Barcelona!

I watched the running of the bulls every morning (except Saturday and Sunday) of San Fermin. It became a nice little routine in the morning and I actually enjoyed it a lot. Since I have class at 9, I always eat breakfast at 8…right when the running began. So Marcos would move my breakfast to the seat that can see the TV, and the three of us would watch it together. It was always the same: first the runners stretching and getting ready, the group of people chanting around the statue of San Fermin, the lighting of the little rocket that signifies the bulls being released, and then the run, ending in the arena where we sat when we were in Pamplona. Last Wednesday, day 7, was the second to last day. It was a good ending too, as far as casualties go. The front bull plowed down six or seven people. Lol. Literally plowed them down. Again, I don’t think anyone was seriously injured, but I’m sure some people will be in some pain for a while. My favorite part was Maria. Even though she has watched San Fermin for decades, every time someone got hit by a bull, she would shriek, “AY, AY!” and screech some Spanish words and Marcos would join in with her. Wednesday I just sat in my chair giggling at all her shrieking because so many people got trampled. I’m chuckling now just thinking about it. I really love my homestay. I got sooo lucky with them.

Last Wednesday I went to school, gave a twenty minute presentation in my culture class on the customs and traditions of Spain, then went home (I almost always have picnics during the week and bocadillos are getting old) and had lunch. Bre ended up going home for lunch today too, so the four of us ate together, which rarely happens. After lunch, I napped a bit before meeting up with Caitlin to go to the centro for a fieldtrip for our culture class. (Note: if you’re not interested in culture and history stuff, you may wanna skip this paragraph.) We have gone on multiple excursions for that class, and it is by far the best and most interesting way to learn about history in Valencia. We visited a few places: Torres (I forget the rest of the name), the Roman ruins, the Cathedral (again), and the Admiral’s Baths. Other than the Cathedral, these are all places I didn’t even know about, so it’s so nice our teacher takes us to them. Plus we get in for free because we’re a class from the University. So the Torres place is a huge castle that at one point was used to defend the city. We first went inside to where the prisoners were kept. We then climbed up into the top of the castle into the castley structures (Idk their names) where guards used to shoot people down from with their bows. The views from up there were amazing. This city is beautiful. We also took lots of cool class pics (there are only 7 of us in my class) defending the city with our imaginary weapons. All over up there, they have these structures that have little slits so you can hide behind them and shoot your arrows through the slits without being shot yourself. It’s pretty cool. There’s also a dried up moat. We had lots of fun up there. Also, my teacher Jwan (that’s not how you spell it, but it’s how you say it, so I will stick with that spelling) is growing on me more and more. He’s probably in his thirties and I think he’s gay because he wears purple and he likes Lady Gaga. But he’s super nice and he loves to chat with us about the United States and he’s just fun. So after the Torres place, we went to the Roman ruins. The story behind that is a long, long time ago, all the ruins were above ground (obviously), but the river flooded and all the sediment buried it. So about 15 years ago, a house was there and it was torn town to build apartments or something, but during the construction, they discovered these ruins underground. So now it’s a museum and they dug it all out so you walk down to all the ruins and it’s really cool. There’s glass floors to look down into wells and they have models and painted walls to show you how the city used to look. They even found old pottery and plates and jewelry that they have on display. It was really interesting. I definitely felt like I was seeing something I could never see in the U.S. After thatttt, we went to the Admiral’s baths. We had a tour guide for that one, and we first watched a video on the functions of all the baths. There are three rooms: the hot room, the warm room, and the cold room. The hot room was kind of like a sauna, and they would heat up the water over a fire and pour the hot water all over the floors and they would wear special clogs so they didn’t burn their feet. The warm room was where they bathed and got massages and what not. And I don’t really remember what the cold room was for because I think I lost focus of the video by the time the cold room rolled around. But after the video, we walked through all the rooms and every room had star-shaped skylights to look out. So that was another unique place to see. Also, Jwan apparently loves ice cream because every time we go on an excursion, we stop to get it. Obviously we all love it too, so it works out well. So that’s where we stopped after the baths. Morgan, Caitlin, and I all got the large this time. It was delicious. Our last stop was the Cathedral and we just walked around and admired its beauty some more. Jwan showed us where they do the Baptisms and he showed us how the floorplan of the Cathedral is in the shape of a cross. (Did I ever mention that on the scavenger hunt we went on the first week we were here, we climbed up all the stairs of the Cathedral? Allllll 207 of them.) Also, there are many churches in Europe that claim to have the real Holy Grail. But the experts believe that the real one is the one here in Valencia. And it’s in the Cathedral. Unfortunately, you can only see it during the morning; it’s locked up in a separate room. But a couple of my friends have gone to see it and they say it’s pretty cool. So we peeked through the locked gates into the room it is in, but it was pretty dark. We were supposed to be going to the Lonja also, but Jwan said we could do it another day.

So after the fieldtrip, Patrick and I Bisied back toward ISA because he lives around there and I was meeting up with some friends at Cien Montaditos for dinner. He didn’t know the exact roads to take, but he claimed to have an excellent sense of direction, and sure enough, he had no trouble finding the street we needed. And by chance, we happened to pass the Cien Montaditos I needed! Haha. So I parked my bike and went in. Cien Montaditos is a sandwich place that is very popular chain in Spain. Even Maria and Marcos like it. They have 100 (hence the “cien”) different sandwiches you can order and most of them are one euro. The sandwiches are little…only about 4 inches long…but they come with potato chips and most people will order three or four of them and be full. On Wednesdays, Cien has everything for a euro. All the sandwiches, all the appetizers, beer, and their sangria-like drink. So I got two sandwiches (I was pretty full from my ice cream) and the sangria. This time I got a Mexican taco sandwich and a chicken Caesar sandwich. They were both delicious. We hung out there until it was packed, then Jenny, Allison, Mallory, and Bre were all going to a bar, but I decided to Bisi home and go to bed because I have to get up at 7:30am for class. So, I read a bit and went to sleep.

Thursday I had class…double grammar because Jwan and Eduardo (my other teacher) switched a class period. So next week I will have double culture and I’m hoping Jwan will take us somewhere for part of the day. Eduardo is one of the craziest teachers I’ve ever had. He is probably around thirty and he’s so goofy. He hates the beach and he hates the heat. So every morning he’ll come in huffing and puffing about how hot it is and swearing under his breath. I just laugh at him, because it’s always the same. Then he’ll talk with us for twenty minutes or so because the grammar classes are supposed to get in lots of Spanish conversation, and then he’ll teach us. Eduardo is also an avid smoker, so he gives us a 15 minute break every class period so he can go smoke. Lol. Also, Eduardo randomly uses the F word all the time. In Spanish, the word is joder, and he will casually use it in conversation like it’s no big. Haha. For example, the other day, Trista was explaining some Texan tradition and she had a picture on her phone so she handed it to him so he could see and he goes, “Ahh, joder,” as if he was saying, “Ahh, I understand.” Lol. He’s crazy. So in class, he played the first halves of commercials and we had to predict what we thought was going to happen. Then after four or five of them, he played one of those commercials where you’re watching intently and then a big scary face pops up screaming, and Morgan screamed so loud that I was pretty much paralyzed with fear. Lol. After class, Bre and I went souvenir shopping through the plazas for a few hours and then I met up with Caitlin and Sarah to shop for clothes. I needed to find some light linen pants for Morocco because you’re supposed to have your knees covered. The shopping trip was unsuccessful on my part.

