Random Thoughts

It's amazing how much I can post in my blog when I want to procrastinate. Technically my test isn't until June 1st and it's only May 19th...plenty of time to study! I just wanted to post a few pictures from this past week. Burbuja, our puppy, has been growing like a weed and now he is finally walking...everywhere! Last night a terrified Ariadna rushed into my room asking if I had seen him. I was skyping with Maggie at the time and said no but that I would help her search for him. Just then, she let out a sigh of relief as she found him in my tennis shoe. I think he likes my room/me because he always, somehow, ends up at the bottom of my feet when I least expect it. Compare this picture with the one in the post titled "Vacations and Puppies."

On Tuesday, May 17th, our program rented us a Catamaran for 2 hours. We left from the port of Alicante and drove around the coast of the city where we were able to stop and swim in the water for awhile. Unfortunately, it was mostly cloudy and windy during our voyage so although I swam, I payed the price of being cold after. It was fun to have the group all together one last time before we went our separate ways. The professors and all of the CIEE staff joined us as well which was hysterical and fun. They kept trying to get us to dance to Katy Perry with them. The picture below is before we set sail: Ari, Natalie, Me and Casey.

Below is a picture of the Santa Barbara Castle from the Port. I'm in love with the Castle if you couldn't tell by now.

Calp: Where Seagulls Attack

I realized I failed to write about a hiking experience I did a few months ago. One of the reasons I love Alicante is the geographical diversity of the province. Yes, the beach is great but I also love the backdrop of the mountains and the opportunities to participate in outdoor activities. The last weekend in March, my friends, Casey, Sara, Allison and I decided to venture about an hour north of Alicante (by Tram) to climb a trail our friend Cristina had told us about. We were surprised when we arrived that we were actually climbing a cliff located right on the edge of the beach called "Ilfach" in the town of Calp (pronounced Cal-pae). Here is a picture of it:

Apparently after the tunnel it was "muy peligroso" (very dangerous)

The day was perfect: sunny, nice breeze and about 60 degrees. It was also Sara's 21st birthday and it was fun to celebrate with a picnic on top of the summit.

Although we were about 3o minutes late back to Alicante for Sara's b-day dinner, the day was fun, but pretty uneventful. This past Sunday, after riding in the limo Saturday night, we decided to go again. This time is was supposed to be me, Casey, Sara and Lindsay. However, Casey didn't wake up on time, which leads into my next story. If you haven't read the previous post, it is necessary to understand what I am about to write. After arriving home around 5:30 AM, I didn't end up falling asleep until around 6 and woke up at 9:15 to meet everyone at the train station. I was feeling the effects of the previous night/morning but surprisingly I wasn't that tired. I was the first one to be at Renfe and I was 5 minutes late. Upon arriving I call Sara to find out she woke up late but she's on her way. She told me to go ahead to the Tram station which is another 5-8 minute walk and purchase our tickets, that way we wouldn't waste time doing that and we could catch the 10:11 AM Tram. It was important we caught this one because it only comes every half hour and it takes a while to get to Calp. My phone is on the verge of death due to the fact I forgot to charge it the night before and I'm trying to call Lindsay to tell her that I will call her when we are on the Tram. She was getting on at the next stop. After just barely making on to the first Tram, Sara and I were ecstatic. We literally ran onto the Tram, threw our hands up and high-fived. At the next stop which is Mercado, we were supposed to meet Lindsay. Unfortunately, our phones didn't work underground so we couldn't call her to tell her we were on the Tram. At the stop, Sara stood in the doors while I jumped out to look for Lindsay. I spotted her on the escalator about half way up and screamed, "Lindsay RUN!!" She starts taking off down the stairs, trying to squeeze through some people and the Tram doors start closing, with Sara in them. She jumps out but starts banging on the doors to try and let us in. It worked! And we got back on the Tram. Everyone was staring at us like who are these girls? And the US Embassy probably hated us for how American we were acting.

