Last day and goodbyes

While I have been looking forward to getting home now that my time in Spain is over, I knew that saying goodbye would be difficult. My new friends here have made my time here so enjoyable and my familia has made me feel welcome since day one. My flight leaves very early tomorrow, so today was my last day and the day of goodbyes. Allison and I went to the CIEE office to take care of some last minute things, and then came back to town and went to my favorite establishment here in Alicante, las Manolitas (a cupcake boutique).

I had asked if Allison would mind coming to mi casa to help me pack and to take a photo of Ileana, Elena and me. She wasn't exactly helpful in the packing department, but she did join us at la mesa para la comida, which was a nice way to spend my last real meal here. Then she snapped a few photos of mi familia before heading to her own casa. We said our goodbyes before she left, but it's a bit of a consolation that we are at least headed back to the same country with the possibility of seeing one another in the future (additionally, we plan on BBMing on the reg).

 

When I came back up, I presented Ileana and Elena with some cupcakes I'd picked up from las Manolitas for them to enjoy. Then Elena gave me a photo frame. I told her I was going to put the new photos of us in there, but she said she bought it with the intention that I would put a photo of my boyfriend and me in there, which was a very sweet thought. Elena had to go back to work and then planned on spending the night out, so we said our goodbyes then. She said many kind things; she wished me luck in the next semester, told me to enjoy my summer, and then said that if ever I wanted to come back "siempre tienes su casa aquí" which means "you will always have your home here in Spain". Later in the evening, Ileana and I sat down for my last dinner and she helped me weigh my luggage to make sure I didn't get charged with any ridiculous fees. Then she headed off to bed and we said our goodbyes. She said a lot of things like Elena did, including the part about always being welcome back into their home. At this point, of course, I got a little teary. I feel so blessed to have been put in such a warm, pleasant homestay experience, and I will never forget my time spent here in Spain with such great people.

Reflections

I'm sure I will have more "reflections" to make once I return to the good old US of A, but my time here in Alicante is winding down as tomorrow will be the two-weeks left mark.

When I first got here, I didn't find myself experiencing culture shock. I think I prepared myself for a different experience than what I had been used to, and it's still a "western" culture, so it wasn't as if I needed to get ready to dive into a world completely unlike my own. I found myself thinking of how much better things are in Spain. The beautiful weather, the tasty food, the lax police officers who turn a blind eye to students drinking on the beach...sounds perfect, right? Well, it is pretty great...but I have compiled a list of things I find myself missing from home, and things I will definitely miss when I leave here.

Things I Miss About America.
1. My family and friends...duh.
2. A good salad. Salads are only on the menu at places that look to cater to Americans, and they are seldom interesting or inventive. I eat "salads" at mi casa, but they usually consist of bagged lettuce, oil and vinegar, and occasionally a tomato. You have no idea what I would give for a Panera fuji apple chicken salad or the Hershey Pantry's grilled chicken lime salad.
3. My apartment. Going out to the bars without pregaming is kind of a bummer, and so is getting ready alone. I miss sharing clothes with my roommates (and by that I mean, I miss having roommates to lend me all their cute clothes) and having the party-before-the-party.
4. Toilet paper. Public restrooms here seldom have it. Actually, public restrooms here kind of suck altogether.
5. Dressing like a scrub. While it is kind of fun to have an excuse to look nice even when I'm not going out, there is certainly something to be said for being able to throw on a hoodie and jeans and to look no worse than the 100 other people in your class.
6. My car. I really enjoy being able to walk basically everywhere around here, including to the beach, but I also miss being able to jump in the car and go to Giant whenever I'm having a craving for...well, anything.
7. GIANT. Mercadona is great and all, but it's only open from 9am to 9:15pm, and it's closed on Sundays and Holidays. The 24-hour, open-every-day Giant still has my loyalty.
8. Football. PSU, Steelers, whatever. I love it all. And I can't wait for games to start up.
9. 24-hour (or close to it) establishments. Nothin' like Subway or McDonald's or pizza at 2am after a party.
10. Patriotism. For the most part, Americans love America. There are huge disagreements over politics, blah blah no one cares blah blah...but we all still love America. Spain is very divided and there are a lot of hard feelings that will probably never be resolved.

