One month later...

I have completely failed to keep this blog updated as much as I was hoping too.  Guess that's just further proof that classes really do exist during study abroad.  I'm planning on doing posts about my fall break trip, and hopefully will find the time to complete them soon.  But I need a break from homework right now and today was a pretty amusing day...

I started the day off as a tourist, visiting the popular sites in Valencia that I've been meaning to see.  First, el Mercado Central, a giant food market.  I was amazed and disgusted all at the same time by the variety of things you can purchase.  The seafood area was especially ridiculous.  Who knew you could eat a sting ray?

Inside Mercado Central

Valencian oranges...the best I've ever had.

When you buy a chicken, you literally get the whole chicken.

Sting ray for dinner?

How about eels?

Dried out hunks of ham

Me in front of Mercado Central

Next on the tour was La Lonja, a gothic style commercial market building built between 1482 and 1548.  It's full name is La Lonja de la Seda (The Silk Exchange) and was used as a place for commercial business in Valencia during the 16th century.  The columns in the main hall are amazing, and there's a garden of orange trees in the center of the building.

The Trading Hall of La Lonja

Since the weather was so nice today (70 degrees in November?!), we wandered around Valencia for the rest of the morning, stumbling upon more typical tourist sites like the Torres de Quart.  The historical center of Valencia was once surrounded by the city walls, but now all that remains of the wall are the Torres de Quart and the Torres de Serrano, which were the original entrances to the city.  We climbed up a bajillion steps to get to the top of the Torres de Quart and were rewarded with an amazing view of Valencia. 

Wooden doors on the way up to the top of the Torres de Quart

View of Valencia from the top

The emblem of Valencia is everywhere!

On our way home, we walked through Plaza de la Reina and I stopped for a bit to listen to a trio of students who were performing around the corner from the plaza.  They were sooooo talented and you could tell that they really enjoyed performing.

 

The nightmare seafood at Mercado Central came back to haunt me at lunch today... Adela prepared shrimp, which I love, but these shrimp were straight from the sea.  Head, eyeball, antennae, legs, everything.  At first I was thinking "No big deal, I'll just cut off the head, because you obviously wouldn't eat that, and then it'll just be a normal American style shrimp!" Wrong.... Adela showed me how to cut off the head, and then she proceeded suck all the guts out of the head part!  Ughhhhh I thought I was going to vomit.  Luckily, she offered to cut off all the heads and let me eat the bodies while she sucked all the brains out of the head as if they were the most delicious thing she'd ever eaten. 

I've come to realize that meal times with Adela are often the most fun part of my day.  We watch the news during lunch and dinner, and the other day there was a story about a women who was murdered in her apartment 16 years ago, but police never discovered who the killer was until just now.  Adela was explaining this all to me, but because she talks so quickly, when I relayed the story back to her I was under the impression that this women had been dead in her apartment for 16 years and police had just discovered her rotting body.  Needless to say, Adela just about choked on her food and we both had to use our napkins as kleenex because we were laughing so hard :p

Today at dinner I walk into the kitchen to find Galgo curled up in Lexi's bed!  He was curled up in the tiniest little ball in order to fit on it, and Lexi was completely distraught with the idea of having no where to sit.  Adela has decided to buy Galgo a new bed with little sides on it like Lexi's in the hope that he will no longer feel the need to steal her bed haha.

 

Just like Mom and Dad, Adela tends to mix up my name with the dogs' names, frequently saying "¡Chelsea, en tu sitio!" (Chelsea, go to your spot!) when trying to get Lexi to stop begging for food from us during meals.  During lunch today when this happened I just looked at Adela and and said "But I am in my spot!"  Completely embarrassed by her mistake, we both just about died of laughter and Laura, her daughter, simply looked at us like we were crazy haha.  We probably are :p

¡Hasta luego!

Descanso del Otoño

I'm off to Pisa, Rome, and Athens for the next six days!!!  Two days in each city :D  Be prepared for a novel-sized post when I return.

