last few days...

These last few days were just a complete blur! I had an absolutely ridiculous amount of homework/finals/studying to do and not enough time to simply enjoy being in Spain. But I made it through alive and now I am FINALLY home. So I guess I'm going to sum up those last few days as best as I can.

Let's see...on Monday I went to classes. I had to lead a debate in my Spanish Cultural Conversations class about the legal drinking age and differences between Spain and America. Spain is a lot more lax about drinking than America is, that's for sure. SO that was fun I guess, ha. After classes Amanda, Taylor, Caroline and I caught the bus over to the beach! We ate our bocadillos and then just hung out. Amanda left to go visit the Lladro museum, but Mridula met up with us and she and I hung out. We went swimming and then ran into some guy at the beach that she met at a bar earlier in the week, haha. That was a little awkward. But then we walked around and bought some things and the little tent shops along the beach street. I got some bracelets to give as gifts and some cool keychains. Mridula took a little while to figure out what she wanted to get, haha, but it was fun. After the beach, I started working on my paper for my Texts/Interpretations class and started studying for my written exam for Conversations class the next day. And I also had to study for a quiz for my Texts class. So much to do! So yeah, the rest of the night was spent studying. I'll spare you all the other gory details, but overall, I had two papers(one 3 page and one 4 page), two tests, and a quiz in three days. Talk about CRAZY! But now I am done, and it feels awesome.

Other random things I did those last few days as "study breaks", haha:

-Last lunch with the whole family on Tuesday :( I'm going to miss them a lot.
-Only had time for one siesta on Tuesday cuz we were utterly EXHAUSTED from Barcelona and all the homework
-went to a nearby dessert/drink place and tried mango juice! it was incredible!
-explored La Ciudad de las Artes y Ciencias - very cool, modern-looking building nearby


Oh and Wednesday was a complete blur...I had an oral test at 9:30 am, then had to write my final paper for Texts/Interpretations class. Finished that around 12:30, went to la Mercadona(the grocery store nearby) for the last time :( to buy snacks and then went to the beach. Went to the tent shops for the last time and swam, hung out at the beach til 3. Called a cab to take us to the closing dinner for the UVA Valencia Program session 2. It was a lot of fun, we had paella and sangria and our professors were all there too. After that ended around 5ish, Amanda and I bought flowers and chocolate for our family to thank them for everything, and we found a cool zapateria where we bought shoes on the way back to the apartment, haha. Then as soon as we got back to the apartment and sat down, I started feeling a cold coming on. It was not fun. Well, we went out anyways, even though I wasn't feeling well, cuz it was our last night in Valencia! Where did the time go? We met up with Gina at a little bar for a little while til about 1 am. Then Gina went back to her apartment to go to bed, she had an early flight back to Michigan on Thursday morning and still had packing to do. I'm gonna miss her. :( But after that, Amanda and I took a taxi to the beach where we went to some discoteca called Aqua. We hung out there with all of our UVA friends for awhile. It was a fun last night and I'm glad we went, but I felt awful. Definitely could feel a cold coming on. So we went back to the apartment around 3 am, last time we had to use our keys to get in :(

The next morning we woke up at 9, had breakfast, finished packing, and said our final goodbyes to MariCarmen and Gabriel. So sad. I'm going to miss my madre and padre in Spain. Gabriel told us some favorite refranes(sayings/proverbs) of his and I made sure to write them down. MariCarmen also gave us her recipe for gazpacho, our favorite cold tomato soup that she always makes for us. Leaving was sad, but we got our bags downstairs in the elevator and then ended up lugging them the 25-min walk to the where the bus was picking us up. We seriously should have just taken a taxi there, but we were stupid and decided to walk. Such a bad idea, especially considering both our suitcases were over 50 pounds and the wheels on mine weren't working well. Bleh. But we made it to the bus, and made it to the Valencia airport where we caught a flight to Madrid at 1:40. Our layover to the next flight wasn't bad at all and we left Madrid for JFK in New York at 5 pm. But that flight was pretty grueling. We finally landed in JFK at 7 pm local time, but it felt like 1 am Valencia time. I was already sooo tired. I dozed a little bit on that flight, but not much. So then going through JFK security was an absolute nightmare. My bag was 52 pounds, hence 2 pounds overweight, so they made me take a few things out and put them with my carry-on. Amanda's bag was 57 pounds, but they let her check it! haha, geeez, she got lucky. And then they called a bag check on my carry-on because I had some lotion and a bottle of face wash. They took at least 15 min to go through my bag. They went through it, pulled those things out and then put it back through the scanner to check again, ughhh. JFK security seriously hates me. All the flights to Norfolk were canceled last night, so I flew with Amanda to her house in Washington DC. We finally boarded around 10 pm (which felt like 4 am to me..ack!) and then landed in DC around 11:30 pm. I was such a mess, ha. Not even kidding. I called mom and talked to her for a few minutes while we were waiting to pick up our luggage. I was completely exhausted and just wanted to be home, but it just wasn't possible until today. So I spent the night with Amanda at her house and then Dad came and picked me up at around 11 am. I miss my roommate already! haha, we had a great time. So all in all...Valencia = one grand adventure! I can't wait to go back someday, but for now, I am glad to be home and glad to be able to eat as much peanut butter as I want. Did I mention that I found peanut butter at the grocery store in Valencia this week? Too bad I found out so late that it actually DOES exist in Spain.



El Fin!

Barcelona!

Woah, there is so much to write about and I haven't had ANY free time to do it. Ok, well here goes.

On Friday I was completely exhausted from the night before because Amanda, Kyle, and I went to L'umbracle, a discoteca, Thursday night. It was pretty fun, but we didn't get back til really late so I decided to sleep in. I only had to miss one class because we had 6 hours of class instead of 4 on Thursday, and we were allowed one skip, so I needless to say, I think it was a good decision. So Amanda got back from class and we headed to catch the bus to Barcelona!! The bus ride actually wasn't too long and we watched one movie on the way there, though apparently once we got to the province of Catalunya, the bus driver wasn't allowed to play any more movies because he didn't have a license for it. And I guess the police in the area are really strict...Catalunya seems to have a lot of really annoying laws. We were pretty shocked that they had such a ridiculous law about playing movies on a bus. Go figure. So I think we made it to Barcelona by around 6:30, where we stopped to visit La Sagrada Familia, which is a HUGE church that was started over 200 years ago by Gaudi and is still not finished. It was so beautiful! I took tons of pictures and they're predicting that it will be completed in 2040. But yeah, it was very cool.



After La Sagrada Familia, we checked into our hotel and hung out for awhile. I went with a few friends to a Chinese restaurant in town, haha. It was pretty good, and lucky for us, they had an English menu, ha. The bus took us to Las Ramblas, a section of town, around 11:30 and we went to a bar there for a little while. Everyone was just hanging out, dancing, getting some drinks. A little later we headed to a nearby club called The Boulevard, and hung out for awhile. It was fun, but most of us were pretty tired from the bus ride to Barcelona, so we left a little early, maybe around 1:30. It's funny how my definition of "early" has changed since I've been here. 2 am is not early, but in comparison to what it's been lately, it def is, ha.

