Team Americano

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Martes 10 febrero 2009—Seeing that it was Tuesday, class was short and sweet. On my way home, I stopped downtown to recharge my bus pass. I thought that this would be an easy process, but I was wrong. When I got there, there were about 5 people in front of me, which took about 15 minutes until I was helped. Then, the lady said that I could only pay in cash, which I was a euro short because I was going to use my credit card. I then had to find and ATM and withdraw money, which was interesting in itself since it was my first time using an ATM here. When I got back to the bus pass place, the line had about 20 people, so I decided to walk part way up the Castillo de Santa Barbara. This was a workout, but anytime you can look over a city and the Mediterranean Sea from an ancient castle, it’s worth it. This time when I returned to the bus pass place, the line was much shorted and I was in and out in about 5 mins. After lunch, I was about to take a nap when I got a skype message asking if I wanted to play soccer. Seeing that I couldn’t turn that down, I met 6 other CIEE students and we headed towards the sports fields. Our idea was just to play against ourselves. However, when we got there, there were these Spanish kids also wanting to use the court. I say court because since Alicante is a desert, there is very little grass, so this soccer field was a cement pad with a fence around it that was painted green. These kids were 14 and 15 and were of Spanish, Salvadorian and Columbian in origin and were good. Although not amazing athletes, they were good enough to beat us all afternoon even with us having 6 people on Team Americano against their 5 person team. Helping them also was that most of us Americans hadn’t played soccer since middle or high school and we were all out of shape, so it was good that we had an extra person to sub with. We played for about 2 hours against these kids and another group of kids, rotating teams every two points or ten minutes. I would have to say that this was one of the best things I have done since I arrived in Alicante and I hope to do this in the future. As I walked home from the fields, Brendan (a CIEE student) saw me thru the window of Cinema, one of our hang out places. So, I went inside and played pool with a group of CIEE guys for about an hour or so. This also was a great time. When I finally got home, I had supper before looking at different Spring Break plans. I will have a 2.5 week break, in which the first week I am doing the Camino de Santiago in northwest Spain. In the last weeks, I am trying to decide between Egypt, Canary Islands or Greece. I would love to go to Egypt, but I’m a little afraid of that area right now, so the Canary Islands or a Greek Island it will most likely be. During the day, my throat got better, but now I have developed a nasty cough that isn’t much better.

Miercoles 11 febrero 2009- The six hours of classes today went pretty fast with a safety seminar for in the morning instead of an hour of Spanish. Also, following the seminar, I went to a casting for extras in a movie that is being made in Alicante. Apparently, there is a movie being made here that needs American extras. If I get casted, it would be a lot of fun, but I would have to figure out how to find time for it around traveling and school. After class and lunch, I checked my email and saw that I had an email from the PA Master Program at Marquette. I didn’t know if I should open it because I knew that it would be my acceptance or dismissal letter for the graduate school. For those of you who don’t know, I want to this PA program because it is ranked in the top ten nationally and would allow me to stay at Marquette to complete the Master degree in a total of 5 years. Also, everything that I have done in terms of academics, getting my CNA degree, working at St. John’s last summer while taking classes and going thru the application process in Nov. and Dec. would be determined by this email. I did eventually opened it and the first line read, “Congratulations! It is with great pleasure that I extend to you an offer for admission into Marquette University’s Masters Degree Physician Assistant Program as a member of the Class of 2012”. I was extremely overjoyed, seeing that I had been chosen to be one of 25 students selected out of the 75+ application pool. I know that I now have a long, hard road ahead of me, but it was a great feeling. I then had to skype with Mom about the last few things before they board their flight to come here. It was really hard not to tell her, but I’m looking forward to giving them the acceptance letter over dinner once they arrive. I then went to my final dance class feeling like a million bucks where we did some salsa like dance. Not everyone showed up to class, which was nice because the instructors had more time to help us. This time, I got to dance with a Spanish chica, which was fun because she actually knew what she was doing. After dance, I didn’t feel like going home, so I hung out with a few friends downtown. To celebrate my acceptance, I got a pint of Guinness and watched the Espana - England soccer game. Although, I was feeling a little gloomy earlier in the day because of my cough and being tired, it turned out to an unforgettable day.

Jueves 12 febrero 2009- After my 2 hours of Spanish, I went to the CIEE office to print off my acceptance letter for my parents. In my email, Brady had sent me an email stating that I needed to call him as soon as I got the email in regards to mom and dad’s flight. So, I changed my plans from going to the beach to rush home and skype Brady. I called Brady at 5:00am his time just for him to say that Mom and Dad’s flight was delayed, so they would be into Alicante 2 hours later than planned and that all the flight information was in a facebook message. For future reference, when sending me an email that says call as soon as possible in it, please give me a little more of an idea what it is about. After calling Brady, I then walked back down to the beach since it was still warm and sunny. Here I did my homework so that I don’t have to worry about it tonight. After about 2 hours, I had to go home for lunch and a nap. I will be leaving in about 10 minutes to meet my parents at the airport. Then we will go to the hotel and then out to eat at a quite little restaurant.

-Sorry, there are no pictures.

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Comments

[Joanie]

felicitaciones!!
Felicitaciones y buena suerte en su programa. Ten bien tiempo con sus padres!

[Lisa]

Congrats!!!
OMG!! I'm so proud of you - not that I thought you had anything to worry about since you always work very hard and take everything very seriously! Have fun with your parents!