espana

The most striking thing for me since I have been here has not been the new sleeping and eating schedules, the long days or even the intensity of the heat - no, for me the what has really grabbed my attention with is the Spanish people's passion for their country. This energy that they have caused our little group of Americans to not only go watch the Eurocup - but root for a country that we have been living in for less than a month. The pride they feel for their country is something that just doesn't exist in the states - at least not my experience of it. I know that patriotic people exist in the South, but growing up in Santa Cruz, patriotism was disdained. If you showed any support, you were questioned or, more likely, looked down upon. American flags are only used ironically. There is nothing ironic about Spanish pride. It contagious. I sat on the edge of my seat at a local bar watching the game and cheering the players on - for a game I have never felt any real emotion for before. Just living in this country and being surrounded by people who care about their country and their team so much had such a surprising effect on our whole group. I feel like this effect was exaggerated because we are starved for this feeling of pride in a nation. I am proud of Santa Cruz, Berkeley, the Bay Area - but I don't think I can say I am proud of my country as a whole. It is too big to stand behind. Yet it feels good to be a part of something so big - to feel united with so many other people behind a nation. Here in Spain, we can all get a taste of this in a way not possible back home. Sports tend to bring people together in this way, but it goes a step further here. When Spain won, the streets were flooded with people going crazy and setting off firecrackers right and left. The Spanish really do love their noise and their fire, so firecrackers and fireworks are clearly a favorite here. They have been yet another thing to adjust to, though I can't say that I have stopped jumping every time I hear one. The safety requirements or even "common courtesy" that we take for granted in the United States simply don't exist here. And it's more excited because of it. Every time Spain scored a goal, this little old man ran into the street and lit one right behind our seats. The noise was deafening.

Whatever the reason for our quick embrace of this country, their traditions, and their football team - I am done questioning it. I love this feeling and based on the number of my fellow students dressed in red, I have feeling we all do.

- Elisha

Day Trip in Barcelona, Spain

First time in Spain.
Speaks zero Spanish.
Delayed flight (which means 3-hours of sleep the day before after 2 days of flying+layover)
Missing luggage with terrible airport customer service.
It was not the best way to start the day in Barcelona but flight tickets were already purchased (via the infamous Ryanair), headed to the city of Gaudi - Barcelona.

It was possible to see all of the popular Gaudi architectures within a single day but I highly recommend that you spend more than one day in Barcelona to fully enjoy the city.

Train station is connected to the Barcelona airport. I would say public transportation is pretty well organized but do be careful about whether you are on the "North" line or "South" line of the train with same name...(Missed flight because of this... long story...)

Back to architecture. The 4 places we visited during this day trip were (list is in order based on its distance from the train station) :
*pictures coming soon- whenever I get steady internet...;

1) Casa Batlló
Last place we visited, turns out it was closest to train stateion. It was (I think) 16 euros just to get in so we just took pictures from the outside. Wished I took 170B before the summer so I would remember better...

2) Casa Milà
We went around and around the blocks to see this, turns out it's located on the same street as Casa Batlló (the main street....) Did not enter this one too because it was pricey...
Even the bench in front of the casa was Gaudi designed. :D

3) Sagrada Familia
Look for crane and just head toward that general direction. Or take a train to "Sagrada Famila" station - but walking and seeing the street makes you feel like you are in Europe, along with the summer sewer smell.

Gaudi is amazing. Details of Sagrada Famila fully persuades you why this cathedral is still not finished  after all these years. Although the cathedral is still under construction, completed part of both the interior and the exterior of the architecture made me wonder what kind of person Gaudi must have been to design this unreal masterpiece.

4) Parc Guell
Free to Enter! Yes! Located at the highest point of Barcelona. Take bus - only 2 euro - or you will be tired even before you start the "stroll" in park. The park is huge - stroll in park turned out to be a 3-hr hiking course. Wear comfortable shoes...


Although we were able to see most of the popular Gaudi architectures in a day, we weren't able to fully appreciate the Barcelona beach and it's famous shopping street. So.. plan for more than a day for your future Barcelona trip...

-Ji Hyun (Judy) Kim

Things people forget to tell you…

1. Baño = Bath, not restroom. Restroom is Aseo, or WC

2. Toilet paper runs out quite often at the Pension, and they do not refill it often enough. Either buy a pack for yourself at the Mercadona (a supermarket with really cheap stuff), or you can go through the hassle of asking the housekeeper. 

3. Do not try to run errands during siesta, nothing besides the restaurants/cafes/food places, the Mercadona, and the Chino stores  are open during this time

4. Alex's Daughter has PERFECT hair (what celebrities spend hours trying to achieve)

5. The sun goes down at around 10pm

6. Paper size(transparencies) here are roughly 8.25" by 11.75", so remember to change your paper dimensions in your pdf files, unless you want your prints to be the wrong scale

7. Either buy a reusable bag (60¢), pay 2¢ for a plastic bag every time you go to the Mercadona, or just carry everything in your arms.

