Rain and Marruecos

As it turns out, the rain in Spain falls mainly on Denia, not the plain. We have seen rain every for about a week. I might be exaggerating but that's what it feels like. In class this week it's Roman architecture and Las Rimas de Becquer. The classes are much better than what my first impression had led me to believe. The city council of Pego, a nearby town which happens to be the place to celebrate Carnaval, canceled the celebration that was supposed to take place this last weekend. This weekend five of us Calvin students are off to Morocco, which will be a really great time and hopefully more sunny. We are going to see Fez and Marrakesh, which are two really interesting and old cities.

London

London is a big city. I traveled there with three other Calvin friends this last weekend. We had to take a train to Alicante from Denia, then in Alicante we took a bus to the airport, then we took a plane to Gatwick airport, a train to central London, and finally a cab to our hostel. The city itself is amazing; we walked all the way from Hyde Park to the London Bridge the second day. We did all of the essential London sightseeing: fish and chips, phone booths, double-decker buses, et cetera. The hostel was not the nicest place ever, and it seemed like everyone in the hostel had a keycard that opened our door...I really like the fact that people from all over the world coexist in London; we met people from Sweden, Zambia, South Africa, Italy, Austria, and even Chicago. The Austrian man gave us his card and said that since he traveled as a student in the US, he knew how nice it is to have a place to stay when passing through a country. I'm quite sure that we saw most of the major London landmarks: Big Ben, the Parliament Building, the London Tower, the Globe Theatre, the London Bridge, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgal Square, Hyde Park, the Soho District, Piccadilly Circus, the National Museum, Westminster Abbey, and more. What a busy weekend. This coming weekend most of our Calvin group is going to Pego, a city close to Denia, to celebrate Carnaval. Still on my list of things to do: climb Montgo next weekend if we have time. Some of the group already climbed it last weekend, but most of them want to go again because they enjoyed it so much.

Barcelona and Tarragona

This last Wednesday after class our Calvin group met up with a high school group from a Denia high school called Chavas for our trip to Barcelona and Tarragona. After eight hours on a bus with 30 high school students, I started to realize how far I have come after being out of high school for three or four years. Also, I would say that high school kids are not that different whether they are in Spain or in the U.S. That stage of life has lots of common traits. Barcelona is an amazing city; we visited most of the well-known attractions. Gaudi is the most famous architect in Barcelona, and we saw the Pedrera, Parque Guell, and La Sagrada Familia. The cathedral was by far the most impressive part of Barcelona. The main pedestrian street is called Las Ramblas, and it is by far the busiest part of the Gothic District of Barcelona, which is also the oldest part. We stayed at an albergue, (hostel) which used to be a seminary and now serves as a conference center and school for nurses. One student from Chavas, Vicente, hung out with the Calvin group the whole weekend, and we have hung out since then here in Denia. Later this semester, we have more trips coming up: Granada, Madrid, London, and Marrakesh. The last two are independent trips that we are planning for February.