Casablanca

So we are in Casablanca.... :) After the arrival we went to explore the so called city center, but it turned out to be a lot dirtier and not-tourist-frendly as we expected... locals seem not to know what is rubbish bin as they through the dirt wherever and thus the smell in the city is also not appealing... But today was the beach day and that changed the view of the city totally - the beach side is actually quite developed with beautiful building. We also tasted the local food which tasted VERY good and now the two red europeans are enjoying the internet (yes, it has reached even Africa ;).

Good nighty!...

Adios, Amigos!

In 30min I am leaving... to airport... to Barcelona... to Casablanca (Morocco) and then the same way back! September holidays, as I would like to say! ;) So, yeah - we are going to explore the Africa, while YOU - study hard!!! :D Anyway, be back next Wednesday and if the internet has reached Morocco, maybe will let you know how we are doing! ;)

Exccccited... :)

Girls night out! ;)

Despite the title I will start with what I forgot to add last time. So, as I am in Spain, I am trying to try out the food that it can offer. So far I do not see a big difference between how fruits taste in LV and here, but there are some new things, however.
For example, the other day I tasted a fruit called Paraguaya.
It basically looks like a bit smashed peach and tastes exactly like peach, but anyway - smth new! :)
The other thing that I like here is the choice of olives - there are just so many of them! Black and green, filled with fish, cheese or whatever you can imagine! Mmmm... :p
Ok, but now to more important things!
Yesterday was the right time to check out some clubbing possibilities in Elche! ;) We started with a little pre-party in our place during which we enriched our Spanish vocabulary with some important words as well as we (me and Lizzie) learnt one phrase in French: "Mu numero de telefono es Aa-Aa-Duu!" ...or smth like that. Anyway, the pronunciation of the numbers in french is veeery funny! :D
So here are superb Erasmus Chicas: Emilie (fr), Ilziii, Lizzie (peru/sw), Violen (fr)And here THE man (Zakari, be) is also trying to get in the photo:So, after a little warm-up in our place, 4 Erasmus chicas went to Borroco - one of the local night clubs. I must say that here the night life start after 1am, so we got the club at 2am and it was a perfect time, cause people were already there and the party was on! We kind-a did not have to pay for the entrance, but we had to buy one drink in the bar, so basically the entrance is at least 5EUR as that is the price of the cheapest drink there. The music was cool - more or less latino plus some new hits plus a bit of club music. It seemed that the four of us kind a attracted some attention, but it seemed like guys did not really want to talk to us cause we probably do not speak spanish. Well actually one tried, but I really didn't understand what he was saying! :D
We partied till around 5am when our feet where quite tired and we decided to go home, but I think the usual time when the parties end here is around 8am.

The weather destroyed my plan of spending a great day near the see - it has been raining all day today, so I am just chilling at home and trying to push myself to study spanish! :p

Buenas noches!

Real Latvian Treasure

As I have missed some days of blogging, there are couple of things that I would like to share with you, but I will start with the best moment of today!!! :) ...So, after the lecture which was supposed to end at 17.30 but ended at 16.30 and thus basically took only 30min of my precious time, me and Lizzie thought it would be a good idea to go shopping! ;) What we didn't take into account was that shops open only at 17.30, but the time was well spent in a cafe while drinking Granisado (actually not sure if that is how it is called, cause I forgot again :D anyway, smth like lemon juice with lots of smashed ice and a bit of sugar - very tasty, very refreshing :) anyway, while looking for good shops, at one moment i just felt like buying ice-cream, so we entered the first grocery store on the way. And what do I see there??? Real Latvian treasure - Kārums!!! That just made my day, ate only 1 but will return there for sure.... :) the funny thing, however, was that Lizzie asked the shop-assitant where are all those things in the shop from and the answer was: Russia! Rrrr.... :p but I was happy anyway - got my Kārums and Lithuanian ice-cream! :)
Now back to other important things! Here I would like to share my opinion on shopping opportunities in Elche. The city is not very big, but quite full of shoe-shops and what is more, they are almost all very cheap. The average price of pair of shoes is smth like 10-20 EUR. I have not been so lucky with finding clothing stores, but it seems there are all the big brands: Zara, Mango, Vero Moda, H&M... The prices are lower in Zara, but quite the same in Vero Moda and Mango. maybe a bit lower.
I just couldn't resist of putting this photo... my amazing shoes with my even more amazing sun-glasses ;)What is more, I have finally more or less selected the courses that I am gonna take:

• Spanish Financial System - i think in this course we will study a part of FE that I didn't pay attention to - smth about the work of Financial Institutions and blaa, blaa.. But the professor seems quite interesting and overall not a bad subject!
• Financial Operations - I think it will be basics of FE, just a bit deeper and more mathematics involved. This professor is kind-a a bit strict, but not very - cannot really compare to Peter.
• International Trade or actually I just do not know how to translate it :p - this seems like smth very new for me. We will talk about the international transportations and Customs and the professor is the same as in SFS.
• Commercial Communication - very new for me as it is basically Public Relations. We will have to make quite some tasks/reports there which sounded a bit complicated, but I have Emilie there so we will be fine! :)
• Financial Planning - have not been to this course yet, as I was trying out that Internet Communication, but I guess I will choose this as Lizzie is also taking it and I feel like having a bit more of Finance! :)

So overall these 5 subjects take only a bit of my time... Mondays are free, on Tuesdays I have only 1 lecture in the evening, the same for Wednesdays and on Thursdays there are 2 lectures in the morning and 1 in the evening and the same on Friday - Niiice, see some opportunities for traveling! ;)
Another thing that happened today was that I got to know one Spanish guy from my University who approached me when I was going home. For the first time I was talking to Spanish students and - damn, they speak fast! :p Couldn't understand some parts of what he was saying, but he offered to help me if I need anything! Yeah, we will see about that! :D
But overall my spanish is even better than I thought it will be - during the lectures I understand quite well, but it takes time for me to really get what the professor is saying, as I have to translate AND understand... But the Spanish is definitely improving as I am spending quite some time with Lizzie (who speaks very well as I have already mentioned) and my favorite question to her is "Como se dice esto en Español?"
Vale, I definitely forgot smth, but I will be back here soon! ;)

By the way, I was planning to go to the beach tomorrow, but it is raining and it seems it is gonna rain tomorrow as well...

Ice-cream instead of Marketing!

Another day has passed... The day started with another lecture of World History, where the lecture just kept giving overviews of the books that we are supposed to read. But at one moment in the lecture I started thinking if World History is subject related to economics and after asking Evita it turned out that it is not... so instead of that I will have to study Spanish Financial System, which suits the requirements better!
Anyway, I was supposed to have my 2nd lecture in the evening and the subject is smth like Strategic Marketing. However, at 18.30 when the lecture was supposed to start, we where 3 Erasmus students and 1 spanish guy in the class.. when after 10min noone else came, even the professor was not there, the guy called his friend and it turned out that the professor is not in the university and no lecture today - I wonder how are students supposed to get to know it if thee are no announcements and no e-mails about it!? But I cannot really say that it made me sad - as we had a free evening, we (me, Emilie and Lizzii) decided to check out some cafe in Glorieta (the central square of Elche) and we found one extremely-tasty-ice-cream place... there were some 20 types of ice-cream and all looked so delicious... As I only tried one (do not know with what it was, but I liked! and not only because I am addicted :p), I will definitely return to that place!
Afterwards we went to check out some palm-tree parks and here are very many of them, but I did not have my camera with me, so the photos will come after the next visit. During the walk we also found out that we would all like to try out dancing salsa! So we went to one place to get some info, and as the teacher seemed quite handsome (kalvi, read:usual ;) maybe we will go there again! :p
Overall it was a really great evening and I got tired of speaking in spanish as it still requires quite some effort from me.. But it is definitely getting easier! ;)

Muchas buchas,
Ilziii

Ps. i also have a local phone number: +34606092116
Pps. Never thought i will say that, but... I miss (a little bit) autumn... in Sigulda...

1st day of school...

