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.