The track

This week we started school again. I have once again become accustomed to the idea of getting 6 to 7 hours of sleep each night. That is not exactly my cup of tea, but I see very few other options at this point. It was a bit unusual at the beginning to be in school but after the first day everything was set back in place. This week I started preparing for my trip home, which is coming up so soon! I went to the post office and bought this box to send some of my stuff back in. The box literally is ginormous. I cannot find a place for it in my room so it is sitting in the hall.

My big event of the week was this huge race in Valencia. It is the autonomicos or something like that and we got to race in an indoor track. I ran the 800 meters and I fairly well. One problem was that everything they said was in Valenciano, which unfortunately I still have not mastered so I was extremely confused and the whole explanation about staying in my line until the cones went completely over my head. It was alright though because one of the other girls explained it to me in Castellano.

Valencia was really pretty although I really didn’t get to see that much. We did get lost on the way there so I did get to see part of this little town. Everyone there was speaking Valenciano though and I was not very fond of that. I went with most of my team and one of my friends, Daniel, even got 1st in the 400 meters! It was very exciting for everyone. I came home from Valencia and that night I went to the fair. This fair was almost exactly like all amusement fairs in the US except instead of funnel cakes there are churros. After eating churros, french fries, cotton candy and a whole bunch of other very unhealthy things I was already not feeling the best — after going on this ride that spins you all around, I was *really* not feeling the greatest! It was really fun though.

Then today my friends and I decided to go to the castle again since I have such little time left. We walked a different way than I ever have and I saw a bunch of little streets that I had never seen before. I forgot how pretty Alicante is since I tend to spend more time in San Vicente. The castle was beautiful as normal and it was so hot here today that I was sweating in my sweater. I am going to miss Alicante and all of my friends here for sure.

Well another week of school is coming and this week we have a fieldtrip to the university! Woo hoo! Hasta Luego!

The Reyes Parade

This week was the important day of Reyes or Kings. It was on the 6th and according to everyone that I had spoken to prior, it is like Christmas for us in the United States. I was a bit confused because we have Christmas here in Spain too, but after witnessing the event I understood a bit more.

So basically the Tres Reyes Magos are like Santa Claus. There are three of them and there names are Melchor, Gaspar and Baltasar. They come on the day of the 6th and they bring presents to all of the little ones (and the older ones too). If the children misbehave they will receive coal. It sounds a lot like Christmas to me. There are huge parades and the Reyes all come and there are these people in the parade with huge sacks. The children all run up to the sacks and deposit their letters that they wrote to the Reyes with their desires for presents. It was all very cute. All of the little children, dressed up in dresses and nice little outfits, all ran up to give their letters.

The night of the 5th we went to the Cavalbata or something along those lines which was a huge parade. There were dancers and drummers and little children on floats. Then the reyes came and threw out candy and toys. One rey, Gaspar I believe, even threw out little cakes. It was all super fun.

Another must-do during Reyes is eat Roscón, which is like this sweet bread type thing. It can be plain (my favorite) or filled with cream, whipped cream or chocolate. Inside the roscón there is a bean and a little king figurine. If you get the bean in your slice you have to pay for the roscón and if you get the king then you have to wear a crown (included in the roscón box)  During the course of the past couple of days, of the five different roscóns that I have eaten I have had the pleasure of being crowned king twice. I never received the bean. Phew! The night of reyes I slept over at a friend`s house and when we woke up there were presents from the reyes and after looking at all of the presents I saw that there were even some for me! My family and the ¨Reyes¨ were extremely kind.

Anyways, after Reyes comes the Rebajas or discounts. I heard this and was sort of like ökay, cool¨, but literally EVERY SINGLE store has everything at least 30 percent off and sometimes up to 80 percent. I went shopping with some friends and the mall was PACKED! It was ridiculous. These rebajas go on until the end of February as well. There are a lot of cool things, but some of the stuff is what you would expect to pay for 5 euro, but other things are extremely nice. I left the rebajas feeling fairly satisfied and a little claustrophobic. Well, a lot of other things happened this week, but we have school tomorrow and I still have oh so much to do. Enjoy going back to school or work and I hope that everyone had a good holiday! ¡Hasta Luego!