Saturday was jam packed with stuff. We got up around 9, had breakfast in the hotel...muffins and orange juice and melon/watermelon! and then we had took a bus tour. We made one stop where we got to get out and take pictures. It had a beautiful view of the entire city. Barcelona is sooo HUGE. There are a minimum of 1.5 million people that live there. It was a gorgeous view and we got to check out some vendors that were selling recuerdos(souvenirs) nearby. After the tour, the bus dropped us off in the center of town and we found a place to get lunch. A few of us went into this really tiny little restaurant. Amanda and I got salmon on toast and a goat cheese salad and we shared both. It was pretty good. Then after lunch we walked around and tried to do some shopping, but the main road we were on had all of the big brand name stores, so most things were very expensive. The type of tourist/souvenir shopping that we were looking for was hard to find, so shopping overall was a little disappointing. We went back to the hotel via metro! haha, that was fun. My ticket didn't scan well when we had to go through the turn-stile so I ended up having to jump over it, ha. THAT was interesting. So at the hotel we took a mini nap and then went to dinner at some little Italian place nearby. Gina, Amanda, and I ate at one of the tables outside, but the waiter was really rude. We tried to talk in Spanish to him, but he kept mocking us and then charged us a lot of extra money simply because we were eating outside. Apparently that happens in most of the restaurants in Barcelona, which makes sense seeing as Barcelona is considered to be the most expensive city in Spain. Anyways, the waiter was not apologetic at all and we ended up talking to these two British ladies next to us because they were having similar problems with him. Oh well. Oh and another thing (Otra cosa) is that because Barcelona is such a big tourist location, most people there can speak English, so we didn't get to practice our spanish very much, which was a little disappointing. But yeah, most of the waiters and workers there spoke to us in English, so it was a little weird.

Later that night the bus dropped us off at the harbor/port area of the city and a big group of us hung out at various bars/dance clubs. We would dance/drink in one for awhile and then pop over in one next door. It was a blast! One of the first few bars we went into had a doctor/emergency room theme, ha, they were dressed up like nurses and had all sorts of props and hospital-related signs. It was pretty interesting. But yeah, hanging out there at the bars was a lot of fun, and then around 1 am we looked for our NC state friends from the program at the Casino across the street and ended up meeting up with them at a nearby discoteca called Catwalk. We found free tickets to get in, so that was awesome! Normally it costs anywhere between 10 and 20 euros to get into one of these clubs, so I'm glad we found passes. The atmosphere inside was actually really cool, but let's just say that there are a lot of creepers in Barcelona. I had fun dancing around with all of our friends, but around 3 am it just got really crowded and after dancing with a few random guys things just got weird and creepy so we bounced at around 3:30 with Graham, Mridula, and Amanda and caught a cab back to the hotel. I had a lot of fun though, except when I had to pay 6 euro for a bottle of water! That was RIDICULOUS! No wonder Barcelona is the most expensive city in Spain. Geeeez-oh-peak.

On Sunday morning, we packed all of our stuff, had breakfast, and then went on a 2.5 hour walking tour through the city. Unfortunately, it was very long and very boring. Not to mention most of us stayed out really late the night before and it was super hot outside, so that made the tour seem even more boring/annoying. Seeing some of the really old buildings and churches and architecture was cool, but 2.5 hours was WAY too long and it didn't give us enough time to do what we wanted to do.
The tour ended at 1ish at the Picasso Museum, which I really wanted to see, but we couldn't get in free until 3 pm, so we decided to do some shopping and come back. Luckily this time we managed to find some cool, fairly inexpensive shops so I bought some "Campeones del Mundo" t-shirts(we got the price down from 20 to 10 euro each, SCORE!) and a scarf and a few other cool things. When we got back to the Picasso museum, the line to get in was outrageous and we had to be back at the bus by 4 pm, so there was no time to see it. That was a bummer. And then as we were walking foreverrr to get to the bus, we passed all these other cool shops that we didn't even know existed. I wish they had told us more about where to go to find good tourist shops. I wanted to stop and buy a Spanish guitar cd from one of the musicians on the street but didn't have time. :( We got to the bus 5 min late and the chaperones were mad. Seriously? Geeez. And the bus ride back took over 6 hours instead of the predicted 4 hours due to an accident and traffic, bleh. It was not fun. We got back to our apartment in Valencia at around 10:30 and had dinner. MariCarmen was starting to wonder what had happened to us, ha. But then after dinner we had to do homework. Oh geez, the amount of homework we had to do was CRAZY, and we were already completely exhausted from the whole Barcelona excursion.

Anyways, overall, the Barcelona trip was not as much fun as the Granada one, but I am glad I got to see La Sagrada Familia and hang out with all the kids from the program more. I'm glad I got to see what I did of Barcelona.

tomate y pescado? Creo que no.

Let me just begin by saying that I only have one week left here...say what?! I don't even know how that happened. Time has just flown by!

Well on Monday I went to classes. It was a little rough getting up at 7:30 again considering we were still sleep deprived from the Granada trip, but it wasn't too bad. classes were ok, and afterwards we stayed at the center for a little while to get some work done. Amanda and I had a paper due Monday night by midnight. Just lovely. So we came back for la comida and after that, headed over to the Cortes Ingles, which is like a huge combined Target/Macys type of store. It was a good 25 min walk or so over there. We meet up with our friend, Kyle, and shopped a little bit. Then headed across the street to the nearby mall called Aqua. I love this store there called Zara, and apparently there are over 300 of them in Spain, ha. But anyways, I bought a dress there that I really liked and then we walked around looking in other stores. Amanda sadly lost her bag in the mall and we looked for it for awhile, but she couldn't find it, so she had to buy another battery for her camera before coming back to the apartment. We came back, finished up our papers and then had dinner with the family. After dinner we went back to the movie theater at the mall with Gina and Kyle and saw "Noche y Dia", the movie with Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise. It was really good. I was amazed at how much I understood just from the facial expressions and gestures. I understood a lot of the Spanish too I think. It was a pretty ridiculous movie, but it was a fun experience. Oh and apparently the popcorn there is multicolored?! Crazy! I had to get a pic with it. I think I'm going to tell my managers at Regal that they should give multi-colored popcorn a go...Spain knows whats up, haha.

On the way back to our apartment, Gina, Amanda and I stopped at la Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias - it's a huge museum type place with a lot of little fountains and things. And I guess there is a dinosaur exhibit thing going on, so we took some pics with the dinosaur, ha. Oh what we do in Valencia for fun.

On Tuesday after classes I went to the beach with Amanda and two other girls from our class, Taylor and Caroline. It was super hot, but we put our towels right on the beach next to the water so it wasn't so bad. Man, I love the beach. We brought our bocadillos with us; however, they were SO AWFUL. Like seriously, I wish I had taken a picture of them. I told know why MariCarmen would think it was a good idea to combine bread, tomato, and very fishy fish, in a sandwich that would be eaten on the beach when it's really hot outside. NOT a good combo, ha. I feel like we're all elementary school kids or something too, we all bring our bocadillos to classes and compare them, "how's yours today? oh man, mine's gross...i want yours!" haha

After the beach we walked around the little shops along the boardwalk area. We bought more abanicos - Spanish fans and I got some new sunglasses for 3 euro since I lost my other ones. Then we took the bus to La Casa de America's Cup, which apparently is all about sailing and Spain winning a sailing competition. It was an interesting building, ha. I don't even know, it was Amanda's idea.
So then we took the bus home. Then Amanda left soon after that to go see Grease the musical in Spanish. I opted not to pay 30 euros to see it and just hung out and did some homework. We have SOOO much work this week, it's not even funny, bleh. So I had dinner with Gabriel and MariCarmen, just the three of us. Haha, it was interesting. I got to talk a little more since it was just me and them, but things are still a little awkward, I don't know. I like them both a lot though. It was sad that all of the food was fried, as usual. Seriously, fried burger, french fries, onion rings, and a fried shrimp type thing, oh and melon. Another interesting combination.

