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.