Castillo de Santa Bárbara

Week 1 Down

We've officially been in Alicante for a week- Anne and I arrived last Thursday, and Kristin and Connor joined on Saturday.

My first impression of the city was not the greatest. To say it was a downpour when we got here would be an understatement. Exploring a city in torrential rain is not easy, but Anne and I still managed to get our bearings pretty early on.

Alicante is really small city, and the most populated areas are in the center of the city and by the water. We've been referring to it as a U...well actually it's a square technically, but if you don't count the beach it's a U. Two roads, La Rambla and Ave de Federico are the two sides, and Ave de Alfonso is the bottom. Most people/abroad students live in or around this area and it's where I've been most of the time. The top of the U is the beach- which is UNREAL but we didn't reeeeally realize until today because the weather's been so bad. And by bad I mean like 50 degrees, but people here flip when it's below like 65, so it's boots and parkas galore.

Anyways, the Universidad is a 25 minute bus ride from my casa, so it's a little but outside of the city. It used to be an airport, so it's got a pretty big campus. I haven't taken any pictures yet, and I should have today because it was perfect weather, but I'll get to it.

Today was the first day that there weren't even any clouds, so we went to la playa and took some pictures of La Puerta at sunset. It means "The Port," and one side is all docks and marinas while the other is just a huge beach leading down to the city of San Juan. The Castle of Santa Barbara is on a huge mountain that looms over the city, and the whole city is really surrounded by montañas. Typical of España, dice Pepa.

Anyways, adapting to life in Alicante hasn't been difficult, especially today when we could really see how even in its quaintness the city is breathtaking. Here's some pictures of La Puerta and la playa. More to come!

Con cariño