Week 2 in Alicante

Alicante remains a delightful spot to sun, celebrate, and educate. The days for sandy beaches and opportunities to watch soccer are increasing. Now that the World Cup has begun we all meet often to watch the next game. USA's tie with England was a fun night of 15 women screaming and jumping (some of the students played soccer as young children and in high school so most truly understand the game) and I'll be watching the upcoming 1st game for Spain on Wednesday. We also went to the local team (Hercules) game last night and cheered almost as loud as the 50,000 regular fans. If they win their next game they move up to the next division next year so everyone is very excited. It's is really fun to be somewhere where folks are very passionate about their futbol.

In terms of work, I got to visit the Gender Studies program at the university here (they are doing some great things, I think) yesterday, and today we went to visit a treatment program. Half of the students in my class came due to upcoming midterms but the ones who did were very pleased. The psychologist who showed us around had spent part of the day translating his slide show into English for us. Very nice man. As one of the students said "I could tell him my life story easily." Cocaine and alcohol are the big drugs of abuse and about 20% in the program were women so it was interesting to see how they are similar and how they are different. I've given a midterm and we are now half way through the course. Amazing how time flies.

Spain's political situation is quite unique from other European countries. Like England and Belgium they have a monarchy but they are more socialist in nature than many of the other more "right leaning" republics. They have an advanced law regarding violence (since 2004), same gender marriages were legalized several years ago and show up as a group on their statistics, and healthcare is free to everyone. Divorce is very acceptable for all but the more religious and they certainly love a good parade. There were two this weekend! A traditional 3 1/2 hour long one on Saturday night and a frivolous, fun one with folks dressed in characters on Sunday night. All of this begins the great festival that is commencing.

Our field trip this Saturday was to a town (El Elche) south of Alicante with thousands of palm trees and then to the only inhabited island that has no paved roads or motorized vehicles. Of course, I don't know where they would go since the island was very small. Supposedly there is great snorkeling nearby (something we are planning to do on Thursday evening).

Saturday night back in Alicante included a big outdoor dance party at the end of the pier and many people out in the streets celebrating life. Awww, what an interesting time to be here.

Well, I need to start making plans for after the session so will close now. Hoping to post some pictures if I can figure out how. If you can't wait, check my Facebook page for some already posted there.