Time is dwindling...

Ahhh! I can't believe how little time I have left here and I can't help but thinking about how hard it will be to readjust to life in the US. Everything is so much more laid back here! Plus, I've gotten used to not having a ton of school work...not good for next year. So not too much exciting has been happening, just trying to enjoy the time I have left with the friends I've made here. It's so sad! On Saturday the ISA group went to the Albufera, a natural reserve about 20 minutes outside of Valencia. We went on a boat through it, which was fun. the weather was perfect! After we went to the beach outside of it, which was even more gorgeous than the Valencian beaches and had so many waves!
The next day, Jenna and I went for a walk in the rio and came upon a festival in the park. In Sevilla for the past week there has been the "ferrier de sevilla", a celebration for Sevilla kind of like our Fallas, where everyone dresses up in traditional clothes etc. The festival in the rio was put on by the people who used to live in Sevilla but not live in Valencia. Lots of women and little girls were dressed up in traditional flamenco outfits and there was lots of food. In addition, they had horses-Andalusians! They were gorgeous, and they had a rink where they were showing them, prancing and rearing. It was fun, except one of the men was using spurs on his poor gorgeous horse and it was starting to bleed. Our Spanish mom also showed us pictures from when she was a little girl and her mom had dressed her up for every festival. There were pictures of her as a Valencian fallera and wearing the Sevillian flamenco dress. It was adorable. She grew up in Madrid with her family, and has one son who works as a translator on a cruise ship...so he gets to travel the world. Really cool. Susana is a really smart woman and I look up to her a lot. She's really smart and knows everything about politics as well as every spanish celebrity. She loves animals, and apparently had to stop watching Snakes on a Plane because there's a part where the snakes kill the animals in storage...nevermind the part before where people shot each other. She's very progressive and I like to listen to her thoughts about the world. For instance, there's a major social issue here with immagrants from Africa who can't get work permits. They're fleeing from much worse situations, but without work permits can't survive. Therefore, they make a living selling illegal things like pirated movies and knock off designer handbags. They're everywhere, and when the police come, they grab their goods and take off. Our host mom buys from them because she says it's much better than having them steal from people to earn a living. It's an interesting concept: which illegality is worse?
I think that all of the social and political issues here are very interesting. Some are the same but some are entirely different. I need to continue to keep up on my European politics when I return the the U.S....which is really soon. Oh man.

Home Sweet Valencia

So I'm back in Valencia again, and I've already had a really interesting week. I went to a Paella cooking class! It wasn't as awesome as I imagined, since we basically just watched a chef do it and he told us what he was doing while he did it. It was still pretty helpful though, and I definitely will be making my own version of paella once I get back to the US. After watching him cook it, we got to eat it...it was really amazing. After that we went to a bar with a bunch of us, where we had quintos, which are really small beers in bottles that you can get 2 for a euro. It's pretty economical. Haha. Then we went to a Valencia game. We were all the way in the top of the stands, which was really awesome because we could see everything in the stadium as well as outside. We had lots of space and it was pretty much the ISA kids so it was really fun, but we didn't have quite the intense atmosphere as the more expensive seats with the hardcore fans. It was a good game though, and Valencia beat Bilbao 2 to 0. Yay European soccer! Valencia is third in the league, while Barcelona is first and Real Madrid is second. It's really cool seeing the highlights of the games every day on tv so I'm constantly updated with the soccer here! I love it!
Also, I've been meeting with an intercambio, a Spanish person who is learning english. We take turns speaking in english and spanish so that we can learn the languages better from native speakers. His name is Carlos and he goes to school at the University of Valencia. He's really cool! I've taught him ridiculous slang, like the word "sketchy". My accent has definitely gotten a lot better and talking with him in spanish forces me to think in spanish. It's really hard, but it kind of gives me a rush. I just feel so good when I'm understanding everything and thinking in spanish.
Our nights out are getting continually later. Last night I looked at my clock and saw that it was 3:45am. I literally had the thought that "wow, it's still early". Everything happens later at night here. Also, being in Spain has made me so much more laid back. My intercambio had emailed me about meeting one day, so I walked for a half an hour in the rain to meet him at the school, waited for about an hour, just flipping through my spanish dictionary, realized something must have happened or he hadn't gotten my response email, and headed back home. I wasn't even upset. I feel like in the US, we're so rushed. If I had gotten somewhere on time I would have waited maybe 15 minutes (not enough here since EVERYONE is ALWAYS late), been really really annoyed that they wasted my time, and left. It just wasn't a big deal to me, even though overall travel time took about an hour, plus the hour that I waited for. I think readjusting will be really hard...

Milan and Lake Como

The next day we wistfully left our beloved Venice to catch a train to Milan, where we met up with 2 other girls from our program. We wandered around the city and saw the Duomo, the insane and awesome cathedral there. It was really beautiful inside. We also saw the crazy shopping center that features all the designer stores, like Gucci and Armani etc. Needless to say, we couldn't afford any of them. The next morning we took a train to Lake Como, about an hour outside of Milan. It's beautiful! The lake is y shaped and around the outside you have a view of the snow covered Swiss Alps. George Clooney owns a house somewhere along Lake Como, but alas, we didn't see him. We had the BEST gelato here. At night, we had fun playing cards with the hostel manager, who was British but had been living in Italy for a while. The next day, we stayed for as long as we could, and just sat on the rocky beach before we caught the train back to Milan. The city of Milan was just like any other big city. It didn't have the charm of the other Italian cities we had seen. It was just like Madrid or New York. It was a cool urban atmosphere, and it had a really fashiony feel, but it was probably my least favorite. However, the hostel was a lot of fun. We ended up meeting a bunch of cool people, some from South Africa, and others that were Americans studying in Madrid. One of the girls studying in Madrid, actually was from New Hampshire and is friends with one of the girls on my Hartwick soccer team! These connections are crazy and make me wonder how many we never find out about. It's a small world after all.
The next day we flew out of Milan back to Valencia, where the weather was gorgeous. We spent Sunday, the day after our return from vacation, on the beach. Gotta love this.

Venice!

