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!