Last Friday Dr. Calvo, our adviser/coordinator, met us at the train station and accompanied us to his hometown, Elche. It's about 18 miles or so west of Alicante and I think it only took about 30-40 minutes in train to arrive there. He showed us all of the main attractions of Elche such as the Parque Municipal (Municipal Park), part of the Palmeral (palm tree park/farm) and the Basilica de Santa María (Saint Mary's Basilica). Elche is a beautiful city, and we were so lucky to have Dr. Calvo show us around.
The 6 of us CMU students at the Parque Municipal
Basilica de Santa María
Arroz con costra
I really enjoyed the Parque Municipal, or as some of the locals call it Parque de los Patos (Duck Park) because of ducks of course. But there were other types of birds too such as a swan, pigeons and doves. When we went to the Palmeral we got to see people sewing/knitting with palm leaves; it really cool and all of the pieces were, in my opion, works of art. One of the women there gave us a little demonstration and some of us were allowed to keep some of the things she made (I got a fish for example). Then a man showed us how to climb the palm trees, which people do, not because they are crazy (although they still might be a little), but because they need to trim the leaves off of the palm trees to help them grow better. After walking around a bit more we went to a restaurant and we all tried arroz con costra, a dish native to Elche, which is rice with chicken and rabbit and topped with egg (kind of like an omelette) filled with various types of sausage; it was super delicious. Dr. Calvo had a former student of his, who is a professional photographer, take pictures of us while we were exploring the city, so not all of these photos are mine, but they were too amazing not to share.
A palm leave work of art
Me, Ali, Amanda & Hollie with our "prizes"
The 6 of us with a replica of the Dama de Elche an ancient
statue found near Elche and a source of local pride.
On Saturday, I met up with Ali, Hollie and Amanda and we went to the castle; the three of them hadn't been there yet and I felt like going again and I'm glad that I did because it was a nicer day on Saturday then when I went a couple of weeks ago.
Classes have been going well, I'm really enjoying my translation class, even though the professor likes to point out the many mistakes us foreign students make when translating from English to Spanish. And I am also enjoying my class on the recent history of Europe (1945-present) focusing on the European integration (the European Union in particular) because it's a class I know I would never get the opportunity to take at CMU or at least not from the same perspective, the perspective of actual Europeans living under the European Union system. Plus the professor of this class is super understanding that being from America we know hardly anything about the European Union and is willing to help us with anything we don't comprehend.
Hollie, Ali and I are going to Valencia next weekend and this weekend is Carnaval, or the festival just before the start of lent, a Catholic period of fasting before Easter. It is kind of like Mardi Gras and Carnaval celebrated in Rio de Janeiro but on a smaller scale, of course. So the next week and a half or so is going to be really fun and exciting.
While researching Valencia I found this video that I really enjoyed of the people of Valencia lip-syncing to Happy by Pharrell Williams; it shows some of the main points of interests in Valencia. It makes me even more excited to visit the city!
This weekend was a bit more tranquil than the previous; I didn't do a whole lot. However I am in the process of planning a trip to Valencia, which is about 100 miles north of Alicante and it's the capital of the autonomous community Comunidad Valenciana. Also I booked my ticket to the Alhamba, a beautiful palace constructed originally by the Muslim kings who once ruled southern Spain, in Granada; I'm not going for another month however, so it's going to be a long wait.
The MARQ
Anyways, back to this past weekend. On Saturday I went to the Museo Arqueológico Provincial de Alicante, or the Provincial Archaeology Museum of Alicante, which is abbreviated into MARQ. There were some really cool exhibits there, such as recreations of an excavation site, a Gothic cathedral and a Roman ship. The MARQ has tons of artifacts from every era of Spanish history, but focusing mainly on the region of Alicante of course. I liked the sections about the Iberos (the native people of the Iberian Peninsula and from whom the Peninsula received its name), the Romans and the Arabs the best.
