Que tengas buen domingo

Quick entry for Sunday. Slept in until 10:30 (which still only gave me about 5 hours of sleep) and got ready in order to head out to the Valencian beach: La Malva Rosa. We had to walk around a bit to find the right bus stop that would take us to the beach, and it took us at least 30 minutes to get there once we boarded. We were supposed to meet a friend there, but we found out quite soon that the Valencia beach is huge. We stopped and got some refreshments, and witnessed an old man setting fireworks off on the sidewalk, and then found a nice plot of sand. The thing about Valencia beaches is that the women prefer to go topless. This is fine, until you see mothers and grandmothers doing the same. But for the most part, everyone on the beach is really tan and in shape... nothing like American beaches. The Valencian's are expert beach goers.

Once we got on the beach, I went and walked to try and find our friend. Thank god for free messaging through facebook on our phones: we messaged each other back and forth pointing out landmarks we passed (bulldozers, volleyball courts, saxophonists) until we finally found each other. Basically the day consisted of eating our bocadillos, laying/sleeping in the sun, wading in the Mediterranean, and getting stared at. Still it was a great day that is likely to become a bit of a Sunday tradition... it's a good time to catch up on sleep lost from the nights of the weekend.

Made our way home pretty easily on the bus. The day was pretty exhausting still just from being out in the sun. Got home, checked out my sun burn (did a great job with the sunscreen but forgot to put any on the sides of my body... you can imagine how that looks. It's not too bad thought), and ate dinner with Mery (my host mom- she insists on being called this). She made me a traditional tortilla de patata (kind of like an omelet with potatoes and onion). It was pretty good, kind of salty. I have noticed that a lot of the food she prepares is fairly salty, but it's good nonetheless. Went to bed fairly early, thus ending my first weekend in Valencia.

No photos since I didn't bring my camera to the beach (although most of the shots would be slightly inappropriate even if I did), so here is a quick clip of the fireworks I mentioned earlier. It scared the crap out of us when they started going off.

We are Canadian, Eh.

Yesterday started was a bit of the struggle in the morning since we had all stayed out so late the day before. The entire program had a free trip scheduled to the hill town of Xátiva, which is about 45 minutes outside of Valencia. Xátiva was a Roman (later Arab) municipality established in the 10th century A.D., and was ravaged and burned by Felipe V in 1707. The city was the birthplace of three popes and the famous Spanish Paintor Ribera. And if any of this is wrong it is because I'm writing this really fast and I'm translating it from a pamphlet we got on the trip, but it should be pretty accurate.

Anyway, we left from Valencia on tour buses around 11:30AM (it was a struggle to get out of bed early), sleeping most of the way there. Once there we visited the cathedral and the art museum. There was a group of at least 60 of us, so we crowded the tiny back streets while the natives stared at us. I even heard one shop owner go into his store telling everyone inside "que viene un crisis," which made me laugh. Xátiva's reputation for a tourist town owes itself to the castle at the top of the city. And when I say top, I mean a good 30 minutes of inclined walking up a winding mountain side in the middle of the Spanish sun. But the views atop were spectacular. We ate lunch and explored the castle for a while. We took a shortcut down the mountain, boarded our bus, and headed back to Valencia catching a nice snooze in between.

Yadda yadda yadda. Got home exhausted but failed to take my siesta because even in Spain running on a little more than 4 hours of sleep a night I am still a really bad napper. Anyway, dinner that night was DELICIOUS. I had my usual salad before the main course (the best part of the salads are the aceitunas (olives)... they taste unbelievably good). The main course was chicken that was friend in flour and oil and covered with una salsa de apio: milk, pepper, celery, and queso. It tasted so good, and I was starved from all the walking we had did earlier that I ate in record time. We had Cappuccino icecream for dessert.

We had a conversation after dinner that I think is worth telling. We were watching the news, and she brought up the fact that when she first got my email she was worried that I was some "tall, bulky, goon." The reason: when I first emailed her I used the Ud. (formal) way of addressing her. To her, this was tonto because in Valencia Ud. doesn't exist; everyone is addressed in the informal. Definitely shows you how subtle differences in culture and language can have a really large impact on people's interactions. Nevertheless, she admitted that the complete opposite was true telling me that I was "un chico majón," which can mean either nice or handsome in Spain (perfect word choice since both apply). She said she was sad that I was only going to be with her for one month. Even after 3 days here, the same holds true for me. Definitely.

