un poco sobre Espana

So I know it's been a bit since I wrote - I've been busy, but in a good way! We've gotten into our class (I actually had a test and presentation today - yuck) and I had a really great weekend in Ibiza. It was so much fun and I really like all the other students that I went with! But I want to write about some of the cultural differences here so you can get an idea. I also need to add some pictures, por supuesto (of course).

- a lot of men here wear mullets, and even some women. and they don't think it's at all strange.
- people are ALWAYS dressed up
- wearing less clothes is quite fashionable, especially when you go out at night or even more importantly, at the beach
- they are ahead on a lot of social things (really good social welfare programs, education, etc..) except they are lacking in TECHNOLOGY (not as much as Tanzania, but I would expect a bit more here)
-g enerally, kids live with their parents until there are at least 20, but often until there are even 30 years old.
- people get married late and it's not a very popular things to do, and hence they have children very late, meaning they usually have very few
- We eat at really weird hours:
*breakfast as usual, when you get up, but it's really, really small
*lunch at 2 or 3 in the afternoon (with nothing in between!)
*"dinner" at 9 or 10 at night
Basically, I'm hungry a lot. Also, my mom is a vegetarian (which is pretty strange here) so I miss meat right now...
- tv is HUGE. it is on all the time, especially during meals. I really like "Los Simpsones" in espanol. They dub over all the American shows you could ever want.
- all the stores are closed from about 2pm-5pm for lunch ("comida") and the traditional siesta after, which no one really takes that much anyway it seems
- there are a lot of immigrants here, and no one seems too overly happy about it, but generally the immigrants do all learn Spanish because they are from too many different places not to assimilate at least a bit. I'm going to attempt to find someone that speaks Swahili so I can practice, but I think it is a long shot.
- there is never a rush and being on time is always 5 minutes late.
- you can go out on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday night and there is always a party.

Well I think that is a pretty good introduction, so now, some pictures!


the very beautiful Universidad de Alicante


La Plaza de Luceros in down town Alicante


From the Festival de los Cristianos y Moors


La Plaza de Espana right next to the beach


the group that went to Ibiza