Good Bye Valencia. You will be missed.

Here are some pictures from around the city. The garden was literally a few blocks from my school. I passed by everything in these pictures everyday.

Soccer Translation: Who is the better actor?

Out of all the sports I have seen, I have got to say that soccer is one of my favorites. People are so passionate about it here. Today, I watched the Spain versus Portugal game with the students at the dorms. I really enjoyed hearing their chants, seeing them get angry, seeing a voodoo doll with Portugal on it, but most of all I enjoyed Spain’s 1-0 win over Portugal (their ultimate rivals). I do not like how dirty the play the game though. And a lot of times when a player gets tapped on the field the player will dramatically fall and pretend that they were injured really badly to try to get the other player yellow carded. Yes, I actually understand soccer terminology. But, who are the winners of the game? Usually the ones that are the better actors. Watching this game with the Spanish students was a lot of fun. Above is a picture of me with one of my favorite professors ever. She came to the dorms to watch the game with us!

San Juan.

Have you ever been on a bus with forty drunk people? I officially have. All the people in our program with the exception of two that were feeling really sick made our way to the beach, unfortunately on the same bus. Through this experience I have realized exactly why I do not hang out with these people. Their sole purpose for coming to Spain was not to experience the culture, but instead to not remember their night. I know that drinking is a large part of the San Juan tradition, but leave it to the Americans to bring alcohol in water bottles to get drunk on the bus to the event and not at the actual event. I felt especially bad for the two old women sitting behind me who had to literally scream at each other to understand each other through the singing of the spice girls and the amusement many guys were having by looking at a mirror at their buddies. What can I say, I do not like drunk people. I find them annoying. But, when we actually got to the event it was quite amazing. There was not a single part in the sand that was free and there were bonfires and fireworks. At midnight people write a wish that they have on a piece of paper and burn it to make it come true. Then, they go into the ocean (and to my surprise and relief in their bathing suits) and jump seven waves backwards for good luck all year. It was really fun to participate in this part. Then a few of us walked down the beach to where a giant stage was just to see what was happening over there and we found two things. The first a really big bonfire with people holding hands while moving around it. The second was the big stage and the acrobats with music on it. It was like Cirque du Soleil on the beach, but not as good of a version. After this three of us got into a taxi to come back to the dorms, where I nearly lost my life. I have never been in a car with someone who drove the way this man did. I had to close my eyes otherwise I would not have been able to make it. Sitting in the car with this taxi driver actually made my brother’s driving seem safe to put an idea into your mind as how scary it was. All in all it was a good night and I was glad I was able to participate.

Worst museum I have ever gone to.

Today the activity was to go to the MUVIM, which is an illustration museum. Since I have never been to a museum of this type and it was free I figured that I had nothing to lose. I was wrong. This museum was without a doubt one of the worst ones I have ever gone to. Granted, I do not really like museums to begin with. We started the museum with a guy wearing an outfit that completely covered his body and face. We had to follow him and he would not say a word to us he just gestured. There was a point in time that they completely turned off the lights and I grabbed for the nearest person because I was scared for my life. After about 30 minutes of this we moved onto two 30 minute sessions with two other people. In one of the rooms we were trying to reenact what I thought to be a tea party (but who really knows) and they gave us a piece of chocolate and we literally stared at each other in silence for about 20 minutes. The whole time I could not even concentrate on what was going on because all I could think about was that I wish this tour was not guided so I would not have to wait for the entire tour to finish before I would have to leave. Oh well. There is an hour and a half of my life that I will never get back.

Cinque Terre Pictures.

Italy here we come!

