hmatt's blog

The trip to Alicante was so interesting! There was a wonderful park area with outdoor workout machines. I wish they had those things in the US! They were amazing, it was like a playground for adults!

The ‘floats’ aren’t moving like parade floats. They are just sitting in the street really. From my vantage point I could see the edge of one catch fire, which was fine because I didn’t want to get wet because my camera and iPhone were on me. It was fun to see everyone having such a good time. I heard a couple catchy Spanish pop songs, and I have no idea how to find out what they were, but I’ll have to ask someone at some point. There is this ya-ya-ya song that I kept hearing the kids sing it during the San Juan festival.

This day and the 26th were free days and I took the time to finally combine all my many to do lists. It was a huge undertaking, but it was so nice to see all of my tasks in one place, and the progress and research I’ve already done in a folder of resources and such. Technology is great, because you can copy things easily, but it is also easy to have duplicates and clutter. I was able to cut through it all. It was nice to get through it all. I also evaluated what it is that I want to accomplish in my time here. Although the vision has changed slightly, I still want to be able to meet people easily. (at the time of this writing, I still haven’t done this too much, but I still have the rest of the month).

8pm we met at the art gallery and introduced ourselves to Steven and Brady. As we sat in the round a woman came up and happily chatted with the group, while Arianna and Xara translated. She was so bubbly.

Later that night we moved all of our stuff down to the guy’s place. It was supposed to open the week before, but there is some law in Spain that prevents a tenant from getting kicked out until they are ready to leave. Noah and Brady had to carry the bed, and Ariana thought it was great fun to watch. = )

8am, we met for a bus ride and then hike up to the light house in Albir, just south of us. The hike was along a mostly paved route up to an abandoned, but still working lighthouse. I had everyone stop for a moment and find a geocache. Hooray! It’s always nice to expose people to that awesome game.

Then we went down near some Moorish ruins and to the beach where were went for a swim in the water.

Our first spanish class. A bunch of us met and covered some words that are useful to know.
Then we had our first ‘conversation’ with Steven. It was all about cultural sensitivity and how to make sure to break the negative stereotypes. Also, not to get upset or defensive about their existence because they always exist.

Then we left to the Casafina, the girl’s house. They made us lunch of noodles and a salad.

I went to the open market at 8am, but lots of people were just beginning to set up. I’ve been looking for a camera bag, so I don’t have to haul my backpack around, but no one seems to carry them. Also, I need a beach towel. Everyone talks about how you are supposed to haggle with the sellers, but I tried and failed. I even sent in Rachel to try to buy a very cheaply made towel that was being sold for 6 euros. She couldn’t even get her to budge a little bit! So unless I can find another person to buy a towel with me (2 for 10 euros) I can’t get one. Even the ‘cheap’ store downtown is still selling them for 6. This is one of the many reasons I don’t like the haggling game. I’m not good at it.

We had our conversation at noon, then we had a wonderful meal together. I brought these ham flavored chips (the spanish love their ham!) and we had a variety of casseroles and a tasty salad.

Afterward we had a workshop at the round area near the shore. Sean had us do some acting exercises like walking around and imagining various things. The people around were very confused as we walked around with different walks and such, but it was fun. Then we spent 10 minutes writing. I wrote a short story about a centaur named Melon, who found a map leading to a cave that described bird people who used to live in his land. I’m sure with a little polish I could make it a book. = P

This day was our free day.

I think most of the day most of us laid out on the beach. Then that night we played the ‘Nertz’ card game and ended with the Celebrities game. Everyone in the program is so interesting. I enjoy everyone’s company immensely. Oh, both Jordan and I bought these cards that are VERY unusual. Perhaps they are greek or something, but you can’t play Nertz with them because they don’t have the proper colors.. or symbols.

We all met this day for art expressions. A time where a bunch of us get together and do art. For the longest time Iv’e been wanting to do these tape sculptures. So we all broke up into teams and created various shapes, using each other as models. We learned that there are at least two methods to doing this: One is to make strips that stick to each other and then wrap over that, or turn the tape sticky side out and then retape over that. Also, there is a lesson somewhere here that doing this on bare skin during a very hot day makes the inside of these quite hot and sweaty. Thanks Lauryn and Noah for being our models.

Tapas 2×2 was amazing. Colleen and I went to this tapas place where you can pick whatever you want. Afterwards we began to make our way up to the plaza near the church. We met up with Oscar an artist we met at the free paella day, and he showed us his newest piece. It was a giant collage. It was amazing! You could see something new from every angle.

