The Last Getaway for Quintanareñas

In school last week, I went to my usual classes in the high school, helping mostly with speaking exams or correcting pronunciation. At the primary school, I only had three days left: Wednesday and Thursday of last week, and tomorrow, because we have a break from school from Thursday until the following Tuesday. The following Tuesday is my last contracted day, but since we don't have school for the next four school days, my last day is actually tomorrow. But I digress. Since I had three days left, the primary teachers split my time among the three age groups. I spent Wednesday with third and fourth grade, talking about daily routines (brushing your teeth, going to school, eating lunch, etc) and jobs, respectively. Thursday, I spent with infantil, singing about animals for most of the day. Can't say I'll miss going to those classes. Tomorrow, I'll be with 5th and 6th grade.

On Friday, Morgan, Piedad and I had rescheduled our plans to visit Segóbriga, the archaeological park we were supposed to visit several weeks ago but our plans were thwarted by rain. Friday dawned bright and sunny and hot, so it was the perfect day. Better yet, Roberto, a fellow English teacher who tutors in science after school at the primary school, came with us. Wandering among the ruins was a fun way to spend the day (It would have been perfect if it wasn't so hot, but welcome to La Mancha, the desert).

In the amphitheater  

Morgan and I took the opportunity of being in the amphitheater to pretend we were in Gladiator. "Are you not entertained!?"

View of the surrounding countryside

I don't know what this building was but we were in the shade, so I was happy

Group selfie: Morgan, Roberto, Piedad, and me

We had chicken paella (no organs to be found, thankfully) at Piedad's house for lunch, and then I went home and took a nap, because we had travel plans for the weekend. Vicki, Morgan and I had made plans to spend the weekend at the beach in Alicante, one of the provinces of Valencia on the Mediterranean Sea. So we headed over to the station to catch a bus at 7pm, which would drop us in Alicante around 11 and then we could sleep and spend the whole day at the beach on Saturday.

Well, of course not everything went according to plan because when it comes to my travel experiences, does it ever? We were traveling with ALSA, one of the fanciest bus companies in Spain. ALSA is the fifth bus company I've traveled with in this country, and on every other bus, you can buy the tickets on board. Not ALSA, of course. So we watched the bus come and leave us behind because we didn't buy our tickets online beforehand. It made me feel a little better that neither Morgan nor Vicki knew about this stupid policy either, but it still sucked.

However, it turned out that a night bus from Madrid made a stop in Quintanar on its way to Alicante, so everything actually ended up working out with a slight deviation from the original plan. We got on the bus at 1am and tried to sleep most of the way to Alicante, where we arrived at 5am, and went to the hostel to sleep for a few hours before hitting the beach. We still ended up having a full day in Alicante, so out of everything that could've gone wrong, it wasn't catastrophic, just a pain.

After we got a few hours of much needed sleep, we got ready and hit the beach. It was our last weekend together, because Vicki and Luis Felipe are traveling to the north of Spain during the break from school, and I'm leaving before they get home. So this was the final girls' weekend for las Quintanareñas (Spanish for women from Quintanar). It was nice to have time to just laze around and get some sun, and I even went swimming in the Mediterranean. Vicki and Morgan both thought it was too cold to do much more than dip their feet in, but I'm used to swimming in the Atlantic in June, so the Mediterranean was lovely in comparison.

Alicante beach

Castillo de Santa Barbara on the hilltop behind the beach

Vicki is the selfie queen

Morgan knows how to tan in style

We left the beach for a late lunch around 4pm, and Vicki's friend Liz, who was teaching in the province of Murcia but happened to be spending the same day in Alicante, met us for lunch and then we headed back to the beach together to catch the last of the afternoon sun before Liz had to take the train back to Murcia.

On the beach with Liz

We headed back to the hostel and relaxed for awhile, the three of us all engrossed in books of our own, before we ventured back out for a nighttime walk and something to eat to tide us over until morning (I'd eaten such a large, late lunch that I had gelato for dinner, which is of course my favorite dinner). Alicante is beautiful at all times of the day, including nighttime.

Alicante at night

In the morning, our first priority was to go to the Castillo de Santa Barbara, a castle on a hilltop right near the beach that I'd read afforded incredible views of the city. The best part was that there was an elevator, so we didn't have to hike to the top in the heat. Furthermore, the amazing views had not been exaggerated.

View of the beach from the castle

View of the city and the port

I think I could have lived in Alicante happily

Castle selfie

I didn't know what to do here to I just stuck my hand in the figure's arm

When we finished taking in the incredible views, we took the elevator back down to spend a few more hours on the beach before we had to head back. We boarded the bus back at 2:45 so we were back in Quintanar at 7:30. It was a lowkey weekend, but a really nice way to spend our last one together.

Today is my last day in the high school. I've said goodbye to many of my students, but I still have to go to my favorite class with the 14-year-olds. I'm looking forward to it because I prepared a game for them where they have to choose the correct American English word that matches the picture I show them. I included the British English word in the choices, so it's a little tricky. I played it this morning with my 12-year-old students and they really liked it, so here's hoping.

It's very hard to believe that my time in Spain is rapidly coming to a close. I remember sitting in the absolute silence of my apartment when I first got to Spain, (because I had no phone, no internet, no TV, and no friends) and thinking, Oh my God, May is light years away. The joke was on me, clearly, because I blinked and it's here. The last eight months have been some of the most incredible of my life, and even with my many trials and tribulations, I wouldn't change a thing.