A Mind blowing Adventure

>>Caution lots of ridiculous details ahead <<
Wow, what a journey.  Let me start by saying that this was probably the most important trip I've ever taken. Culture shock was achieved (finally).  And I learned that you can't always believe what you hear or read.  The trip to Morocco was long and arduous but it was definitely worth it (vale la pena)!  We started our journey on a Wednesday night (10 pm Alicante time) with our first flight into Barcelona. We arrived in Barcelona with a landing that had me crossing myself and praying a Hail Mary, Josh you wouldn't have been impressed!  Then we ran on to the train because the last on eleft about 8 min after we landed.  We ran on and sat down, struggling to read the sign in Catalan (for those of you who don't know, Catalan is a dialect of Spanish that is a mix of Spanish & French- an appropriate stepping stone for our journey to Morocco).  We rode the train for about 30 minutes when I finally asked Marial where exactly our stop was (Marial & Diane had been in Barcelona one time before).  She showed us the name of the stop & we watched the electronic screen diligently as the names flashed by.  After about an hour I thought, this doesn't feel right, so we looked up the next stop (Mara- something) on the train map & were horrifed to see that we had completely passed the downtown area and the line was about to end in Girona.  Slightly panicked, a nice man explained to us (after looking at us sympathetically with a little shake of his head) how we could get back into the city via the night bus.  We got off in a suburb-y area around 1 am (?) and found the bus stop (after asking the only other awake human beings in the city). The whole town was closed.  We saw the bus was coming in 20 min and thought, we're saved!  About 25 min later the N3 bus passed as we jumped up and down in a vain attempt to stop it.  Marial then thought, "Wait, in Spain there is a button for everything!" (It sounds ridiculous, but yup not kidding).  We examined the bus stop & she discovered the button.  It was the size & color of a bolt, I don't know what would've happened if we hadn't found it!  We got on the bus, specifically asking the driver, Plaza de Cataluyna?  He nodded yes, about 1 hour, JOLIN!  We we got off the bus after about 20 min we found the building for the hostel, a very fancy building, this can't be it, could it?  Jackpot, the Internet sometimes rocks, I had found it earlier that day & was careful to read the reviews (after what happened to me in Rome last summer I've been a bit sketched out by hostels .  The girls were very happy to see the elegant cozy atmosphere.  Furthermore, the hostel manager sat with us and showed us the interesting points of Barcelona plus a great churros places for breakfast.  We went to bed around 3 (?) am and woke up around 8 to prepare for our long journey ahead.  We walked about 15 minutes down La Rambla (every main city in Spain has one), to find Marial's money exchange place.  The street ended & we asked a local where the place was; turns out there are 2 Ramblas in Barcelona, jolin!  So Marial went off to find her money & we set off for breakfast.  I stopped at Starbuck's for a chai tea (yum- 1st in a month & a half).  Then we went to the churros place for Gwen.  I bought a black scarf to use as a panuelo (more about that later) & we reunited at the Estacion Norte bus stop to buy tickets to Girona.  That ride was another 75 minutes.  Then we finally flew from Girona to Fes (Fez)!  We arrived around 4 (?)- time change- & after customs & money exchange it was time to find our way to the train station to buy tickets to Tanger (tangier in english).  We asked for directions to the bus stop & the man we found spoke Italian, how useful!  So that was on me... Every taxi driver tried to get us in their car, but we opted for the cheap 3 1/2 Dirham ride into the city.  It was very interesting to see the outskirts of the city, Gween took lots of pics so I will put them up later.  We spoke only in Spanish the entire time, which confused everyone (we're a motley crew so no one quite believed we're Spanish).  While we were on the bus we figured, oh we'll just read the signs to see where to get off in the center of the city!  Well...all of the signs were in Arabic!  After a bit of a panic attack, as we got closer to the city we saw French signs, so Diane & I deciphered them and thanked our lucky stars.  Finally we got to a stop where a bunch of people got off, so we thought, hey why not? and hopped off.  