Nerd Status

Mama & Grams will be proud.....
In my spare time I usually like to go to the beach, talk to la gente, tomar cafe o helado, etc etc, but yesterday  my friend asked if I wanted to go to an Archaeology museum after class, so of course I said yes.  Apparently it received an award for one of the best museums in Europe, it definitely deserved it.  It was one of the most high tech, fancy, & detailed museums I've ever been to (means a lot bc of the whole living in DC thing) and we thoroughly enjoyed it.  The English translations on the signs were funny & almost unreadable, so good thing we speak Spanish!  It was only 1.5 E too! After the museum & some coffee, I went out with the Americanos to a club that turned out to be having an International Erasmus (European study abroad scholarship) event, which was good & bad.  Anyway we met people from all over, my favorite being the Brasilians!  Pretty cool people.  Anyway today I went to the beach as per usual and tonight we are going out again although we have to be at Plaza de los Luceros at 8:30 am tomorrow to take a bus to Valencia!!  My camera is charged and ready to go, no more incidents like the last tour!

Starting into my Routine

So these past few days have been CRAAAZY.  The 1st day of classes went very well, my professor's name is Raquel & she is as animated and fantastic as the professors I have had at College of Charleston *shout out*.  For some reason I had signed up for a business class, so today I talked to Pepa (our head of CCCS) & she allowed me to change into a conversation course because I can't just 'drop' a class...even though no one else at my level is in a conversation class.  When I pointed this out she said, well you'll be the best! ha.ha.  But on the good, great, excellent, fabulous side of things.....the WINDSURF class is being planned!!!!  Apparently before there wasn't enough 'interest' meaning it wasn't well advertised, but at least 6 people will be in the class & it may start in Oct or Nov, not sure yet.  Yesterday & today we toured the University (yes it is HUGE) and we bought our bus passes yesterday, so I'm all 'alicantina' getting myself back & forth, really it's quite simple- even easier than the DC metro!  Between the beach, walking around, tours, classes, & night time paseos I am exhausted, so why am I writing this blog post at 12:30 am instead of sleeping? bc I love ya'll that much...<3  Anyway today was my favorite day so far because we took a tour of Alicante that started at the Plaza de los Luceros (google it) around 5:30 & ended at the Castillo around 10!  We learned a lot about the history of the city, & bc I'm a 'freaky' =nerd I enjoyed every second of it, most of the tour was in Spanish, so a lot of students lost interest.  We ended up at the top of the castle right at sunset (as if they planned it or something hmm...) & took beautiful pictures.  Of course my camera died...at la Plaza de los Luceros...but luckily mis amables companeros americanos took pics of me & all of the things we saw, so I'll do some facebook stalking & I promise I'll put some photos up soon!  I just haven't wanted to be all 'tourist' with my camera everywhere/ I really need to pay attention to where I'm going.  There is a beautiful legend about the castle, but I will have to find a picture & the story to explain, and right now I'm too tired, so  posiblemente manana, vale?

Alicante Por Fin!

Yesterday I drove cross-country from Navalmoral de la Mata to Alicante and my how the land changes!  Most of Spain is very dry, it doesn't rain much here so the land if it isn't being watered for crops is very brown in the summertime (not a super pretty drive).  So Tinin and I are driving along and bam! There's a beautiful mountain right on the outskirts of Alicante.  He looks at me and says, "Ya estas lista?" >>Are you ready?  And of course I was nervous, but on entry to the hotel some Americans heard me and yelled down the hall, so I joined them to wait an hour for orientation, which then lasted 2 hours!  Orientation was....pretty bad & boring.  Then we had 'dinner' but really it was tapas, not much food at all.  Afterwards we walked around the city around 9 pm and boy did we look silly us 30+ Americans.  Mila called me during the walk and I told her thank you SO much for everything & I talked to Esther a little, told her she's my favorite little sister haha.  We had a little botellon en the hotel & went out around 12, Americans learn quickly about nightlife practices : P  Overall it was a very fun night, waking up the next morning at 9....not so much.  This morning we took a tour of a small portion of the University, basically just to know where we need to go tomorrow.  Now the part that you've all been waiting for....MI FAMILIA!!!  The parents names are Maruja Martinez Torres & Jon Paolo (like the Pope) Torres, they have two sons that are 30& 33 (who live elsewhere & 1 is married) and *drumroll please* a DOG!!! named Poncho lmao how funny is that?!  He is a mixed breed, not sure what I asked but didn't understand the response, but he is Lorelai-sized, of course a little fatter & not as cute, but I digress...I'm so excited.  Also my bed has 3 pillows! For those of you who know me understand my obsession.... Also, they are super nice, apparently they host students a lot so they are accustomed to foreigners (they also talk slowly for me which is great).  Poncho just came up to say hi on my bed, but he just got in trouble lmao Maruja said, "A la cama no, a tu cama si!"  Whoops....but looks like I have a new friend!  Tomorrow starts my life as an Alicantina verdadera.....vamos a ver lo que va a pasar!  Tengo ganas de empezar a la universidad, pero tengo que estar en clase por 3 horas, can I do it?? You'll just have to wait and see...

