The time actually arrived- my last blog post written in Spain! The realization of it being our last week seemed to hit us in full force; we imagine it for weeks and then all of a sudden, suitcases are actually being packed. Now that the end is here, it seems to have gone fast. Keeping up constant contact with people at home has helped it not feel too far away, so somehow it doesn’t feel like I’ve been away for very long. However, I’m sure once I see the bare trees and brown grass that I left in summertime, my absence will be much more realized. Our absence from home has also been realized this week with our excitement to come back. Haley and I are both nearly fully packed and it’s only mid-week!
According to us and our other friends from the program, the things we are most excited to return to are a bit more abstract. Of course we are antsy for hugs from loved ones and a big Chipotle bowl, but many people have said they also are looking forward to getting some freedom back in food and accessibility. We have been very lucky to live with host mothers that prepare all of our meals, but many of us, especially those who enjoy cooking, are anxious to be able to cook for ourselves again and be in charge of what we get to eat for each meal. Living with a host mom was definitely the best case set-up for me, but it will be really nice to be able to cook my own lunches again or decide what I actually feel like having for breakfast. Most people are also excited to get back the freedom of being able to drive. I greatly admire Spain’s dedication to public transport because of its cost efficiency and its environmental benefits, and it does encourage me to consider public transport as an option more often. The traditional suburban American in me, however, is greatly looking forward to returning to the ability to hop in my car whenever and go wherever and not have to be crowded in a bus seat or regulated by the walking distance or ticket cost between two locations. Our American privilege is very obvious in comparisons like these, but they are still very specific freedoms that will feel great to get back. Another thing we all are excited to return to is related to the freedoms but doesn’t even require much action; going back to your comforts is one of the main rewarding things about returning from studying abroad. Deciding to study abroad for a full semester is a very big decision and involves the agreement that you’re going to be giving up all that you use to make yourself comfortable for (in our case) 3 months. That’s a long time! Of course there has been Facetime and handwritten cards and favorite well-worn pajamas, but when you use those in a very strange space, they don’t have quite the same effect. This semester allowed us to see amazing and beautiful places, so it’s a very fair trade-off, but being without typical comfort methods is very hard. So now with only a couple days to go until we’re home for good, I think that is the main thing everyone wants to be back to whether they realize it or not. Whether it’s cooking, hugging family, watching a movie in your comfy family couch, all of these are things that make us comfortable and safe. And after 3 months of being thrust into new places with new people, we all seem to be ready to feel that way again. This last week in Alicante is reflective, sad, nostalgic, exciting, and anxious all together at once. There will absolutely be things I miss and am starting to miss already, which brings me more comfort than sadness because it demonstrates to me that I really did have a great time and made the right decision. Missing Thanksgiving, a very family-centered and relaxing holiday, is tough as well but luckily this time change will have us sleeping through a big part of it! Both a lot and not much will happen this week but at the end of it, we will say goodbye to a beautiful place and hello to that comfy couch and those hugs and (most importantly) that big Chipotle bowl.
1 Comment
If I had said we were in the homestretch before, that was not much compared to now. Thanksgiving is one week away which means I’m sure the flurry of preparations at home look similar to our beginning preparations to leave Spain. Conversations are filled with jokes about how we will not have nearly enough room in our luggage, questions about COVID tests, and hurried planning of how to fill our last days. As I write this, it is just about 10 days before Haley and I will arrive in the Philadelphia airport, sleepy and dragging multiple overstuffed suitcases. I will talk more about our mixed feelings about leaving later, as the days tick down even further, but for now we are just in planning and prep mode. Our final weekend in Spain is almost here, and while that will be fun, we also have been recuperating from our past weekend: our final trip together for a while!
