It’s still dark here, so that’s a good sign… it might be 5 AM as I’m typing this out…
So Kelsey and I decided we were going to do something tonight, so we wouldn’t just sit inside on a Friday night. Then our roommates (both are named Anne) decided they wanted to hang out with each other… so in the end, we all decided to do something.
I was really tired and Anne B. (Kelsey’s roomie) decided we’d go to this restaurant to have coffee with Bailey’s. It was delicious. I love coffee, I love Bailey’s… put them together, and you have something special.
Anne B. has many amigos espanoles, so we went to bar and said hi to all of them, but then we decided to go to Portaland’s since we have many free drinks there. We chilled there for awhile. I saw one of the guys I talked to on Wednesday- dos besos. We stayed there for a really long time. Finally it was time for Portland’s to close, so we decided to start walking home.
Kelsey and I in Portland's
Then this group of English/Irish/Scottish lads started talking to us… they talked us into going to a bar across the street with them. It was a super guay bar, and then the guys bought us shots. They were quite the group of funny blokes. We chatted with them all- there were only like 10 of them. I was talking in Spanish with some of them, and then the one guy told me that he wishes he could have my Spanish accent… which was funny. (The competition is really improving my Spanish, not going to lie.)
Then the blokes found out I was from Wisconsin, so they were quite excited about that. Apparently they know some people from Wisconsin in Madrid. Then it was about 4 in the morning and the guys wanted us to go to a club with them underneath the City of the Arts and Sciences. The one guy really wanted to have a dance-off with me.
However, being the Americans that we are, we were tired so all of us but Anne B. decided to go home. On the way home, we met some Spaniards. We were waiting at a stop light when they asked us our opinion on calling someone who gives you their number at the bar. (My roomie Anne H. just had a horrible experience with this, so we were indifferent…) Then we got to talking to them since we were walking the same way home. I talked to the girl, Melia, and we found out that we take classes in the same building and we all go to the Universat de Valencia. Pues, when we came across their apartment, we kept talking with them for a good 10-15 min or so on the sidewalk. In the end we exchanged phone numbers, and we are going to hang out to improve each other’s English/Spanish.
So, a random chain of events that has led to one of the most fun and best nights I have had in Valencia…
Day #2: (Saturday)
First off, my roomie Anne H., got up after approximately 3 hours of sleep and went to Alicante today.
I surprisingly woke up around 9:30 AM, so after a few hours of sleep I was somewhat awake. Kelsey and I were going to go to Xativa and we made plans to meet the night before… she text me, and I told her that we should meet later, after more sleep, comida, and that maybe we should just stay in Valencia after all. (I had the blinds closed and I assumed it was horrible weather like we have been having here.)
Then I went to the kitchen, and was surprised by the glorious sun. So, I called Kelsey back and told her to ignore my text and continue on with our plans.
We met up and then went to the train station, bought a ticket for there and back for 6.90 Euros. When we got to Xativa, Kelsey received a call from her roomie, Anne B. who wanted to meet up with us there.
Kelsey and I ate lunch in a park, went to Mercadona and bought a baguette, soda, and chocolate. Then we made our way up the mountain to the castle. (This mountain is bigger than the one in Sagunto… it took us about an hour and a half to make our way up there…).
Making our way up to the castle...
We stopped in a cave to drink our sodas!
Then we were right outside of the castle when we ran into some other girls from our program… so random! Then we went in the castle, and Anne called and said that her friend Fran was just driving her there in his car and that she’d be there soon. So we made our way in, explored around for a bit, and then finally Anne and Fran caught up with us.
We stayed in the castle until it closed and then made our way down the mountain and proceeded to try and find Fran’s car. It took awhile, but we found it. Then Kelsey and I had the choice of either using our train tickets to get back to Valencia, or Fran said he’d drive us back. We decided the car ride sounded nice, and so I rode in my first car in Spain! It was comfortable and warm and if I hadn’t wanted to see the landscape out the window so much, I would have fallen asleep immediately. Then he drove us all home, so we didn’t have to walk in the cold. : )
Sunset.
Kelsey, Anne and I
The city at night...
So, another fun day, but I am exhausted. There is no one home right now, and it’s cena time so I’m debating whether I should stay awake for a little while longer, or just go to bed. Vale.
Day #3: (Sunday)
Today was kind of an icky day… cold, rainy. We caught up on some missed sleep from the other night, and I was going to go to church and the market in the center, but since I’m coughing/sneezing/blowing my nose every 5 minutes I decided that walking 45 minutes to the other side of the city in the rain wouldn’t be a good idea. So I started to read the packet of homework I haven’t started to do yet.
For comida, our madre made us a warm rice dish with chicken, mushrooms, beans, garlic, and a bunch of other random things in it. Not going to lie- Elvira’s been uping her game on the cooking. This past week she made musaca, and the ever-so-famous paella.
During comida we had an intense discussion that started out about smoking. Elvira’s like 71 years, she’s never been able to quit… She talked about how the government keeps telling you it’s bad for your health, but at the same time they love the money that they get from the tobacco industry. It was really interesting. Then she talked to us about prostitution, and what she calls a “puta.” She said there’s a difference between the woman on the street who’s selling her body to feed her kids at home, and the one who loves money so much and has a house, husband, kids but hooks up with the German guy coming into town for the weekend to get a couple thousand Euros (this is the “puta”.)Some very interesting conversation for comida?
Then Anne and I took a three hour siesta. : )
When we woke up we decided that we needed to get out of the apartment for awhile. So we walked to the old part of town. We wandered into the Basilica and there was a mass going on, but it was half over… so then we went to the cathedral and mass was just starting. So we went to mass. The cathedral is SO huge, and the priest’s voice really echos, so at times it was difficult to understand what he was saying. But for the most part it was really nice, and contrary to Brian Doudna’s belief, we didn’t have to pay to go to church in the Cathedral. Haha.
Then we wandered around a bit more. Anne bought some stuff in a shop. Then we saw a bunch of fireworks and we started getting really excited for Las Fallas. It’s like 3 weeks from now! Can’t wait! It’s interesting too, because they are redoing the flooring in the Plaza de la Reina. It’s been going on since we got here… they’re almost done. (They have to be for Las Fallas.) But it really doesn’t make sense to me… they’re redoing it all only to have a ton of people come, trash it, and then blow stuff up on it..? Idk.
But I really love Valencia right now. I kind of wish we would be here for the summer. I bet it’s just gorgeous…
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