We arrived in Venice at 7:30 am on Easter. We met up with our friend Kelsey in town and then went to our bed and breakfast that was really cute. We just wandered along the narrow streets and canals, admiring how gorgeous everything was. A lot of the houses were old, and prettily colored. They had such a quaint charm, and the complete lack of cars added to the atmosphere. It was so beautiful. We wandered into lots of little shops where they sold really cool glass (Murano class from Venice is world famous) things and there were Venetian masks everywhere! We decided to go out for a good meal that night since it was Easter. They eat around 7 in Italy, which is so much earlier than Spain! We went to a cheaper restaurant and got pasta and some red wine. It was lovely. The next day we wandered some more and found the main plaza. It's absolutely gorgeous. The basilica, their cathedral is stunning. There are also toooons of pigeons. It's crazy! Around the square are lots of upscale cafes, with seats outside and live music playing. We went to get coffee at one but discovered that there was a 7 euro covercharge for sitting outside with the orchestra on top of a 7 euro coffee. Ridiculous! Inside of the Basilica is incredible. There are so many religious mosaics and gold and it covers the entirety of sloping ceiling and arches. There are also 4 horses that were stolen by Venice from Istanbul there a very long time ago when Venice was a huge power in Italy and Istanbul, the capital of the western roman empire, that had taken a lot away from Venice, started to lose power. The history of Italy is so interesting. Everywhere you go, something important happened. It's so cool. I would love to take a class just about the Roman empire. Venice was so beautiful. We also saw a major bridge that was designed by the same architect who did our ciudad de artes y ciencias, which you could definitely tell.
The last day we rode on a gondola!!! It was so exciting. It was just how you imagined a gondola ride would be, beautiful and tranquil. It was preeetty romantic for me, Jenna, and Kelsey, haha. The gondolier pointed out Marco Polo's palace, the oldest Gondolier making place, places where The Italian Job was filmed, and Cassanova's house! It was a perfect day, and the perfect time of day, as we didn't run into any other gondolas. The day before we'd seen a 9-gondola jam on a really touristy stretch and really didn't want that. It was excellent. We ate lots of gelato and I got this really sweet Murano glass necklace. Venice is definitely a must see place for everyone, and it's slowly sinking so get over there!

Amalfi Coast: Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi, and Salerno

On Monday, we took a train from Rome to Napoli. From there we took another train to Sorrento, a town on the coast. We had some difficulties with the train, as it broke down part of the way into the trip and had to backtrack to the last station. There, we got on a train already full, and so we ended up crammed in and standing for most of our hour long ride. Not fun. Then we got off one stop later than we were supposed to and ended up walking a long distance with our heavy backpacks to our hostile. Not great, but we had fun when we went to town. It was very touristy, but there were lots of cute little shops on cute cobble stone streets. We had lots of problems with the Italian boys in this town. They would stare at us as they drove by on mo-peds, literally turning their heads all the way around as they passed, and beeping and whistling. When Jenna and I went to a restaurant, the waiter was hitting on me ridiculously, beginning with, "can I get you anything? Food? Drink? My phone number?" Haha. jenna and I also bought some Limoncello, a lemon liquor that's really popular in Europe and is produced here. Delicious! We bought some lemon flavored chocolate too, which was sooooo delicious. The views in Sorrento were gorgeous of the sea, with big cliffs and cute houses. We could also see Mount Vesuvius across the water from us, since we were really close to Pompeii. I wish we could have gone there for a bit, but we enjoyed all the other places we saw.
The next day, we hopped on a bus, through winding passageways up and down mountains to Positano. It was absolutely gorgeous. There was a beach and the weather was gorgeous, plus narrow little cobblestone streets all up through different parts of the cliffs that we would explore. The houses were all different colors, and it was just so scenic. There were a lot less tourists here, but the stores were boutiques, a little bit out of my price range. Jenna and I spent most of our two days here hiking and relaxing on the beach. We had some delicious cappuccino and a canoli that was fantastic as well. I think Positano is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.
On Thursday, we took a bus over to Amalfi. It was beautiful as well, though a bit more of a city. Our hostel was a little bit outside of the city, in Atrani, which was a really small town. We explored the cities for a while. There was a really gorgeous church in Amalfi. After eating lots of bread to save money, we decided to binge on Italian food and got some delicious lasagna and bruschetta. We also had some Nutella gelato that was so thick it was like literally eating Nutella on a cone. Yum. That night, in Atrani, we watched a small town Easter procession. The people wore all white and masks (kind of KKK like) and carried a big alter with the crucifixion of Jesus on it. Others carried torches, and we think that nearly the entire town followed this procession, chanting. It was really neat to experience.
The next day we took a ferry to Salerno. It was definitely the biggest city of all the Amalfi Coast, and we found that it was our least favorite. for lunch, we had a kebab. Kebabs are only the most amazing food in Europe. They're basically their fast food/late night food and are Turkish. They involve a pita or wrap and a ton of really delicious meat that they roast for long periods of time. Then there's lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and lots of really good spices. They're to die for. Anyways, haha, we just explored the city for a while. We found a really neat church, and there were lots of boutiques to look at. We went and laid on the beach for a while and read. I read so much english books this trip, what with all the train rides and travel time. I read the Portrait of Dorian Gray, traded it in for Witch and Wizard, and then Jenna let me read her copy of The Shadow of the Wind. The Shadow of the Wind was really amazing and I definitely recommend it. It takes place in Barcelona, so it was neat that I had seen lots of the places they talked about. And it's just really intense. The next day we hopped on a train to Bari, where we got in really late, so that we could take our plane from there to Venice. That Saturday night was spent in the airport. Fun fun.

Rome!

It's been a while, as I've been off on my spring break in Italy. First, I went to Rome with Jenna. It was amazing! There's just so much history there that you can see everywhere you go. When you go for a walk through the modern downtown you'll just randomly come across some old ruins. Saturday, our first full day there, we went to all the sites. The Coloseeum was just amazing. It's so different in person, just standing in front of it makes you feel so small and insignificant when it's a piece of such ancient history that has stood for about 2000 years. Inside is even grander. I couldn't stop taking pictures. After that we went to the Roman forum, which are ruins from the ancient city. It's so insane. I tried numerous times to just imagine what the city would look like if all the buildings and pillars and walls hadn't crumbled. It's so cool. We wandered around the city for a while longer and saw more sites, like all the crazy buildings and monuments. This included the Trevi Fountain, and Pantheon and such. We also ate some gelato, which is the best ice cream EVVVVER, and some fast food pizza, which they literally sell by the gram. It was AMAZING. The next day, Palm Sunday, we went to the Vatican where we saw the pope! Then we went inside the museum and got to see old Greek sculptures, tons of painting and other sculptures, and finally the Sistine Chapel. Everything was so ornate and beautiful. The Sistine Chapel is so much more than the one image that everyone knows. It's a huge room covered completely is beautiful paintings, on all the walls and the ceiling. I wish I could have just laid down and stared at the ceiling for hours, but it was pretty crowded,and there were signs that specifically said, no sitting. Overall, Rome was really cool, but packed with tourists. I don't think I'd want to be there for any length of time, but I loved just wandering around and randomly running into famous buildings or more ruins. It's definitely a must-see city.

