To all my friends and family in Maryland, I hope you are enjoying this:

While I am suffering through this:

It's really miserable but I guess I am going to have to deal!

Despite the sunny photo, this past week we had a lot of clouds and even 2 rainy days. We've been told that it almost never rains here so I'm hoping mother nature is just getting everything out of her system now. Corey's host mom keeps telling her that this cloudy weather is "muy raro" and I hope she is right ... cloudy days instantly change my mood and I'd much rather be outside in the sun!

As much as I was bummed about the weather this week, I was thankful I'm not freezing my butt off in Maryland. I love snow but looking out on the Meditteranean is definitely more appealing right now. I spent alot of time inside this week which only meant one thing: lots and LOTS of trip planning!


Here's what I have coming up:

1. Barcelona this weekend con mis tias! My Aunt Sharon and Aunt Maureen are coming to visit next week, and this weekend I am meeting them in Barcelona. Monday we are renting a car and driving down the coast. I'm sure it is going to be beautiful so I'm really excited! Can't wait to show them around Alicante.. I wish everyone could come here!

2. St. Patricks Day in Dublin! This week me and 6 of my friends booked a weekend in Dublin for St. Patrick's day. It is going to be awesome. Even better because Maura is going to be here! Maura flies in to Alicante on St Patricks day morning and we fly into Dublin at 10pm... Just in time for nighttime festivities! The celebration continues all weekend so it's going to be a good time for sure. The first night we are staying in hostel right by Temple Bar and the next 2 nights we stay in a hotel that is a 25 min walk away. It was insane trying to find a place to stay but luckily we did! Ireland for St. Patricks day is on my bucket list so I'm so glad its actually happening!

3. Cinqueterre. Me and two of my roommates booked a trip to Cinqueterre, Italy for the first weekend of spring break. We leave on Friday morning and fly into Pisa. We will check out the leaning tower then take a strain to Cinqueterre. We are staying in an awesome guesthouse that my friend recommended for 2 nights and then will find a cheap hostel for the other 2 nights. After that I will be heading BACK to Ireland to Galway and the Aran Islands and after that everything is up in the air!

I'm still working on booking stuff for both of my scheduled 3-day weekends in march but it feels good to have at least a few trips booked.

This weekend was a lot of fun. Hiked up to the Castle again today and went for a morning run along the water. It was 60 degrees and sunny and people were wearing bathing suits on the beach... i think it was a little bit of a stretch for them but i did sort of want to join in. Last night we watched the Barcelona vs. Hercules(Alicante) futbol game at a bar called Austin. The street was packed and set up with lots of tables and outdoor tv's. It was really cool to see how everyone was so into it. Even though Alicante lost (not a big surprise) it was still good to get to watch a game with Spaniards.

I have my first midterm exam for the first of my 4 spanish classes on Wednesday. I kind of forgot about it all weekend (oops) so I should probably get on that. Good news is if I blow it (not that I plan to) this class doesn't even transfer to Maryland so it won't matter! With so much else to do here school isn't exactly at the forefront of my mind but I think its going to go pretty well.

Anywayyyyy.. here are some pictures I took today in Santa Cruz!

Love all the color and tiles here!

The water is sooo clear

Also love the flower pots!

The rest are on snapfish!

Hasta luego!!!! : )

Spanish Cuisine

Tuesday night was the first night of my Spanish Cuisine class. It is an optional class with an extra $300 fee but I AM SO GLAD I DECIDED TO TAKE IT!!!!!!!!!! Worth every penny and its only been one day.

The class meets at an actual cooking school on top of one of the smaller castles in Alicante. It meets once a week on Tuesday nights from 6:30-8:30. Each week we make a different 3 course Spanish meal. Our classroom is like a lecture that looks down on a prep table with a giant mirror over top so you can see everything the chef is doing. each row also has a few computer screens to see what the chef is doing up close. We didnt used any of this stuff though because the class is really hands on. The class was taught by Chef Nuno who was this really cute spanish guy who kept whistling "yellow submarine." This class we made grilled vegetables, pollo con naranja, and crema catalana (a vanilla custard/pudding type thing made with eggs, sugar, milk etc with a cooke and sprinkled cinnamon on top). Chef Nuno split us into three groups and each group made a different course. I am in the class with 3 of my 4 roomates so we made sure one of us was in each course so we would be fully prepared to recreate the meal at home :)

I got assigned to pollo con naranja (chicken with an orange sauce, potatoes and parsley). We cut up chicken and cooked it in olive oil. Then we added orange juice and chicken stock and cut up oranges. After that cooked for a little we added potatoes and parsley and let it simmer for a while and that was it. It was so easy and delicious. The grilled vegetables were awesome ... every vegetable you could imagin and there was three HUGE pans of them (plenty for second and 3rd servings. There were about 20 people in the class and enough food for 40! I was not expecting to get such a big meal so that was a nice surprise. Dessert was also amazing ... I wish this class was every night!

For the final exam we are breaking into groups and making Tortilla de Espana (spanish tortilla: eggs, potato and onion). Whichever group makes the best tortilla wins a free meal at a very expensive restaurant in Alicante. Maybe there is a chef reading this blog that can give me a few ideas ......

Castle Hike

Hola! Classes are going really well. I really like my teacher and I think we are definitely going to learn alot. In class on Friday we spent half the class viewing a powerpoint presentation about the best beaches to go to on the Costa Blanca. Then we learned the different types of wine and how to order different drinks at a bar. It was all really useful information. My classes on fridays are in a building right on the water which was really nice.

Friday afternoon after a short siesta all the USAC students hiked up to the Castle with Sylvain. I had hiked up with some friends the day before but the weather was much better this time so the view was amazing. It was sunny and 65 and completely clear skies.

The Castle

On the way up to the castle we cut through the village of Santa Cruz again. I took a few pictures but it was hard in a big group so I will definitely be going back. 

2 houses in the Santa Cruz village

The whole hike up to the castle takes about 30 minutes and is definitely a workout. Im going to try to do it a few times a week.. much better than the gym and its only 2 blocks from my apartment! Plus you cant beat the views...

View from the top of the castle

On the way back down the sun was starting to set and it was a really pretty walk.

This is seriously the most beautiful place... Still hasn't set in that I get to stay here for the whole semester!

You can see all my pictures from the hike on snapfish/facebook:

http://www5.snapfish.es/snapfishes/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2985338028/a=4709570028_4709570028/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/

Home sweet Alicante

We have finally arrived and gotten settled in to our home for the next 4.5 months - Alicante, Spain.

I am so happy to be here and finally be settled and get to know where I'm going to be living!

We arrived in Alicante Sunday afternoon after a 5 hours bus ride from Madrid. I only slept from 5-7 am the night before so I was able to sleep on the bus with no problem. Once we arrived in alicante we were quickly matched up with our landlords of homestay families. I am living in an apartment with 4 other girls: Jen from Loyola Chicago, Taylor & Taylor, both from Boise State, and Bianca from Chico State in Cali. I really like all of them and the apartment has been working out great! The first day we met with out landlord, a older lady named Ana and her husband. We also had a spanish student from the University of Alicante named Jose come with us to help interprete - he was really nice and offered to show us around town and meet his other friends. He wants to practice his english and we want to work on Spanish so we were glad to have met him. Our landlords were the sweetest people ever .. they spoke no english but they were just adorable and so nice. She seemed eager to help us in any way, saying we could call her if we get sick or need suggestions about where to go etc. It was so sweet and made me wish I had done a homestay a little bit!

Our apartment is UNREAL! I seriously cannot get over how big it is and how nice. I expected a little shack but its gorgeous. Also, for 20 euro a week (4 euro a person) we have a maid that comes every wednesday! I may never come home ;-)

Here is a little virtual tour of our apartment:

Front Entryway

Dining Room just to the right of the front door

Living room off the dining room

Other view of the living room

Nice big kitchen!

Other side of the kitchen

Giant patio off the kitchen. Used mostly for laundry but i love it! 

We dont have to hang our clothes out the window

Hallway to the bedrooms

My room!

My room!

