Bailamos! (Let's dance!)

Hola a todos! Not too many pictures today because I didn't bring my camera and it was mostly a regular school day.

In the morning, I had breakfast on the go via the way to the metro, and then went to the computer lab early while my roommates who are in the lower level marketing class went to take their test. I managed to crack down on my book report on Brand Sense (Martin Lindstrom if you are interested) and that only leaves 3 papers for the rest of the semester to complete....joy. It's definitely not all play here in Valencia, we work hard too! (Unfortunately--but it just makes me that much more determined to come back for just fun.)

Then I enjoyed my bocadilla (sandwich, jamon y queso hoy), with a glass of fresh zummo! Echaré much zummo cuando volver a los Estados Unidos.....(I'm going to miss it when I come back to the US). In spanish class, we learned about different dances and music and their instruments.  Ironically, the flamenco was not one we talked about much.

In the afternoon, around 4pm, we attended Flamenco lessons together as a class. Our teacher spoke no English other than "One, two, three four!" So it was lots of watching and concentrating trying to mimic her. I don't have Flamenco shoes so I had to wear regular heels, but it was still really fun.

Luckily Kyle, on of my roommates, manages to snap a few pictures from us dancing. We go back tomorrow for round two, but I am planning on taking my camera then. For now, enjoy!

Gaudi continued and then a bit o'L Oceanográfic

So in the spirit of the Oceanográfic we visited today, I thought I would include my favorite Gaudi house that we visited on Saturday in Barcelona, and its ocean inspired detail elements, and then some real photos of Europe's largest aquarium.

This is the view of the "house" from the street. It's a bunch of apartments really, I think people actually live in some of them...not entirely sure. I was distracted from my recorded tour because I was taking lots of photos.

So this is the Casa Batilló (duly noted). From what I gathered it was/is an apartment complex he designed for rich people that was almost completely inspired by ocean elements. (See below)

This is the wallpaper throughout a lot of the house, it was made to represent fish scales, and varied from grays to light gold to hues of pink, green, and yellow.

These were the stairways that had glass that was supposed to reflect the motion of the water and the flowing bars for the gentle waves.

As the tiles ascended, they changed from light to dark so you could feel like you were descending into the depths of the ocean blue....pretty neat concept.

Elements like the windows and lights were made to reflect certain animals, these were representative of the backs of sea turtle shells. 

This one is of a sea urchin. 

The hallway upstairs leading to the roof of the house was supposed to look like gill slits. It was also very spatially efficient in addition to being aesthetically interesting. 

This is a partial view of the roof. Not sure how this part was indicative of the sea, but it was still very pretty!

So that was basically Gaudi.

Now onto the Oceanográfico! It was neat, we got to see a dolphin show and a few exhibits on the Mediterranean, the deep ocean, and los Tiburones (sharks!).

Not much to say about it, a lot of things were similar to the Fort Fisher aquarium, so I'll just let you enjoy the pictures.  :)

I really like this one. 

This last one is for Alejandro!

Maybe one day I'll be able to keep up with my travel stories as they happen, but for now, no pasa nada (it doesn't matter). Hope you are enjoying it all the same. Love from España <3

Barcelona...an introduction to Gaudi.

Took a few snapshots of the train ride.

After our gorgeous sunrise (we woke up at 5 am to leave by 6:30am train) we were able to sit and enjoy the eastern coast of Spain, that overlooked a bunch of quaint towns and ocean views and finally managed to arrive at our Hotel.

It was pretty nice (had air conditioning, AND normal showers)! We dropped off our bags then headed for immense touring. Literally from 11am until 7pm, no stops other than a 1 hr lunch. All walking. (15 min=1 mile, so you do the math) Lots of walking basically, but lots of good photos and stories too!

I don't have time to talk about all of the cool things with Gaudi tonight, but this should get it started. He was an amazing avant-garde architect who was so ahead of his time and took the simplest inspirations and made them uniquely artistic.

