So only ten more days until I go home! Crazy!

I've had three finals so far, and I have three left. I think I did pretty well on the three I've had so far, so hopefully that's true, and I do just as well on the ones I have left. I got a 95% on the practical half of my programming final, and the theory part is tomorrow at 9am. That means I have a pretty good chance of actually passing that class, which is a relief because most of my schedule for next year is based on the assumption that I have already taken and passed that class.

I went to Calpe with my friend Wendy on Friday. Calpe is a little coastal town about two hours north of Alicante. We went just for a day trip, to walk around, see the sights. We ended up at the Peñon de Ifach, which, loosely translated, mean "craggy rock of Ifach". It is surrounded by a "state park" type of deal, and really was very pretty. We decided that it would be cool to climb the thing. So we did. The first third of the "craggy rock" was easy because there was a path of dirt and small stones. About a third of the way up we ran into a tunnel through the rock. That was where it got interesting. Whatever type of rock this peñon was made out of, it was slippery smooth. So there were ropes in the tunnel to hold on to so you didn't just fall down. Once we got out of the tunnel, the real fun began.

It is nesting season for the seagulls, so we were warned by countless signs as we began our ascent that it was nesting season and therefore the North and Northwest ascent routes should be avoided. Not knowing anything about the different ascent routes of the craggy rock, and it being about midday, we weren't quite sure which were the North and Northwest routes. So we figured, we'll go up, and if the birds get pissed off, we'll just turn around. So anyways, we get out of the tunnel and see that the "path" really no longer exists. There is just rock, and some parts of the rock that look like maybe they are safer to climb on than other parts. Sometimes there were more ropes to hold on to, and sometimes there was a little bit of dirt mixed in with some smaller stones that we could walk on. But mostly we were sort of clambering over large smooth rocks. And there were a lot of birds. A LOT of birds. And a lot of bird poo. We got another third of the way up before we really thought about the birds though. But once we were about two thirds of the way up, the screeching got louder and the birds got closer to us. At one point Wendy said something about not being a Hitchcock fan, and I remembered that I had just rewatched that movie before I came home from school for Christmas break. A few minutes later it was clear that her remark had, in fact, tempted fate as a large seagull swooped at her and tried to poop on her! It missed, but just barely.

The rest of our ascent was more of the same. Large smooth rocks, swooping screeching seagulls, and lots of bird poo. But we made it to the top without actually getting hit by the poo, and without falling off the "craggy rock". We took a bunch of pictures, and I even took a video, after her comment about "The Birds". (I will post the video somewhere later, my internet kinda fails right now). And then we came back down. Again, narrowly avoiding the bird poo and the falling off the mountain parts. By the time we got down, however, I could barely walk. We made it all the way back to the bus, which took us to the train, and we both almost fell asleep on the way home.

When I got back to my house I climbed into a hot bath to soak my aching muscles. Unfortunately, it was only then that I realized that somehow I had managed to put sunscreen on my face, arms, shoulders, and back, but completely miss my chest and lower legs. The hot water that felt so good on my muscles was actually quite painful on my burnt skin. Sleeping was tough too.

Yesterday the Moros y Cristianos festival began in San Blas (a little neighborhood about five minutes away) and Wendy decided it would be fun to go see the parade. She was right, except for the parts that required me to get out of bed, walk to San Blas, and stand for three hours watching a parade. The parade was super cool though! I'll put pictures of that up later.

So today I am still sore, though much much better than yesterday. And my burn has faded to a nice tan. So really, it's all ok. Except that I have to get up at 6:30am tomorrow to get to my final on time. Eww!


Pictures from Calpe are here.