Friday morning at 8, we left for Barcelona as one of our ISA trips. The bus ride was pretty long…with the break we had halfway, it took about 4.5 hours. But the ride was sooo pretty. Valencia is south of Barcelona, so we just drove right up the coast line. Mountains on one side, the Mediterranean on the other. Beautiful. When we got there, we had an hour (or so) long bus tour. We drove up to the top of a mountain that looked over all of Barcelona. Barcelona is a very pretty city, but it’s too big for my taste. The views were cool though…the coast and the mountains and all the city. There is a famous church in Barcelona called the Sagrada Familia that is still being built and has been for a couple centuries now. The architecture and detail of the church is amazing. It is absolutely gorgeous. We didn’t go inside the Sagrada Familia because it cost around 10 euro (the money is going toward the construction) and the line to go in was about an hour and a half wait. There was an architect named Gaudi that lived until around 1925 and his work is all over Barcelona. He had taken over the plans for the Sagrada Familia but after he died, his plans were destroyed in a riot so no one really knows what the final product was supposed to look like. The plan is to have the church completed in 15 more years. The church has many huge, detailed, pointy towers that kind of look like a crown. It really is a site to see. After our bus tour, we checked into our hotel and had free time. We walked around a bit before heading toward the beach. Since it was opening day of Harry Potter, we wanted to see it. Mallory, Bre, Gab, Kristin, Andrew and I found out about a theater that was playing it in English (with Spanish subtitles) so we went there. I felt kind of bad spending my time in Barcelona in a movie theater, but I’ll always remember seeing the last HP in Barcelona. The movie was amazing by the way. Cried my little eyes out (a few times). So after the movie we walked back toward the hotel and stopped at a doner kebob place to eat. Yummm. I could eat those every day. So then once we got back it was night time and everyone was going out to a club, but the problem is, I don’t want to stay out until 5am like everyone else, and I don’t want to spend 10 euro on a cab to go back to the hotel alone (especially when I don’t know Barcelona at all), so I stayed in and caught up on my Internet time and was completely happy with that. I was also happy the next day when we had to get up early and I was well-rested.

The thing about Barcelona is that everyone speaks English. I think I heard more English than Spanish. Kinda weird. It’s also super expensive. So the next morning we went to breakfast at the hotel and it was actually a decent breakfast. At our Madrid hotel, the didn’t have a lot of the breakfast foods we’re used to at home. But in Barcelona, along with the usual, they had eggs and bacon!!! So I made little bacon and egg bocadillos and it was delicious. We also made sandwiches with their lunch meat and cheese and stuck them in our bags to eat for lunch. J So we had a three hour walking tour and to be honest, nothing we saw really stuck with me. We went into a cathedral (we had to cover our shoulders and legs, so I threw jeans on under my dress) and saw an old temple, and at another church, there was a wedding about to start, and they actually let us go in. So we sat in the back with a bunch of other randos not invited, but our tour guides made us leave right before the bride walked down the aisle. Boo. We did see the couple later though after the wedding. So we had free time after we saw all these things and we walked around and I don’t wanna say it was boring, because it’s hard to be bored in Spain, but Barcelona was my least favorite of the cities we have visited in Spain. We just didn’t really know what to do or where to go. We went to this Gothic neighborhood (part of the city, not an actual neighborhood) that Manuel suggested, and it was alright, but we weren’t too thrilled. I think it’s because Barcelona is so big that a lot of the main attractions are so spread out and not really in walking distance, so we just didn’t see a whole lot. So we took a little siesta in the middle of the day and then in the evening, we went to dinner at some restaurant. I just got tapas because I wasn’t very hungry. Tapas are kind of like small appetizers, and the people will go from bar to bar and eat tapas before dinner or lunch. So after dinner, Caitlin, Sarah, Gab, and I took the metro to a palace we had seen during our bus tour that has fountain/light shows at night. That was probably the coolest thing I did all weekend. The palace was gorgeous at night and it had light beams shining behind it all over. There are two long reflection-type pools with small fountains leading to the palace and at the end of the pools was a huge fountain that would shoot up into the air and change colors and go with music. It was really cool. We watched for about an hour and then Gab and Sarah left and Caitlin and I walked up the manyyyy steps to the palace. They even had escalators that took you half way up. Haha. Once we got to the top, the view was amazing. Barcelona looked so pretty at night. So we got a lot of fun pictures and afterwards, before getting back on the metro, we got strawberry lemonade slushies and sat by the fountains for a while. Then we got home at about 12:30 and everyone else had gone out again so we just hung out for a while before going to bed.

The next morning, we ate some more breakfast, stole some more sandwiches, and went to el Parque Guell. That was also really cool. This was also Gaudi’s work and it was awesome. Very modern, very unique. The buildings (mostly just gift shops now) looked like they belonged in Candyland. They reminded me of gingerbread houses. I would honestly love to live in one of those houses. They were so cool. Gaudi’s architecture was very mosaic in the park and it was just very fun. Part of the park is a little overlook and for that, he designed large columns underneath and made the ceiling half circles to drain the water into the columns for (I think) the city to use. After that, we rode the bus to another part of the city where Gaudi designed a couple more buildings. I just love his architecture. The first one is an apartment building now (I can’t imagine how much it costs to live there) and the building has a kind of wave to it and the balconies are all black metal shapes and swirls and strange designs all together into a weird jumble. It looks amazing. The second building is a museum now and the front is multi-colored mosaic tiled and the wavy roof looks like reptile scales and the balconies look like skeletons. It kind of has the same “fake” feel as the gingerbread houses. I just loved them. Along with the Valencian architect that designed all the arts and sciences buildings and other buildings throughout Valencia and Spain, Gaudi is definitely one of my favorite architects that I’ve seen in Spain (or anywhere for that matter). We had more free time after that, so we walked around Las Ramblas, a plaza basically meant for tourists. Haha. We looked through shops and just walked around. We ate lunch at a restaurant with Mexican food. Our meeting place for the bus was the statue of Christopher Columbus (he was Spanish) so we went over there a little before we were supposed to meet. All along the base of the statue giant lions jutted out about 10 or so feet off the ground. We decided to climb the lions to take pictures. The problem was that once I got on the tail, there really wasn’t a good place to grab to pull myself up on its back, so Caitlin gave me a boost. I ended up flat on my stomach on the lions back hugging the thing for dear life. We were all dying laughing (including the randos standing around watching), but I was literally terrified. Lol. Mallory got a nice little string of pictures of the process of getting on the lion, including me face down on the thing. So eventually I got the courage to pull myself up to a sitting position, got a couple pics, and I got down asap. It started to sprinkle a bit, and we got on the bus and headed back to Valencia. Overall, I enjoyed Barcelona, but a little bit less than our other trips.