We had put our headscarves on (before the trip everyone told us to cover our hair, especially Gwen & I - the blondies), but regardless everyone stared and a few even said, 'Welcome to Morocco'- in many different languages. (The average Moroccan that we ran into spoke French, Arabic, English & Spanish- wow!)  As we bought our tickets in the train station, the woman selling them to us asked, "Why are you wearing the headscarf?" We basically answered that we thought it was the correct thing to do, right?  She persisted, "Well are you Muslim?" We answered no, and she didn't say one way or the other, but as we left I initiated the discussion, well should we take them off?  My main priority in another country & culture, especially one as different as Morocco, is to try to assimilate (although I did NOT have clothes that covered my body- I blame Florida- my friends were amused, don't worry Gram I bought some) and not to offend anyone.  We took a good look around and saw some women and foreign/touristy looking women not wearing them, so we made the decision to take them off.  (In the end I do believe that was a wise decision, we looked ridiculous & out of place).  That was when we realized we didn't have many plans for Fes & seeing how it was already 7 (?) we couldn't exactly head to the historic Medina.  We decided to have dinner (I had a hilarious 'omelette' with french fries in it...not kidding) and just 'hang out' maybe get a glass of wine (ha!).  Instead we discovered that there is no alcohol in Morocco, the nightlife starts around 12 (not that we would go out there) and really there was nothing for us foreigners to do.  We sat in a cafe and drank te mente au lait - fantastic! and used their wifi to facebook our families that we were still alive.  Around 1130 when we couldn't procrastinate any longer we headed back to the train station.  We discovered that there was a lack of benches inside & most people were outside laying on the grass, so we thought, what the heck, and lied down for a little siesta (at least Gwen & I slept- common theme to this story, us passing out wherever...).  Around 1 it got cold so we moved inside & slept on the ground in there.  Finally it was time to board the train & it was pretty nice, we got seats 2 & 2 and slept for the first 2 hours of the journey.  Around 4 (?) this official looking guy came running down the aisle smacking the seats shouting something in Arabic that seemed like 'last stop' and I thought to myself, 'ok Morocco, this is how we inform passengers?' So I woke up Gwen & we got ready to make the switch.  Diane & Marial had been sitting with some gypsies that seemed to have their whole lives with them in bags.  They helped them carry their stuff as Gwen & I sleepily were figuring out what was going on.  We followed them as they ran across to this other train that seemed to be done boarding & ready to go.  It was packed to the MAX & we literally couldn't cram the stuff or ourselves on.  As the train was starting to move we managed to get a foothold on the steps & scrambled over people & bags into the car, only to find there was no where to sit.  After pacing the aisle 6 times with everyone else looking for seats we put our bags on the floor & sat on them in the middle of the aisle.  We all tried to sleep (I actually didn't have much trouble- thank you Roy genes) and every once in awhile someone passing through the aisle would wake us up.  We spent about 3-4 hours like this until finally 3 guys got up to get off, so we rode in seats for the final hour.  We were so happy to get off the train in Tanger around 8 (?) am.  We bought a map & ignored the taxi drivers & walked into the city (about 20 min).  We had a few hotels in mind that Marial had researched.  We ended up finding this little 'bed & breakfast' Dar Omar Khayam that looked like a totally legit old palace (just because of the style of the facade outside).  We went inside & even better the manager spoke Spanish! The room had four beds & a hot shower & only cost 300 Dirhams (30 euros) total - that's 7 euros a night each, unheard of!  We all took hot showers & head off to the Medina, which was really cool.  It was a labyrinth of shops, cafes, restaurants, & in the heart was a mercado central that had good looking bread, dried fruits, nuts, and disgusting meats- literally I saw the corpse of a pig slit down the middle all body parts still intact & I almost got sick.  We had lots of men following us around trying to either give us tours or bring us to their shops or restaurants.  We politely but forcefully declined them all and wandered through the streets until we got hungry & stopped at this quaint little french place.  