Ok so today I had classes again, ugh, as usual. We've started doing debates in my conversations class. Yesterday we talked about the environment and today we talked about weapons and the right to bear arms, that sort of thing. It's a very intimidating atmosphere though, she wants us to use our debating terminology and say things like "dejame hablar!" which means - leave me to talk!" haha, the direct translation doesn't capture it's meaning very well. But I don't know, I don't like participating in debates. Oh well. During the 5 min break in the middle of my second class Amanda and I headed to la Mercadona next door and bought peaches for like .4 euro, haha. We ate them in the middle of class and when class ended at 12:35 we went back for more snacks because we didn't have any to bring with us today. Sad.

Tomorrow I have my presentation on the royal family of Spain so I've been working on that a lot tonight. But earlier today was fun. We came back for lunch in the apartment with the family. We took some pics of us with MariCarmen and Gabriel and their daughter and son-in-law, Pepe. And then we headed over to el Oceanografico, which is like the Marine Science Museum, only WAY cooler. We saw a dolphin show and went around looking at all the different exhibits. I was super excited about seeing the penguins, but it was a definite letdown because the glass of that exhibit was really dirty and they were all sleeping, and I didn't get a picture with them. But it was really fun! Most of it was outside, like the dolphin show, and walking from building to building to see the different exhibits, so it was really really hot.
Then we walked back around 6:30 and have been doing homework ever since. I have my presentation tomorrow, two longgg stories to read, and a 4 page paper due tomorrow night at midnight...AND we have 6 hours of class tomorrow instead of 4. Geeeeez-oh-peak. I'm soooo excited and ready for the weekend to get here so I can stop doing homework and experience life in BARCELONA!!!

¡Viaje a Granada!

Granada this weekend was FANTASTICO! I had a blast...so let me elaborate on what went down.

Friday morning, Amanda and I got up at 7:30 (which makes for about 4 or so hours of sleep, ackkkk!) and showered,ate breakfast, and got all of our bags ready to go by 8:10. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself. We wished MariCarmen a happy Dia del Santo because it was her saint's day, so it's kind of like her birthday in a sense. I don't really understand how that works, but we wished her a great day! Then we walked the 25 min to class and after classes ended at 12:35, we walked over to the stadium with our stuff and got on the bus to Granada! We ate our lunch that MariCarmen had packed on the way to the stadium because the bus driver wouldn't let us eat on the bus, afshhhhhh. Most of us tried to eat sneakily anyways. We had a pretty big group, about 50 kids, half from NC state and half from UVA and a few from Michigan State and Princeton, etc. So the bus left at 1:30 pm and we made it to Granada by about 8 pm. The trip actually wasn't that bad considering we watched Harry Potter 3 and 4 the whole way and made a few pit stops. I bought some gummy bears so I was a happy camper, ha. We checked into the hotel and then a bunch of us headed over to the huge Cortes Ingles across the street...it's like a Target type of store that is located within a mall. The home section of the Cortes Ingles was actually located on the first floor of our hotel. So we hung out there for awhile looking at clothes and different things. They had a lot of neat stuff, but I didn't buy anything.

Then we met up again with everyone at 10 pm to explore the city and get tapas for dinner. We found a place around 10:45ish and tried all sorts of food. I tried some vino tinto, which is wine mixed with soda, kinda like sprite I think, and then we ordered some tortillitas con macarrones, which are shrimp tortillas, and also some chicken nuggets. And all of the tapas came with fries or potatoes. Everything was really good, but also very fried, ha. When people say that everyone in Spain eats healthy, I don't know what they're talking about, because the Spaniards sure love fried food. Shockingly, everything was so cheap at this place though and I only ended up paying about 2 euro for dinner. After dinner we walked around for awhile, ended up at a bar, but it wasn't really exciting. A few of us weren't that interested in taking shots so we headed back to the hotel around 1...party in the hotel! haha. Gina, Amanda, and I stayed in the same room, and the hotel was sooo nice(3 estrellas)! I got to sleep in a comfy bed without springs and we actually had room to stretch out and move. And our room had at least 7 different mirrors, ha, and a little balcony. So cool. The next morning, Saturday, when we got up at 9, we made it down to breakfast and they had all sorts of good stuff: tons of fruit, toast, pastries, churros, zumo de naranja, etc. I was impressed and managed to sneak an orange out with me even though we weren't supposed to, haha.

We hopped back on the bus around 10:20 and headed to La Alhambra, which is a palace city. It's name comes from the colour of its walls(al-Hamra in Arabic), which were made from local reddish clay. It was so beautiful. We also went to el Generalife, which is the summer palace with amazing gardens. Unfortunately my camera ran out of battery so I didn't get to take any pics, but I'm going to steal some from friends because they got some great pictures. It was such a neat experience, though it was a long tour and very hot. The gardens were surprisingly cool though. The way the wall bushes were shaped and the many fountains made it very cool and relaxing there. After the tour the bus dropped some of us off at the city center and a bunch of us found a restaurant and had lunch. This was about 2:30ish so we were starving! ha. I got a chicken, pineapple, lettuce sandwich and we all got water and tried to rehydrate after all of that walking in the heat on the tour. In Spain they don't bring you glasses of water, they bring you a jug of water (that you have to buy) and then you pour your own water. We take water for granted so much in the US because here there are no water fountains for you to refill water bottles or anything. You always have to buy water, and it isn't cheap.

After lunch, Gina, Mridula, Alison, Amanda, and I walked around various shops. We got some gelato/sorbet, I tried the mango flavor, which was awesome. And we bought a few things. Mridula and I actually bought the same dress, haha, deciding that we weren't going to wear it at the same time. And I bought a skirt at another shop. It was a very fun, successful day. After asking the locals for directions a few times, we finally made it back to the hotel around 5. We were pretty tired, but Gina and I went for a quick swim in the outdoor hotel pool. We ran into Josh, Dominic, and Carter from our UVA group and tried some of their sangria by the pool, ha. It was actually pretty good. Oh and while we were at the pool we also got to see a middle-aged black man who decided it was a good idea to wear a speedo the same color as his skin. hahahhh, we almost died laughing. I seriously though he was naked at first glance. Not that cute, ha.