End of Fallas

Fallas has continued to be more awesome. tuesday night we watched the fireworks again. This time they started at 1 am. Everything happens so much later here! Then we continued to meet up with a bunch of friends of ours in the program and wandered down to Barrio Del Carmen, where there were tons of young people drinking and dancing on the street. It was a lot of fun. The guys had fun throwing petardos at each other...they're actually pretty fun. I no longer jump evey time I hear one go off, since it happens all the time! Yay! Wednesday we went to the Mascleta again. It was so powerful that we could see the glass windows of the buildings around us shaking. Later, we went to watch a parade of Falleras and Falleros bringing flowers to a huge Virgin Mary wooden frame (ofrenda). People attach all of these one little bunch at a time to form a dress with crazy patterns. It's insane and goes on for two days. We have to check it out again tonight when it's finally finished. Then Jenna and I checked out a bunch of little artisan stands that were set up. They had some really neat stuff. At night, we met up to go to an Irish pub to celebrate St. Patrick's Day a little bit. It was fun and there were so many people there! We ended up making friends with some guys from Manchester, England who were really cool. Then we went to the fireworks, which were magnificent again. After, we headed toward Carmen but wandered around a lot, seeing new Fallas and drinking and talking. Then, we came across one of many neighborhood party tents and asked someone if we could go in. He said yes and we ended up dancing with a bunch of Falleros to Spanish and American music! It was soooo fun and such an awesome experience. We made it home by 6 am and then woke up at 12, the same times as before, so that we could go to the Mascletas. This is such a crazy week but it's so so fun and I'm just so happy that I'm actually here in Valencia experiencing this! Yesterday, Friday, was the creama, or burning of all the Fallas. We chose to watch the violin one (picture in a previous blog). It was amazing! They set off all the noisemakers and sparklers and fireworks and then burned it. It was like the biggest bonfire I'd ever seen! There were electric cables pretty close to the enormous fire which seemed kind of dangerous, and I think that's why the bomberos had to keep spraying water all around the Falla. The problem was, all the ash falling mixed with the water, and when the wind blew slightly toward you, you'd get covered with wet drops of black ash. Kinda gross, but the fire was epic enough to make up for it. Tonight I'm going to a bull fight, which will hopefully be really cool. And, it's 21 degrees! Hot day! Woo woo! Yay for the end of Fallas, it was definitely the most exciting celebration I've ever been a part of.

Beginning of Fallas!

Fallas is amazing! We got back from Granada and in just about every little square all over the city there is a huge Falla! They're these constructed statues that are stories tall and of cartoon like characters (often charicatures of famous people). They're so cool! Luckily I've been here long enough to recognize a lot of these people! And there's so many of them! People are going crazy here. We went to the Mascleta on Monday and there were so many people there. Everyone was drinking beer in the square and the noise was sooo loud. We learned that you can't plug your ears or the force of the fireworks might actually rupture your eardrum. Ouch! It was really cool though. The whole ground rumbles! Later that night we went to fireworks, which were so much better than any I've ever seen in the states. They made us stand so far back because they were so strong and huge! They do this every night and I'll definitely be going. All around us people were just chillin, watching the fireworks and drinking in the streets (botellon). And throughout every day there are so many people with little fireworks (petardos) and noisemakers and things that make loud sounds. It's INSANE! Then we went to check out the "iluminacion", which is a ton of lights along a couple neighborhood's streets. It was so gorgeous. We were surrounded by lights. Amazing. Then, around 2am, we saw a big fire in the park, we went to investigate and saw that a TREE was set on fire!!! So insane!
Today we walked around town some more and saw parades and parades and groups of Falleras and Falleros. They wear traditional clothing and the women wear their hair in a sci-fi like manner that looks wicked sweet. I guess all the neighborhoods have groups and they dress all the kids up and lots of the older people, and each has a band with them and they walk around the city. It's just crazy. We had our first churros and chocolate from a stand and they were AMAZING! Fallas is just going to keep getting better and better. I'm psyched.

Granada

Hola! Granada was amazing! Friday night we went to a flamenco show in this place called "La Cueva" or the cave. The dancing was so gorgeous. There were two guitars, and older man singer, 3 female dancers, and 1 male dancer. It was really pretty, with graceful arm movements and tapdance like feet tapping to the beat (very quickly, like 32nds!) It was really moving. The older man's singing voice was raspy and it sounded kind of like a husky blues singer. Everything was gorgeous. Saturday morning we went to visit the Alhombra, the palace which was the last threshold of the Muslim sultans in Espana before the reconquest by the Catholic Kings. It was the most gorgeous place I've ever seen. The gardens were so pretty, with amazing fountains and plants. And inside the actual palace was soooooooo gorgeous. There were intricate carvings and tiling on every wall, with beautiful columns and views of the hills which are covered in cobble stone streets and old white houses. It's just amazing. Words and pictures just can't describe it. Another awesome part about Granada are the tapas. It's so cheap to eat and drink! When you go to a bar and order a beer or sangria, you receive a tapa, which is basically a little snack with it. this can range from little sandwiches and french fries to potatoes with interesting sauce and meat on them. They're delicious and you can make a dinner out of them by having a couple beers. And it cost the same as beer in Valencia! Awesome! We also wandered around some of the Arab markets, which were cute and had some neat stuff. We went to the huge cathedral and saw the tombs of Ferdinand and Isabel (the ones who gave Christopher Columbus money) and Juana la Loca and her husband Felipe of Portugal. There were amazing carvings! We saw Isabel's crown and scepter as well. Pretty sweet. Then we walked up some of the hills and looked around the beautiful white houses. It's so pretty. If I'm ever rich, I would buy one of those houses, overlooking the Alhombra. Saturday night we went to a discoteca that was high up and had an amazing view of the lit up Alhombra at night. It was super cool. Overall, Granada was pretty amazing. Now let Fallas begin!

