Los últimos días

Sorry I've been MIA recently.  Nothing super exciting has happened here.  Okay, that's not really true, but it has been calmer than normal!  Classes are really getting underway, meaning I have homework now (yuck!) but at least they're interesting and the homework isn't hard (I have to color a picture for my art class).

Parque de la Cultura

So what have I been up to recently?  Walking!  Lots and lots of walking!  I've been walking around the city both by myself and with others after lunch, going on adventures and figuring out all the different streets.  Tuesday (or maybe it was Monday?  I don't actually remember) I wandered around the streets between Calle de Jesús (two blocks to the left of where I live) and Calle San Vicente Martir (one block to the right).  First I went to a little cafe and did some homework while eating patatas bravas, which are kinda like potato wedges.  The owner of the cafe probably thought I was crazy cause no one orders tapas at that time of day, but I was hungry!  I did a bit of homework there, and then continued my walk.  I eventually ended up in el Parque de la Cultura (remember that from my previous blog post?  Maggie and I wandered there the first day we went out into the city!).  While there I sat and did some more homework while enjoying the sounds of everything happening around me.  There were people walking, dogs playing, and some kids boxing (what?).  And I did manage to get some homework done!

Yesterday, I went to a peluquería (a barber shop) at the mall with Natalia and Pablo.  Pablo needed to get his hair cut, and I tagged along to see something else in Valencia!  The mall, as expected, was pretty much like Park City, except that the level we were on was underground.  The other thing that was interesting is that the parking was underground, too, but I've come to realize that in Valencia that is completely normal.

While speaking of parking, let's talk about driving.  Valencian drivers are CRAZY!  Each major road has at least 3 lanes each direction (some have up to 5), with one of these lanes being specifically for buses and taxis.  The lanes are super narrow and drivers will switch lanes without warning, however I have yet to see any accidents anywhere.  On the main roads, there are stop lights every 20 feet or so, and you have to watch out for all of them and stop when one is red.  If you don't, you'll most likely hit a pedestrian.  Also, instead of stopping before the light, cars are often stopped at the light.  Sometimes the light to go straight is green, but if you're turning, you'll start to turn until, BOOM, red light and pedestrians.  Another thing is that a lot of the roads have a median down the middle, and the smaller roads are only one way, so if you miss your turn (which one of our taxi drivers did) you have to go all the way around to get back to where you need to go.  Speaking of turning, there are a ton of round-a-bouts in Valencia.  And no I don't mean the little round-a-bouts that you'll see at Overlook with one lane, I mean ones with four lanes that lead off to 4 or sometimes 5 streets, with stoplights at every street cars trying to switch lanes so that they can get off at the right time.  Like I said, crazy, but no accidents.

La Catedral

Okay, back from that little tangent... Last night was pretty exciting!  I went on a walking tour through the Valencia with an official tour guide and other students from UVA.  He took us into the Cathedral, el Mercado Central, and la Lonja (it's the old center for trade, merchants from all over Europe would come and it is the most important building in Valencia because it brought so much wealth - normally a city's Cathedral is the most important building).  We also saw the post office, the building for the Generalitat (Valencia's governing body), other churches (there are a gazillion), the Palace of the Archbishop, and several other places.  I have pictures, but I honestly probably can't tell you what everything was.  There are two places I'm hoping to return to, though.  One is a ceramic museum.  Valencia is known for their ceramics and there's this little museum that has a bunch of pieces that our tour guide told us were beautiful.  I think I'm going on Sunday because it's free to visit then, and I'll already be at the Cathedral for morning mass :)  Also, I want to return to L'Almoina (shout out to Ryan for reminding me of the name!)

La Lonja

Inside la Catedral

the Ceramics Museum

but instead of actually going there, I want to go underneath it!  This used to be the site of old houses, but when they were tearing them down to build new ones, they found remains of a bunch of ancient civilizations that lived in Valencia, like the Romans, the Greeks, the Phoenicians, and more.  Now, there is a plaza on top of the ruins, but you can go down and take a tour of them.  Since we just learned about these civilizations in my one class (we were talking about the Iberian Peninsula and how Spain got its name... España actually means land of the rabbits).  Hopefully I'll return to tour the ruins before I leave.

Pinchos!

