Blogs from Spain, Europe - page 983

Alicante Fire Festival We have not ventured into the city too many times at night as, even not during a festival, it is packed and difficult to park! Alicante is quite a touristy city; it almost feels like we are on a permanent holiday! On the main strip, there are lots of little stalls selling handmade knickknacks, cheap clothes and also lots of black men with copy everything, bags, sunglasses, t-shirts, watches, CDs, DVDs, neatly laid out on sheets on the ground. Something that I don’t remember from Europe before, is that here there are also black women on the streets who braid girls’ hair, much neater and more detailed than hair braiding in Bali. A few nights before the actual burning, we went into the city to look at the handmade paper sculptures. I read ... read more

The bio kids took our last research excursion to Les Rotes and Denia Beach. The beach was fantastic, with rocky shores and a few cliffs falling straight down to the sea. But the real question is: was this trip project or play...or both? To summarize, my partner and I researched algae zonation. We spent several hours crawling around rocks and snorkeling in water to learn about algae. (fun stuff...hehe. At one point, a crab grabbed my measuring tape and tried to escape down its hole. Luckily, I saved the tape!) After that, we hiked and rock-climbed (literally) to a cave, visited the docks as the fishermen brought in their catches, ate great food, hiked to the top of the cliff, admired the beautiful water, chased crabs, explored islands, and touched jellyfish. An all-in-all amazing trip. ... read more

Hola from Spain! I made it to Spain early Friday morning. It was quite a flight-definatly not an easy one. Our flight from Detroit to Amsterdam was about 8 hours with the worst landing I´ve ever had. It was just a straight shot down. I really thought I was going to throw up. We literally ran through Schiphol in Amsterdam and made it just in time for our Amsterdam to Madrid. We got all of our luggage and made it here smoothly. We were very fortunate to be so lucky! We arrived in Spain at the bus station (right in town, only a short walk to my house) to see a bunch of women waiting for us - our future moms! My mom picked me up with two kisses to my cheeks and is a delightful ... read more

Ich glaube, ich hab mich schon ganz gut eingelebt, in einer Woche heisst es leider schon wieder ADEU! Arbeite im Moment an einer Pendenzenliste, und wenn ich ehrlich bin, glaub ich nicht daran, dass ich alle anstehenden Pendenzen noch bis zum 30.6. erledigen kann. Umso besser, Gründe genug wiedermal nach Barcelona zu reisen. Jetzt wurde es endgültig heiß in der Stadt, bis 32 Grad, und die Schulstunden von 09:30 bis 13:30 werden auch mit Klimaanlage dann ganz schön anstrengend. An eine nachmittägliche Siesta hab ich mich schon gewöhnt, bei diesem Wetter durchaus angebracht. Beim Studium des Spanischen habe ich auch herausgefunden, wie schlecht eigentlich mein Deutsch ist. Wie ist das Conditional Simple von „Ich renne“. „Ich rinne, ich rünnte, ich rünne“ oder was? So erinnerte ich mich, dass es doch mehr als eine Vergangenheitsform gibt... ;-) ... read more

Man, what a great nights sleep. I can totally feel the contrast between London, Paris, and Madrid. While the former are amazingly high energy cosmopolitan cities, Madrid is much more laid back. While still a large city, it possesses a soothing energy that allows its inhabitants to take their time. One of the things I notice the most about European culture is that people celebrate life more here. It’s less about hustle and bustle and how big your house is, how expensive your car is, but how you enjoy life. Anyways, since our train left at 3pm and check out time was 10am, we left our bags in the care of our hostel and went out to get a meal and hang out. I opted for the traditional eggs, bacon, and potatoes with a refreshing orange ... read more