Adios a España

First of all, please enjoy this picture of the Mediterranean Sea.  I went for the first time today.

Four months ago, I left my family, friends and home to study abroad in Valencia, Spain.  I was really scared to leave.  However, as time passed, I adjusted to life here and realized I had nothing to be scared of.

I have seen so many things and learned so much about the world around me.  I have had the amazing opportunity to be in the countries of Germany, France and Spain.  I have seen the Black Forest, four Spanish cities and a Medieval castle.  I have lived and experienced Spanish culture and life.  I have made friends from all over the world.

I also learned a lot about myself.  As much as I have enjoyed my time here, I figured out that I cannot live without my family, especially my mom.  Previously, I had thought about moving South after college, but now I want to stay near my home if I can.

Don't get me wrong.  If I have the chance to go back to Europe, I would go, but I don't think I can ever live so far away from my family again.  I have loved my time here, but it is time to come home and face reality.  I graduate college in two and a half years and then my life truly begins.

Thank you for following my amazing journey. Thank you to Dr. Esperanza Roncero for making this possible!  And thank you to all who had made this experience memorable.

Hasta Luego España.

Christmas Market

Friday night, Nancy and I spent time with the grand kids.  We sang Christmas carols and then they danced to some upbeat tunes, like Happy and Shake It Off.  It was so much fun and I am going to miss them a lot.

On Saturday, I went down to the City of Arts and Sciences to see the Christmas market.  They had an ice skating rink which honestly surprised me.  It hasn't been below 55 degrees here.  Then I saw all the generators that were keeping the rink cold and it suddenly made sense to me.  The market had wooden buildings full of shops that sold jewelry, liquor, baked goods, wood works and all sorts of different things.  They also had a craft stand for little children.  After walking around the market, I decided to walk around the rest of the buildings of the City of Arts and Sciences.  Of all of the things I will miss here, this will be the place I miss the most.

Today, we had a lunch with Rosa and Jose.  We ate chicken wings in a soy sauce, salad, Iberian ham and cheese.  For dessert, we had chocolate ice cream.  I really like the chocolate ice cream here.  The chocolate flavor is much stronger.  At night, Nancy and I headed back down to the City of Arts and Sciences.  There was supposed to be a fire cracker show but when we got there, there was nothing.  Instead, we walked through the buildings and enjoyed the night lights.

Palacio del Marques de Dos Aguas, Catedral y Comida

Yesterday, I headed into the center of the city to see some of the historical buildings.  I started my morning in the Palacio del Marques de Dos Aguas.  A Marques is a nobleman of hereditary rank.  In the English system, he is above an earl but below a duke.  Half of it has been restored to its original grandeur and the other half houses a beautiful ceramics museum.  Unfortunately for me, there were school groups everywhere but I was still able to enjoy my visit.  The building is four floors high with beautifully painted ceilings and walls.  The one staircase makes you feel like you are actually in a palace; it has red velvet carpeting and a crystal chandelier.  I have been hesitant to take pictures in museums since Barcelona, especially when I see workers throughout it.  Therefore, I took the picture on the right from online.  That is the ballroom of the palace.



After, I went to the the Valencia Cathedral, a cathedral that appears in many of my pictures.  I went inside for the first time yesterday.  The Cathedral was absolutely huge.  It is decorated in the Gothic style although some of the chapels are of Baroque.  In one of the chapels, there are two paintings made by Francisco de Goya, a famous Spanish painter.  There is also a small worship space attached to the cathedral by a small hallway.  The worship space was built in the 1400s and smelled like it too.  In the hallway, there were two paintings, one so badly decomposed that it was brown with slight outlines.  The other was half restored and you could only make out the top half.  After the cathedral, I went to the Basilica that is next door to the Cathedral.  However, I did not take any pictures since it was an active worship place.

Today, I had a nice lunch with my friend from Brasil, João.  He wanted hamburgers so we went to a restaurant that is all over Valencia.  It tasted like a real hamburger from home.  I haven't had one in four months.  It was very nice to spend some with a good friend before I leave.

Paella y Las Fallas

Yesterday, we celebrated my friend Naomi's 21st birthday.  We went to a small restaurant and ordered paella.  Paella is a typical dish in Valencia.  It is baked rice or small noodles with vegetables, meat or seafood.  After, we walked down to a frozen yogurt shop.  Naomi and her friend Sarah leave on Thursday.  I am glad I was able to meet and become friends with them.  Good luck at school!

Today, I had my last day of classes at the university.  That also meant saying good-bye to the friends in my class.  Most of them are from America and are leaving in the next few days.  Good luck ladies and if you are in the Niagara Falls area, send me a message!

