amorousodious

Get excited...these are real photographs (as opposed to fake ones) of my home in Valencia!  Bienvenidos a la Casa de Lucía Esteban, vamos a tomar un tur de la casa. (Welcome to Lucía Esteban's Home, we are going to take a tour.)



This is what you see when you first walk in the door.  We're on the eighth floor, (really the ninth, the bottom floor is floor 0) which is the very top, of the building.  Luckily there is an elevator so we don't have to climb nine flights of stairs.  The door that you see leads to...



Mónica's bedroom.  Mónica is Lucía's daughter (in her late 20s) who visits from time to time.



Returning to the entryway, this amario (dresser) is what you see if you look to your right, and the other photo is if you look to your left in the entryway.  The open door that you see leads to...



Lucía's summer bedroom



Continuing inside, we turn to the right and look down the enormous hallway, and immediately to our left is the meseta (little table) with the teléfono.



The first doorway to the right leads to MINE AND ALICIA'S ROOM! YAY!  This is looking at the feet of our beds.  The heater that you see was VERY nice to have during the colder months.  The third photo is our amario.



This is Alicia's bed/area of the room.                                              And this is mine!



Siguiendo (continuing) down the hallway, the next door on your right is Lucía's bathroom.  This is a forbidden area.  Therefore, we will go instead to the room directly across from it on your left, which is the sala de estudios (study room).  There is a sofá, and an escritorio (desk) for us to use in there.



The next door in the hallway to your right is our bathroom.  These pictures are quite boring, so pass them by if you would like to see something more interesting.



And the next door in the hallway to your right is Lucía's winter bedroom.



Across the hall from the last photo is the cocina (kitchen).



These are some objects of interest in the cocina.  First is la máquina de café (coffee maker) then the place where we sit to eat la cena (dinner)...



Then there's the plantas right behind us under the window, and looking at the other side of the room, the fridge, the microhorno (microwave) and the washer.  Almost no one in Valencia has a dryer because it's easier when the weather is very nice and it rarely rains to hang clothes on a clothesline outside.



Finally, if we continue down the hall we go right into the room at the end, which is the beautiful comedor (dining room/living room).  The small table by the ventana (window) with the three huge chairs around it is where we usually sit for la comida (lunch) when we all (Alicia, Lucía and I) eat together.  Lucía sits in the biggest chair facing the televisor (tv) and we sit in the other chairs.  The other bigger table is for company.

The best part of the tour is yet to come...however, the photos for the best part have not been transfered from my camera, so we'll have to wait for them another day!

Rachel and I slept in on Saturday, though Rachel slept a lot longer than I did. I went to walk the dogs with Carole and we had a good time. Normally only four of the dogs go on the walk because Caramel and Luna are old and walk slower than the rest but Luna wanted to come with us that day so we had five dogs in all. We went to an area that’s kind of like a reservation for birds so there are a lot of birdwatchers there normally but we didn’t see too many. We did see some bikers that were riding around however. Carole says that in Belgium bike-racing is very popular so people come over to that area to train. Other than the occasional interruption of the bikers the area was peaceful.

John fixed a nice breakfast with fruit, toast, yogurt and cheese so we took our time eating when we got back and then waited until Rachel got up. After we had gotten ready we went into Antwerp. The area that we parked was close to a restaurant called “The Hemming Way” which I thought was kind of funny. We walked through the city kind of close to the river where there were some huge boats parked. John told us that sometimes the river overflows and there’s a parking area that floods and they have to close some gates so that the rest of the city doesn’t flood. We walked around the town square and the cathedral as well, and saw some performance artists in the streets. The architecture in Belgium is very different than the way things are built in Spain even though both styles are very obviously European. It’s hard to describe, but for the most part Belgian roofs are triangular like the ones in Michigan, but in Spain most of them are flat, and they use more stone than bricks in Spain. Both countries, at least in the big cities, build buildings all squished together and very tall and thin.

After a while we went to a café to get something warm to drink. Rachel has been to Antwerp before and she really like the café that she visited so we went to the same one. It was an underground café lit by candles and dim lamps. It was a different sort of atmosphere, the waiters were dressed in medieval clothes and there were benches instead of chairs around the tables. I ordered a warme wijn that was spiced with cloves and cinnamon, which was absolutely delicious and very much needed after walking around in the cold. After that we bought some Belgian waffles with whipped cream and cherries from a street vendor and ate them on the way back to the car.

