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.
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| Cacti and other plants you will never see outside in Michigan |
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| La mano (the hand) |
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| A walkway lined with trees |
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| 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.