After class today, I went to the Fallas Museum.  Fallas is a huge festival here in Valencia that occurs in the Spring.  Unfortunately, I will be gone so instead I went to the museum!  Every year, many artists build "fallas" or monuments made out of carton, cardboard or paper mache. Often the mock an aspect of society and portray the artist's personality. All of the fallas become part of a giant parade and on the last night, they are turned into giant bonfires.  The festival is five days long.  People dress in traditional and historical costumes and eat paella.  This festival shows off the beauty of the culture of the city.  To the left is a picture of a fallas from the museum and below is a picture of the burning:

La Navidad

On Thursday, my anthropology class and I had an end of the semester party with a Secret Santa gift exchange.  We ate pizza and snacks, played a game of movie Charades and exchanged our gifts.  The movie game was quite difficult for me as all of the American movie titles have different names in Spanish and I don't know any of the Spanish-made movies. Thank you Judith for an awesome gift!

Last night, Nancy and I went into the city center to finish our Christmas shopping and to have some Sangria before exams.  Valencia is completely decorated for Christmas, or La Navidad.  Two giant trees are set up in the two most important squares and the main roads have lights strung above them.  The one tree you can even go into.  The center was beautiful, even if it was a little crowded.

Today, all of the grandchildren came over to decorate the Christmas tree and to set up the manger and Bethlehem.  All of them dragged us in to participate and for once I was tall enough to put the star on top of the tree.  Even though I didn't get to decorate my own tree, I still was able to with my Valencian family.  I am getting excited to come home for Christmas!

Keep your eyes open this week.  Classes end Tuesday and I have a week full of activities planned before I leave Valencia!

Segovia

This weekend, I had a wonderful opportunity to visit my friend David.  He lives in a small town thirty minutes outside of the city of Segovia and about an hour outside of Madrid, the capital.  We arrived in Madrid on Friday and headed to his town for a relaxing night.  

On Saturday, we started our day at a soccer game of David’s, in which he played goalie.  It was an informal game but it was pretty cool to watch.  Later,  we went into the city of Segovia, one of the major cities of the province of Castile y Leon.  We walked through the old cobblestone streets and looked at the beautiful architecture.  On our walk, we came across a Roman aqueduct, built back when the Roman Empire was in control of what is now Spain.  It was amazing.  Apparently, you don’t have to go to Italy to see Roman architecture. 

After the aqueduct, we went to the main plaza where we saw the outside of a large and beautiful cathedral.  Next, we went to the castle.  It was built in the 1120s for the King, Alfonso the Sixth.  We were able to all of the rooms, including the throne room and armory.  Also, we climbed 150 narrow stone steps to the top of the tower.  From the top, you could see all of the city of Segovia, including the sunset.  It was beautiful.  When we got back to the village, a group of David’s friends came over for dinner.  All of them eat, sleep and breathe soccer.  They watch it, play it, play it on Playstation and talk about it.  

On Sunday, we took the bus into Madrid.  We walked up Gran Vía, the Broadway of Madrid.  We saw the Plaza España, which houses a beautiful fountain.  We went to the Puerta del Sol.  There, you can see the symbol of Madrid, a bear with its paws on a tree.  There were street performers everywhere.  Cutting through the plaza was a long line to buy lottery tickets.  On New Years Eve, Puerta del Sol will be packed full of people, waiting for the New Year.  During the twelve bells at midnight, everyone eats a grape per bell, to bring good fortune in the New Year.  After, we walked to Plaza Mayor, the main plaza in Madrid.  It was all decorated for Christmas and was very busy due to the Christmas market. In the outer buildings that closed in the square, there were little souvenir shops and restaurants.

Yesterday, we mostly hung out with David’s friends and walked through his village.  We took a drive to another city called Avila, where we saw an old wall, encompassing the inner city. It was beautifully preserved.

Thank you to David and his family for making this trip possible and for opening up your home to us.

At Last

This weekend was more of a relaxing weekend.  On Friday I met up with my buddy from the university, Mavy.  On my way to meet her, I passed a cello and guitar duet playing Christmas music.  I love street entertainment when the musicians are good and this was amazing.  As I am watching and slowly start to walk away, I realized that I was in the middle of Asian tourists who were the definition of tourists.  Their group leader even had a flag.  I met up with my friend Mavy, ordered some take-out Chinese food and sat in front of the steps of the train station.  We ate, talked and enjoyed the night.  Thank you for a wonderful night.


After weeks and weeks of Nancy and I planning to go to the science museum, we made it there at last.  It was unlike any museum I have ever been to and was the definition of the Spanish way.  The museum was open space bright space with makeshift walls making exhibits.  There were  exhibits on the human body, communication, future home improvements, furniture from old to new and many more.  It was a cool museum and I am glad that I finally had the chance to see it.