Today I learned a new phrase --> Llueve a cántaros, which literally translated means it's raining jugs/pitchers, but as we say, It's raining cats and dogs! It was great to see and feel the rain after a month of beautiful, perfectly sunny days. What a strange thing to say right? Oh well, here is a picture of my home at school in Charleston, SC (from the College of Charleston Facebook page) during the first week of classes when a hurricane came up from the coast of Florida, my other lovely home, to devastate our sea level city. In case you're wondering why there are students with backpacks, class were not canceled! Basically, I picked a good semester to study abroad! Here in Alicante it only rains about 10 days a year (no I'm not making that up), so when it rains, it pours. The people are not happy and it is quite dangerous. After the rain stopped, I took the bus home and because the streets were so slick the bus kept skidding. No one else looked alarmed, but I certainly was! On a different note, today at school there was a protest against the government's impending raise on student's fees to attend school. Just so you all are aware, students here pay at most about 1500 Euros for school, which doesn't sound like much, but everything is relative. The cost of living here is lower and the salaries are lower. However, due to the crisis (and the European Union), the government is being forced to raise taxes on everything under the sun: water, electricity, gas, food, clothes, you name it. It is easy to look on as a foreigner and think, well they 'deserved' this because of a lack of preparation or whatever. My opinion is that no one could have foreseen this global crisis and no matter what your social status, as a human being you should be able to sympathize with the basic needs of a person. The 'Socialist' (in quotes because Spain's governmental system is more complicated than the average person would say) countries have been hit harder because they have had the practice of supporting their citizens in the most expensive industries, mainly medical insurance and education, so now that they cannot provide these services, the people are upset.
As an American, I see the benefits of free education and health services, if this makes me 'socialist' then so be it, but I would like to see our country use it's Capitalist background & strength to promote welfare for everyone. Some say it's impossible because we are have such huge debts, but if we are going to rebuild, why not do it right?
