The New Queen of Spain

!!!!!!!!!!HOGUERASSSS 2011!!!!!!!!!!!

Ayyyy. Lo siento. Otra vez. Uffff.

I don’t even know how to begin to describe hogueras.

It is wild, wild, crazy, beautiful, loud, colorful, magical fun. Es la bomba. I feel like I’m in a dream. There is so much going on and so many people and things to see and eat and smell and hear. I basically walk around with my mouth hanging open in amazement. Not all the time. That’s gross.

But really, I don’t know how to tell you it all. I’ve been taking a million pictures and videos because I know I’m going to have the hardest time explaining everything when I go back. I really feel like I’m walking around in a dream sometimes.

Hogueras is like 4th of July and Disney World and the biggest party ever thrown and Wonderland and Mardi Gras and any festival/parade you’ve ever been to, multiplied by a million. Yeah. A million.

I have no time to sleep. I don’t want to sleep. Which is good cause a huge band comes around with drums and cymbals and horns and firecrackers every so often. Today they passed by at 08:30 and again at 11:00. La despertá. It’s so everyone is awake and they’re calling them all down to enjoy hogueras. Fiesta, fiesta!

But madre mia is it loud. And right outside the window.

At 14:00 every day there’s the mascletá. This is all so hard for me to explain. These words don’t translate. Hogueras, fallas, barracas, mascletá, petardos.

Anyway. It’s the loudest and most incredible thing you’ve ever experienced. Also right outside the window. We live in the main plaza of the city, remember? It’s like fireworks and firecrackers and smoke and noise and madness. 4th of July is sad and tiny compared to this. And it’s every day. The noise makes your chest thump and shakes the buildings and you’re smack in the middle of WWII. In a good way. That’s a bad comparison.

But every day it’s a different show because it’s also a competition between the pirotécnico who set it up. People flock to see this and the police and firemen have things blocked off for safety. Ok, but I could talk about this forever but I don’t have time to right now. I’m missing my siesta hour for this and today I need it most! Tonight the most people will be out on the streets of all of hogueras.

So I’m not going to upload a ton of pictures right now since it takes a long time. But don’t think I don’t have any. I have a billion.

Next. So now all the hogueras are placed in the streets and they’ve been judged and given prizes. Soon we burn them and turn over a new page in our lives. They’re amazing. And enormous. And ugh but I can’t put into words all that they are. I told you I felt like I was in a dream. Well the whole city is transformed for this. With the hogueras and barracas and all the places set up for food, parades, dancing, music, food, food, dancing, music, shopping, dancing, music.. it’s wild.

And you wouldn’t believe how quick they are to sweep through and clean up after the mascletá and parades and straight up partying in the streets. Right after the mascletá is over and the trucks are ready to come through and get up all the debris. One minute the roads and walkways are covered in trash and bottles and plastic bags and in the morning it’s like there weren’t a couple hundred people there going wild the night before.

Ok, here’s the deal. Now I’m going to siesta and late tonight or in the morning or tomorrow I’m going to write more. And add a ridiculous amount of pictures. Because I can’t explain this anymore.

I figure every pic I upload should save me around a thousand words. Sound about right?

Now I will go squeeze in a 55 minute siesta and then straight to another parade and hogueras night in Alicante. Ayyyy. 53 minute.

Pictures. Later. Promise.

Oh man, and I went to a bullfight on Tuesday!

Madre miiiiiiiiiiia, I have so much to say/show you still.

Hasta luego with a much more thorough update! Te prometoooo.

Un beso muuuuyyy fuerte,

Lena

Castles, tapas, exams, owls, hogueras, beaches. Not in that order.

Sorry. Really sorry.

I didn’t mean to go so long without writing. I don’t know how it happened.

I blame the country itself. Spain doesn’t have to be this fun and exciting and beautiful and amazing. What? It doesn’t.

It is, though. And keeping up with this is not as easy as I had planned. I can’t even write this whole entry in one sitting. I’ll finish part of it tomorrow afternoon/night. Not easy.

Do you not believe me still? Because some days I don’t even have enough time to take my siesta. And it’s pretty vital for Spaniards like myself.

MOVING ON~~*~

Let’s get everyone caught up on as much as possible.

First, I dominated my exams last Friday, even having only been there 2 of the 4 weeks. So now I’m in two more continuation classes of those. Culture and grammar, if you’re taking notes.

