MARK ADRIAN ENCILAY

GE 9 SECTION BU

Assignment 8: Rizal’s life abroad

During Rizal voyage in Singapore he carefully observes the people and the things on board
the steamer. He describe that there were sixteen passengers, including himself. In Singapore Rizal
transferred to another ship Djemnah, a French steamer, which left Singapore for Europe on May 11. On
May 17, the Djemnah reached Point Gazlle, a seacoast town in southern Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Rizal
was unimpressed by this town that he wrote his dairy: “The general appearance of Point Galle is
picturesque but lonely and quiet and at the same time sad”. From Colombo, the Dejmnah continued the
voyage crossing the Indian Ocean to the Cape of Guardufuri, Africa, which Rizal called it an “inhospitable
land but famous”. Rizal reach Naples an Italian City pleased him because of its business activity, its lively
people, and its panoramic beauty. On the afternoon of June 15, Rizal left Marseille, by train for the last
lap of his trip to Spain. He crossed the Pyrenees and stopped for a day at the frontier town of Port Bou.
Here he noticed the indifference accorded by the Spanish immigration officers to tourism, in direct
contrast with the courtesy of the French immigration officers. Rizal’s first impression to Barcelona, the
greatest of Cataluna and Spain’s second largest city, was unfavourable. In progressive Barcelona, Rizal
wrote a nationalistic essay entitled: “Amor Patrio” (love of Country), his first article written on Spain’s
soil. He sent the article to his friend in Manila, Basilio Teodor Moran, and publisher of Diariong Tagalog,
the first Manila bilingual newspaper {Spanish and Tagalog On November 3, 1882, Rizal enrolled in the
University of Madrid (Central University of Madrid) in two courses Medicine and Philosophy and Letters.
Rizal led the Spartan life in Madrid. He knew that he came to Spain to study and prepare himself for
service to hid fatherland accordingly, he rigidly budgeted his money and time. He lived frugally, spending
his money on food, clothing, lodging, and books never wasting a peseta for gambling, wine, and women.
Rizal was not a handsome man, but he possessed an aura of charisma due to his many-splendored
talents and noble character which made him attractive to romantic young women. No wonder the
prettier of Don Pablo’s daughters (Consuelo) fell in love with him.

Rizal was impressed by the way Masons openly and freely criticized the government policies
and lambasted the friars, which could not be done in the Philippines. In due time, in March 1883, he
joined the Masonic lodge called Acacia in Madrid. The reason for his becoming mason was to secure
Freemasonry’s aid in his fight against the friars in the Pilippines. Later he transferred to lodge Solidaridal
(Madrid), where he became a Master Mason on November 15, 1890. After Rizal’s departure in Spain,
things turned from bad to worse in Calamba and a touching incident in to his life in Madrid occurred on
June 24, 1884, because he was unable to take breakfast. Rizal completed his medical course in Spain. He
was conferred the degree of Licentiate in Medicine by the University Central de Madrid on June 21,
1884. The next academic year (1884-85) he studied and passed all subjects leading to the degree of
Doctor of Medicine. Rizal’s life in Berlin suffers the darkest winters that he spent in many temperate
countries. Meanwhile, Rizal in Berlin and shivered with wintry cold. His health broke down due to lack of
proper nourishment. He began to cough, and he feared that he was going to be sick with tuberculosis.
Never had he suffered such physical blows of penury, so that his soul cried out in despair.