Mercadillos and Tutús

Hola,
Nothing extremely crazy has happened since I last updated on here.... This weekend had insanely beautiful weather, which is probably the last thing you want to hear since I heard Iowa just received four inches of new snow and I´m sure Chicago is having similar luck.  Since it was so nice, a few of us went to the beach for the afternoon just to hang out.  We also went to the Mercadillo, which is the equivalent of a Spanish flea market.  You could buy absolutely EVERYTHING there, from shoes to clothes to fresh produce to jewelry to flowers to amazingly good churros.  It was a blast.  It is always fun to do local things like that.  Saturdays are always hopping but Sundays are so dead.  Since everything is closed, no one is driving around in their cars so the streets are pretty empty but the cafés and restaurants are always popular.  The Explanada on Sundays is very busy too - people eating ice cream, hanging out by the beach, and just catching up with friends.  It´s how I imagine Sundays are supposed to be.
This Sunday instead of going to my regular church, I went with Feli to her Catholic Church.  It was very different than the Protestant church I attend here, which is to be expected because that is the same in the States.  Catholicism used to be the official religion of Spain until 1978 with the new Constitution after Franco´s regime ended.  However, religion is kinda dying out.  People are not regular church-goers, especially the young people.  This was quite evident at church today.  There was mostly older people and rarely any young adults or children.  Of course, I couldn´t understand everything that was going on but there were many similarities between this Catholic church and the few Catholic services I have been to in the States.  The layout seemed to be the same.
As I´m sure I have mentioned, this coming weekend is Carnaval in Alicante, which is a HUGE deal.  Everyone dresses up in costumes and it is a big party in the streets, or so I´m told.  I will provide more details after I experience this crazy fiesta.  But some of us got together to put together our costumes.  Two of us decided to make tutús (like ballerinas) - they turned out hilarious!!  I will definitely post pictures.  The same night Alba, my Spanish host sister, had her friends over to finish their costumes as well.  They are dressing up as the Duff beers girls from the Simpsons. Haha.  I never watch the Simpsons so at first when they were trying to explain their costumes to me, I had no idea what they were talking about!
This weekend, I also watching Harry Potter on TV in Spanish and ate octopus and sepia - mmmm delicious. :)  I can´t wait to bring these amazing recipes back to the States!  Everything has been going well.  Although lately I have been incredibly tired.  Maybe it´s because I haven´t had Diet Coke since I have been here :)  (I´m trying to kick my addiction).  But I have just been dead after dinner... it must have something to do with all this Spanish.  Sometimes it is so overwelming and all I want to do is put on a hoodie and watch something in English!  Haha.  I didn´t even bring a hoodie or my computer to watching shows in English.  But I think this is a good thing; it forces me to learn more instead of playing it safe and easy with English.  All in all the week and weekend was a success.  Can´t wait til Carnaval next weekend!!
Un beso,
Sarah
PS  I almost forgot!  I met with my Intercambio #2 on Thursday night.  I meet with #1 tomorrow.  But we had a lot of fun.  His name is Pedro and is studying to become an engineer at the University.  We met up at a bar and talked in both English and Spanish but when we meet regularly we are only going to speak in one language.  This way our heads don´t start to hurt from having to go back and forth from language to language.  He seems really nice and I can´t wait to get together again.  The more I speak and listen to Spanish the better!