Ciencias, Cine, y Cultura

Hi! Saturday night we went to a discoteca which was really fun. We tried to live the Spanish lifestyle and made it to staying there until 5 am, but then we decided to go home and get some sleep. Still a little early for the Spaniards though. Sunday, me, Allison, and Jenna went to the science museum. It was so fun! They had lots of hands on type things for kids, which we had a blast with. I am the best at tying shoes with surgical equipment, my back is the hottest (learned from a heat detector), and my feet are Egyptian type (learned from some type of computer that told me about my feet). Hmmmm. Mostly I just love science! :) When Jenna and I went for a run through the park earlier in the day, there were so many kids throwing fireworks! They're just things that make really loud sounds. We even saw a bunch of parents teaching their very young children how to throw smaller ones. I unfortunately jump every time someone throws one. They're just so much louger than in the United States! And it's an entire week and a half before Fallas even begins! Ridiculous. Apparently during Fallas the older kids (with the bigger firecrackers) start to target anyone who flinches, so I need to work on that. We also learned about popular fireworks called "Borochos" (drunkards), that travel in crazy paths and you never know which direction they're going in and are dangerous if they hit you! Ahhh! Fallas will be crazy. We also went to the Mascleta, and there were tons of people there. Suppsosedly, they increase in intensity each day and this one was even crazier than before! This time there were colored rockets and a bunch of louder ones. Very exciting!
Monday night I played basketball with some of the ISA kids (no soccer fields available) and we met some cool Spanish guys. It's cool how easy it is to get in on a pickup game or how people will ask to join. It's really relaxed and everyone is so friendly. Tuesday, Jenna and I went to a street market by the Plaza de Torros. It was huge! The markets here have EVERYTHING you could possibly need. They have kitchen accessories to lingere to baby clothes to toilet seats to lamps. Awesome! They have so many clothes that are cheap. I bought a dress that was a knock off of one that I fell in love with in a really fancy expensive store. yay! I also bought a cute shirt that I managed to barter for, and had a good conversation with the vender. It was really fun. And I got a pair of really cute comfy flats for only 4 euros! Markets are definitely the best place to buy cheap clothes, especially since rebaja season is over now. Wednesday night I went with my grammar class to a movie theatre and we watched El Secreto de Sus Ojos, the Argentinian film that won an Oscar. It was good, but I found it difficult to follow in Spanish. I think, since I don't have that much difficulty with movies we watch on tv or Aguila Roja, that this is because the accent was completely different than what I was used to. Overall, it was a pretty good movie though. The theatre was similar to a US one, but had a weird slope that went down in the middle and back up again. I'm not sure how, but it worked out so everyone could see. And there was no popcorn. There were only vending machines for drinks and candy. It wasn't a big huge cinema though, and one friend told me that there's a cine where you get bags of candy like a candy store! We're going to Celda 211, the winner of best picture for the Spanish awards, the Goyas with our cine class. Speaking of the Oscars though, our host mom got up at 5am to listen to the Oscars on the radio to hear who the winners were. She gets very excited about those things, and it's adorable.
Today I had my first and only midterm for my vanguardia class. I think it was pretty easy, but who knows since it's all in spanish and we had to write an essay and such. It's a pretty good class. Otherwise, I've continued to observe differences in Spanish culture. They cook with mainly olive oil and hardly ever butter. I don't think I've seen butter the entire time I've been here. Our culture professor says it's a lot healthier. The food is delicious. I'm going to take a paella cooking class sometime in April! I've also learned a lot about the politics here. There's two parties, el Partido Popular (the popular party) and the PSOE (Socialists). Basically, the PP is the conservative party like our republicans, they protest abortions and like religion in schools, no rights for homosexuals, etc. The Socialist Party is the liberal party, and not the same as socialists are in the US. The current president is Zapatero, who's a part of the PSOE. Our Senora likes him and is pretty liberal herself. She knows a lot about politics, and famous people, and everyone we see on the news. So, I suppose that makes me a Socialist here. It's all very interesting. Politically they have a lot of the same issues as us. For example, they wanted to put in a power plant, but there were a lot of protestors, for each side. Putting in the power plant would provide work for many many people, but also risks environmental problems in the future. Ultimately, they aren't going to put it in. Their economy is also pretty bad. It's kind of funny, because they call it "La Crisis", rather than saying the economy is bad. Our culture teacher told us we only needed to print out pictures in black and white since we were in the crisis, and restaurants advertise their deals with slogans like, "our solution to the crisis". It's almost how we named the Great Depression. Unluckily for them (but very luckily for me), the value of the Euro is dropping. It's now about $1.4 to every euro which makes a big difference with large amounts of money.
So, tomorrow we go to Granada, which will be GORGEOUS, and after that we don't have school for the crazy week that is Fallas. After that, we have one week of school, and following that, 2 weeks of vacation in which Jenna and I will be in Italy! We have so much time off! And Fallas is going to be amazing. I can't wait. I'll write soon.

More Pre-Fallas

The Mascleta was amazing! It was so loud and you could feel the rumblings deep in your chest. I'll try to get a video up soon. This week has been pretty good. On Monday I played some soccer and basketball with a bunch of the ISA kids. It was pretty fun. On Tuesday, a few of us went to explore downtown Valencia. It was our day to be tourists in our own city and we took a bunch of pictures. We went up a tower called Migueleta that was over 200 steps in this winding narrow spiral. When we got to the top it was amazing though! We could see the whole city! Then we went into a cathedral and saw the arm of San Vicente, the patron saint of Valencia. Yes, an arm. In a box. It was kind of gross...but kind of awesome. We got some chocolate con churros after. I guess during Fallas they set up vending stands of Chocolate con churros all over the city. They're like our fried dough! Yummmm.
Today we went to the Falla museum and got to see ninots from winning Fallas since the year 1932! We also got to see pictures of the entire huge thing! Some are bigger than buildings!!! I'm so excited! And they only save one small figure (sometimes taller than me) from the entire huge, elaborate Falla. The rest are burnt which will also be awesome. The weather hasn't been overly great this week so I haven't been doing too much exciting. Well, not too much happening. Next weekend we get to go to Granada in the south. The architecture there looks amazing from what I've said. There is a huge palace from when the Muslims inhabited Spain. I've been learning a lot of spanish history and it's fascinating. They were taken over so many times! That's what you get for living on a peninsula that basically connects Europe and Africa I suppose. Well that's it for now. I'll write again soon. :)