So after swimming we had about two hours to relax, shower and get ready to see a Flamenco show in a cave! It was sooo incredible! It was a very narrow long cave and they set up chairs all along the sides and a long dance floor where the dancers would dance up and down the middle. They also grabbed people from the sides to dance with them from time to time. They are so strong and forceful with the way the dance, which I think really reflects the personality of most Spanish people here. It was a very cool experience. After Flamenco the bus dropped us off in the center and we found a pretty nice restaurant where we had dinner. We didn't get our food til probably 11 or 11:30 and I think left around 12. I actually tried pato, which is duck, and it came with a fancy looking fruit concoction. We also got bread with the meal, and Amanda and I split some gazpacho, which is a cold, tomato soup with onions and celery. SO GOOD. Our whole group consisted of about three tables and the waiter put us all on the same bill, so sorting out all of the money was VERY interesting. Apparently we got charged 18 euro for all of the bread baskets that they didn't even ask us if we wanted. That's a lot for bread! And we had to pay for the water too, of course. Because our bill was so high, we got free shots. I took a sip and it was sooo gross, ha. I was not a fan.

After dinner we walked with our UVa group down the streets, but when we passed the Burger King we ran into a bunch of the NC state kids. These kids are crazy and a ton of fun, so a few of us hung back from the UVa group and hung out with them. Some of them headed to a hookah bar, but the rest of us went ahead and went into Granada Diez, a discoteca that we managed to get free entry tickets for from a guy outside of Burger King, ha. This discoteca was SOOOO much fun. I had a blast. Things didn't get too lively til about 2 or 2:30ish, but it was great dancing around with everyone. When Party in the USA came on, we went crazy! All the Spanish guys def thought we were crazy too. They played a lot of Spanish and also American music, so that made it fun. The rest of our original UVA group made it there too so it was fun having everyone there, though it's sad how segregated the two groups ended up being throughout the trip. Sometimes I like hanging out with the NC state kids more, they're all so friendly and welcoming. The UVA kids are nice too, but a little cliquish. I don't really know. But at the club I ended up dancing with this guy named Alberto for awhile and then a guy from Germany, ha. Both of them spoke to me in English, ha, so I don't really know how much Spanish speaking practice I got this weekend. Oh well. It was a blast. We left around 3:30ish because we knew we would have to get up earlyish on Sunday. So we took a cab back and then went to bed. Man, what an awesome day.

On Sunday, we woke up at 9, so we still got 5 hours of sleep. It could have been worse. We went to breakfast, then packed our things and got on the bus for another tour of Granada. This one was of the Albacin, which is the part of Granada that best reflects the city's Moorish cultural heritage. The streets were very narrow and we did a lot of walking but we got to go to a lot of cool shops too. After the tour we had some time to do some shopping and then got some ice cream and got on the bus, ready-to-go at 2:30. The bus ride back was long too, but most of us slept at least half the time so it wasn't so bad. We made it back and MariCarmen had dinner for us :). I was so hungry. And now I have a paper due tomorrow night, ha. Well once I steal some pics from friends, I'll post them on here. But all in all, Granada = ONE CRAZY AWESOME WEEKEND.

echo de menos la mantequilla de cacahuete

So first I have to finish updating last week, before I talk about Granada this past weekend. So last week I went to the beach on Wednesday I think with Amanda after classes. It was really hot, so we didn't stay long, but I almost bumped into these two guys in the ocean and they started talking to me. Except I didn't know what they said...so I told them in Spanish that I didn't speak a lot of spanish and so they asked where I was from and when I said "Los Estados Unidos" they were like "America!" and then they left saying "Adios, guapa!" haha, I thought it was funny. A lot of guys throw that term around a lot here..."hola guapa o adios guapa!" On Wednesday night we went to "la feria" in the nearby park and rode the ferris wheel and another ride similar to the battering ram at Busch Gardens. It had a cage on either end of the "Vikinga" boat and you could stand in the cage and ride it, I didn't stand in there, but it was insane! haha..all of the rides were expensive though, it cost 2-4 euros to ride each ride. The event was so cool though, they had all sorts of food stands and games and rides. It was a lot of fun. Afterwards, our whole group headed over to a bar and hung out for awhile. *Side note* I discovered that apparently you can buy panties "one size fits all" in the girls bathroom at the bar, haha. I don't know if you really wanted to know that, but we all thought it was funny and pretty strange.*End side note* We were supposed to get tapas for dinner earlier, but I didn't end up getting anything to eat til about midnight, so that was a little unfortunate, but we did get to talk to the bartender of the restaurant where we bought food. He was telling us what things we need to do in Valencia while we're here and asking us where we're from, etc. It was fun..I really like talking to the locals. They're usually pretty friendly. So all in all, a good night.






Oh and one thing that is totally off-topic but rather crucial is that I miss peanut butter. SO MUCH. We talked to MariCarmen and she said that she's never even tried it before in her whole life and that they don't sell it here, though I'm pretty sure that the mercadonas do sell it. So I am seriously going through PB withdrawal, and will be consuming tons of it when I get home, ha.

So Thursday was pretty chill, we went to class and then came back and hung out all afternoon. Then Thursday night we met up with a bunch of friends and headed to a club to see Flamenco dancing around 11:30. It was pretty cool, and I got a free Agua de Valencia drink included with the price to get in! They kept encouraging audience participation too by grabbing you and making you dance with them, ha, which was pretty entertaining, though thankfully I wasn't sitting close enough for them to grab me.



Thursday night after the Flamenco dancing, I walked around with the group for probably an hour and a half as we walked back toward our apartments trying to decide if we wanted to go to another bar or a discoteca, but it was so late and I had an 8:40 class the next morning, so Amanda and I headed back around 2:30 am, Thankfully I had already packed because la próxima parada...Granada!!!

campeones del mundo!

¡Espana ganó la copa mundial! I still am in shock (Me quede helada) that I was actually here when they won. The game started here around 8:30 Sunday so we told MariCarmen that we weren't going to be eating at home because we wanted to watch the game with our friends out at bars and the like. We ended up stopping at a Burger King, haha, on the way and got some sandwiches, then we headed over to the bar behind the soccer stadium. I bought una vuvuzela, which is one of those noisemakers that you can see me using in my current profile pic on caralibro(my new spanish term for facebook). There were a ton of people there and we found Michael, from our texts/interpretations class, and headed over to another bar closer to our school center. We hung out there for awhile and could actually see the game. Then around half time we headed back to the original site where the crowd had multiplied since, haha. It was insane! Beer, food, trash EVERYWHERE and people shouting all the time. I was standing on a platform in a mob of people so I couldn't see what was going on. Whenever everyone cheered we were always asking around, what's going on?! haha...and this one Spanish guy behind us was in his own little world yelling cuss words like crazy at the tv...he had no clue that everyone around him was watching him asking "dude, what's up with this guy?!" haha, it was hysterical. When Spain scored a goal, the crowd went wild with people throwing beer everywhere jumping up and down, man it was crazy! So the rest of the night was spent wandering around the city observing all of the crazy antics...La Plaza Central and many of the other main plazas were packed with people shouting, waving flags, climbing street light poles, the works. Haha, it was so entertaining. I ran into some random spanish guys on the streets and we took a bunch of pics with them, ha, it was ridiculous. I think I went to bed around 2, would've stayed up later but had class at 8:40 am, bleh. But yeah, Spain winning the world cup: talk about AWESOME.

Oh, I forgot to mention, on Sunday at noon I went to a Catholic mass with Amanda and MariCarmen. The church building was AMAZING. It was very old and everything was very traditional, but the chapel was gorgeous. I didn't have my camera with me, so I need to go back and take a picture for sure. The service was hard to pay attention to: one, because I'm not Catholic and I didn't really know what was going on, and two, because it was all in Spanish, ha. It was pretty cool though. I liked it.