Things I'm Going to Miss About Spain.
1. Mi familia. Ileana and Elena are so hospitable and sweet.
2. Botellón. Because who doesn't love having a good time in the streets? Also, I should mention the enormous 2 euro bottles of Sangria that are sold everywhere...major plus.
3. The beach. I'm literally living the dream. Ten minute walk to the little beach, short tram ride to the big, beautiful one.
4. Las Manolitas. Possibly the best/worst discovery of my life. It's an adorable cupcake shop about a three minute walk from mi casa that is run by three American sisters whose mother was from Alicante. I made the poor life choice of "liking" them on Facebook, so now I get updates of their five cupcake flavors every morning...woof.
5. FroYo. Now, I know there are several delicious frozen yogurt places in the US, but in Spain, frozen yogurt always means Greek frozen yogurt. And I can always add mangoes and strawberries. Ñam. :)
6.  Fútbol. It's nice being in a country that appreciates that soccer is, in fact, the world's sport.
7. Code-switching. I have a feeling that phrases such as "dame that cosita over there por favor" will not fly in America.
8. Cheap flights. I whine about how much RyanAir sucks, because it does, but America really should work on getting a low-cost airliner for broke college kids who want to visit their significant others but can't because it's so gosh darn expensive.

That's all I got for now...I'm sure I'll think of more things as I'm cruising through these last two weeks. When I do, I'll be sure to update...

Santa Faz

Yesterday was a holiday here in Alicante – el Día de Santa Faz. It's a huge Alicantino tradition to wake up early, meet at the Catedral (San Nicolas), and walk about 8km (about 5 miles) to the Church of Santa Faz.

There is a point around halfway where a group sets up a table and serves shots of very sweet wine and a few cookies to everyone. The catch is, you have to wait in "line", and by "line" I mean huge cluster of crazy old ladies who will elbow you in the face to get their cookies and shots. It got a little bit nuts.

It's said that the church has one of the cloths Mary gave to Jesus with which to wipe his face as he was carrying the cross. Many people walk barefoot, to ask God to grant them some favor, but most just walk to enjoy the day off. You can bring a sandwich or buy food at one of the many food vendors at Santa Faz. Also, many teens will steal grocery carts and load them up with their bags and alcohol...pretty funny. It was a very fun day – but also exhausting.

(That last photo is my Madre Ileana's old house!)

Amsterdam

CIEE and the Universidad de Alicante gave us a pretty hefty Spring Break: April 21-May 2. After a little debate about where to go, my friend Allison and I ended up deciding on not jetsetting around Europe, but instead spending five days in Amsterdam. Another friend, Kirsten, also joined us, in addition to Kirsten's Spanish novio Borja (at the last minute).

On April 21, we flew out of Alicante into Eindhoven. Ryanair doesn't fly direct to Amsterdam, so we save quite a bit of money flying into Eindhoven. From the airport, we took a 20 minute bus to Eindhoven's train station, and from there a one hour and 20 minute train right to Amsterdam Centraal.

First order of business was to figure out where our hotel was. Allison, Kirsten and I decided on a hotel instead of a hostel, because the prices were comparable and we wanted more security for our luggage, since we were staying five nights. We eventually located the hotel which was conveniently located about 100 feet from Dam Square, near the train station, and pretty close to the Red Light District. After we got some pizza for an early dinner, we walked around to see what all the coffeeshop hype was about. Coffeeshops are places in Amsterdam that can legally sell (and where one can legally smoke) marijuana. Later that evening, I met up with one of my old friends from my soccer team! We arranged to meet the next day for a walking tour of the city. (Photo: Dam Square)

We met Halsell the next day (Friday) and walked toward the other big part of Amsterdam that includes all of the museums, the brewery, the parks, and the shopping. We told Halsell the things we wanted to see and do, and she pointed us in the right direction for everything. She had to get back and do some schoolwork, but it was certainly nice to have more direction. The first thing we decided to do was tour the Heineken Brewery. For 15 euros, you get to tour the "experience" (which is a lot like Chocolate World in Hershey, except better, because it's beer) and you receive 2.5 pints of beer. Pretty cool. On the way home, we swung by Dampkring, a famous Amsterdam coffeeshop and where they filmed a clip from Ocean's 12!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3DmtUJ3MWs&feature=related Ocean's 12 clip from Dampkring!

On Saturday, we were up bright and early and on our way to the Anne Frank House. The line was pretty long, but it was good that we went early, because it only got longer throughout the day. The AFH was very interesting and moving. It's one thing to go to a museum of something, but this was actually where everything was taking place when she wrote her journal. We wandered through the front of the house and the annex and read lots of quotes from her journal in addition to extra information about the people that were helping her family and things they did inside the house.

Afterward, we headed to Albert Heijn (Amsterdam's Giant or Mercadona), bought picnic lunches, and ate them at Vondelpark. Vondelpark is a huge, beautiful park right near all of Amsterdam's museums where people sit, eat, hang out, play music, whatever. I forgot to mention the flawless weather we had all five days we were there, which is apparently unheard of in Amsterdam. The beautiful weather made for a really nice picnic and a really nice trip in general. Allison and I made a short detour after our picnic to find Douwe Egbert's coffee for her mom. The concierge at the hotel sent us on a wild goose chase to find only the Douwe Egbert's equivalent to Starbuck's, even though the coffee grounds (which she was looking for) could be found in any Albert Heijn. But the coffee was worth the walk!...and we got to see another very pretty part of Amsterdam.

