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Valencia at last!
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Finally in Valencia...
We did around 5 hours of bus riding to get from Toledo to Valencia. We had one stop to eat. There was a buffet style diner that we went to. Our tour guide stressed to us again (for the third time) that in Spain, it's considered rude to take food out of restaurants. If you buy the food in a restaurant/diner/buffet and sit down to eat it, you're not suppose to take it with you later. I guess they don't do doggy bags here. Of course, a lot of the students took food out anyway.
Upon entrance into Valencia, I was very exicted, but nervous to meet my host family. We took a 20 minute bus tour of the city before anything else. Just by this tour, I was very happy that I chose Valencia. It's more spacious than Toledo and has less grafitti than Madrid. And, it's near the beach. Valencia, has an amazing mix of the old and new.
There are a lot of old buildings, like Las Torres, that are the old gates to the city in previous centuries. And in general most of the buildings (like in Toledo and Madrid) are old-fashioned looking, but in a charming way. Then...there's the City of Arts and Sciences. There are very recently built buildings and very modern looking. I'm not exactly sure what there for, but we're going on a tour of the are in a few weeks.
Valencia is the third most populous city in Spain. Pope Benedict XVI has been there twice, which is a big deal. Also, Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe will be held here in near the end of August.
Around 3:30pm, we arrived at the Mestalla, the soccer field of the city. I was so nervous to meet my host family, which consists of one woman: Gloria. The other students for homestays got called off the bus one by one. Eventually we all just got off because the bus driver had to leave. Error: Photo does not exist in this entry I was the last homestay student to get picked up. Finally, she by car arrived with a woman I learned to be her aunt. I quickly realized that neither Gloria nor her aunt spoke English. Great. I put my things in the car and we were off. Gloria and Tía (spanish for aunt) talked to each other for a few minutes, not saying anything to me. I was too nervous to say anything. They tried speaking to me, but I didn't understand and they knew it.
Arriving at the apartment building ( a quick ride), Gloria asked me (in Spanish obviously) if I scared easily. I thought "Uh-oh" and almost said yes because I was worried what she'd say. I answered no and she said that on the weekends there were a lot of young people around drinking. I was relieved, I could handle that. There were 2 doors that we had to unlock to get into the building. The inside is decorated in these retro-style panels.
Took the elevator up and went into the apartment, which has 2 locks as well. The apartment is fairly small, but has everything. My room is small, but has a big window to let the light in. Gloria gave me a tour of the place. At the end, she told me that she wanted me to be very independent.
I am not to tell her when I'm hungry, I can just go in the kitchen whenever I want and take whatever. She will make lunch and dinner for me, but not breakfast since generally Spaniards have very small breakfasts. Overall, she wants me to treat this apartment as if it were my own.
I was pleased by this but also surprised. The program coordinators had told us that the Madres wouldn't want us to go into the kitchens and just take whatever we wanted. And that we should always ask the families whenever we need to basically touch anything in the house. The first time I grabbed something out of the kitch (a banana) and asked Gloria if I could eat it, she smiled, rolled her eyes, said "si" and then said "i told you not to tell me when you're hungry." I haven't asked for permission to eat food since.
I gave her the book I bought about Strongsville (history of the city through photos). She said gracias and gave me two kisses. Then, she looked at the photos, I think she did this more out of being polite than actually liking the gift. She was very appreciative, but I have this feeling that chocolates would have been better.
A couple hours later, she took me to bar "Cafe Infinito" to watch the final game of the Euro Cup 2008. It was Spain vs. Germany. The bar we went to was run by 2 italians and 1 irishman, Frankie. Frankie (in english) asked me where I was from, I told him Ohio and he said that I seemed like i'd be someone from the west. I said my state was in the east, he laughed and said "That's what i meant. America is west for me, so I always think west." I had some type of cheese sandwich and 2 glasses of wine (Gloria bought them for me as a welcoming gift). When SPain scored, everyone freaked and started hugging each other. In general, whenever the ball passed the midline onto the German side, everyone freaked always thinking it was going to mean a goal. Gloria and I in the middle of the game.
Even back in the apartment I could hear the whole city erupting in cheers and screams every 5 minutes. in the end, Spain won! The city erupted again. I kinda wished I'd been out in the city instead of in the apartment. But, if I'd been back in the states, I wouldn't have cared at all.
A lot of people in the city jumped in the fountains around the city in celebration. I didn't think I'd ever get to sleep, but the noise died down around 11pm. However, I forgot about Spanish time. I fell asleep and was woken up by the revival of noise around 1am. Everyone out celebrating. Besides the fact that in general winning the Euro cup is a big deal, Spain nevers wins anything I've been told. This is their second time winning. The last time was like 50 years ago. Lol, Spain must have been pretty bad because there are only aroun 16 participating countries every time.
Additional note: On the bus ride into Valencia, I saw A LOT of advertisements for "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian." Some exact ones as in the US, just in Spanish. And, also I've seen quite a few advertisements for High School Musical (and one for Hannah Montana).
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