la extranjera

(I’m sorry that this post was a day late. My family came in to Madrid yesterday, so I spent my free time snugging them.)

I’m baaaaack! This past weekend I got to go with my oceanography class to Alicante, a beautiful beach city located on the Mediterranean. It was a fantastic trip. It was hands down one of the best trips I have been on this semester, and I miss it already!

After sharing a few tapas with my friends on Thursday afternoon, I  left with my class at 2:30 on a good ole Yolcar bus for Alicante! We arrived at the Hotel Masa at about 8:30 and after a quick check-in and fresher-upper, we enjoyed a lovely multi-course meal in the hotel banquet hall. It was so cute- white tables, lots of elderly locals, a beautiful ocean-view… my friends and I decided that we were livin life, and proceeded to talk about how lovely our Mediterranean “cruise” was. I ordered mussels and sea-bass, which was super delicious, but also super delicious because the fish came out whole. Head included. I decided to name mine Carl before diggin in. My friend Gretchen and I finished the night with a little Pearl Harbor, then promptly passed out. 

We woke up early Friday morning and headed down to the Alicante Marina. We got to watch some fishermen bring in the day’s catch- a variety of little fishes- and then we toured the inside of a WWII submarine! We all live in a black submarine…

For the next three hours or so we spent time on the water switching between kayaking, riding dinghies, and laying out on a cruiser. It was absolute bliss! The weather was absolutely incredible and it felt amazing to be enjoying the ocean from boats. We also got to watch the marina workers release a turtle that had been rescued back into the ocean. He was all the way from Florida and so cute! From the way he was angrily flapping his arms when they held him up like Simba though, I’m pretty sure he was not enjoying all of the attention! 

After a lovely lunch in the sun of bocadillos, they gave us some free time to lay out in the sun. Of course we all got FRIED, but soaking up the rays was so worth it! We all felt so lucky that laying out was part of a mandatory field trip. Score! After our sun-siesta we went to the Alicante fish auction, where every fisherman’s daily catch is laid out on a conveyor belt and bid on by local restaurants, grocery stores, and the like. It was pretty amazing to see how quickly the bidding happened, and even more amazing to see how expensive some of the fish cost- some of the grouper went for 25 euros per kilogram!!

In the evening we returned to the hotel for a delicious buffet dinner. Looking for a fun finish to the night, my classmates and I made our way down to the club in the basement of the hotel where we danced the night away to Spanish music with the locals. I’m pretty sure some of the older people thought we were insane when we all started screaming to “Waka Waka”, but they were just tickled pink when we whipped into our dance-class-mode and pulled out some salsa and bachata moves. Chicka chicka yeah! Groovin and movin the night away to Spanish music was the perfect ending to a great day in Alicante. 

So dinner smells REALLY good tonight. Keep your fingers crossed for me…

Last night the roomies and I laid around in our room for a long time just exhausted from school, but then at 12:30(am) we decided that we’re in MADRID and that we probably shouldn’t be lazy bums all of the time, so we quickly rallied and were on a metro by 1. We ended up going to a TINY (as in, about the size of a dorm room) once-again American place that most Madrilenos have probably never heard of called Maloney’s. I’m really glad we got out because even though the majority of the crowd was from SLU (America?), we did meet some really nice people from Marymount Loyola. Getting out of the bubblegum room was also very refreshing.

Somebody’s being a grumpy pants…

Today was the round two of the first day of classes. My Spanish Culture and Civilization 418 professor flat out described our class as facilisimo (super easy). Sounds like it could be really fun (there’s a trip to Alhambra included!), but there was a Spanish girl in my class who complained that non-native speakers were taking the class…wH@t3v3r.

DANCEDANCEDANCEDANCEDANCE AHHH! My first Latin Rhythms and Style dance class was today and it was ridiculously fun!! Today we started learning the merengue dance and I cannot even describe how comical it was. Everyone in my class (myself included) was super awkward, but we all gave it our best shot and just laughed the whole time. We’re performing in a recital at the end of the semester and I am SO EXCITED!

Side note- today for lunch I ventured to a tiny sandwich shop right off campus called Tienda Verde that was muy delicioso y barato (delicious and cheap). I appreciate that the Spanish are generous with their brie portions. 

Side note #2- When I went into the bathroom to shower this morning, Rose (pronounced Rosa) was flushing leftover noodles down the toilet. She told me not to tell Mercedes. Your bizarre bizarre secret is safe with me, Rose…

I am taking a picture of Mercedes tonight because she is bonita.