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Published: September 1st 2008
El Barrio
The old section of town has beautiful houses as well as a lot of the bars and clubs in the city. Hola! Greetings from Alicante, Spain. I have almost been in Spain for a week now and already it has been quite the experience. When we first arrived, all of the CIEE students stayed in a hotel for the first 2 nights. Right off of the plane, the teachers and program directors only spoke to us in Spanish. It was very hard to understand at first but little by little I find I can follow the conversations better. Everyone is super friendly and great about talking slower when they realize that I do not speak Spanish that well. I even managed to go and buy a spanish cell phone and negotiate a plan with a salesperson who did not speak English! Although there are many british and other european tourists I have not met any Americans other than those in my program.
The first few days were spent getting to know the city and customs of Spain. Alicante is located right on the Mediterranean, and my homestay apartment is located 5 minutes from the beach! Right beside the beach is walkway called la Esplanada with vendors and restaurants spread out along it and everyone goes to the Esplanada for "el paseo" or
an evening stroll whose only purpose is to see and be seen. It is sunny almost very day here which is great except the heat can be a little strong at times, I have never sweated more in my entire life. None of the houses have air conditioning so during the afternoon after the midday meal (la comida) everyone retires for an hour or so to take a siesta and escape the heat.
So far my homestay has been great. I live with a Senora called Reme and her husband Pedro in their apartment which looks out over the fire station. My first day here Reme made me go out onto the balcony and watch the shirtless firemen (los bomberos) wash their fire trucks. Not a bad view to have. Apartments in Spain are set up a lot differently than in the U.S.. There is a central courtyard and all of the apartments look out in this open space. I think this helps move air through the rooms to keep everything cool. Because of this, anyone can see and hear everything that goes on in your apartment and vice versa, there is no keeping any secrets from your neighbors. The
Church in Alicante
Used to be a mosque. other thing that I need to get used to is the lack of personal space in Spain. It is considered proper to greet someone with los dos besos or two kisses and when talking to others you stand right up close with them, lots of physical contact. I guess I will just have to get over my dislike of physical contact. That being said, every spanish person I have met has been extremely friendly. We have Spanish helpers who are university students who eat some of the meals with us and help us to practice speaking our spanish and getting to know our way around the city. This afternoon I just got back from having coffee with 3 spanish friends and 4 other people from my program. I love the fact that any time of day you can just go into any bar or coffee shop and order a coffee or glass of wine and sit and talk for 2 hours and people don't think anything of it, everyone is so laid back. There are definitely aspects of Spain that I am going to get used to very quickly and other things that are going to take a little more
Ayuntamiento de Alicante
The town hall with gold seal that measures level zero (sea level) and off of which all altitudes are measured in Spain. time to become accustomed to but all in all this will be an amazing and challenging four months!
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