Last Friday I finished school. On Saturday I took a train to Alicante. A friend of mine, Erik, (another exchanger) lives there and invited me to come down and visit the beach. When I arrived on Saturday, the weather was worse than in Madrid. It was cloudy and sprinkling a little. So instead of going for a quick tour of Alicante we just went to Erik’s house. In the evening the weather cleared up a little and we went to see a community play with Erik’s host brother. The play was performed by high school age students and reminded me quite a bit of U.S. high school plays. It was about a Spanish girl who goes with her father to another country to find work. The girl has to deal with people who blame the countries problems on immigrants and making friends. It was interesting because in Spain there is a lot of immigration and the play obviously reversed the situation with a Spaniard going to another country. Overall, I thought it had a good theme and was entertaining. After the play we went to a Tea Shop, Teteria in Spanish, and played some Spanish Trivial Pursuit. Spanish Trivial Pursuit regards Spanish Trivia, like the second highest mountain in Spain, who is the bad guy in a Spanish comic, etc. Then we went to a bowling alley.

On Sunday two other exchangers who live in different towns nearby Alicante came down for the day. The four of us went to the beach for the day. It was a nice day and we managed to go swimming, although I cannot say that the water wasn’t cold. Afterwards we went to see the new Star Trek movie, in Spanish, of course.

Monday we took a train to Valencia and visited the City of Arts and Sciences. This “city” is a set of five contemporary buildings designed by a Valencian architect, Santiago Calatrava. Each of the buildings is really uniquely designed and impressive. There is an Imax huge screen theather, a science museum, art center, aquarium, and garden. We went to the Imax theater and saw a movie about the Alps and the science museum.

On Tuesday morning Erik went to school and I went to a castle in Alicante. Then I returned to Madrid.