Sorry it's been a while! Here goes: On Sunday, we went for a walk downtown and came upon a parade! It was really neat. There were lots of children dressed up and I had to laugh at some of the cultural differences...some were churros, and one was a windmill (Don Quixote)! There was lots of music and people. This is because we're coming upon Fallas, a huge celebration for Valencia. It celebrates their patron saint, Joeseph the carpenter. The actual festival begins March 15, and we have that entire week off! The central part of town will be covered with ninots, huge intricate carved figures. These are of all sorts of things, from political figures to disney characters, to charicatures of normal people. On Monday we got to go to an exhibition where we could see a bunch of them. They were amazing! At this exhibiton, people vote for their favorite figure, and on the last day of Fallas, the favorite of the people is selected for the Museo Fallero, and everything else is burned! We only saw small figures. The actual things are 2-3 stories tall. And all on fire! It's a pyro's (AKA my) dream come true! I'm so excited! Apparently Fallas is just one huge week-long fiesta, and I can't wait. Also, everyday during Fallas, and starting two weeks before, there are mascletas, which are huge firework shows at 2pm each day. Why during the day, you ask? I think it's more about the smoke and noise. Apparently it's like 5 minutes long and becomes more and more intricate each day. Also, since Fallas is apparently the best thing in the world, tons of tourists come to Valencia for that week. It should be very interesting.
Yesterday, we walked around a lot. We went to the beach to a market we'd been to before and found lots of cheap knick knacks. I got a pair of sweet earrings for 2 euros, a fun scarf for 1, and a sick pair of tights, which all the spanish women wear, for 2.50. Pretty good deals. The weather here has been gorgeous. Apparently there was a snowday at Hartwick, but it's been in the 70s here! I'm not complaining.
There are so many cultural differences! I already think it's going to be hard to adjust to going back home...and I've only been here a month and a half (which is also kind of crazy to think about). One thing is how people greet each other and introduce each other. For girls, with either another guy or girl, you kiss them on both cheeks. It's weird kissing someone on the cheeks as an introduction, but it's kind of nice. It's way more personable than an American greeting. If you were to shake a spaniard's hand, they would think you were rude, and it's insulting to them. Our culture teacher said that it's like basically saying that they're too ugly for you to kiss on the cheek! Anyways, it's just cute.
Today we went to the IMAX theatre and aquarium, which are in some of the really cool mod buildings here. The IMAX theatre was HUUUGE! We watched something about Egypt and mummies. I couldn't get my headphones to go to english so I listened in Spanish, which was good for me. Luckily it wasn't too difficult to understand. The aquarium is the biggest in Europe! I don't think I've ever really been to an aquarium before, except for sea world when I was really little. It was soooooooo cool! There were so many different kinds of fish and SHARKS! And beluga whales! And seals! Basically, I decided that my dream is to scuba dive in a steal cage in the ocean with sharks! The aquarium just reminded me of shark week on the discovery channel this summer, and how fascinating I find them. There was also a dolphin show which gave me dreams of being pushed through the water by my feet and being thrown in the air by dolphins! They're so cute! Maybe I need to work with animals. My psychology training does give me a good background in behavior and reward and such. Hmmm...
There's a huge book festival going on! It's kind of strange because most of them are in spanish, but it's still awesome. I bought an old The Shining by Stephen King from there in spanish and I plan on working my way through it. I'm also looking for something simple like Harry Potter in Spanish or maybe some Greek myths. After finishing all the english books I brought, I also splurged at a legit store and bought The Road by Cormac McCarthy in english, which I've been wanting to read. So far it's really dark (right up my alley) and awesome. But besides all of this my life has been fairly average. Speaking spanish is just a part of daily life, and though I tend to talk english with my friends, everything else in our world is in a foreign language. Coming home is going to be so weird.

Concierto y futbol!

Ahh! Sorry it's been so long! I've been busy with classes and applying for internships for the summer. Anyways, last week I went to play some pickup soccer at ISA and found out that no other people from the program had showed up. That left me alone with a group of Spanish boys that only spoke in rapid spanish. It was still really fun! I played on their team against a group of other boys in a small sided (8 v 8) game. It felt so good to be playing again and their level of play was really high. I think it's great that there's so much more pickup soccer here, and at a much higher level than home. Futbol is truly a huge part of the culture here. I could play with them but had a little difficulty with my running sneakers on turf after it had been raining earlier that day. They told me that it was really uncommon for girls to play futbol in Spain and sure enough a group of girls came to cheer some of the boys on. I was the only girl on the field! The boys on the other team had no idea what to do with me. They were really physical with each other but were afraid to touch me! The guys on my team were really nice. A couple of them walked me home after and we had a really interesting conversation about our different cultures. One of the guys asked me if parties in America were like the ones in the movies, like American Pie! A few of them knew little bits of english and would throw them in (in thick spanish accents) whenever they could. Like one guy said to meet back there next week at 6 in spanish and another said "six o'clock". They were really sweet and I'd love to get to know them better. They'll especially be able to help me with my spanish. Now I just need some legit soccer shoes and to learn soccer vocab and I'll be set! Unfortunately this week it's been really rainy so I didn't get to play. :(
I also went to a free concert on Sunday! 35,000 people attended!!! It was so crowded but the atmosphere was awesome. It took place between all the Center of Artes y Ciencias buildings. It was so fun! The main band that played was the Arctic Monkeys, a British band. I was familiar with their music before, but didn't really know the words to any of their songs. Their performance was great and three other bands that played before them were pretty good too. We got pretty close to the stage, enough that we were somewhat in the mosh pit which was preeetty interesting. In the end, confetti sprayed up and out over the whole crowd! It was amazing! Our shoes and pants were really disgusting after though because it was raining and dirty in the crowd. For Valentine's day the next day, me and my chicas went to get chocolate con churros! Que rico!
Today, we helped our Senora with some english! She had a friend calling from Paris who was trying to figure out what an english hotel offered. Senora spelled out the word to us (with spanish letters) and we translated it into spanish! That was actually really exciting for me...for once my english was useful! And I was able to translate my native language into something that made sense to her! The end for now...but my weekend is just beginning!