View of the Castle and mercado central from my window

bathroom number uno

bathroom number dos

HUGE Balcony (my favorite part)

View from the balcony

Our street!

This is ridiculously cheap compared to college park! For my old apartment at school, we paid $450/month. We had 4 girls in a 2 bedroom apartment so everyone had to share. We had 1 bathroom for the whole apartment and a tiny kitchen and living area (and we had no laundry in the apartment). Here we pay 266 euro (359 in US$) a month for this apartment including the maid service. Everyone has their own room, we have laundry, a huge balcony, an outdoor patio off the kitchen for laundry and other things, 2 bathrooms for 5 girls, a MAID, and tons of living space. Its AWESOME!

Once I unpacked and got settled I walked around the city with some of my friends. The waterfront is sooo pretty and everyone here hangs out in the streets. We stopped for some café con leche as this little café on a dock over the water. It was beautiful! The last few days have been all about trying to learn the city and see what is around. Monday we went to the University of Alicante for orientation. We got a lot of useful information. The college offers tons of cool workshops you can take like guitar, photography, dance, wine tasting etc. that are offered throughout the whole semester. If you sign up for a workshop and complete it during the whole semester, USAC will reimburse you for the fee. Im thinking about doing the photography class but I want to look into the time commitment (like if it is one weekends, during one of my regular classes, etc.) If it works out, it sounds like it would be a great deal and a good way to meet Spaniards. They also gave us contact information for a company that does sailing and snorkeling … I am DEFINITELY interested in that when it gets a little warmer! Cant wait!

Monday night one of the few yearlong students that was here last semester organized for all the USAC students to go to a bar called the Little Duke (there is also just a Duke, but the Little Duke is bigger … guess it makes sense .. NOT!) It was fun and nice that the year-long students did something to bring everyone together! I met a few new people that night that all seemed really cool!

Tuesday morning I went with my roommates to the Mercado Central, the enormous fresh market in Alicante. It was amazing! Luckily, we had our roommate Bianca with us who is fluent in Spanish. Without her we would not have been able to order anything! In a few weeks I will have the basics down and hopefully be able to go by myself. The market was so cool.. hundreds of stalls selling fresh fruit and vegetables, different types of meats and cheeses, flowers, and fish. Everything was such a reasonable price too! I went in with 20 euro and got ¼ kilo of Serrano ham (note to self … a kilo is NOT basically the same thing as a pound .. oops!) which is like prosciutto ham, ½ kilo of chorizo sausage, a bag of precut vegetables, ¼ kilo of cheese (I am trying to eat as much authentic spanish food as possible so I had Bianca ask what type of cheese they usually eat, and bought that kind) an onion and a few other things. I only spent just under 15 euro! It was great. I will definitely be going back with my camera to show you all how awesome it was in there.

Later that morning we went on a walking tour of Alicante, which was really helpful to see everything. Alicante seems big at times but is actually really small which is good! It is very walkable… the longest walk to anywhere I could go would be 15-20 minutes. Im loving being able to walk everywhere. My favorite part of the tour was when Silvan took us to a little neighborhood in Alicante called Santa Cruz. It was BEAUTIFUL – white houses with brightly painted flower pots and tons of flowers. It is at the very base of the castle so it has winding stairways through the neighborhood. People that live there must be in awesome shape because I was so tired walking up all the stairs. I am going to go back there with my camera because it was pretty cloudy and I will be able to get some amazing pictures when the sky is blue!

Tuesday evening I went shopping with Corey on Maissonave (a street with tons of shops). Right now everywhere in Spain has Rebajas (sales) which only happen twice a year. They go from January to February and again in July and August (I think) and the rest of the year nothing really goes on sale. All the stores have Rebajas signs and 50-70% off everything. It is heavenly. Im not really trying to spend a lot of money on clothes and stuff here (I’d rather travel!) but I knew I wanted to buy a nice pair of boots. Corey and I both got cute pairs for 17 euro and I also bought a small leather satchel-type purse for 6 euro because it has become a huge pain to lug around a big purse everywhere. It was a successful and cheap shopping trip and now I don’t feel like I need to buy anything else!

