Some Perspectives

Right! So now onto the business at hand. 

So then the next day I did indeed go to class. That was wednesday. I thoroughly enjoyed my classes. I gave a presentation in my culture class and learned a lot about the Spanish economy and Valencian soccer (hint, one of them involves olive oil and unemployment and the other involves a guy from China. Your guess. Actually, I suppose the guy from China applies to both, for a given definition of economy). And then we talked about the people who were in this mural we are studying. It was pretty cool. We also did a bit of Spanish history, which I found FASCINATING! Then we had cinema class. The guy was still hilarious and we did some Spanish culture stuff (both practical and then like historical), and had this really awesome conversation about the history of cinema. We watched some clips of old films by the Lumiere bothers and Edison and then part of The Great Dictator, which is pretty awesome. 

I then had lunch and a siesta before making a pot of tea and going to Elena's class, which was also fun. We looked at a lot of different versions of David in art and talked about them. It is really interesting to see the way that different artists reinterpret that story. 

Directly after class we went on a scavenger hunt. We were in assigned groups and told to go all over the city looking for monuments and taking pictures. Unfortunately, my group and I had different goals, which meant we kind of wound up just ditching the scavenger hunt and going back to the cafe that was the finish line early and I had some really good Earl Gray tea. But before that we got really lost, and saw a lot of the city, but not the Torres de Serranos. Another day, perhaps. I then came home, showered and hit the hay. 

And woke up the next morning a little bit later than the day before, which is always nice. I went down, had breakfast, freaked out that I thought I was about to miss class, realized I was wrong, waited for other people to go to class with me, and was almost late fore class. BUT I WASN'T. Is really the takeaway. 

Then we had another lit class. Which I still love. We talked about the history of Spain in the Spanish Golden Age and what's going on and who's participating and what their literature looks like. SO COOL. Why do we never talk about Spanish literature in school? 

From the perspective of someone who wants to teach college, specifically teach my native literature to students who do not speak my native language, it was also very interesting. Because I found the class wonderful, but I know that that isn't the general reaction. I find this teacher engaging and energetic. He's passionate about the subject and explains it in a way I connect with, but not everybody does. So, I talked to my fellow students about what he could do better, which are things I could do well to remember when I'm in his position. So that was a really valuable learning experience in a life kind of way, and I hope that it will continue to be. 

So after class a few girls and I decide to celebrate the beginning of the weekend (NO CLASSES ON FRIDAYS), by going out for some sangria. DISCLAIMER: for those of you unfamiliar with European legal codes, the drinking age in Spain is 18. So anyway, we walk into this little shop that, I swear, looked like the shop that Harry and Cho go on a date at in Harry Potter 5. For those of you who haven't read or seen Harry Potter 5 or possess sufficient self-respect not to know that scene, let's go with pink and lacy as the best adjectives for this restaurant. It was terrifying. So we all crowd with our backpacks into the back corner of this ABSOLUTELY DESERTED restaurant and get 2 pitchers (they weren't very big) of sangria. Now, before I came to Spain everybody (minus only about half of the people on this list) told me that I just HAD to try some of the alcohol over here. "It's part of the culture" and "They're famous for it", and, inevitably, "You just HAVE to try sangria." And, plus, the girls who had it before informed me that the sangria at this restaurant tasted just like juice anyway. They were wrong. It tasted like wine and too much sugar. And I honestly wish I had a picture of my face when the aftertaste hit. blegh. I am glad I had my water! So we sat there and chatted for a while, them sipping their sangria and me drinking out of my water bottle. 

I then went back to the dorm and ate an early lunch (oh yeah, Spaniards eat 5 meals a day, and lunch typically starts around 2-2:30, so by early I mean, like 1:30) and then took a siesta. I REALLY like that bit of culture. And I'm good at it. 

So I then woke up and we went to go climb the Torre Micalet (Torre is tower, no translation for Micalet) with the group. It's this really old bell tower attached to the cathedral here in Valencia and hoo boy! It was a climb up, but SO worth it. It was a little windy and chilly, but we got this amazing view. You could see the mediterranean and the mountains and the city all around. I didn't realize it until it was up there, but Valencia is a CITY, and not a small one. When you're in it you see all these little roads and we walk EVERYWHERE and nowhere seems too far away, but you get up there and you see for MILES this city surrounding you. There are skyscrapers. All I see from the ground are old buildings. But it doesn't quite look american, even from up there. Because it used to be a Moorish city, a lot of the important buildings are roofed with this beautiful deep blue tile, and you can see castles and the aquarium and it's amazing. It really gave me a new perspective on this city I've been living in. We stayed up there for probably close to 45 minutes, because, being a belltower, there is a HUGE bell, taller than me right up there that sounds out the hour, so we wanted to hear that up close. We all covered our ears while this bell clanged. It was so cool. 

And then we went down and got chocolate and churros. They were even better than in Madrid. But just as unhealthy. 

And then I came back and chilled, watched TV, started homework, ate dinner, talked to friends, and went to bed. 

So this morning, I woke up late. So late that I had missed 2/5 Spanish meals today. Which was OK, because I had nothing to do this morning, and I put a "do not disturb" sign on my door, so I didn't get woken up by the cleaning ladies. So I had a leisurely morning. A few cups of tea, check my emails, watch an episode of tv, chill. And then came homework. I had to do this assignment for my civilization teacher Juan-Miguel, who we affectionately call "Einstein" because he looks vaguely like Einstein and one of my friends can't remember his name. Anyway, I did part of his assignment on various important people who were Spanish (and some who were only sort of spanish). Then I went to lunch. Then I came back upstairs and got my computer and went outside, because I felt bad staying in my room in Spain, and did the rest of that assignment in a public place while jamming out to my music. 

Then we went to the park. The park in Valencia is called "El Río" and if you think that means "the river" you're right. So there used to be this river going through the city of Valencia with all these bridges and normal river stuff, but then somebody one day decided that really, the river should be to the north, so they made it so. And now they're left with this big empty hole in the ground. So since this is Europe, not America, instead of turning it into a parking deck, they turned it into a park, which is really cool. There's this huge green space circling through the city, and it's got soccer fields, and bike trails and fountains, and it's really cool. SO we walked through the río for a while until we reached our destination: a giant playground. So, again, somebody, I don't know who, decided to make a playground inspired by Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. There is this giant Gulliver made of plastic in the sand with slides and ropes and stairs and ladders all over it for kids (and college students) to play on it. It was so massive and so awesome. We had a great time running down stairs and up slides and trying to climb the side and getting stuck and generally acting about 10 years younger than we were. It was fantastic. Then we walked back through the city and I went and got creme brûlée ice cream. That's right. It was as good as it sounds. 

And then we came back and I chilled and went to dinner, and now I'm going to go to bed early tonight, because tomorrow is the aquarium!

TGIF!