We made it a week!

  Say it with me:

Yo camino          I walk

Tu caminas        You walk

          

El/Ella camina          He/She/It walks

Nosotros caminamos          We walk

    

Vosotros caminais          You all walk

(the vosotros- yes its real, and yes, people use it. learn it.)

Ellos caminan         They walk

In short- we do a lot of walking here. We walk to the bus stop. We walk from the bus to school. We walk to class through the gigantic campus. We walk to go eat. We walk to go hang with friends. We walk to el Mercado to get groceries. Siempre caminando. And it rocks! I love it. 
It is just part of the way of life here that is so different from America (at least from where I am from). Everything is so close and easily accessible. The city is built for pedestrians. I have definitely had to get used to so much walking and also to preparing myself to be out all day. The days start out pretty cold, so I have to dress in layers and gradually peel them off as the day gets warmer and warmer. I just love being out in the city, walking and being a part of everything. Its so fun to finally have a real spanish bus pass, cell phone, and student ID. It really makes me feel like I live here now.

Here are some other small discoveries I have made about doing life here:

• This is the way people do meal times: They eat toast and orange juice for breakfast, have a huge lunch at like 1 or 2, and basically just eat fruit or a sandwich for dinner. Pepita has told us countless times that it is muuuuch healthier to do meals this way rather than the American way. Muy bien para el estomago, she says.
• People here do not eat ice cream in the winter. At. All. When we told our professor that we eat ice cream year round, she could not understand why we would want to eat something so cold in the winter. I guess it makes sense! But it means that the two times we have gone out for ice cream we have looked like complete tourists. But.. its ice cream. Sorry I'm not sorry.
• Eating on the go is RUDE. The dinner table is a sacred place and therefore is not to be disgraced by neglect. People who eat while walking, sitting in a park, on the bus, or basically anywhere besides a dinner table are considered to be either a.) Poor or b.) Bad mannered.This also means that sometimes it is rude to use the dinner table to do homework or basically anything else besides eating and socializing.
• Leggings are pants in Europe. Sorry, its just the way it is. I'm afraid no amount of twitter complaints will ever change that here!
• Everyone and their mother has a dog and they take it everywhere. And there are no pooper-scooper laws here to keep the streets clean so, cuidado!
• People here are not considered to be old until they are 70 years of age. Until then, people are "allowed" to act young. My professor went around the classroom and asked all of us how old our parents are. She said that by Spanish standards, every single one of our parents is very young! I love this, because it seems like all the adults here are all so active and carefree, like the young people.
• People here constantly refer back to the Franco dictatorship period when talking about all different subjects. I can tell that it was a time that still greatly affects their country.
• Everything smells like fish.

I've learned so much from being here for one week, no?

I can't believe that it has only been a week!

Classes were wonderful. My professors are probably some of the best teachers I have ever had. I have also continued to meet lots of really neat people.

I absolutely love my Cine class. It is a class of about 7 or 8 students- all girls- taught by this really cool hip young professor (also a girl) that I enjoy a lot. The class is all about how movies and film are used to portray social norms and problems. It involves a lot of in-class discussion, which I love because I am in the class with girls from other countries (Japan, China, South Korea, and Russia). It is so interesting to hear about how things are different in each person's country. Right now, we are doing a unit on how women are portrayed in film and what it says about society. It has been eye-opening to discuss issues having to do with women in society with these girls and realize that women in the US have always had more rights than women in many other countries.
I have also been so excited to make some friends from that class! We are hoping to all go out and get coffee one day soon, which is so exciting! I can't get over how cool it is to converse with people from all over the world, simply because I know Spanish.


This week was also exciting because our other roommate, Wendy, arrived! Wendy is a student from Belgium who lived with Pepita last semester too. She is here in Alicante studying translating. The house is now full and we are enjoying having another "sister" here to get to know, as well as another culture (Belgian) to learn about. 

And I can't forget about bowling... 
Bowling in Spain. With Pepita's french club. What an experience.
We were picked up at the apartment at 5:00 by Pepita's friend and her boyfriend (both in their seventies like Pepita) and made a 20 minute drive across the city to this huge mall with an arcade-type place and bowling alley. Once inside the mall, we stopped with Pepita at a candy kiosk where she proceeded to buy a humongous bag of candy while her friend and the boyfriend walked ahead of us to the arcade. A few minutes later, as we walked into the arcade, we found them on opposite sides of a foosball table, playing the most intense game of foosball that I have ever seen a couple in their seventies play. Pepita just waved her hand towards them and with a vale vale vale, ushered us over to the tables by the bowling alley. Minutes later, the couple came to sit with us, and with a disgruntled sigh, the boyfriend muttered  ella ganó- she won.

One by one, the rest of the members of the French club arrived, each giving us many kisses on the cheek as well as many unidentifiable words in.. french!

The games began and as Emily began to show off her very intense bowling skills, I was not surprised to find that bowling in a Spanish bowling alley seemed to have no effect on my bowling skills.. or lack thereof. Each time I walked back to my seat, the ball rolled down the gutter behind me and Pepita got madder and madder because I was not doing it right! All I could do was hold back laughter as she tried to give me pointers- Mas bajo, mas bajo!! 
All in all, it was a really fun night and it was so fun to meet Pepita's friends.

Today, we went to church! 
It took us a little bit to find it, but after some searching, a lot of caminando, and getting directions from a police officer, we finally found La Primera Iglesia Bautista de Alicante. Turns out it is right by where we live! We walked in late and managed to find a seat in the back row, as the service had already started. I sat beside the cutest little old lady who kept leaning over to me the whole time to tell me things about when she got married... Didn't really understand why, but she was sweet.
I was so encouraged to find that I could understand about 95% of what was said during the service, including the sermon! I was also excited that the sermon was so solid-- very challenging and with scripture and the gospel at the center! As we walked out of the service, we were also stopped by the pastor de jovenes "young people pastor" and got information about a bible study and activities that the church has for college students! He said that there are a lot of international students who are involved in the church too. It got me really excited, and I plan on going back!


We did many other random fun things during this week
as we got to know the city better. Brynn, Karissa, and I went to el Mercado in the center of the city. It was a huge indoor open meat market and open produce market. Never have I seen so much meat. Every kind of meat you can think of- from skinned squirrels to good ol fashioned hamburger patties was for sale. We bought flowers for Pepita at the market and I ate the best strawberries I have ever eaten in my life. We explored the city more, found some interesting public workout equipment down by the beach that we played around with, went out for more tapas, and took advantage of all the rebajas --sales-- going on this month. January here is like Black Friday, but ALL MONTH. Everything is 50% off or higher! Last night, we also went to the movies here in Alicante to see Les Miserables. Most of the movie is singing, which means that they can't dub it over in Spanish (since it is a soundtrack) however, the few times that they did speak in the movie were quite humorous as Hugh Jackson would switch from his tenor singing voice to a very low, heavily accented Spanish voice. 



Whelp, 1/16 of my time here is over.
I know that sounds like.. nothing, but I just can't believe that it has already been a week! I know that the time will continue to go faster and faster as we get even more settled in and used to life here. So far, it has been a wonderful adjustment, and I am loving being out of the familiar United States and trying a different way of living.
Thank you for praying for me and thank you for reading this blog!

In short, it was a primera semana muy buena. 

Eating at this restaurant that has 100 types of bocadillos-- tiny sandwiches!

Hangin out after school!

The chicos.

The best strawberry ever.

Movie time!

At the bocadillo restaurant.

#1 fans of Les Mis!

All we want is cookie dough mix!

Here is Pepita getting ready for meal times!

                              The meat market! I wish I could capture smell along with the video.