I had an omelette for 15 dirham which is 1.5 euros (crazy cheap).  Gwen had the best quiche of her life she says. After that we were feeling the fatigue, so we found a large, beautiful park and chilled for awhile watching this guy's sheep eat a bench & he tried to talk to us to get us to go to his father's restaurant (hope they weren't eating sheep that day).  We walked up through the less touristy part of the city & found a legit coffee place, but it turns out that the BEST thing in Morocco is mint tea! Gwen ordered it and it really tasted like a mint mojito minus the alcohol.  I fell in love with it and I'm very sad to be separated at the moment. (The next day I had 3 or 4 teas...)  We walked down this long road to the beach and saw beautiful houses up on the hill & were amazed at the mountain cliffs that broke off right at the water's edge.  We walked along the coast & I felt like I was at the Battery in Charleston, except there were lots of men fishing down on the rocks with super long fishing poles.  We passed the port & saw where the ferry to Algeciras, Spain is.  We went back to the hotel to rest before an early dinner.  We sought out an authentic place, no more french fries!, and were satisfied to find a place that had tajine, a local meat dish (what type of meat I have no idea) and pizza for Diane (she's a vegetarian-which in Morocco & Spain usually means that they give you fish instead, lol).  We went to bed around 9:30 and slept soundly until 8 am the next morning.  I got to choose the day's activity because it was my only full day (the other girls stayed until Monday), so I really wanted to go the the Caves of Hercules --L'grotte de Hercules--so we had a morning cup of tea & planned our approach.  We had figured out that the only way to get there was by taxi, but most taxi drivers only speak French & Arabic, so Diane & I practiced a conversation, then found a driver and did our best to explain what we wanted & ask how much it cost.  On the drive there we passed the palace of the king, complete with heavily armed guards. I tried to clarify our return, but the driver misunderstood and stopped to turn around.  I frantically flipped through my French dictionary to look for the word, later= apres, and he laughed and said Oh, ok!  I was very nice.  We were excited to see the signs for L'grotte and the views were gorgeous.  As we left we asked to stay for 4 hours, but when he saw my watch (that I haven't changed  he thought we didn't know what time it was, so he found Gwen as we were walking out to the mountain cliff and motioned to her watch.  It was very cute and we reassured him we knew what time it was.  We took lots of pictures then asked someone where the actual caves were...silly us we turned the corner and there was a huge sign!  We payed to go down and the first thing we saw were people selling things, of course Morocco, but then we saw the waves crashing on the rocks through a small circle of light, it was beautiful! Then, we walked down to the beach and I went in the water, just up to my knees.  We walked around an abandoned hotel and made friends with an old Moroccan guy who was collecting shells on the beach.  We walked back up for the world's longest lunch, complete with tea.  My sandwich had french fries in it and some kind of mystery meat..very interesting.  We didn't have time for Diane to ride the camels because our taxi driver was waiting patiently for us.  We got back and did some shopping for a few hours, then walked around until we got hungry.  We found a crepe place and then we had dessert after dinner at a cute bakery.  The next day we went to the bus stop & I got a taxi to the airport, my friends went to Asila by bus.  I met up with my mom in Madrid & we drove to Cuenca to stay in the most beautiful Parador in the world, situated on the top of a mountain.  That area (Castilla la Mancha) actually has season, so I got to experience Fall, which was lovely.  The next day we walked around Cuenca, spent an hour in the Cathedral learned about the mixture of Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque, and Rococo styles.  After walking around the city until the afternoon we drove back to Alicante.  The next day, Tuesday, was a holiday for the Comunidad Autonoma de Valencia, so we drove to Valencia to visit Ainhoa and saw a cool parade celebrating the day the Christian king took back the city from the Moors, Ray has lots of pictures on his camera.  The next day I took them all over Alicante after my 8-12 am classes.  What a long week of traveling, hopefully that explains for this ridiculously long blog post!!