Hasta luego :]

Come Reza Ama

Today was a lazy way to start off fall break.  A morning of last minute shopping for fall break necessities such as a new purse (obviously neccessary :p right?), an afternoon at the beach where I met an Australian, two Canadians, and a South Korean, and an evening at the movies watching Come Reza Ama (Eat Pray Love) in Spanish.  Pretty darn proud of myself for making it through the entire movie without subtitles and legitimately understanding the majority of the dialogue!  Granted, the argument scenes where two or more people talk at the same time and extrememely fast were way over my head, but it sure feels good to understand the one-person-talking-at-a-time scenes :D

I came back to the apartment tonight and only Lexi, Adela's son's little dog, was home.  She tends to follow me everwhere when it's just her and I in the apartment, and when I sat on my bed she immediately made herself comfortable between my feet:

So adorable!

Tonight, I'm off to a tapas festival near the beach with a few of the other girls and then to the Río to watch fireworks for la Día de la Communidad Valencia.  Can't wait!

Hasta luego :]
                           

Paella, Sangria, y Flan...OH MY!

Tonight, six other students from school and I took a Spanish cooking class.  I definitely know what the first family dinner at Albert's House this spring is going to be...Paella, Sangria, y Flan!  Yummm!  Paella is a rice dish that originated in Valencia, and tonight we made the traditional Valencian version with rice, chicken, garlic, snap peas, rosemary, paprika, tomatos, and beans.  There was also rabbit in it, but I tried to avoid it because eating a rabbit just freaks me out haha.  Especially because before being cooked it was literally a whole rabbit.  Eyes, organs, bones...the whole thing, eww.  When I make paella this Spring I will be sure to leave the rabbit out of it.  The concinero (cook) that taught our class was very nice and patient with us when explaining the recipes.  He could only speak Spanish and had to repeat everything a million times before we understood what we were supposed to do.  Because of situations like this, which immerse me in the culture of Spain, my Spanish is really starting to improve.  I feel more confident when I speak and can carry complete conversations about real stuff!  My conversations are no longer limited to the weather or other bland topics :D

The cooking school

   

Chopping up las cebollas (onions) and mixing the paella, which is cooked in a special HUGE pan

Cooking the pumpkin for a different rice dish, which is being moved from the 

stove to the oven by our instructor in the picture on the right.

Adding the rice to the paella

The complete rice dish - Arroz de Calabaza, Morcilla, y Setas

(Rice with pumpkin, blood sausage (gross, I did not eat this haha), and mushrooms)

Pro Spanish cooks with the rice dish

Gathering around the DELICIOUS paella valenciana

Flan!

¡Flamenco!

Last Wednesday I went to a flamenco bar, El Toro y La Luna, with a bunch of other kids from my school. It was the most amazing live dance performance I have ever seen!  The fact that I felt completely emersed in Spain's culture inside this tiny bar is probably what made it such a special experience for me.  There was a group of men all with guitars serenading us before the performance began.  It was easy to tell by their smiles, laughter, and overall easy-going sort of attitude how much they love flamenco.  And the dancers..holy comoly!  These women were amazing!  Their dancing seemed so natural, as if no thought was required for their complex steps and combinations.   I'm going to post of couple of the videos I took that night on Facebook.  But if you ever get the chance to see real Spanish flamenco in person, I highly highly recommend it.  Here are some photos from the night:

The flamenco guitarists

Emily and I at El Toro y La Luna

 

La Mercé - Barcelona, España

Last weekend I didn't have classes on Friday, so I made my way to Barcelona Thursday night with two other girls from my school.  Like every other budget traveller in Europe, we flew on RyanAir, and just like Steph and Todd told me, I indeed felt like a cow being herded onto the plane.  I think Europeans have some kind of 6th sense when it comes to plane boarding times because they all seem to know to get in line 2 minutes before boarding was announced.  And it's a battle to get in line with everyone sprinting to the gate.  Seats aren't assigned on RyanAir and nothing is provided.  They don't even provide safety cards and instead everything you need to know is printed on the seat back in front of you.  Evidently, you aren't allowed to where dentures, high heels, or jewely in the event of an emergency evacuation...hmm haha.  The plane was fairly new and well kept though.  I've definitely been in much much older planes.

