Alicante

During Semana Santa we had the week off and the students here were free to do what they pleased.
I went with a group of friends to a neighboring city a little south of Sagunto called Alicante. We took a train there, which was very comfortable! When we arrived the weather was amazing!! When we settled into our hostel on the first day we went out to find what was happening and what Alicante was all about! There is a port that had a marina full of boats of all sizes, makes, and colors. Farther away from the marina was a pirate ship, we never ended up going aboard but it was so pretty from the outside! Farther along the coast we found a beach, we happen to love the beach. After getting dinner, that started at 8pm, we continued to walk around the city and at 10 started Semana Santa happenings. We watched for a little bit and then we had to run across the procession (which we got stares and im pretty sure thats one way to go to hell by the look of those stares) to continue walking around. We never really went to bed late any of the days, but we pushed the envelop a few times.
The second day we met up with one of the chicas from school that lives in Alicante and we went up to the castle (which as in the style Arabe) and we walked around Alicante to the places we hadnt been to yet. She shared a story about the origin of the name "alicante". Paraphrasing the story, there was a girl and a boy that were not supposed to meet but as Cupid likes to work he made it happen. I think the boy's name had Ali  in it, having arab decent that isnt very surprising but he sang to her which in spanish "sang" is "cantar" as in the "cante" part of Alicante. The story went something like this, but dont quote me :)
The third day we decided to go to the beach! we spent a good two hours and i got a satisfactory tan. pretty good for only the second tan of the season!
Easter sunday we went to mass. My first mass!! it was long and boring, which is kind of expected, but at the end when they were doing the whole bread thing i looked at my friend and we contemplated going up and getting a piece...why not!? so we did. At first i was just going to grab it and eat it myself but i panicked at the last second and i just opened my mouth and the priest/bishop person placed it in my mouth. Later i found out that we were not allowed to participate in communion until we had our "first communion", oops! It was a good experience though! Sunday was the last day and we just chilled for the rest of the day and went shopping! i got my european outfit that made me feel like ive been accomplished and actually have being europeanized!