Climbing to the top! Yes, that's The Hulk on my back. It's full of stuff for going to Madrid for the weekend. And those are my Tevas!
Climbing to the top! Yes, that's The Hulk on my back. It's full of stuff for going to Madrid for the weekend. And those are my Tevas!
One of the things I worried about before getting here was that I would run out of the things I need every day, like lotion, shampoo, deodorant, and so on. I had to remind myself that I wasn't going to a third world country, but I was still anxious.
Today was the first time we experienced the weekly market. It has been in existence for a very long time. Stalls began to set up at 4AM, and by 11:30AM, the several streets near the church, library, and ayuntamiento (city hall) are full of people! Here were peddlers of all the things that you need, y mas (and more). (As you can see, I've picked up a little bit of Spanish!)
Here are just a few of the many stalls (and there are multiple vendors for each product): dried fruits, fresh produce, nuts, ham, wallets, handbags, shoes, clothes, toiletries, candy, seat cushions, art, olives, fish, toys... I walked through the market five times to get a sense of the range of products and to compare prices. The cheapest produce (4 heads of lettuce for 1 euro, as well as 1 euro for a kilo of peaches) was a booth set up along the street that leads to the bus station. The booth with the most varied array of candy was set up by the library. And the nuts and dried fruits is right around the corner from the library!
So if I ever need anything, I'm going to check the market first because of its rich cultural history and its selection.
There are other stores as well. The perfumeria is like a drugstore, but only with personal hygiene and make-up products like shampoo, body spray, soap, et cetera. The pharmacies here have all health products and all have neon green + signs. I happened to find a health food store with everything from chia seeds, medicinal herbs, protein powder, gluten free foods, and unsalted nuts (it felt a little like Berkeley Bowl in there!). Every couple of blocks, there's a "Chino" store, which is usually a huge bazaar of goods (probably made in China)--I think of them as the Walmarts of Guardamar. I've purchased trace paper, tupperware, and a beach towel from such shops. The "no more than two euro" store is analogous to the Dollar Tree. Of course, the supermarket also stocks a lot of common household items like laundry detergent, ziplock bags, and so forth.
So I've learned that I didn't need to worry about finding the products I'm used to using in the States. The only thing is that it's slightly more expensive to buy common products here, and some things are a lot more expensive--a small bottle of sunscreen is about 8 euro, which is $10!
It's hard to only pack two pairs of shoes for a two and a half month trip to Europe. But it's even harder to deal with bloody ankles and extra weight.
Our studio course finally met today for the first time. We were going on a walk, Alex said, so wear comfy shoes.
We hiked up to Guardamar's old castle, which is now in ruins; the old church behind it is now used as a water reservoir. The views of the sea to the East and the jagged mountains to the West were breathtaking and we welcomed the strong breeze. It was quite a hike just to the castle up steep streets and rocky paths. The worst was over, it seemed, once we got back down to street level.
...But the journey had only just begun!
The next couple of hours were spent trekking across the urban parts of town to the dunes by the sea. These huge sand dunes are now massive and unmovable, but just a century ago, they threatened to bury Guardamar's streets. Native pine trees and other flora were planted (and replanted annually) to prevent dune erosion and movement. After what seems like miles and miles of walking, we finally break out of the pine forest and head out to the mouth of the river. Rio Segura meets the Mediterranean sea on the Northern side of Guardamar. At this point, I am dreading the walk back.
We decide that following the beach would be the fastest way to get home. Our shoes come off as we begin to walk in the sand. I notice that a lot of people's ankles are bloody and several people complained of blisters.
I looked down at my feet--tired but unscathed--which already have tan lines on them... they're more like tan strips, actually. The sandals I brought are Tevas that I bought just for this trip after much research. Every step feels padded and the sandals stay secure on my feet. They have a lot of grip so that I don't slip on the shiny tiled sidewalks. The only other pair of shoes I brought are my running shoes--essential, and also comfortable. Truthfully, I envy everyone else's cute sandals, but at the end of the day, my feet are a thousand times better off in a pair of utilitarian Tevas. I'm glad I did my research and tried on several different pairs of sandals before finally buying Tevas.
A lot has happened in the last few days. I’ve already spent a night in Guardamar del Segura! It’s been pretty easy to settle into the 3rd floor room that I share with Naomi, probably the smallest room in the Pencion—but we have a bathroom and a window that opens to a vacant space in the building. The low hum of the fan above lulled me to sleep last night even as our fellow studio-mates returned from bar-hopping and late-night beach-going.
It’s been so easy, in fact, to fall asleep here, that I wonder if my previous aversions to new places was because of some kind of fear that I’ve let go of, or if this place just feels like home. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what makes a place home, versus what makes a place feel homey. There’s a difference.
I began my trip to Spain with a BART ride from Union City to San Francisco International Airport. BART feels like home simply because I've been taking trains around the Bay Area for as long as I can remember. Airport terminals, however, definitely do not feel homey. Every step I take is filled with consumerism--every corridor, every walkway has an ad, a duty-free store, an endless rack of magazines, ten different brands of gum... and all the items are marked up simply because I'm in an airport terminal. Home does not equate to everyone trying to sell me something every second that I'm there.
At Dusseldorf, we had to go through Passport Control--our passports were stamped with our arrival date and we were questioned about our travel plans. I thought that saying that I was studying abroad would be enough--and there was a language barrier, because I wasn't really sure what he was asking--but I ended up searching frantically for the Pencion's address before Naomi saved my ass! I can't help but think that I would have been allowed to go through the checkpoint with no problem if I weren't an Asian girl with weird hair and lots of moles on her face... but of course I'm more sensitive to these things than most people. That exchange with Passport Control gave me the impression that Germany was not a friendly place to be. (We did get to stay overnight at the airport Sheraton, though, because a delay on our Air Berlin flight into DUS caused us to miss our connecting flight. Score!)
Guardamar has proven itself to feel homey because of the residences atop the restaurants and stores that line the narrow streets, the slow pace of the people who reside here, and the generally happy and generous temperament of the people we have met so far (and will be in close contact with for the next couple of months). The culture here is completely different--the long hours dedicated to eating meals with other people (usually family) really shows that they care about taking it slow, keeping it personal, building relationships. I'm so used to eating lunch within 15 minutes that it felt a little weird sitting at a table for two hours... but with a glass of wine and (almost) endless amounts of food, I soon felt like I was eating with family.
My run this morning showed me a beach town asleep in the wee hours of the morning. Alex says that the population in Guardamar grows almost exponentially within the next month because so many people come here on holiday. It will be interesting to see the urban dynamics change and to compare them to my first impressions (as well as the first impressions I got of other cities in Europe).
My first impressions of Dusseldorf, Zurich, Alicante, and Guardamar color the way that I see them. But when does the period end for first impressions? If I come back to Guardamar every year or retire to little house near the beach (as Alex’s in-laws have), then my first impressions may span the first few years that I am here. If I’m only here for two months (which is much more likely), then my memories of Guardamar will always be affected by how I felt by the things I experience in my first week or so. Maybe it’s different for everyone, for every situation.
I wonder if Guardamar del Segura will become a home for me.
(That's a photo while flying into Alicante. Notice the Air Berlin wing and the beach down below.)
After a layover in a Sheraton in Dusseldorf, flying into Zurich, meeting the professor by chance in Alicante, eating a meal at the Pencion, wrangling with my outlet adapter, and seeting up an internet cafe account, I'm glad to say I'm now in Spain.
Checking out the beach later tonight!
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Checking out the beach later tonight!
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