Later in the evening, Borja suggested to go to the bars at Rembrandtplein, which was suggested to him by a friend. It turned out to be THE Amsterdam night spot, with lots of young people from all over hanging out there. We had a few drinks, but we were all pretty exhausted (and broke - drinks were pricey) and headed home.

Sunday of our spring break was EASTER! Allison and I woke up and went to a Dutch mass near the Anne Frank House. Dutch is a Germanic language like English, so the intonations are very similar and mass was very easy to follow. I mean, I couldn't understand anything, but I knew exactly where in the mass we were. After mass, we met up with Kirsten and Borja and met up with our tour bus to the Keukenhof to see the tulips. The Keukenhof has huge gardens with lots of beautiful flowers and it is only open during April and May, so we really lucked out. We walked around, took lots of pictures, relaxed, and then came back to Amsterdam. On the walk back to the hotel, we scoped out a nice Italian place to have dinner. And after that, we found a really cool outdoor coffeeshop in between the restaurant and our hotel. It was a very springy, appropriate way to celebrate Easter! :)

We decided to sleep in a little bit on Monday. The only thing on the agenda was to make it to the Van Gogh museum. On our way there, we stopped at a café, where we waited forever to be served but the food was very good. It was the first time I felt like I was eating authentic, Dutch food. It was just a sandwich, but probably not a sandwich you'd find in the US. We made our way to Van Gogh, which was a very cool museum. Short, sweet, and to the point. It was four floors and they were each very easy to navigate, unlike the Prado in Spain. That evening, we found one last coffeeshop to check out, and ended up finding an awesome seat right by the open window; it was a nice way to end out our trip.

And that was pretty much it for our Netherlandish escapades. We woke up at the crack of dawn the next day, walked to the station, rode the train, found the bus, got back to the Airport, and headed back home to Alicante. Amsterdam was by far my favorite destination of the semester!

Granada, padres y jamón

Last weekend was (sad face) our last CIEE-organized trip. We headed southwest to the city of Granada, best known for cheap food and Moorish influence. After another hefty five-hour bus trip, we arrived and were cut loose to get some food before a little touring. We found a cute restaurant a block or so from the restaurant. The best part about eating and drinking in Granada is that when you pay for a drink, you also get food for the price of the drink. Since we were only there for about 30 hours we couldn't completely take advantage of this system, but it was definitely cool to try out. After we ate a little, we started our tour. The tour included Granada's cathedral, the royal chapel, and the "corral de carbón". The most interesting part was definitely the capilla real (royal chapel), which is where Isabel and Ferdinand are buried (along with their daughter, Juana la Loca and her husband, Felipe el Hermoso). 

Afterwards, we had a little bit of downtime before the flamenco show. This flamenco show was very different than the one I saw with Skylar and Rachel in Sevilla. Granada flamenco shows are pretty concentrated to one part of the city, and they take place in what are basically caves. It was a very narrow venue but also very intimate.

The next day was the tour of La Alhambra. To be perfectly honest, our tour guide was a bore and our microphone systems were kind of ineffective, so I got very little out of the tour other than the obvious beauty and intricacy of the structure. After some free time for food (in our case, Burger King) we headed home. I was very excited to get to sleep knowing that JACK and JOANN would be making an appearance in Alicante the next day!...

 

I met Mom and Dad at the train station when their train arrived at 2:45ish. We worked out the rental car situation and headed to the hotel. At this point, I am very comfortable navigating through Alicante by foot. This was my first time in a car here. Needless to say we made a few U-turns and drove down the same roads 2-3 times after realizing all the damn one-ways were ruining our lives. Anyway, we finally got to their hotel and checked in. I took them on a little walking tour of the city and then to Lizarran, a chain tapas restaurant, for dinner.

Monday was another walking day. I took them to the Castillo de Santa Barbara and then out around the marina. We hit a paella restaurant right along the Explanada for lunch. Dinner was a delicious Italian place called Tagliatella where we had pizza and the most interesting, delicious salad I have ever tasted – it rivaled Panera's fuji apple chicken salad!

After my morning classes on Tuesday we went to Elche, a small town about 40 minutes from Alicante. I was a little snippy at first because our drive was during prime siesta time, but after arriving and having yet another delicious pizza, I was good to go. Elche is a cute little town, but as a classmate described it, "A lot like Alicante, but without a beach and with a lot more palm trees." Elche is known for the palm trees. We took a stroll through the park, had some helado, walked to the top of the cathedral for a nice view, and then came back to Alicante. I took them to my favorite establishment in Alicante: Las Manolitas, a cupcake boutique run by three American sisters. We did a little shopping on Maisonnave and then headed back to the hotel. Dinner was at 100 Montaditos for cheap, tasty sandwiches and 1 euro jars of beer.

