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.

orientation etc.

Yesterday, orientation officially started. I was in the group that started at 11, not at 9, so that was great. I had told Ana (mistakenly, obviously) that I had class at 9:30, so at 10 Paula timidly knocked on my door to see if I had overslept. Showering is a bit of a fiasco, since I can never remember which way is hot, I'm constantly worrying about taking too long or too much water or too much energy, and I'm usually really out of it. Anyway. I had my extremely Spanish breakfast of Corn Flakes and then went to orientation. We just talked about Barcelona, classes, and adjusting to living abroad. Pretty uneventful. Then I had about 45 minutes before I had to meet with the academic adviser about my UPF classes, so I ran out and ate the greasiest chocolate croissant I have ever seen, and a cup of coffee which I awkwardly drank alone at the bar in a cafe. There were some other old men at the bar, but they were chatting with the server, so I mostly just admired their vast wine collection that was all over the wall. Also, they serve FERNET(!) which I didn't think existed outside Argentina.

It turns out my classes aren't really cancelled, they're just sort of renamed, and might have different schedules, but we don't know yet. But I can continue to take both Islam History and Spanish Lit, so that's fantastic. Jane gave me a new list of the available UPF courses, and they have a Latin Am. Lit class too, so maybe I won't take classes at UB, just at UPF, since the UB classes are Estudios Hispanicos, meaning they are designed for study abroad students. There would probably be students from a lot of different countries, not just America, but I don't know if I would prefer taking more regular UPF courses or Estudios Hispanicos at UB.

That afternoon we had an opening ceremony, which was beyond scary because half of the program is from Santa Clara, and the other half is from Wake Forest. So it was just crowds of people (literally crowds, since there are 300 students in the program) hanging out with their friends from home, and me wandering trying to find someone else who didn't know anyone. The problem is, most people have roommates, so they know at least one other person, whereas I am all alone. I found a couple cool people, including one who is in my language class AND on the same bus to Valencia, which was beyond reassuring, and we hung out for a while before leaving early to roam the streets. They were shocked to hear I had been wandering the city alone and going out to tapas on my own, and told me how dangerous it was (but Ana has told me that I can go pretty much everywhere in the city without trouble, I just have to hold on to my purse). During the course of the event, I turned off my phone because it was frozen, only to discover I needed a PIN to turn it back on - and only vaguely remembered the saleswoman showing me the PIN. So I had to go home and find my PIN, so that I could turn my phone back on and find my RA for our neighborhood visit. Once I got ahold of Alicia, they were at La Sagrada Familia, so I booked it over there and the 9 of us had tapas. Mind you, 5 of these students were friends from Santa Clara, 2 were roommates, and then there was me and Alicia. Thank god for the other girls, because I ended up having a nice time, until they left and I got to spend the rest of the night listening to stories about parties at Santa Clara, the drunken mishaps they have already found themselves in since arriving the day before, and their plans for the night. They invited me to go out to a club with them; apparently most of our program was going, because all of the Santa Clara kids were going, but instead I ate dinner with my host family, iced my foot, and went to bed early (really living it up here in Spain) because this morning I had my placement exam at UPF.

UPF has some really cool buildings (and by some I mean two) - it's only 18 years old, so everything is really new. The test was relatively manageable, 80 mulitple choice questions ("Madrid ____ en el centro del país. A: es B: está C: esta D: ese), a short essay, and a 5 minute oral examination, in which the woman and I talked about Pedro Almodóvar and learning catalan. I felt bad though, because some of the people from IES are only taking classes at UPF in English, didn't speak more than a few words of Spanish, and were handed an 80-question test. Except I didn't feel all that bad, because there are so many people who it seems are only here because Barcelona is a great party city, and don't seem to care much about immersing themselves in the culture. I mean, I'm being a big snob, but... I call it like I see it. I met another girl who is in my language class and on my bus to Valencia, which means I now know TWO other people in my class. Great news. I'm the only IES student taking either of my UPF courses though, so I guess I'll be on my own there. Also, the guy who gave us our orientation talk said, "If you go to a class that was listed to be in Spanish and it is taught in Catalan, please talk to the teacher and let us know as soon as possible." Does that mean there is a chance that I will show up and the professor will have decided to teach in another language? That scares me a little.

Well, tomorrow we're off to Valencia, and in the mean time I am going to go find myself some food, since I looked up from my book to find I had taken another siesta this afternooon, and now I'm starving.

host family!

Oh my god. I could not have asked for a more perfect living situation. Granted, it has only been 3 hours, but already I am in LOVE with them. Ana is the mother, and she has three children, Gonzalo and Pablo (or is it Paulo?) are 13 year old twins, and Paula is 18. My room is GREAT, their apartment is not only amazing but also in a fantastic location - I'm less than two blocks from the metro and the bus, and in a great neighborhood. And everyone is so nice! Paula, Pablo and Gonzalo all took me to get a new phone (my Argentine one didn't work, even with a new SIM card), and now Ana is cooking lunch (which is good because I'm starving), and she is so wonderful and welcoming. I understand them really well so far, except when they talk really quickly to each other. They are also doing everything they can to help me learn about Barcelona, including Gonzalo telling me that I can't cross the street when the light is red, and making me practice using the keys, and showing me around the neighborhood. I'm just so happy to be here, and to have a great host family!

I went to the IES center this morning to find out who my host family was, and I got my orientation schedule and all of that. We're going to Valencia this weekend, and I have orientation things starting on Wednesday - including placement tests - we'll see how that goes, since I am definitely still in mental summer. Ok well that's it for right now - I'm sure I will be back for more later.

So far the meals have been humongous and delicious, but mostly humongous. For lunch we had green beans and potatoes, hamburgers, and bread, followed by fruit, yogurt, and chocolate. Dinner was tortilla de pata (potato omelets, sort of), spaghetti, bread, ham, cheese, and the smoked salmon I brought, followed by more fruit, chocolate, and gelatin. Also, I completely passed out after lunch and ended up sleeping for FIVE hours. Oops. I am still adjusting to the schedule, I guess - it was impossible to get up this morning at 9:30. Impossible. I barely made it out of the hostel in time.