¡calles estrechas, una playa, y un castillo!

(Disclaimer: This is my first blog, if you couldn't tell. haha So I'm still working on establishing a "blog schedule." So forgive me if I publish 2 or 3 post in a day, especially, when the contents of some the blogs have happened two weeks earlier. This is one of the posts. :) )

Title Translation: "Narrow streets, a beach, and a castle!"

Well, so far I have written three compositions for class. They all seem to ask the same thing in different ways -convince someone you know to come to Alicante. So far I have "convinced" Brittany, Hunter, and Ashley to come by my Alicante slogan- "Calles estrechas, una playa, y un castillo!" Right? :)

-Narrow Streets/Calles Estrechas: This is one of the things I like best about Spain! Each street has so much offer. All it takes is a little adventurous spirit and the possibilities are endless. On the bus- to and from- school I like to catch sneak-peeks at the little streets to see if they would be worth exploring or shopping. :) And today it paid off! Mercadona is the "Wal-Mart, Kroger, Walgreens/Insert Preferred Grocery store here" and I found one that is closer to my apartment! This is a timely find, considering I got lost yesterday trying to find the Mercadona farther from Ellen and I's apartment. AND this Mercadona is bigger and better! :) It's the little things in life.
-A beach/Una playa: I can't say that I have been enjoying the beach that much yet. According to my professors, in Alicante, we are experiencing weather labeled as "ciclogenesis explosiva." What that exactly means, I don't know. But I do know that it is WINDY!! Any chance of a good hair-day is out the window. The temperature here would be very pleasant if we weren't assaulted every morning, afternoon, and night by el viento. (wind) My host mom said today that it was very unusual for it to be this windy. Oh well when in Spain!
A castle/Un castillo: I think I reached a new level of love for Alicante when we (Ellen, Bethany, Karissa, Josh, Asaf, Martina-our new Slovakin friend, and myself) hiked up to "Castillo de Santa Barbara." In my opinion, the best way to view any city is by going up! So up, up, and away we went. Some the views we got to see were breathtaking!

I'm trying to go to a ball here! 

We had a long hike-so we deserved some chocolate! 

While Spain has been SO much fun, it hasn't been peachy-keen everyday. We had an issue with one of the daughters of our host mom last Saturday. The short story: We ate some leftover pizza and that was not okay and started a string of accusations. The talk was with the daughter who doesn't even live in the apartment and the talk ended in lots of tears.
However, a little sunshine poked through the clouds when Ellen and I went to Brynn and Johanna's apartment after dinner that day to play Settlers of Catan. We came in still upset and our friends were the most encouraging. I've said this before, but I'll say it again- Christian community is the best/only REAL community. Once you've tasted the real deal-I can't imagine why you would ever settle for less. The beauty of Christian community is one of the huge lessons I've learned while I've been abroad. While my classmates will talk and laugh to each other about "last night"- it stops after that. They only scratch the surface. They talk about the things that are seen. Yet, in a body of believers the conversation goes so much deeper, to some of the things unseen. We're able to talk about the joys of the day, but also the hard times of adjusting to a different culture and language, and an environment that isn't pursuing Christ, like OBU.
The "dang pizza" story (as Ellen and I refer to it) does have a happy ending. Ellen and I wrote down everything we were accused of and translated our side of the story.

Translating our grievances- with some help from Asaf 

So Sunday evening after dinner, Ellen and I asked if we could talk to Geles (our host mom) about some of the things her daughter had said. Of course she said, "Si!" So in teamwork-fashion we worked to resolve our first conflict in Spain in Spanish. Not the easiest thing I've ever done, but it was definitely worth the effort. Geles was very understanding and there seemed to be a lot of miscommunication between Geles to the daughter to us. Completely understandable considering the language barrier. So Ellen and I left the conversation with Geles feeling good about it. This just goes to show that in any language communication is important. No matter how many games of charades you have to play to get the message across. :)