Another Dia en Alicante...

This is a picture of the Explanada, the famous walkway along the beach near downtown Alicante.  It is where all the merchants set up tents with random nicknacks, scarves, jewelry, dvd knockoffs, pretty much anything people will buy.  We live about 3 blocks inland from right here.  The brick walk right along the ocean is where I run.  I think its about a mile long, but that is just my estimation, who knows.  It goes by the sailboat club and the port, past the big hotels and along the main beach.  I have learned that if you go during siesta, from about 2-4, there are A LOT less people.  I have a feeling though that as the weather warms up and tourist season kicks in, things are going to get a little crazier.  

So far the weather has been pretty mild.  It ranges from about 40 to 70, usually being somewhere around 55.  No snow, thank god.  The last week it has been overcast and slightly misting all the time, but the locals say that the weather gets 'bad' (for them, misting 40's is bad...they have no idea) for a week or two in February, then by March it's 70's + and sunny.  :) Can't wait!

Tomorrow I am going to Barcelona with some friends for the Barcelona v. Valencia soccer game.  Everyone here is OBSESSED with 'futbol' so it should be intense.  Libby and I are going to stay in Barcelona for a few days with Megan, another Chi O who is studying there.  I'll post some pics as soon as I can!  Miss you all.

Valencia and More!

Last week we went to Valencia, the third largest city in Spain after Madrid and Barcelona.  We had gone there with the entire group several weeks ago for a day, but we had run out of time to get to all the major sites.  We hadn't even made it to the Aquarium, which is known to be the best aquarium in Spain and maybe even all of western europe.   The aquarium was awesome.  They have several different buildings, mostly underground, all connected by tunnels and walkways.  One building is dedicated to Mediterranean fish, another to Tropical or Caribbean fish, another to big ocean fish like

 sharks and whales.  There was an Arctic building and even and Antarctic which was supposed to have penguins, but they were MIA.  The aquarium is slightly out of the major part of the city, but it is grouped together with a science museum and art museum.  We went to the science museum, which was exactly like Science City or the Science Center in St. Louis, except everything was in Spanish.

After the museums we took a bus into the center of the city and walked around for a while, before catching the train back.  There was a Medieval Market in the marketplace, with gypsies and renaissance people everywhere.   It was pretty intense, people back to back and everywhere you looked.  I got a chance to meet up with two friends from high school who are studying there, Kelly Connor and Angela Miller, which was really nice.  We grabbed a quick dinner, then were back on the train. 

Taking the train was so easy.  The train station in Alicante is about a 10 minute walk from our apartment and the trains usually take you right into the middle of the city.  

Classes have started and are going well.  I am taking a Spanish Classic Literature class through my program, then two classes on the University of Alicante campus.  One is Medieval Literature and the other is a Court Translation class.  The translation students at the university are required to know at least three languages, they call them A, B, and C.  A would be the language you grew up with, followed by B, C, D...who knows.  It's amazing to hear them translate things so easily.  We look at actual spanish court cases in the class; it is really interesting.

The weather hasn't been that great here lately, but it at least there's no snow!  It has gotten into the upper 50's each afternoon, been overcast, a few sprinkles here and there.  Nothing terrible, just could be better.  They say that by March things should be decent.

That's about it.  We did watch the Super Bowl, the first half  we watched the whole time with it dubbed over into spanish, then at half time the waitress figured out how to switch the tv over and we got to watch the second half in english.  I saw the half time show, but no commercials.  Oh well, next year.

Carnaval

Last night was Carnaval in Alicante.  It is a festival that is basically Mardi Gras and Halloween rolled into one.  Everyone dresses in costumes, anything from princesses to random scary things.  A lot of boys here like to dress up as woman--its a euro thing.  Most people have something on their face, either a mask or paint or wigs.  Libby and I found a little store run by the Chinese, "tienda china," where we found some great costume gear.  There will be pictures soon!