We drove to the train station and Rachel and I went in and bought tickets to Gent where we were meeting with the rest of our American friends and Steve for dinner. On the train we had to sit separately because it was so crowded but Rachel wrote some postcards so it was productive all the same. When we got to Gent we waited in the train station for a while for Steve to come and pick us up. I had to use the bathroom, which I should have done on the train, but unfortunately I had waited until we got off, thinking I would use the one in the station. What I didn’t realize is that it costs money to use the bathrooms in Belgium, 40 euro cents in the station! They have you pay because they keep a person there to clean the bathrooms, but still I didn’t really want to pay to use the bathroom. I know, I should have just paid but I waited until we got to the restaurant and used the bathroom there for free.

Steve picked us up and we squeezed into his car with four of us in the backseat. We drove over to the center town square of Gent and selected a restaurant after much debate. Rachel and I had a Kriek for the second night in a row, and I had a green soup that’s made from roots of some sort. It was really good, it had leeks and carrots in it as well. Laura had waffles for dinner which Steve though was really strange and told her that only little kids do things like that. After dinner we went to a bar and had a quick drink before heading back to the train station. Most of the party ordered a Kriek Max which is just a special edition of the Kriek with more flavor, Laura had a berry Jenever, and I had an apple Jenever. We had to rush back to the station after so that Rachel and I wouldn’t miss our train. We said a quick goodbye to the group, Rachel would be seeing them the next day but I wasn’t going to see them again for two months. We managed to catch the train and we headed back to Antwerp where John was going to pick us up. Rachel and I got to sit near each other on the return trip, and we had a good conversation. It was strange realizing how long I had gone without talking to her, and I realized how much I had missed her. It’s good to know that there’s something to be excited about to return to the USA, I get to see my family and friends again.

We got back and met John who was driving a big white truck that he takes to work. It was noisy, but we had fun joking about the fact that you could probably live in it if you wanted, though you would occasionally have to pay to use a toilet nearby. We went to bed right when we got back because we had to get up early the next day to catch our flights, mine to Valencia, and Rachel’s back to the US.

This was my first experience traveling by myself in España, so I made sure that I was prepared. I had fruit and two bocadillos with me thanks to Lucía, so I wouldn’t have to worry about food for the day. I also already had a map of Barcelona, and I knew where I was coming into the bus station and also where the hostel was. I took a bus when I went to Madrid as well, so that was familiar too. Oddly the bus was extremely empty, so I had 2 seats to myself, as did everyone else on the bus. It was an uneventful 4 hour long trip, but it got me to Barcelona in the end. Once I was there I had a long walk over to the hostel, which took me an hour and a half but the weather was beautiful and sunny and about 20 degrees, so it was pretty pleasant.

I met up with Laura, Rachel, Melinda and Tom as they were leaving to find someplace to eat lunch, so we all headed together to this place that served tapas. I just ate my bocadillo while we were there, but Laura had some asparagus that looked delicious, and Tom was disappointed in his chorizo, which was not at all spicy. We went shopping for a while afterward, there was one shop that we went to that had really nice clothes, but I had to remind myself that I had limited luggage space, so buying a new outfit wasn’t the smartest thing to do.

After shopping we went back to the hostel to check me in and take some pictures of the beach before we went to Parque Güell. We met a big group of Catalonians on the beach who were drunk and singing, and wanted to take pictures with us. It was kind of fun, though they did ask the typical first question that I’ve gotten every time I’ve said “I’m from the US” which is “Hillary or Obama?” They are OBSESSED with Hillary and Obama here. Never mind that their elections here in Spain are coming up in a few days, they want to know who I support from the US. It’s interesting also that they never ask about McCain. A few people that I’ve mentioned it to haven’t even realized that McCain exists as a candidate since their news here focuses so much on the fight between Hillary and Obama.





That's the Catalonians' bottle of liquor that Rachel is holding by the way, they handed it to her because they wanted us to stay and drink with them.

That’s enough about politics. We left the drunken Catalonians on the beach singing into their megaphone and stopped at the next available ice cream place. They had banana gelato that actually tasted like bananas, and dark chocolate ice cream. Since I couldn’t decide between the two, I got them both in a cone, which made for a great combination. It took us a long time to get to Parque Güell, and then once we were there to find our way through the park to where the buildings were, so by the time we found the actual artwork it was already dark and we couldn’t see much color. Regardless we all took pictures with the lizard, and other random things that were there. We hung out awhile to watch a futbol (soccer) game in a lot nearby, and then headed out to find the nearest metro station.



