October

Laura, Lauren, Me, Bart, Deidre, Alyssa (in the shades), and Megan

Shalom! Before I write about my great weekend, I want to thank everyone for the bday wishes. I'm finally legal in the states, and it still feels like a big birthday here even though nothing changes when you turn 21! These 21 years have flown by, but I'm very fortunate to have been able to experience so many things and travel to so many places.


On Friday morning (and when I say morning, I really mean morning; we had to be at IES at 7:15, so when I got on the metro when it had just opened at 6:30, there were definitely people heading home from a night out on the town..locos) I headed to Valencia with students from IES. We made a stop in Alarcón, in Castilla la Mancha, for breakfast. Oh boy. Croissants, muffins, tortilla española, etc. The small town was built in a strategic area--close to water, and high up, so they could defend their land. We had to squeeze our stick shift coach bus through four different doors that stood as entryways to the pueblo, which was a little freightening. I slept the next few hours away on the bus until we arrived in Valencia. We had two hours of free time, so I dropped my stuff in my hotel room (they put me in a suite on the corner of the top floor by myself!!) and headed with some friends to the beach. The mediterranean was as beautiful and salty as I remembered, but also cool to see and swim in from the other side. Don't worry Mom, I wore sunblock. The sand felt so soft under my toes compared to Lake Michigan sand. My east coast friends made fun of me for thinking the beach at Lake Michigan counts as a real beach. I collected a few seashells.


Oops, my friends and I barely made it back in time for the walking tour of Valencia. I'm glad we did, because we saw what used to be the most important market on the Mediterranean--Valencianos used to sell silk, and the market is a beautifully constructed building to show off the pueblo's wealth. My favorite part of the tour was when we were served horchata, a drink made out of a form of vanilla-ish cocoa, and tasted sort of like a milkshake. Per usual, we saw many street vendors selling fedora hats and various other chochkees. Last, we climbed up some veryy steep sets of stairs to the top of the famous cathedral in Valencia where we could see the entire city. There was also huge carillon bell at the top of the tower. I'm sorry to say, I did not have enough time to grab my camera between beach time and tour time, so I didn't get any pictures of the tour.


After, we had free time! Woohoo! I took a wonderful shower in my fancy bathroom and met up with some friends. I ended up with some students I didn't know well before the trip, and it was really fun to get to know some new people. We went to dinner at a Moroccan restaurant which didn't look very appetizing (went there because it was cheap) but it ended up being very delicious. Afterwards, we walked around town and had some excellent helado. Later, we went to a cool bar where we had to try the drink our tour guides warned us about: Agua de Valencia. It was delicious: Champagne, Orange Juice, Vodka, and Sugar.


On Saturday morning, we first we went to a 360 degree imax theatre to see a movie about mummies and pyramids in Egypt. I may or may not have had an excellent nap during this time. Then we went to the biggest aquarium in Europe! The jumping picture above is in front of it. We saw baloogas, sharks, penguins, sting rays, dolphins, and nutella crepes. After the cool aquarium, we drove to dinner where we were served paella, a very famous Spanish dish which originated in Valencia! Below is a picture. Excellent viaje overall.



Yesterday morning (Sunday) I went to El Rastro flea market with Alyssa. Made a great purchase of 3 euro earrings, but held off on other temptations because I'll go there with Papa Bill next Sunday! Last night I met up with some IES kids and some friends on another program to go to the last bull fight of the season. Getting tickets was sort of crazy--the ones being sold in the "legit" places were at least 100 euros, way too much for a student abroad for a year to spend. There were many sketchy scalpers coming up to us, but we were in a group of 10ish and each scalper only had 2 or 3. We eventually decided to split up, and me and four friends were approached by a man who said he had cinco billetes in the same place on the second floor. He asked for 15 euros a piece, so we took the deal (the bullfight was starting at that minute). We quickly went inside and asked the nice ticket man which staircase to take to our seats, and he sighed and said he recommended the elevator. A few minutes later, we found ourselves split between two sections on the very top top top of the stadium, aka nose bleed seats. They ended up being better, because the bullfight was bloodier and much more vulgar than I had remembered it from eighth grade when I was here. All in all, I enjoyed being very Spanish for the afternoon and screaming "Olé!" at the cute torredor.

can you find me in this picture?

A few friends are taking me out for my birthday tonight. Can't wait :)