Last weekend we were given a three-day weekend so five of us went to Pisa for a night and then to Cinque Terre for two nights. The plan was to stay at a B&B with a woman named Claudia for a night and then go to Cinque Terre and stay in a hostile for two. Cinque Terre consists of five cities that total to seven miles and we wanted to hike the seven miles through the five cities. But, of course not everything always goes as planned. So let’s start from the beginning. The night before leaving I could not sleep very well because I was anxious about my trip. What can I say? I am my mother’s daughter. When we got up in the morning we went to class and ate lunch. After lunch, we took the metro to the airport. At the metro we could not really figure out how to use our tickets to get through the gate. How many Americans does it take to figure out how to get onto a metro? The answer is five. We got to the airport and went through security, which for the first time in my life was an ordeal. Apparently, I look like a terrorist because I they took everything out of bag to be searched and found nothing. Also, my jeans would beep as I would walk through the machine and I got patted down for the very first time in my life at the airport. I felt very violated. As for the plane (RYANAIR) is not necessarily as ghetto as people make it seem, but I will say this: They do not assign seats beforehand so you have to fight for your seat. We did not notice that people were piling up their suitcases like two hours before the flight so we were one of the last ones on the plane. I was really surprised that this airline did not double book people because I seriously thought that they were not going to have a seat for us. But, they did.
When we got to Pisa, Italy found out quickly how similar Spanish and Italian were when were trying to communicate to the taxi driver. Surprisingly, it was fairly easy to understand each other. We got to the B&B around eight o’clock at night and we were greeted by the owner/ the sweetest Italian woman named Claudia. She did not speak a word of English, but because of our Spanish she was able to give us perfect directions to the leaning tower of Pisa. We did not get lost once, which is very rare for the five of us. The leaning tower of Pisa is not all it is cracked up to be. It is much smaller than I imagined and I think that people build it up too much. Nevertheless, we took pictures and went to eat outside at a nearby restaurant. This was my first experience of Italian pizza and it was amazing. It is so different than in the U.S. the crust is really thin, the sauce is different, and the cheese can only be described as delicious. After our late dinner, we went back to Claudia’s because we promised her that we would not be back too late. When we woke up in the morning we had the most amazing desserts for breakfast. My favorite out of the seven that she made was a pineapple chocolate cake. The cappuccino that I had at Claudia’s was the best that I had all weekend. After breakfast we walked to the train. We were all really sad to leave Claudia’s she was the sweetest lady and her B&B was very quant and charming.
When we got the train station we accidently bought fast pass tickets that were more expensive to La Spezia. I still have no idea what the benefits of the fast pass tickets were because everything was in Italian. When we got to La Spezia we took a connecting train to Riomaggiore (the last of the five cities). We made our way to the information desk to buy passes for the trains within the cities and to be able to hike. Little did we know this purchase was going to screw us over later. Then we walked up to our hostile and got the key from a tall bald man, who ended up liking us because one of my friends started talking to him about his cats. We walked up the most hazardous stairs I have ever seen up to my home for the next couple of days. When we walked in all I could think was this is such a hellhole. The beds were not made and everything around us seemed questionable so we left faster than it took us to come in.
We walked to the second city and then realized that everything else was closed. So we moved on to plan B. We got on a train and went to the last city and tried to work backwards. The sights were beautiful. On the way we met some truly amazing people from different countries including: Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Norway, Denmark, the Netherland, and a tour group from a different part of Italy. We also ran into a lot of people from different areas of the U.S. and we kept running into someone who we already met in every city. People in Cinque Terre are genuinely really nice and I would love to go there again when I can actually hike the trails.
At the end of the first day in Cinque Terre, we were on the very last train going back to Riomaggiore and the person who checks the tickets came onto the train. We had ridden the trains all day and had not seen anyone check for any tickets (and this includes the trains from Pisa). Out of the blue this guy comes on and starts kicking people off of the train. When he got to us, he told us that we did not have the right ticket and that the lady at the front desk who sold it to us had sold us the wrong one. He wanted to give us each a 50-euro fine and kick us off the train, but luckily for us the train was already moving at this point so he only charged each of us for 5. You could tell that this man hated his job and abused his power.
For lunch on this day we had gnocchi with pesto and it was amazing (it originated in Cinque Terre). The only complaint I would have about this place was the waiter. He put bread on our table and he could speak Spanish so we asked him if the bread was free and if was not then we did not want it. His response that every time bread is put in front of you in Italy it was always free. Lies. We got a cup and bread charge. Fortunately for us this was the only place that this happened.
The first night in the hostel was really rough. We met our roommates who were all really nice. They were all around our age and traveling. Since our room was in the middle of the city we could here everything. I did not really feel comfortable there. In the mornings around five there were bells that rang in the city and the second day when it woke me up I was curious as to how many bell chimed. The answer? 54. Because of the dogs, the people in the streets, the rain, the cold, the sun coming up at 6 o’clock in the morning, and the fact did I did not feel too comfortable sleeping in a hostel, I would probably say that my on and off sleep totally about three hours each night. Taking a shower and going to the bathroom in this place was interesting to say the least. The shower had absolutely no pressure and was a cubicle that did not close all the way. But, at least the water was warm. The entire time I was taking a shower all I could think about was the mysterious corner that had a whole in the wall that seemed to lead to the outside. I really thought a cat was going to attack me since Cinque Terre was full of cats.
The second day we did not think we were going to be able to leave our city because it was raining so hard in the morning and we knew that the trails were going to be closed again, but we attempted to leave anyway and we got breakfast. It stopped raining some and we were able to make it to the third city Corniglia, which was the only one we had not seen the day before. I think this city was my favorite from what we could see of it. We got amazing gelato in this city and pizza. The gelato place that we went too happened to be one of the places Rick Steve’s had been to. I got coconut and strawberry. That night my friends cooked a really good dinner with fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, and pesto. In the morning we made our way back to Pisa to get on our flight. To my surprise the Pisa airport security did not harass me. The flight back on RYANAIR seemed a lot longer and we almost died landing. No joke, I thought we were going to crash into a mountain or a house. The flights must be so cheap because the pilots do not know how to fly. I had a lot of fun on this trip and I really glad that I went on it! What am I going to miss most other than the sights? The food.

Bullfights and España game day.

Today I went to the stadium to see where the bullfights were held in Valencia. We did not get to see one because they do not have bullfights until July here, so I will not get to see one in Valencia. In all honesty I am so glad that I do not even have the opportunity to see a bullfight. After learning about them from my culture class and see some videos of them I think it is a horrible sport. But, I guess that that just comes with the culture of this place. Also today was the Spain versus Switzerland for the world cup and I was able to watch the game with the students of the dorm in an auditorium here. Normally I am not someone who enjoys watching sports, but I can genuinely say that I like soccer. Unfortunately we lost 0-1, which was ridiculous because Spain had way better plays. Here is a picture of me at the bullfighting stadium.