8. You do not need to tip restaurants!

9. Waiters/Waitresses at Chinese Restaurants speak English pretty fluently in comparison to the rest  of the citizens in Guardamar.

10. Water at restaurants are never free, unless you are in Granada, and ask for tap water (best tap water on the entire continent according to Alex)

11. The Pension serves you a LOT of food, not just bread and salad, so do NOT make the silly mistake of stuffing yourself with bread and not leaving space for the first course and the second course. 

12. If you are taking the bus from Alicante to Guardamar when you arrive (which is a lot cheaper than taking a cab), do not bother trying to get to the Alicante bus station if your flight arrives at night (the cab ride from the airport to Guardamar is cheaper than the cab ride from Alicante to Guardamar), the last bus is at 8pm (at least for this year it is). 

13. Have the address of the Pension(or wherever you need to be) written down somewhere so that if you get stranded somewhere and are unable to speak in Spanish, you can just show the address to them, and they will get you there.

14. ALWAYS plan ahead, because if you want to get something "important" done last minute, it might not happen, people do not rush, and "business" hours are very limited. i.e. the bank closes at 2pm everyday.

15. Barclays (if you are planning to draw money out from and ATM) does not charge a transaction fee if you are with Bank of America. However, Barclays no longer exists in Guardamar, so either make your money withdrawals in Alicante or Torrevieja when you visit those cities, OR any other big city. And of course, you can use other banks, but they might charge a bit for transaction. 

16. If you have a PC, bring a PC. According to Alex there have been Mac tragedies(knock on wood, I am using a Mac) every year. WHY? It is still all a mystery. 

17. Learn a bit of Spanish, it is very useful, OR get s Spanish phrase book. 

18. Street names are tiled onto buildings, it takes a bit of time to get used to. 

19. Bring a flashlight, it comes in handy when the electricity goes out. 

20. Always ask for the price of your drinks, because they will not tell you and it will just appear on your bill, they also often don't have a menu for drinks.

21. Unlock a phone (if you have an old phone lying around-not the nokia phones with the snake game on it, I am not sure if this works for smart phones). Just call the phone company and they will do it for you for free (at&t did). This way, you can go to Orange (a mobile phone company), and buy an international sim card without having to buy a phone. This is cheaper than getting an international plan with whatever phone company you are using. 25¢ connection fee and after that 1¢ per minute, so if you talk for more than 25 minutes it is under 2¢ per minute.

22. If you are planning a weekend trip, it might be cheaper to bus to Valencia (bus to Valencia is about 20€  and 2.5 hours each way, but your ticket price is probably a lot cheaper) and fly from there, because flights to and from Alicante tend to be pretty pricy(known to be the priciest in the region).

23. Shopping does not happen until July, if you wait until July, everything is on sale, 50%+ off sales everywhere.

24. Treat Guardamar as if it were a small city in the United States that nobody knows about.

25. If you are Asian and in Spain, getting offended by every remark that people say when you are walking down the street will just make you unhappy. It is nowhere as bad as how Asians were treated in the US a hundred years ago (they don't tell you to cut off your queue, nor do they put you in Interment camps), Asians are just new to them, so give them a bit of time. Also, the media usually do not have Asians Americans representing America, therefore many Spaniards get confused when you say you are an American (this is if you are Asian).

26. Place your laptops and valuables either in a drawer or a plastic bag. The watertank will never break and make the ceiling of your room cave in...well it happened this summer, so it is just better to be safe than sorry. 

27. Booking with ALSA (bus that you will be using a lot if you plan to travel), you either need a Spanish credit card, or you need a paypal account, or find someone to book it for you. Remember, if you don't have an account, and want to book it with someone, make sure to book it in one transaction (multiple seats in one transaction rather than one seat at a time.)

Vivian Yu

Welcome to Guardamar

Guardamar has very small dogs
Jose's dog Pancho breathes like an old man with asthma
Grilled cheese is literally...grilled cheese
Hamburger means patty without buns
Hot pot means soup
Macaroni means penne
No one refrigerates their eggs
The menu changes everyday, even though it doesn't change everyday
Due to lack of stress, people here live longer
The most stressed you will ever be will be during a soccer match
There are jellyfish in the sea (watch out when the water is calm)
The closest hospital is in Torrevieja
Cafe Elegime has the best wifi, but hates "Chinos"
Weigh your fruit and put a price sticker on your bag at the grocery store before you pay
If you need to buy ALSA bus tickets, you need a Paypal account (or a Spanish credit card)

Bus air conditioning is cold

Bus drivers drive at ~40mph

11am is coffee time
2pm is siesta time
8pm is when work ends
The sun goes down AFTER 9pm
Spanish style means 30 minutes late (or 2 hours late)
Sometimes the bedsheets smell like old sweat, deal with it
The 24 hour store is not a 24 hour store, those liars
Tupperware is NECESSARY
Wine is cheaper than water
Wifi is pronouced as "wee-fee"
The red tile sidewalks are slippery
You will see boobies at the beach, but only aged ones

-Tiffany Y.

