“Nick’s Feelings and Conclusions about Living Abroad in Alicante, Spain for 4 months.”

Ok first off:

I’m going to really try not to try to explain my feelings and conclusions about my semester abroad by replacing what I actually feel and think with vague clichés to define what I was supposed to feel and think after living abroad for four months. Too convoluted? OK, we’ll see how it goes. It's doubtful I can even stick to my own advice. Probably better to stick to some facts to support any waxing philisoph I’m throwing in there, so I’ll try a list format. I’ll call it “Nick’s Feelings and Conclusions about Living Abroad in Alicante, Spain for 4 months.”

1. I’m proud of the amount of Spanish I’ve picked up. That being said, I could’ve improved more with a different scenario. Different scenario would mostly entail a hell of a lot less interaction with my American friends and a hell of a lot more with Spanish people, their movies, and their literature and periodicals.

2. I’ve made a few good friends here and get along real well with everyone in the group. Definitely drew a good hand.

3. One of the issues I have when thinking about wanting things like ‘study-abroad,’ backpacking (the gap year style Europe/SE Asia/S. America variety), and ‘traveling’ in general is that I feel like I’m really only thinking about living out the ‘bourgeoise dream. ’ The ‘adventurous’ goals of the small percentage of the world that can afford such goals that is.

4. There was a lot of downtime this semester due to school not being too difficult and me not being a part of any organized sports team. People use their downtime in different ways. I successfully instigated a reading binge for myself and read more books and articles these past four months than I have in any period of time since before I had my license (when social things became very easy to organize reading pace slowed down significantly). I think reading books of all genres and eras and also trying to read about different perspectives on current events (globaleconomictrendanalysis.blogspot.com is a decent spot to start if you don’t know where to look) are important things. I’ve always thought these were important things and Alicante has given me a bit of a break from a life of ‘constant socializing’ mostly because I’ve been living in a house with a 65 year old Spanish lady.

5. Expectations before going abroad are always going to be way different than what the experience actually is. This can be evidenced by what people bring. For example, I was convinced that it would be totally unstylish to wear sneakers in Spain. I believed I would be going out until 6am every night with a large group of Spanish troublemakers who also played pickup soccer. Thus, I didn’t bring sneakers. A little philosophy for you right here: if you are something at home, like a kid who likes going to the gym and running, you should not abandon that thing. I got myself a pair of sneaks after a couple of weeks and life improved.

6. I think my ability to ‘go out’ and actually have a good time has been steadily improving in Alicante. Going out when it’s not just me and close friends and acquaintances is something that has never given me good vibes, but I’m getting more into it. A good skill to take back to CU.

7. Going into study abroad I would’ve been far more gung-ho about doing things like traveling somewhere where I can’t even converse with the locals.

8. Communication among people about their lives is something that I’ve increased my belief in since being abroad. I think I’ve actually improved my English from trying to speak about ‘real-ish’ things (more real than what I had for breakfast or how drunk I got last night at least) when I’m passing it with my American friends.

9. I’ve changed in four months. But I change every four months.

10. I’m fascinated by how easy it is to let your life go in a given direction without giving much thought to that direction. Last night I had one of my few dinners out of the house and I let myself be led halfway across Alicante to a MALL where we took the escalators to the third floor, entered a restaurant where you order mini-sandwiches full of processed meat and condiments, and sat on a stool. The sandwiches were not sufficient in terms of quantity or quality. Etc.

Nick

Life in Norway

These pics are out of order. However, they should still give you a good feel for a random 5 day trip to Norway in December. Here we go.

The sunset in Rygge, Norway (a happening town where there also happens to be a Ryanair serviced airport). My flight from Rygge-Alicante direct was 6 Euros (+5 in administrative fees).

Roofs in Bergen, Norway. On another note, it rains a lot in Bergen, Norway in Decemeber.

View from higher up in Bergen, Norway. Very pretty, no?

Me at the Leprosy Museum. I would've been happier had the museum been open. But alas, it wasn't meant to be. A good motif for my stay in Bergen. In all seriousness, I really would like to learn more about the history of leprosy and this seemed like a real missed opportunity.

Sunset and snow in Selje, Norway, the terminus of a five hour ferry boat north out of Bergen.

A Sudanese refugee camp in coastal Norway

Is that sunrise or sunset? (picture by Miguelito)

The Atlantic Ocean. Hollah.

View from hill in Selje, Norway. Hollah.

Note the hand symbols. Mike believes in many things. Among them; 'peace.'

Rapid Fire

About a month ago Nick and I did a nice little leisurely hike along some cliffs north of Benidorm, a city about an hour north of here by tram.

Hampton Beach on steroids

Where the city meets the sea

Juice!

Cliffs ranged from 300 to 600 feet tall

Hard to capture the hugeness

Oh hey Nicholas watcha doin?

Could see until the sky and sea merged into one

Well heres a video that might give ya a better feel eh?

Michael

Miguelete

Alright so for about a four hour period on Thanksgiving day  I briefly became Miguelete.  Nick would probably rather recount those fleeting hours to you.  But here's a pic:

December Break

Alright so the my mom's camera wasn't working so I don't have pictures.