Friday afternoon and night I went out with my Spanish mom and walked around. We went to the museum of hogueras, which are the main part of the huge festival we’re having here soon! You’re going to have to look it all up. I’m running low on sleep. Lo sientooooo, cariños.

But I’ll show you pictures!

Then we accidentally ran into a big medieval festival that was taking up a nice chunk of el barrio. Lot’s of little booths and people selling things from all over. There were clothes, shoes, bags, candies, hippies, witches, goblins, performances, music, food, and owls. And some falcons I think.

Next I went to eat tapas for the first time ever! So delicious. The best concept. I am ready to rally for Greensboro to open up a Lizarran tapas place for everyone to enjoy. You eat all the tapas you want, then you save up the little sticks they come on and count them in the end. There are a few different shapes of them with different prices. Is that not the coolest? Not to mention they were delicious. Everything’s delicious.

I didn’t get to go to the beach for a whole week because of clouds and pathetic weather, but on Saturday I went for a short bit. Then on Sunday we went to a different beach only 30 minutes from ours that is even nicer. There are less people and it’s bigger. We took the tram over and the bus back.

I can’t get enough of the beach. I could be there all day and night and not get tired. But really.

Oh, and I went to a pool! My Spanish mamiiii and her daughter each have apartments at this beach because they go stay there in the summer. Their places are much closer to the beach than our home in Alicante.

Guess what else I finally did? I climbed el castillo de Santa Bárbara last week! I went with a friend and we made it all the way to the top. It was so beautiful. Also not as easy of a hike as it looks.

Well, we did do a little extra walking since we got lost on the way up, but the paths and steps were also pretty steep. Good thing I have such bountiful strength and endurance.

Anyway, it was gorgeousgorgeousgorgeous. We went in the afternoon so the sun was starting to set when we were at the top. We had to wait a little while to go all the way up because there was a film crew and actors up there working on a movie. Wow, really??

So don’t worry your pretty little heads off too much about me. It’s so easy to fall in love with everything here. Well it is for me. Just speaking all Spanish every day is enough to drive me crazy with happiness. So you can imagine with everything else Spain has to offer I’m pretty much floating 24/7.

I’m getting so sad to have to leave this and all my friends soon. They are amazing. 100%. I’ve had the best times with them all. Now I’m going to have to make trips to Spain, Japan, Italy, Russia, China, France, and others to visit them all! Time to invest in Rosetta Stone?

I’m also getting very excited for the festival to start. All the streets now have lights going across all of them and they’ve released this year’s program. I’ve been told what to expect, but I know the real thing is going to be a million times greater.

Can’t wait. Actually I can. Slow down, time.

So I’m sorry again this took forever to get up. I started writing this on Thursday. It is Saturday. Ayy. Madre mia.

Mil besosssss,

Lena

Wednesday

The clouds were laughing at me when I walked to class this morning.

All of them, I saw them whisper in each others ears, surely the steps to a plot against me. They realized how badly I wanted the sunshine to win so they tried extra hard to look filled with rain. Turns out they were not bluffing.

That’s okay, I wasn’t wearing a white t-shirt or anything and I sport jelly shoes. Plus class was very fun today, so the weather only slightly stomped all over my happiness and plans.

Some people brought food in so we ate and talked during the last bit of class! We had sushi and cheese and ham and wine and fish and cookies and fruit.

It was a delicious little mini-feast that did not fit perfectly into Spanish meal times, but obviously we cared not.

I made it home without getting rained on, up until the short walk from where I got off the bus to home. No worries, my hair looks ‘super mona’ in the rain and my baby curls make an appearance. How’s that for Spanish slang?

And for being a city where it hardly rains, people were pretty quick to whip out their umbrellas on the street today. They all had them.

It was just drizzle though. It was drizzle that wasn’t even putting much effort into it. So, in honor of the weather, guess what I decided to do?

You know, I love to go shopping even if I don’t buy anything. Even if all I do is walk around and try on clothes and listen to the music and watch the people and go through all the normal motions, minus check-out. Obviously I did buy things though. It was raining, remember?

I’ve been so disciplined with shopping since being here. Very uncharacteristically disciplined. Yeah, I’ve only been here a little over a week, but I live within walking distance of H&M, two malls, and a whole street filled with stores. Plus other shops scattered all nearby. Plus, plus the vast vast VAST shoe selection in Spain. So many people wear heels and I love it. Flats and sandals, too. And wedges. Which, take note, are my absolute favorite. There are so many shoes to buy here I think it’s crashed my system, cause I haven’t bought one pair. Are you gasping for breath yet?

