Adjusting to the New Normal

Hello everyone,

After quite a journey to get here I find I am awestruck by the many cultural and visual differences between Spain and the US. Buildings are different, food is different, language is different and the fashion is different. I am loving looking at these differences because it is wonderful to be able to see and experience something other than what I am used to.

Mike, Erini and I took a plane from LAX to Zurich. 11 hours long it was the flight that felt like it would never end. Not much can be said about a plane ride that long other than it was memorable! The 3 of us sat in the very last row of the plane flanked by 2 bathrooms. It certainly made for some comedy.

Here we are at the airport and on the plane ride.

We stopped in Zurich where we took an awesome underground tram to our gate, I slept on Mike's lap while we waited for our plane to Valencia. I was pretty exhausted and I slept pretty much the entire way from Zurich to Valencia.

We encountered our first language barrier at the airport when we tried to get a cab big enough to fit all 3 of us and our luggage. We ended up taking 2 cabs because there were none big enough to hold us all. The hostel we stayed at in Valencia, Colegio Mayor Galileo Galilei was very nice. We were able to get some pizza downstairs where we encountered another language barrier. Reading the menu I was pretty sure I knew what everything was. I ordered a pizza with Mozarella, York and Hongos. I thought I liked all those things. Turns out I ordered a pizza with mozzarella, ham and mushrooms! It was not what I would usually order but hey there is was.

After pizza, pur exhaustion took over and demanded that I sleep. For a whopping total of 3 hours. Then I was wide awake and ready to start the day! At 1 AM... so we talked and listened to music and watched TV. Finally sleep came and I woke up at 7 AM. Wah. Only 3 hours of sleep. We took the train to Alicante in the morning and met our host families. 

My host family is really nice. I like them and my host mom is a good cook! It will be great to get to know them better. 

Some pictures from our first day in Alicante! There is a beautiful hand laid tile plaza in downtown Alicante, and a view of the Castilla Santa Barbara from the Playa de San Juan and of course my adorable man having a gelato and sharing a gofre con azucar with me. 

More adventures to come,

Laura