This past weekend, Haley, two of our program friends, and I went to Italy! We flew into Pisa and got to see the Leaning Tower which felt very surreal. One of those places that you’ve seen pictures of so often that it is very strange to see in person. The Tower is within a little grass park next to Pisa’s Duomo and the area is always filled with pedestrians or tourists getting their own cheesy picture with the Tower (us included). The Leaning Tower is definitely one of those things you marvel at, especially because as an environmental science student, I wonder if an architectural-environmental mistake like that could even happen now. The Leaning Tower is basically the main sight of Pisa, though it does have the beautiful Italian pale-colored houses and autumn colors in the trees. We made our way to the Pisa Central train station to catch our ride into Florence, where we stayed the rest of the weekend. Our Airbnb was beautiful, with brightly colored bedroom walls, a tiny fireplace, and even a skylight! We stayed on the left bank of the Arno River in Florence, just across a bridge from the city center- and there are lots of bridges to choose from! Ponte Vecchio is the main bridge, though you can’t even tell you are on a bridge when you walk across. Ponte Vecchio is filled to the brim with shops, mainly gold and jewelry, and you only get flashes of views of the river between shops before you realize you’ve crossed into town. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much sparkly jewelry in one place! We spent of our two days in Florence walking around and just looking. We saw the outside of the Florence Duomo Cathedral, Piazza Della Signoria, and the Uffizi Museum. We visited Michelangelo’s David in La Accademia Galleria and walked through the Boboli Gardens. We tired ourselves out rushing up the hill to the Piazzale Michelangelo, but the beautiful sunset and panoramic view of Florence was very worth it. We saw lots of sculptures, ancient Italian art, and beautiful old houses among the skinny streets. Most of all (and this was one of my favorite parts), we ate a lot. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen tables for 4 as full as ours always were. We spent the mornings with croissants and Italian lattes, and our afternoons and evenings with pasta. Our first night in Florence, we got wonderful pizza in a little place and even got the pizzas in heart shapes as a compliment from the cook! Once pizza was out of the way though, it was lots of pasta, wine, gelato, and a bit of cheese tasting in there too. We tried multiple different restaurants recommended to us by friends and all of it was amazing. Strangely enough, however, I think our collective favorite pastas were the ones we made by hand! The pasta class was on our final night in Florence, which began with a rush into the Airbnb to escape a quick rainstorm, and then to a cheese and wine flight tasting after a rest. We tried various game meats and cheese with some jams and flights of bubbly wine. Then came the time for our pasta-making class, which ended up being wonderful. We made tortellini, ravioli, and tagliatelle and met people from all over the world. The dough making was harder than I thought it would be, but I think I feel confident making some homemade pasta myself (with a little trial and error). Another chef besides our teacher took our pasta in the back kitchen as we produced it and cooked each one up, the stuffed pasta in a butter and sage sauce and the tagliatelle in a tomato basil sauce. The whole class sat family dinner style at our long table and ate the pasta and carried conversation about where we were from, especially us and a Canadian-French couple at the table. This experience definitely proved things are even better when homemade! Although there was some sadness surrounding our final trip together as new friends from this program, Florence was a beautiful and perfect last location. We ate well and saw beautiful things and got to know each other even better. It wasn’t easy to leave Italy, but made a little easier knowing how close we all are to being back in our own hometowns. For those going abroad, Florence comes highly recommended from me (if I have not convinced you already) Until next time! Hello! Thank you for tuning in again to read my blog this week! The first week of November went by in a blink, and a big reason for that is all my newfound free time this month. For November, I am only enrolled in my two Culture Content classes, one each per day. This means I only go to the university campus for two hours a day, and both classes begin in the afternoon. This week’s blog will talk about what routines I have started to fill my free time in this last month of being in Spain.