Ok so on Monday, nothing too exciting happened. Everyone was still super amped on the winning of the world cup (duh) and I managed to grab a newspaper that day with the huge front page cover about it. Totally saving that. Class was long, and then we headed back to the house for lunch at 2:30. I'm pretty sure I spent the whole afternoon just hanging out at the house, doing homework and the like. I had to start studying for a test that I had today and write a paper that was also due today, bleh.

Let's see...on Tuesday I had class in the morning again, and afterwards Amanda and I caught the bus to the beach for an hour or so until the movie hour at the school center at 3 pm. It was a Spanish comedy, and it was sooo ridiculous. It was about this one guy who was a famous soccer player and he falls in love with another guy, but there's a girl that likes him too, and I don't even know. So essentially, we watched a Spanish gay comedy and learned a ton of new cuss words, haha...oh geez.

After class, the beach, and the movie, I was exhausted, but headed back anyways to study for the exam and finish up that paper. I'm still not completely done with it. I studied a lot and eventually went to bed around 1ish I think?

Today was the last day of Las Corridas de los toros de la fiesta de las Fallas. We watched the running of the bulls on tv this morning, it happens every morning at 8 as we're finishing up breakfast. MariCarmen always watches it with us and shouts "Ay! Ay!" when people get hurt. It's such a crazy, dangerous tradition, but fun to watch. Once we got to school, I had the exam in the first class, which wasn't that bad at all, and then we had a guest speaker in my texts/interpretations class. She talked about El ángel del hogar and the like and then we analyzed a short story. Que bueno!

Let's see...other random things I've noticed here. I don't remember if I've mentioned this before, but everyone talks so loudly here all the time. Amanda and I can sit in our room and hear every word of every other conversation that's going on in the apartment, no matter where they are. Not that we understand every word, ha, but yeah, it's entertaining. Except at 8 or so in the morning, ha. Oh and mi bolsa, my school bag, broke so I had to ask MariCarmen for a needle and some thread. Thankfully she had some and I fixed it! haha. Though seriously, sometimes I ask her questions and try to talk to her and she just looks at me with a blank face, haha. She is very nice but sometimes I get very annoyed that she doesn't even try to understand what I'm trying to say. My spanish isn't that bad, haha...geez-oh-peak. Y creo que eso es todo. ¡Hasta la próxima!

and all that jazz!

So I'm a little behind, but that's just because things have been so busy lately! So starting with Thursday night, I went over to the nearby park (which is huge) where they were having a huge Jazz event. There was a singer on stage singing jazz music and a bunch of people just hanging around, dancing, drinking, etc. It was a really fun atmosphere. Our friend Kyle met up with us there for a little while and then when it ended around 10:30 we walked a little ways and ended up at a night jazz club called Black Note. The bartender lady tried to kick me and Amanda out because we didn't buy anything, but we stuck around for a few more minutes to hear the band when they started playing around midnight. The band was pretty sweet, and the drummer was absolutely incredible. We didn't stay too long though because so many people were smoking and the smoke was giving us headaches, bleh. It was really cool though. Then we walked across the street to a discoteca that Kyle said he went to his second night here. Apparently it doesn't get lively til about 3 am, ha. We didn't stick around that long cuz we had class in the morning on Friday. Having morning classes is definitely not ideal for livin' up the Valencia night life. But what are ya gonna do?

So then on Friday, we had churros for breakfast (awesome!) and then went to classes in the morning. Our conversations class was actually pretty interesting. We talked about Las Corridas de los toros, or "the running of the bulls." A bunch of our classmates headed out yesterday to Pamplona on a charter bus to go witness the running of the bulls, but Amanda and I opted to stay here. So yesterday after classes we walked around to the Plaza de la Virgen and that area and went in some shops. I bought some earrings at one tienda, and we made friends with the guy who owned it, ha. I also bought an awesome looking pouch to keep money and my camera in, and then bought an Espana jersey from another store. I'm stoked to wear it tomorrow night to the futbol game.

I took a little siesta Friday afternoon and then after dinner, Amanda and I headed out to see if we could find some mercados (markets) that were supposed to be open that night, which is usually weird for a market because they're usually only open in the mornings. Well, needless to say, that turned out to be un fracaso de proporciones epicas (failure of epic proportions, haha) so then we walked to the Plaza, got some gelato/granizado, and headed to the discoteca, La Bolseria. It was just the two of us, since most everyone else was already off to Pamplona. Ok, so we went to La Bolseria for about five minutes around 1:15 am, and it wasn't that exciting. Like I said, things don't really get going until about 2 or 3 am, so we decided to just sit in the plaza for awhile amongst all the other people out there. Shortly after we sat down, there was a relatively older man sitting near us and he asked us if we wanted a beer and kept offering us one, even though we kept saying no. Then he proceeded to tell us his whole life story, ha. His name was Yuri and he was Russian. He seemed surprised at how much spanish we understood after we told him we were from the states. Then, one of the guys selling beer that was patrolling the plaza (there were a ton of them) sat down next to us and started being a creeper, asking us how old we were and all sorts of stuff. So after awhile, we were like, "vamos a salir" aka "we're going to leave" and then dashed off to find a taxi. And THEN, Vicente, the guy who we met last weekend and has been stalking me on facebook, appeared out of nowhere and looked really angry when we got in a taxi before he got a chance to say hi or something, ha. I don't know, but I'm pretty sure he's a creeper too. So we got back around 2ish, watched the Swan Princess on a laptop (hahah, we just really wanted to watch it) and then went to bed.



This morning at about 8:30 I heard all sorts of chaos. The whole family was up and at it, ha. It's so ridiculous how loud they are so early in the morning. I think I heard someone say "shhhh!" but it didn't make much of a difference, ha. We got up around 10, ate breakfast, and headed over to the stadium to catch the charter bus to Peniscola! Oh my goodness, I'm pretty sure that Peniscola is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my entire life. I took so many pictures. The water at the beach was so blue and we got to tour the Castillo de la Peniscola, which is a huge castle/walled-in city that juts out into the ocean. God has certainly created some breathtaking places, and this is definitely one of them.

We hung out at the beach for a few hours before touring the castle, and then got to check out all of the nearby shops. I bought two bracelets for 5 euro, and then ended up buying a very cool looking Spanish bowl for about 2 euro. Not half bad. We caught the bus at 6 and made it back to the house around 8, just in time to shower and have dinner. Dinner was pretty awesome tonight. We had gazpacho, bread, a rice concoction, salmon, and honeydew and pineapple. ÑAM ÑAM. Gabriel didn't eat with us, and he usually doesn't, though I'm not sure why. He was chilling in the living room where we were eating though in his bathing suit and pj shirt, haha. He always lounges around the house in his bathing suit. He says it's comfortable, haha. I mean, cool. And then he loves to sing so he's always singing Spanish songs and national songs, some of which most of what he says is "viva, espana!" haha. I love living here. It's always so entertaining.