Monday was a beach day. It was also the easiest day of classes ever. Eduardo talked with us for a half hour before he had to leave for a funeral, and then Jwan let us out 45 minutes early too. We asked Jwan about our final exam, and he said he had one prepared, but he didn’t know if he wanted to give it to us. He said because there’s only seven of us, and because we participate so much, and because he feels like we’re his children (lol, aw), he didn’t feel like a final exam was really necessary. What he eventually decided to do was to go through the exam questions and answers with us, so all we’ll have to do is study them for the exam and we can all get 100%. Best final ever. Thanks Jwan! J Over the weekend, Bre and I also got two new roommates in our house. Maria and Marcos introduced us last night. One is from Germany and she’s only 17. The other is also 17 and is from Slovania I think? She was super awkward to talk to. The German girl and I had breakfast together Monday morning and she’s a nice girl, but she only spoke to me in English, so it’s like Q-Hey (our Korean roommate, and I obviously don’t know how to spell her name) all over again. Oh welllll. At around 10:30, Bre and I met up with Caitlin, Sarah, Jenny, Allison, and Mallory at the City of Arts and Sciences. We wanted to see the buildings and pools at night, so we just walked around and took pictures. It was very pretty. After hanging out for an hour or so, we went to McDonald’s because Sarah was in one of her must-have-ice-cream-right-now moods. Haha. So we all got ice cream and sat around chatting for a while. Then we all grabbed Bisies and headed home to bed.  

Tuesday for culture, we went on another field trip with Jwan. This time, we went to an archeological museum and another art museum. The art museum was modern and abstract, and until the floor with the optical illusion paintings, we all just kept making up silly interpretations of the abstract stuff and saying, “I could’ve done this…” The archeology was cool. Pottery and artifacts and bones and all that. All stuff found around Valencia. But at this point, I think we’ve all had enough of museums (we’ve gotta be nearing 10 or 15 in the last thirty days). So Jwan took us to this museum that had a little park in the inner square outside. So we sat for a little while and chatted before jumping back on the bus to go back to the University. After we got back, Morgan and I headed to the beach again and around three or four, more of our friends started joining us, so that was nice. Then my intercambio friend Antonio came and hung out with us too, so that was fun too. Antonio and I spent probably 45 minutes in the ocean swimming. The waves were huge…not the undertow kind, but the slam-you-hard-in-the-face kind. At around 7:45, Juan and I Bisied back home (he lives a street down from me) and us four girls ate dinner together. Lol. Kinda strange.

Tomorrow we leave for Morocco. Our flight leaves Valencia at 7:10pm, and we’ll be in Marrakesh an hour later. Friday Bre, Mallory, and I booked a day trip to the Ourika Valley. (Jenny and Allison are going on a multiday trek through the desert, so we won’t be going together.) We will be seeing a traditional Moroccan house where the lady makes us mint tea. We then go on a two hour long hike into the Valley to see mountains and ruins. We also have a twenty minute CAMEL TREK! I can not wait!! We eat a traditional dinner and come back. Altogether, the trip is 8.5 hours, so it should be very interesting! Next week is our last week in Valencia...already! I feel like I just got here. This has been suchhh a wonderful experience, but at the same time, I’m definitely looking forward to coming home.

Besos!

Pamplona y Gandia!

Thursday night, we ate dinner (mine and Bre’s favorite…a rice dish with meet and vegetables that is so delicious) with Marcos and Maria before meeting up with a bunch of people at ISA and taking a bus down to the charter bus station to leave for Pamplona. Our bus left at 10:50, and we easily took up about half of it. There were probably 25 or 30 of us that went, which was cool because it had originally started out with just the five of us. Maria packed us picnics for Friday, and she gave us extra snacks and drinks for the day. She’s so sweet. So the bus ride was terrible. We had a 45 minute rest stop in the middle of the night, which was annoying because anyone who had been trying to sleep definitely wasn’t after that. I didn’t get any sleep. Maybe like 30 minutes altogether. Also, the farther north we got, the colder it got. I ended up trying to sleep with my arms inside my tshirt. The traditional thing to wear to San Fermin is white with a red bandana around your neck and a red scarf around your waist. Most people wear white pants. Well, most of us girls opted for white shorts and tank tops and sundresses, while some of the guys bought white pants just for Pamplona. But, once we stepped off the bus at 5:20am, we wish we would’ve done the pants. It was freeeezing. Since I’ve been in Spain, I have not once worn pants or a sweatshirt or even a longsleeved shirt. It’s always hot, even late at night. But during the morning in Pamplona, it was probably 40 degrees. The other thing that we saw when we stepped off the bus was people. Tons of bundled up people passed out in the bus station. I guess all the hotels and hostels in Pamplona were full, so people were sleeping everywhere, and the bus station was about as warm as it was gonna get. So we made our way through all the people to get outside, and then started walking towards the bull running course to get a spot to watch the run. We passed a huge field that in the dark, we could see was coveredddd in trash from the parties the night before. When we finally found it, all the good spots along the sides were already taken (at 5:45 in the morning) so we all went and bought bandanas and some people bought sweatshirts too. The only people in our group that were gonna run were Allison and Jenny, and I guess it’s not actually allowed for girls to run, so they had to kind of hide when any cops were around. The course goes through the city and is about a half mile long. A fence lines the course that people sit on and behind to see the run. We stood around near the end of the run where there was a long line to get into the bull ring. The runners and the bulls will eventually end in the bull ring where the bulls will then be taken to pens. The bull ring is also where the bullfights occur later in the day. So eventually the line died down and we decided to see if we could get into the ring, and to our surprise, the ring wasn’t even very full yet. So we all sat down and I’m so glad we did. It was the perfect place to be. The ring did end up packed before the race began, so it was lucky we got spots. At 7am, most people were already drunk. It was crazy. So before the run started, they had a little show going on in the ring with music and stuff. So we just hung out, trying to stay warm and waiting for the sun to get above the ring. They had two big screens to show the run on. In the hour before, they showed all the bulls that would be running and their weights. They also showed footage from previous years. So when the run finally started, a horn blew to signal the first bull being released. The run only lasts a couple minutes, so it was intense in the ring once it started. We watched the run (watched someone get trampled, a couple other people gored) and it was so cool. Once the people and bulls broke through into the ring, everyone went crazy. They had some matadors to get the bulls through the doors, and once they were gone, people started rushing into the center of the ring. I thought it was done, but it wasn’t. After the run is done, one by one, they let the baby bulls (still huge animals) out into the ring to run at the idiot people in the middle. The babies would come out of the doors sprinting and just start goring people. Lol. I don’t really understand the point. But the crowd would go wild and then people would get thrown all over the place and the crowd would go “OH!” together and then cheer some more. But it was actually really sad to me. The people would just taunt the bulls to make them attack people and hit and grab at them as they ran by and it was sad. The bulls would get pissed obviously, but mostly they were just confused and scared and didn’t know what to do. I was always happy when someone would get a horn in the stomach. No one got seriously hurt; people would just end up on their backs and then scramble away. But sometimes the bulls would hit the same person repeatedly while they were on the ground. Some people ended up with bloody noses and there had to have been some concussions, but nothing too bad. The baby bulls’ horns are very sharp, so they covered the tips so the horns didn’t stab people. Once they were ready for the next bull, they would bring the enormous momma bull out and the baby would instantly run to its mom and get out of there. L That went on for probably an hour before they were done. But the ring was definitely the best place to be. Some of my friends got tickets to the bullfight, but there was no way I was about to watch that. I understand it’s tradition for Spain and all that, but in my eyes, there is nothing okay about that. I would probably end up vomiting and crying my eyes out if I watched that. So after the events in the ring were done, we started walking around the city. Literally everyone wears white and red, so it’s really cool to see. We found Jenny and Allison, and this is what happened to them during the race: so they started kind of near the end and they were mostly jogging at the beginning and they couldn’t see anything and then eventually people were telling them to run, so they did. They started running and they were looking forward, and some guys in front of them were jumping up to see if they could see the bulls and then their eyes got really big and they started sprinting, so Jenny and Allison did too. Then I guess Jenny was in front of Allison, and toward the end, the course kind of bottlenecks into the ring, so it was starting to back up and she looked back and could see a bull. So Jenny decided to dive out of the course between the planks of the fence. So Allison tried to do the same thing, but got elbowed by someone and fell and hit her face on the side of the fence. So she saw the bull coming at her and she was trying to scramble out of the course and she couldn’t get out fast enough and then a paramedic on the other side of the fence grabbed her and pulled her through the fence right before the bull would’ve trampled her. Oh. My. Gosh. I would’ve peed myself. So thankfully, the girls were fine, but they said no one could pay them enough to ever do that again. So, it ended up okay, but almost not. So after that, Jenny, Allison, Mallory, Bre, Caitlin and I walked around and the city is actually very pretty. Pamplona is in the mountains so there’s a lot of very pretty views through it. After wandering around for some hours, we met up with some of our other friends in the park to eat lunch and nap. So after resting for a while, we walked around some more. We got ice cream and souvenir shopped. In Spain, most of the guys will stare when a group of American girls walks past. But for the most part, they don’t say anything. At least in Valencia they usually don’t. But in Pamplona, oh my goodness. It was probably because almost everyone was drunk, but every group of guys we walked past would cat call and whistle at us and try to talk to us. We just ignored it, but after a while, it got pretty annoying. We walked around the bars and stuff, and clubs would just have people dancing outside. So we hung out at one club for a while, and all the guys just love American girls. But they were respectful, so that was good. A few times they started chanting “USA.” Haha. After we left there, we went to get dinner at a place called Hemingway Doner Kabobs and Pizza. Ernest Hemingway is very famous in that city. I don’t know a whole lot about it, but he visited Pamplona for San Fermin and then loved it so much he wrote a book about it which is why San Fermin is so famous now. So they have Heminway restaurants and statues and it’s pretty cool. So I didn’t know what a kabob was, but they were sandwich things (kind of like gyros) with beef and lettuce and dressing. And they were soooo good. I could eat those every day. After we ate, we went to another park where we met three Spanish guys. We chatted with them for a while until it was time to head back to the bus station to leave at 11pm to go back to Valencia. Overall, we had an awesome day. It was a ton of fun and we got to experience one of the great traditions of Spain. Really, how many can say they visited Pamplona for the running of the bulls? J