Plaque stating that the MARQ was inaugurated by the Queen of Spain
La Dama (The Lady) de Cabezo Lucero - A statue made by the Iberos (reconstructed a little)
Replica of a Roman ship
Muslim funeral inscription
Replica of a Gothic Cathedral
On Sunday, I didn't do much. Pacho, a friend and coworker of Dolo's, came over for lunch; he has been studying English for two years he said and I helped him practice it a little. Then Dolo suggested that we go to a tea house that she likes called Omaire Tetería, a lot about 15-20 minutes outside of the city. Those of you who know me very well, will know that I don't like tea, but they had other drinks too; I tried some sort of lime-mint drink, the waiter described it as a mojito without alcohol, it was very delicious.
On Saturday Dolo, one of her
friends, and I went to Castillo Santa Bárbara (Saint Barbara Castle) located near the center of Alicante on Monte (Mount) Benacantil. It was built by
Muslims during the 9th century when they had control over most of
Spain, and their greatest influence was in Southern Spain. It was captured by
the Spanish in the 1200, first by a kingdom in Central Spain known as Castilla
(Spain used to be made up of different kingdoms, and Spain as we know it today
was not unified until the 1500s) and they named it after Saint Barbara, and it
was captured from Castilla by a North-East kingdom of Spain known as Aragón.
It offers an amazing view of
Alicante, the Mediterranean Sea and the mountains surrounding Alicante. The
sentry boxes reminded me a lot of the ones in the castles built by the Spanish
in San Juan, Puerto Rico, so I enjoyed that bit of nostalgia. On the way down we were able to walk along the castle wall, which I thought was super awesome!
Castillo Santa Bárbara
The view of the center of the city and the Port of Alicante
Sentry Box
Alicante with the mountains in the background
Me & a sentry box with Alicante & the Mediterranean in the background
Walking along the castle wall
The view of the castle from the wall
On Sunday, Dolo took me to the
town where she grew up, Pinoso, which is about 40 minutes west of Alicante. On
the Sunday closest to February 12th, the town celebrates its
independence from another city about 10 miles away (which happened on February
12th of 1826); the festival is called el Día del Villazgo (Village
Day) and commemorates not only its independence, but also its heritage. A lot
of people were dressed in the traditional clothing of the town and a lot of
artisans set up stands along with the local restaurants serving the traditional
food such as paella, which is rice, vegetables and some type of meat and fasegures
(the valenciano named; called pelotas in Spanish) which is more or less
meatball soup; both dishes were extremely delicious!
Pinoso's City Hall with giant dolls dressed in traditional clothing
The Universdad de Alicante (University of Alicante) is actually in a town right to the north of Alicante called San Vicente del Reispeg or Sant Vicent del Reispeg, depending on whether you speak Spanish or the regional language, valenciano. For being so small compared to the United States, Spain has a lot of diversity it has 4 co-official languages, castellano (Spanish), euskera, gallego, and catalán (valenciano is a dialect of catalán, but is sometimes considered it's own language, especially by people who speak it). Since Alicante is in the the Comunidad Valenciana (Valencian Community), one of the 17 autonomous communities of Spain (they are basically states), pretty much everything written in Spanish and valenciano; for example Alicante is also called Alacant and the Universdad de Alicante is also called Universitat d'Alacant. Luckily I find that Spanish is more prevalent, because I don't speak a lick of valenciano.
Well, enough of the linguistics lesson. The University of Alicante has a beautiful and huge campus with tons of buildings. I think about every college (i.e. - the college of arts, the college of science, the college of law, etc.) has at least two buildings if not three. They also have five of what they call Social Clubs, which are basically cafeterias. There are tons of trees and other various plants decorating the campus; for example they have a lot of orange trees (which I was told the Valencian Community prides itself on its oranges) a row of cacti, not something I see everyday at CMU.
Cacti and other plants you will never see outside in Michigan
La mano (the hand)
A walkway lined with trees
An orange tree (one of many)
The last week or so has been pretty low-key. I'm essentially still settling in, but now I'm settling in more at the University rather than at my new home. Classes have been going great, and now I am not so panicky like I was the first week. Friday Dolo and I are going to Castillo Santa Bárbara (Saint Barbara Castle) and also some Spanish students are going bowling with me and the other five CMU students.
On Saturday, I met up with Ali, Hollie and Amanda and we went to the castle; the three of them hadn't been there yet and I felt like going again and I'm glad that I did because it was a nicer day on Saturday then when I went a couple of weeks ago.
