Typical Day in Alicante

10 November 2016

Hi again! My life in Alicante is beginning to “normalise”. Here’s a schedule of a typical day of mine:

1. Wake up and be excited about a new day, although tired.

2. Go to work on a bus with 300 other trainees plus 200 tourists.

3. Try and work really efficiently before the 2 h Spanish class (and fail because of so many people coming and going and so many things happening all of the time. We are four trainees, all girls, in the same office, so it can get quite hectic and noisy :D Now, luckily I discovered a great playlist that I can listen to while working, so I’m not distracted for everything happening around me.) 

4. Make 1000.000.000 grammatical mistakes at the Spanish classes but still enjoy it :D

5. Have lunch – Try and manage to eat quickly and look at your watch after a time that felt like 15 minutes but in reality was 1 hour because of so many interesting topics to discuss with the other trainees. Luckily we have a 2,5 hour “siesta” in the middle of the day, so we can take as long as we want for lunch, but of course the longer you take, the longer you’ll have to work in the evening because our working time is 8 hours/day.

6. Work for a few more hours and again realise, 2 hours went by in like 2 seconds.

7. Miss the bus and wait 20 minutes for the next one with 100 other trainees. It’s nice because I never have to take the bus alone, there’s always someone to talk to.

8. Go to supermarket and buy a huge bottle of water; sweat and wish you could drink tap water while carrying the bottle home. Have dinner and talk to Niko on Skype.

9. Go to bed - too late - and swear tomorrow you’ll go to bed earlier.

10. ..and repeat :D

The days seem to be really short and every night I go to bed too late, but I really feel like I only got home from work and already I should be in bed, it’s crazy. Also, I feel like it’s weekend all of the time. I’ve figured this probably means that I like my job. And indeed, I do like my job, I know it sounds really geeky but I am actually excited to go to work. I’ve been excited about my work before, but never like this, it’s great.

During weekends I usually go out with other trainees. Fridays going out after work is already almost like a tradition to us. And many stay out until 5 o’clock in the morning. Friday nights out with the other trainees are always really nice. It’s a peculiar experience to be surrounded with so many people that are roughly in the same “phase” of their life, have the same profession and similar interests and are of so many different nationalities.

Yet, I must say that we are all so different. Still almost every day we encounter some arguments regarding difference of opinion often having to do with cultural differences. Sometimes for example, I’m in trouble for saying something really directly, which in Finland would be regarded normal, but which people of other nationalities may find offensive. Same goes for sarcastic humour, which clearly is much more difficult with people not of your own nationality..

Besides my “Finnish” behaviour every now and then, here I hear a lot that I’m not “typical Finnish”. I’m not sure why that is, and by now I haven’t really figured out whether it is a compliment or not :D

..if I’m not typical Finnish, I can tell, I’m not typical Spanish either. I still attract quite a bit of attention, I’ve noticed. I guess it’s my blonde hair and neon-white skin. And especially when I’m running, people do not seem to be ashamed to simply stare at me :D I guess even a Spanish-looking woman running around here is not a typical sight. When I go running, I always see like 20 male but only 2 female joggers. Anyway, yes, I’ve finally defeated the sore throat and could finally go running! Now the weather is perfect for running because it is not so hot anymore, around 15 degrees in the evenings.

I don’t mind people looking at me strangely but what’s a bit sad is, because of not at all looking like a Spanish, I am regarded a tourist. It’s a shame, because here it seems, the locals aren’t too keen on tourists. And unfortunately, I must say, I often get really bad service in like restaurants or shops because of being seen as a tourist.

That’s all for now! I miss you all, my friends in Finland, hope you’re doing fine!

With love,

Noora