Ali-Ali-cante!

So, I've been here for almost a week now. When I first got here on Sunday, I was so nervous. They started speaking spanish to me and I went into panic mode. Cristina, Javier, and Lizzy (my roommate, she's from the States) and several other families and landlords all met us at the flower shop in the most famous plaza in Alicante, Plaza de los Luceros. We did the whole "besos" thing, one kiss on each cheek and they showed me to their apartment. My room is cute (you can see pictures on facebook) and they are really nice. They cook us every meal (outside of breakfast) and we sit down and talk as they help us with our Spanish.

On Monday, we had orientation. I had to take a placement test and get everything set up. Monday night, we went out with some other USAC students. Pretty fun :). Tuesday, we had a walking tour of Alicante (pictures on facebook). Wednesday, I started school. I only had Spanish Comp I so it was pretty easy. Thursday, I had 2 classes, Spanish Comp I and Spanish Culture and Civilization. Ahhh!! Dropping the Spanish Culture and Civilization and picking up Spanish Conversation. Still waiting for my Dances of Spain and Spanish Cuisine classes to start who knows when...

And then, we went out Thursday night (no classes Fridays!!) We went to this girl Megan's apartment so she could show us some of the local hot spots (she's a year long student) and pregamed. People don't go out until arond 1 AM here, at the earliest!! The first bar was very small, but cute. We ordered mojitos, I was soo nervous, I had never had a mojito before. Let me tell you, WOW! It was crazy delicious. Then we went to this other bar and danced for awhile. Next, we went to get the flaming shots. Shots are not my specialty. It was okay though, and pretty cool. Wish my camera wasn't dead though so I could have taken pictures. Then we had this "black vodka" drink. It was candy. Next, we went to Swing. Lots of dancing and a few Jack and Cokes later, it was 6:30 AM. Ah! And the bar still wasnt closed. We got home around 7, and I had the hiccups (which my host family laughed at the next day). It was a lot of fun :)

The next day, aghhhh. We woke up around 2 and had lunch. We had to be at the Plaza de Ayuntamiento at 3:30. To climb a mountain. Man oh man, maybe I should have had a couple less Jack and Cokes. All in all, it was beautiful (pictures now on facebook). Like words cannot describe kind of beautiful. Then came back and had a long siesta, then dinner, then went to bed.

Alicante is beautiful and I'm having a lot of fun :) And a side note, I'm not going into complete shock mode when people start talking to me in Spanish anymore! Woooo!

Here is the castle/mountian and some of my favorite pictures:

My First Couple Days

Well, let's start with my journey to get here. First, it was snowing. Crazy snowing. Snowing in Detroit and Chicago. I could not have either flight delayed since I had a total of three flights that I had to catch. So there was that. Then, mom's GPS was not functioning. Then, my bag was overweight. $60 dollars. Then, I was patted down each of the three airports because I couldnt pass the security metal detector thing. Ah I just wanted to get there! So, finally we arrived in the madrid airport and no bags. I just couldn't catch a break! So oh well, no bags.

We finally get to the hotel, and it's time to get ready for dinner. We had this weird pasta thing with a spinach filling inside, pretty good. And then they brought us some fried turkey/chicken (not really sure) with these european style french fries. Then, we had kiwi. Pretty random if you ask me. Then I paaaaassed out, such a long day(s).

The next day, we went to the Prado Museum. It was so beautiful, I want to go back so I can see more. All of those painters that I learned about in high school and finally being able to see them in person is a feeling I can't describe. Next we went to the Plaza Mayor, the most famous plaza in Madrid. Very cool. And then, we went to the Royal Palace. There are so many rooms!! But I loved the guided tours so I could learn the history behind everything. It was beautiful. And then I got my bags finally :)

The next day was terrible. About 6 or 8 of us went out to watch the Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid futbol game at some of the bars and to get some drinks (that I am allowed to have!) the night before. The next morning I woke up at 12:00 PM. I was supposed to be at the bus for Segovia at 9:00 AM. Oh no!! I was sick all day and some of the rest. Three of us girls were all vomiting and very, very sick for that day and some of the rest. We believe we had food poisoning, and plus the alcohol, different water and food couldn't have helped either. So it looks like I'll have to make my way up to Segovia during the next four months to see the Roman Aqueduct!

Finally, on the 15th, we got to go to Toledo, Spain. One word: Beautiful!! Way prettier than Toledo, Ohio :p. We went to the main Cathedral in Toledo and I have no words. I SO wish I could have taken pictures. Everything was so detailed. I was just in awe the whole entire time. Even the outside was ridiculous, at least I got pictures of that. Then we saw a synagogue and got to go shopping for awhile. I got a necklace and a pair of earrings :) Before we left, we drove up to see the most breathtaking view of Toledo. Check out my pics on facebook!

That night, most (if not all) of the USAC students went out. I'm talking like 30 or 40 students. We journeyed for a place to go and after awhile didn't find a place where we could all fit. Man my feet were killing me. I don't even know why I ever try and where heels. Well a lot of the students took the metro to this seven story club called Kapital. A few of us weren't really sure if we wanted to take a taxi home since the metro closed at 2 so we went to this irish pub for a about 20 minutes. It was too packed so we left to go to the hotel to change our shoes. Then, we met up with another big group of USAC students and decided to venture off to Kapital. We went the wrong way on the metro and then everybody wanted to go this other route, but I knew it was the wrong way so my friend, Alyssa, and I went and asked for directions and we eventually got there. We had to search all seven floors for our friends! Of course they were on the 7th floor. We had so much fun!!

Then we got back around 4 AM (since bars/clubs don't close until 6 or 7 AM) and had to hurry and get to sleep since we had to be up at 7 AM for our 5 hour bus ride to Alicante!

Overall, Madrid was a lot of fun. All of the USAC students were very cool and we all made friends immediately. The only thing though, you have to be so cautious of pick-pocketing. Our program directors scared us all, haha. Better than to be paranoid then naive I suppose. There were always people on the streets. I mean the sidewalks were bigger than the actual streets! It's really cool, you can meet a lot more people that way. Sorry everything is so rushed on here, just had a lot to catch up on!! I'll post soon on Alicante.