Viva l'Italia!

As some of you may already know, my Italian friends (Luca, Montix, & Paulo) came to visit this weekend.  They arrived on Saturday night just in time for the fiesta.  I brought along three of my friends (Gwen, Marial, & Jayna) for a hilarious night of shenanigans.  To prepare for the 'language fatigue' we drank some wine and got our words flowing in a hilarious mix of Spanglish, Spantalian, & Italenglish --> did you follow that?  sidenote: those are the proper names for the mixture of each language, it is a topic that we actually study in language & linguistic classes!  Anyway, we stayed out all night and went to lots of different clubs. I only had one night to show them the nightlife of Alicante, so we made the most of it!  The next day Gwen & I met up with them at the beach in the afternoon & we played volleyball, Luca & Paulo showed off their skills, then that night I met up with them again (with Jayna this time) for a drink in El Barrio.  We taught them to stop saying, 'muchacho' and instead say, 'hombre' which they pronounced with the 'h' in an Italian accent....seriously funny to hear. (another thing that Spaniards say among friends is 'jefe' = boss) Yesterday again I hung out with them at the beach and we attempted to climb the castle, I say attempted because apparently starting Oct 1, yesterday, the castle closes at 20:00 and we got there around ....11 haha.  I've completely adopted the Spanish culture of 'whatever, whenever' I'm sure it will drive my Mom crazy when she comes to visit in just...6 DAYS!!  So we succeeded today by climbing it at the hottest time of day, 12 o clock, but the view was gorgeous (I've climbed the castle 4 times now and I still have to climb it at dawn to see the sunrise- it's on the list). I will put pictures up soon...I promise.  We had a nice Spanish style lunch that took 2 hours and they tried real Spanish paella & flan, which they've had before, but in Italy.  Then we said goodbye and I headed off to my new class, Social Realities of Spain, and they headed to the airport.  I don't have much time to catch up on my rest because tomorrow night I fly to Barcelona (with Marial, Diane, & Gwen) and the next day head to Morocco!  What an adventure....more to come next week when I return!

Home Sweet Home

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?

Oh, the Places you will go

Hello all,

So basically what's been going on this past week is a lot of class, a lot of partying, and a lot of planning.  I've settled into my daily routine of shower, coffee, bus, class, lunch, google or beach, *insert random evening activity here*, & night time escapades.  -->Google you ask? My favorite sites recently are ryanair.com and 1channel.ch ....after scouring the internet for cheap flights throughout Europe, I like to reward myself with an episode or two...or three of Burn Notice.  The weather is getting cooler here *frescita* so I am going to the beach less (meaning not every single day).  I have planned trips to Morocco (Marruecos) and to London (Londres) for the month of October.  I'm also looking forward to this weekend because some Italian friends, from last summer's study abroad trip, are coming to visit!  Then just a short week and a half later, I will be meeting my Mom in Madrid for a road trip back to Alicante--> stopping in Cuenca along the way (thank you Ray for the diversion in plans to accommodate my trip to Morocco!) to see other cool stuff.  The days are flying by, but I'm enjoying every second.  Check out my CALENDAR to see what I have planned and if you have any suggestions as to what I should see or do while I'm there, please don't hesitate to tell me!  After my grammar exam this Friday I'll be home free, I can't wait for October to begin!!

Que dia tan largo!