The park (initially designed to be an upscale neighborhood) that we visited, he designed to blend with the existing landscape. It was quite a trek up the long hill to the park, but so worth it! It was busy, but seeing the mosaics and locations I've seen only in movies was so amazing. :)

That was the entry to the park. Then we went to explore the main temple area, which was a meeting place to the whole neighborhood he designed.

They were just incredible, check out the detail on the mosiacs! Please, for my future bathroom, I'd love to have this tile design on my floor. Incréible!

Next, we went out on the balcony part overlooking the city, we got to see a flamenco dancer in action, which was pretty neat.

Our guide for Barcelona, Roda, told us the dancer was not very good, but it was definitely cool to watch for a few minutes of free entertainment. This week, on Tuesday and Wednesday, we have flamenco lessons so that should be really fun!

Next is a picture of our guide, Roda, with all the cameras! It was really funny because someone would ask for a photo and everyone would chime in, "me too! me too!" so she would just take them all like a trooper and snap snap away! She was really nice, an art student from the University of Barcelona and I learned a lot from her about Gaudi this weekend and some things from the Picasso Museum (no cameras allowed there unfortunately).

That was at a different place in the city, but I can't possibly list all the places we went in this post tonight, we really did trek all over town. Managed to get a few nice souvenirs too--proud of my spanish haggling skills with the Indian guy at the Spanish store selling things that say Barcelona but are made in China (haha).

But this last photo is of me and Emily at my favorite place so far, an apartment complex designed by Gaudi. Almost all the architectural symbolism is inspired by ocean elements, and I have lots of details for each so look for a more detailed report soon. Smiles from Valencia! Buenos noches a todos!!!!

Not enough hours in a day!

Hola a todos!

I'm sitting here typing at 12:30am and we wake up at 5:45am to be at the train station at 6:30am to head to Barcelona! The fútbol game is on Saturday night so it's going to be loco.

We have no idea for our itinerary but we do know we are visiting a Vineyard, a Cathedral, and going out for a nice meal all together and staying at a hotel, so hopefully I will have lots of pictures.

Today we attended classes and then shopped for a bit, we went to one of the University book stores and I purchased a bag that says "Universidad de Valencia." Then we went to the main mall, and similar to the pentagon mall in DC, you walk right off of the metro and into shopping central.

I found a cute dress for 1/2% off. Hopefully after I wear it this weekend, I'll have a few pictures to upload.

After shopping, we met up at the Mercado Central, the best place in Valencia to get the best of the best food. It wasn't open, because it closes when we are still in classes at 2pm. Apparently when famous (aka hollywood people) visit, they only shop there so it's pretty important.

Yesterday, we went to the Catedral Miguelete, it was gorgeous! The holy grail is supposedly there. Not sure if I mentioned that already but I'm really tired. Someone order me a new pair of feet! Pronto!

Here are a few photos from yesterday:

We walked to the top of the tower, it was 207 steps! Lots of exercise, and then got to enjoy some spectacular views: 

Then here are a few from today's visit to the Mercado Central, and La Lonja de la Ceda (a great trading center where the first bill of exchange occurred).

Below is the back of a church I thought was pretty. All of the architecture was so gorgeous! The stained glass, ceramic tiles, and carved stone.

The next two photos are of the Lonja de la Ceda. This is the market where they would trade valuables like silk (ceda). The pillars are made in the style of palm trees. They were and architectural masterpiece at the time. Artisans from all over the world contributed to build this for over 100 years. Gargoyles and angels monitor good and bad trading. 

The palm tree was representative of heaven. If you were a good trader, you would go to heaven, and if you stole or did not complete your trade properly, you would go to hell. It's pretty neat how they actually do resemble palm trees!

That's all for today, here's a painting from the street of what Valencia looks like at night. Pretty accurate from my bedroom window. Miss you all, thanks for keeping up with my travels and feel free to put in any request for souvenirs!

Hasta luego....  :)

A Few Activities.

I present to you: Las Cuidad de las Artes y Ciencias!

It was really bright and I was staring into the sun, but thought there should be one or two of these pictures with me actually in it.