We went back to the hostel and got ready to go out for the night. The big debate was whether warmth or cute shirts were more important. I think overall cute shirts/shoes won the debate. It wasn’t extremely cold anyway, so I think we made the best choice. We started by going out to dinner at a place where we all ordered pizza (yeah, we ate pizza in Spain, very traditional) and then took forever trying to find this dance place. There was a band there playing rock-type music and I really enjoyed it even though there were a few viejos verdes there. Laura and Rachel preferred to dance to other music though so we left and went to a different club where there was supposed to be hip-hop and techno. It was a really nice place, pretty good music and we stayed until about 3 am. We took taxis back to the hostel and Laura and Rachel went right to bed since we had about an hour to sleep before we had to leave to go to the airport and catch our flight to Belgium. I decided that I would be more tired if I went to bed so I stayed up and had political and religious debates with the people working at the front desk.

I think I’m starting to see a pattern in my conversations with Spaniards. I don’t know if it’s just me or what, but I run into people with the most interesting views, like a native from Morocco who’s a nationalist Catalonian/Muslim and a native Catalonian who is neither Catholic nor nationalist. They were both interesting people to talk to, but not exactly the most common thing to run into. If you’re interested, one of them was an artist of sorts who puts together sound bytes that you can download on the internet. Here is a link LINK GOES HERE to one of the “creation sessions” where they record the sounds. They had the audience do all sorts of different noises, including fight with each other, make animal noises, have all of their cell phones go off at the same time etc.

Well, at 4am we got up, took the metro and then a bus for an hour and a half to the airport, and caught our plane to Belgium. Laura let me share her ipod, so I got to sleep listening to some good music on the bus and the plane. It was really interesting flying with Ryan Air, it’s a low-cost carrier that does inter-continental flights in Europe but honestly it really sucked as far as flying goes. I wasn’t impressed with the fact that we had to walk from the terminal to the plane outside, or that the plane was obviously filthy and in bad shape. The planes themselves I’ve been told are fairly new, but the inside looked dreadful. I don’t think that I’ll be buying tickets from them again because cheap as they are I don’t think it’s worth it to fly into airports like Girona outside of Barcelona or Charleroix outside of Brussels and then have to take a bus or drive for just about as long as you just spent on the plane. Regardless, we did arrive in Belgium at about 10,30 and that’s where the next adventure begins.

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 feel as though I got a pretty good dose of Spanish culture on Saturday. Alicia and I got up around 9,00 and left the house after desayuno and arreglarnos (breakfast and getting ourselves ready) and headed out to explore a little bit. We were really trying to find an exposition on immigration that we heard was in town at one of the museos de la Universitat de Valencia (University Museums) but we were unsuccessful. We did however find a cool exhibit on a Spanish doctor who made some great discoveries during franquismo (the regimen of Franco), a nice Cathedral, and the outside of the Ceramics museum to keep ourselves occupied until midday.

We met up with Amanda in the Plaza de Ayuntamiento where was a Mascletá (think a fourth of July celebration with twice the noise and fireworks in the middle of the day with ten times as many people shoved into half the space) in order to celebrate the official start of Fallas, the biggest Valencian holiday of the year. The Vice President of Spain was there at the time, she’s a very nice lady, and a native Valencian so everyone was running around and she was being photographed and shaking hands every few seconds (she walked right by me, the second time I’ve been that close to her, the first being an earlier weekend when she was having lunch in the Plaza de la Reina with her family).

Space, like I said, was limited, so we were scrunched, but that’s not much of an issue when all you’re going to do is watch fireworks, so we huddled and cheered with the other Spaniards (they really do yell olé) as the fireworks went off across the street from us. I took a video that I hope turned out well, and a ton of pictures. Once we were all good and temporarily deaf, Alicia, Amanda and I met up with Ryan (another student from the centro) and took some photos of the falleras (girls dressed up in traditional Spanish clothing) before heading home for la comida (lunch). Alicia and I had Arroz Cubano, which is the rice dish with fried eggs and tomato sauce, and for a treat we also had some fried plátanos to go with it! That’s a very Latin American/Carribean dish, hence the Cuban name. It was absolutely delicious and continues to be one of my favorite dishes here.

After la comida Alicia and I met back up with Amanda and walked through the río for a few miles (beautiful weather, in the high 60s with LOTS of sunshine) and then took an autobús down to the playa (beach). I went swimming in the ocean, which wasn’t any colder than when I did the same thing this time last year in Florida with G&G, but of course everyone thought I was crazy. The Mediterranean Sea is gorgeous, and it was nice to swim in a beautiful place like that, where you can see the city behind you and the mountains to your left, and it was just incredible.