We said our goodbyes today after lunch at Subway (in typical Joann fashion), a little walking around and some shopping. Saying goodbye certainly bummed me out, but now it's back to the "grind"...lots of essay writing and beach time awaits!

One last thing to add to this post: this evening, Ileana asked if I wanted to join her for the grand opening of a jamón (ham) vendor that just opened downstairs. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but it seemed like a cultural experience I shouldn't miss out on. Additionally, I don't have the aversion to jamón that several people have, so it seemed easy enough. The "vendor" is just that: a vendor. This was not a restaurant, although there are a few tables if you want to pick at some hams and cheeses and have a glass of wine or beer. Basically, it comes down to this: Spaniards LOVE their jamón. Since this was the grand opening, there were tons of samples and free beer (!!!!) and wine. I killed two beers, taste-tested some ham, and then we came back upstairs. Overall success.

Murcia y San Juan

Earlier this week, our CIEE program decided to offer a day trip to Murcia, which is a little less than an hour from Alicante. I'm a big fan of the day trips. I don't mind sleeping on the bus, and it's nice to not have to worry about packing a suitcase or catching a flight or waking up too early to get somewhere or any of that nonsense. Also, I want to see as much of Spain as I can, so I signed up.

There was a very small group of us – about 10 girls – but that made the trip all the more enjoyable. We didn't have to wait for people to catch up and it was actually very possible to hear and understand the tour guide since we were all much closer together.

Our first stop was La Catedral. Murcia, just like every other Spanish city, has their one Catedral which is usually pretty centrally located. We got all the history, including the information about the cathedral's relics (which allegedly includes some of the Virgin Mary's breastmilk. Questionable.). After that, we walked into the Baroque style castle right next door, basically to see the impressive staircase. After a quick snack break, we reconvened at Murcia's Casino. It wasn't the casino like we think of it, but rather a social gathering place that struck me more like a country club. There were rooms strictly for members' use, but also rooms to view and tour. I kind of missed the point of it, but it was cool to walk through anyway.

After that, we broke for lunch (pizza and helado...mmm) and then met up one more time to head over to El Museo Salzillo. Salzillo was an artist who is most famous for his "pasos", lifelike and life-size religious figures representing Semana Santa (the week leading up to Easter). These pasos are carried by several hundred Murcianos in a procession on Easter morning. Although I was exhausted for this part of the tour, this was probably the coolest part, especially because you could see how much it meant to our guide, who was Murcian.

Then we got back on the bus and pretty much instantly passed out. I slept the entire way back to Alicante, and when the bus dropped us off at my stop, I thought I was at one side of the traffic circle but was actually on the opposite and walked about half a block in the wrong direction toward what I thought was my house. I was very confused for a moment when I turned the corner expecting to see my apartment building and instead saw one of Alicante's most beautiful government buildings. Awkkkwwarrrddd...

The next day, Allison and I decided to head over to San Juan's beautiful Costa Blanca via TRAM. It was a little windy for my liking, but the sun was shining so we definitely caught some rays. I can't wait to head back that way when it gets a little warmer. Maybe I'll even take Jack and Joann when they come visit me in ONE WEEK!

Las Fallas en Valencia

After a somewhat epic Saint Patrick's day (my first one as a 21 year old – I'd say I made it a night to remember. Or forget, depending on how you look at it.), we got on the buses at 9am to head for Valencia. We in Alicante are part of the Valencia community, but the actual city of Valencia was about a 2.5 hour bus ride. I think we took the long way.

Las Fallas is a huge week-long celebration in Valencia. Las fallas are huge, cartoon-like structures that are designed according to a citywide theme. There are probably more than 100 fallas created – each barrio (neighborhood) has one. Here are a few ejemplos...

We were in Valencia for the Friday of Las Fallas, which is a pretty eventful day. As soon as we got there, we headed to la Plaza de Ayuntamiento which is where La Mascletà occurs. La Mascletà is basically a fireworks show without the pretty fireworks. It's a lot of noise. Firecrackers go off for 7-8 minutes in a rhythm of some sort, and the Spaniards treat it like a concert. They jump around and dance as if it's music. It was a pretty awesome thing to see (/hear), and it was easy to pick out the Americans around because NONE of the Spaniards had their fingers in their ears. This picture is right after the finale. The smoke cleared away pretty quickly.

The Saturday of Las Fallas, which some people from my program attended but I did not, is the big event. One of las fallas is selected as the best, most beautiful, or most impressive, and the rest are burned. From what I understand, it's quite the show.