Wednesday July 4th, 2007 (July 4th is not important in Spain- I wonder why? haha)
I woke up and walked to class with Lisa. Jordan rented a moped so he rode that to class. Classes went well. I stayed after school to use the internet and even got o talk to my mom on aim. I walked home and got clothes for the beach then walked to the beach with Ben and Matt. The water was nice and warm. I went home for a quick shower and got ready for dinner. Many of us got together at Tony Romas for dinner. We had to celebrate July 4th American style with American food. I had chicken and it was great. We all toasted to something we missed about America- milk that is not on the shelf (here it is not kept in the refrigerator), free water, dryers, and other cool random stuff that we will not appreciate more when we go back to America. We finished the meal with apple pie and other American style desserts. Several of us thought it would be a goof idea to go to Heineken Bar (an American Bar), but it was awful because every American in Valencia was there. I left, went for a walk and went home to go to bed.
Thursday July 5th, 2007
I walked to class only with Jordan because Lisa got to sleep. She did not have her first class. Grammar class was hilarious. I think I like it better than conversation class now. I accidentally broke the blinds in grammar when trying to open them. It was not my fault that there were not installed properly. Conversation was bad because we did an exercise of having to order food at a restaurant. We all have a lot to learn. I stayed at school to use the internet and do homework then I went to the park to study for a grammar test. I went home to get my passport then met up with Lisa and Matt. I stopped by an ATM to withdraw some money. (I hate the exchange rate- to get 300.00 Euros it cost me over $400.00.) Then we went to the train station. Liz was late so we went to McDonalds to get McFlurries. It is nice to have a little taste of America every once and a while, but it is weird because I never want McDonalds in the US. We went back to the train station and bought train tickets for Barcelona. They were not too expensive at 61.30 euros roundtrip. Several of us went to Starbucks, but I did not get anything and just chilled. I went home to take a nap, study, have dinner, pack, read and go to bed.
Friday July 6th, 2007 (Barcelona is awesome!)
I walked to school with Jordan and Lisa. I really enjoy walking instead of riding the bus. It is only a 20 minute walk through some cool parts of the city. It is definitely worth getting up a little earlier to walk. I had a test in grammar, but it went well. Right after class Liz, Matt and I got a cab to the train station and waited for our train. The trains are right on time in Spain and we boarded and left right when we were supposed to at 2:05. Alex and Caleb were also on our train. The trip was 3 hours long and the views were awesome. We ride along the Mediterranean the whole way except when we were passing through mountains. I got some great pictures of the really cool blue water. We got to Barcelona a little after 5 and we took the metro towards our Hostel. Liz, Matt and I were staying together, but we had some trouble finding the hostel office. Once we found it we were happy with the location. We were right on Las Ramblas- one of the most famous and busiest streets in Barcelona. After we settled in we went to check out the huge food market right near our house. It was called Mercat Boqueria. We met up with Caleb and Alex. We all had good fresh squeezed juice and walked around to see all of the other cool stuff there. We checked out the erotic museum across the street. It was expensive and more so weird than anything, but I guess now we can say we went. We walked down Las Ramblas listening to music being played in the street, listening to comedians, observing dancers and observing other cool stuff. We walked to the end and got to see the Columbus Statue which is right by the port where the Olympics were held a few years back. We had a cheap snack then went to a really nice restaurant called La Fonda. It was classy, had good portions and it was cheap. We all split some sangria which was really good and I had fish paella which was also good. We walked around the Barrio Carmen area and saw a cathedral, but went back to our hostel early and went to bed because we were tired and had a full day planned the next day.
