A Weekend With THE Girls

Last Friday I got some girls together and we went to Elche right after school. It´s a beautiful little town which is characterized by its many palm trees and it´s beautiful basilica. We went to the basilica first and climbed over a hundred stairs (not that we were counting) to the very top. It was quite worth the two euros to see the beautiful view. After sight seeing and walking through one of the palm tree parks, we got to the real reason that we had come, because we had heard that Elche has amazing shoe shopping. It´s true. Spain produces some of the most beautiful shoes in the world. We spent a good two hours going from one shoe store to the other. There aren´t department stores here, but little stores that specialize in a particular thing. So walking down the street and about very other store being shoes was pretty exciting. We each bought one pair of shoes and then had dinner in a chinese restaurant. When we got back to Alicante, Sarah, Nicole and I donned our new shoes and went out dancing. It was a really fun day.
Here´s more pictures of Elche: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025321&l=eaf8f&id=23709871


So Sunday night I was sitting in my sala about 11:00 when the entire town went insane. I opened the window and watched as people raced down the street to the plaza and car after car after motorcycle after car raced down the streets honking their horns and yelling. I just rolled my eyes, cuz I´m getting used to outbursts like this, but after ten minutes of straight pandamonium I was back at the window and that´s when I saw the Real Madrid banners. I knew what had happened. Real Madrid had won the championship and so they were running to the plaza to celebrate in the fountain. I ran and got Rebecca and Nicole, we threw on Madrid shirts and ran to the plaza with everyone else. The streets were completely filled with people. Firecrakers as big as my hand were being lit and thrown into the streets. Flags were waving, people had real madrid and España flags draped across their shoulders. There was singing and chanting, but no one could get to the fountain because it was closed down in preparation for the festival this weekend. The police came to dispurse the mob of people, and then they started tipping over the dumpsters and lighting them on fire in an effort to get the firemen to come in hopes that they would spray them with their hoses. When the firemen came they started chanting "Hijos de puta", but the firemen didn´t give in. So then they started ripping down street signs and throwing them at the policemen who had now turned the water off from the fountain. It sounds violent, but in reality, everyone was celebrating the entire time! Singing, dancing, yelling, drinking. It was national pride in action and it was fantastic. When we finally decided it was getting dangerous, we went back to the apartment and watched as people ran from the police under our window. One boy stopped and called up to us. He told me he was David Beckham and he wanted me to go to a discoteca with him. I told him I couldn´t because I had school in the morning and then he had to start running away again. The Spanish celebrate everything. Sometimes, I think they don´t need a reason to celebrate. They´re just celebrating being alive.