After dinner tonight, we took a taxi towards the beach and went to a dance exposition of Bailes: Ritmos del mundo at ll pm. It was sooo cool! I thought it was awesome. It was like a dance recital with kids, adults, teens, people of all ages in it, and they did dances to all sorts of different kinds of music, from Mary Poppins to salsa, to flamenco, and tango. They tried to capture different dances from around the world, and even did a number that looked similar to a Michael Jackson style, ha, but not quite. I took a few videos of the dancing. And at midnight there was an intermission to see the nearby fireworks. So cool. And tomorrow is the big World Cup Soccer final! It will be a very sad night in Valencia if Spain does not win tomorrow. Cross your fingers that they do!

Hasta pronto!

no soy español español español

Ok, lots to catch up on. Let's see...yesterday I went to classes in the morning and after class we came back to get to work on our essays. I managed to write most of mine yesterday, all four pages. So that took up most of the afternoon. Amanda and I took a break around 5 pm to walk around and stretch. We walked over to la Ciudad de las Artes y Ciencias which is a really amazing looking museum. The architecture is very modern and it doesn't really fit with the rest of the city, but it's very pretty. I'll definitely be putting pictures up, either on here or definitely on facebook.

Then last night was the Spain/Germany World cup semi-final game. So we had tapas at around 8:30ish in the apartment, and let me just say that I tried some really weird foods. First of all, I ate octopus, without even knowing it was octopus. I think if I had known what it was, I probably would not have tried it, ha, but it was actually not that bad. We also had crackers with salmon, chips, cheese, and dates wrapped in bacon? I don't even know, ha. But we left the apartment around 9 pm, even though the game started at 8:30, and we headed to the bar/restaurant behind the stadium where we went to watch the last game. Again, there were a TON of people there and when Spain scored a goal, the crowd went LOCO. They were flinging beer all over everyone and using noisemakers and jumping all over the place with the flags. I took a couple of videos, but I don't think anything can capture the essence of that experience, ha. The police were everywhere and the end of the game was just as crazy. We hung around with the rest of our uva/valencia program group, but they were all super drunk, so we hung out for a little while and then headed back. Walking the streets was so much fun, what with all of the honking and shouting. One of the chants that they all do is "yo soy español, español, español" which means that "i'm spanish", i guess. But all of us usually say no instead of yo, because we're not spanish, haha. Yeah, we're creative.

And today, I went to classes again. Pretty boring, just long and blah. During a break, I walked with some friends over to una zapateria, a shoe store, to look around. I think I'm definitely gonna buy some shoes here, ha. That store had some pretty cool ones. And I need a new bag because mine that I'm using for school books is almost broken, ha. But after classes Amanda and I had lunch in the apartment and then headed off to the beach with Kyle. This time we walked around the beach street and looked in all of the little shops there. They have a ton of cool stuff like Spanish abanicos(fans), jewelry, dresses/shirts, flags, purses, the works. We both bought some fans. We also found some horchata, which is a spanish fruity drink that is very popular here. I think it's made of water, sugar, and chufas, which are tiger nuts. It cost me 3.5 euro for one cup of it...so expensive! Everything is so expensive here. It's crazy. But it was really good, I definitely liked it. And tonight I think I'm going to some sort of jazz concert in the nearby park...es gratis! So we're going to check that out, and then maybe head out to a discoteca? Not really sure. I don't really like going out when I have class in the morning because it is so difficult to get up, but ya veremos (we shall see)...

ahhh valencia

Pues, hoy es el martes. That means that today is Tuesday. I definitely started writing this in Spanish before I realized that no one would understand me and I needed to write in English, ha. I guess it's a good thing that I'm thinking in Spanish all the time. So classes today were long and pretty insignificant. I learned how to say "que rabia!" when I'm angry about something and I also learned how to say "that's the last straw. I'm not putting up with this anymore!" haha. Ya never know when you'll need phrases like that I guess.

Well, after classes I paid for the upcoming weekend trips to Barcelona and Grenada. Those are coming up in a few weeks and we had to pay for them in advance. I'm so excited to see other cities in Spain, though this one is big enough as it is. Then Amanda and I walked to la Plaza Rotunda and looked through some shops as most of them were closing. Almost everything closes at 2, but we found one shop that we definitely want to go back to. The guy selling stuff knew a little English but he was showing us his scarves and necklaces and was really friendly. He was like "te gusta mi tienda, si?" which means, you like my shop, right?! And of course we answered yes, ha. I like conversing with the locals. It was so hot today too so we went back to the school around 3 to watch Pan's Labyrinth. The school center plays movies on Tuesdays so it was cool watching it with other students. It's such a weird movie though. Thankfully it was in Spanish but had English subtitles.

Then we hung out at the house, trying to do homework. We have our first paper due Thursday and it has to be 4 pages long. in Spanish. Talk about gross. So I started that today. It was finally time for dinner at 9:30ish. We had fried fish and an egg/potato concoction and tomatoes. Of course we took pics of the food, and I need to post them on here. Gabriel and MariCarmen started arguing at dinner about vegetables and plants because Gabriel says that he doesn't like eating meat because he doesn't like violence or killing and eating animals. But MariCarmen kept saying that plants are alive too, they grow and prosper, so why is it ok to eat them. haha, it was a hysterical argument to witness. They talk so loud all the time. It's so funny. And then when I logged back on to my computer to do more homework (ha, yeah right) I found that Vicente, one guy I met Saturday night at the bar, Corona, had facebook friend requested me. hahah, all I want to know is how he found me. ¡Que ridiculo! Well, that's all for now. ¡Buenas noches!

la tarea...¿qué es esto?!

Pues, thankfully yesterday and today have been much more relaxing than my Saturday excursions. I slept in until almost 11 on Sunday and then got up and had breakfast. Then Amanda and I headed to el mercadillo, where there are a bunch of little shops; however, we found out that it is closed on Sundays. Most stores apparently are closed on Sundays and the city was very calm. So we walked back cutting through the park in the rain, ha. The rest of the day we just did homework and uploaded and edited pictures. I'd say it was a successful day!

So today, Monday, we went to classes. And my first class today was actually pretty stressful, bleh. We were doing an exercise with our maps of Valencia; however, I just happened to forget mine today and so did everyone else in my group, so we had to get maps there at the center and they were sooo confusing. I was so confused and lost trying to say directions to different landmarks in Valencia using that map. Oyyy vey. But we survived and let's just say I won't be forgetting my map anymore. And the other text interpretation class was much better because the night before, Amanda and I read the story together, taking turns reading sections out loud, and then talking about what was happening. It helped a lot. So classes are good. :)

After classes we went to la Mercadona and we bought snacks because we're not really allowed in the kitchen much in the apartment and we get hungry waiting around for lunch until 2:30 and dinner around 9:30 every day. So, we bought some Spanish cookies to try and I found Golden Grahams! haha, I love cereal. Then, after coming back for lunch, we took the bus to the beach! I still can't get over how many topless women there are everywhere. It's so weird. Pilar, our professor, was talking today about how the way los valencianos view the human body is very different from how we see it, which is definitely true according to how they dress. It's ok to walk around a beach topless, but it's frowned upon when women here wear shorts? Geeez, no comprendo. So Amanda and I actually got some reading for class done on the beach, which was awesome. Also, there were a couple of guys sitting nearby us on the beach and they were obviously Spanish, but I guess they heard us speaking in English so they asked us in English to watch their stuff while they went swimming. And then when we wanted to go swimming, we asked them in Spanish to watch our stuff, haha. So we were both trying to accommodate the language of the other. ¡Qué interesante!