Last night I made my first dinner here. I cooked off some of the vegetables with olive oil, curry powder and garlic powder and mixed in a little chorizo. I had no idea how it would taste but it was DELICOUS! Then I went to bed early to get ready for the first day of class in the morning.

Classes started this morning at 10 am for Track 1 students (students who are just learning Spanish…that’s me!) I will go from 10-1 Monday through Friday. Tuesdays and Thursdays I am in a class on the history of the EU and Tuesday night I have a Spanish cuisine class (its not held on campus but in downtown Alicante so it is convenient.) My other two classes haven’t started yet so I only had my 3 hour track 1 class today. There are only about 11 students in my class and my teacher, Veronica, seems really nice. She didn’t waste any time .. we jumped right into basic phrases and pronunciation and she spoke to us in Spanish the whole time… I definitely need that so I’m glad that classes have started. Afterwards we bought our books and bus passes and headed home on the bus. Once home I cooked my second meal here: eggs (they eat tons of eggs here for every meal!), chorizo, onion and cheese. It was also yummy .. I have a feeling I will be eating a lot of chorizo here since its so cheap! Im so happy that I finally have a place to cook .. I was getting tired of eating out and spending money on that stuff!

Ok I think that’s it for now, we are about to meet with our landlady to pay rent and catch up. I wanted to post more pictures of Alicante  but the internet is really spotty and just took 45 minutes to upload those pictures of my apartment.

Ps. You can see ALL my pictures on my snapfish account. This is my log-in:

Username: megtothemax@gmail.com

Password: bacwpt

Enjoy!

Toledo and Kapital

Yesterday we toured Toledo, which was about an hour away from our hotel. It was nice, but very cold and very foggy for most of the time we were there. I wish it has been a little nicer because when it finally cleared but it was beautiful! Toledo is a very old city that hasn't been changed much since it was built. All the roads are very skinny and winding and it's really easy to get lost. I'm having a really hard time determining the difference between sidewalks and roads here. You would think this would be an easy distinction but, think again. We are constantly walking on streets that look like they are barely big enough for a motorcycle to fit through and suddenly a car its driving up behind us like its no big deal. I have had quite a few near death experiences and I would feel a lot safer if I could walk without the fear of some car speeding by and taking out my legs.

Not the best example but this is one of the 

skinny streets ... some are worse and that 

car almost hit my friend! It's madness!

Shop in Toledo

We also had churros in chocolate for the first time after

much searching the past few nights. It was life changing!

Once Toledo cleared up the view was amazing. They drove us to a good spot to take pictures before we left.

View of Toledo

Liz, Lauren, Karelli, Me, Corey, Nichole and Zoe in Toledo!

Last night was wild. We went to this famous club called Kapital, which ive heard is the biggest club in Europe but I'm not 100% sure. If it's not the biggest, with 7 floors it's gotta close. I was a little leery about the 15 euro cover charge but it was worth EVERY penny. It was completely unreal. There were 3 floors with dancing and 4 floors set up as more of a lounge. It was perfect bc you had some where to go when you got tired of dancing or wanted to hear yourself think. The whole club was decorated really cool and each dance floor had a different music theme. I seriously couldn't believe this place was real life. We had to use the buddy system big time since none of us have cell phones yet, but everyone is really good at looking out for each other. Me and my friend Corey met 2 really nice German boys that seemed really happy to talk to someone in English. We talked to them for an hour and they were so nice! They were our age and in madrid celebrating something about finishing training for their jobs... It was interesting hearing about how they do work and school in Germany... Very different from here. We finally headed out of the club around 4:45 and I was asleep around 5:30 (only to wake up at 7 this morning) Im proud of us for finally having a traditional Spanish night out and not coming back 'early'. The club closed at 6 though so I guess we could have done better! (i dont have any pictures from the club yet but i will add them when I do!)

Now we are on the bus on our way to Alicante. FINALLY! I am SO excited I can't wait. It will be much warmer there and I just can't wait to see it. I really want to get settled and unpack... Very tired of living out of a suitcase! The tours have been great but I'm definitely ready to get away from sight seeing in such a large group and having people tell me what to do/ where to go. I'm looking forward to a routine and finally seeing where I'm going to be living the next 5 months.