Spain is on a completely different schedule than the rest of the world.  Here, the parade doesn't start until 10 or 11, concerts are going on in all the plazas from about midnight until 4 in the morning.  People go out late and stay out later.  I still haven't gotten used to it, by about 2 in the morning I'm spent.  Anyway, we all went out together, and by we all I mean some Missouri kids, some German girls and some Japonese kids from our classes.   One of my favorite things about Alicante is that the university has a huge foreign exchange department and there are tons of students from all over the world, especially europe.  It's really fun to speak spanish with someone else who is learning spanish, who doesn't speak english.  If they speak english, its too easy to cheat when you don't know a word and break into spanlish.  When the only language you have in common is spanish, when you don't know a word you are forced to break into charades and act it out somehow.  I love that.

Classes don't start until Wednesday, so Libby and I have a few days to get everything organized in the apt.  We live right above a pub names O'Hara's that is showing the super bowl tonight, which is on at about 2 AM our time.   I am hoping that they show all the same commercials...  we'll see!

New Apt

Yesterday Libby and I moved into our new apartment in the center of downtown.  It is about three blocks up from the beach, across the street from  the district of restaurants and bars called "El Barrio," and right next to the university's bus stop.  (FYI, Libby is my friend who went to Sion and is also a Chi O at MU)  The two of us moved in with two Spanish girls, locals, who have been living here for a while.  They are both named Cristina-can't mess that up.  Anyhoo, they are very nice girls, a little older than Libby and I, I would say about 24.  They have jobs and Cristina #1 is studying to be a physical therapist.   Cristina #2 we still don't know much about because she went home yesterday right after we moved in.

A little history...for the past month I have been living with a family out in the suburbs of Alicante near the beach.  Everyone in the program was randomly assigned to a family.  In our program there are kids from Missouri, Arizona State, Marist, MIT, Illinous and a few other small schools.  Missouri students are the only ones who are dueled enrolled in the university in actual spanish student classes.  (That means everyone else takes special classes for foreign kids, we take real university courses.)  Missouri students are also the only ones given the option to move out of their host families and into an apartment after a month.  

Living with the host family was nice in some ways.  Everything was taken care of for us.  They fed us, did our laundry, cleaned our rooms and helped us with our homework.  However, the food was slightly sketch--they love LOVE olive oil and salt here.  They put it on everything in very high quantities.  Also, the Spanish eating schedule is very different than the United states.  They eat breakfast, usually coffee and some sort of croissant or sweet bread thing.  They eat a light "almuerzo" in the early afternoon, a sandwich and a piece of fruit per say.  The main meal of the day is in the late afternoon, around 3, and is usually some kind of vegetable soaked in oil and salt, a type of pork, bread and fruit.  Then they eat dinner, "cena" between 9-10 at night, something light again-like a sandwich or "bocodillo."   Living with the family was difficult because you had to eat what they cooked, when they cooked it, or else the "madre" would be very offended.  It was often times a very forced situation, you had to be part of their family whether you wanted to or not.

My family was a divorced woman and her two kids, Antonio and Andrea.  Lupe, la madre, is about 45 and loves to smoke like a chimney and watch old romantic spanish movies.  She doesn't work now, but she used to teach old people how to macreme.  Antonio is 24 and a construction worker who loves to fish with a huge spear gun in the ocean.  He came home with two octopus one day over his shoulder.  I will never forget what they looked like, very hard to explain.  I regret not taking a picture of that.  Andrea is studying to learn how to drive buses.  She is 20 years old.  Funny story:  Yesterday I was unpacking my bags in my new room and realized I had forgotten my adapter for spanish outlets at my old house.  I had just left there a few hours ago so I decided to jump on the tram and go back out and get it.  It wouldn't have been such a big deal, but these types of adapters are really hard to find here and I needed it for my computer etc.  So I get to my old house, about 3 hours after I left, and my room had been completely converted back into Andrea's room.  Lupe had rented out her own daughter's room.  The entire month I had been there I had been sleeping in her room and she had been sleeping on the couch.  She was completely fine with it.  Call me crazy, but Mom and Dad, I would be a little upset if you pulled a stunt like that.  

Tough to get everyone up-to-date, but now that I'm in the new apt I will be able to much more easily.  Miss you all.  Keep me updated on all the news from home!