Valencia!

So this weekend we were in Valencia for orientation, but before I detail that I have to include an anecdote just for my mother: on Thursday afternoon I went out to get tapas and found a bar that was showing the US Open! So I got to watch Murray and Del Potro play! I missed the downfall of Rafa, though. Too bad.

We left for Valencia on Friday morning, stopping first in Peñíscola, which is a little coastal town where the anti-Pope Benedict XIII lived. We had some lunch, enjoyed the beach (a little), and had a tour of the castle and the old city. Look! It's me in the Mediterranean!
The group was divided into 3 groups with different schedules and hotels according to language level and each group had 2 buses. We went on tours with our bus group, which meant it was a group of about 50. It was really cool, the old part is very small and... old. Obviously. We saw where Benedict locked himself away and read the Bible (or something), and saw lots of cool things around the city, including a sign saying not to bring your horse and cart down one particular street. Our tour was supposed to be in Spanish, since we're the advanced group, but it ended up being mostly in English for some reason. The weather was really nice, although when there wasn't a breeze it was really hot. Luckily it was pretty windy. We also saw where their running of the bulls happens. If I understood the woman right, it goes on for 12 days. And... that was Peñíscola. We loaded back up onto the bus and drove to Valencia.

My roommate in Valencia, Rachel, is a math major too! We couldn't figure out how to work the lights in our room, so we talked in increasing darkness until it was time for dinner, and then figured out that you had to put your card in a little slot. Dinner was good, lots of courses again, followed by weiiiiird tiramisu. I went out to grab some drinks with a couple people and had a lot of fun, even though it was a totally random group. We ended up quoting Mitch Hedberg back and forth and talking about the Clintons various gestures - so random. And fantastic. The next day we had a guided tour of Valencia, where we saw the lonja, an old market; a fresh market that is the largest covered market in Spain; a couple important buildings (obviously the tour really stuck with me); and the AQUARIUM! The aquarium is in a part of town with a lot of architecture by Santiago Calatrava, and it is designed by him as well. The picture is of the Hemisfero, which is an Imax theatre/planetarium, and behind it you can see the Opera house. In the other direction is the science museum, a park of sorts with lots of palm trees, and the aquarium. The aquarium was really cool - my favorite part was the belugas, seals, and walruses, especially the walruses, because they were just so big and snorty. Also, it taught me that Finding Nemo is SO REAL. Whatever fish Dory is - there were a lot of those. And eels that legitimately look evil. We also saw these giant spider crabs that were humongous and would lurk in the dark in the back... so creepy. And in one of the underwater tunnels there were tons of sharks going back and forth above and around me! Anyway, the point is, I was a big fan. I went back later with Annie to look at the other parts of the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, and took some pictures of the architecture before my camera crapped out on me. So all of the events of Sunday missed photo documentation. For dinner, we had paella, which was - mass prepared for 100 people. But still good. I want to get some REAL paella though. The next day we did more touring, and went inside the cathedral in the city, where I saw the HOLY GRAIL. Or so they say. Still, a pretender to the grail is just about as important to me as the real cup could be, so it was pretty cool. More touring, and a brief glimpse down into the ruins of the Roman level of the city. They have a part which is preserved and you can look down at it from the street through a big glass window(?) in a square in the city. Unfortunately, it had rained the night before, and the glass was dirty, so we looked through little areas we cleaned of grime. It was weird.

After that we went down to the beach and had a mini tour of the place where the America's cup is held. Apparently it's some sort of sailing competition? And apparently I should know about it. We also saw (and walked on) a Formula 1 track, before ending our tour of Valencia and breaking for lunch. I got a big sunburn at lunch, which we ate at an Italian restaurant, and then we went down to the beach. The water is so nice - it's really shallow and has next to no waves at all, but the temperature! My god! We bussed back to Barcelona, and my host mother asked at dinner if I had been speaking a lot of English that weekend, because she noticed my Spanish was worse. Um, sí? Thanks. So I need to not hang out with Americans and speak English is basically the moral of that story. But I don't really foresee that happening anytime soon.

Today I had my first day of Spanish class, with my kind of weird yet also awesome teacher Ari. We analyzed our personalities by the words we could make from our names. I had "sed" and "ley" - thirst and law. Ok... And that's all I have for you for now. I'm sure it's plenty.