One other thing that Amanda and I were talking about today is that all the people here say "vale" o "vale vale" ALL THE TIME. It's kinda the same thing as saying "está bien" or saying "everything is ok, it's fine, don't worry about it." It's one of those phrases that works in any situation. Apparently, if you don't know what to say, just say "vale." It made me wonder what los valencianos would think of Americans and how we talk. What would they think was funny about us? Maybe when we say the word "like" between every other word? haha, who knows?

Oh and the title of this entry definitely applies because we have so much homework! Lots of stories to read in Spanish and analyze and vocab to learn and papers to write. ¡Estoy en España! No quiero hacer la tarea, ja. Ohhh well. Tomorrow I think I'm going to try to see if el mercadillo is open after classes and then a bunch of us are going to watch a Spanish movie at the center in the afternoon. Well, until next time...¡Hasta luego!

chicos chicos chicos

Oh my goodness. Can I just say that yesterday, Saturday, was probably the longest and craziest day of my entire life. It was insanity! So here goes my play by play of what went down in this awesome country.

Ok, so Amanda and I had breakfast around 9ish, and then started walking towards the soccer stadium to catch the bus with our friends from the program to the beach! The bus ride was about an hour long, and our first stop was at el Real Monasterio de Santa Maria de la Valldigna. We took a tour of the monastery and learned a little bit about its history. The inside was breath-taking and we all got some awesome photos. After the tour, we got back on the bus and arrived at la Gandia, which is another huge beach in Spain. It ended up being a gorgeous day to go the beach and we had a blast. I took a picture with Gina in one of the pedal boats that they had for people to rent. And while me and three other girls were out swimming, we said hola to some guys on a pedal boat nearby, and they took off in our direction! Haha, it was crazy. They were from Spain and they introduced themselves to us, then one of them, named Musta (I think?) proceeded to pick me up in the water and carry me to their boat! So we all ended up sitting on their boat and trying to communicate for a little while. There were four girls and 5 or 6 guys, so it was definitely cramped. It was so crazy. There names were Miguel, Andres, Jonathan, Musta, and I can't remember the others, but Andres kept splashing us and telling us to hang out with them later. We told him (in spanish, por supuesto) that we had to catch a bus back to valencia and he was like, I have a car, I can drive you! hahah, ohhh experiencias en las playas de Espana.

We left the beach around 5 and finally made it back to our apartment around 6. I was already pretty tired, because the sun at the beach can wear you out, but we showered, asked Mari Carmen if we could have la cena early, and then headed out to watch the soccer game of Spain vs. Paraguay in the streets! It was complete and utter insanity! We found one restaurant that had a fairly large TV set up outside outside. There were a ton of people just standing in the street wearing Espana shirts and waving flags and banderas grandes y pequenas and food and beer in everyone's hands or at their feet. They had these really loud noisemakers that almost never stopped. And when Spain got a goal, it was just crazy and awesome to watch. During half time Amanda and I headed over to the grocery store nearby (along with half of the other people watching the game where we were) and we talked with some random Spanish guys there. I think one of them was named Pablo, ha. And then we finished watching the game, with la policia circling everyone and making sure nothing got too out of hand. Psshhh, yeah right. It ended around 10:20ish and after that we started walking towards La Corona, un club, en El Carrer de Corona (a street name) because the Valencia Program invited us there at 11 for drinks and hanging out. We got so lost on the way there, I'm pretty sure we had been walking for at least an hour before we found it, but it was actually really fun! I tried Agua de Valencia, which apparently had slightly more alcohol in it than we all anticipated, but it was really good. That was my only drink for the night, but I think everyone else went crazy. They were playing a lot of American songs at this bar, like Lady Gaga and Rihanna, but I had a blast. There was a lot of dancing and I met some other random spanish guys there and let me tell you...it is very interesting and difficult trying to communicate in spanish when there is very loud music playing and people everywhere, ha. But we did manage to get some pictures with some of those guys. I'll definitely have to put them on here, I think one of them was named Vicente. I still haven't met an Alejandro, ha. Darn.

So again, the real night life doesn't begin until about 2ish, so around 1:45 or so a huge group of us headed out to look for una discoteca. There was one called Umbracle that we wanted to go to, but we got very lost (as usual) and ended up at Las Animas, after taking a taxi there. We had to pay about 15 euro just to get in, but it was so worth it. I don't think we left until about 4:30ish. I have NEVER stayed out that late partying in my life. And I do not think I'm going to make a habit of it. La discoteca was huge and packed with people. Seriously, there were sooo many people! It was partly indoor and partly outdoor, everything looked really cool, though I didn't get to take any pictures. I danced with a few guys from the program, and didn't get to talk to many natives there, but it was cool just looking around and seeing again what the night life is like here. Woahh, so at 4:30 I walked outside with Amanda and we were looking for a taxi, but most of them were full, so we had to walk a little ways before we could flag one down. We shared one with a friend, and then crashed. Luckily we got to sleep in some, but yeah. Crazy long day. I don't know how los valencianos do this almost every night. It's just crazy.

Oh and yeah, I'm starting a list of all the cool Spanish names of the guys we talk to, ha. There were a lot in this entry, but we'll see how many more interesting ones I can learn in the next few weeks.

no hay tiempo para dormir?! Ay Dios mio!

So I am running on the 4 hours of sleep that I got last night, but las discotecas and the night life in Valencia is crazy and so much fun! It was definitely worth being tired today. Last night, I went with Amanda to meet a friend en la Plaza de Reina, and we ended up running into a bunch of other amigos in our Valencia Program. We hung out at some tables outside of a bar named Finnagins (where we could order drinks in English, hahah) from about 11 pm until 1:30 am. The night life here in Valencia doesn't really get going until at least 2 am. I was having a hard time staying awake, but it was really fun getting to know other students in the program and hanging out in the streets anticipating the craziness of las discotecas. We all walked to one discoteca that was called La Bolseria, but everyone needed IDs to get in and some of the girls forgot to bring theirs, so Amanda and I and some other girls and a couple of guys wandered towards another one called Radio City because we didn't want to leave anyone out. We went in and there were a ton of people dancing and getting drinks and the music was very techno and upbeat. We danced and ambled around in there for awhile and caught a taxi back. We made it back to our apartment around 3 am. It was definitely an experience. Next time I only want to go out with only a few other girls that we know because then it'll make it easier to get to know some of the locals, and have fun talking and dancing with them. I'm excited to go out again tomorrow night.

Well, since I only got four hours of sleep, classes this morning were so rough, ha. There are only seven people in my 10:45 texts and interpretations class and we were all struggling to stay awake. But I made it back to the apartment around 1ish with Amanda and tried to rest before el almuerzo. The food wasn't quite as good today, we had a salad with chick peas and apple bits and tomatoes and it was ok. I want the mango salad back from yesterday though, ha. After la comida, we headed back to the streets in search of the soccer stadium, which is on our way to class, in order to meet up with some friends for a walking tour of Valencia. However, we soon realized that we were actually supposed to meet at La Plaza de la Virgin. Por eso, we ended up flagging down a taxi to get there. The tour was actually really cool, but it was long and it was sooo hot outside today. Being in the heat was pretty brutal. We took a tour of a museum, which was a little dull, but looking at all of the architecture in the downtown area was really interesting. We looked around and took pictures of La Catedral (a cathedral here) and found a lot of interesting shops. I got a ton of good pictures that I should put in here. Amanda and I took a picture with a police car, ha, and we asked the policeman if it was ok...podemos sacar una foto con tu coche? jaja. I have a picture with Lemongrass too, which is one of my favorite restaurants in Charlottesville...I was pleasantly surprised to see they have one in Valencia too!