The UVa Program had scheduled a welcome party for that night at a bar on the northwest area of the center called Corona 15. I went with my usual group (since we all live close) and we walked over around 11PM. The bar was really cool inside: two big trees in the middle with neon fiber optics interwoven in the branches. They played really good music, all of which was American from about 3 years ago. In fact, they seem to play American music exclusively here, which I didn't quite expect. Anyway, the bar was open to only us students until 1AM, and we got discount drinks (cubatas y chupitos)and a free Agua de Valencia. This is the signature drink of the area which consists of champagne, orange juice, gin, and vodka. It was nice to have all of the program kids in one place to mingle: we met some new people, made some toasts, and danced. We left around 2AM and headed out to find a discoteca. The streets were filled with people at this time, and there was something going on at every corner. We found a place called "The Music Box" with some help from a native, but he told us there was a cover charge (which can be 15-20 euro per person) but that we could negotiate. Me and my friend Chris went up to the bouncer (I suppose that's what they were) and started talking to them about letting us in. We managed to convince him to let all 15 of us in the club free-of-charge. Success. The atmosphere was really cool in there, and the scene was much more international. I met some college kids from Australia that were touring Spain, talked with some Italian guys (who were ridiculous), and two girls from Canada.

This is where the title of this post gets explained. My host mother told me a story the second night here that a couple years ago a group of Americans (likely the very American type that want nothing to do with the Spanish culture besides the partying) got harassed by a group of Spanish teenagers (she kept calling them Nazis, but I think she meant it in a different sense). Anyway, she told me not to worry as long as we spoke Spanish when we went out and told people we were from Canada. I passed this story along to the people we were out with, so when we would meet people and talk to them, we would say we were from Canada (Toronto, usually). The people we talked to were usually nice, it was mostly just to avoid being overheard by others. As you can tell, this kind of backfired last night when we actually MET two Canadians. Anyway, all the people we have met and been around have been super nice and helpful, so I don't think we really have to worry. It's pretty obvious when we are out that we really appreciate Spain and the language and customs. Still, the whole "we are from Canada" bit is becoming a kind of running joke among all of us.

We all shared taxis on the ride home, got in around 5:00AM and asleep by 5:01AM. Crazy thing was that as we were leaving the discoteca, there was a line of at least 30 people waiting to get in. Such is the Spanish nightlife. I'm getting used to not sleeping as much... or at least, sleeping less but more frequently. I am amazed at how habitual Valencians are; there are a lot of aspects of there culture that I wish we had in America, but our way of life just wouldn't suit it. It turns out (not surprisingly) that the first Saturday in Valencia was a success: I met some new people, got to know some acquaintances better, and had a ton of fun with the great group of friends I have already made here.

Pictures are: Me, Kara, and Maggie on top of the castle at Xativa, a shot of the castle, and a picture of a little chapel that was on the side of the mountain.

Hasta.

Donde fueres, haz lo que vieres

So Friday was the first official day of classes, and mine luckily didn't start until 10:45AM. I headed over to the school sorta early to pay for my side trips and activities. And 265 euro later I had signed up for a weekend trip to Barcelona, a trip to the Valencia Aquarium, and a Spanish Cooking class. I opted out of visiting Granada to save some cash; plus I figure I will want to return to Spain as soon as possible after this trip and I figure I can visit it then.

My classes were both pretty sweet. I'm taking Modern Spanish Art, which is going to be a really cool class. Plus it's all about learning the different movements and styles, meaning no title/artist/date memorizing for Tony in this class. I am, of course, the only guy in the class of 25ish. Which is fine, minus the fact that 80% of the subjects of modern art are naked women and that the professor (who is male, at least) picked me to answer every sexually based question he asked during the class. Awkward, but should be interesting and not too difficult.

Second class is Advanced Conversation/Cinema, and the professora is really cool. She is young, really talkative and energetic, and rumor has it that she goes out with students at night. I feel like this is the perfect class to take in Spain because it basically is oriented toward perfecting spoken Spanish (and watching movies). A big focus of the first day was learning how to pronounce the difference between S and C/Z in Spanish. (So that means I'm probably going to convert into un lenguiseco). Granted I never learned this in high school since it was all Latin American based, but seeing as I'm in Spain I might as well perfect the language that they use here. When in Valencia, you know?

Yesterday I also had to get the director to change my schedule conflict. I went to his office, and after he signed the papers I started chatting with him a bit. Turns out he and the professor I had for class last semester are like hermanos (they graduated from the same university over here) and he was really excited to hear that I knew him. He was kind of busy, but he told me some day when I had some free time to drop in his office and we'd grab some coffee somewhere. I'm definitely going to take him up on the offer; he seems like an awesome person to get to know.

