My new School & Family!

Today was the first day of class at the University of Alicante. The campus is beautiful with palm trees and marble everywhere. I am in the intermediate Spanish class with 3 other students from Coe. Class was so much fun! It was 3 hours long though it seemed like 1. Our class is made up of 1 other American girl from Arizona, a girl and a 48 year-old man from Sweden, a couple from Russia, a girl from China, a boy from Japan, an elderly couple from England, and Danny from Indonesia. Danny was my partner today since I did not have the book. They have already been in class for 3 weeks, so we are joining in the middle. Danny graduated from fashion school, has worked for 8 months in Paris, and has a job with a shoe designer in Alicante for which he needs to be fluent in Spanish. He was a lot of fun to talk to [he has perfect English], really funny. He can´t wear his highheels here like he did while in Paris--the people here just wouldn´t understand!

The University has many international students so they offer lots of field trips. Jenny and I are signing up for a bunch--an afternoon at a vineyard, a weekend trip to Granada [the last Islamic kingdom in Spain until 1942], a boat trip to a nearby island, and a day of water activites like sailing and wind surfing!

My family here is very nice. We have a very full apartment [actually 2 apartments they knock the dividing wall out of]. There is my host mom and dad, their 2 sons, a grandmother, and another exchange student from Italy. Her name is Tia and she is extremely nice. She also speaks English which is helpful at times when I don´t understand. I am not sure how typical my family is; we don´t eat together, people are rarely home, and we do not have wine with our meals [a common Spanish tradition that I am apparently missing out on!] Either way they are extremely nice and make sure I have everything I need. My first impression of my host mom seems to say a lot: she was wearing skin tight, snake-skin pants, drives a black truck like vehicle with a lift kit and a large exaust pipe on the hood [it is by far the largest vehicle I have seen in Spain!], and the first thing I saw when I walked in to our apartment was a zebra print lava lamp! LOL! Again, they are extremely nice.

I have pictures to post to liven this up a bit, but I am not on my computer right now. I will have them up soon--promise!

Te vias bien!