La Alhambra

Happy New Year Everyone! This week was very exciting. To start Onerva and I went on a little excursion to Granada for 3 days. Then after that was New Years, which obviously was very fun.

So about a week ago I found out that I would have 4 days of “vacation” from running (even though I still had to train, just not at the track). Given this news Onerva and I decided to do something about it. We made the decision to travel somewhere and after much discussion we decided that Granada was the place to go. We made all of the arrangements and on Tuesday we went to the bus station in the center of Alicante. The bus ride was supposed to be seven hours but of course the bus broke down in Lorca (don’t ask me where that is because I could not tell you even if I wanted to) and we were stuck in this little city for four extra hours. We switched buses and finally made it Granada. One little thing that we did not realize when we decided on Granada is that it has the coldest temperatures in Spain right now. It was quite a shock being in a climate 15 degrees celsius colder.

Anyways, Granada was very beautiful. We visited the Alhambra, this huge fortress and also the Baños Arabes which were very cool. There were three different baths (basically pools) one was cold, one regular, and one hot. There was also a sauna. I liked it so much because there were no lights, only candles and it was super relaxing and with the cold weather it was refreshing to swim in a hot tub. We also saw probably thirty churches and the Cathedral which was huge! I enjoyed Granada but to tell you the truth it was a bit too touristy for my tastes. For a minute I actually forgot that I lived in Alicante and I was expecting to return back to the United States. It was as if all of my experiences in Spain had never happened. That kind of scared me a bit so I was a little relieved to return to Alicante.

After one night of rest it was time for New Years! The day was pretty regular. I trained, walked around and watched one of my new favorite series here, Física o Química, with my family. Then for dinner I went to one of my friend’s house and ate a lot of things. The main thing was kind of like fondue but we put other stuff like meat and vegetables in the cheese. It has a name and it is something like “rocklet” but I am not sure.

Anyways, after that we all went to the Ayuntamiento of San Vicente and there were literally hundreds of people. This is were we ate the infamous grapes. It was super hard and I basically ended up choking and not being able to finish on time. It was my first attempt and my friends assured me that not many people can do it well. The whole thing with the grapes is that right before 12 oclock there are 12 chimes in Madrid and each time you have to swallow a grape. It doesn’t sound that bad but when the chimes happen every second and the grapes are big and have seeds it becomes more difficult. After that we walked to one of my friends house in the country and went to the party there. There were a ton of people and it was super fun! However now I am beyond exhausted! This is our last week of vacations so I hope to do some other fun stuff. Again, Happy New Year! Hasta Luego!

Then comes Nochebuena, AKA Christmas Eve. We all went to Monica’s sister’s house to eat. We listened to villancicos or carols of Christmas and hung out before the feast. Then Papa Noel came to bring presents to the little ones. Sarah, who is 6, was extremely excited until she found out that Santa Claud was actually at the house and she started the cry. When she hear that there were presents she was happier, but again when the idea that Santa Claus would actually come to the house came up the crying began again. Although we all felt sorry for her, it was pretty funny. Anyways, there was a plethora of meat and seafood and we ate a ton. Afterwards we all sat around and talked until half of us were sleeping and we drove back to the house. The next day, (today as I write this) was Navidad or Christmas. My friend and her family invited me to her house so I celebrated it with them. There was even more food because this time it was lunch, not dinner. We all ate apetizers and then “cocido” which is a mixture of a bunch of meat and rice and other stuff. It was delicious and I have never eaten so much in my life. Afterwords we all enjoyed polverons and turron, tipical desserts of Christmas. We all then watched a movie huddled in blankets. It was very fun and really relaxing. Although after these two days of cooking and parties I need some sleep. Happy Holidays Everyone!

First off: go with the flow. At the beginning, I told myself to do this and I pretty much did what I thought was “go with the flow” which basically translated to “don’t be difficult” in my world. However I have recently realized that a better translation would be to “just do as the Spanish do.” An example of this is the following: food. Let’s see. I run here and at my house in the United States I eat fairly healthy. Here, I eat… differently. Not less healthily, maybe a little bit, but more of less foods that I usually wouldn’t consider “good” for running. The night before a race we all ate ice cream and fried calamari and at first I was a little skeptical. I then thought to myself “no no no” and realized that that moment would be the perfect time to just go with the flow. That night I enjoyed my ice cream and calamari very much.

