Chocolate

Today was the first day of my second Spanish class-- wow I can't believe that in one month I learned the same amount of information that would have taken a semester to learn at home.

This past weekend I explored the area surrounding Alicante. It was nice to get out of the city. A group of us took the tram up the coast to Villajoyosa and Benidorm. Villajoyosa is the home of the Valor Chocolate Museum/Factory. It was a great little day trip! The factory smelled amazing-- and even better, we were given free samples! Valor is a well-known company; apparently, this area is the chocolate capital of Spain-- I definitely came to the right place!

After filling ourselves with sugar, we continued up the Mediterranean coast a few towns to Benidorm, which is known for its nightlife. We spent the day hanging out at the beach and walking around the city. The water in the Med is so beautiful-- it's clear and bright blue. I tasted the water as an experiment; in Oceanography class last semester we learned that the Mediterranean is a lot saltier than the Pacific. The text books were right!


The water was too cold for me to consider swimming in, but there were definitely some European women who had no problem taking off their tops and jumping in-- major cultural difference!



Spaniards are also weird about their fruit. I was in the grocery store with a friend the other day and she picked up a piece of fruit. A worker came up to her and told her that she could not touch the fruit. Supposedly, in the more pricy stores, you have to wait for an employee to put the fruit in a bag for you. This is a country where people pee on the side of the road in broad daylight, yet don't touch produce with bare hands... strange. Another tidbit that I have picked up is that it is considered rude if a waiter brings you the check before you have asked for it. It's the little things, that I never thought about at home, that are throwing me for a loop here.