Halfway There

Yesterday marked the eighth week that we have been here in Spain. That means we are halfway done with our time here. How it has flown. I really do not want to count down the days I have left, because I know that once I get back to the States, I will feel nostalgia for my time in Spain. My desire is to make the most of my time here while I still have it. I have come to realize just how much this is a once in a life time opportunity to be here.

However.

I do miss some things about the U.S. They are few and they are simple, but here they are:

1. Central heating/air. They don't have it here. It can get pretty chilly in the apartment and definitely makes any changing of clothes NOT fun. I will confess that there have been days that I have not showered because it meant stripping down in the cold air of our huge bathroom.

2. Carpet. I guess it never really occurred to me that not everyone in the world has carpeted floors. Here in Spain, everything is tile, which makes sense because the temps rise to crazy degrees during the summer. However, when I was telling my French friend about how much I miss carpet I was surprised to find out that not many houses in France use carpet either. She said "Isn't carpet kind of hard to clean?" It made me stop and think.. oh yeah. I guess compared to tile or wood floors, carpet would seem a little... dirty? Still, I miss being able to just lay on the floor. Here, if I lay on the floor I am liable to get frostbite.

3. Driving. There are times when (as strange as it sounds) I miss that long drive to OBU! I just miss being alone in my car, turning up the music and just being alone to think.

That's it.

Two things I have liked doing differently while I have been here:

1. Showering less. Yep, I know what you are thinking-- ew. But I have found that Americans have this strange obsession with cleanliness that is just not always necessary. Europeans definitely don't shower as much here, so.... I don't always feel like I need to either! And last week when the hot water heater broke for several days.. I definitely was walking around feeling pretty ripe. Anyways, not showering every day has become.. a little liberating? Still I don't think I will ever go as long as I did without a shower when the hot water heater broke :)

2. Walking. I love using mass transportation and walking everywhere! I know that above I said that I miss driving my car, but at the same time, it is nice not to be tied to gas prices and parking spaces. If I want to go somewhere, I walk or swipe my bus card. Easy peasy.


Being a part of the international department here at the the U of Alicante,  I have gotten pretty good at recognizing different nationalities before they utter a word-- including Americans.

If you ever want to NOT look like an American while abroad, stay away from these things:

North face Jackets
Vera Bradley backpacks
Nike
Teased hair, straightened hair, dyed hair
Girls wearing makeup
Bright colored clothes
Tshirts
Dresses/Skirts without tights or leggings

Want to look Spanish? Its simple.

Girls: Wear skinny jeans with boots, a leather jacket or a blazer, and a scarf wrapped up tightly around your neck. Let your hair fall naturally without doing anything to it. Wear very little makeup.

Boys: Leather jacket, boots, and cut your hair short on the sides and long on the top.

Boom. You're Spanish. Usually helps you fit in more if you have dark eyes, light skin, and brown hair as well :)

Things I did this week:

I watched the El Clasico game between Madrid and Barcelona with Johanna and Asaf. We completed the cultural experience by eating tapas in a cafe while watching it. It was a small experience, but one of my favorites since coming here. I like how everything stops when a game is on here. Its definitely a different feel than American football. You can walk through the street and see crowds of people in different places on the street crowded around TVs in windows and cafes, watching the game. Anytime something big happens in the game, noise erupts out of every single cafe on the street. You can hear it throughout the whole city. When you are watching the futbol game on TV, you can also hear the crowd in the stadium chanting together throughout the whole game.

This week I went on lots of walks to the beach. I will miss that when I return to Arkansas.

I went out for tapas with my grammar class. Its always fun hanging out in a big group of people from all over the world.

I studied for exams at KFC. Never thought I would ever do that, but the KFC here is two stories and really nice. Who knew?

I took my second round of exams on Friday. I now have earned eight hours of credit! To the right is a picture of my grammar class this last month. We are sad because we have had the same grammar teacher for the past two months, but now we are moving up to the next level, so we will change teachers!

I made two trips to the Mercado with Pepi and watched her intense (and often scary) bargaining skills.

After our tests on Friday, we went to the school library and picked out some movies. They have a great movie collection at the school and they are free to check out with a student ID! We then went to the Mercado Central, picked out lots of fresh cheese, meat, and fruit and headed to Brynn and Jo's apartment for a nice long afternoon of lazily celebrating our finished classes. We did it OBU style-- we took Brynn's mattress and put it in front of the couch. The rest of the day was spent lying "in bed" in front of the TV (AKA Brynn's computer), eating food and watching Penelope Cruz do an amazing job acting in La Nina de Tus Ojos, one of the Spanish movies that we rented. It was a GOOD DAY.


Yesterday, I went to Elche with two friends from school-- Julie (from France) and Sara (from Scotland). Elche is a city that is about thirty minutes away from Alicante. There is no greater feeling of independence than walking to a bus station with two girls that you have known for about month that are from other countries, buying a bus ticket, and getting on a bus headed to some random city you have just heard of. It was an adventure. We had a lot of fun and got to see Europe's largest garden of palm trees!
It was beautiful. We spent the day walking around the city center and looking in cool shops. We also went to an Irish pub that really wasn't very Irish (Sara was just excited to see something that was named "Flaherty's"), and paid two euros to tour a display in a big beautiful church that ended up being a creepy display with a big porcelain model of the patron saint laying on a bed. That will definitely be a funny memory.

A friend from OBU, Trevor, who has already graduated and is currently teaching English in a different part of Spain, made the trip to Alicante to visit us this weekend! Last night, he and our OBU group, as well as our Japanese friends all went out to eat at our favorite Pakistani restaurant! By the end of the night, my face and my brain were hurting from so much laughing, and speaking Spanish! Those Japanese girls are a hoot and it is so fun to be able to communicate with them via Spanish. I am so glad I have gotten to know them.

Today, we went to church. I am loving attending this same church every Sunday, seeing the same familiar faces each week, getting the know the people of the church body. We took communion today, and it was really neat to do it in a different culture and language.

Each week seems to go faster than the one before it! It is insane to think that we have been here for two months already! We are now starting to gear up for our two week spring break that begins at the end of this month! We are making plans, booking hotels, and awaiting the arrival of our parents! I am very excited to get to show my folks everything that I love about Spain when they come.

I can't wait to see what this coming week has in store.

I ask that you continue to pray for our group. The Lord is working here in Spain.

Hasta pronto!