Oh wow! I have just finished two crazy weeks! Last week was Semana Santa, or Holy Week. Everyday, there are processions with nazarenos or brotherhoods who walk with candles, crosses, and carry a replica of a saint or Jesus. They look a little weird to American students because the hoods of the traditional outfits remind us of the KKK, but they are nothing like them at all. In fact, here in Alicante, they are a lot more laid back. Children participate in the processions, either in bands or just walking as representations from their school or church, handing out candy to the other kids standing along the side of the road. Also, women are involved in everything, which is also not traditional, but is comforting to see. Before the week was up, my spring break started. A friend wanted to go to Dublin to see a movie that will not be showing in the states, and since I have never been, I decided to tag along. We only had two days there, but we met an old old friend of hers at Trinity College and she gave us the poor man's tour of the school and some of the surrounding sites. We also just enjoyed roaming the city, especially because pretty much everything was closed on Good Friday, so there wasn't much to do. Saturday, we tried to find out about the movie, but of course it still wasn't available even though it was supposed to be opening that day. To make up for it, we went and took a tour of the Guinness Storehouse, where at the end, I got my free pint and it took me almost an hour to finish it because I am not much of a beer person, but you got more to drink for free if you got the pint than if you opted for the coke, go figure. Plus, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to drink a free Guinness. We went to see Red Riding Hood instead since we couldn't go to the movie she wanted to see. The next day, we went to Malaga, back in Spain. Our intention was to stay there for five days and explore the area, maybe go to another town for the day, all because one of our professors loves the city. Well, when I booked the hotel, I thought I had booked something within the city, or at least pretty close to the city, because I knew it wasn't actually in Malaga. So we took a taxi. Turns out, the hotel was in a pueblo an hour and 15 away from the city, so the taxi was 97 euro. Note to all who plan to travel= double check where the hotel is and transportation to the place. There was a bus but we did not know about it until too late. However, the mishap turned out fine. We enjoyed spending the five days in the pueblo, visiting caves, walking around and admiring the black sand beaches. It was beautiful. Traveling back to Alicante turned out to be a lot more stressful than anticipated, and I will spare the details on that, only noting that we did have to buy another ticket from Madrid and so stayed in the airport for around 6 hours. That was a long, long, LONG day. I was so happy to be back in Alicante. I have spent the last two days relaxing and trying to get some more stuff done before my next trip back to London with Rachel and Logan. I am looking forward to this one because I think it is a little more well-planned than this last one. But eh, you live and you learn. That is precisely why I am here after all. It is weird to think that in a month, I will be back in the states trying to adjust back into the time difference. But until then, I intend to enjoy what time I have left in Alicante, and get this project for class finished!
* If you would like to see photos from Semana Santa, Dublin, and Nerja, I will be putting them up later, as well as some video footage from the processions
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