We got back into Valencia at 5am, and I slept a little better on the bus ride home. I think that I was just too exhausted to not sleep some. We took a taxi home from the bus station, and we were in bed by 5:30. Unfortunately, we only slept two hours before we had to get up to go meet our ISA group for an excursion to Lake Albufera and then to Gandia. Lake Albufera is a wildlife reserve in Valencia, and we rode in these really cool boats through the channels. The houses there are little single-room houses that are very cute and beachy. Paella is a very popular Spanish dish, and it actually started in Valencia at Albufera. We saw lots of rice plants and they showed us a painting on a building of people harvesting the rice and then cooking paella in a big pot outside by the lake. It was really cool.

After Albufera, we drove 45 minutes to Gandia. I knew we would be doing water sports, but for some reason (that isn’t really logical seeing as we’re on the Mediterranean) I assumed we would be doing these activities on some lake in Gandia. But no. Gandia is a very pretty coastal town on the Mediterranean just a little south of Valencia. Along the coast, it is actually pretty touristy with a lot of condos and hotels, but past that, where we were at, it’s just open beach. And the pretty part about Gandia is that there are mountains lining the beach, so it’s absolutely gorgeous. We had some free time to swim and eat and lay in the sun before we started our activities. We made four groups of 11 and we had teachers for all the sports that we would be doing. The first thing we did was windsurfing, then kayaking, then sailing, then surfing. We had about an hour at each station, and it was soooo much fun.

The windsurfing was very challenging, but it was great. I didn’t have too much trouble standing and getting the sail up to me, but then I didn’t know how to move. There wasn’t a ton of wind, but once I’d start moving, I didn’t know how to turn. We kept trying to ask our teacher how to turn but we never really found out. Lol. So I windsurfed down probably 50 feet, then tried flipping the sail to go back and I actually started moving the way I wanted. But then I lost the wind and couldn’t steer and just ended up swimming the boat back over. Haha. The crappy part was the when you’d fall, you’d get a mouth/nose full of salt water. My head was just throbbing from all the salt inside my face. The whole thing was kind of a mess because we were all so close together. We were three to a boat, and once the sail starts falling or you’re falling off, you really can’t control where it lands. So I was surfing towards these young girls and I kept yelling at them and they just stood there and watched me. So I abandoned ship and my sail fell and almost hit them. Then Caitlin was going and she was cruising toward this couple trying to windsurf and they weren’t paying any attention and she tries to get their attention but she couldn’t react fast enough in Spanish so she just starts yelling “Ay ay ay ay!” and they didn’t even turn and she nailed the girl in the back of the head. She just sailed right into her. Lol. It was terrible. We did not know what we were doing. But it was fun!!! Nice to try something new like that.

Then we went kayaking and everyone except Peter was in a double kayak. So I was with Bre and our teacher took us out a long ways from the beach. It was just beautiful looking at the mountains. I thought it would be boring because kayaking can only be fun for so long, but she kept playing games with us. Like at first she said for one person in every boat to sit on their knees and no one really knew what was going on or what the point was, but then she told us to stand up. Lol. So we’re standing and falling off and capsizing our kayaks and we were all just dying laughing. Then she tells us to stand and paddle, so I’m standing in the back of our kayak paddling Amazon/Italy style. Haha. Then we paddled some more and she told us to fight each other off our boats so we’re tipping each other’s boats and throwing our partners off and it was just a blast. And all the while, it was just so cool to be doing all of this in the Mediterranean Sea. In Spain. With the mountains and the beach and, ah. It’s beautiful. It still hits me kind of strangely at times that I’m in Spain. It still doesn’t seem real. So I’m swimming and the teacher girl says something to me about there being a lot of tiberones (sharks) in the water and I quick scrambled onto my kayak and she started laughing and I was like very funny. But twice after that, I swear I felt something touch my feet and it freaked me out. Lol. Then she had us race kayaks and of course Caitlin and Mallory won because Caitlin does rowing in college. Haha. But it was a lot of fun.  

