Obviously my first hope is that I become (more) fluent in Spanish! That's the point of going and I'll be really disappointed if I don't improve. I need to make sure I'm brave and talk to people and not fall back on the idea "oh everyone speaks English" because (1) it's not true, (2) it's really ignorant and (3) I'm in Spain y claro debería hablar en español. I'm hoping having classes taught in Spanish will really help with this. Someone remind me when I'm there to do writing practice and stuff because I will probably forget all grammar.
I really don't want to spend all of my time in the house. As lovely as Francesca is and how lovely our apartment looks, I don't want my memories of my time away being inside my bedroom. The opportunities for exploration and travel and doing different things will be so abundant out there and I would be daft to ignore them.
One of my aims is to really get to know the city, for it to be as familiar as my home town and be able to act as a tour guide to all my friends and family. Obviously the dream is to fall in love with Alicante and have it be home, just like the North and Norwich but who knows, I might hate it. Maybe one of my goals should be to not hate it.
I think everyone who goes away on an ERASMUS year uses it for travelling! The main places I want to go to while I'm away are Madrid, Barcelona, Santander (to visit my gorgeous friend Georgia) (whose name I just spelled Geordie), Portugal, Paris, Sevilla, and Salamanca. They should all be doable! Also there is a ferry from Alicante to the Balearics so I definitely want to spend a weekend or two over there! One of my aims is to use every kind of transport available (so bus, taxi, tram, train, plane, ferry, normal boat) to go somewhere different. Everyone loves a checklist.
As for places to see in Alicante, I'm relying on TripAdvisor a lot here. Obviously I want to go to the big castle thing.
Also I want to go to the Explanada de España, this beautiful beach, this museum (I'm such a nerd), this CHOCOLATE MUSEUM, and this aquarium. I'm not really sure if I agree ethically with aquariums/zoos etc, especially after watching Blackfish, but I'm fascinated by them and will probably still go. Also I love that the TripAdvisor review for the aquarium is just "lots of fish". Amazing.
Sounds cheesy but I want to make some friends while I'm out there! It'd be really sad if I didn't. If you're reading this and you're in Alicante, please be my friend.
That's all I can think of for now! It's midnight as I write this and I should probably be in bed.
Until next time, hasta luego.
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