on the 7th day, thou shalt rest

I've been in Alicante for almost 2 weeks, i think I'm quite adjusted to this place already because it's not that hard to do so here. Alicante is a small beautiful town next to the Mediterranean coast, but because of it's cold weather at this moment, there's not much to do at the beach. Spaniards, like the rest of the Europeans that I've met, are very friendly, there's warm greeting everywhere you go. The fact that I can speak Spanish also helps me to get around here, raising other's interests since my Argentinean accent is very, uhm, odd to them. Argentinean accent is a very unique accent among Spanish speaking countries, there are certain vocabs and expressions that are only heard in the region, yet famous to mostly all Spanish connoisseurs. so when people, especially semi-drunk guys, hear my Argentinean accent, they'll try to pull out a few typical Porteno comments, like the infamous "che! boludo!"

Anyway, here are some updates and thoughts of my stay in Alicante so far:

- New coworkers. So I finally met my coworkers! I'm now working for a humble PV company at its early stages, and altho the company is Spanish, the boss and a majority of its employees are Dutch (from Netherlands) or can speak Dutch. Manuel, our accountant, and I are the only 2 people who can't catch any Dutch, all the rest can speak it... I'm considering in buying some Dutch 101 CDs...

- Work environment. There's no doubt that Spanish people are very lazy and can be quite slow. They start work around 9am (mine is from 830~6 to adjust to Netherland's times), right after going into the office, they go out for breakfast/coffee break, then there is a long lunch break, and several long breaks in between hours. This is quite a big change for me, but I can't complain! =D

- Meal hours. They have very late meal hours. My coworkers have breakfast around 9am (ok), snack around 11 (wha?), we lunch around 1:30~2pm until 3~3:30 (late), and dinner is after 9, after 10+ if it's weekend (too late!!!). The dinner gatherings that I've joined so far all started after 10, sometimes even 11pm. And they like to sit down, savor their food properly, something that I strongly recommend for healthy digestion, but that should be done if dinner starts at an earlier time! I really could fall asleep while eating.

- Gastronomy. Spanish food is VERY VERY salty. And oily. Olive oil is poured in every dish, and they pour salt on food as if it could do magic healing or something. It's extra added salt on food that is already salty. Despite the exessive salt on their dishes, the ingredients are good and fresh, and the food is actually good. I just need a gallon of water next on the table to wash it down. I really enjoy some of their simple food: ham (jamon serrano, but it can be a bit too greasy), fresh tomato (either raw, cooked, or in salsa paste), toast w/butter, toast w/tomato sauce, olives, fresh bread, almonds, dark chocolate, pastry. There are still a lot of things left to try, but so far, they're all excellent.

- Outings. People go out for a breakfast coffee run at the bar in the morning, they sit at a bar for negotiations and some meetings. There's no such thing as brief 3hr of Happy Hour, you just go to a bar after work and be happy for the rest of the evening. Then on weekend, it's one party after other after other til dawn. Last weekend, Bram took me out to experience partying here: we started at his friend's bday dinner followed by dancing with drinks at nearby bar. We later moved to find a coworker at a reggae bar and happy danced along with drinks, but stopped midway for the best mojito in town. Soon we got bored of reggae, so switched to local club and stayed there til its 4am closing. But as people say, "one door closes, another one opens". There's a club that OPENS at 4am, so it was almost a must that we headed there and partied till 7am. Oh, and we did our last stop that day at a kebab store. Good food! (well, anything tastes good when you're tipsy from a full night of partying and drinking, right?)

- Physical hydration. It's not weird to see people order a glass of beer for lunch, or 2. They like drinking and know how to enjoy it quite well. At certain restaurants, they even give liquor shots as dessert! Anyway, as the previous category mentioned a bit, I think I'm building up on my alcohol tolerance. So far, I've chugged all the dessert liquor whenever wherever they served it, slowly appreciating hot chocolate with rum, and finishing my glasses of beer. I'm especially proud of my drinking last Fri: sangria, liquor shots, beer sips, mojito, kahlua+milk, rum+coke, more sips of beer, more sips of rum+coke. And I was still high and jumping at 5am! Awesome~

- Store hours. Regular stores operate till late, generally with 2+ hr break in the afternoon, but it reopens until 9pm to compensate. However, whether it's because of labor regulations or simple laziness, stores are NOT open on Sundays NOR any holiday. No supermarkets on Sundays, no traditional markets on weekends, no retail stores on holidays. After living for years in countries with strong consumerism and high expenditures, this really surprised me. No store open on Sundays or holidays?! How can I live without malls on weekends? Fine, the restaurants and some bakeries were open, but what about other sorts of entertainment? I spent that weekend filling my stomach with starch coz bread was the only food available.

Alicante is a very interesting town, it might not be big, but it has its uniqueness that makes people enjoy their stay. So is my case here, enjoying my life so far in Alicante. What I don't like, are Mr. Kebab and Mr. Popcorn that have showed up in pimple forms on my face (from yesterday's drinking), fried salty food as zits, excessive oilve oil and ham that have enlarged my facial and waist dimentions for at least 1 inch, and the lack of veggies in my stomach. Probably the lack of sleep too...