Alicante Overview

Okay, I've been bad.  It's been like six weeks since I last wrote a blog entry here, and I wasn't even in Spain yet.  Sorry.  I'll be a better blogger in the future.

But let me explain.

The first few days here I didn't really have internet access.  It turns out that the internet password is written in, like, 0.2 size font on the internet router in my host mother's house, and we didn't figure that out very quickly.  Also, the University of Alicante has this ridiculously complicated process for connecting to their internet which includes one of the following:
-downloading some possibly unsafe software
or
-pressing buttons until something eventually works.
But it probably won't.  And everything's written in Valenciano, so, bonus.

Whatever.

Okay, from the beginning.

I started the day, as you might remember, in Amsterdam.  I spent four nights in a hostel there (my next post will cover this) to recover from the international flight and see a part of what is, arguably, one of the most beautiful cities in existence.  My airline was Vueling, a fact that I did not actually know until I arrived at the airport because I booked my ticket through Iberia.  I lost a lot of time wandering around the airport, which was slightly unenjoyable with a backback that weighs close to fifty pounds.

I will point out that this is the only luggage I brought with me:

And I was high-fiving myself on bringing so little stuff until I had to carry the damn thing myself through customs, through the streets of Amsterdam, through three different airports...

Finally relieved of my luggage, I proceeded with anxiety towards security.  In the US, it's like you're entering a maximum-security prison.  I hate it.  It's probably the worst thing about traveling.  But in Amsterdam, it was like, put your stuff here, okay cool, have a nice day.  What?  I didn't even have to walk through barefoot on some nasty linoleum floor with fake-skid-mark tiles.

I got to the airport super early because I wasn't quite sure how to buy a train ticket (from Amsterdam to the airport), so I got to spend about three hours waiting at the gate.  I bought a sandwich.  It was good.  And not too expensive.  But there were also these window shades that went up and down at random intervals:

For what reason they went up and down randomly, I have no idea.  But they were cool.

The only thing I thought about the airport when I disembarked in Alicante was: this is small.  And it was.  There are only a few gates, and all of the airplanes on the tarmac look like children's toys.  I guess it's kind of out of the way, so the adult-sized airplanes don't fly here very often.  The bag claim took like forty-five minutes for unknown reasons.  There are five or six bag claims in this enormous, needlessly dark room which for some reason seems to be designed to take prisoners, because I spent another fifteen minutes, with my heavy bag in tow, searching for the exit.

I arrived at my host mother's house, tired and sweaty, at 6 PM.  Alicante, unlike Amsterdam where I was wearing a freaking JACKET, was very hot when I arrived.  I was overdressed and carrying a backpack.  So I was relieved to put it all down and change.

The night finished off with a meet and greet over tapas with the Spanish Studies Abroad staff, Pepa and Marisa.  It was an orientation of sorts, I suppose, and I was surprised at how much English they spoke.  But I guess it make sense since there were students who were not yet fluent in Spanish.  Plus, it was the first night.

The food was good, and the wine was sweet, otherwise I was so tired that I don't remember everything that happened.

Mmkay, bookkeeping announcements:

-At the end of every blog post, I'm going to go ahead and put a photo gallery of images I didn't work into the text.  I already have like 700 photos, so expect lots.

-Later tonight I will go ahead and make up a new banner for this blog utilizing photos from Spain.

-The internet connection in my room is so slow that I cannot use Blogger.  For this reason, when I can, I am going to write a bunch of posts and schedule them a week or so apart.  The time between schedules could be more or less time, it just depends.  But this way I won't have to worry so much about falling behind on posts as I have these past few weeks.

EDITED to add:  There are three posts scheduled behind this one...enjoy! :D

Okay, photo gallery!

Restaurant on a replica sail ship near the docks.  We walked past here after the orientation the first night.

What I can see through the window in my room

Alicante from (slightly) above, in one of the oldest neighborhoods of the city.  This photos is actually from about a week after I arrived, but it seemed like a good way to end this post.

Until next time!