Barcelona!

Barcelona was amazing! Everything about it was wonderful. The architecture, the markets, the nightlife...it's definitely a city that everyone should visit at some point in their lives. The drive to Barcelona was beautiful. One one side of us were mountains, and on the other, the Mediterranean for the entire trip. When we arrived mid afternoon we had the entire day to do whatever we wanted. A group of us went to visit the nearby Sagrada Familia, the intricate cathedral designed by Gaudi. Words cannot describe how amazing it was. It's so unlike any building you've ever seen. Every part was incredibly intricate and beautiful. I couldn't stop taking pictures, but I realized there's no way to capture its magnificence. You simply have to stand in front of it and stare. We walked around and checked out a few stores before getting some bread and cheese for dinner. That night, we went to the "Dow Jones" Bar. It had tv screens around the bar that told you the prices of drinks. The prices would fluctuate with supply and demand. So, if you bought a beer, you would watch the price of that particular beer go up. If a drink wasn't bought for a while it would start to drop in price. It was so fun! And every once in a while the stock market would crash and all prices would plummet for a short time. It was definitely one of the most interesting bars I've ever been to.
The second day, we got a tour around the older part of the city that included a very old cathedral and columns from a 2000 year old Roman temple that used to be there. The cathedral was absolutely gorgeous on the inside. All of the carvings, vaulted ceilings, and stained glass were jaw-dropping. It was just gorgeous. The Roman columns were left over from when the Romans had taken over Spain. In modern times, building was built over them to help preserve them. They're so old! Standing in front of them I felt a profound need to learn more about the ancient world. I want to understand more about different cultures, how they created such beautiful things without our modern tools, but mostly I want to know the stories of all the humans who lived and died long before me. I can't really describe it, that just sounded kind of cheesy, but seeing something that old is powerful. The world has changed so much. What will it be like in another 2000 years? What will the world know about me?
Later on that day, a group of us girls walked along Las Ramblas, a street with a huge market. It was really cool, and the venders were really friendly. There were also lots of performers doing strange things like pretending to be statues, making strange sounds, or pretending that their head was disconnected from their bodies. It was very strange, but quite fascinating. That night we went out with a large group of ISA students to a couple bars. The first was technically supposed to be a Lord of the Rings bar, which made a number of us very excited. However, it turned out just to be fantasy themed, with lots of trees and waterfalls. It was very different from anything I've seen before. After that we went to a bar called Chupitos, which means shots in Spanish. They had over 100 shots with random names. We ordered Harry Potter shots and to our delight, watched them set on fire. Then the bartender sprinkled some "magical" powder over top of them and the fire burst up! It was amazing! Barcelona definitely has the most exciting nightlife I've ever experienced.
Sunday morning we went to visit Parc Guell, a park designed by Gaudi. Everything was gorgeous. His architecture is ingenious. Everything flows together rather than having harsh lines, and he uses so much color. He also recycled broken cups and plates and such to make up his tiling. It was awesome. After that we visited a couple of houses in the city that he designed. I wish we had been able to go inside, but we didn't. We all met up at a really tall statue of Christopher Columbus (cristobol colon en espanol), which was covered in what I considered ironic pictures and statues of him helping the natives. Overall, Barcelona was an amazing city to spend a weekend in, but I think I prefer Valencia. It isn't quite as insane and touristy, but it's just as beautiful. I'll write again soon!

Oranges and future expeditions

I'm off to Barcelona tomorrow! I'm really excited. All the Gaudi architecture is going to be amazing! I originally wanted to study abroad there, but I learned that people mainly speak english or Catalan, a strange version of spanish that is regional. I suppose it's similar to the Valenciana that's spoken here, but here at least everything that's posted in Valenciana is also posted in Spanish. However, apparently everyone speaks Catalan there, and I wanted to learn Spanish! Speaking of Spanish, I feel like my comprehension is improving immensely. The only difficulty is actually speaking it. When I speak with my host mom, it's like playing a combination of charades and taboo to try to get her to understand what I'm trying to say but don't know the Spanish word for. Luckily I'm good at both of those. Haha. However, it's hard being with ISA people, because you can talk with and understand them in Spanish, but if you don't know the wordfor something you revert to the English one since they know english. Playing spanish taboo probably makes you a better speaker. I really want to improve and I think my accent is terrible.
On Wednesday night I went to the intercambio at the english speaking bar. It was packed! I met a Valencian woman who I talked to for a while. She had studied abroad in Australia for a while so her english was a lot better than my spanish. She told me about some art festivals and plays that were happening soon, as well as a movie theatre that showed spanish films for 1 euro! I'll definitely have to check them out. It was really fun and I think I'll go back. Next Monday, there's a huge sailboat race here called America's Cup. We're going to go down to the port after class and check it out. And, on Monday, I guess there's a group of Spaniards who invited anyone from our ISA group to join them in small sided futbol games! yay! I'll definitely be doing that.
Another thing: I tried orange Fanta here and it is the best thing ever. And I thought lemon was amazing. This orange fanta is so different from US fanta. I don't know what it is, but it has real orange juice and real sugar in it and it is AMAZING. Also, we tried "Agua de Valencia" which is a local mixed drink that has fresh orange juice, champagne, and I think vodka in it. It was pretty good. Almost every place we go around here has a machine to squeeze oranges, just like everywhere has alcohol. Both are present in the heladeria (ice cream store) we went to and school cafeteria. Craziness!
On another note, Jenna and I have been checking out lots of local bookstores. I'm hoping to find some young adult novel to attempt to read in Spanish...I'm thinking Harry Potter. Also, right now I have the strange tango from Chien Andaluz stuck in my head. Chien Andaluz is a very strange movie that we watched in Cine and part of in AvanGuardia. It's an old surrealismo film that was partially directed by Salvador Dali. It is very strange, fascinating, and has a very catchy tango as background music. I guess this is hasta luego now.

