Life in a super awesome beach resort town surrounded by mountains in the Mediterranean :)

Today was another beautiful day in Denia!  We have now been in town for a week and are starting to know our way around.  Every day I walk down the calle de palmeras (the street of palm trees).  Across the street from my house is the beach and harbor and everywhere I turn I can see the mountains.  It is so beautiful!  The weather is always in the 60’s or 70’s – so different than at home!  Today we received our mobile phones so that we can call our classmates and friends from Denia to hang out.  It was interesting because in the States, the cell phones are getting bigger and bigger.  Our cell phones here are very small (but cute).  The other day I jogged / walked on the beach it was awesome to hear the waves crash against the shore, smell the ocean and the fish, feel the soft sand against my feet and see the beautiful ocean expanding out before me.  In Illinois we can see cornfields for miles.  Here we can see the water for kilometers :)  Today I walked around the old castle to a dance studio and signed up for a Flamenco dance class!!  I am very excited about it and can’t wait to dance again!  I hear it is very hard and a lot of movement with the hands.  But, as I am not Dutch – I think I will do well J  (Sorry Calvin students).  Today some of us Calvin students got together with some local high school students.  We are going to be doing conversation groups – one day in Spanish the next in English.  It was a blast!!  I had so much fun meeting some kids (around) my age.  They were all very nice and we talked in small groups for an hour and a half about music, movies, sports, school, las siestas, and most importantly – las fiestas/the parties!  They have all taken English classes just like we have taken Spanish classes so we did a little bit of Spangish today.  It was so funny to hear some of their phrases in almost perfect imitation of an American accent such as “I dunno”.  We are planning a group dinner/outing this Saturday.  Last night I watched a soccer match on TV between Barcelona and Betis.  It was really good!  Barcelona won 5-0 with Messi scoring 3 goals, Pedro and Keita each scoring 1.  Every time a goal was scored a cannon (or some loud noise) went off in the harbor celebrating the goal!!  Things are going well here, only 9 more days of interim then our vacation to Barcelona.  The high school students told us that Barcelona is awesome and that we will have tons of fun there!!  Already finished my homework so I’m off to watch more fútbol!! J