The tram ride was nice and relaxing and we didn't have a "layover" in Benidorm like before. When we got to Calp, it was raining and we were in tank tops and shorts. Luckily there is a small cafe right next to the Tram station that we hung out in for about an hour and waited for the rain to leave. As we were sitting there, discussing life and crazy things that have happened to us in Alicante, including things to do with Carpe Diem and rooftops :) (Sorry Sar, had to throw that in there so I can remember all the stories), we legit got "SHHHH-ed" by the bartender! Yes we were talking and maybe laughing a little too loud but seriously? You couldn't say, "hey keep it down or you guys are being a little loud." No, he Shh-ed us at least three more times. After the third time and it being really awkward, we decided to venture down to the rock. There is a bus you can take but the rain had let up and we felt like being outdoors. So many inside, hilarious jokes happened this day that I will only share a few of them. Basically that was our walk to the rock: Sara and Lindsay discussing living the Spanish lifestyle when they returned home, including sipping wine during la comida (lunch) and me telling them about how I delivered a baby in Ecuador. We finally reached the bottom of the cliff and began the assent. Although it was a bit misty and cloudy out, the views were just as breathtaking as the first time. This was Lindsay's first time and even with a hurt foot, she was enjoying the hike. After the tunnel is where things got interesting/terrifying. About 3/4 of the way up, Sara notice's a baby seagull. After "oooo-ing" and "ahhh-ing" for a good 5 minutes we continued. All of a sudden a seagull dove at me! I hit the ground so fast and Sara and Lindsay were like, "What?! Oh my gosh what happened?" I was like, "That seagull legit just dive bombed me." They started cracking up, and basically telling me to stop being dramatic. No more than 2 minutes later I hear behind me, "Holy crap!" One had just dove at them. We decided to go back down to safe ground which was like 20 feet below us. When I looked up I saw literally an army of seagulls flying around the cliff and swooping down at people. I was like oh hell no I am not about to climb to the top like this. We decided that we would settle, sadly, for not reaching the summit because we were not about to get our eyes or brains pecked out. Just then a man came by us and we were like, "are you going to the top?" He gave us a confused look, "Yea, why not?" Umm sir, have you seen the killer seagulls?! He laughed and said they are "harmless" and that we could follow him to the top if we wanted. Well Sara thought that this sounded like the best idea since sliced bread so we continued our journey. And continued to literally get attacked by seagulls. At one point I had to stop, take off my back pack and carry it over my head. For a visual, imagine this sandaled-Norweigen man scrambling up these steep rocks, Sara pretty close behind him and Lindsay and I about 15 feet behind her screaming, trying to yell for her to wait up. Sara goes, "I don't want to lose him! Sir, SIR can you please wait for us? My friends are a little scared." This dude had to be thinking, "Oh my gosh, what did i get myself into." We FINALLY reached the top and the seagulls seemed to be laying off. I was starving and exhausted so I whipped out my bocadillo. Just then two seagulls swooped down at all of us. Sara shrieked, "Hilary can we PLEASE go?!" Mouth full of turkey, cheese and bread I couldn't help but laugh as we scampered down the mountain. And the seagulls were mad. We tried to get down as fast as we could when we hear Lindsay scream, "GUYS! One just shit on me!" I yelled back, "Well keep going because we can't do anything now!" Sara and I are dying laughing while also trying to dodge seagull attacks as we finally make it to what we think is a safe-place. Lindsay emerges from the brush with seagull poo all over her shirt. I felt so bad for her but it was also extremely hilarious. I gave her some kleenexes I had in my backpack and she finally ended up taking off her shirt. We decided to deal with how we were going to get her another shirt after we got out of this dangerous territory. The climb down was better as the seagulls didn't see us as a threat to their young anymore. But we approached a nest and all of a sudden the mother started shrieking! "She's sounding the alarm!" we screamed and while Lindsay and I are trying to get out of there as fast as we can, Sara stops to take a PICTURE of the babies! I'm surprised she didn't die. After making it back to the tunnel, we decided to sit inside and eat our sandwiches to avoid any more possible attacks.

We almost made it down the mountain when it started raining. The day had been so unusual and crazy that all we could do was laugh and we jogged to the bus stop to try and get out of the storm. The bus brought us back to the Tram station where we had to wait 45 for our Tram to get back to Alicante. Where do we go? Oh yes, the café that shhhh-ed us and probably hates Americans. We sat in there and watched "Forrest Gump" (in Spanish of course) and treated ourselves to a glass of wine. Luckily I had brought my beach towel with me because I thought we would swim if it was nice out and I gave it to Lindsay to wrap up in. It also was my Hello Kitty one from Japan so she didn't stick out at all. After trying to stay quiet for 45+ minutes, we caught the tram back home and relived our entire adventure of the day. Despite arriving home around 8:30 and being completely wiped, we ventured over to Lindsay's house to watch "Vickie Cristina Barcelona" which is a fantastic movie. It features Scarlett Johansen, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem. It was cool to understand the context of the film since we had visited Barcelona in February. Also, the picture below is one of the few I took on our 2nd hike up Ilfach because I was too scared to get my camera out in the middle of seagull attacks.

Me, Lindsay and Sara before the attack of the seagulls

"What is our life?!"