After our tour, we returned to la Plaza de la Reina and met other people at the front doors to the Cathedral before heading out for tapas!  Tapas are kind of like appetizers and in Spain it's really common to go out with friends before dinner to eat some and chat.  We went to a place called la Taberna de la Reina and had pinchos.  Pinchos are a small snack (or tapas) that you find in bars.  Typically they are served on a piece of bread and spiked with a toothpick.  You can pick and eat as many as you want, then we paid for everything by the number of toothpicks on your plate.  I had three - one was tuna with lettuce, egg and who knows what else,

Dulce de Leche

Today, I wandered around some more after doing some of my homework.  This time I went to find how to get into the tunnel that I drive through every morning on the way to school (it goes under the train tracks and train station).  I knew you could walk through it, too, because I see people walking every
morning, so today I set out to find where the entrance was.  Turns out, all I had to do was walk straight and I found the stairs.  So I wandered down that street (Gran Vía) towards school and turned around when I passed the Starbucks.  On my way back, I stopped at a little pastry shop, called Dulce de Leche, for some café con leche and a chocolate croissant.  Delicious!  I plan on returning some time soon, and bringing friends with me (it's only two blocks from my house!)  Now I'm home and writing this blog, waiting for dinner (sushi tonight).  I'll do a bit of homework later (I have a one pager to write for tomorrow).

Oranges! Everywhere!

Oh, one other quick tangent, there are literally orange trees EVERYWHERE in Valencia.  They cover the streets and the parks!  However, you don't want to eat their fruit.  These trees are wild orange trees, and their fruits are bitter.  So while they make for pretty decorations, go find yourself a cafe with zumo de naranja (orange juice) if you want to taste some good Valencian oranges!

Las fotos!

Vamos al partido de fútbol

Pumped for the game!

The stadium (called Mestalla)

The fan section... Next time I'm sitting there!

¡¡¡¡¡¡Valencia ganó!!!!!!

Celebrating the win with some dessert

El partido de fútbol

Hello again!  So as of today I've officially been in Valencia for a week, and already I've done tons!  Yesterday I was planning on going to church, but wayyy overslept.  I'm going to go next week, though, and the people who did make it said it was awesome!  What I did end up doing yesterday was hanging out with my host family.  We all went to a chalé (I think this is how it spelled!).  Basically it's a summer home.  More specifically its a house (an actual house, not an apartment) with a garden outside in a community where many families live during the summer.  When parents go to work, their kids will stay in the chalé to hang out, go to the beach, play on one of the many playgrounds there, or whatever else it offers (some have pools, this one didn't).  Chalés were really popular for the previous generation but are more expensive now.

The chalé we went to belongs to the parents of some friends, and we met their friends there.  The friends are Irene and Carlos and they have two kids.  Instead of going to the chalé itself, we went to an area with a little restaurant and a playground in the neighborhood.  Honestly, it was like a country club.  While the kids played, I sat and talked with the four parents, and believe it or not I understood most of the conversation.  The kids played on the playground and played some fútbol.

We ate lunch at 2, and guess what we had - PAELLA!!  I was pumped to finally have paella valenciana, since that is the very first thing I learned about Valencia way back in middle school.  It was delicious!  What makes paella valenciana different from other paella is that there is more seafood in it.  My paella had snails in it!  (Along with other things of course).  This was the first time I've had snails, and while I'm not really a huge fan, they weren't bad, but had a really weird texture.

After lunch I went to the beach.  It was really nice out, and there were only 3 people out, so basically I had the entire beach to myself.  I sat and read for an hour before we headed home.  The rest was nice, especially because I needed energy for...

THE SOCCER GAME!

That's right, after I got back for the chalé, I went to un partido de fútbol!  Soccer in Spain is a religion, and we saw that from the very beginning.  I met up with a group of people at the school before heading over to the stadium (which is literally right next to the school).  There were so many people there, and everyone was wearing their red and yellow striped jerseys and Valencia C.F. scarves.  Valencia played Granada, and when the Granada team climbed off the bus there was quite a bit of booing.  Our seats were in the seventh row to the right, so we were practically next to the goal Valencia was shooting at in the second half.

Like I said, soccer is a religion in Spain.  Before the game started there was a band out on the field playing (think a toned down version of a marching band), people were yelling and cheering like crazy, and it was packed.  The season ticket section was almost directly across from us, and boy were they fun to watch.  Every cheer was lead by them, with all the clapping and hand motions in perfect sync.  These guys clearly had it all together and were at every game.  We decided that next time we go we want to sit there!