Thursday I wished Nick a buen viaje in Paris while I left for Amsterdam with some friends.  Stepping off the RyanAir flight I felt an excitingly refreshing rush of cold air!  The ground was blanketed in snow too.  The first night we explored the city for a bit to get our bearings.  We woke up the next morning and wandered over to the Van Gogh museum.  They don't have Starry Night, but they have the largest collection of his works in the world. I enjoyed the visit.  It was interesting to get close to the paintings and see the thick brush strokes on many of his works in person.  It adds more feeling to it than just viewing the pictures online or whatever.  The painting below is titled "Wheatfield with Crows" and was completed in 1890, the year of his death.  Supposedly he sensed his coming death and was inspired to draw this:

That afternoon we ventured on over to the Heineken Factory for a tour that was actually excellently devised.  It was my first brewery tour, and it was both informative and fun.  Apparently Heineken has its own secret yeast strain that only five or so people in the world have access to the instructions how to create it.  The yeast is what gives a beer its distinctive flavor, so I am told.

Here's a picture that captures how beautiful the city was (credits to Adam and Corey):

One of the many canals

So cool at night

Heineken Brewery Tour was a good experience!

That night we wandered the city including the Red Light District, a place like no other I have ever seen.  Very excellent area to people watch.
The next morning we took a tour of the Anne Franke house.  I had never read any of her journals, but knew the relative jist of the story.  It was quite depressing to go through the attic in which she and her family spent so many months trying to evade the Nazis.  Of course in the end they were discovered and taken to interment camps where she died of illness.  Made me very sick to think about how cruel people can be to each other.

Gearing back to positive things, that Saturday night I had a 12:30AM bus to Weeze, Germany for a Ryanair flight to Milan.  The van didnt exactly have heat.  I woke up in the middle of the ride and briefly thought I had lost control and feeling of my right leg.  I had to shake it around til the feeling of flowing blood came back.  It was as if the arteries and veins of my right leg were slowly freezing into ice, so if felt.  Anyways, made it to Weeze at 4AM and ate some gummy bears then passed out til the flight.

So I could go into detail about how the flight was delayed a couple of hours and how I missed the train from Milan to Lugano as I was sprinting to the platform, but I'll spare you that.  Lugano was great fun!  Lindsay and her friends welcomed us right off with a big ole family dinner!  Yummy!  We passed the days going to a chocolate factory, exploring, riding trains, climbing castles, etc.  I even tried a yoga class and ate Indian food for the first time.  Switzerland is very beautiful.  Nick and Micaela and Lindsay have pictures.  Heres one from Micaela:

Four of us

Finally on Wednesday it was off to mysterious Norway for me and Nick.  We spent about 32 hours moving our bodies across the Earth.  Train to bus to flight to overnight train to boat to hike to boat.  Heres how it goes:  As soon as we arrived in Oslo we discovered the true nature of Norwegian living.  Its incredibly expensive!  And it involves working in the Norwegian kroner currency.  Food and lodging are expensive.  Anyways.  We took the overnight train from Oslo to the coastal city of Bergen.  We arrived in darkness at 7AM, wandered the city and impulsively took a 10 hour roundtrip boat ride along/through the fjords of Norway.  Quite the ride.   Nicks got some good video and pics.  We had a 3 hour layover in Selje, Norway (population 800?) and saw a hill and went for it.  The view from the top of the hill was gorgeous.  The sunlight reflecting of the water, snow, and clouds was impressive.  As the sun never climbs to high in Norwegian winter it creates interesting lighting.  After a boat ride back to Bergen through the dark we secured a hostel for the next three nights.  Bergen is a very pretty city nestled on the coast with small mountains surrounding it. Hopefully Nicks got some pics.  Tried to not let the city steal all our money.  Beers at the bar were $9, cheapest.  Base your CPI or whatever its called off that.
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Alright, so when I told the story (in pictures) of Mom and Kelly in Spain, I somehow neglected that Micaela graciously gave us a wonderful tour of Barcelona.  Reverting to the idea of story by picture, here you go (thanks Micaela!):

Micaela and I in Barcelona!

Ever seen a sting ray from its underside??  From the aquarium.

Oh and here:

Living the Suite Life at a four star hotel, paid for by the kind folks at CIEE during our trip to Valencia in November

Anyways, finals and essays here.  Last weekend for everyone in Alicante!  Let the good times keep rolling.  Sorry for the lack of pics.

Michael

Back from Week Off

Trips to Paris, Switzerland, and Norway completed for me over the last ten days.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend repeating all of what my travels entailed to others (though living like a bachelor king in Paris two Thursday nights ago was pretty awesome). The rest of the trip does not bring up images like that.

Below is the romantic image of my life in Norway.

I like to picture myself wearing a wife-beater tanktop that is largely a smudged black stain along with my black winter hat and an old paint-stained pair of trousers. I would be in the hostel kitchen in Bergen, Norway, just cooking pasta and trying to get on with life. 'Down and Out in Bergen, Norway' would be the title.

I've returned to excellent news, my madre here in Spain just got the good news that her broken foot/toe is healed! She can walk now! Yeeeehaaaawwww!

More to come perhaps.

Nick

Buen Viaje