Valencia and More

After returning from El Camino de Santiago my host family and I packed up into the car and made a three hour road trip down to Valencia. There we spent a quiet touristy weekend stepping in and out of random cathedrals, up and down the streets, and basically all around town. We stayed in a rented apartment which I suppose is very common here and the way to stay in Spanish cities because, besides my first night in Spain spent still with AFS, I have not stepped foot in a Spanish hotel! Since then it has either been apartments or hostiles and literally nothing else! I must say I prefer hotels, but hey these ten months abroad are all about new experiences so may as well just sit back and soak it all in. 

3/5ths of the family

We really didn't do anything out of the ordinary in Valencia. We took a fifteen minute touristy tram thing, then took a small motor boat out to the bay another day. Other than that it was strictly wandering and seeing what we happened up, for example a vintage clothes store which, by the way, are also very very popular here.

Easter was spent half the time eating the best paella (veryyyyy typical Spanish food composed of rice and honestly anything else, depending on the type, this kind was seafood) I have ever had. Coming to Spain I knew I would have to eat a lot of sea food, which I wasn't too stoked about before (come to think of it now either) HOWEVER paella is one of the very few seafood dishes that I actually thoroughly enjoy! So ya Easter was half eating and then the other half in the car on the return home. 

Between Christmas, New Years, Valentines Day, and Easter I have simply come to realize that holiday celebrations are also kind of an American thing. I mean here, a holiday celebration is a good planned out meal. Meanwhile in the U.S., with my family at least, every holiday is a family affair! We get dressed up, go to church, have a huge meal together, probably take a bunch of pictures in the process, and basically spend the whole day together. Holiday celebrations are most definitely one of the things I miss the most about the U.S., but luckily I will have the rest of my life for those so for this year SUCK IT UP EMILY!

Monday was spent mostly lounging around the house dreading and stressing over school the next day. School here is honestly nothing to stress over, but just that getting back to reality after such a busy week off is never any fun, or easy. 

Tuesday came and, just like after Christmas break, I was the first to go back to school while Emma and Ana had this second whole week off. School went perfectly fine of course and was over before I knew it. After school that I had a dance thing with my class through our dance school. It was like an award ceremony, because around the holiday of Sant Jordi here there are many writing contests and here they announced the winners and my class, along with others from the theater program of the Preforming Arts School were like the after show.

Here's the video (I am only in the last out of the three dances because I wasn't around during spring break to practice with the crew):

Street Dance

Wednesday also went by smoothly and I only had a half day because here in Catalunya was the holiday of Sant Jordi. Sant Jordi is a holiday a bit like Valentines day. The boys give the girls roses and the girls are to give the boys books. In my case however, it was more of a family event and we went into town after I got home from school to pick out our own books and roses so that was cute too I suppose!

That brings us to today which is Thursday. It was just an ordinary day of school and then in an hour or so I have dance. Tomorrow we have a class field trip into Barcelona to see a show "La Celestina" in a nice theater which should be exciting and totally beats out a regular day of class! It's written in dated Spanish so I would say it's the equivalent of say "Romeo and Juliet" so I am not quite sure how much I am going to understand, but it should still be a cool experience AND excuse to get out of class so I am not about to start complaining about it!

Also, it's been out for about a week now but I just keep forgetting to mention it. My town Castelldefels did a promotional music video to the song "Happy" and I happen to make an appearance in it so that's kind of cool! If you would like to check that video out as well here is the link:

Happy - Castelldefels

Have a nice weekend!!!