Vivir sin dormir

My new motto in life. Live without sleep.

Paella.

Last night we went out to celebrate a birthday of one of the girls on the trip. So the 14 of us that stayed in Valencia this weekend took a bus out to the beach to go one of the restaurants out there for some paella. While most people really enjoyed the meal, I am really disappointed to say that I do not like paella. But through this experience the 14 of us figured out how really expensive restaurants work in Spain. They give you bread at the beginning of the meal without asking whether or not you want it and then the make you pay for it. Everyone thought the bread was free. Also, water is not free. I guess I should have seen that one coming. Thirdly, they make you give a fixed tip. In Spain people do not give tips to waiters, so giving a 7% tip here on an already really expensive meal is kind of ridiculous. Oh well. Live and learn. Attached is a picture of the view from our restaurant.

Corpus Christi Parade.

Today, I did not do much because I had homework and studying to do. Even though I have been at it all day I still feel as though I did not get very far. There was a festival in the streets today and not only were we lucky enough to have the parade come to our street, but my balcony was also facing the street that the parade took place on! The parade for Corpus Christi was the longest parade I have ever experienced. A group of us went out in the morning to see the parade on the street because they had a total of three going on throughout the day (one at noon, one at 4:30, and one at 7:30). I really enjoyed the parade and liked how it brought people together. I only wish that I knew a little more information about what was going on through the parade, but I am planning on talking to my culture professor about it tomorrow. My favorite part of the parade was of course the finale because the people in the balconies threw rose petals on the people walking through it was really pretty. People here really went all out for this parade and it seems like the whole city was involved. As I am writing this people are in the streets cleaning the rose petals as well as the sand that was put on the road. It was really cool to watch and take part in the festivities.

Cullera!

Today I had a truly awesome day. The group activity today was to go to a city called Cullera and to climb the mountain to get to see the castle on top (it was not ruins like the last one). To be honest I did not really love the castle and it was closed so I was pretty disappointed. But, the view from the top of the mountain was beautiful and made the trip totally worth it. It had a beautiful view of the Mediterranean Sea and we were able to eat lunch by the castle. The only thing that I did not like about today was how hot it was. There was not a single cloud in the sky. When we left the castle we went down to the beach. On the way down the mountain I found my future home overlooking the beautiful blue ocean. It was amazing. The beach was perfect give or take a few creepers. To finish off the day we went for gelato. I got coconut and mango-pineapple. Both flavors were amazing. I wish I could send some back to the U.S. Above are pictures from my day as well as one of my future homes that is for sale right now. When do we move in?

Let's Salsa!

Today I learned about how much rhythm I do not have. I attempted to learn how to salsa, but I swear I have two left feet. We learned how to do the steps ourselves and then when we got paired with our partners I was then told that the steps for the girls were backwards from what we were taught. I mean I was already having issues with the original steps, but then I had to try to do them backwards. Let’s just say that I was not as successful with the steps as I would have hoped and the sense of rhythm that is supposed to run through Cuban veins does not apply to me. On a side note, on the way to school this morning a woman on the street gave me and the other three girls I was walking with a very rude/deathly look. But, it was not just a look, but instead it was a stop in the middle of the sidewalk and glare until we walked past her. Some people here are so rude. The picture attached is one of the buildings that I pass on the way back to the dorms. If I see this building I am not only self-assured that I am going in the right direction, but also that I am really close!

The food.

For the first time in my life I am thinking very seriously about becoming a vegetarian (at least temporarily). People eat so many animals over here. I feel as though nothing is off limits. From snails to rabbit anything is fair game. Tonight at dinner our meat option for the main platter was ‘conejo’ or in English rabbit. It was on the bone and you could definitely see that they were the rabbit’s hind legs. I understand that I am in a different country and I need to try new things, but I just could not bring myself to actually eat it. I feel kind of hypocritical since I do eat other animals such as chicken. So this makes me think that I should just give up meat all together? This is not the first time I have thought about this on this trip because one of the first things you realize when you come here is that Spaniards’ solution for every meal is meat. Yes mainly ham, which I can deal with, but when you sit down with a meal from the dining hall and you just do not know what you are going to get. Since when is ‘meat paste’ considered something edible? I almost would rather take away that mystery of my life and give up animals all together. I will have to sleep on it to see what will come of this situation, but I am seriously leaning towards the no meat option.

Cinque Terre here we come!

The past few days I have not really done much except go to class. Yesterday I went the festival of nations, which was in the ‘rio’ (a river that once existed, but is now dried up so they made it a park). The festival was not what I expected at all. They had different booths from different countries, but the jewelry and clothes at each booth began to look very similar to each other after a while. So honestly I am not sure how legitimate the festival of the nations was. For example, one of the pictures posted is the booth that represented Ecuador. Apparently the only thing that Ecuador has to show for their country is Sponge Bob, which in itself is a bit odd. Something that was cool about the festival is that they had restaurants from places all around the world. A few of us went to ‘France’ to share a delicious chocolate and banana crepe. Also, one of the men there was from a Mayan civilization and he was talking to us about his chocolate that was made from pure cocoa beans. It was really good and interesting. He had an entire display that he was beginning to mold things out of the pure chocolate that the Mayan civilization had made. Also, we were finally able to finalize our plans to our trip to Pisa! On the 17th we are flying into Pisa, Italy and staying there for a night. Then we are taking a train to Cinque Terre where we are going to be walking through the five little cities that they have there. If you have not heard of this place you should Google it. It is really pretty. On a side note, I am having a lot more trouble balancing school and fun here. It is hard to cram an entire semester’s worth of information into six weeks and what makes it harder is trying to balance it in another country where you want to spend your time doing things rather than staying inside and doing homework. The pictures uploaded are from el rio and the one that looks like a castle is something that I saw on my walk back to the dorms.