Emily Warren

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile I have been very busy the past couple of days. But good news I have WIFI!!!!! I was very excited when I found out. It is hilarious how they pronounce wifi here, but unfortunately I can't portray it through text sorry. The last time I updated you was Saturday morning so I will continue with the rest of the weekend and the beginning of the week and believe me a lot has happened in that time. Saturday night was our first chance as a group to go out and do whatever we want so after our tour of the Universidad de Alicante we all decided to go to the hotel take a siesta and then go out and have a good time. We went out as one big group to dinner at this really cute little place that I don't remember the name of and then across the street to a little bar, La Bohemia, that was like a cave made of rock from the mountain in Alicante. It was a cool atmosphere with a pianist and a violinist playing good music.

We took a picture in front of the bar so we could remember the name of the place so we can go back.

These are all people from my group. Some from ASU some from Mizzou and one from Nebraska.

Some of the pictures are blurry sorry it was dark in the bar.

After La Bohemia we just started walking up the main street until we found a bar/club to go to and we found Havana Club. It had a ton of people outside so we decided it was a good place to go. It was a very crowded, very smokey, very loud bar but it was fun. They had american music at the places we went which is very common here. We didn't stay there too long, just long enough for them to have one drink and move on. The next place we went was called Carpe Diem and it was much smaller place and a little less crowded. I didn't stay that long because it was already 2:30 in the morning so a guy from Mizzou (University of Missouri) Cameron, on the program with me, and myself walked back to the hotel to get some sleep. I didn't end up going to bed until 4:00 because I was talking to people on skype and facebook. I thought I was pretty bad off on sleep because I only ended up getting three hours of sleep, but I found out the next morning I had the most sleep out of pretty much everybody in our group. Some people didn't get back until 7:30-8:00 in the morning, just in time to get some breakfast and pack their stuff up. I thought they were crazy but I guess they managed.

Later that day Armando, one of our directors, walked us to one the bus stop to take to the university and explained to us that we need to get a youth card and with that get a bus pass so we can ride the bus for cheaper. Then we rode the bus to the university and got a short tour of where stuff was and where our classes were going to be. It was very helpful for monday.

We rode back to the hotel to get our bags and waited for our host families to come pick us up. Everyone was SO nervous including me because none of us knew what to expect. My host mom was one of the first to arrive. Her name is Pepita and we live about a 15 minutes walk from the center of town, the Plaza de Torros. Here is the street we live on and the awesome elevator for your car! I thought it was the coolest thing ever, I have never seen anything like it.

I thought going into I was going to be the only person living with her, but I found out she has three other students living with her too. I was so excited to find that out only because they could help me communicate with Pepita a little better. There are two Americans, Garrett and Mandy, both from Mississippi College. Mandy and I share a room, Garrett has his own room and Rebecca our other roommate, who is Swedish, has her own room as well. It is super fun living with a lot of people. We sometimes hang out in the family room and watch tv and talk. All three of my roommates are leaving in 3 months though so it will be lonely, but hopefully not awkward with just me and Pepita. Who knows more people may be moving in I don't know.

Rebecca actually has a friend from Sweden in town as of yesterday so now there are even more people. Mandy and Garrett also have friends from Mississippi College, John Mark and Andrew, who come over hang out and use the wifi sometimes so it is a lot of fun. Pepita really likes have people here to hang out.

Mandy and my room is pretty big, plenty of room for both of us and there is one bathroom for all of us to share. One thing that I really have to get used to is how cold they keep their houses here. Pepita only turns the heat on for two hours a day so it gets pretty cold so we keep our jackets on and stay under the covers a long as possible. I am thankful though that we have hot water that lasts here. I know some of the other people I go to school with have hot water for max 2 minutes! Even though it is hot water though showers do get cold because we have to keep the water off as much as possible. So I think I have perfected the showering system so I don't get as cold. First I keep my clothes on and lean over the tub to wash and condition my hair, turning the water off in between of course, then I ring out my hair and take of my clothes and hop in the shower and wash my body and such. It isn't that bad and it works so it will have to do for 5 months.

Another thing I found kind of weird, fine but weird, is that Pepita will make something in the early afternoon and we will have it for lunch then she just leaves it out and we reheat it and have it for dinner. I thought it was a little strange but I guess we would be eating it as leftovers anyway so why not just do it sooner rather than later.

I need to go to bed now so I will let you know how school has been tomorrow. Thanks for reading.