After that, we went sailing with this hilarious Spanish guy. He was really cool and I asked him about the tiberones and he said the Mediterranean doesn’t have sharks because sharks like cold water and the Mediterranean is too warm for them. He said there are a ton of jellyfish though, but they’re his friends. Lol. We had to go on the catamaran in shifts so when we went, it was me, Mallory, Caitlin, and Bre and he has us control the small sail and eventually we were really good at it and he kept calling us his sailing team. Lol. So that was awesome too.

Our last station was surfing. I have never surfed before, but I’ve always wanted to and I was so excited to learn. Our teacher was around our age and he was soooo cute. We were all drooling over him. Lol. I asked him if he was from Gandia and he said no, he’s from Madrid but he’s in Gandia studying English for the summer. And he and his two brothers are teaching surfing. So he would hold the board for us while we got up and got our balance and then when a wave would come he would give us a push and we’d ride it in. We fell a lot, but eventually I got to the point where I was consistently riding the waves all the way in. It was so much fun! We just couldn’t believe we were surfing in Spain. It was awesome. So after that, we all changed out of our suits and got back on the bus to ride back to Valencia. It was an awesome, busy couple of days. Once we got back, we ate dinner and showered and went to the beach at midnight to watch fireworks.

Sunday we slept in (finally!) and worked on homework until lunch time. We ate with Marcos before leaving for the Plaza de la Reina to meet up with Allison, Jenny, and Mallory. When we got there, we got ice cream and started walking toward the bull arena to go to the museum and tour the stadium. But when we got there, the museum was closed. It is normally open on Sundays, but for some reason it wasn’t today. So we walked around some more and then Antonio, our intercambio friend, met up with us to show us around. We’d looked around the plaza plenty, but Antonio was able to tell us what all the buildings were and the history behind them. So that was cool. Plus it was good for us to hang out with a local and speak Spanish with him. He showed us the skinniest house in Valencia, and it took me a while before I actually saw it. The house is about five stories, and it is squashed between two apartment buildings so that you almost don’t even notice it. It’s only about four feet wide. Lol. Antonio said he thought the house opened up beyond what we could see..because who could actually live in a house that skinny? After we walked around a while more and Allison, Jenny, and Mallory went home, we decided to go grab a pop at an outdoor restaurant near the Cathedral. Antonio bought our drinks for us (he’s so nice) and then Bre went home and Antonio and I met up with Sarah and Gab to go to the Cathedral for mass. I don’t practice Catholicism or anything, but we were all going for the experience of a Spanish mass in that gorgeous church. So the church was beautiful and I was glad I went, but I didn’t really understand what was going on at all. Haha. After that, Sarah and I Bisied home together. I made it back about 10 minutes before dinner, finished my homework, and went to bed.

Today, I went to class then spent the afternoon at the beach with Caitlin. 

I really like Valencia, but living here has definitely made me realize how much I hate big cities. When I was applying to vet schools, I was wondering if maybe I’d like to live in a big city for a few years just to experience it. The idea of a big city kind of appealed to me after living in Vicksburg my whole life. Now, I am sure I never want to live in one. Valencia is definitely smaller and less crowded than Madrid, but it is still the third largest city in Spain. And I hate that aspect about it. I hate public transportation...the buses, the metro, the taxis, all the stupid crosswalks and cars and roundabouts. And I hate all the waiting that goes along with all of that. A lot of Valencia is very similar to a big city in the U.S., except with prettier buildings and more trees. At the three centros of the city, that’s where you get old beautiful buildings and the Spanish feel. So I really like that part of Valencia, as well as the Arts and Sciences, but to be honest, I would prefer to live in Toledo, which is much smaller. Of course, one of the reasons I picked Valencia was because of the beaches (which Toledo lacks), and those definitely are beautiful. So I guess it’s a tossup. Still, I’m having a great time here and this has all been such a great experience. But it has really made me appreciate even more the place I grew up. I really am a small-town girl. 

Coming to Spain by myself was something that was very scary for me. I was afraid of the language barrier, the different culture, of not knowing anyone, of being homesick, everything. But I’m here and I’m happy and I’m so glad I came. This trip has really taught me a lot about myself. It’s been great. 

That's all for now. Sorry this was so long! 

Besos!

Let the festivities begin..

Today running of the bulls started in Pamplona. Every morning at 8am for the next 7 days, the bulls run through the streets of Pamplona to the bull ring and the people run with (away from) them. It airs live on TV every morning in Spain, and this morning while I ate my breakfast, I watched it with my host parents. A couple people were gored, one was trampled, and the rest did alright. Tonight, we ride an overnight bus to Pamplona for tomorrow's running and festivities. However, I will NOT be running. I'm good with watching. :) There are about 15 of us going, and we ride another overnight bus back to Valencia Friday night. Our bus gets back at 5:30am Saturday and we leave at 9am with our ISA group for Gandia. In Gandia, we will be doing water activities like kayaking, sailing, and windsurfing. Should be an awesome weekend. :)

Yesterday I went to the beach right after class. In Spain, it's completely acceptable to go topless at the beach. That was kind of awkward at first, and you definitely see a lot of nasty people. Some people will walk around with literally just a thong on. Strange. And the people raise their kids like that. There will be girls anywhere between 4 to12 years old walking around without tops on. I don't understand it. Yesterday next to me was what looked like a family (a girl in her late twenties, and a mom and dad in their sixties) and the mom and daughter both didn't have tops on and the dad had a Speedo on. How awkward and downright weird. But anyway, the water and weather were wonderful.

After spending a few hours there, I took the bus back to the university to meet Bre to go shopping at La Plaza Ayuntamiento. We walked through some shops before going into the mall. We think it was the mall, anyways. It was really strange. It was about seven stories, and we first walked in and were in a clothing store. We walked to the right into what looked like another section of the clothing store and we were all of a sudden in a bookstore. So we went upstairs and every floor was a different, but there weren't individual stores. So then we went to another part and it was the same thing. We ended up on a floor where a beach cover-up cost 200 Euro ($300) and then we got out of there. It was really strange. So we Bisied home and ate dinner. I had class again this morning and now I'm working on my powerpoint for my culture class on customs and traditions of Spain. That's all for now.

Besos!

American food!

Last night we went to a restaurant called Foster's Hollywood American Restaurant. Almost our entire ISA group went. There was probably 40 of us. We all wore red, white, and blue, and they stuck us all upstairs and put other American students up there so it was just a huge American party! You can not believe the excitement when we discovered there were FREE REFILLS on Coke and Fanta. I got Coke, and Caitlin and I instantly chugged the first ones and asked for more. The waitress was really irritated with all of us the whole night, but who cares. The funny thing is that in Spain, you don't tip. So the waiters and waitresses are always jerks because what do they care? It doesn't benefit them to be nice like it does in the States. Most of us ordered burgers and fries, and oh my goodness, it was exactly like at home. They were sooo good. I ate all my food and drank 3 glasses of Coke. It was perfect. Afterwards we walked around the plaza a bit before hanging out at Morgan and Andrew's for a while. Then I went home and went to bed. Today for my culture class we went on another field trip, this time to a huge supermarket that has a bunch of individual vendors in one huge, old, beautiful building. We also saw a couple old churches. Then we got helado, which was delicious. Tomorrow is a beach day. :)

El Cuatro de Julio!