So I mentioned that my seat was super close to the Valencia goal in the second half, and boy was that lucky.  With some time to go left in the game (there wasn't a clock anywhere in sight), Valencia scored off a beautiful crossing pass and header.  And the stands went crazy!  That ended up being the only goal of the game, so Valencia beat Granada 1-0.  I'm really glad I had a chance to experience the soccer culture in Spain.  I know its not Madrid or Barce, but seeing Valencia play was still a lot of fun!  I also decided that soccer is a lot more fun to watch from the stands than on the TV.

Today, I had classes again, and it rained, but that's honestly about it.  I took a nap (which is completely acceptable here in Spain, #winning) and read a lot.  The nice thing about my classes so far is that I've only had homework once and that's been to take pictures!  Well I'm off to eat dinner, I'll catch ya later!  (Oh and I'll add more pictures later!)

Vamos a la Playa (y a una cervecería!)

La Festival de las Naciones

Hola amigos!  Boy, was I up late last night.  I think I said that I was going back to la Festival de las Naciones, and that's exactly what I did.  Once again the group moved on Valencia time, but it wasn't as bad this time!!  A group of five of us went, meeting in the river and walking up to the festival.  We got there right around 10:30, when the concert started.  The singer was the winner of La Voz (Spain's version of the Voice) and he was pretty good, although honestly we didn't listen all that much.  Instead, my group walked around to all the different stands, looking at the goods they were selling and trying to figure out what we wanted to eat!!  The first thing we decided on was agua de Valencia (a drink not a food).  This is a cocktail made from  orange juice and some kind of alcohol (I think gin and/or vodka, but I'm not positive).  It's called agua de Valencia because Valencia is known for its oranges and everyone has fresh, completely natural orange juice. Two people got larges, but the rest of us got smalls and had refills from the larges.  It was pretty good, but a bit too bitter for me.  Afterwards we got food.  People went to stands from all over the world, but I wanted a sausage and bread from Argentina (sorry I'm boring, but it was delicious!)

Erin's at a bar!

While wandering around, we ran into another group of UVA students, so we all decided to hang out together.  After eating, we went to watch the concert a bit and to dance (we danced to Gangnam Style).  The concert was wrapping up, and the other group had plans to meet people at a bar, so we all went!  The bar is called Beer and we hung out there for awhile.  The guy at the door (he wasn't a bouncer, but was trying to get people to come in) was really nice and was able to help us out.  He told us some of the better discotecas (more on that later) and gave us different deals to get to the discoteca and to get drinks.  While there, I played two games of fooseball.  My teammate was Adam and after winning our first game against two other UVA students, two Spaniards from Barcelona wanted to play us.  We were creamed (9-0 and the game ended in no time at all), but it was still fun!  We hung out there for awhile, chatting with each other and the bar tender.

Around 1:45 or so we decided to head to a discoteca.  A discoteca is basically a club where all the Spanish teens go to dance.  The guy at the door to Beer gave us directions and when we got close we found people who knew where to go and they took us.  At the discoteca, there were tons of people, lots of club music, and many flashing lights.  I ended up not going in because I didn't want to have to pay and one girl wasn't feeling well, but I want to go back before I leave Valencia!  Four of us took a taxi back to our apartments and I went to bed around 3:30.

The Mediterranean Sea!

This morning, at 11am, I had to be at the soccer stadium (Mestalla) to go to Peñiscola.  Peñiscola is about an hour and a half north of Vthis).  We got to Peñiscola around 1 and went straight to the beach.  It was absolutely gorgeous, the water was blue (although cold), the beaches clean and not crowded, and there was a cute town right behind us.  We ate lunch on the beach and then basically hung out until we had to go up to the castle.
alencia.  It is a little town and fortified sea port where Pope Luna resided at the end of his life.  Well, he wasn't really the Pope when he died, someone else was, but he claimed he was the one true Pope! (If you want to find out more about his life and stubbornness, ask me or read

Inside the castle

A few of us left a bit early so we could take our time going up to the castle.  While wandering up, we stopped for a cup of orange juice, and it was delicious!  There was absolutely nothing in it except pure oranges that had just been squeezed.  I can't wait for another glass!  We then continued meandering up the hill, stopping in some touristy shops along the way.  Once we reached the top, we went into the castle.  The inside was what you would expect, lots of stones.  The walls were high and the windows were few, but it was still really neat.  My favorite part, however, was at the top.  Once you got to the top, the view was absolutely breathtaking.  You had to climb really steep steps to get there, but it was totally worth it.  A picture didn't nearly capture everything, but here's a try!  Until next time, I'm off for another adventure!