The next thing is: be open. One thing that most people, or at least I thought, is that being a foreigner, many people would find me interesting and talk to me a bunch. I have a very outgoing personality so luckily I did not fall completely into the trap that I would not have to actually try to make friends. I know a good amount of people who assume that everyone will want to talk to them because they are “different”. This is not exactly the case. To make friends and meet people you need to be open, social, and kind (like in every country.) If you are kind of shy my advice would be “let it go”. You opted to study abroad so you clearly have the courage to let loose and talk a little bit. That will make things a whole lot easier.

My last major tip corresponds to the previous. Practice the language! Many foreigners think that they have a bad accent or they are nervous to speak in another language because they don’t know it very well. Well, the sad news is that if you don’t practice you are not going to learn the new language either. Speak often and speak proud is my advice. It would be pretty hard for your speaking skills to diminish by practicing so there is nothing to lose.

Alright well those are a few pieces of advice from me. Christmas is this coming week and we just received our grades on Friday and I passed all of my classes! History of Art almost kept me back, but thankfully I pulled through. Well I will keep everyone up to date on my whereabouts and plans for Christmas in the upcoming week. Happy Holidays! Hasta Luego!

Not only were the waterfalls gorgeous but the entire city was so little and so full of nature. Her family has literally hundreds of orange and lemon trees in their “backyard” - I guess I can call it that? We went there and picked so many and I brought a ton back to my host family. Another thing that I really liked was the house. I am so used to living in a flat that I almost forgot what it was like to live in an actual house. When we arrived I was astonished by how big it was, but in reality it is probably smaller than a typical house in the United States. Although they have a pool which is not as typical in the US. They also have a river that flows along side of the house. It was like something out of a book. Everywhere there was greenery and everyone (the few people that we saw) knew each other by first name (although most of them were speaking in Valenciano.) I was so glad that I got to experience a small town.

On top of that I was introduced to new food. I tried nisperos for the first time. I don’t know what they are called in English, but they were really good and kind of like a peach, except softer. My friends and I also cooked this food that I forgot the name of but the outcome was sort of like a pizza, minus cheese and sauce and with a bunch of other things. The dough was absolutely phenomenal and we cooked our little creations in this HUGE oven (the size of a small room) in her house. We also made empanadillas de atun y tomate which were very delicious. I sadly had to return for school on Friday but I came back to Alicante refreshed from my little trip.

Other highlights of the week are that I had my first race this weekend in Alzira. It was roughly 5 kilometers and I did pretty well, but let me tell you how stressful it is. For those of you who have run a race before you know that before it you are EXTREMELY nervous and I know for me at least during cross country I am always worried about turning the wrong way or getting lost or something. Well now imagine al of those feelings and put them in another language. Also add the fact that many Spanish people are a lot more laid back which means that I did not find out what time I was running until 5 minutes before my race. It was a bit hectic. Although it was super fun and my team did really well!

One last thing to leave you all with. Everyone is starting to play Christmas music here now because the holiday is approaching. I am not sure if Spain REALLY likes Mariah Carey or if they just don’t like any of our other Christmas songs but I have heard “All I want for Christmas is you” more times than I have ever heard in my entire life. Hasta Luego!

To keep my blog interesting, I thought I would talk about some of my favorite things so far in Spain. In the United States my favorite place to go is Red Mango, a frozen yogurt store. Here there is no Red Mango, let alone Starbucks, but I have found a VERY good (possibly even better) substitute: Yomy. It is located in downtown Alicante but whenever I get the opportunity I go there and order the same thing everyday: a natural classic with passionfruit. Just talking about it makes me hungry. Anyways, another thing that I really like around here are the busses. There are busses everywhere and the longest you ever have to wait for the bus to come is 30 minutes on Sundays. I can go anywhere with my bus pass very easily. Proof of this was tonight when Onerva and I accidently got on the wrong bus. We ended up in San Juan (not TOO far from where we live), but we decided to get off at one of the stops there anyway because there was a carnival! San Juan is beautiful and the fair had little shops, food, music and lights. All of the city is getting ready for Christmas and the Corte Ingles (huge department store) already has all of their Christmas lights up.