I was getting a little chillier as the sun went down so I switched out of my wet swimsuit and we all met up with Ryan and took some more pictures around the beach until the sun went down and it was time to head back for la cena. Alicia and I took the bus, but Ryan and Amanda took the metro since it would get them closer to home. Back at home Alicia and I debated and debated whether or not we wanted to go out that night but when push came to shove it was decided that we shouldn’t waste any more of our youth sitting at home on Saturday nights.

So, after a cena of Paella with crab (not my favorite since the whole crab was sitting in my dish and I half expected it to crawl away) we got ready to go out. I borrowed a belt from Lucía, who is very fashion conscious and gave me a black Burberry since it would go well with my new European style jeans. It was really cute all as an outfit.

We met up with Amanda and wandered around the Barrio del Carmen debating whether to get some chocolate and churros (there are stands all over the place because of Fallas) but we decided to start in a café since we had just eaten dinner. We went to café Infanta which attracts a crowd of all different ages, and people watched for a while. Some Spanish guys showed us some magic tricks, and invited us to go out to a place that was over by school, but we didn’t feel like going that far out of our way so we headed instead to a 3 story discoteca and danced until around 5,30 the next morning. A good night all in all, though we were a little bit tired walking home.

My intercambio Rueben (native Valenciano who goes to the University of Valencia studying law, he’s learning English, I’m learning Spanish, we meet up and speak in both languages) invited me to a house party on Thursday night at the casa of one of his Canadian friends…a house party you say, in Europe?! Those certainly don’t happen very often. No, they don’t, and this wasn’t just any house party, this was a toga party. A toga party…in SPAIN, are you serious?! Yes I am…and now you ask, why didn’t I go to this super-rare toga house party in Spain to meet people who were there from all over the world like Germany, France, Switzerland, Holland, and of course, Spain?

I had three exams the next day…that’s why. :0(

So, I woke up on Thursday morning and wrote out my blogs for Monday through Wednesday, then headed out to the locutorio to call Mom and Dad. I had some nice chats with them, Mom just got back from her trip in the Bahamas and said she had a bit of a tan (it’s hard to tell on webcams) and Dad unfortunately didn’t get the chance to chat for too long because he had a big meeting at work, but it was nice to catch up regardless. Afterward I figured out a few things for when LAURA AND RAE RAE WILL BE HERE NEXT WEEK and about when I go to Belgium to meet up with them and Melinda and Tom.

Then it was nose to the grindstone, and I studied until la cena. It’s really not quite as bad as it sounds since it was beautiful weather and I sat outside in the Río sipping on zumo de naranjas (orange juice) and reading in the sunshine. When the sun went down and it got too cold I headed inside. For la cena we had potato and carrot soup with pieces of fish in it and super-fresh, got out of the oven an hour before we ate bread. I studied until bed, and I sincerely hope this will be the last entry with this much studying involved until finals. 

I went to my práctica (internship) on Tuesday morning, and the article that I worked on translating was a LOT more difficult than what I had done the week before. It was about a study done over a program that takes high risk children from neighborhoods and puts them into programs practically from birth to stimulate their cognitive development so that they won’t have such a hard time in school. Honestly, I really hope that’s what the article is about because I could be very wrong. Just kidding, I knew what it was about, but the writing style of the author in Spanish made it extremely difficult to translate, long sentences that just don’t have a word for word equivalent. Afterward, Francisco (the supervisor) told us that sometimes the staff all gets together for mealtimes with the interns to socialize and learn more about RELIEVE and in general what they do there. We might get to do that in a few weeks, so I’m super excited.

After práctica I headed to school to practice teatro. Pilar told us that since it was midterm week, we could skip a week and start up again next week…however, the vote was a unanimous “we need a break from studying” so we proceeded. By next week we should have a rudimentary script, so things will really start moving along. I’m excited, I think that our skit will turn out to be really funny.

Unfortunately, teatro did come to an end and we returned to our books and studied endlessly until the center closed. I headed back towards home, but took a short detour to the locutorio where I skyped my friend Michael. He (finally) bought a skype phone, which apparently you can use without a computer, wherever there’s a wireless connection. It doesn’t have a webcam feature of course, but it was still sweet to be able to talk to him.