Good news everyone, my classes exist!
       Today I went to my first *legit* Spanish classes at the University and hilariously they are taught by the same professor, which is a good thing because she seems pretty great.  I am taking "Literatura Hispanoamericana de los anos 60 hasta hoy" and "Literatura Hispanoamericana Contemporanea" --> do you see the similarity? ;)  They look to both be interesting classes, in the 1st we are reading novels such as '100 years of Solitude,' 'Love in the Time of Cholera' & 'La Tregua'.  In the 2nd class it is more of a survey of literature so we will read selections from anthologies and lots of poetry.  I have already taken a few lit classes in english & spanish, luckily my Spanish lit class focused a lot on South American literature!  I'm very excited, I think I will learn a lot, and I'll definitely have to work hard.  So my day was so long because I start class at 8 am and go until 3 pm (this is until the end of September), then I went to the office to register, which took another hour.  I got home around 5 pm & Maruja, my host mom, was wondering what took so long!  Then later tonight I have soccer practice from 9-11pm...que dia tan largo...tomorrow will definitely be a beach day!

Totes Legit

Surprise!  Hercules Femenino B is the second highest level of soccer that exists here in Alicante and we just happened to stumble into their practice...  Yesterday we had our first game and it was 'away' in Villajoyosa (we basically showed up, got into a teammates car & had no idea where we were going, haha) I wasn't expecting to play, seeing as I had only been to one practice, but the coach had other plans.  I started the 2nd half as a left forward (delantero) and about halfway through he switched me to right midfield (I think).  I went out for the last 5 minutes or so, but playing was pretty exciting!  Melanie, the German girl who brought me to the team, played well also and she played a lot of the game, too.  They are a very nice, friendly bunch of girls (especially seeing as they outfitted us head to toe...)  So I am planning to continue going to practices, I have no idea what the schedule looks like for the season, but hey life is always an adventure, right?  Also, last night I couldn't find the energy to go out after the game (Thursday I went out until 5 am & I had class at 12...) so I had a chill night watching about 1/2 an episode of Burn Notice before I passed out until 11 am the next day.  Today I'm planning to go to the beach and then go out tonight with some of my friends & their 'Intercambio' partners (since I haven't gotten mine yet) --> Intercambios are students who are studying English, so we help them & they help us.  Needless to say...I love weekends!

Sometimes you're the windshield & sometimes you're the bug

and sometimes you're both....

This morning was *supposed* to be my first day of university classes, but the universe had other plans.  I got there at 8 am & scurried off to my first class (sin cafe-->.<) upon entry I noticed I was the only extranjera- glorious.  I sit down and realize, shit this is NOT castellano, so as I sit there trying to figure out if it's French or what, I realize..it's Valenciano (which is a dialect of Spanish that sounds much different from the Spanish I study).  Finally the professor asks me, what's your name & where are you from?  Which I could make out more or less, so I responded, "Soy Shannon, soy de los estados unidos.  Este clase esta ensenado en valenciano?"  He said, "Si"  I said, "Vale, creo que necesito cambiarme de clase"  Everyone laughed as I got up and left...then I ran around campus like a chicken with it's head cut off trying to figure out my next move.  Only to look at my schedule and realize that I had entered the wrong classroom (it was RIGHT next to it), *blonde moment* but by the time I returned the class had already finished or been canceled.  Anyway after talking to my adviser again, I went to my 2nd class, which was also canceled.  However, there I met a girl from Germany named Melanie.  We got coffee together & she told me she plays soccer and was planning to try out for the women's league of Alicante, it's called Hercules.  I said, Oh that's too bad, I play too but I didn't bring my cleats.  She said, Oh me either, but I'm going to buy some at the outlet mall (right next to our university) so I went with her and bought beautiful Nike cleats (pic later) for 40 Euros *INSANE* and then went to class from 12-3.  I returned home, ate Spaghetti alla Carbonara *score* & fell asleep for 2 hours.  The practice went very well, the team is pretty serious, apparently it's the feminine side to their city's men's team, Hercules, which is a legit team.  Luckily we are playing B side though, so it's just competitive enough for me without being crazy.  At the end of practice, the Coach told us to be at the field on Friday by 630 to go to a game on a bus.  I figured, oh ok to watch right? Nope, they're bringing us uniforms, socks, shin guards, the works and we are playing!  Que buena suerte, no?  #mylifeisawesome