Saturday July 7th, 2007 (07-07-07)
We woke up and I was surprised how well I slept in a crappy hostel. Matt, Liz and I went to a café and I had a pastry and a cappuccino. I liked the cappuccino because it had chocolate in it. We met up with Caleb and Alex and began out tour of Gaudi in Barcelona. The first place we went to was closed because it was before 10am and being renovated. We walked through the city past Burberry and Louis Vuitton and got to Casa Batillo which was a house Gaudi designed. We just admired the outside because we were more interested in his other work. We got to Casa Mila (called La Pedrera in Spain because it reminds them of a cavern) and it was really cool. We walked through most of the building and had headset guides telling us what everything was. We started in the attic and went to the roof which was the coolest. I can not describe in words how cool the architecture was, but not to worry- I took lots of pictures. We finished Casa Mila by walking through an apartment in the building which was also cool. We took a walk to the next, and probably most famous Gaudi work, La Segrada Familia. This was a massive cathedra that Gaudi designed and is still under construction today. We spend hours walking around this cathedral and I still do not feel like we got to see it all. We had headphones for our own guided tour. Gaudi architecture is so unique and very cool. We even took the elevator to the top of one of the towers which had a great view of the city. Another cool part was walking down the tower to the bottom it was a small circular staircase with a hole in the middle where it appeared you could fall to the bottom. We left the cathedral after that in search of food. It was 4pm and we had not had anything to eat since breakfast at 8:30. We were not too far behind normal Spanish lunch time at 2pm. We ended up eating at a pizza place which was good but expensive, but oh well everything here is. We took the metro to another part of the city and then climbed a really steep street that even had escalators. This led us to Parc Guell. This was another famous work of Gaudi and a really cool park overlooking the entire city and the Mediterranean. I got some great pictures of this as well. After spending some time there we went to the metro and went back to our hostel to shower and get ready to go out for dinner. We met back up with Alex and Caleb and went to a Kabob place for dinner. I had an apple fanta for the first time and it was good. We all went back to Caleb and Alex’s hostel and had champagne, and dessert with them and went out to a pizza place. I did not eat again, but had a good drink- it was a mixture of lemon fanta and beer. We left there around 2:15am and went to a discoteca. These do not really get going until 3am in the morning, but there were a lot of people there at 2:30am. After dancing for over an hour we decided we were tired and went back to our hostel. We enjoyed the view from our balcony and went to bed.
Sunday July 8th, 2007
We packed up our stuff and went to a café for breakfast. We tried to check out of our hostel, but they were not open yet. We went to the Picasso museum which was really cool. He painted so many works at such an early age and over his lifetime. It was cool to see that. We went to check out of our hostel and I got some orange granizado along the way which is my favorite Spainish drink. We tried to see the Plau de la Musica Catalana, but unfortunately we did not have time for the tour. We walked around the building outside, but were not allowed in without a tour group. It was a really cool venue and upcoming performances there included Norah Jones. We took the metro to the train station and grabbed lunch before taking the train back to Valencia. We got to see a lot while in Barcelona and I was happy. We again enjoyed the great Mediterranean views along the way back and watch the movie Poseidon in Spanish. We got back to Valencia a little after 5 and I headed back home. Jordan was back and we talked about our trips. He ended up going to Pamplona, but he said it was awful and he left after only being there for 3 hours. So that was a 13 hour bus ride for 3 hours. I felt bad for him, but I guess it was an experience to get to see the running of the bulls. I studied, talked to madre, then went for a walk around Valencia. We had dinner at 10pm (as always) and then I did some more work and went for another walk and some of us ended up streaking part of the city in a park. I guess we just brought the UVA tradition to Spain. I went home and went to bed.
Monday July 9th, 2007
I did not to go to class and was disappointed that a lot of my extended family was at the beach, but I walked to class with Lisa and Jordan. We all exchanged stories about the weekend and I found out that Lisa’s grandfather had passed away. I felt bad because she really wanted to be there with her family, but they were so far away. Conversation class was bad, but grammar was good. We had a review session in conversation and I realized just how much I needed to study for my test. I walked home with Lisa after class and bought flash cards. We tried to go to the library, but they were about to close for siesta. I went home to eat, study, and took a nap. I went to Lisa’s apartment and we studied there. We ended up on facebook, looking at pictures from our weekends, listening to music, watching an episode of the office and eating some really good food. I got to talk to some friends on AIM and even sent my dad and brother text messages over aim. (Lisa has internet and I do not at my house.) I went home, had dinner with madre and Jordan then studied until I went to bed.
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