Well, until next time. Hasta Luego!

The Plaza de Torros

This week again was pretty normal. Rajoy of the Partido Popular is now president of Spain and Thanksgiving happened. Although I am embarrassed to say that I forgot about Thanksgiving until Wednesday night. The day of, the most that we did was my friends and I wrote Happy Thanksgiving on all of the chalkboards and drew turkeys with our hands. By the end of the day I am pretty sure that none of my friends had learned how to pronounce “Thanksgiving” correctly but at least it was an attempt!

This week as I was looking at my map of Alicante I realized that I do not know Alicante very well. I go down the the Barrio and the Port and Calle Novelda (the main street) but there are so many parts to explore. So some friends and I decided to explore a bit with out free time. For the first time I finally daw the Plaza de Torros and it is so pretty. There was even a little museum inside that we visited. After that we went to a neighborhood closer to the castle and found this beautiful archeology museum that we had been looking for. As we got closer we saw that there were firetrucks and ambulances and hoards of people. We peeked over and there were EMTs everywhere and there were people at the gate to the museum saying that we couldn’t enter. We were all so worried! It looked absolutely terrible. There were people lying all over on the ground. There were shouting and crying and everything. We all panicked for a bit until we finally noticed some of their shirts. “Simulacion” It was a simulation of a disaster. Phew! It was a VERY believable simulation.

After watching the simulation for a while we went into the museum. It was so high tech! There was music, projections and really cool artifacts from Alicante and surrounding areas. I was very happy that we went and visited it. I realized that Alicante is such a wonderful city. I had always liked it but now after seeing more I see how diverse it is.

I also got the opportunity to see more of the surrounding area this past week when a couple friends from my team and I were attempted to find a pool. We had planned to meet at 7:00 and of course one of our friends was 45 minutes late. Then after 2 hours of roundabouts we found ourselves in Mutxamel which is definitely NOT where the pool is. We went through some little towns and one of them, Sant Joan, was so cute. There were lights above all of the streets for Christmas and the streets were so tiny and it was right next to the beach. We went through a bunch of other little towns as well and I was excited to see tinier villages since Alicante is rather large. Although we were lost it still was so fun! We actually never found the pool so we went out to dinner instead. The lesson that I learned from this is that being lost is not always a bad thing.

Well Christmas is approaching and only three more weeks until vacations and that means Turron Turron Turron! (a type of candy from Alicante eaten only at Christmas, although I have had the privilege of trying it before the actual holiday) Hasta Luego!

Discoteca!

This week was very exciting. First off, Monday was my birthday! My friends and I decided to celebrate it on Saturday so that we could actually have some fun so Monday was pretty chill. Everyone at school sang to me and congratulated me so I was very content. It was a pretty normal day: after class I hung out with my friends and “studied” but more or less celebrated since it was my birthday and then went straight to the track.

After a grueling workout, I went home sweaty, tried and with my overweight backpack and running bag in hand. Although it was my birthday, I was ready to sleep. As I unlocked the door I was welcomed by complete darkness and my sister Paula was standing in the entrance way wearing very weird clothes. “Excuse me, can I see your ID.” I was a bit flustered and responded, “I don’t have my ID.” After she asked how old I was, I replied for the first time “18.” Paula then told me that I could enter the club because I was of age. She opened the door, the strobe lights came on and the music started. My kitchen had been converted into a discoteca and my entire family was dressed very oddly and were singing and dancing. After that they basically attacked me with hugs and kisses. It was so fun. There were all different types of “club drinks” and different “club” types of food and everything was club themed. We all ate dinner and my family all gave me gifts and I had never been happier. After that we all played a game of charades. The best part was when my mom Monica was acting out an animal or something and my dad Piri guessed “fea” which means ugly. We all literally laughed for 20 minutes. My birthday was a success.