The day's itinerary consisted of walking along a path of orange trees to get to the center:

Oranges are a huge part of the Valencian culture here. One of the best things I get on our morning breaks  at school is a small glass of orange juice--(Zumito), freshly squeezed (per order) 100% orange juice. It's really delicious. Another great drink we've had at the beach (sorry no pictures for that--camera and sand don't mix) is Agua de Valencia. Definitely a drink recipe I have to take home (gin, vodka, cava (spanish champagne), and fresh orange juice. Yummy!

This was the Cuidad as we first approached it:

The whole concept is of a very new-age modern architecture, and it's truly amazing that the buildings are so artistic. Definitely easy to photograph:

Another angle....

This is the science building we visited. It has a 3 floors (I think) and was all about little mini stations for hands on science learning ranging from topics like the human body and sports, to space, to Marvel comics. It was more of an artistic opportunity for me, hopefully when I get more time I can upload more.

After an hour or so there, we went to see an IMAX film on the Hubble space station. I listened to it in Spanish so I didn't understand some of it, but the whole experience is like you are sitting in bed staring at your ceiling that just happens to be this huge screen. When we "moved" through space it felt like we were actually moving. We are going back sometime next week to go to the Oceanografico, which is the aquarium so I'll have lots more pictures of this part of town then.

Then that brings us to today, when we went to the Catedral de Miguelete. Climbed 207 steep stairs to get a great view of the entire city! Pictures will follow when I am able to get a decent amount of sleep--we've been skipping our siestas to take the opportunity to explore the city more.

It's pretty late here, so I'm off to bed before school and activities start all over again tomorrow. Until next time--hasta luego!

Adventuras con el teléfono.

So, us americans being addicted to our cell phones, of course I had to have one immediately when I got to Spain so we could coordinate things with our host family and each other. We embarked on our journey the first day we were here. Despite the jet lag, and the fact that the elections were going on (most of the stores were closed) we trekked all over town looking for the name of a store where Nacho said we could buy phones. It's a huge chain called Movistar. They look like this-->

We managed to stumble across one or two on our own but they were each already closed! Determined, we kept walking towards the city center to try and find one that was open. (Because of the elections, many stores had really strange hours, so it was definitely a hit or miss game). Asking a group of local girls "Donde está una lugar que vender los teléfonos celulares?" They were able to use some half-english, half spanish, and lots of hand gestures to motion us in the right direction.

A few blocks down, we saw a white display with cell phones gleaming in the window--it was like finding the pot of gold. We were all so excited and proud of ourselves for finding a phone store on the first day. However, as soon as we walked inside, each phone was over 40 Euros wayyyy too expensive.

We had been told by our program co-ordinator that you could buy a phone with prepaid minutes, no contract for around 20 or 30 Euros so  we left that store in disappointment that it didn't have what we were looking for. Having our heads down, we almost failed to notice the Movistar that was right across the street! After walking almost completely by it, Kyle (one of my roommates) suddenly stopped in her tracks and said, "Look! More phones!" Excited, we walked in and perused the prices where we saw a few phones that looked in the right price range.

Timid, we asked the two women working if they spoke any English. "No, nada. Lo siento" they replied. Wonderful. First day in Spain, guess I need to just dive in! Consulting my itouch dictionary I tried my best to explain we were students here for a month and we needed a phone with a prepaid plan. She seemed to understand that we were students and here "por solo un mes" but the prepaid part was really confusing. She kept pointing at the sheet and saying "Ocho centavos por minuto." Kyle and Lindsay were both looking back and forth from me to Ana (the woman with enough patience to put up with us American tourists making a super cheap purchase) as we struggled to understand each other.

Reading the plan over and over, I still didn't understand how it worked. Ana tried her hardest to speak as slowly as possible and use the simplest spanish words and eventually I learned enough to know it wasn't a contract, it was a one time purchase and we just went with my gut instinct and purchased 3 phones.