Unbelievable, I know. I never see one person with the same shoes on as another. And I don’t see Rainbows and Uggs and Toms every step either. Not once. Okay, once actually. There was a woman in Ugg boots for whoknowswhat reason since we live in the warm Mediterranean weather.

Either way, my point is: it rained, I went shopping, Spain is not in a shoe recession.

I think I wanted to say some other things in there too, but my mind moved on before fingers could type it all out. (Too caught up in the memories of shopping/shoe heaven.)

Goodnight amorcitos! I hope tomorrow brings cooler weather for everyone at home and sunnier weather for us here. Mainly the second one, sorry. Go to the pool.

Un besito,

Lena

Lost in the City

Don’t worry, I didn’t get lost. Not recently, anyway. But I did find the funniest Spanish reality show! It’s called ‘Perdidos en la ciudad’ which would translate to ‘Lost in the City.’ I can’t tell you how much we laughed when I watched it with my mami here the other night. It has members of two remote tribes come and live with Spanish families in Madrid and Barcelona. I was dying laughing. Most of it is subtitled in Spanish because the people in from the tribes don’t speak Spanish, or very little. It had one of the guys trying to work as a bartender, two others trying to play basketball, and another family took a trip to the zoo. One of the guys at the zoo thought the people were so ridiculous for keeping things like monkeys in the cages instead of eating them. And then when the Spanish mother started to explain to him how human beings are descendants of monkeys and apes, this guy had the funniest reaction. Insane in the membrane.

There was a show before this called ‘Perdidos en la tribu’ or ‘Lost in the Tribe’ where the same Spanish families went and lived with the tribes. They had to wear little loincloths and hunt animals and according to Charo, some handled it better than others. I’m sorry to have taken up so much space writing about a Spanish reality television show you will never see, but for that very reason I had to share it with you! Now you know what great programing you are deprived of in America.

I must have jinxed the weather, because it has been pretty cloudy the past couple of days, at least when I get out of class. I went to the beach on Saturday and Sunday, though, and I’m proud to announce that there are now Spaniards less tan I. There are also some Japanese people more tan than I am, so clearly I still have some work to do.

Progress.

Anyway, I really like the beach and I get to walk there from home. I love walking everywhere and it doesn’t take that long. Even if it did, I wouldn’t mind. I really love walking everywhere. To get to the beach where I go you have to walk down this stretch of walkway, lined with palm trees and street vendor booths with tons of things for sale. I’ve also become an expert at crossing the street here. Last week it seemed so confusing, especially when crossing the little one-way side streets, but not anymore. Green still means go and red means stop in Spain. If all else fails, you can just stand by the cross walk and go when everyone else does, because you are rarely the only one crossing. City life is sweet.

Beach life is better, so cross your fingers the clouds get on out the way, muy pronto.

This is a view of el castillo de Santa Bárbara from the beach. In Spanish, ‘castillo’ means ‘castle.’ There’s a story that goes along with it, look it up! My mami told it to me when she gave me the walking tour last week. When you’re going down a side street during the day and looking ahead at it, it looks unreal. That beautiful. It is even prettier at night because it is completely illuminated by lights. Note to the long line of my future suitors: I love outdoor places all lit up with lights.

This was the first thing I really saw driving in from the airport. Kind of hard to miss. Especially since I arrived at midnight; hey, remember that story? I have yet to climb to the top of it, but you know me, that was the first thing I though of when I initially saw it. There is also a conveniently installed elevator somewhere in the mountain for those who opt not to make the hike up. I will take every step up with my own energy, thanks, don’t you worry. I’ll take pictures too, so you’ll know I didn’t bail and comfortably ride up. I ask how safe an elevator in a mountain side can be anyway?

Here are some more pictures from the beach. Remember, I’m trying to look chic and Spanish, not like a vulnerable, American tourist, so these are all taken on the sly.

The beaches are so different than American ones, but I like them a lot. I have only been to this one near the city, but I hope to travel to other nearby ones soon. They’re supposed to be really pretty. HEY MAYBE I’LL MAKE IT IF THE CLOUDS BEAT IT. They’re only a short bus ride away, and you know how public transportation savvy I am now.

Alright, that’s it. Look mom, I have friends! But I need to go to sleep. I’m six hours ahead, you know.