Absolutely one of my favorite things about this new school routine is the ability to sleep in. Getting up at 7 every morning was doable but so different from my typical college routine and overall very tiring. Side piece of advice for any new college student reading: only take an 8am class if you have to or if you are a crazy morning person. It is so much harder to get up than you would think, even if you just went through 12 years of getting up at 6am for school. Just don’t do it. Anyway back to life in Spain: since I get to sleep in, my mornings have been pretty relaxed and quiet. Haley, my housemate, usually is gone or on her way out not long after I wake up and everyone at home is asleep, so it has been a lot of solo time. The solo time has been even more rewarding than I would have thought because it feels good to be able to enjoy your own company. Once I actually get myself moving for the day, I have been filling my free time with different things. I’ve taken walks down to the port to journal, gone to the beach before the chilly weather kicked in, watched Netflix, finished homework, and walked among the kiosks of the Explanada to buy Christmas gifts. Even though I have other friends in my program that are home when I am, we all seem to have enjoyed the opportunity during these days to have time to ourselves. It has been a chance to walk around the city I have been living in for 9 weeks and discover little shops or people watch. My solo trips around town have shown me that even though a GO Short would still have been amazing, having only a month of regulated activities would not have given nearly the same experience to become immersed in the Spanish culture and really understand the language and how they live. Beyond my solo afternoons, my friends and I have found ways to fill free time together too at night or on the weekends where we have stayed in town. Because of the late dinnertimes and school the next day, we all almost always stay in our houses after dinner. A couple nights here and there, though, we have gone out to eat together, shop, or take a walk to get ice cream. On the weekends, we have taken small day trips on the Tram to nearby towns such as Villajoyosa or Altea. We also often go out to get cheap drinks at 100 Montaditos, a huge chain throughout Spain that serves tapas and basic mug drinks. It has always been a great location to meet up and not worry about spending too much money. Free time is one of the most important things about embarking on a GO Long. Shorter abroad trips still bring you to a fabulous country and give you the chance to do something amazing, but you don’t really get the chance to live like a local. Even though most Spaniards can tell immediately that we are Americans by our appearances or our accents, we still can give directions within our little area or give restaurant recommendations. 3 months is not long enough to become a full-fledged local, of course, but the things we do and learn during our free time has been what allows us to feel a part of the country even just for a little bit. November is upon us! Fall and Halloween sped on like they always do, and we have reached November aka my last month of being abroad. With just about 3 weeks to go and lots of plans coming up, November is sure to fly by and that means it will be even more important to soak up as many Spanish days as possible. Usually I am not a person that considers November 1st the start of Christmas season, especially being on the coast of Spain far away from any wisps of Christmas-y snow, but this year may start the holiday music a little early. Spain does not celebrate Thanksgiving of course, so Christmas decorations are already starting to appear on the streets and the Starbucks advertisements! Personally, I’m relieved that I will be home for all of the Christmas activities in December, but the holiday in Spain looks like it will be amazing too.
Speaking of the Christmas season (someone count how many times the word Christmas is in this post), my post this week will be about shopping in Spain. My friends and I have ramped up our souvenir/holiday gift buying this past week, slowly collecting many items that will surely complicate the re-packing process of going home. Even though I may have to plead with the airline desk person when they weigh my suitcases in a few weeks, shopping for gifts abroad has been really fun for me because Spain offers so many options. There are the traditional cheesy souvenirs sold in the kiosks along La Explanada, local food products in small stores around the city, anything you could imagine really. Spain’s shopping culture is very diverse and attends to the needs of all kinds of different shoppers. Here in Alicante, there is a large Central Market, two locations of a huge department store, and many little shops, local and brand names. Usually, only the international brand name stores are open on Sundays. Most local stores also close for a few hours for siesta, between 2pm and 5:30pm. This is important to remember if you are in Spain and planning to make Sunday your shopping day; it takes a bit of getting used to, but you eventually learn to make other plans! The Central Market in Alicante is very significant to the city. It is a multi-floor building with turrets and mosaics on the outside, and inside they sell every fresh grocery item possible. The Market is only open until 1pm on weekdays, and is not open on Sundays, so you need to get in there fast! Markets are very important to the Spanish culture whether they are outdoor or indoor, and although supermarkets are still very common, many Spaniards purchase special meats, seafoods, or produce at local markets. The culture of shopping for clothing, jewelry, etc. is not significantly different than that of the United States, although I have not often seen many people shopping alone. A couple other interesting observations about shopping in Spain are that it is much more common to interact with the store personnel when browsing, especially in stores such as pharmacies or specialty food stores. When you walk into a local, small store, it is expected that you greet the store worker when they greet you and you respond honestly when they ask what you are looking for, rather than just say you’ll find it on your own. Store workers anticipate needing to be very helpful, and in stores that are not for clothing, it is not very common to just walk around aimlessly. The other thing I found interesting here is that while they do not celebrate Thanksgiving, they do participate in Black Friday! Black Friday in Spain is similar to Halloween: it’s an American holiday that has only very recently been brought abroad and is not celebrated quite the same way. Stores don’t open at 3 in the morning to stampeding crowds, but they do have significant discounts and large rushes when the stores do open. Black Friday will be our final day here in Spain and I am not sure if that is good or dangerous; it will end up depending on how proactive we are about packing! The holiday season is always a flurry of activity between malls and tiny stores across the world, and while that brings stress, it is also always fun to pick out the perfect gift for someone. Shopping in Spain is a mode of entry into their culture and provides us students with a way of connecting this country to our loved ones back home. Thank you for reading and happy start of the holiday season! |
Archives
December 2021
Categories |