Back at home we had ensalada and sopa de verduras (salad and vegetable soup) for la cena, and of course returned to studying soon after. Alicia and I had the same grammar exam the next day so we studied our vocabulary together. A lot of the words were really difficult to remember, and there was a montón de vocabulario (just means a heck of a lot) to memorize. We felt fairly confident when we went to bed that we would at least pass the test.

I am not kidding when I say that my Saturday and Sunday were boring. I basically did a lot of tarea and estudiando (studying) since 3 essays were due Monday and then there are midterms the rest of the week. I wasn’t feeling particularly motivated on Saturday since it was a gorgeous sunny day and warmer than it has been in a long time. Lucía saved me by showing me the roof of the building where there’s a common area that no one uses during the winter (yes, 60 degrees counts as winter here) except to hang clothes on the clothesline. I stayed up there half the day in the sun doing my reading and enjoying the warm weather uninterrupted. I came down for la comida, for which we had paella with chicken and escargot. Neither Alicia nor I had ever tried escargot, but Lucía told us they were excellent so we went for it. I only had a few of the snails, which were okay, but not really my thing. They tasted typically like seafood and were obviously good quality but the texture just wasn’t great. Afterward I took a short siesta and then continued with my reading, which actually took me all afternoon until pasapalabra. For la cena we had sandwiches de chorizo, pavo y queso con tomate y lechuga (chorizo turkey and cheese sandwiches with tomato and lettuce). After dinner it was nose back to the grindstone until bed.

At bedtime Alicia and I were frustrated with our blinds. It’s not the biggest deal in the world but they let light from the elevator (which is right outside our window) into the room, and they’re broken so we can move them up and down but we can’t adjust them to different angles. More so than that, our beds are both made so that we’re facing directly toward the window. After messing with the blinds for a bit we gave up and turned our mattresses around instead so that our heads were facing the other way. This made the situation much better.

On Sunday we went back to work almost the moment we got out of bed. I did some reading while I was eating el desayuno and then finished up one essay and started another one before la comida. It was a much colder and uglier day complete with lluvia (rain) so we had a sopa de pollo y verduras con pasta (chicken soup with pasta and vegetables) and patatas con garbanzos (boiled potatoes and chickpeas). It was a nice way to break up the day.

Back to tarea, I did more reading and made some flashcards with vocabulario about facial features. They have a lot of different words for different types of noses here, like puntiaguda if your nose finishes in a round point, or chala if you have a really small nose. A professor Snape type nose is aguileña. I finished my economics ensayo before la cena. We had hamburguesas de pollo (chicken burgers) and manzanas (apples). Alicia had finished all of her tarea (lucky!!!) so she got to watch el telediario (the news) but I had to go and finish my tarea. I barely got everything done before bedtime (meaning, a bedtime at which I would get a decent amount of sleep). This week is going to be a lot of work. 

Yes, I actually did do tarea (homework) pretty much all day on Thursday. I started in the morning with grammar, then I headed to the locutorio (internet café) to skype my dad. Dad isn’t feeling very well :0( so his voice was kind of scratchy, but it was nice to talk all the same. I talked to Kendra as well, whose foot is feeling better (yay!) so she’s back to swimming like a maniac.

I got back to my tarea after that. For Latin American Lit I read a story about a girl who was neglected as a child, everyone thought she was lazy and an idiot, she married her dad’s best friend who was embarrassed of her, and she lived a miserable life only being comforted by the tree outside her bedroom window that would tap on the window in the wind and to her it sounded like different types of classical music. After they cut the tree down she left her husband. That’s pretty typical of the literature of this culture, depressing. I ate comida (that’s what they call lunch here, not almuerzo like in Latin America) which was a bocadillo with calamari and tomatoes. I was not too much a fan of that combination on a bocadillo.

Alicia received a paquete (package) in the mail, but she only got the slip in the mail here because she had to go and pick up the package at the post office. We weren’t sure where the post office was, but after about an hour of explanation from Lucía (of which in the first five minutes we already had all of the information we needed) we had a general idea of where we had to go.

We watched pasapalabra, in which someone actually won the grand prize, which was really exciting to watch. For la cena we had a baked pasta dish with ground chicken, sauce, and cheese, and ensalada of course. After la cena there was a debate about the Spanish economy between the Partido Popular, which is the conservative party here in Spain and the PSOE which is the liberal party. I took notes on it to share in economics clase because we’ve been talking a lot about the different policies of the political parties, so it was interesting to hear firsthand. We had an excursion the next day, so Alicia and I went to bed early.