After class, me and Kara walked to the river to see the gardens. On a side note, it's not really a river. It is a dried up, extremely fertile river bed that cuts the city in half. The river that originally ran through was diverted north of the city because it flooded all the time. Anyway, we were walking around and found this little festival that was set up called the Festival of All Nations. There were vendor tents and food tents set up from all countries imaginable, some of which I have never even heard. We walked around, got some Portuguese Beer (which was really quite good; it was called Super Bock), and then headed back for home. Said hello to mi madre, took my siesta, then ate la cena. Sra. Lopez made me penne pasta with homemade meat sauce since I had told her yesterday that I was Italian. It was pretty good, but they honestly try and feed you to death here so I couldn't finish it all. And once again, after dinner it was time to go out.

My friends Andrea, Kara, and I went out around 11 headed toward the river area. We walked since we didn't know if the buses were still running, and we ended up passing through some really cool parts of the city, including Valencia Underground (which is just a bit of the road that goes under the train station). We returned to the All Nations Festival, which was really lively at this hour. We walked around getting some drinks from the various countries (such as the Caipirinhamaja which is aguardiente, sugar, and a (very) little fruit juice) and met up with the people we had hung out with the night before. Actually, a lot of the UVa program students were there, so it was pretty cool to mingle while watching some traditional Spanish dancing on stage.

We left the festival around 1AM, headed to one of the parks by the Ciudad de las Ciencias and hung out for a bit. Some of the people we were with had brought bottles of this stuff called Don Simon, which is a low-alcohol-content drink that taste exactly like Pepsi with lemon. After a while we went in search of a discoteca. We asked a woman for directions and she told me (more or less) "go down the street, find a tunnel that goes under that building, and there is an awesome discoteca inside." So as you might have guessed, we did not find said discoteca last night, but we had fun looking for it. One of the best things about last night was that everyone in our group was speaking mostly Spanish as we walked around. We still stood out like no other, but it was good practice and made the experience much more authentic.

Having failed at finding a discoteca, we took a cab to the Plaza de la Reina and met some more UVa-ers at this pub. The closed down around 3:30 (which is kind of early) and then we headed form home. It is important to note, however, that one of my friends decided to give the discoteca thing one more try, so she asked some locals if there was one nearby. Unfortunately (and understandably given the circumstances) she accidentally said "biblioteca," at which point the locals lost all interest in treating us seriously and told us it was kind of late to want to go read some books. Good times though, good times.

That's all for today, even though it is about yesterday. I'm only going to fall further behind, but whatever. The pictures are some random shots around Valencia, including some pics of the gardens. Also I promise I will start writing about some more cultural stuff instead of mostly nightlife and the Valencia booze menu. But in my defense, Valencians of all ages are big on going out and staying out late. They have a different daily rhythm, but it suits the lifestyle here very well.

Hasta.

The Rain in Spain

...follows Tony all the way from Ohio. The weather was great yesterday morning and early afternoon, although it was a little windy. We all had orientation at 9:30AM at la universidad. I took the bus by myself from the stop my host mother showed me, and I made it to school without a hitch. Orientation was a little boring; not much going on and all the advisors insisted on talking veeeerrrry slowly, which dragged things out a bit. After their presentation the professors introduced themselves. All of them are such interesting people, and, just like everyone else I have met in Valencia, are very friendly. At this point we received our class schedules from our advisors, and as luck would have it I managed to have a conflict. Turns out the two classes that I wanted to take here (because they aren't offered in C'ville)-- Medical Spanish and Modern Spanish Art-- were both scheduled at the same time. A little unfortunate, but I wasn't too upset about it, I would just have to get it changed before Friday after class.

After class I went home for la comida. Mi madre made a dish she learned in Germany... a kind of beef and gravy with some of the best puré de patatas (mashed potatoes) I've ever had, with a Valencia orange for dessert, of course. After lunch, I went out with to girls that live less than a minute away from my house, and we met up with some other people outside the bull fighting stadium. We walked around the city looking very American navigating with our maps. Since I am running short on time, the brief itinerary was: Gelato, plaza de neptuno, the Valencia Cathedral, el mercado, and all the rusting back streets in between. The rain I mentioned earlier started just as we were a couple blocks from home. Pretty harmless. Had lots of fun, came home, slept, ate dinner (Barbacoa Pizza, yum) and then the fun stuff began.