We began to make our way again and we met some of his friends. There were some people visiting from the US, so Colleen began to talk about New York with them. I really need to visit that place, everyone talks about it and I still haven’t been!

At the top of the hill on the church steps was where we met up with a couple others. Then began the part of the night where everyone sat overlooking the Mediterranean like I mentioned in the post before.

I had Spanish class and we read from a spanish bible. I realized that I’m not as terrible as I thought, but that I could still benefit from reading aloud. Xara asked us how the assignment went- to talk to three people. I had talked to a few people, but mostly in markets. I also try to say “Hola” to everyone I see when I run. I’ve been doing pretty good on that by the way. I’ve been adding two minutes every other day when I run, so today was 40 minutes and 42 pushups.

We had our guy meeting at 10:30, where we cleaned up a bit before everyone came over for the meal to be prepared by us. The conversation at noon was all about ‘sacred cows’- things that every church community has that they do all the time. Steven mentioned the video online called, “This Coming Sunday”, which spoofs every major ‘post-modern’ church. From the few minutes I saw of it, it looked quite correct. The Mayan looked like that. :p

The conversations always get me drowsy. Probably because they are during the warm part of the day, but I’ve found that drinking another cup of water helps me feel more alert. They are quite engaging though, I just need to manage my body better.

The meal consisted of tapas and salad. It had noodles, tuna, tomatoes, corn, feta cheese, olives and the tapas were cheese and tomatoes. Practically everything for the salad was ‘on the side’ because the Seattle peeps don’t like tuna fish (what? it’s awesome), they also don’t like tomatoes (picky, picky).

Afterwards we had some ice cream and frozen otter-pop type treats. The cola is terrible by the way, I don’t know why they have flavors like lemon, strawberry, orange, and then a cola? The cartoon character for the cola looks like a can, I guess.

We were all to meet up at the flagpoles for the baptism of Avila. We walked along the northern side of Altea, which I hadn’t been to. Once we reached the beach we could all tell the shore was smoother. There was sand rather than only beach rocks.

We prayed in the sun and then everyone went their separate ways. Lauryn and I went to Mecadona, the larger super market. So, for the past week or so, I’ve been singing the Mercadona jingle, and no one else had heard it. Well, finally I was able to record it. Lauryn heard it too and I was so excited. = P

I picked up more of that incredibly addicting lemon milk and some nectar of banana! I have no idea how that get banana juice, but that is exactly what it tastes like.

At Pizza4U, we all trickled in. We bought four huge pizzas and pitchers of Sangria. They had a very interesting pizza with pineapple, banana, mushrooms and curry powder. Very different, but kinda good.

When we got back to the guy’s place, Nick and I had this idea to take a 30 minute nap. “We’ll be awake at 5:32”, said Nick.

Now, I remember waking up and saying to Nick at one point. “Hey Nick it is 6! We over slept.” to which Nick had replied “Oh no”. Somehow we both fell back asleep again and then it was 7! Ugh! Two hours.. Danny, Avila’s Spanish boyfriend had said that Siestas should be less than 30 minutes. Whoops.

So both of us drowsily milled about. I wanted to finish something for the Art Show that night after the Soccer game. I wrapped my lower half in tape myself, and then Nick helped with the upper torso. Colleen and Maureen arrived and asked us to accompany them to a Spanish bar down the street. So Nick and I finished up and walked less than a block away. The ‘bar’ was more like someone’s garage or something, but they had projected the video on a huge screen so it was nice to see Spain win. At the beginning I thought that Spain was the other color and I was wondering why they were running around while the other team was passing back and forth so well.

I don’t really quite understand how the time works in soccer, so I didn’t know how much time was left, but I did notice that Spain was the better team. They were more organized passing the ball back and forth, but the other team had powerful kicks that got the ball to the other side quickly.

I tried introducing myself to one of the guys during halftime, but he kind of deflected my question and pointed to the game. Oh well. I tried.

After the game we all left to Desanyo, the art gallery for our art show. We laid out all the plastic bodies and pieces. Jordan and Noah spray painted some hands gold and. We made another fist and a hang-ten sign. Good times.

The night ended as most of us played a song on the guitar, to which one of Sean’s friends, Dexter, commented, “Does everyone in America know how to play the guitar?”

I wish.