¡Hola!
So here is just a quick update from Spain. I am still alive and kicking over here. I survived my first week of classes (and the stupid sickness that came with them). The best thing now (besides being in Spain) is that I can breathe through my nose again! Gotta appreciate the little things :) I haven't been up to much else lately. I bought my tickets to London, for the weekend of February 11-13th, to see one of my favorite musicals, Les Miserables :). It was a bit expensive, but completely worth it.
 I am also currently looking for a gym to join here. The fresh bread (that my host mom buys for every meal!), extremely large dinners that are hard to turn down and chocolate here are starting to take a toll on my body, haha. But I think I found a good gym nearby that my host sister is going to join with me. We were looking around today, and at one of the gyms, the desk person asked for our names for some forms. When I gave mine, I had to spell out my first name and when I told him my last name, he got a panicked look and had me write it out instead haha. This the common reaction to my name, I have had to teach all my professors how to pronounce my name numerous times.
I watched a few movies with my host family in Spanish, and the voiceovers are killing me. I keep laughing at all the wrong parts because of the accents they use, haha. My personal favorite was the voice over for Will Smith in the movie Independence Day. I was laughing almost every time he said something! :) And Spanish TV is something else entirely, I have yet to figure out their talk shows yet, because the content is so bizarre.
I also had a busy weekend watching fútbol, which did not go quite as well as I had hoped. Coming here as a Real Madrid fan, I have been told that it is my job to despise the Barcelona team. Which isn't hard to do ever since my host sister told me that Barcelona thinks they should be their own country. I cannot support the 'Texas' of Spain (aka ridiculously large egos and thinking that they are above the rest of the country). Unfortunately Barcelona is playing extremely well and Real Madrid, well I don't know if I can call what they are doing fútbol.. They have been playing poorly due to some management problems. Well this weekend, Barcelona won their game against Alicante's team (3-0) and 2nd ranked Madrid lost to a team that was ranked around 15th in La Liga Española (0-1). The game was so sad that my host sister, a long time fan, said it was time for her to switch teams..
Things to look forward to this week:
Cooking class tomorrow (I am hoping for a chance to flambe something again..aka set it on fire;)
Meeting the two girls (ages 8 and 11) that I am going to tutor in English on Wed. 
Finally joining a gym
Things I still need to get used to:
The Spaniards are very animated when they talk ( I keep thinking they are mad, when they are talking about something as simple as the weather)
The fact that being a blond/blue eyed person, I will get stared at, along with some very disturbing full body glances by the more daring men here (it's kinda creeping me out)
The deodorant here doesn't work quite as well as it does in the states... 
Instead of living in a place where everyone wears sweats to school, I now live in a place where sweats should never leave the house, haha 
We walk everywhere! I love it :)
The drivers here think that sidewalks are merely extensions of the road, and do not understand why people keep walking on them..


Ah well, thats all I believe :) I hope everyone is having a good day so far. And make sure to leave comments so I know that people are reading this! Otherwise I might just get lazy and stop updating, lol. Here are some more pictures from another hike up the castle.
♥torin

Some more pictures :)

Hey guys! I just thought that I would put up a few more pics from our beach/churro adventure :) Also, I am feeling much better and getting over my cough! Happy day! Also I just had my very first cuisine class today and I can already tell that it will be my favorite class of the bunch. We learned to to chop vegetables without chopping our fingers... good skill to know I would think. We also learned how to make orange chicken, and how to flambe the chicken sauce (yup mom, a bottle of brandy and a lighter and just think of all the mischief I can achieve with that combo ;) and a delicious custard like desert. Thank goodness it is an uphill walk all the way to class to help keep the calories off :) Well that's all for now. Missing you all, and if anyone would like to skype, let me know while I still have my eyebrows! jk mom, but seriously..
Besos, Torin

El Castillo de Santa Barbara y la playa :)

