Rebajas!

The first days in Alicante were interesting. Monday started off with getting up and heading to school at 9 AM, to then be told that our classes aren’t until 2 PM. The building where classes are is much smaller than the one in Madrid. The office, three computers, and two classrooms are on the primera planta of a building, while the other 5 classrooms are the segunda planta. There aren’t many teachers or students (thus why only three computers. In Madrid there were eight, and usually we had to fight over them). There aren’t as many activities either. No museums or cultural trips. If there are any, they are every other week. Alicante is much more relaxing with much less to do. Good thing the beach is nearby!

After being informed of our afternoon classes Tema and I decided to go explore (aka find the beach). So we walked for a bit and hit the port which is right next to the beach. Oh the beach! It was filled with people sunbathing and swimming. We continued to walk and see where it ended, but instead we decided to sit on a shady bench (it is really hot here. Like really hot.). After people watching we headed out in search of some air conditioning. We found it in the form of El Corte Ingles (of course). We went to the home one that has all the music and books and home stuff. I was in search of a new book since I had finished my two other ones. I searched for a long time. You think its hard picking a book when it’s in English, try in Spanish! My new book is by an author from Alicante called “El Último Catón”. It’s supposed to be some sort of mystery adventure book. I’m excited to read it.

Having gotten some air conditioning and acquired my book we had lunch on this little plaza near our school. It was relaxing especially since it was in the shade. We then headed off to our first day of class. We have a small class just like in Madrid with four people. There is Martin from Germany and Anna from Moscow. They are both really nice and quite funny. Martin told the teacher that the reason why he wants to learn Spanish is because he likes the music. “Me encanta reggaetton!” I just started laughing because I never thought I’d hear a German say he liked reggaetton. Our professor is an Argentine woman named Laura. She has the typical Argentine accent (very different from the Spanish one). Classes here are about the same as in Madrid, but I feel like they are less laid back. There is much more notetaking rather than conversation.

After class we met up with our friend Lauren who had come from Madrid to Alicante a week earlier than us. She has morning classes so we don’t get to see her during the day. We decided to go shopping. The sale season is high in Spain and lots of big stores are nearby. Zara, Blanco, Mango, H&M, and El Corte Ingles all had huge sales. I thought I’d be safe from all of it since I had left my credit and debit card at home. However, the cutest dress for only 8 euros was begging me to buy it at H&M, so I broke down and bought it with the cash I had left. All I can say is that I’ve been really good so far while in Spain and have not spent all that much money on shopping (or perhaps I tell myself that so that I feel better).

With shopping done we headed home for another delicious meal and to get ready to meet Lauren and her roommate Maria later at night. We really weren’t sure what we were doing that night, but by coincidence we ran into some people from our school. They sort of invited us to go with them to all these bars and things. Once place that apparently had really good and cheap mojitos had an entrance that was literally a window! It was pretty sweet (at least the entrance was. I didn’t have money to spend on drinks since I had bought that dress.). later the group got split up and eventually Lauren, Maria, Tema and I were left alone. We somehow got abandoned/ditched by our schoolmate. They all went off to do something else without a word. It wasn’t very nice of them but hey we tried to make friends. This just made me miss my Madrileños even more.