Vamos Real Madrid!

Today Ainhoa left for Valencia, she is working for 3 days before school starts at a festival called Moros y Cristianos as a face painter, she is very talented.  I'm excited that in 2 days I'll be heading to Alicante!  Then we went to the pharmacy and also just for a walk around town.  We stopped twice for drinks & tapas, this is a very funny practice in Spain, but in a small town I suppose that this is the norm, also many people are on vacation (which lasts a month here btw!).  Then after lunch we went to another spot in the mountains.  I could write about them forever, I would love to  live there in a small house with fresh mountain water & no electricity & hike & swim everyday ...que rara soy de verdad! But I digress...there were some nudists in the mountains & that was pretty funny.  Esther took some pictures with her camera but I don't have them yet, I will post them later.  Tonight I'm very excited for the Real Madrid v. Barcelona game that is coming on in 20 min (9:45) GO REAL MADRID!!!
---random other question, is there a way to know who is viewing this blog? I found out how to see which countries people are viewing from, which is so cool!--
Spanish phrase of the day: Ella se cae de la cuña de bebe --> She fell out of the crib as a baby, lol...

La Garganta- The Throat

This place is the best natural water park that exists in La Extremadura.  Being back in the mountains reminded me of the hikes that I took with Austin at VT & the mountains in Northern Italy.  Also, being in a bathing suit all day is always wonderful!  The water of course is extremely cold because it comes from the tops of the mountains.  To the left of me is the waterslide--tobogon--and to the right of Esther's head is another spot where we jumped from.  The trip was a success, nobody got hurt & we all had fun!

Also leave comments! I want to know what you guys are thinking :)

I Did my Research

So today I went to the pool with Ainhoa and her two friends, Lara & Alba (what a pretty name!).  We played Culo--the card game from yesterday I'm getting pretty good at it ;)-- and talked a lot about the differences between the USA & Espana.  I'm really glad that I read up on social differences, especially the fashions.  I asked about some of the things I read, such as: wearing tights under shorts in the winter time, not wearing flip-flops=chanclas like EVER, wearing high heels always, never going out in athletic clothes...and the list goes on!  The reality is...all of this is correct, so thank god I brought some cool tights and I limited my athletic clothes to PJs, I didn't even bring sweatpants!  Of course my lifestyle will never completely blend in because I love playing sports and I don't love shopping...but oh well I'll always be 'la rara' (strange) person because I want to be. :)

Los Espanoles saben salir de fiesta!

The Spanish know how to party!
http://instagram.com/p/Oxgdhihi7p/
This is a picture of Marta and I (a friend of Ainhoa's who likes to invent words in Spanish and English, she is very funny and wants to come to Miami, so of course I invited her) in a bar called Canterville in Navalmoral de la Mata, toda la gente estaba alli! We stayed out until 5 am, we didn't leave until 3 am.  We pregamed--> la bottellón, until 3 am.  Apparently we came home early, but I was jetlagged and Ainhoa was tired because she left for the airport at 7 am (super early for Spaniards).
Today after waking up at 12 pm, que perezosas!, we ate more tortilla for lunch (every meal I've had so far has included tortilla & some part of a pig today it was the face :O ) and then after el almuerzo we played a strange form of triangular dominoes and Culo, which is a game played with Spanish cards.  Here is a picture of both because they are cool looking!