Hola :)
So  I have been in Spain for about a week and I cannot believe how quickly it has gone by! Yesterday my group hiked the Castillo de Santa Barbara. It had incredible views and was quite a tough hike. I have decided that I am going to run up it before I leave Spain :) It will be my motivation to get my lazy butt in shape. After the castillo a small group and I went to the beach ( my first time!) It was so beautiful, I cannot wait for warm weather to get here so I can stop blinding the Spaniards with my whiteness ;) After running around in the extremely cold water we decided that hot chocolate and churros were in order. We went to this cute little chocolate shop that is supposed to have the best chocolate in Alicante. We got steaming mugs of very thick, dark chocolate and 2 huge plates of churros. Needless to say that they didn't last more than 5 minutes or so. They were so DELICIOUS! And they are dangerous to my waistline due to the fact that I discovered them so quickly...
School started this week on Wednesday and I feel comfortable with all my classes. I am so glad though that all my classes before I came to Spain were in Spanish, unlike others in my group who are slightly alarmed by classes with no English.
My schedule looks like this:
Monday-Thursday: Advanced Spanish
Monday: Teaching Spanish as a Second Language
Tuesday: Spanish Cuisine
Tues/Thurs: Spanish Culture and Civilization, Spanish Contemporary Theatre
Friday: Absolutely nothing :D
Yup, thats right, no classes on Fridays! Does anyone know how long I have been trying to achieve that at NAU? It has been almost impossible for me until now :) And now my weekend trips will be so much easier to plan. And the other plus, only one class on Wednesday and 2 on Monday. Tuesday and Thursday are a little busy though... oh well. My classes all seem interesting, although I have my worries about Theatre, I have never done with classes like this and not sleeping. But since that class only has 3 people, there is no way I can get away with that haha.
On Thursday, most of the group went out dancing (due to the no school on Fridays thing) and it was super fun! Although I am not used to how Spain runs things yet. I got home at 4ish and I left early!! Many Spaniards don't leave till 1-3ish and stay out till 6 or 7 in the morning!!! So when I was leaving the club, everyone else was coming in... Being the party animal that I am, I don't think I could do that at all! The other thing is that they do this everyday of the weekend, Thurs-Sat nights. I couldn't even go out 2 nights in a row!
The reason I only managed one night? Due to a highly unwelcome cough that has been hanging out with me for the past week or so. I can't even sleep a full night due to not being able to breath or not cough.. so my next adventure is the hunt for Nyquil. But on the bright side, my host mom is so sweet. She keeps making me tea and toast to help me get better :)
Well I think I got everything covered! Miss you all so much!
♥ Torin


PS: For those of you wanting my snail mail addy (Mr. Cathcart)
Torin Shriver
USAC- University Studies Abroad Consortium
Edificio Torre de Control
Universidad de Alicante
03690 San Vicente del Raspeig
Alicante - Spain
And for any packages just label the things inside as personal items to make my life easier when picking them up :)

Beginning of the hike- Castillo de Santa Barbara

At the top!

Inside the castillo

The port 

The Mediterranean 

Probably the reason that my cough is even worse today...

Yup we hiked that :)

 The USAC group

Italia/Valencia/Alicante

¡Hola a todas! 

So I figured I needed to update this soon before I forgot everything :) It's been a very busy two weeks here, between flying to Europe and traveling a bit. My time in Italy was fun, it was mainly hanging out with my Aunt Colleen's family in Siena. Kathy took me to Florence for a day and showed off her tour guide skills by taking me on a tour of Florence (which just happened to include some shopping ;) Florence is a very beautiful city, with some truly amazing sites. I especially liked the cathedral there, with the dome and the baptistry outside. The tour was concluded with some amazing pizza. I also got to stop by the leaning tower of Pisa on the way to the airport. We decided that we had just enough time to go there without being late for our flight, if we didn't get lost on the way. (Which of course we did) After we finally found the tower it was just a stop to take cheesy pictures with us and the tower. We had to use Kathy's phone because her camera was in her bag and mine conveniently died right when we got there. We also got openly laughed at by some rude Italian guys when Kathy was trying to get a picture of me holding the tower up, (it is a lot harder than it looks...) haha. We then headed to the airport and made the flight from Pisa to Valencia.