The view from the top of the castle

Las clases y el río

Hi again! So yesterday classes started (woo! although not really :P)  I am taking Modern Spanish Art and Spanish Culture and Civilization.  First was Spanish art, which starts at 10:45, but before that started I had to get to the school by myself.  Luckily I knew where the bus stop was and the bus pulled up a minute later.  I did however get off a few stops early, but I just walked the rest of the way.  I made sure to leave really early so that I had time in case something like that happened!

My professor for my art class is Enrique Pelaez.  He's also a professor at the University of Valencia and loves art!  In this class we are studying art from the 19th and 20th centuries, starting with the Classic and Romantic periods (Goya) and ending who knows where (it'll depend on how fast we move).  I'm hoping we'll go to an art museum as a class field trip (and if we do I'll let you know!).  Yesterday was just an introduction to the class where we talked about the surreal, dreams, the class, our professor, us, and just about everything in between.  I'll keep you posted on how the class continues once we get going in it.

Spanish Culture and Civilization is at 12:50 and this professor is actually the academic director at the Centro de Estudios.  His name is Eliseo Valle and he's really funny.  Before introducing the class he went around and asked everyone's name and random stuff about us, and he probably teased almost every person there.  He made fun of me because I'm studying engineering and Spanish (cause they go together so well).  In this class we're going to be discussing different aspects of Spanish culture, like the importance of the bulls, Catholicism, the night life here, Barcelona vs. Madrid, and of course, soccer!  I'm excited to learn about the culture here while I'm also experiencing it as well.

El Río

After classes I went home for lunch and then adventured out the the Río.  The Río isn't actually a river.  It was at one point, but is dried up now.  Instead, there are trees, gardens, and paths where water used to flow.  Maggie and I hopped on the bus to the get there (I'm gonna be a pro at this by the end of my trip!) and met up with Jordan (a friend from Chi Alpha!) and Ryan (he goes to F&M).  It was here that I started to learn what Valencia time is really like.  At orientation we were warned that when someone says they'll meet you at 5, it could be 5:30 or 6 before they actually come.  And that's exactly what happened to us.  I told Jordan I'd meet her there at 5, but I didn't leave my house until 4:55.  Then Maggie didn't come out of her's until 5:10 or so.  When we finally got to the river, it was 5:30, and there was Jordan sitting and waiting for us, but Ryan still wasn't around! (oops!)  I think we finally found Ryan around 6 and then got on our way.

La Festival de las Naciones

Walking through the river we saw a lot of dogs, runners, and just people in general.  We also ran into the Festival de las Naciones.  There were stands set up from countries around the world.  There wasn't much going on while we were there, but we're going back tonight for a concert and to hang out more!  Woohoo!  We also saw a pretty looking building from the river, so we decided to go see what it was.  Turns out it was Valencia's Fine Arts Museum.  We got there at 6:30 and the museum closed at 7, so we didn't have much time to explore but did look around some.  There were mostly religious works of art in the parts that we saw, but they were gorgeous!  There was also a sign saying there were Goya works upstairs, but we had to leave before we found them.  I know we're planning on going back some day to look around more, so I'm excited for that to happen.

The Museum of Fine Arts

After the art museum we decided to return to our casas.  Maggie and I decided we wanted to walk, which would have been all fine and dandy except for the fact that we forgot about the train tracks.  The roads go under and over the tracks, however there's no sidewalk on those roads.  We ended up walking and walking and walking until we finally found stairs to cross them!  Luckily the map on my phone still works without WiFi and we discovered that we weren't too far out of the way, but I think next time we'll take a taxi back and forth!

The view from the bridge over the tracks

I got home around 8:30 or so, and we ate dinner at 9:30.  We had soup and then a banana and ice cream for dessert.  Then I did a bit of reading that I had for class and went to bed.

So I'm going to go take a siesta, but I'll let you know how the concert is tonight!  Wish me luck getting to the river!

