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: