January 5th 2013
4:32 pm
Yesterday we made a valiant effort to find where the university is actually located. After about 4 hours of faulty Google directions, misleading purple signs advertising "Universidad", and entering the industrial ghetto area of the city, we finally came to the conclusion that the university is, in fact, NOT within walking distance from the hotel.
Camilla blew out the power to the entire 5th floor of the hotel with her plug adapter for the second time today, which is great because most of the rest of the kids in our program are also on this floor, so they were all talking about the outage at dinner while all three of us kept our heads down trying not to laugh.
We met the rest of the group, and went out for the first time since we arrived. Dinner isn't until 8 or 9 at night; the restaurants don't even serve until that time. There are bars literally in every other building space, and they go on well past 5am.
Today, I finally got my luggage!!! After three days in my "rock out with your chalk out" shirt, washing my delicates in the sink, and borrowing sleepwear, I finally was able to put on clean clothes :D What a feeling!
Tomorrow is also Three Kings Day here in Spain. To celebrate, the Spanish get a large cake that somewhere contains both a small present that is good luck, and a bean that represents bad luck. We celebrated today with our abroad group, and wouldn't ya know, luck seemed to be in my favor today.
January 7th 2013
I am now moved in with my host mom, Pura. She lives in an apartment right along the beach. It is just me and her, which is nice because it is very personal and I don't have to deal with little kids. She does yoga, eats healthy, hikes, and is very sweet. She is also extremely relaxed, so I don't feel pressured to talk all the time. We can just hang out and watch tv or do our own things.
I had my first day of school today. Unfortunately, my class is at 8am-11am M-F, with a 20 minute walk to the bus and a 20 minute ride in the bus. Just a little chilly in the mornings >.< I have been placed in beginning intermediate Spanish. I walked into class today to find out that the entire class is in Spanish O_o I did alright, but am considering dropping down to the beginning class for the sake of solidifying my basics more. The campus is absolutely beautiful, though their rec center rock wall is laughable :P
Speaking of, I haven't climbed in over two weeks, and it is killing me slowly. I have spammed different community forums in Alicante about climbing partners, and finally had some replies. So hopefully climbing stories will be in the near future :D
My address (for those wishing to send me peanut butter, peanut butter pretzels, or a nice note) is:
Calle Virgen del Socorro
No. 47 - 2nd C
03002 Alicante, Espana
I finally feel like I'm beginning to settle in a bit. Now it is just a question of where to go this weekend.
Pictures:
1. A monument down one of the main avenues of Alicante.
2. My host mom, Pura ^^
3. By the cactus garden on campus on my first day of classes. Feels like home!
4. The good luck charm I won in my cake. A motorcycle, how fitting right?
5. La Ballisca de Santa Maria, the oldest building in Alicante. And I live right by it.
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