Life is good

Hola! So Friday night a bunch of us girls decided to go out to an American bar that we had heard about. It was soooo strange! We talked with the manager-in english! I hadn't realized how accustomed I'd become to speaking Spanish for most things, since a lot of the times the people I'm with are from the U.S. and we'll speak weird Spanglish. It was kind of refreshing just to know that I have a place to go where I'll feel at home. I feel like I can't really go there too much though, it's cheating. We had lots of fun there though and even found out that they're going to show the SuperBowl next Sunday! The 6 hour time difference makes it kind of difficult to watch since it won't end till about 6am here, but I'll probably go. It'll be a fun 8:40 class the next day :/ I think if I'm ever feeling homesick, that'll be a good place to go. They also have a trivia night in english and an intercambio on Wednesday night. I think I want to go to the intercambio. That's when native Spanish and English speakers meet and try to help each other with pronunciation and learning the other language. I think it'd be a great way to meet some Spaniards!
Last post I posted a goal. They are absolutely obsessed with soccer over here, which I love! There are always futbol games on and we always see reports about goals scored or Ronaldo's red card. Another sports player that is always on the news is Nadal, an amazing tennis player. Jenna and I have an ongoing debate about who is mas guapo, Nadal or Ronaldo. I'm naturally on the side of the soccer player, haha. Saturday day, Jenna and I went for a walk through the Rio(the dried up river that is now the parque). There are so many strange statues, as well as soccer fields, and lots of beautiful trees and fountains. There's also a lot of graffiti though. It was a gorgeous day and we took lots of pictures. Later on we met up with a few people in the park and kicked a soccer ball around for a while. I hadn't realized how much I missed soccer already. Saturday night a big group of us went out to another bar called "Eclectico". It had a cool atmosphere but it was a little more expensive. We tried glasses of Valencian red wine. They were pretty good, but Valencia isn't really known for its wine.
Yesterday, a few of us went out to get chocolate con churros. It's so delicious. The hot chocolate part is like a melted candy bar, and the pastries are so hot and fresh. Perfect. Today I had three classes, but for my Spanish Culture class we went into the center of town where we walked around a big market. It's indoors and is where lots of people buy all their food. The grossest parts were the meat vending stands that smelled horrible and had every part of various animals in them. This included chicken feet (do the chickens have large talons? haaaa), pig heads, turkey breast complete with whole legs attached, pig hooves, pig entire dried legs, and rabbit heads, still with eyes. It was a little bit gross but interesting. The professor also attempted to get us all to order beers at an outdoor bar, but most people didn't want to so we moved on. So different from the States! Overall, a pretty good weekend + Monday. Monday here is actually the first day of the week on calendars rather than Sunday. I think it makes more sense.
Oh! One other thing. Television here is really different. Normally we watch the not-public channels which means there are no commercials. However, when we watch the public ones, there are way less commercial breaks than in the US, but they're seriously like 10 minutes long. It's ridiculous. There are also some really funny/clever commercials. Overall though, I'm most surprised by what they're allowed to show on tv. Nothing is edited! We watched Knocked Up dubbed over and the showed EVERYTHING. Nudity is common. On a side note, there's also this dentist office nearby that has a big picture of a smiling woman...naked. It just makes me laugh. But back to tv, Jenna and I are obsessed with this show called Aguila Roja, which is pretty action packed and hilarious. This guy is basicly like a super hero, with his secret identity "Aguila Roja" which means red eagle. He saves people and has a ridiculous comical side kick.
And today, we found out that our senora has a turtle that she keeps in her room. And that the dog is afraid of it. Hahahaha. I guess that's it for now. Hasta Luego.

Sick goal

They show this goal over and over on Sports Replays. It's the second one and it's soooooo sick!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLL!

Food, Drink, and Clothes

Hola! One thing very interesting here is the food. They eat ham with everything! There are even ham flavored ruffles chips in our school's cafeteria. Coffee is also huge here which works out perfectly for me. They put so much milk in it though! We have instant coffee which is made with hot milk rather than water. It's very strange, but good. I've also been eating some sea food, which I don't love, but it's a lot more fresh here so it's not bad. The only difference is the way that they prepare things. My senora made us this dish with shrimp in it, only the shrimp was whole, with a head and outer shell! My host mom was very amused when I had no idea what to do with it. Otherwise, the food has been really delicious!
On Saturday night I went out to one of the gazillion bars here with a bunch of the ISA kids in my group. It was really chill and had a sweet atmosphere. The only thing that's annoying is all the smoke, since there aren't any laws about smoking in bars. Ick. And, almost everyone in Spain smokes cigarettes. I'm not sure why, but I see people of every age, everywhere, smoking. Everything starts so late at night, too! We didn't even go to a discoteca and still didn't get to bed until after 4:30 in the morning! There's so much night life here that's really fun. Soon I think we're going to try to find this jazz club that we've heard about.
I'm starting to get more homework, but it's still so much less than I have at school. The past week has been pretty rainy and cold but I think it's supposed to warm up soon. All the women here wear these awesome boots that don't have a heel. I keep looking for a cheap pair. There are so many fancy boutiques and at the same time so many cheap department stores. Today we went to a street market that is only open on Thursdays. There were so many booths! Some things were so cheap, like cute scarves, and clothes, and purses! I didn't buy anything, but one of the girls I was with bought a pair of cheap, awesome boots, and the other bought a scarf and jacket.
Hopefully it won't be as long till my next post.

Exploration!

Hola! Last night we had a scavenger hunt throughout the center of the city which is the older part of Valencia. There was a beautiful cathedral and some beautiful fountains. There was also this really cool marketplace. I definitely have to return to explore all the cute little shops in the plazas or cobblestone side streets. Some of the building are so ornate and beautiful. I'll have to take pics next time. At the end we all had horchata which is this really sweet ice cold drink that is soooo delicious!
Today, Jenna and I went running to the beach. It was a pretty decent run, through the park and city, that was about 3 miles each way. The beaches are amazing! But, since it's winter here, they were pretty abandoned with only some random walkers or people sitting on the beach reading. It was my first time seeing the Mediterranean Sea! And I think the water's not even as cold as Maine in the summer. It was a beautiful day. Hace mucho sol. And it had to be in the mid 60s with the sun shining on us. Everyone else was wearing thick winter coats and scarves though! It's a holiday so none of the stores are open and most people have the day off. So many of them were out walking! Running here was an interesting experience. I wore a t-shirt and shorts (it's hot!) and Jenna wore a tank top and shorts. People would stare at us in shock because we weren't all bundled up. One old woman even stopped us and asked if we were cold. And mom, we finally found the macchismo. We had guys yelling at us as we passed them. But...they were all old men. Probably the same that yelled at you many years ago. Hahaha. I think it really is a generational thing. When Franco staged a military coup in mid 1930's, he took away many women's rights, resulting in "macchismo", or cocky men yelling dirty things at the women who would pass them in the streets. People who grew up in that generation probably continued that sentiment, whereas today's youth have grown up in a democracy where Franco is infamous and his ideals are wrong.
Today I went for a walk in the park with a few people. We stopped in the skate park where tons of people had gathered. There were families teaching their kids to rollerblade, kids doing jumps on their bikes, kids throwing tires at each other while on bikes (Don't know why), and a bunch of kids break dancing. It was a really cool (spanish word for cool = guay) atmosphere. After that we took a walk down past the science museum to this HUGE bridge. Everything was all lit up and it looked really neat (see above, and look at almost invisible Jenna standing next to the insanely tall bridge).
Also. something really funny that I've noticed here is the music. For the most part, it's not even Spanish. On the news, in grocery stores, restaurants, in the park, for the most part they're random English songs, mostly from the 90s. The dancing kids in the park were listening to old rap songs, like "It takes Two" and "Insane in the Membrane". It's so weird! We know the words to their music better than them!

