Day 4

Day 4

                Wow, today was a day filled to the brim. I still haven’t quite figured out the typical Spanish schedule, but my day was pretty packed. I started out by making it to Universidad de Alicante at 8:45 and took my almost three hour Spanish 1 class. It was brutal. I believe only ten or fifteen words werer spoken in English the whole time and we learned the same amount of stuff in a day that is usually covered in about a week of foreign language class. In short, I loved it! It was a class I had to struggle to keep up in and have to do a lot of studying at home, but I want to learn to communicate so badly that I’ll run through fire if I have to.

                After class, I went to El Mercado – the gigantic fresh produce and meat market. They had more meat than I had ever seen. It was completely crazy. They had whole legs of lamb, sheep’s heads, and something that looked like a skinned prairie dog but was probably a rabbit. They had cuttlefish, squid, shrimp, and hundreds of other things I couldn’t identify. I was so overwhelmed by it that I couldn’t purchase anything on that floor. However, I went downstairs and looked at the produce section and bought groceries for the first time. It was a struggle, but I learned a little bit for next time. Hopefully it will be easier. Check out my first meal at home! Admittedly it is only produce, but it was super cheap and actually filling.

           

  

      A baked potato, some watermelon, cherries, and a fruit I didn’t recognize – but was delicious!

After coming home and studying some I went with my roommates to find an ATM. It took us a solid forty minutes but we got one…. Then it didn’t work. Thinking that the tour of the Santa Barbara Castle was at four thirty, we made our way to the other side of downtown…… and found out it was until six.  Here are some images of downtown.

 That is the castle we walked to later on (a view from the starting point).

 Sorry about this one - my page is all in Spanish i'm still trying to figure out how to rotate stuff.

 This stuff is either soccer graffiti or revolutionary graffiti; we couldn't decide.

 I guess people write whatever on this wall.

 This looks meaningful so i took a picture, but i haven't translated it yet.

 This (above) is a park on the way up to the castle. I want to do kung fu here.

 Views from/of the castle

 One of my roommates and I just decided to walk around the city before we went up to the castle. We didn’t realize until later we would be walking for six hours.

                After some more homework and food the day came to an end. I really hope I can get this speaking Spanish thing down.

Day 3

Day 3

                So, it turns out that Spain is pretty much the bomb. Who knew, right? I’ve moved into my new apartment – which is soups cool. There are three of us in a four bedroom place that is mostly hallway. We have a kitchen, a back porch, a living room complete with tv (I watched Return of The Drunken Master en Espanol), and two bathrooms – one has a bidet (see photos). The only downside to this place is that the bed is too short for me and, because of the head and foot boards, I have to curls up. It turns out that ours is the worst one of all; the other places are even nicer.

                Speaking of other places – I’ve met a ton of really cool people. All the USAC students are great. Most of them are here just to party it up though. That’s not really my scene, but I’m not holding it against them. I came here to learn about the Spanish culture, learn the language, and have a good time. I can do that sober for the most part.  I’ve yet to find a good place to train, and I still need to buy groceries – hopefully I can get that all done tomorrow. The beach is too crowded to train, so are the streets. I can do conditioning in the back but…. I need to do some form. Anyway, check out some of the pictures.

 So I kept this photo super huge so that you could see that the top left button is labelled "MAGIC." I have no clue what it does. I tried to figure it out.

 This is my bedroom with my super short bed. My sleeping schedule is still completely out of whack.

 This is about 2/3 of our halway.

 This is the bathroom with the bidet; i have no idea how to use it. Nor do i know proper towelling etiquette.

 Our living room.

   The back "yard."

Day 1 Part 2

Wow. Alicante is huge. And crowded. And completely out of my element. If I were the panicking type this would be where I lost my crackers. Hopefully my new friend, Yolanda, will give me a hand; she’s a local I met on the way over here.  I’m pretty overwhelmed.

                The nightlife here must be massive it’s 1am local time – I swear everyone is still up. Well, maybe this place won’t scare the piss out of me in the daylight, haha. It reminds me of some of the nastier parts of Chicago. Oh well.

The clock is tolling the 36^th hour I’ve had without real sleep; I can hardly count the short naps I’ve managed to get on the floor of the airport terminal. It is the 34^th hour of travelling, and the 7^th hour I’ve had sitting in Madrid. Five more to go before my flight to Alicante. I’m so sore from sitting in terminals and airports that I hail the man who invented BioFreeze as a god and the man who put it in 1oz airplane friendly packages – a demigod. Who knew sitting could hurt this much.

                But not all hope is lost! I am in Spain – in Madrid! And since entering, with the exception of helping another solitary American, have not spoken a word of English. A point of pride for me, however, that means my conversations have been kept rather minimal. I’ve enjoyed it though. I spent my first Euros on a Spanish – English dictionary and managed to order food in the native tongue. This is a step in the right direction.

                I’m currently sitting in the airport watching a televised sport I have never heard of. It appears to be played like a cross between rugby and indoor soccer. I’d tell you more but watching it gives me about as much information as listening to soccer on the Latino radio station. I really have no idea what’s going on until someone shouts, “Goal!”

                But so far, I love it here! The land is gorgeous, the language is beautiful, the people are colorful, and as Officer Tihinen once said, “They must kill all the ugly women.” Hahaha.  For now, I’ve run out of things to say. So, until next time, keep your stick on the ice.