El primer día

Today was the first day at the Centro de Estudios (Study Center).  I took the bus over, which was a bit of an adventure.  I had to buy a bonobuses, which is card that I can load rides onto so I can take the bus.  The ride was relatively quick and painless, although my madre came with me so we shall see how quick and painless it is tomorrow.  Once at the center, we had an orientation to see how things work there as well as an academic orientation.  I got my picture taken for an ID card (good thing my hair looked under control today) and had to sign a contract saying that I will only speak Spanish in the Centro.  If I do speak in English, I'll get sent home, and I don't want that to happen.  When signing this contract, we were split into groups based on where we live.  It was nice to find out who our neighbors are, but we didn't really have time to talk.  I do know one girl who lives close by, though.  Her name's Maggie.  She lives two blocks away from me and her host mom is the sister-in-law of my host mom.   We also got a lot of information, like a map (super helpful!) and a map of the buses (also super helpful!).

After orientation, I went with Maggie  on a mini adventure.  We walked around for a little bit and got phones from Yoigo, one of the 4 phone companies here.  We had a bit of a debate as to whether or not we should get them, but in the end decided to so that we have a way to communicate should it become necessary.  It's better to be safe than sorry, and I don't want to end up lost in the middle of Valencia or some other city without a way to call for help.  Going to get the phone, Maggie and I expected to have to talk in Spanish to the seller (and we did) but we had a bit of a safety net because he could speak English if we needed it.  Also, there were a lot of other students buying phones in front of us, so by the time it was our turns we knew exactly what we needed.

Some of the abanicas (fans) that I saw

More abanicas

After getting phones, we took the bus back to our casas.  This wasn't as easy as I just made it sound... we couldn't find the bus our madres told us to take (numero 80) and were wandering around all the stops trying to figure out where we were and which buses could take, but we made it!  While home, we ate la comida (lunch) and droped off our bags, then it was back into the city.  We walked from the apartments to the Mercado Central and all around the area .  First we stopped in the Parque de la Cultura.  There was a museum/shop there that had the prettiest fans, as well as different ceramics and even some instruments.  The fans are a classic Valencian art form, both the making of them and using them.  These were painted with all sorts of pictures, some of women in big skirts standing in parks, others of flowers, and one that looked like a butterfly's wing.  Outside of this museum was a garden with a lot of flowers and a really pretty building. We never figured out what the building was called, but I guess I have a month to do that.

El Mercado Central

From there we continued on to the Mercado Central.  It was closed, as were a lot of other places since it was 6pm, but it was still gorgeous and there were a lot of people out.  Along the streets around the Mercado, there were a lot of little stores selling absolutely everything.  I'll have to go back to get souvenirs, but for now I was just window shopping.  Take a look at the pictures to see what we saw.  After wandering for awhile we went back home for dinner.  My feet hurt from all the walking, but it was a lot of fun!  And it was a great way to get my first taste of Valencia.  For dinner I had a salad with ham, tuna, green beans, tomatoes, and potatoes.  And I think my stomach is finally getting the hang of this new schedule (lunch at 2 or 3, dinner at 10).  Que bueno!  Hasta luego!

Bienvenidos a Valencia

After a day of travel I arrived in Valencia. My flight left for Madrid at 5:05, meaning I got to JFK airport at 2. I flew with Iberia Air on a flight with other UVA students. There are also students from F&M, Davidson, Radford, and a few other places.

Here's the plane I took from New York to Madrid.  It was huge!

At JFK I had to charge my phone, so I sat in the bathroom as it had the only working power supply!! Our flight finally boarded and took off. The plane was 3 rows across, but it did have a personal little tv/screen for each person. On the flight I saw Silver Linings Playbook and some of Les Mis as well as listening to Zac Brown Band. They also served dinner and breakfast on the flight.  Of course it was like 4 hours after one another with very little sleep, so my body was all confused.  I did sleep some though (I only know this because I fell asleep at the song Castle on a Cloud during Les Mis and woke up at One My Own).

Jordan and me in Madrid!

After landing in Madrid and making our way to the next flight, we had about 2 hours to kill.  There was a bit of napping, but mostly we talked with the TA who was flying with us.  She told us all about Valencia and answered some of our questions.  Finally, we arrived in Valencia around 11am local time.  We were driven to the soccer stadium where I met my host mom, Sra. Natalia Mateo.  From there I went to the apartment I'll be living in for the next month and basically slept.  When not sleeping, I ate!  I had pasta for lunch and una tortilla (potatoes and eggs, as well as bread and a banana for dessert!)