I hope everyone at home enjoyed the final episode of Oprah last week and the American Idol finale and all you seniors’ last day ever of high school! Unless you are being held back, of course. Is anyone being held back? Oh my goodness, can you imagine?

Okay, I need to stop. I am way too dedicated to blogging (and I am hardly that dedicated) because this is taking me way too long. Who knows the late-night Spanish programing I’ve missed while typing this all out for your enjoyment?

Sleep tight and dream sweet dreams, darlings! I know that some of you will be going to sleep when I am lovingly woken up for school by my Spanish mami. Shout-out to y’all night owls out there! Represent, but remember dark circles are never cute or easy to conceal!

I just got my bedtime kiss, that’s my cue.

¡¡Besitoooosss a todos, os quiero muchiiiisimo!!

Lena

The Rain in Spain Stays Mainly in the Plain

Here’s hoping. Yesterday it rained a lot in Madrid and surrounding cities, but in Alicante it was only slightly cloudy. This was a disappointment to me because I wanted to go to the beach! Once I get a little more color to my skin, my disguise as a beautiful Spanish chica will be complete! People have already mistaken me for being Spanish due to my darkish locks and eyes, but I feel like most of the times I open my mouth the secret comes out. No fear, I am hard at work practicing my lisp-like pronunciation of the letters Z and C, so I’ll be totally incognito by siesta time, Monday.

My first full week of classes went by quicker than I can believe. I’m taking a Spanish culture class and a Spanish grammar class, both taught by the same professor, minus Thursdays, when one is taught by another. The only true challenge I’ve faced with school this week was navigating my way from one place to another, but by Wednesday I was golden.

Every morning, I cross the street to the other side of the plaza near where I live and go down to the bus stop. The one I take comes by every 7 minutes and the ride to school is around 25 minutes, but it hardly seems that long. Riding the bus is actually one of my favorite parts things here, but the first day I was a little bit of a mess. I’ve ridden buses at home before, but these ones are very different. It’s not so easy at first try to stay balanced when the bus suddenly starts moving. The driver doesn’t wait for everyone to find a seat or place to stand before lurching off. You just have to hold on to the side bars or poles or the bus while making your way back. I think the most fun is to stand up while riding the bus, and it’s even more fun if you have friends with you to talk with. By now I can easily tell where I need to get off at school and to get home. You should have seen me the first day. It all looked the same to me since I had only arrived the night before when everything was dark. I’m a pretty savvy bus commuter now, I just have to make sure I never forget my bus card at home. I’m still striving to look super chic while riding the bus, but I think I’m getting there. Public transportation is the bomb.com.

Oh, and I forgot to say how big the buses are! Well, not all of them, but the one I ride (24, represent) is usually twice the size of buses at home. It is basically like two buses squished together and joined in the middle by a metal/rubber/something accordion piece! That part can move around some so that it is easier to get around corners and traffic circles. Also if you stand on the middle part it moves around a little. You won’t fall or anything, unless maybe you have one foot on the moving center and the other on the regular bus floor. Almost took a tumble once. Almost. I never fell. Believe it.

I really like my classes too. There are only 2 Americans in both of my classes combined and the rest are other international student. I have at least 4 from Japan, several from Russia, and some from France, China, and Brazil! None of them speak English, and I definitely don’t know Russian or Chinese, so everyone just talks to each other in Spanish. I love that they’re from all over because I can hear about the differences of things in all these countries, plus I’m getting even more practice in Spanish.

These are some pictures from University of Alicante’s campus. The landscape is very pretty and completely different from places at home. It is also pretty enormous, at least to what I am used to. The first two days it took me an awfully long time to make my way between the building where I have classes and the bus stops, but now it’s pretty simple. Also, the room numbers for the classrooms are ridiculous. I still don’t understand how the system works if I have classes in room 66S and room Z8, both on the second floor. Why not 200 and 208 or something?

Anyway, campus is filled with all sorts of trees, plants, and fountains. There are cacti, skinny trees, flowers, palm trees, and a billion other things. A lot of palm trees, but they’re my favorite. It kind of reminds me of the Queen of Hearts’ garden in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ just because the landscaping is very defined. Or well groomed. Can you use that word to describe landscaping? Ok, I don’t know how to explain it. But there are some trees that have the bottoms of them trimmed in a straight line, so they look like mushrooms or umbrellas. But taking pictures of all this is not the easiest thing to do because I don’t want to look like such a tourist. I’m not a tourist! I take siestas and eat paella and ride the bus and watch the news in Spanish every night! I live here! At least for the next month.