We paid in cash, and then had our new devices in hand! ....with no clue how to use them. The menus were all in spanish (duh), and we had no idea where our phone number was or how the plan even worked. Spanish phone numbers have 9 digits, and any international phone has to dial a 0034 number first to then get the spanish number. We ran home to our host family brother to ask him if we made a good purchase. He looked over it and said "it's less than I pay for phone, looks good."

With a bit more confidence, we went to bed exhausted. Luckily we had internet up and running the next day so I took out the manual to try and decipher how it all worked.

Laying out all of the instructions, and with the help of google translator, I was able to learn a few things. Apparently, the phone we bought was only 7 Euros, because 12 Euros came on the sim card that is in the phone (for our total purchase of 19 Euros). The sim card has 12 Euros that can be used for texting or calling. The first 350 text messages are free, and then are ,15 cents each after that. It is ,08 per minute of calling time. This phone is only for use within Spain though, unless you have a prepaid international calling card or are prepared to call me and pay for it yourself haha. (Muy caro--expensive!)

If you want to add more Euros (there is a minimum of 8) you can go online and purchase more with your credit card and your pin number that is given with the phone. It was a small victory for us (las tres chicas americanas) and we went out for ice cream to celebrate at a local Heladora (Ice Cream shop).

Yummy! The flavor was called "azul cielo" (blue sky) and was so delicious! It's similar in flavor to american ice cream, but is less creamy and a different kind of sweetness. It was some sort of vanilla mixture. But tan bonita, si?

And below here is the picture of success! Mi movil!

First day of school was today, and I have lots to say about that. Our teachers are fantastico! Hasta mañana a todos!

Tour de the Spanish Apartment de los tres chicas americanas!

Just finished another fantastic dinner. Our host mother has been keeping it pretty simple with salads and fruit and bread, which my stomach greatly appreciates. As promised, here are a few pictures of mi casa nueva!

This is our bathroom, it’s gorgeous! And my favorite color! The bathtub is so old, our host mother was telling us about it but I couldn’t understand it all or I would have more to say about it……

 This is the breakfast room. We have yet to eat breakfast here, but since the only modern outlet is right next to the bathroom (the only one where my converter’s work—never believe the rack room self-proclaimed experts that they work in all Spanish outlets!!!!) we have designated it the electronics table. Or at least I have. It has a window overlooking the courtyard but we keep the blinds closed on that side of the house because we have no air conditioning and so that side gets lots of sunlight.

 This is the kitchen! Our host mother stocked us with so much food! We have 2 kinds of juice in the fridge, bottled water, and yogurt. In addition to all that she made sure we had a coffee pot and a coffee machine, and lots of snacks like fresh fruit and croissants and muffins.

 This is the view from the kitchen! It overlooks the patio out back that has lots of little plants in beautiful ceramic pots. It was built by our host mother's father. He owns the whole apartment building where we are staying, and most of their family lives in each of the apartments. Nacho said his aunt lives upstairs and his grandparents on the first floor. 

 Mi dormitorio! One bed is for me, and another for my luggage. There is no dresser in the room, just a rack, but it only had 5 hangars so I just laid out all of my things in a semi-organized fashion on the bed.

 This is the formal dining table, we have yet to use it also, but as you can see there is artwork everywhere! I love it, it’s all hanging from the ceiling from plastic strings. I asked our host mother where she got all the art, if someone in the family did it, and she said that she collected them when she went on holiday. She must have gone on lots of holidays!

This is the foyer. The floors are all tiled throughout with some type of colorful honeycomb mosaic pattern. 

So todo es esto! That’s the apartment! School starts tomorrow at 9am, so we have to be up early to master our maps and the metro system. Then we take a spanish placement test, and start the first day of classes! I'm hoping to go to the beach for the first time, but I'm not planning on taking my camera (eesh--sand). We told our host mother our plans and she packed us an almuerzo (lunch for a picnic on the beach).  However, I do have a lunchtime adventure from today I'm planning on uploading as a visual in addition to writing a little story about how I managed to buy a phone from a local store where no one spoke english.....adventuras.