The next major event of the week was The Huelga or strike. On Thursday there was another strike for the same reasons as before: lack of funding and the elimination of classes. My friends and I decided to take advantage of this so we went to the university to study. The University it beautiful and my friends told me that there are secret passageways underneath some of the buildings from the Civil War. I thought that that was really cool. The buildings are lovely and there are green plants everywhere and even little ponds. We saw some people protesting so my friends and I joined in. We really felt like universitarios!

Last big thing of the week was my birthday celebration on Saturday. My friends told me to meet them at the bus stop and then we would go to my friend Noelia’s house to hangout before going to dinner. I did as I was told and met 2 of my friends at the bus stop. We walked to my other friend’s house and as I walked inside the dark room the lights sprung on and my friends popped out from behind all of the furniture. Another surprise!! They all kissed and hugged me and then gave me some gifts. They gave me a card with a picture of all of us on it and it was so cute. The next gift was something that I have wanted since the day I got here. It was a t-shirt that says “the University of Alicante” obviously in Valenciano. I was also given a sash with the colors of the Spanish flag that said “Feliz Cumpleaños 18” with all of my friend’s signatures and big glasses. The last gift is what really made me realize how much I am going to miss my friends here. I came to Spain with 5 bracelets. I now have 0. I don’t know how but I always seem to lose them. My friends gave me a silver bracelet with my name engraved on one side and on the other “ De tus Chicos de España” My friends are too sweet. My friends then alerted me that they had all cooked and we would be eating in the house. My favorite food tortilla española was one of the many delicacies.

Anyways, this week was very fun filled and now I am ready for a week of tests and training. ALSO tonight are the elections in Spain and we are all listening diligently to find out who will win. Although, most people are pretty certain it will be PP (similar to republicans). One more little thing to leave you with. I started to notice the campaigning for president about a month ago. In the United States the campaigning is much more prevalent and definitely more aggressive. More to come about the elections next week. Hasta Luego!

Some of us at Monica’s party

I think that it is safe to say that at least 75% of my friends have birthdays in November/beginning of December (the other 25% are in April and May) which means parties parties parties. That being said, the highlight of my week was the surprise birthday party of one of my best friends.

So my friend Monica is literally the nicest person that I have ever met, so I was super excited to help throw her a surprise birthday party. Although during the week it was a bit tricky. There are about four girls who I am super close with (Monica being one of them) and we always hang out. However this week we had a lot to do to prepare for Monica’s birthday and Monica obviously could not come with. Whenever she asked to hang out we always made excuses or changed the subject and it was obvious that she was getting a little upset.

However, on Saturday that all changed. There were 15 of us and we all put in 10 euros to buy her a present. I think that is pretty common in Spain to buy one big present from all of one’s friends. I like that better because instead of getting 15 little gifts you can get one great gift. Anyways, we ended up purchasing a really cool camera along with a couple of little funny things like glasses that said 18. We also made her around 5 different cards which were very pretty. The night of, we all went to one of my friend’s house who lives in the same apartment complex as Monica and decorated the whole entrance. Her father was in on the plan and right on cue Monica and her father came walking down the stairs. It looked like she was going to cry she was so shocked. When we asked her if she was surprised she told us that she was “sin palabras.” We were all very pleased with ourselves.

Afterwards we all went on a walk before heading out to dinner. Dinner was delicious and of course with all of our special planning we had put a cake in the refrigerator at the restaurant earlier. The whole restaurant singing “Happy Birthday” and the arrival of the huge chocolate cake was quite a scene. After dinner we went out and celebrated in the “barrio” where I and most other teenage Alicantinos usually go most weekends. It is a nice spot where everyone hangs out at night. It is also extremely old and very beautiful.

Other than that my week was pretty regular. However my lack of sleep has been affecting a Spanish a bit and I have become very fond of the phrase “no me entero” which basically translates to I am listening to you but not hearing a word.

School has been getting a bit trickier and running more intense. Rumor has it that in the upcoming weeks we will be running the Half Marathon in Benindorm. I have very mixed feelings about this. Anyways Spain is doing well, the temperature has been pretty stable EXCEPT that Wednesday it is supposed to be 3 degrees celsius, which is quite chilly. I am almost reminded of home!