La playa!

Well, let's see. I can't remember when I last posted, and my host mom's...something. (su sobrino, pienso. I think her nephew), Pablo, just walked in and he's like the CUTEST thing I have ever seen in my life (he's like 12) and the kiss on the cheek thing just kills me every time and I just love it here. AAAAANYWAY.

The good: 1) The food! Like I've said before, my host mom is seriously the best cook ever. To recap my last few meals: bocadillos (sandwiches, usually with jamon serrano y queso), fish (that had eyes and looked at me before I ate them), shrimp (again with the eyes), some meatball type things that were super good, lots of bread, tomatoes, patatas, loootttsss of fruit (it's like dessert after every meal), and OH the helado (ice cream). Come visit me and we'll go get helado. There are seriously heladarias por todos lados.
2) LA PLAYA! I went for the first time today and it's seriously gorgeous! Enough tourists to make me want to gouge my eyes out, but also a lot of Alicantinos and other Spaniards. This city is seriously gorgeous.
3) My Spanish class. I really like it. And I love my professor, Raquel.
4) Actually having legit conversations with my host family for the first time last night. Poco a poco! I'm finally starting to not be so tired and sluggish...seriously, I didn't think jetlag was going to hit me. I'm just tired and weary all the time...but I'm getting better!! And I didn't wake up at 5:30 this morning, I actually slept until my alarm at 8:00! Woohoo!
5) Our walk up to the castle. (Well, this is mostly good. See below.) We had a rad tour guide, David, who took us around the city (which I still really need to learn) and up to the castle, telling us history and whatnot about the city and the castle. Seriously, super interesting (although somewhere in the middle of 3 1/2 hours, my brain was threatening to shut off), and it was in Spanish and I understood it all! (Well, 90%, but let me round up, okay?) The city is seriously beautiful, especially from the top of the castle.
The bad: Some of the people in my group, especially during the climb up to the top of the castle. I want to stuff Spanish into their brains, along with some culture and respect, please. Also bad: smelly, hot buses. But they get me from A to B and they're cheap-ish, so I can't complain.

The ugly: Most of the speedo-clad men and topless women at the beach today. (Don't worry, I wasn't one of them...yet.)