Adventures in Spain: A Busy First Week

Hola Todos!

I would like to be able to call this post "Exploring Valencia," but that would be a complete misnomer. Until Friday I saw very little of Valencia, and even Friday I barely scratched the surface. The all around lack of sightseeing, or even just casual wandering of the streets to get to know the city, was due to the far more demanding than anticipated work and lesson schedule.

Tuesday was my first day at my internship. The first day was fairly dry, but I think that's standard of the first day at many internships. I spent the entire four and a half hours I was in the office reading over documents in Spanish which explained the company's objectives and provided lengthy accounts of past projects and events they put on. At the end of the work day before I went home, I was given a web address with more information about one of the company's specific events to read for homework that night. So it was a dry first day, but great practice with reading comprehension! I did my reading homework in the time before my six o'clock Spanish class, and after class my roommate and I took a trip to the grocery store. I have to say, budget of approximately ten euros a day for food can be stretched a long way as long as it's used for grocery's instead of eating out. For dinner I made myself rice with chicken and vegetables, and it was delicious! I've actually become mildly obsessed with carrots, mushrooms, and zucchini cooked in olive oil with salt and pepper. I've literally eaten that every day since Tuesday because its so good! And with some chicken (cooked exactly the same way) and some white rice... great cheap, easy, filling, and DELICIOUS meal!

On Wednesday work was much the same, except this time I read a document with 99 proposals on how to eliminate government corruption, which I read in preparation for a meeting I had to attend from six to eight latter that night. I was a little disappointed that I had the meeting on government corruption since Wednesdays I don't have Spanish lessons and I had been planning to go to the beach, but listening in on the meeting was really helpful for practicing listening comprehension. The meeting consisted of members from my company, Fundacion por la Justicia, some of the lawyers who had written the 99 propositions that I read and that they were discussing, and members of various political parties in Valencia. They talked fast, so I had a hard time keeping up, and I didn't understand a large part of what they were saying, but by the end of the meeting I was able to pick up more of what they were saying. As listening comprehension has always been one of my weakest spots in Spanish, any practice with it is both helpful and welcome.

When I got out of the meeting around eight, I did not want to return immediately to my apartment. As luck would have it, on my walk home I stumbled on a small carnival for Feria de Julio, which literally just means July Fair. The fair spans the entire month of July, and there are various events, parties, and activities planned throughout the month to celebrate. The carnival turned out to be just the break I needed, so I walked around for about half an hour and bought myself a hotdog for dinner. The carnival was small and had very few rides, none of which I rode because I was happy to just walk around. Just being there, doing something in the city (even if that something was a very American style carnival...) made me feel better about having done absolutely nothing so far. The other major bonus of the carnival was that it got me hooked on what seems to be a very common Valencia street food. After I had eaten my hotdog, I stumbled upon a woman with a small portable charcoal grill. Now one of the things I've missed most about the USA this summer has been food grilled on a barbeque. The woman was grilling corn on the cob until it was blackened by the charcoal and then shaking salt on top, and even though I'm not the biggest fan of corn on the cob (its good, but I've always found it hard to eat) I really wanted something, anything, grilled, so I bought the corn. Basically, now I'm hooked and I was pleasantly surprised to see that this is actually a very common thing to sell in Valencia, especially by the beach.

Thursday started out much the same as Tuesday-- work in the morning and class from six to eight at night, but Thursday had an extra element. After class I had intercambio. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect with intercambio. I knew it was set in a bar and both locals and foreigners came to practice Spanish and English, but I didn't know how formal it would be, or whether or not I would enjoy it. As it turned out, it was very informal, with people coming and going as they pleased, and I enjoyed it a lot. Valencia is a big city and I don't have too many people here to hang out with (although I've started meeting a few more recently), so it was a bit lonely during the first few days. The intercambio session was refreshing because it gave me the chance to just talk with people. Different people. A greater variety of people. People from not just Spain or the USA, but from all over the world. And even though the conversations weren't all the most interesting and were often repetitive when you started talking to someone new (at least one person in the conversation was practicing a language they weren't too strong in though, so what can you expect?) it was nice to have that kind of interaction for a short time Thursday night. Overall, it was a good experience.

Friday was by far the best day of the week. Work in the morning, free time in the afternoon, which KC and I took advantage of by going to the beach... FINALLY!!!! After five days in Valencia with no sighting of the Mediterranean, I was ecstatic to finally see it! And it definitely did not disappoint. First of all, the sand is probably the finest, softest sand I have ever felt. It wasn't grainy at all. In fact it was almost too fine because it made it infinitely more difficult to wipe the sand off when we left the beach. The water was warm and great for swimming. There were mild waves when we were there, but in general the water was pretty calm. We spent most of the time just laying out relaxing, though not really tanning because we got to the beach around five when the sun was becoming less intense. After, we walked down the beach and came across a play of sorts being preformed on the beach. We only stayed to watch that for about five minutes though, because behind the show there was a little market with food venders and other random venders. I bought a chorizo bocadilla for dinner, which was delicious. A bocadilla is just a Spanish sandwich, so I had a chorizo sandwich for dinner.

After a long first week, the chance to finally see a little bit of Valencia was a welcome opportunity. We're planning on returning to the beach on Sunday, and I can't wait!