Tomorrow is orientation at the university of Alicante and Tuesday we have a walking tour of the city. Sorry for so many long posts but I wanted to make sure I kept track of everything. I'm loving it!

Ps. I'm working on getting my snapfish account linked to here so you guys can see my pictures

Pps. I, along with the some 60 other girls have fallen in love with one of the USAC tour guide/employees (or whatever he is). All I know is he works for USAC and every single girl sighs whenever he walks by. Luckily, he's coming with us to alicante (darn!) and I'm sure it will work out between us and he'll come back to the states with me in June. Haha!

Madrid dias dos y tres

Thursday was our first full day in Madrid. We went on a walking tour of the city with all of the USAC students. We saw the Royal Palace and the Prado Museum. Both were awesome and really interesting. We also had paella for lunch .... so yummy! We were exhausted and jetlagged by the time it was all over so a siesta was completely necessary. 

The Royal Palace

People playing music in Puerta del Sol

My first paella!

After the walking tour of Madrid and my nap, me and my friend Lauren walked to Parque de Retiro, about 10 blocks from out hotel. It was really pretty - Lauren and I both got new cameras for our trip so we wanted to try and get some good pictures. The park is HUGE, there is a big pond thing where you can row boats. Even in January there were plenty of people doing it. There were lots of fountains, statues and trails. Also in the park was Palacio de Cristal. It's a really pretty building made of all glass and it's right on a lake with a water fall you could walk under and a fountain in the middle. It was really cool! I could have walked around and gotten lost in there for hours but we only had a little over an hour before sunset.

Parque de Retiro

One of the fountains in the park

Palacio de Cristal in Parque de Retiro

Entrance to the Park

This is the view of our street standing outside the 

front doors of our hotel. The giant man standing 

on the building is the back of the Tio Pepe sign in 

Puerta del Sol

Another view of our street in Madrid - Our hotel was Hotel

Regina on the right!

After the park we had to get back to the hotel for a meeting about our housing in Spain. When that was over I went with my friend Zoe to get a coat (finally) but it really hasn't been that cold for most of the day.

Thursday night was also my first night out in Madrid. I went with some of my friends to an Irish pub, where I tasted my first ever sip of alcohol. HAHA. I had no idea what to expect but it was good! ;-) The night life in Madrid is insane. Everywhere you walk there are club promoters handing out cards for you to go to their bars/clubs. They offer free entry, discounts on drinks etc. Because most people don't go out here until after midnight, people are literally begging you to come to their bars any time before then. It's awesome! At the Irish pub we watched part of the Real Madrid game. We thought about getting tickets but they were really expensive and we will get to see them when they come play in Alicante. After the pub we went to another bar where we payed 5 euro for open bar... I'll take it. It was empty when we got there but was quickly packed with USAC students and other study abroad kids.

Friday we toured Segovia (which got it's own blogpost.. It was amazing!)

After a siesta and dinner we went out to find a good bar. We ended up finding this awesome little underground sangria bar... It was the coolest place! You go in the front door and there is nothing there, but when you get downstairs it's filled with tables and little stools. It was almost all spaniards which was new for us so it finally  really felt like I was in a foreign country. It has rounded walls (kind of looked like a tunnel or cave) that were orange-ish and there were random Spanish quotes written all over the walls. The only music was a cute old guy in a tux playing the piano... Much different and better than all the American music we've been hearing at the other bars. It was PACKED (definitely fire hazard) and there was no dance floor just a bunch of table and little stools. Luckily there was one table left and it had exactly the right amount of seats for our group. They brought us sangria in a glass pitcher and little juice glasses. It was the BEST sangria we've had so far and my favorite place too. I really wish we could go back! After that we went to another Irish pub (there's surprisingly a lot of those) and called it a night around 3 (early for Spanish standards)

Segovia!

