.

This afternoon I had my two translation classes, in one of which we’re now translating into English. This is an amazing confidence boost after feeling like the class idiot during the English to Spanish translations, as now even the teacher is turning to me for advice. I don’t know when we’re going back to translating English to Spanish, so I’m going to try and enjoy this while it lasts.

Now I just have tomorrow and Friday morning to get through until the holidays begin. (The Friday morning lecture is a replacement class for the German one missed on Tuesday, and the Friday afternoon translation class has been cancelled, naturally). I don’t really feel I’m doing enough work to justify two weeks’ holiday, but I’m not about to complain.