Today, we had the morning off from formally scheduled activities and were free to explore Alicante on our own. Just like any other day, we tried to accommodate as many activities as possible to make the most of our day.
Brianna, Emi, Brittany, and Eveling took the morning to explore Santa Barbara Castle and appreciate its spectacular scenery.
Meanwhile, Britt, Nicolle, Ela, Taylor, Emily, Mia, Jamie, and I made plans of our own for our time off.
To start, we met up at Plaza de Los Luceros at 10:00 am to get some coffee and breakfast from a café. I definitely recommend ordering some churros and hot chocolate to dip them in if you haven’t tried this already. The hot chocolate was very rich and thick, but that made it good for dipping the churros. I asked the manager of the café to take a group photo of us and we almost lost Emily’s phone… not actually though. He pretended to walk away with it for a second and then turned back around, chuckled, and handed it to Emily. We all got a good laugh and had a great start to our day.
From the Café, we ventured to El Mercado Central to re-explore this venue with some more time than we had yesterday.
Along the way, we stopped at a small perfume shop to see what it was like there. I have to admit, it was nice to get the opinions of the chicas before purchasing a cologne. I’m grateful that they didn’t let me get the really strong cologne and seem like a fool. Thanks again y’all!
Once we arrived at El Mercado Central, we noticed many stands that we didn’t see previously and some of us bought food from these stands. Jamie bought ham and a few different types of cheeses to sample with our group. Emily tried a pastry that I remember Vinayak telling us about yesterday. This pastry is called Coca Mollitas and is a staple of Alicante. I tried it, and honestly, I’m not sure what I thought of it. It had a unique texture and lacked flavor. To me, it tasted a bit like a saltine cracker. That would make sense given that it is typically the base of pastry and bread in Alicante. It is intentionally bland. On my way out of the Mercado, I bought some jamon serrano and chorizo from one of the stands to have in the coming days.
Laura joined us and then we were on our way to El Corte Inglés, a 7-story store that has much to offer. It was bit pricey, so none of us bought much there. At least the Starbucks in front of it sold drinks at a cheaper price than in the U.S. Jamie and I took advantage of this and treated ourselves to some beverages.
From there, we all split off to have lunch with our host families. Afterwards, we returned to our regularly scheduled program. At 4:00, our group met at our usual rendezvous point: Plaza de Los Luceros. From there, we walked together to the Cede de la Universidad de Alicante to meet Rafael Alcazar, a forensic social worker. Señor Alcazar gave us a very insightful lecture on “The Role of the Social Worker in Legal and Judicial Settings.” As a Psychology major, I was very interested in hearing about the role of social psychologists within the legal system and enjoyed hearing about how cases involving children are handled in court. Although he was not fluent in English, he spoke it well, communicated with us effectively, and sparked many questions in us. So, given the lively group we have, you can bet that we were very active in the Q&A. Before we left, we took a group picture with Señor Alcazar and thanked him for his wisdom and time.
Wow, that was a lot for one day! Thanks to everyone for making it so much fun. I hope everyone had as great a time today as I did. Looking forward to the rest of the week! Maybe there could be just a little less walking in the coming days though, because after going all over town today, my legs hurt.
– Ethan Skidmore
Social Work Study Abroad in Spain 2022: Alicante & Granada 