Hike, Bullfight

This weekend was one of the best in Alicante. Thus, I have decided to start a blog partly for this reason and also because I'm getting sick of writing everything to my family a million times! I have to give credit to Quinn and Bill for inspiring me to start one. Here everyone can see what I've been up to! I can also post pictures more easily because facebook doesn't load them for some reason through my internet in my homestay. Typing is also much easier than writing in the journal, so I'll save it for the most important events. Here I'll try to write a few times a week for everyone to see what's been going on in "mi vida espanola."

Friday I climbed the castle with Michelle and met this guy who was from Tennessee living in England. He was on a trip, solo, biking across Europe. He had been robbed in Morocco and was planning on making it to Poland. Very ambitious I must say, a little crazy for going by himself but interesting nonetheless. Michelle and I brought him to the Mercado Central so he could check out all of the fresh fish, fruit, cheese, etc. I think he enjoyed it. We parted afterwards and he decided he needed to find a hostel to stay at since the wind was too strong for him to sleep outside, (as he had been doing up until that point because of money issues).

Afterwards, went back and ate lunch with my madre and her padre...we ended up talking about looting archaeological artifacts from sites and other random things, including superstitions surrounding archaeological artifacts (in particular, a sword from the Moors that her husband's friend had found and was afraid was going to rise up and kill his family..so he kept it locked away in a box in his country house...) My Spanish is obvisouly improving so much, I am very excited about it.

Later I stayed in for the night after going to the beach with Jess and Michelle, drank a bottle of bubbly and walked around the explanada (I believe that's correct, hahaha)...bought gifts for people at home! After that I was exhausted and decided to go to bed early because of the HIKE on Saturday...

The HIKE WAS AMAZING!!! It was probably one of the most beautiful places I'd ever been to before in my life. I absolutely had to sign up for the hike because last semester while I was looking up places to go hiking around Alicante, I found a beautiful picture of a cave with dangling brush, overlooking the ocean. I made the photo (courtesy of google) my background for the semester! When I saw the flyer for the hike I freaked out and had to go!! It was spectacular! You had to crouch down and climb through this really small tunnel to get to the view that I had as my background...you could see all of Benidorm and other places along the coast, it was such a breaktaking view.

Today I went to a bullfight...it was definitely a cultural experience to say the least. It truly is as Hemingway said, describing the matador, "...sin embargo, causaba verdadera emocion...conservaba la absoluta pureza de lineas en sus movimientos y siempre permanecia tranquilo, calmado..." ("however, causing truthful emotion, conserving the absolute purity of lines in his movements and always remaining tranquil, calm...", something along those lines). It really is a dance between bull and man...however, I want to learn the actual truth of bullfights. People have been saying that the picadors put "venero," or poison in the tips of the lance. People eat the meat of the toro after the bullfight so this couldn't be possible...I asked Raquel and she explained to me that they put salt on the bull before it goes out into the ring so it hurts them more when they get stabbed. Then, I read online that the bull is locked in a dark room for 24 hours and drugged before it goes out into the bullring...also not true, as my family explained they are only in the room for a few hours before the fight. I really want to look more into bullfights and sort out fact from fiction...I'm just confused and feel as though I can't really appreciate it fully until I actually know what's going on exactly. Otherwise, I'm very glad I went even though at first it was brutal and gory. I became more used to it by the 6th bull, however, the matador didn't kill it until the 6th time it tried to stab it with the lance. That was a little disturbing. It's best when they kill them quickly so they are not suffering immensely.

This week is going to be tough, I have all of my midterms on Wed, Thurs and Fri. I will be studying a lot...this weekend is also the last one I will have in Alicante until our last weekend in Alicante! After this weekend I'm going to Valencia, Mallorca...then Toledo, then Granada, then Spring break (Camino de Santiago! and Rome!!), then my family comes to visit...then Barcelona with some of my friends! After that weekend we have one more weekend (my last in Alicante!) and finals!!! Time is flying by, I can't even believe that it's already half way through the program. I want to cherish every moment and I try my hardest to, but it's so hard to FULLY appreciate something when you are in the moment. I know already that I'm going to miss Spain so much and want to come back and live here (what I said after Barcelona, also..)

After the program I hope to still continue learning Spanish via speaking, as I'm going to be working on an organic farm in Murcia through WWOOF for a week and then going hiking for a week in the Parque Nacional del Picos de Europa...(the largest national park in Spain...GORGEOUS). I am sooooo excited for the hiking trip, I can't wait to see the countryside of Spain since I'm living here in the city. I am happiest when I am immersed in nature and I know I will be living in complete bliss during the Camino de Santiago trip as well as the Picos trip.
I'm really happy that I am staying in Spain for most of my time here and that I'm going to be able to experience all different parts of the country (Galicia, Pais Vasco, Asturias, Cantabria, Valenciana, Castilla La Mancha, Andalucia, Murcia, Cataluna, Baleric Islands)...it's exactly what I wanted to do with my time studying abroad. I feel so lucky to have this opportunity and every day can't even believe that I'm actually living in Spain, living a Spanish life. I'd just like to say thank you to everyone who supported me in my decision to study abroad and who helped me in any way because it is truly the best thing I have ever done in my life. I am gaining so much knowledge on not only another culture and life itself, but also on who I am as a person. It has been an enormous learning experience and every day I am gaining more knowledge on something new.


I wish I started this blog earlier...

:)


Hasta manana!