Today my wake-up alarm was at 7.00 - reminded me a bit of times when we studied Statistics or FE... Quite cruel I would say, but if taken in to account that lectures are only until 13.30 and there is a possibility to sleep during siesta, then it is ok! ;) btw, just remembered that in Spain noone says ok, so one of the first words that I was thought was Vale! [Bale!] which is kind a equivalent and used very often here!
So the first lecture today was World Economic History during 20th century... Seems that exchange students have a lot better work ethics than spanish students - the lecture was supposed to start at 8.00 and the only people who where there at that time where 3 Erasmus students! After some 5min the professor came and during the next 15min some 5 students also joined us, but still we were very few people there! Besides me and Emilie there was 3rd Exchange student - Lizzi (from Peru although she is studying in university in Sweden and even recognized SSE Riga ;) and as she speaks spanish and english very well, no problems with this subject - she can explain. But overall it seemed kind a boring.. the lecture is good old guy and history-enthusiast... so he wants us to read 5 (!!!) history related book during this semester! So all the lecture he was giving us an overview of the book that are in the list (some 15) out of which we have to choose 5... Right after the lecture I was quite sure that I am not going back there, but Emilie said that she has heard that it is actually quite easy subject as it is possible to read only summaries of the books and make the overviews based on them, so not that bad after all! :)
The second subject that I wanted to try out was Spanish Economics (no, I am not deeply interested in that, but it is just that the choice of the courses is so limited...). Before the lecture professor approached me as I was the only Erasmus student, asked me where am I from and so on - seemed also really nice guy... until he started speaking in front of the class... I did not understand anything!!! All the time I was just hiding behind the back of other student and hoping that he will not ask anything to me! After the lecture my only thought was that it (my understanding of spanish) is gonna get better... because it certainly cannot get any worse!!!
After that, however, my day got just better. I met Ana Isabel (Erasmus coordinator), she showed me around and was surprised of how good I speak spanish! :)
In the evening I had another course which could be translated kind a like Commercialization in Internet. Seems like a bit similar to Economics of Networks, but less theoretical and more practical! The professor was again very nice guy, and as this is the specialization course for Year 5, the atmosphere is very free. And he also suggested having a bit longer lecture on Tuesdays and not having the lecture on Fridays - yuhuu! :))
So overall today I had quite some ups and downs, but now feeling gooood! ;) Vale, now I am gonna read my book that I have bought for educational purposes - Bridget Jones' Diary! But in Spanish! ;)

Deep blue water...

Today we went to the beach in Alicante again and luckily it did not start raining - we weather was just perfect for doing nothing! :)
It seemed that there are very many tourists/exchange students in Alicante as it was possible to hear many different languages, even Russian! The water of the Mediterranean sea is amazingly blue, beautiful, warm and salty while the sun just keeps shining, so as a result I am kind a very red-ish... but let's see how it looks tomorrow...
The one thing that I haven't managed to get used to is eating habits of people living here... They usually do not eat anything/eat smth very little during the day as they are sleeping their siesta and then they have dinner around 22.00! Weird! At the moment completely unacceptable for me!
Anyway, here are 2 more photos. The beach:And Zakari (Belgium) and Violen (France) in a motion while I am reading Spanish newspaper:

Cheers!

Mysterious rain and the beach

Today I went for a small city tour and here are some photos: The city is really full of palm trees and it looks really nice! :)
And here is the central river:
During the walk this weird thing happened - I was enjoying the sunny weather when suddenly I felt water coming down from the sky. At first I thought that someone is spilling the water from the upper floor of the building, but the water was coming down everywhere, so it was like a rain, but there were no clouds in the sky... anyway, seems that there are natural phenomena that I am not familiar with!
In the afternoon we went to the beach in Alicante (40min by bus), but when we got there suddenly it was cloudy and after an hour of waiting for the sun, the rain came!... So we escaped from the beach to McDonalds! :p
Me and Emilie in the beach (not the best photo, but at least you can se that I am really there ;) In the evening the other French girl (Maria or in real name Violen) came and we made [kalmārs] for dinner - can't really say that I enjoyed.... :p

Listening to Enrique Iglesias,
Ilze

Luckily arrived!

Finally I am here - the country of Spanish people and the city of palm-trees! 8) So far feeling quite safe with my blonde hair - no one has tried to kidnap me, although it might be just because I have not been much out of the apartment yet!
Luckily there was a room reserved for me by another Erasmus student that I managed to contact before the arrival. So we live in a cute 3 bedroom apartment (5min walk from the university and center of Elche) - me, Emilie from France and Zakari from Belgium (that is guy's name ;). There is another French girl visiting this apartment every day (don't remember her name, but she said that Spanish people also don't so they call here Maria :D ) so we where all sitting on the roof of the building and getting to know each other.
The communication is very interesting. Emilie speaks a bit of English and a bit more of Spanish, Zakari speaks a bit of Spanish and a bit more of English, so the way we are understanding each other could be called Spanglish!
Tomorrow the beach is waiting for me and then I can also probably add some cute photos!

Temperature at 23.00: +26 ;)