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!)