Los Lunes...

I think I've been avoiding writing in here because I don't have a camera, and the idea of blogging is much less fun without pictures. However, my goddess of a mom has solved my problem with a quick trip to Fries Electronics and the United States Postal Service, so I should have one within a week or so. I love the Silicon Valley, right?

Last week in my Spanish Contemporary History class, we had a "scavenger hunt" through the city of Alicante to find historical things in our own city. It was a little unorganized and chaotic, but overall a fun learning experience. Who knew that so many streets were named after Facist activists? I felt a little bit like I was on Amazing Race, because my teacher just walked into our classroom, told us our teams, handed us papers and maps and said, "go". It was a race to the finish! My partner and I were first back, yess -- but that may have had more to do with the general lack of enthusiasm for the project from other class members for various reasons than our advanced scavenging skills. It was a good time, though. It really cemented my knowledge of the Barrio and the downtown area, and added some fun facts to my knowledge base, so I guess that's good.

On Friday, I finally finished my midterms! Whew, a week and a half of Spanish testing is always draining so some of the girls and I went out to this cafe Lauren and I had found on our walk through the city I blogged about earlier. We split a giant pitcher of sangria, and it was awesome just to sit there next to the beautiful basilica in the old part of town, surrounded by colorful houses, potted plants and Spanish tile at this old wooden restaurant. You'd pay so much for that sort of atmosphere in the States, but here? Its everywhere. Its just a part of the culture. Perfect way to start off the weekend.

Saturday, my friend from Santa Clara came to visit me in Alicante! (No, not all the way from the US -- she lives in London, haha.) That was really fun, because I got to share some of my life here with someone from back home. The weather was a little cold for Alicante, but nowhere near the cold of London, so after walking around a bit, we just sat and basked on the beach. In November. Awesome. My madre spoiled us rotten with enough food to feed a small army, which of course, being the non-wasting students we are, we ate. Waste not, want not, am I right? On Saturday night, we went out to this cider place in the Barrio and ordered this weird cider stuff that I'd been wanting to try since I first saw it in Spain. Let me tell you up front -- steer clear. Very strange. I wish I had taken a picture for all of you back home, but it's this weird wooden contraption they roll up to your table. The bottle of cider goes upside down in this little hole in the wooden thing, and then you push a button to spray it in the glass. That part is fun, anyway.

On Sunday, I climbed the castle again. This time I took a different route, looking out over the ocean as we were climbing. Beautiful. I don't think I am ever going to stop loving the ocean as much as I do. I am a Pisces after all!

Sunday night, Jeana and I met up with some of my other friends in Alicante to introduce her to the wonderful world of chocolate con churros. We found a good place by the Plaza, and it was a pretty hilarious experience of once more trying to finagle our way through ordering at a Spanish chocolateria. We ended up with four huge mugs of melted chocolate and a huge round of Spanish sweet bread for the six of us, so I think we did pretty well. Basically, you just dip the bread or fruit or whatever into this chocolate, which is more like a melted bar of chocolate than anything else. It was a lot of fun...I haven't laughed that hard in so long, I was practically crying. Good food with good friends = great memory! Unfortunately, Jeana had to hop the plane back to London at that point :( Lauren and I walked back to our respective houses, but not before stopping and talking for literally another hour and a half at our corner! We were laughing so hard, people must've thought we were crazy. My madre says she can always tell when I've spent all day talking in English, hahah.

And today... well. Its Monday. I've spent the last two hours trying to figure out my class schedule for Santa Clara next quarter (I know, can you believe it? I can't!). However, we finished every tense that exists in Spanish today, and wrote out everything we've learned on the board.... it was a lot. Really cool to see. Also, I can roll my rs on the regular now!

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (can you hear it?)
<3 k