These are all sneak-pics taken while casually walking to the bus stop. You’re welcome.

I also love my Spanish mami who I live with! Her name is Charo and she takes care of me very well. She has two grown children who live in different places. Her daughter is a pediatrician in another Spanish city and her son is currently off in Australia on his third trip around the world. She has had several girls stay with her who were studying at the university and I am her third from North Carolina! You could say that I was mildly surprised to hear this. She likes to sing and hum when she’s cleaning or making food and is a top-notch patchwork maker. Also she knits! Right now she’s making a little baby sweater for her neighbor’s niece. Isn’t that sweet?

Alright, but now it is noon on Saturday and time for me to go to the beach. I hope the clouds hold out today and the Spanish meteorologists are mistaken (oh no, Spanish Chilt.)

Finally, shout-out to my FIRST AND BEST MAMA back at home, my cute grass-mowing sister, my little (not really) dog Lillie who is surely lonely without me, my BFFFFFFFF JADE AH OMG MISS YA BOO, and all my other loves back in America! I love you and miss you like mad. Why don’t you all hop on the next plane over and come live with me! I’m sure Charo won’t mind too much. You might have to do your own laundry, though. Our clothes line isn’t big enough for more than the two of us.

Besitos! xoxox

Lena

Move Over Penelope Cruz

You wouldn’t believe where I woke up this morning. Hey Spain, look out.

Alicante is even more gorgeous than I expected, but I am just happy to have arrived in Europe in relatively one piece. I’m even happier that all pieces of my baggage arrived too. Did you know that for a small price in the Madrid-Barajas airport they will essentially mummify your checked bags using saran wrap? They do this. The man doing it told me it was for protection and I told him no thank you.

My first three flights were great. I met several young people who were traveling different places and who were way fun to talk with.  Airports and flights are so exciting, especially ones with foreign destinations filled with people from all over. My overseas flight was in the biggest plane I’d ever seen, besides in movies. The people next to me were headed for Greece. The girl asked me if Greece was my final destination too and for two minutes I thought I had somehow slipped past security and boarded the wrong plane. It was short lived. I know, I’m smarter than that.

Overall I had a really fun time. Overseas flights are like moving slumber parties at 35,000 feet. It was also a flight to Germany, so all the flight attendants sounded like Heidi Klum, and naturally I loved every minute of it.

I zipped along from Frankfurt to Madrid, where things got complicated. I’d like to make a formal apology to all the airline sales people I spoke to while switching randomly from Spanish to English to Spanish again. When I got too frustrated or tired my languages started doing the Cha Cha Slide around my brain. No joke.

After my brutal series of unfortunate events, I made it to Alicante and am now all settled in. I got in late last night, nearly 12 hours later than my initial plans. Plane cancellations and vicious bad luck had me roughin’ it in the Madrid airport for a while. Moments of it were torturous and others literally made my weekend. LIT-RALLY.

The terminal I was in also had a wild architectural design for the ceiling, so I couldn’t stay too upset about my situation.

I can say that by the end of the night I was all but right at home in the airport. I could tell you where all the available electronic outlets, benches, internet access points, clocks, water fountains, and payphones were in the entire Terminal 4. Not bad. I even grew to like the place towards the end when things calmed down. I also met two different guys who were great. One helped with my baggage, had the coolest glasses, and gave me the down low on all things Spain. Want to know where to go, what to eat, and what to do? Step right up, I have the answer.

The other was originally from Boston but was half Spanish, and you would never know it. If anything he looked German. He worked at the desk right after security and I spoke with him because I of course had to double check if I was reading my ticket right and headed in the right direction. He spoke English, Spanish, Russian, and probably something else, because he was full of surprises. From him I got the down low of the Madrid airport world, things to expect from Spain and all other European countries, more talk about food and travel, and a special East Coast shout-out for confidence in my navigational abilities because we are, after all, so great. Combined talking hours before my flight: approximately 2 hours. I got it from my mama.

Now I have to get ready to sleep for the night, since I’m a working woman (school so counts) and I accidentally caught up on my American life via Facebook and e-mail during my allotted siesta hours. This mistake will never be made again. You know you don’t know what ya got til it’s gone and I have a strong feeling about this one.

Goodnight from Spain and double kisses for all!

Love,

Lena