Today is Fourth of July! Obviously, no big deal in Spain. But that didn´t stop me from wearing red, white, and blue to school today. :) In my culture class, our professor asked us to sing the Star Spangled Banner, so we did. I am headed to the beach in a few to spend the day basking in the Spanish sun and appreciating America from afar. Because really, Spain is an awesome country and all, but it´s not home. And no matter what the rest of the world thinks of us, I love being American. So that´s what today is for me. It´s not about barbecues and fireworks and all that, it´s about actually appreciating the country we live in. On that note, all of us are going to dinner tonight at the most American restaurant we could come up with. It will be nice to eat our food, speak our language, and not care if everyone thinks we´re typical Americans. Today is our day and we´re going to enjoy it. :)

La Ciudad de Las Artes y Las Ciencias

Yesterday our whole group went to the City of Arts and Sciences. It's close to where we live, so Bre and I Bisied there. The Arts and Sciences is new within the last decade or so and it is amazing. It is some of the most innovative architecture in the world. It's four or five buildings all in the riverbed (did I mention the riverbed? It runs through the entire city of Valencia, but the river dried up a long time ago--they rerouted the river south of the city--so now it's a gigantic park through the whole city) that consist of museums, an IMAX, and the aquarium. They have reflection pools connecting them all. There is also an amazing bridge that is very structurally unique. Looking at those buildings, I just kept thinking, Americans are just NOT this creative. It is definitely one of the coolest parts about Valencia, and nothing like anything I have ever seen before. So we first went to the IMAX and it was really cool! The seats are tilted back so you're looking at the dome ceiling and we watched a movie about the space telescope Hubble. We had these strange headsets and at first, none of us knew how to wear them so we have a lot of goofy pictures of us before we figured out how they actually work. Through the headsets, we could watch the movie in Spanish or English and other than the Calexico kids whose primary language is Spanish, we all watched it in English. It was interesting and it was cool to see it like that. After the IMAX, we went to the aquarium. We walked all through it and looked at all the animals. They have a bird cage dome that we went in and we could get right up next to the birds without them flying away. Maria packed Bre and me lunches, and most of the other girls' moms did too, so we all sat at a table in the park and ate. At four, we watched a dolphin show which was a lot like Sea World, except without the whales. In the beginning, they play music and pick 6 or so kids to come down and pet the dolphins. The kids have to stand on the bleachers and dance, and they get picked. So there's a little girl in front of us dancing, and we all were shouting and cheering and pointing at her to get picked and since there was approximately 30 of us, we were pretty loud and she got picked. Her parents kept thanking us and when she got back, she did too. It was sweet. So the show was cool. In addition to the dolphins, they had some synchronized divers that did cool things. At the end, one climbed up a ladder that was probably 60 feet in the air and dove off. He probably got about 6 flips in before he reached the water. SCARY! So that was fun. Last night I didn't end up going out with everyone else. I just stayed home and went to bed early. It was nice to just relax.

Today we went to the beach, but on our way there, it actually started sprinkling! Our first rain in Spain! We didn't care...I was actually kind of glad I wouldn't get direct sun today. We got to the beach to meet Mallory and even though it was raining, the beach was still packed. Now we're at McDonalds because our cafe is closed on Sundays. Last night we booked flights to Morocco for our weekend off. Today we are booking our hostel stays and a camel trek. I'm not sure why we picked Morocco exactly, but it should be fun. Haha. Definitely something different. It's going to be me, Mallory, Jenny, Bre, and Allison for sure. And maybe Caitlin and Sarah. You have to wear long pants though, so we're all gonna look for some cotton pants so we don't die of heat. Anyway, that's about it for now. 

Besos!

Valencia!

Finally an update! Saturday morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel before leaving for Toledo. For breakfast at the hotel, there was the typical breakfast foods: many kinds of bread to make toast, lots of fruit (including a light green melon I had never had before), yogurt, cereal, etc. But they also had some foods that you wouldn’t normally eat for breakfast: cold cuts of meat, cheese slices, and lotssss of desserts. I could never manage to eat dessert at 8am. So when we left for Toledo, which was only an hour or two away from Madrid, I didn’t know what to expect. But when we got there and started driving on the outskirts of the city, I was amazed. Toledo is by far the most beautiful city I have ever seen in my life. I thought Madrid was pretty, but once I got to Toledo, Madrid didn’t come close to comparing. Madrid  is a very big, busy city and I enjoyed it a lot. But Toledo. The city is in the mountains and a river runs along the base of the center of the city. The buildings are so beautiful, so elegant, so Spanish. We stopped at the side of the road on the outside of the river looking at the center of the city and the view of the city was just amazing. It really made me realize that no doubt, I am not a city-girl. I love landscape and mountains and trees and water. I loved the tranquility of Toledo. It was perfect. So after we ooh-ed and ahh-ed for a while, we walked across the big, stone bridge into the city. The buildings are just as beautiful up close. I loved all the restaurants and quaint hotels and the churches and the cobblestone roads and just everything. So we did a walking tour with a guide and he showed us some main sights in Toledo. We went to two churches and he spoke to us in Spanish about the different details of the church, like the history, the painting by an artist named Greco in one, the different gargoyles and what they meant in the other, etc. After we were done with the historical sites and had walked through some of the city, we went to a plaza and had free time for lunch and shopping. A group of us ate at a little restaurant and I ordered a jamon y queso bocadillo (ham and cheese sub-type sandwiches…although the “ham” is more like tough, limp bacon). That’s another thing: since we have been in Spain, Bre and I have ordered jamon y queso bocadillos probably every other meal because they are cheap and we know what we’re getting but we are definitely sick of them now. So we are eating, and there’s a little Spanish girl in there with her mom and she’s three or four but she comes over and starts talking to us. So we’re speaking Spanish to her, but she is also hard to understand because she is three, and she has a water bottle and she’s playing with it and throwing it and I’m picking it up for her and she was really cute. So she’s sitting next to me and my purse is between us and after a little while, Sarah, who is at the table next to me, whispers, “Alisha, watch your purse.” And up until that point, it hadn’t even crossed my mind that children could be trained to pickpocket. I have been sooo careful with my purse since I have been in Spain, but my guard was definitely down with that cute little girl and who knows. I’m sure it was completely innocent and her mom (who strangely kept leaving her child with a bunch of strangers and also leaving her purse at the table) didn’t teach her to do that, but it’s possible. It was just kind of an eye-opener. In Madrid, two people in our group were pickpocketed, even after all the warnings from our ISA leaders that pickpockets were everywhere in Madrid. So I moved my purse to the other side of me and we finished eating and left. After our free time was over, we went to our hotel. When we got inside, we walked over to the picture windows and all started freaking out when we saw the huge, beautiful pool outside overlooking the mountains. It was so pretty. There was a tiki-hut bar and hot tub and the pool was huge with palm trees all over and after sweating our butts off all weekend, everyone was sooo excited to go swimming. The hotel we stayed in had somewhere around 1000 rooms and it was sooo nice. More like a resort than a hotel. So we changed and went down to the pool (which was about 15 feet deep) and swam around and laid in the Spanish sun for the next four hours until we had our meeting. Most the kids in our group were staying at the hotel that night and going to the discoteca (club) in the hotel, but since it was Sarah’s 22^nd birthday, eight of us girls decided to take cabs back into the city. We were so glad we did. Toledo is even more beautiful at night. We decided to eat in the center of the city at a nice restaurant that was reasonable in price. Because there was so many of us, they put us at a table downstairs and we were the only ones, so we had a great time. Our waiter was beautiful and we kept talking about him in English, and when we asked if he could understand us when we spoke he said no, but that could’ve been a lie. Haha. So after we ate, we went back into the plaza where there was a concert and other activities going on. We met a bunch of American girls that had just visited Valencia and were studying in Toledo. We chatted with them for a while and they showed us a good restaurant for getting sangrias. So we walked to the restaurant and sat outside, drinking sangrias and talking for a couple hours before we finally decided to get cabs and head back to the hotel and go to bed. In the morning, we left beautiful Toledo for Valencia, and I kept hoping I’d like Valencia as much as I loved Toledo.

