22 January 2017
It’s been stormy
weather here with lots of rain and wind. I hear this is an exceptional year in
Alicante, and I assume in the whole of Europe in terms of weather. I don’t
think it has rained this much in Alicante for years. And it shows that this
city is not at all prepared for rain. The streets are flooded and what is
ridiculous, the pedestrian parts of the streets get slippery when it rains so I
guess when they planned it they thought, it would almost never rain.
Unlike in
Finland, here the storm also affects the indoors. The nights here have lately
been rather unpleasant because of the cold also coming into the apartment..
..and it’s not only the cold but also the humidity, which makes sleeping really
uncomfortable when your pyjama and even the duvet feel like they are soaking
wet. With my roommates we now discovered that our heating system also has a
function of removing humidity and we used it last night. Maybe it helped a bit.
Let’s see how
our electricity bill we because I hear heating with electricity can be
extremely costly here. Therefore, we still try and be quite economical with the
heating. This of course means wearing
three pullovers on top each other at home but well, I’ve already gotten used to
that and luckily brought some woollen shirts from Finland after Christmas. This
is why it’s funny when people wonder how people survive in the cold Finland
because here right now I’m in fact much more cold than in Finland, because in
Finland, when it’s cold, we don’t stay outside for long times and have proper
clothes for that and indoors it’s never cold.
We had planned
to go to Granada to ski at Sierra Nevada but now, also because of the weather
and some roads being closed due to the flood, we had to cancel the trip at last
minute. I’m a bit disappointed because I miss skiing, but let’s see if we can
reschedule the trip for another weekend.
Now it seems the
weather is getting better and besides, quite soon the winter should be
practically over here and the spring should begin, I’m already excited!
Oh
and by the way, before the storm began, last weekend we made a trip
with 15 other trainees to Elche, a neighbouring city. Was great and I
saw bananas growing in trees :)
 |
| Bananas! |
At work
everything continues as before, I’m working on interesting cases and get to
write a lot, I’m still really happy with what I get to do and days at work go
by fast. And now we had a New Year’s lunch with my team the other day. That was
really nice, with a four course meal and chatting with my colleagues.
Especially I liked the fact that I got a chance to know my colleagues a bit
better because during normal working days everyone is busy and my office with
three other trainees is in a different place from the colleagues in my team so during
the days I mostly socialize only with the other trainees.
I now got a new
roommate. A girl from France, super nice! And besides she’s eager to practice
Spanish so we only talk Spanish, which makes me so happy. I went to the movies
with her last night and she wanted to see the film in Spanish. I didn’t agree
at first but we discovered this film was not even offered in English so finally
we didn’t have a choice. I was hesitant but finally understood much more than I
thought I would and in fact enjoyed the movie, yes!
And tomorrow I
begin another Spanish course, it’s great because I really need new vocabulary.
Of course even if I manage to make myself understood, I always use the same
verbs and try and make Spanish words from English or French equivalents, which
is not always successful :D
Another dear
hobby of mine here is running, as most of you already know. A few of my
colleagues have now been eager to start running with me and running is
convenient because nowadays I practically have company for almost every run.
Today the last
of my roommates, an Estonian girl, should arrive and finally all of the bedrooms
of the flat will be occupied. It’s nice to get to meet another new person but I’m
also a bit nervous if living with three other girls will require me to make
much more compromises than I have had to make until now, let’s see. (and let’s
hope she speaks Spanish ;) )
With love,
Noora