I really should have wrote this immediately after the events of last weekend so bear with me as I try to hash out as many details as I can remember. I'll start with Saturday. My friend Casey, probably my best friend here, and I woke up early (for once) and headed to Playa San Juan which is the nice beach here in Alicante. Basically it's nicer because it's HUGE and the sand and water are cleaner than Postiguet, the beach closer to downtown and my house. We arrived around 10:15 AM, posted up in a quiet spot by the water and passed out for 3 hours. When I finally woke up I realized it was 1 PM and I was sweating. My friend Olivia who was also there, and I swam for about 10 minutes and then I passed out again...until 4 PM. There is nothing more peaceful than falling asleep in the sun, listening to the waves crash on the shore. We finally decided to wake up and head home since we were starving and realized we had been sleeping literally all day. After lunch and quick nap, my friend Sara asked me if I wanted to go out to dinner with her and her Spanish friends around 10 at one of my favorite restaurants "100 Montaditos." It serves "montaditos" which are mini-sandwiches and they have my favorite drink, a jar of tinto de verano. Sara, Casey, Natalie and I headed there around 10 and met her friends, 3 girls and a guy, who were extremely welcoming and personable. I really enjoyed practicing my Spanish with them and then seemed really interested in us as well. They taught us some Spanish slang which I enjoy learning, it helps me blend in with the Spanish youth. One of my favorite parts of the conversation was when Stefanie said, "I want to go to the US because you guys have more famous people, like Katy Perry." They had just purchased tickets to a concert in Madrid for another musical group and said that a lot of famous people don't come through Spain. I was like, "Yea, but you have Shakira!" They all stopped and stared at me. I started nerviously laughing and asked, "Don't you like Shakira?" To which they replied, "Yes she is okay." It was so funny. We also taught them how to shotgun a beer but the word for "shotgun" in Spanish is "pistola" which sounded hilarious to them. Speaking of guns, we had a big discussion on the difference in gun control laws in Spain and the U.S. It is impossible, or almost, for a young person to get their hands on guns in Spain because carrying firearms is illegal and people just don't do it. Contrary to the US where people think they have a right to carry an arm to defend themselves. Why is it then that innocent people end of up getting hurt? I don't know the logistics of it, but last night I found out from my brother that a high school student committed suicide in Winterset. Hunter ran cross country with him and apparently he didn't seem like the kid who would do that, then again, they never do. My first thought was how did he get the weapon? Thankfully no one else was hurt. I am a full-blooded American and believe in the Constitution, however, something has to be done to prevent young people from getting their hands on firearms and using them to do harm. A school shooting is in the news for a few days and then we forget about it or everyone thinks "that would never happen here." It's time to stop being naive and start facing the facts.

After our intense discussion about differences between the States and Spain, the Spanish students left to go home because they had exams this week. Sara, Sylive- who came to meet us later- and I had just finished exams so we were looking forward to going out. After dos besos to all the Spaniards, we headed to our favorite bar, Goa. We know the bartenders here, Sergio and Claudio, but unfortunately we d0n't get any free drinks. Thankfully, everything is literally 1 Euro. Sylvie and I are tired so we decide not to drink because I am going hiking with Sara, Casey and Lindsay the next day. We move on to Havanna Barrio which is another one of our favorite hang outs. However, this night all we wanted to do was use their bathroom (it's nice and actually has toliet paper). Walking out was the second time Sylive and I looked at each other and said, 'We should probably head home soon." Just then, a woman asked us if we wanted to ride in a limo. We asked, "¿Cómo?" She tried speaking in broken English which was actually harder to understand her than Spanish. She said they were promoting a new magazine, gave us wrist bands and told us to go stand out in front of KFC to wait for the limo. Sara was like, "OK!" I was like, "Eh this is sketchy but we'll check it out." And Sylvie said, "Guys, no this is weird and sketch." Just then Sara saw her "friend" Pierre who I guess she met literally one time before that. She was convinced it would be fine since she knew him and he was working for this campaign as well. Before heading out of the barrio to find our limo, we were asked to get a picture with the mascot bunny. See below:

Sure enough after about 20 minutes of waiting and meeting new Spanish friends who assured us it was safe, we were in the limo with an open bar. It was awesome! We drove around Alicante for about 45 minutes saying out loud, "What is our life?!"

Sara, Me, Sylvie and our new friend Natalie in the limo

After that, our new friends, Natalie and Stefanie invited us to come out with them. This was the 3rd time Sylvie and I tried to leave and go home, but in reality, we were having a blast and didn't want to leave. We went to a few clubs before they finally took us to one I had never been to before called "5 Avenida." It was actually on a side street on the way to my casa. We were there until about 4:30..yes, AM when Sylvie and I FINALLY decided we needed to go home, if we were going to be in any shape at all to go hiking. We literally turned around to leave the dance floor and a guy offered us two champagne glasses and a bottle. He was like, "I have too many so you guys can have this one for free!" Are you kidding me?!? How does this night keep getting better. We stayed for another half hour and finally headed home around 5, both of us laughing about the events of the night, completely in love with Alicante and the Spanish lifestyle.