On the bus ride to Valencia, I was sleeping and the bus was silent because everyone else was too and one girl who was sitting across the aisle from me and back one row was watching something on her laptop and kept busting up laughing into the silent bus. Sooo, she woke me up and I couldn’t go back to sleep. Even with my Ipod, I could still hear her laughing. I was so irritated. By the time the girl finally decided to go to sleep herself, the rest of the bus was awake. We left Toledo at around 10 or 1030, and after stopping for lunch, we arrived in Valencia at 3:45 to meet our host families. Our bus met all the parents at the stadium in Valencia. Our ISA leaders called us out of the bus one by one to introduce us to our parents. I was prettttty nervous. We got off the bus to meet Marcos, our host dad. At our meeting the night before, the ISA leaders told us that it is custom to kiss on both cheeks and showed us how. Lol. So that is how Marcos greeted us. It’s so much warmer than the American custom of shaking hands. It made me feel truly welcome. So Marcos drove us home in his car (some people took buses or a taxi or walked home) and luckily his apartment (we live on the 6^th floor) had an elevator so we didn’t have to haul our suitcases up the stairs. We met Maria, our host mom, and they showed us around the apartment. It is the strangest layout. There are three hallways that make a C shape and the rooms all go off of those hallways. Marcos and Maria showed us our room and where we could put our clothes. They told us they would give us time to unpack and went to the living room. Bre and I unpacked, and had plenty of space for our things. I like our room a lot. It’s plenty big and it has a large window that lets in lots of light and the windows are always open so there’s a nice breeze. We have a pretty cool view and right below us is a large court where kids play futbol and basketball all day. I wasn’t expecting to have wifi (pronounced weefee here, lol) and I don’t have it, but once I heard so many of my friends saying they did have wifi in their apartments, I really wish we did. But Marcos showed us a café right on the other side of the court that has free wifi…we just have to buy a drink or something. 

So Marcos. He’s around 60-65 and he is just the sweetest man. I am so glad he’s our host dad. He and Maria have had many international students stay with them, so he’s very good at speaking clearly for us and not using too many big words that will confuse us. He’s great. He’s smiley and he laughs and jokes a lot and he’s very patient with us. If I don’t understand something, he’s very good about rewording his sentences to something I do understand. Also, if there’s something important we’re trying to understand (like directions for example) and we’re confused with his Spanish explanation, he knows English very well and will tell us if all else fails. So that’s nice. It’s comforting that if there was ever some kind of emergency and I needed to speak in English, I could. In general, it is harder for me to understand Spanish men than Spanish women so I assumed I would have more problems understanding Marcos than Maria. However, Maria is actually much harder for me to talk with. Her accent is much stronger and even though she also speaks clearly, it’s a challenge to catch her words. But she is also very nice and I like living with them. We also live with two other students. One girl is from France and she’ll only be here until Saturday. The other girl is from Korea and she's here for a music conference for two weeks. The French girl speaks Spanish and English and the Korean girl speaks only English, so when the four of us eat dinner together, we have to speak in English so the Korean girl understands, which is kind of a pain since we’re here to practice Spanish. 

It’s fun to discover what is different about the United States. The hardest to get used to is that you are not allowed to walk around the house without shoes on. I’m not sure why this is unacceptable, but it is. One morning I walked out of the bedroom in my bare feet to go to the bathroom and Maria and Marcos saw me and nicely told me to put shoes on. Then the other day Bre opened the door of the bathroom right after she showered (the bathroom is directly across from our bedroom) and Maria saw her without shoes on standing in the bathroom and told her to put them on too. Haha. It’s strange because it’s mostly considered rude in the U.S. to wear shoes in the house. But it’s backwards here. I have to put my shoes right beside my bed when I go to sleep so I don’t forget to wear them in the morning. It’s nice when we have our door shut at night because then we can walk around barefoot all we want. J Also, in Spain, most people ciesta (rest) in the middle of the day. A lot of stores will close after lunch and before dinner. Almost every day after lunch Maria will ask me if I’m tired or tell me to go take a nap. Lol. The other day was the first day I did rest after lunch because there wasn’t enough time to go to the beach before the meeting we had. But I don’t like it. I feel like I’m wasting a perfectly gorgeous day. Another thing is about the water and electricity in Spain. I guess a few years ago, Spain didn’t have any water and you could only use it at certain times. Now they are very conservative with it. Maria and Marcos aren’t too strict with it…they didn’t tell us our showers could only be a certain length…but I try to be respectful and make my showers as quick as possible. We also can’t drink the tap water in Valencia. I bought a 6 liter jug of water for 2 euro (a steal!) to pour into water bottles while I’m here so I don’t have to buy a bunch of individual ones. Our ISA office also has big jugs of water we can fill bottles with. 

So our first night, Bre and I just explored the city a little bit before meeting up with Mallory to meet some of the girls in our group that were in the summer one program that we hadn’t met yet. One of the girls is Mallory’s roommate and she wanted us to go out with them. They’re kind of cliquey, but hopefully that will get better once they get to know us. We also were lost for an hour trying to get there, but eventually we did. The next day we had to meet with our group at the stadium and Marcos was so sweet. He rode the bus with us to show us how to get there and when we got off the bus, he even walked us over to the stadium until we were about 20 feet from our group. Our first two days, he explained the bus systems and how to get where and which buses to take to school, back from school, and to the beach. Well, I am the WORST person with directions, so I didn’t absorb it too well, but he’s been awesome helping me figure out how to get places. He’ll tell me to get my map and he shows me how to get everywhere and he’s great. Nonetheless, Bre and I got lost the first chance we got and a few more times after that. The second day we were here we got lost on the way home from the ISA office and then again on the way home from the beach. Altogether we spent about 2 and a half hours lost. The buses are just soooo confusing and hard to figure out. 