Valencia was awesome, finally a place where I can understand some of what people were saying to me, although it's a little difficult with their accent and the speed at which they talk. Kathy and I stayed with a host family she had stayed with earlier. They were a wonderful couple, with an amazing daughter who stopped by often to visit. They even told me to call them if I had any problems with my family in Alicante and they would help me. In Valencia Kathy and I went shopping ( I went window shopping and Kathy did her best to buy everything in Valencia ;), although I did replace those shoes I had to throw out :) Afterwards we went to a museum that had an expedition about the power of thinking. It was awesome, even if I didn't completely understand everything. We later tried going to the beach, but we missed the bus by like 5 seconds... so instead we watched Catch Me If You Can, a great movie. We also went out with a group of friends that Kathy met in Valencia. We had a fun night of just hanging out and talking. On Sunday we got up bright and early to catch a train (that we just barely made!) and headed to Alicante.

So I finally made it to Alicante! And I love it here :D My host family is awesome. I live with a woman, Chari, and her daughter ( who is about my age) Maria. They are incredibly nice and are helpful with the language barrier. Kathy stayed for a day then left the next day :( but I had orientation for USAC anyways. Orientation was just like any that you would attend in the States: long, boring and it was putting me to sleep. Haha ohhh well. We also had to take a placement exam, which I did not do well on. Because of this, USAC tried putting me in a lower class.. which I refused because I know I will be fine in the classes I signed up for. Telling them this they made me sign a form saying that I am knowingly taking a class outside my level or something like that ( I think it was more of a 'we told you so' for when someone fails). So I am all signed up for classes now, I have made some friends among the group and I have a walking tour of Alicante today. Oh and the best thing? I have found some running buddies :D

And a few things I have noticed/learned about Spain:

It's common for men here to carry purses (murses :)

The boy/girl ratio is horrible, there are only like 4 boys in the group 

Spain has one of the highest AIDS population in Europe.. so I guess no one night stands for me ;)

Everyone and their mother smokes, so I will always smell like a smoker here

And  my family's dog Chico is even crazier than all my brothers dogs combined and continually bites me thinking I am a chew toy.. haha

But I love it here :)

PS Don't judge my bad writing skills, I am new to this haha

♥torin 

Fotos :)

Seriously, the biggest calculator I have ever seen in my life...

Siena :)

Some random cool building in Alicante

The famous Esplanade in Alicante

The Port in Alicante

City hall and the castle in the background

The castle 

Getting Started

Hola everyone!
I am making this for anyone who is interested in hearing about how my semester abroad is going because it saves me having to type the same thing out 10 times in a row. Anyways, after a long day of traveling I arrived at my Aunts house in Sienna, Italy today.
Traveling, like always, was annoying and frustrating, today more so than usual. For the first time in my life I had to throw stuff away to meet the weight restrictions. Every bag I brought with me had a weight restriction, including my carry-ons, which I just think is ridiculous. So after repacking my bags 5 times and throwing away some face wash, face lotion, normal lotion and shoes (yes shoes) I met the requirements. I chose to toss a pair of black buckle heels, because it was either those or my running shoes and that was no contest for me at all, haha. After that, I passed through the ridiculously long security line and got to my gate. Then, just to spite the airlines, I transferred everything I had to move from my carry on suitcase to my back pack (Because of weight)  right back to my suitcase, well that and to save me some back pain later on. From then on the trip was as uneventful as I could wish. No turbulence, crying babies, old guys without deodorant, or anything else too horrible. I just watched a few movies (The Town, Life As We Knew It, Going the Distance) and an episode of Glee, exciting right? I then landed in Frankfurt, Germany, wandered their weird and extremely confusing airport for a while looking the part of the dumb American tourist. I finally made my flight to Florence and slept through the entire flight and went through the easiest customs ever, and I mean ever. All they did was look at my passport on my way out of the door.
So far I have just been chilling at my Aunts house, went to watch my cousin's soccer game and have eaten some yummy pasta :) I am planning to hang out in Italy till the 13th, when I will fly to Valencia with my cousin Kathy and travel around there for a few days. We will then head to Alicante on the 15th, and my program starts on the 17th. So I will update then. Hope everyone has an amazing day :)
Torin