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!