Then tonight we chatted with Mari Carmen and su marido, Gabriel, in the living room before dinner. We asked Gabriel if he could tell the difference between different accents that people have, like if they're from Spain or Mexico or Colombia or other countries. It was hilarious hearing him mock how he thinks los mexicanos talk. I love Gabriel, ha. Dinner at 10 pm tonight was a fried egg, fried onion rings, chips, and fruit. MariCarmen is really into these fried foods, ha. Oh well. Yesterday's meals are still my favorite so far.

After dinner tonight, Amanda and I heard music through our sliding door in our bedroom, so we went exploring the streets and into the nearby park in our t-shirts/comfy clothes, haha. There was a really cool beauty pageant going on for little girls in the park. They had a huge stage set up and some singers and the girls were wearing very elegant dresses and it was quite the sight. There were a ton of people everywhere, just milling around, and sitting and watching the pageant. It was so cool.




Pues, manana voy a la playa! (aka. the beach!) More to come!

la playa...que interesante!

Pues, the last two days in Spain, I've learned a lot. I'm still exhausted, but it's been so exciting walking around and exploring everything. On Tuesday we had orientation where we got our class schedules and everything. I walked around with my roommate and others from the Valencia Program and we got lost in the city looking for a bank, haha. I finally found one and was able to get my traveler's checks exchanged for euros by this guy named Juan. He was not happy with me. Apparently traveler's checks are not easy to exchange if I don't have una cuenta (an account). Oh well.

That night we watched el partido de futbol between Portugal and Spain with the family. Everyone went wild when Spain scored a goal! And we had tapas for dinner when the game started around 8:30, which included shrimp, potato chips, ham, cheese, and fried calamari (I think). Our host mom watches our every move during the meals and keeps saying that we don't eat enough. The truth is their portions are HUGE. It's just weird having her pick the portions of food I must eat and then I feel bad when I can't eat it all. I mean, I just can't do it. But the food is so good!

I had my first day of classes at the UVA Center here in Valencia yesterday. They went pretty well, though I get frustrated after listening to professors speak in Spanish for four hours every day. It's a lot to take in. But I really like the cultural conversations class. We're learning a lot of new vocabulary and learning important phrases that are actually really practical when we're exploring the city and asking los Valencianos questions. My class on texts and interpretations is going to be tough, but I think it'll be ok.

After classes, I went to the Valencia beach for the first time! I met up with a bunch of other girls from our classes and we took the bus over there. It was about a 10 minute bus ride, and the beach was packed! There were so many people everywhere, and I soon found out that topless sunbathing for women is VERY common here, ha. Not to mention men in speedos. Era muyyy interesante. One man from Madrid approached one girl in our group, but she knows very little Spanish, so one of us translated for her. He kept asking for her phone number and tried to take a bunch of pictures with her, it was hysterical. Ohhh experiences.

And today was the second day of classes. They were ok. I extremely dislike having homework every day. Back at UVA in Charlottesville I have the same classes every other day so i don't have to do it right away. No such luck here. Plus, you would think that my homework would be just conversing with the family I'm staying with, because believe me, I'm learning a lot from that alone.

After classes I found a store similar to a dollar store in the US and I was able to buy notebooks for classes and an adapter so I can charge my laptop in the apartment. When we came back for lunch, which is usually around 2:30, we had paella and salad and bread. It was incredible! The paella had rice and chicken and the salad was full of tomatoes and mangoes, and we had cherries too. It was definitely the best meal I've had here so far. And then I went to the mall! It's not very far from where I live and so Amanda and I walked there, taking pictures along the way, and looking like tourists. Oh geez.

Well, I think I'm going to a discoteca tonight with some friends, probably very late because the night life here in Valencia doesn't really get going until about 2 am, which will make getting up for my 8:40 class tomorrow very interesting, ha. More on that later.

Hasta luego!

el viaje muyyyy largo

Well, I am finally here. My first day in Valencia, España. The trip here was an excursion in and of itself. It was so long, hence the title of this first blog. My first little incident happened in the airport in Norfolk. I accidentally left my phone with security, and of course I didn't realize that I didn't have it until I got all the way to the gate. So I had to turn around, come back and find it, and then make my way back to the gate to board the plane. Am I awesome or what? ha. So I left Norfolk airport at 10:55 and my plane arrived in the JFK airport in New York shortly after noon. Then I grabbed some lunch at terminal 3 and had to try to find my way to terminal 7. I also managed to drop my little travel pillow along the way, but luckily when I backtracked to find it, I ran into a friend, Hayden, from my UVA Spanish class last semester. She's in the Valencia program too, so we trekked outside and up the stairs to the air train which took us to terminal 7, where we waited until about 2:30 to check in for our next flight. We waited for the flight to Madrid for a really really long time. Luckily it was a good time to just chill and meet everyone else in the program. Most of us are UVA students, but there are two girls from Princeton and one from Michigan state joining our group too. Our plane finally took off around 8:20 pm. I was sitting with some cool, middle-aged Spanish guy named Kazi(I'm not sure how you spell it). We talked a little but he didn't speak much English and his Spanish was very hard to understand. I don't even know. But we were served dinner at 9:30 on the plane and then breakfast at 1 am, haha. I love how the Iberia airlines tried to get us used to the ridiculous time change by serving us breakfast then. It was 1 am U.S. time and 7 am in Spain. So needless to say, with all the commotion of the meals and a screaming baby nearby, I did not sleep much on the 6.5 hour plane trip. But when we got to Madrid, we found our luggage and then hopped on a huge bus that took us the remaining four hours to Valencia. Most of us slept the whole way there, it was great. Watching our bus driver drive through Valencia traffic was hysterical, ha. He was honking and everyone else started honking. I don't even know what was going on. Driving in Spain is crazy...I definitely would not want to try it here.

My host mother, Carmen, picked me and my roommate, Amanda, up when the bus arrived in Valencia. She was holding up signs with our names on them and she greeted us with a big hug. She seems like such a nice lady already. Carmen and her son-in-law helped us with our luggage and drove us to her home. She lives here with her husband and we got to meet one of her older daughters (all 3 of them are married) we we got to the apartment. The living arrangements are nothing like what I would have expected but it's really nice here. We have big closets, though a small, simple room with 2 beds, and we share a bathroom. Carmen made us a meal right away, though I felt bad that I didn't eat much. This time difference will take some getting used to, not to mention waiting until 9 or 10 every night for dinner! That is what time they eat around here. So now we've unpacked and explored a little bit. Still haven't found an ATM yet or a bank to exchange our money for euros. Apparently the banks are usually closed in the afternoons here, but we should be able to take care of that tomorrow morning. And tomorrow we have orientation and we should get our class schedules figured out! I'm so excited.