First Weekend in Alicante

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I can't believe I've been here a whole week already. It really is flying by. I was able to do a lot of stuff this weekend and it was a lot of fun.

Friday night was my first night out here. A group of us went to Soho a really cute outdoor bar. I got some Sangria a really popular spanish drink. it was good. Afterwards we went to a tapa's place called Lizarrans. In spain they eat really small dinners so tapas are like appetizers. At this place you can either sit at a table or the bar. At the bar they have a huge variety of these tapas that you can grab. Waiters also walk around with them. You just pick the ones you want and each one has a toothpick. There are three different sizes of tooth picks each with a different price. At the end they count up your tooth picks and thats how much you owe. It was so much fun! After dinner we went to a couple bars in el barrio. Spain has such a night life. I can' say I'm much of a partier but it was fun to be out and about.

On Saturday I went on a field trip planned through the USAC program. Most of the group went. We visited Altea a small village north of Alicante. It was soo cute. It was like the neighborhood of Santa Cruz with all white houses, flowers, narrow alleys, and decorative windows. There were some gorgeous views of the ocean as well. We then went to another small village called Calpe. It was very similar. There, lunch was provided for us. It was and eight course meal!! so much food but so good. We spent a few hours on a really nice beach afterwards. It was a really fun day.

This morning I went to mass in Spanish. There is a beautiful cathedral a 5 minute walk from my house. I couldn't really understand what they were saying but I still knew what was going on. It was pretty neat. It only lasted 40 minutes because there are masses every hour from 9-1. They didn't sing at all so I figure that's how they sped it along.

This afternoon a group of us took the tram to another beach called San Juan about 20 minutes away. It is a huge beach and the area we were at was called Costa Blanca. It was really nice but I don't see much difference compared to our beach here in Alicante, but it was a nice change of pace.

Just getting ready for another week of class. Can't believe we have midterms next week!
Hasta Luego!!

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