Mas en Valencia!

Hola! I'm having so much fun here! I've been exploring the city some more and I love it. Valencia is far less touristy than Madrid and Toledo were. This means that people don't immediately switch to speaking in english when they hear your awful accent in just responding with "hola". It also means cheaper prices. Food is equivalent in price to the united states, but in Euros, which are actually 1.5 times the U.S. dollar. So, we've been looking around for cheap markets and stores. Today we found many rebajas (sales) and bought some cute clothes. The cheapest stores are "tiendas de chinos," which basically means that they're owned by Asians. I'm not sure why this is, but saying "Chinos" somehow seems politically incorrect. Haha. We also went to the supermercado and bought some chocolate, water, and fanta limon! Fanta limon is really delicious and isn't available in the United States for some reason. The Coke here is also way better than the U.S., I think because they use real sugar. Sometimes, you can even find it in glass bottles. Basically the only things here that are cheaper than the United States are water, which was .25 euros for about half a gallong of water (conversion = about 39 cents U.S.), and wine and beer. Otherwise, everything is kind of expensive. Foodwise though, everything is way more fresh than the United States. We've had clementines that were grown here and they were so good. I've even had some fish, which I usually don't like, and it's actually good here since they live right on the coast. My senora goes to the market everyday to get fresh food, rather than taking one big trip to the grocery store each week like we do. It's definitely healthier.
One other big difference here is how people socialize. People don't go over to each others' houses to hang out. The home is reserved for family. Instead, friends meet up at cafes or bars after class, or after comida (lunch), or dinner (which usually ends after 10). Stores are open until like 9 o'clock at night, but closed from about 2-5. This whole difference in times means that after dinner when people meet up with their friends, they stay out really late...sometimes even 7 in the morning. I'm not sure how people can do this and then wake up early the next day, unless the secret is a siesta during the long lunch break.
I've now had all of my classes. My spanish cinema class is really fun. We watched this really weird 17 minute movie called The Dog of Andalusia (a translation). It was very strange, but pretty interesting. There weren't any words, which helps. Our professor is also really funny. He's taught us a few spanish swears, as well as the history of Spain in the 1900s. It's really interesting and he's muy gracioso. I also had grammar which won't be all the thrilling but the teacher is nice and seems like she'll try to make grammar fun...if it's possible. Today I had my first Avant garde class. I love the professor. She talkes so quickly but really clearly and in words I understand so I'm able to understand her easily, even though it's really fast! She seems like she'll be a lot of fun and I think her class will be really interesting. Later we have a scavenger hunt throughout the center of the city for ISA so that should be exciting. We also have tomorrow off for Dia de San Vincente and there are going to be fireworks! Hasta luego!

First day of class!

Last night I had my first dinner made by my senora. It was muy deliciosa! She made Jenna (my roommate) and me pumpkin soup that way so so so amazing. Then we had tortillas espanolas which have eggs and potatoes. It was also really good. Today we also had a placement exam and got to meet our teachers. I'm in advanced so all of my classes will be taught in spanish. Ahhhh! I'm taking:
-The avant guard in Literature, Painting and Film
-Spanish Cinema
-Spanish Culture: History, Art and Tradition
-Spanish Grammar.
My class schedule is way different from the United States. In Spain, there's classes and office hours for all businesses in the morning. Then, everyone has lunch at about 2:30 and everything closes from about 2 to 4:30. Then everything reopens. So I have one class that's at 6:00pm! I had my first class today and it was really interesting. I was actually able to pick up on most of what the professor was saying. I had Spanish Culture. One thing he talked about what was the difference in meal schedules. This goes back to the luch schedule. Even crazier to me is that dinner in mi casa is served at 9:30pm. I'm starving by then! Lunch is the biggest meal but there's a huge gap between it and dinner. During the gap, many people head to bars with friends where they enjoy "tapas" with a drink. Tapas are a variety of snack foods that are cooked and are really good. However, when one doesn't consume tapas, one becomes starved between lunch and dinner. Hopefully my stomach can adjust to the spanish food culture. Having a big lunch is supposed to be better than having a big dinner after all.
My spanish is continuing to improve and I'm using it more because I have to with my host mother...and to listen in class. Also today, me and a few other girls from the ISA program decided to explore a little bit. We went through the parque which goes through almost all of the city and used to be a river. Many parts are beautiful but a lot are under construction and kind of messy. Jenna and I are planning on going running there. There was also this huge playground modeled after Gulliver's Travels where you get to climb like a Lilliputian all over this gigantic person with crazy slides and stairs. It didn't really look all that safe for actual children, so I may have played around on it. We also walked down to the ultra modern science building and aquarium. The buildings are gorgeous and so different and interesting. The weather here is fantastic. It's been in the mid 50s which is winter here so everyone is bundled up. It's incredibly warm for me for january though, especially when you're walking everywhere...which is what we do. Thus far I have a lot more to see and learn about Valencia but so far I love it. The new buildings are beautiful and modern while the old ones are beautiful in a completely different way. There is a much greater contrast in the new world vs. old world than in Madrid. It's warm and when it gets warmer I'll be going to the beach that's nearby! The city itself is much bigger than I'm used to but it's a nice change from Barre and Oneonta. There's also a huge soccer stadium right near my school! it's for the Valencian team and I'm sure that I will go see a game. Until next time, hasta luego.