A few days ago we went to the beach for the first time. It was gorgeous! It was so huge that everyone in our group picked a place on the beach beforehand so we could find each other. I needed a towel, so I bought one that says “Espana.” As soon as Bre and I got there, we went swimming. IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA! It was a little too warm for my taste, but it was awesome! Later, Mallory and I just sat out in the sea for a long time, enjoying the water. We all kept saying, “We’re in Spain swimming in the Mediterranean!!” Haha. After the beach, and after finally making it home for dinner, we went to bed early. That’s another thing about being here. Breakfast is always around 8, lunch is at 2:30, and dinner is at 8:30. Maria always makes something different and she always remembers what we don’t like. For example, we had paella the first night (Valencia is the paella capital of Spain or something like that) but I didn’t eat my tomatoes, so she asked me if I didn’t like them and said she wouldn’t give them to me again. Bre doesn’t like tuna, so she didn’t get it in her pasta the other day. I also didn’t eat my runny yolk when we had an egg with dinner (I ate the white stuff around it) so she asked how I like my eggs and said she’d make me a tortilla (like an omelet) next time and that’s how my egg was cooked after that. She’s very nice. The servings are so big, though. And if I don’t finish something, she always asks if I didn’t like it. I am always telling her I am just full. Lol. For breakfast we have two slices of bread and we can put jelly or this chocolate spread on it. She always gives us cereal, and milk (cold or warm, whatever we prefer) that tastes a little funny, and a muffin or pastry of some sort. At every meal there is also a big pitcher of water for us. 

The weather here is so hot and so far, it has always been sunny, except for today and yesterday it was a little cloudy in the morning. Marcos was telling me that it is sunny 300 days of the year and the other 65 it is usually cloudy and sometimes rainy. 

The other night, I went to plug in my alarm clock and it worked for about five minutes, and then I heard a noise and realized I didn’t use my converter. Because the voltage here is 220V and at home it is 110V, you  have to use a converter to change the electricity for small appliances. Well I thought of that with my blowdryer, but I forgot about my alarm clock. So, it’s broken (sorry, mom!). It was also very hot when I unplugged it. Oops. Luckily it was a cheapie, but I have to use my phone now as an alarm. We started classes this week. I go from 9-1:45 and then I’m done. No classes on Fridays, so it’s a great schedule. 

We bought something called a Mobilis pass that you pay for so many trips and you can use the metro and the bus with them. Also, there is a bike system in Valencia called “Valenbisi” and for 18 euro a year, you can use the public bikes as much as you want. Even for the five weeks we are here, it is a good deal. The system is really ingenious. There are stations all over the city (there are five that Marcos showed me right around our house) and the bikes are parked there. You go, scan your card, pick a bike, and take it. It has a bell on it to ring at people and a basket to put things in. But sooo many people use them. So you take your bike, go to your destination, and park it at another Valenbisi station. You can only have one “checked out” for 30 minutes, but for the most part, that’s long enough. So then you leave it and go on your way and if you need another one, you take it later. You don’t have a specific bike so it’s very convenient. You just take one and leave it anywhere there is a designated spot. There are some problems with this, because if the station you go to is full, you have to find another one before your half hour is up. Or if you go to school and need one and the station is empty, again, you have to find another station. But there is a map at all the Bisi stations that tell how many are there, so it’s a great system. All the sidewalks have Bisi sections too. So we decided to do the Bisi thing, and now I ride the Bisis to and from school. Marcos helped me highlight my route on my map, and for the first time, I didn’t get lost! 

So at school, I have a grammar class and a culture class. The grammar teacher is super funny and relaxed. He spends a lot of the morning sitting cross-legged on the desks in front of us. For my culture class, we go on fieldtrips to different places in Valencia. The other day when I got back from school, I was a little late for lunch because of it was my first time with the Bisi, but Marcos was so nice about it and I walked in all flustered and he just kept telling me to relax, that I made it home and that’s all that mattered and that it didn’t matter what time I got back, as long as I did. Then he finished making lunch because Maria was at lunch with her friends and he just sang in the kitchen as he got it ready. So it was just him and me at lunch so we just chatted. He always will tell jokes and make me laugh and when he tells me he’s kidding, he’ll say in English, “I’m jucking.” Hahaha. Also in Spain, they speak with a lisp. This is something Spanish teachers at home will tell you, but it’s something else to experience hearing it. It’s not all “s” sounds, but some. For example, Valencia is pronounced “Balenthia.” I doubt I’ll ever pick up the lisp though…I’d feel silly. After class this week, I went to the beach with some friends and Maria packed me a picnic. At first I felt rude not being home for lunch, but she keeps asking if I want to go to the beach and I guess it probably is easier for her to make a bocadillo instead of a meal. So I accepted her offer.

We had intercambio the other night. Intercambio is where we go to dinner with some local students and hang out with them and they work on their English while we work on our Spanish. It’s a great way to meet locals and get better at speaking. We walked into the restaurant and the Spanish students were already seated. Bre, Mallory, Jenny, Allison, and I all went to a table with three boys and sat down with them. When we sat, they said, “Ay, muchas chicas.” Lol. Their names were Antonio, Jose, and Carlos. We all sat talking and they spoke English pretty well and we spoke Spanish to them too. It was a strange mix of languages. Someone would speak Spanish and then someone else would respond in English and it just kept switching from one to the other. The funny part was when Jose would speak, I had to ask him to slow down and then when I spoke, Antonio would ask me to slow down. Haha. We asked them what they thought of Americans and Antonio has been to Texas so he loves Texas people and Jose said they’re “fat, drunk, and crazy.” And they said they think all Americans are like the people in American Pie. The guys were so nice and funny though. We had a great time. We got free pizza and sangria and just talked and laughed for a few hours. We’ll probably hang out with them again. After that, they were having free salsa lessons at the bar across the street from the restaurant. So almost our entire ISA group went over there and a bunch of our new Spanish friends (we convinced the guys to come with us and dance too). There was a teacher with a microphone at the front and he taught us to salsa and it was so much fun! We had a blast. 

Yesterday I went to the beach after class with Morgan and Patrick. I got kindaaaaa burnt on my back after laying on my stomach for like 45 minutes. The Spanish sun is so strong.  I put sunscreen on my front so I didn’t get burnt there…only my back. Last night most of the ISA group went to this really fancy club called Gandhara. It’s like a VIP only thing, but one of the kids that was here for the first summer program got us all on the list. The place was really high-class and we mostly felt really out of place but whatever. We had to go though these doors to the outside that had an India feel to it. We all just hung out and had free hors d'oeuvres and wine. Today we did a scavenger hunt in an old part of the city that is very pretty. Then we went to the beach again. Tonight, we’re getting together at a restaurant to hang out. And tomorrow we’re going to La Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias in Valencia. It is some of the most advanced architecture in the world and has the largest aquarium in Europe. So I’m pretty excited for that! Also, we bought bus tickets to Pamplona next weekend for the running of the bulls! It started out with just me, Jenny, Allison, Mallory, and Bre, but once we had our tickets we told our other friends about it and there’s another 10-15 kids going with us now. We’re so excited! It should be a really great experience! Well, that’s all for now. Sorry this is so long! I’ll try to update more often!

Besos!