Hola amigos!
Well, that was quite a busy week and weekend. First off, I was fortunate enough to get an internship at the Alicante Provisional Archeological Museum (M.A.R.Q.)! I will be working in every department of the museum, from restoring ancient pottery and sculptures to giving tours to visitors, in Spanish too. Luis, the director of USAC in Alicante, drove me to the museum Monday for my first day, which was incredible. Anna, my supervisor, took me around the museum, showing me their collection, which is over 9 million pieces ranging in dates from prehistoric times to the mid-1800s. My favorite part was the behind the scenes areas, where they do the cleaning and restoring of the ancient pieces, which is where I spent my Wednesday. They also told me I would be going to the dig site once or twice a month which is just a little north of the city. There, I would be helping them search and excavate pieces in the tombs and dig sites. Basically, I am the next Indiana Jones hahaha. I am so excited to be doing this twice a week, and really learning what goes on in a museum, which could be a potential career for me in the future.
School is still awesome, learning more every day and surprising myself with how good my memory is with my Spanish. I’m meeting more of my classmates every day as well. In Rome, I lived in a dorm where I was constantly surrounded by other students, whether it was in the library, the cafeteria, our bedroom wings, classrooms, out in the city or in other counties during weekend travels. I was with these 183 students 24/7 and became incredibly close to many of them. It’s quite different now here in Spain, however, because most of the time I only see a lot of these people at school or when we go out on the weekends. I don’t mind the change, but sometimes I miss having my closest friends right down the hall from me. On the other hand, my host family is comforting and fun to hang out with, so I don’t mind being away from American students a majority of the time. I actually just finished watching Mamma Mia with my host family in Spanish, and it was hilarious watching them try to sing the songs in English. They are really such a sweet family, and AMAZING cooks. Always making the best home cooked food.
I also went to my first Spanish fútbol game on Saturday, and that was quite an experience. The game was played in Elche, a town just a couple minutes away from Alicante. It was Hercules, the Alicante team, versus the Elche team. My closest girl-friends here and I decided to go after we heard it was cheap and close by. We made it a day trip however, starting with a visit to the huge outlet mall between Elche and Alicante. However, we went during siesta time, the few hours a day that every working person goes home to eat with family and take a quick nap, and so everything was unfortunately closed. So instead we went straight to Elche to check out the city. We walked around, checking out the cool church of Santa Maria and the old castle nearby. We also found a huge palm tree forest, which we later found out is the biggest one in all of Europe. It was extremely beautiful and exotic, and it had several banana and orange trees within it. We met this old man who was wandering around the forest, which seems a little sketchy at first, but after talking to him a little (all in Spanish of course) we realized he was super sweet and he took us on our own little private tour of the city. There wasn’t much else to see besides the forest, but it was a pretty little town and worth the visit. Around 6, we got hungry and went to this cute little Spanish restaurant for dinner, and had incredible salads and pastries. We then went to the futbol game, and were immediately excited by the atmosphere. A lot of USAC students were there, as well as die hard Hercules team fans. I had gone to one in Rome, and that was quite the experience. The fans were cursing, singing, and screaming, nothing like the fans at games in the states. But the Spanish game and the fans were ten times more intense than the Italians. They screaming insults and swear words left and right, and I admit I joined in- When in Spain right? It was a lot of fun, but unfortunately Alicante lost. I was just happy to see a game and check out another town nearby.
The group I went with returned to Alicante around 11 pm, and since we were still amped up on the energy from the game, we decided to go out for the night. Unlike in America where people start going out and partying around 10/11 at night, Spaniards don’t start partying until 2 am. It’s going to take me a while to get used to that difference, and I will admit I haven’t been able to do it often. I get tired by midnight, and have decided to stay in with my host family watching movies or … dare I say it… doing puzzles. Lame, I know, but my body is not ready is not quite up to Spaniards partying standards! Maybe by next weekend I will try staying out until 6 am, which they do every weekend. I don’t entirely mind though, especially when Idoya has her friends over, which are my age. We all hang and talk, even if the conversation is full of broken English and sloppy Spanish. I really enjoy their company though, and their attempts at teaching me new Spanish phrases and styles. I have been in Alicante for about 3 weeks now, and I have enjoyed every minute. Carnival is coming up next weekend, which is similar to Halloween in America, and I am really looking forward to the big party and costumes. Every week is getting more and more exciting! Is it bad to say I don’t miss home too much? Hahaha.
Hasta luego amigos!
