Photo captions, update

23 January 2007

First, let me explain the pictures from the previous entry. The top one is the first photo I took of Alicante, at the Marina near our hotel. I go running by this on my way to the beach every morning. It´s wonderful. Next is a photo of some of my friends, Dave, Kara, Katie, and Nick. The following is just more friends, Nick, Jimmy and John. I just love their confused faces in that photo. The next photo is of Valencia at night. Valencia is a city about 3 hours north of Alicante, very pretty architecture. We took a day trip one Saturday there. It´s also famous for the Lladro porcelein figures, if you´re familiar with that kind of thing. And, the final photo is of me on top of the Castillo Santa Barbara. It´s an old castle on top of a small mountain in Alicante and it´s SO pretty. It was a tough climb, but great exercise!

This last weekend I went to Granada with some friends. It was about a 5 hour busride, but it was through the mountains. Granada is in an area of Spain called Andalucia, southern spain. It´s right next to the Sierra Nevada mountains and is absolutely gorgous. It´s famous for Flamenco, tapas bars, and the Alhombra castle. We stayed in a really cool hostel, which was a first for me. On Saturday we spent about 6 hours at the Alhombra because it is so huge and gorgeous. Photos of that will be posted soon. That night we hit up a couple tapas bars and went dancing. It was so fun hanging out in the hostel; I met people from all over the world and heard some really cool stories of their adventures. On Sunday we spent the day people-watching at different cafes, exploring the old Muslim neighborhood of the city, and visiting the Cathedral, famous for some of the paintings and architecture in it. The entire trip was amazing, and we all want to go back again.

This week me and friends are apartment searching, as we have to move out of our host-families in two weeks. It´s very tough trying to set up appointments over the phone--in Spanish--to visit an apartment. We are also learning that when a person says their apartment is "close" to something, it could be up to 5 or 6 blocks away--not very close. Those Spaniards are tricky.

OH, and in case you want my telephone number to call me, here it is: 679 23 0548. Remember,if you are calling from the states, the Europe code is 011 and the Spain code is 34. So, you have to punch 01134 plus my number. And don´t forget about the 7 hour time difference, por favor.

Hasta luego.
Hannah