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Monday I managed to make it through the school day actually concentrating on my work, though I wasn’t sorry that class was over, because I had an email from Laura saying that she and Rachel were in Valencia and waiting at their hostel! I met up with them, and we walked around the city to find someplace to eat some paella. We ended up in the Plaza Ayuntamiento and ate at Café y Te. We each ordered a different fruit smoothie, and ended up trading because Rachel liked the one I ordered, I liked the one that Laura ordered and Laura liked the one that Rachel ordered. We had some Valencian paella con pollo (with chicken) which wasn’t the best example I’ve had of paella, but was pretty good. After that we walked around the city for a bit, got some helado (ice cream) in the Plaza de la Virgen and headed in the direction of my casa. We took a bathroom break and then headed back to their hostel to use the computers. When we were done with that we went out to a little café near the Plaza de la Virgen called Café de la Seu. They had an extensive tea menu, so Laura and Rachel ordered some mango tea and I ordered te de rosas (rose petal tea). We caught up, and Laura showed me some pictures from their weekend in Belgium with Sophie and Steve. Sophie’s three year old daughter Noor had taught them some words in Flemish, so they are obviously pretty much fluent now. We parted ways around 1,00 so that they could get some sleep and planned to meet up after my práctica the next day at the Plaza de Toros.
I woke up early on Tuesday to do some homework before my práctica so I wouldn’t have to worry about it the rest of the day. At my práctica we were taught some more about the history of Valencia, and how they rerouted the rio (river) therein creating the famous dry riverbed that stretches around the north side of the city that’s now a park. The translations that we were correcting this week had been done by people instead of computers, which you would think should be easier, but after trying to correct them I think I prefer the computers. It was hard to tell what they wanted to say most of the time without referring to the original Spanish anyway.
After my práctica I met up with Rachel and Laura and we went shoe shopping. Rachel bought a pair of heels, which she never wears, because you have to have nice shoes in order to get into a lot of the clubs in Spain. We went to the Plaza Ayuntamiento after that to see the mascletá at midday. There’s one of them everyday at midday now because of fallas. We were standing downwind of the fireworks, which was kind of annoying because of the smoke, but on the other hand it was a bit of a thrill to be so close to them that you could feel pieces falling on your head after they went off.
We fought the crowd to get out of the Plaza and went to my casa where Lucía had made us bocadillos for la comida. Lucía met Laura and Rachel, and I had my first experience with translating between people. It was easier after a few minutes when I got the hang of it. Lucía thought that Laura was French, which made Laura really happy. We ate down in the rio, and laid out in the sun for a while, but we didn’t have too long because Laura and Rachel had to catch the train at 5,15. We went to the mercadona (it’s a supermarket) to pick up some shampoo and a few other things, and then walked down to the train station. It was sad to see them go but it wasn’t so bad because I would be meeting up with them in a few days in Barcelona.
I woke up early on Tuesday to do some homework before my práctica so I wouldn’t have to worry about it the rest of the day. At my práctica we were taught some more about the history of Valencia, and how they rerouted the rio (river) therein creating the famous dry riverbed that stretches around the north side of the city that’s now a park. The translations that we were correcting this week had been done by people instead of computers, which you would think should be easier, but after trying to correct them I think I prefer the computers. It was hard to tell what they wanted to say most of the time without referring to the original Spanish anyway.
After my práctica I met up with Rachel and Laura and we went shoe shopping. Rachel bought a pair of heels, which she never wears, because you have to have nice shoes in order to get into a lot of the clubs in Spain. We went to the Plaza Ayuntamiento after that to see the mascletá at midday. There’s one of them everyday at midday now because of fallas. We were standing downwind of the fireworks, which was kind of annoying because of the smoke, but on the other hand it was a bit of a thrill to be so close to them that you could feel pieces falling on your head after they went off.
We fought the crowd to get out of the Plaza and went to my casa where Lucía had made us bocadillos for la comida. Lucía met Laura and Rachel, and I had my first experience with translating between people. It was easier after a few minutes when I got the hang of it. Lucía thought that Laura was French, which made Laura really happy. We ate down in the rio, and laid out in the sun for a while, but we didn’t have too long because Laura and Rachel had to catch the train at 5,15. We went to the mercadona (it’s a supermarket) to pick up some shampoo and a few other things, and then walked down to the train station. It was sad to see them go but it wasn’t so bad because I would be meeting up with them in a few days in Barcelona.
