Today marks my 7th day since arriving in Alicante, Spain, but really, it feels a lot longer than that.  I have been doing so much this past week, I can barely believe it.  Well, on Monday my first class started – the intensive Spanish review.  It’s 4 hours a day, 5 days a week – at least there’s a half hour break after the first two hours for a coffee break at the local cafe.  Class is a lot of work, but I really like my professor and we have a lot of interactive activities to make it more fun.  During our first week, we already had an essay and exam, and we have another of each next week.  I guess that’s how they justify a 3-credit class lasting only 2 weeks.  The university is actually about 15 minutes north of Alicante, and I take a bus to get to and from classes.  The first few days it was really hard to remember how to get around town and find the bus stops (I’ll admit I did get lost and wander around a few times).  I got a tour from my host family the first day I was there, but I can’t remember something until I do it for myself.  Not to worry, though, I’ve got it down pat now.

But enough about class…that’s not the fun part…now about everything else.  My host family is awesome – seriously awesome.  My padres make me great meals for lunch and dinner (breakfast is practically nonexistant here).  So far I’ve tried all sorts of stuff I never would’ve touched back in the States – but I promised I would come here with an open mind and try everything before refusing, and it ended up being a pretty solid decision.  So far the things I’ve eaten that I never did before are: calamari, snails, mushrooms, olives (but I still don’t like olives, though I did give them a second chance), various kinds of fish, and more I can’t even remember.  Here’s a picture of my dinner last night:

Some of my favorite foods so far have been tapas (small Spanish dishes of bite-size things, you eat 5-6 different courses) like chorizo (Spanish sausage), papas bravas (potato chips in a spicy salsa), and calamari; paella de marisco (traditional Spanish rice dish with seafood and a delicious sauce); sangria; and ensalada espa�ola del verano (kind of a Spanish potato salad…with tomatoes, peppers, onions, cucumbers, vinegar, oil, and spices).  I’ve asked my madre to teach me some traditional Spanish dishes, and I’m going to teach them some of the stuff I cook at home.  So yeah, the food here is great, and I’m definitely going to get fat if I don’t start exercising (I was going to run today but it literally thunderstormed all day).  But back to my family.  My host-parents have 3 kids, 2 daughters who already moved out and have families of their own, and 1 son who still lives at home.  Both daughters are hosting students in my program as well, so we all hang out a lot together – we’re a pretty big family, ~20 people!  The son, my older brother, is a pretty cool guy.  He’s studying to be a gym teacher, and it pretty fit, so I’m going to try and work out with him throughout the semester.  We went to a bar earlier this week and watched the Barcelona game (they beat Villareal 5-0)…he’s the biggest Barca fan I’ve ever seen.  I think we’re going to make a habit out of this.  We also went running to the castle that sits on top of a small mountain in the middle of the city.  It was probably only a 3 or 4 mile run, but climbing all the stairs to the top of the castle was tough.  I’ll come back to the topic of the castle later, for now I want to talk about my family more.  The four of us live together in a fairly small apartment (for American standards), but I really like it.  My only complaint is that there isn’t air conditioning…there’s a small AC unit for the living room in the afternoon but for the rest of the day it’s all fans and open windows to cool off, and the weather has been mid 90’s with high humidity every day so far.  It’s been kind of hard to sleep this week – I’m still adjusting to the climate and my body doesn’t want to fall asleep while it’s sweating.  But supposedly it’s supposed to start cooling off a little as the days go on so I’m sure it’ll get better.  Here’s a picture of my room:

One thing that’s been really awesome is la siesta…when I come home after class and eat lunch, it’s normal for everyone to relax and take a nap between 3-5 in the afternoon.  This is a custom could get used to in the US.  In general, everyone in Spain is a lot more relaxed, more friendly, and generally happier than at home…maybe we should take a lesson?  Anyways, my family has been hosting foreign students for close to 13 years, and they’ve stayed close to most of the students.  It’s nice to know they really care and that I’m making life-long friends with a great family this semester.

So now, back to the castle, officially called El Castillo Santa Barbara (FYI…I really love castles, so I was so pumped to find out there was a castle in the middle of Alicante).  After I ran there, we took an official tour the next day.  It was built my the Moors back in the 9th century, and construction continued through the 14th century.  It sits on a mountain overlooking the city and port, and was very important for defending the city in ancient times.  Here are some pictures of the castle:

Location: Alicante, Spain