The Beginning of the End

This past week I took my final exams for my CIEE classes. I think they went well although one of them was cumulative and entirely essay form. Which resulted in many hand cramps during and after the test. Although I am done with these classes and exams, I still have my direct enrollment (DE) course and exam to take on June 1st. I received a wonderful card from my grandparents in the mail a few weeks ago saying they hadn't heard much about my classes so I wanted to take a bit of a reflection on my semester (class wise) to keep you all up to speed. I believe I wrote this in an earlier post that I was enrolled in 3 classes through my program. The first class I had was Spanish Popular Culture class on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Throughout the semester I learned some useful and some crazy facts about my new home. For example, for the most part, Spaniards don't like to rent things, such as apartments (they call them houses). They like to own their homes so even though it is an apartment complex, they somehow have "bought" their own apartment. Also, unlike the States, Spaniards don't get off work until 8 or 9 at night because they have a siesta in the afternoon and then re-open their stores at 5. An example of a crazy fact is that the reason Spaniards do not have "to-go" coffee (or anything for that matter) is because they see drinking coffee or eating as a social ritual and if you don't have time for it, you don't do it. This has obviously made me analyze our fast pace lifestyle in the states but I have come to the conclusion that I like walking/driving with my 20 ounce caramel latte. Sorry Spain, you are losing this battle. We also watched about 5 movies during the semester; some were good, other's just cheesy but I did learn a lot about the culture and lifestyle during Franco (the dictator) and also the role of women in society. We learned colloquial phrases which were helpful in order to blend in with the Spanish culture and especially the youth, and we learned how to order different types of drinks. Like I said, a very useful class :)

The next class was a Women's Literature class and this was the most challenging for me, partly because of the content but partly because we had a lot of work. My professor, Debora, was a cute little lady with brown, wavy hair and glasses and extremely nice and personable. Her teaching style on the other hand, I would have liked to tweak. Sometimes it felt like she wasn't prepared for class or we would spend 2 hours discussing life, incorporated into the readings of the day. Discussion was good and a helpful part of class but sometimes I needed more clear-cut, this is what she wants us to know lecture so I could focus my studying on that. This class did help me with my Spanish writing skills as I wrote close to 10 papers throughout the semester. I also enjoyed our final project which was to choose a book, or a short story, read it and then write a 10 page analysis. When it was nice outside, she would let us sit in the grass and hold class or sometimes we would go get coffee and discuss readings, which would never happen in the States but I really liked this. I liked her laid-back style but sometimes she was too laid back, in my opinion. My third and final class was Public Health and probably the one I am the most critical. Originally, I choose the Alicante program because it offered this course and the description said that we would have guest speakers, such as doctors and nurses, and we would be visiting a local hospital or clinic. Neither of which happened, to my disappointment. I did, however, broaden not only my general Spanish vocabulary but my medical Spanish vocabulary and the book I purchased I am bringing home for future reference. What I found most intriguing about the class was the similarities and differences between Spanish healthcare and the States. Especially for someone like me who wants to pursue a career in this area, I think it is helpful to have a good understanding of different systems. We would also read articles about the latest medical topics or new vaccines which I found interesting as well.

In general, my classes were different from what I am used to in the States. I was shocked when my professors would continually be late to class or when someone didn't have their paper done and wanted to turn it in later they were okay with it. That is how the Spanish system operates. I did enjoy how personable the professors were and since my classes were small, they all knew my name and how I contributed to the class. I can not believe I am done with my program! To celebrate, they rented a catamaran for this coming Tuesday for all of us to go out on for the afternoon, professors included! There is an option of snorkeling but I think you all know that I will NOT be participating. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone one last time before we all head our separate ways. I still can't believe I arrived in January and now it's May and my time is winding down. Luckily, I still have about a month and a half left, a lot more time than most people. My classes taught me a lot about the Spanish style of teaching, education system and culture in general but I have always thought and still believe that I have learned more outside the classroom. Interacting with my family and asking their opinions on what I have learned in class has broaden my horizons and made me appreciate the Spanish lifestyle, even if I don't agree with everything. Spain, and the people, have also taught me a lot about myself. I don't know how to elaborate except that it is something internal. And thinking back to the first few months I was here, I have seen growth and progress with myself. Whenever I go abroad, I am always happy, probably the happiest I have ever been but Spain was different. I struggled the first month (to speak the language, to find friends, to find happiness) but now I feel like I did that first week in Costa Rica and my first (and entire) month in Ecuador. Spain has opened my eyes to so many wonderful things about my life and taught me that everything will be okay. I just have to learn to dance through the storm.