First Week in Spain

I flew out from Milan at 09:00, transited at Barcelona, landed in Alicante, took two bus rides and finally arrived at the Pension Jaen in Guardamar del Segura, aka home for the next 2 months, at 18:00. I live in a double room with a private balcony above the main street (and the hostel’s restaurant/ café). The room is tiny w minimal furnishing—two single beds, one night stand, a TV set that doesn’t work, one chair, and a small bathroom.

Guardamar is a small coastal town and the Pension is less than 10 minutes away from the beach. On the first day of official class day, alex took the class on an introductory tour of the town and informed us about the town’s history. We walked through the low density residential areas, up the hill to the Guardamar Castle, made our way through the planted sand dunes towards the mouth of the River Segura, and finally down to the beach and the tour ended with a long walk along the shoreline.

We took our first field trip to visit the Castle of Santa Barbara in Alicante during our first weekend. Like many other Spanish castles, the Castle of Santa Barbara situates on the top of a hill (for view, protection, and fortification purposes.) the walk up to the castle was cruel. We started walking around 11:30am when the sun was strong during the whole time of our climb up the steep hills. We finally reached the castle after ~45 minutes of hiking and everybody was soak wet. Food that we eat at the pension is pretty heavy and greasy but I guess it doesn’t matter anymore… Despite the torturing hike uphill, the view and breeze up at the top was quite rewarding. We were assigned some work regarding the walk and class was dismissed and we were allowed to travel for the weekend until class started again Tuesday.

While some people went to Madrid and others stayed in Alicante, Wendy and I decided we could get away to Barcelona. We booked a night bus to barcelona and had 12 hours to kill before our bus departs at 00:30. We took a break in an air-conditioned McDonald’s for food and wifi, and started our walk through the town in the late afternoon. We took a long walk around the city, did a little shopping, had some tapas, and returned to the bus station by midnight for our 8.5 hour ride to Barcelona.

-queenie chan

Top Ten Things You Should Know When Watching the EuroCup in Guardamar

Top Ten Things You Should Know When Watching the EuroCup in Guardamar:

1. There are two popular spots you could watch the games: on the beach or along the restaurant row behind the main park. The beach is nice because you get a nice sea breeze as you sweat and stress. However, it is not ideal for those who don’t have 20/20 vision, for the “big” screen is actually quite small and pixilated. The restaurant row has many big screen televisions to choose from. However, you should get there early to reserve a seat.

2.  Unlike watching sport matches in America, where the objective is to be as loud and obnoxious as possible, the objective in Spain is to keep your eyeballs glued to the screen and to smoke nonstop to relieve stress. You will be able to tell when a match is close when you see clouds of smoke in the air.

3.   If you’re Asian and cheer for the Spain, people will randomly take pictures of you.

4. If you’re not spirited enough, as in not wearing a jersey and/or not painted with the Spanish flag, strangers will have no problem with chasing you trying to paint on you.

5.  Fútbol matches are exponentially more stressful to watch than a typical American Football game, for the momentum is constant (except for halftime), and the action is never ending. If you have high blood pressure, you might want to consider closing your eyes for 75% of the game.

6. The Spanish have a lot of trust in their team. When the other team is near their goal, most do not flinch because they just know their team will step up their defense. You will be able to point out the Americans in the crowd just by the way they hide under their seats and/or by the volume of their painful screams

7. It will be hard to de-Americanize yourself and not flinch at every play. You might need to bring a pillow to scream into just so you don’t make a fool out of yourself.

8. GO TO THE BATHROOM DURING HALFTIME.

9. Try to learn 1-2 lines of the EuroCup theme song so that you can sing along with the crowd when you win a match.

10.  Don’t feel bad for cheering harder for Spain than you ever did for any American team.  It’s natural. 


-Cynthia Bathgate

EUROCUP 2012

July 1st, 2012 was a victorious day for Spain. Spain won the Eurocup 2012 against Italy with the score 4-0. The people in Guardamar celebrated the victory by driving through the main street in a line screaming and honking. Men and women, children, and old men and women were all out on the streets to celebrate. It was like a parade along the streets except with cars and trucks. There were couple trucks full of people as they waved the flag and shouted “ESPANA!” I was able to see streaks of red and yellow. 

These people have so much pride in their country and the victory brings them such joy. This is something that I would not be able to experience in America. I thought about a sport that the whole United States citizen unite to support its national team, but there isn’t a sport, I think, that we all cheer for. We have our own city or state team and even then, not everyone in the city or state gets hyped up for the games. On top of that, everyone has different taste in sports. It would be amazing if every citizen of United States could unite and cheer on our team and celebrate together with fireworks. I will miss cheering for the Spain team as they slowly went from quarter-finals to the champions. I will miss putting on the soccer jersey and cheering for the number 14, Xabi Alfonso. I will miss putting on face paint. I will miss screaming and yelling at the TV. 

photo credit: Cynthia Bathgate

-Michelle Nam