Valencia: Week 1

  Valencia, Spain and Canary Islands
Saturday, July 5, 2008

So how to sum up the first week... June 29-July 5

I enjoy my classes.  I'm in the advanced level (claro).  The grammar class is basically fleshing out everything I all ready know.  It's more finalizing and perfecting my knowledge of the language.  I really like the film class because, well, I love movies.  The first week we watched "El espiritu de la colmena" (1973).  Last year's "Pan's Labyrinth" is a remake of this movie.  "El Espiritu" is a good example of the life the under the Franco dictatorship which ended in the early 70s.  However, it's a very artsy movie; a lot of long shots, little dialogue, stark settings, etc. and I didn't fully understand it until the teacher explained it more in the next class.  Neither class assigns much homework, which of course I like.

Interesting: A lot of people (including myself) found "El espiritu" to be rather boring.  Our teacher explained that the a big difference between American movies and European movies is that American movies are usually driven more by plot and European movies are driven more by characters.  This is defintiely true.  Plot, it's probably why a lot of American movies are driven by violence or unrealistic occurences (like a shootout in the middle of the street) and why many Americans find European movies boring (a 2 hour movie centered on the development of a character wihout much plot? I get enough of that in real life)

The life in the apartment is good.  For the most part, I haven't talked to Gloria that much in the sense of in depth conversations.  I don't know, I just get nervous.  But, I'm working on that.  She cooks  good meals.  I  thought I read that Spaniards don't eat as much bread anymore, boy was that person wrong.  I'm pretty sure I had potatoes at almost every meal.  And I KNOW I've had bread at every meal.

Paella de mariscos

But, they're small slices of bread.  One time, she made a meal called Paella ("pah-ay-ya"), which is a dish that Valencia is known for.  She made seafood paella.  It's basically rice and seafood, I guess there's a special seasoning with it.

Seriously though, you can find bread EVERYWHERE.  I can't believe Spaniards are on the whole so much skinnier than Americans with how much bread there is everywhere.  Pastry shops or bread shops are on every street corner (kind of like how you can find Starbucks everywhere in the US).    And in general, bread is served with every meal.  Of course, Spanish people don't eat as much fast food as Americans, so that has a lot to do with it.  Still, I'm just surprised at all the pastry shops.  I think in the US, i've only ever seen a handful of pastry shops. I'm limiting myself to one pastry purchase a week.

I can't tell if I'm going to lose weight, gain weight, or stay the same.  Because since Spaniards don't really eat in between meals (which is what I'm used to) all there is to munch on in the apartment is cookies and crackers and the cookies are addicting for me.  I can't eat just one.  Also, I've been eating chocolate cereal every morning cause that's pretty much my only option besides crackers, cookies, and bread/muffins.  On the other hand, I've been walking, A LOT.  I easily walk at least 2 hours everyday in the very hot sun.  I've been sweating a lot too.  So far, out of the like 12 days that I've been here, only 4 days have had clouds.

Spanish fan

Normally, there's not a single cloud in the sky; completely blue.  Everyday it's at least like 80 degrees and it doesn't cool down much at night.  I bought a pretty pink Spanish fan to help with the heat since there's no a/c in the apartment.

The beach!  I enjoy it a lot of course because I rarely go to a beach, I can't even remember the last time I swan at a beach...  The one thing I don't like about the beach here is the sand.  It is SO hot!  I have to run/prance everytime because my feet are burning whenever they touch the sand.

Closer view

Also, for some reason whenever I thought of the Mediterranean I always pictured crystal clear blue water.  That is not the case.  It's not clear water or even extremely blue looking.  I think Caribbean is more of the area where crystal clear water can be seen.  A part from that slight disappointment, the water is always at a very nice temperature.  It's fun to just wade in it.  And yes, there are topless women there.  Not too many considering how many people are at the beach though.  What really surprised me is all the naked kids.  They all seem to be  around the age of 3.

This is what the sky usually looks like

The sun is just as strong at the beach as anywhere else.  I've only been there twice and I all ready have a noticeable tanline.  Even with spf 40, i got burnt.  Although, one of my friends said that they've heard that researchers say you really can't get stronger than spf 30, 40 and 50+ really don't do much more.

Fashion.  All right, what to wear was really important to me before I left because I didn't want to look like an American or a tourist the whole time I'm here.  I'd constantly read that no one wears shorts or mini skirts, etc. and people dress up all the time.  That's not really case here in Valencia (at least in the summer).  By "dress up" all the time, it's more like you won't see anyone wearing sweats of any kind unless they're exercising.  I haven't seen anyone really wearing tenis shoes unless they're the trendy Puma-brand kind.  Shorts are more of a rare thing tough.  In America in this weather, I see almost everyone wearing shorts.  But here it's not that common, maybe I seen one person a day wearing shorts (mini shorts/skirts, I have rarely seen unless the person is American).  More commonly, I see people wear longer skirts, shorts, capris, and dresses.  Guys don't wearbaggy clothing and it's generally tighter clothing on the Spanish men than I see in the US.  I've only seen one guy with low, baggy pants and even those were tight on him.

Spanish.  I've been practicing my spanish of course.  I actually understand Spanish better than I thought.  I have more difficulty expressing myself.  It's hard to learn in the summer because the only people I hang out with our Americans because school is out of session for the Spaniards so it's difficult to make Spanish friends.  And I'm nervous to speak in Spanish with strangers.  There are sum people in the program who have no problem with going up to people and speaking to them.  I'm not that out going though.

There are a lot of dogs in the city too.  I always see people out walking their dogs.  Usually little dogs.  Also, A LOT of motorcyclists, especially vespas.  And everyone always wears their helmets. I want to ride on a vespa!  Are motorcyclists park on the sidewalk so you'll see a lot of them riding on the sidewalk with with pedestrians.  Actually, there a lot of areas that really were part of the sidewalk at one time, but now are blocked of to be part of the road.  This can be confusing because the street and the sidewalk can look exactly the same and be at the same level.  I almost got hit once taking a picture because I didn't realize I was actually standing in the road.

Plaza de la virgen

July 4th: I went on a tour of the city with the program, I've included a bunch of pictures from it.  All the Amercan students in the program had a party to celebrate the 4th.  It was a good time, I might some other foreign students that had friends in the program.

Pigeons swarming around man with bird food

  One was named Samuel, he's 16 and from Germany.  I had to speak to him in Spanish because he doesn't really speak English (though he's been studying it since he was young) and I don't speak German.  I also met a boy from Austrailia, a girl from...Sweden I think, and some Spaniards.

Altar

Afterward we went to a nightclub, overall I found it to be similar to the clubs in DC.  Saturday, I watched fireworks at the beach, I don't remember what the celebration was for.