Today we spend the day in Segovia… we had the BEST time. Segovia was BEAUTIFUL! I had no idea what to expect since I hadn’t heard much about it, but it was gorgeous.  It reminded me a lot of Assisi (my favorite place in Italy), but the buildings had more of an orange color while the buildings in Assisi were all made of whise stone.  We had perfect weather .. blue skies and 65 degrees so walking around the town was really nice. Our tour group went inside the Castle in Segovia. Fun Fact: This castle inspired the design of Sleeping Beauties castle in Disneyland.

Actually now that I look up the picture I dont see the

connection at all but thats what the tour guide told us.

The most phenomenal thing is Segovia was the Roman aqeuduct. It was so impressive ... I wish everyone could see it because the pictures don't do it justice. The whole thing was built with nothing but stones - no cement or nails or anything. The pressure of the stones together keeps it intact. Sounds shady to me but its been standing for 2000 years so I guess its legit. 

After doing a few group tours in Segovia we broke off into free time. We found a little café with the most AMAZING few of the mountains and the town below. I ate there with some of my friends; Kathleen from Maine, Corey from UMD (go terps), Liz from Reno, Zoe from California, and Nichole from Vegas. We ordered a few pitchers of sangria (so yummy) and were seriously just in awe of the amazing view we were getting.

Heaven!

I had chicken skewers with salad and French fries and with the sangria combined it was only 12 euro!  Upon taking my first bite of salad I realized it has been at least a week since I had fresh vegetables/fruit. We have been eating so much bread, ham, salami, and other things that veggies and fruit have been overlooked. I cant wait til I can buy my own from the market in Alicante!  French fries here are interesting. I’ve never ordered them but they tend to just magically appear with all of my meals. They are different too.. very yellow (weird) and hardly seasoned but not bad. We all could not get over our awesome lunch location and how beautiful Segovia was. We decided this was the best day ever.  If this is a preview of the rest of this semester I don’t think I am going to ever want to leave! 

I will make a whole post about the entire Madrid tour as soon as possible! 

Madrid Day 1

hola! I have finally arrived in Madrid. I flew out of Philly with no problems despite the snow. My parents drove me up, we had a nice lunch and I headed to the gate around 3:30.

 The flight was relatively painless except for the fact that I was seated next to smooches McGee. This guy seriously could not keep his hands off his girlfriend. I sat down in my seat and for the first 10 minutes they we making out like they weren't on a plane full of people in close quarters. I sat there contemplating if I would have to use the US airways provided barf bag before we even started moving. Luckily, I pulled through and we took off. After choking down a delicious meal of mushy,soggy rice, "chicken" and vegetables, I managed to sleep on and off for most of the flight. The seats were a lot more crammed than any previous international flights vie been on so I was really glad to finally get off the plane a after 7.5 hours. Once I got off the plane I was given a warm Spanish greeting of 3 flights of stairs to carry my bags up. I have no idea who designed their airport but they obviously did not think logically. The walk to baggage claim was through winding hallways and felt like atleast 2 miles but i finally made it there! Luckily, I met 4 other USAC students waiting for luggage too! Instead of taking a shuttle by myself, I got to take the metro with one of the other girls and the other people I met took a taxi. The metro was cheap and easy to use (only 2 euros). The only downside was carrying my 50lb suitcase and 40lb backpack, plus a heavy tote back up endless flights of stairs. 

This is just one of the many flights of stairs i had 

to climb with my 100+ lbs of luggage.

 My shoulders, back and arms are soooo sore!

Once we got off the metro we checked Into the hotel around 10:30. It's really nice and convenient and right next to the metro. Our room wasn't going to be ready until 12 so we went to star bucks next door to get some caffeine with the other usac students we met. We all just talked and had coffee and used the wifi to contact our parents etc. At 12 we were able to get to our room which is really nice! The girls I am roomed with seem really cool. We rested for a little bit then did some walking and window shopping around Madrid. The streets are really crowded but it is a really cool city. I can't wait to walk around more tomorrow. We are about to head down to have dinner with all the USAC people since everyone has gotten here by now


So far Spain is AWESOME. The only downsides: 1. stairs, 2. I lost my NorthFace jacket within minutes of getting to the hotel/it was stolen :( 3. I forgot my toothbrush. Other than that .. LIFE IS GOOD!