By fun stuff, I am referring to the first night in Valencia. I went out with two of my friends that live close Andrea and Kara at 11, paraguas in hand. We walked around our neighborhood desperately searching for an bar that was open so we could hang out for a bit. Surprisingly, they were few and far between either because we were 1) looking in the wrong place or 2) looking for a bar too early. Night life in Valencia doesn't really start until 2AM... which is a problem when you have class in the morning (luckily mine don't start until 10:45). So we finally found a little place and ordered a round of San Miguel's and a "pequeño" plate of papas fritas. The beers were good, the atmosphere was pretty cool (not very busy), and the fries were very plentiful. Andrea went home afterwards (she had an 8:30), and me and Kara tried to make our way to la avenida del peris y valero to meet some other friends. We ended up taking a taxi do a discoteca that they were at down by la ciudad de las ciencias. The places was called "On the Rocks," and at first our cab driver had no idea where it was because I was translating the English name for him. We found it eventually; he was extremely helpful. The discoteca was pretty crazy: people ages 18 to 40-something all dressed up, drinks in hand, cool music, and colored lights. There should be some pictures surfacing soon. We hung out here chatting (using as much Spanish as possible). The girls got hit on by some Spanish guys, and the three guys in our group (myself included) watched all the Spanish chicas that were entirely uninterested in us Americans. On a side note, nonethe people I was with at the discoteca go to Virginia (the two guys go to Miami, ironically. Small world). Typical for me since I have a habit of flocking toward non-Virginians (no offense, honestly, it just happens), but kinda sucks since we won't all be able to hang out during the fall semester.

Anyway, we came, we saw, we conquered... and then we took a taxi back to our place around 3AM. It was so difficult to fall asleep last night (which I didn't expect to be the problem) because I was so hyped up about how much fun this place is. But seeing as though this is our free weekend without homework, we are all about to head out again soon. So more updates later (I'm running about a day behind).

*Pictures are of some cathedrals and a side street. I wasn't to sure of the names because... well we weren't really to sure where we were most of the time. But they are still pretty awesome.

Bienvenido a España

Well I suppose this is the perfect opportunity in my life for me to write one of these things, so here it goes. This is the official blog documenting my travels and triumphs while studying abroad in Valencia, Spain. I usually have some free time during the siesta, so I will try and update as often as I can during that time. Happy reading.

It all started Tuesday at 2:30PM when my flight took off from Cleveland Airport towards Dulles/D.C. I wasn't in Washington long before I boarded my very large flight to Madrid. I flew through Aer Lingus airlines, which is an Irish airline, I believe. This was pretty cool seeing as though all of the flight attendants had such pleasant accents and giant shamrocks were painted on the wings of the plane. However, I sat next to an older gentleman whose elbow was protruding at least half a foot into my spaces the whole flight. I tried to sleep most of the time and was moderately successful. I arrived in Madrid at 7AM Wednesday morning, went through customs, and then got my boarding pass for Valencia.

The flight to Valencia lasted less than an hour. Once there I got my luggage and headed out to the street to find a taxi that would take me to my host mother's house. I found a nice valenciano that loaded my suitcase into the trunk and asked me where to go. I told him the address (all is in Spanish, of course) and we were on our way. It was really awkward at first because I hate making small talk in the first place, let alone with my Spanish taxista. He asked me what I was visiting for, and I said I was a student. He then asked me if I was French, which I was both pleased in the fact that I managed to pass as European, but highly disappointed that I didn't come off more Italian. Funny story either way.

When I got to the apartment at which I am staying, my host mother Sra. Lopez was waiting for me. She greeted me with a big hug and a kiss on both cheeks. She is the sweetest woman and has already been extremely helpful in helping me learn the ways of the city. She complemented me on my good looks and the fact that I packed light haha. She showed me my room next, which is actually very nice. It has a comfy couch/bed, lots of room for storage, a desk, a small TV, and a window that lets in tons of light and has a great view of the street. The rest of her house was so well kept. She is a widow, so she does not have a large apartment, but I like it a lot here.

I unpacked while she prepared La Comida (our equivalente of lunch that is eaten between 2 and 3 in the afternoon). Her two adult children Oscar y Diana along with Diana's boyfriend came over to share the paella that she had made. It was very good, and I hope to learn how to make it. I didn't eat a whole lot though, since my body hadn't adjusted to the time change yet. I really enjoyed meeting the rest of her family. They are very talkative people, and it's a little difficult to keep up with everything they are saying.

After la comida Sra. Lopez took me on the bus route that I needed to take to get to the University, which is a across the city. We went there and back, and I got told about all the different plazas that we passed along with some of the history that went along with them. Upon returning I passed out for a good 2 to 3 hours... kind of an extended siesta. We ate dinner around 8:30PM. She had prepared some noodle soup along with a kind of Spanish style chicken cordon bleu (I forget the actual name) and french fries. I am so thankful my housemother is a good cook! For dessert, I had probably the best orange I have ever tasted in my life-- Valencia is known for its oranges. We chatted for a while afterwards and then she prepared herself for bed. I was thinking about going out and walking for a bit, but then I decided against it because 1) it was already after 11, which was a lot later than I expected it to be, 2) I was still exhausted from my flight and 3) I have problems opening the door to the apartment, so I didn't want to have to wake her up. So I decided to stay in, unpack some more of my stuff and then went to bed a little after midnight.

I'm about to go exploring a little bit now, so I will post more about what I did today later.