"No jewely, dentures, or high heels allowed during emergency evacuations"

It was the perfect weekend to be in Barcelona because the city was full of festivities celebrating their patron saint, La Mercé.  The hostel we stayed at was very nice compared to stories of hostels I've heard from friends.  Everyone there was around my age, the staff all spoke English, a full kitchen free to use, free wifi, and very clean and safe.  And the best part was how close it was to Las Ramblas, the main street in Barcelona.  Las Ramblas, famed for its human statues and notorious for pickpockets, was packed with other festival-goers like ourselves all weekend.  Right off of Las Ramblas was La Boqueria, an open air market full of stands selling delicious fruits, veggies, meat, and baked goods.  I splurged a couple euro to buy a chocolate crossiant and cafe con leche for breakfast, yum!  

The entrace to La Boqueria and a stand inside selling all sorts of mushrooms, yum!

Our first day in Barcelona we went to see La Sagrada Família, the cathedral designed by Gaudi that has been under construction for over 100 years!  It's expected to be completed by 2026 and when finished will be the tallest church in the world.  The artisitc details on the facades are absolutely breathtaking.  If the inside is anything like the outside, I'll surely die from astonishment.  I'll will definitely need to return when it's completed.

After La Sagrada Família, we made our way to Park Güell, a huge park also designed by Gaudi.  At the very top of the park you can see all of Barcelona with the Mediterranean at it's border.  Beautiful!  La Sagrada Famíla spikes up in the middle of Barcelona.  My favorite part of Park Guell was the giant plaza surrounded by Gaudi's famous sea-serpent mosaic bench.  We relaxed on the bench and gave our sore feet a rest while listening to a group of flamenco guitarists.  What a way to embrace the Spanish way of life :]

The entrance to Park Guell

We went out that night, randomly stumbling upon the parade of Los Gigantes de Barcelona and also going to a couple concerts.  During La Mercé, the nights are filled with the sound of music as there are concerts in almost every major plaza.  Our second night in Barcelona we went to one of two concerts with Amercian bands, Ok Go!  It was a little bit strange to hear English lyrics amongst a crowd of Spanairds, but a relief to actually understand what each song was about.

Los Gigantes de Barcelona strolling down Las Ramblas.

The second day we went to the area around the art museum.  The museum, which basically was a massive castle, seemed to pop up out of no where on top of Montjuic.  Wanting to save a few euros, we didn't actually go inside the museum, but that's ok because there was too much we still needed to see in Barcelona and an art museam can suck up a whole day's worth of time.  

View from the art museum at the top of Montjuic.

A telephone tower on top of Montjuic...
looks more like an alien spaceship to me :p

That night we went to one of La Mercé's biggest events, Correfuego, which roughly translates to "fire run" in English.  The streets were packed with spectators for Correfuego and as soon as the sun set the craziness began.  In the program of events for La Mercé, it specifically warns that all Correfuego spectators should where long pants and shirts, hats, scarves, goggles, and gloves, and it soon became very evident why they said this.  From the "gates of Hell" at one end of the street sprang hundreds of people dressed as devils and demons, all of them holding long poles with fireworks exploding at the top.  Sparks were flying over the entire crowd!  There were even dragons spewing flames from their mouths straight into the crowd of people!  Probably the stupidest and craziests act of humanity I've ever witnessed, haha. 

The crowd before Correfuego began

The demons and dragons spewing fire into the crowd.

I captured a video of Correfuego, but because it takes so long to upload videos to my blog, I've posted them on my Facebook instead.  Definitely worth checking out if you have a few minutes to spare.  After Correfuego we went to a traditional Spanish taberna and had sangriat.  3.5 liters for 20 euro split among four people made it a perfect end to a crazy night.

Our last day in Barcelona we went to one of the other most famous events of La Mercé, the Casteller or "human tower" building competition.  I would rate this as the second stupidest/craziest acts of humanity after Correfuego haha.  There were three teams competing and at first they were all building simple three or four person towers.  I was very impressed to say the least.  Little did I know what they were about to build....absolutely massive towers of people!  A few seconds before the last team completed their tower, two men in the middle started shaking uncontrollably, and all of a sudden the top of the tower collapsed, sending 4 or 5 kids hurtling into the crowd.  The tops of the towers are always very young kids because they are the lightest, smallest, and most agile.  Whatever parent would let their tiny kid climb to the top of one of those is legitamitely crazy.  It's not unusual for the towers to fall, and I overheard someone next to me in the crowd say that someone died last year...yikes.  

After Los Castelleres we walked to a large park where we watched an arial dance performance near a large, stunningly green pond.  We also managed to sneak in one last bit of Gaudi architecture before having to fly back to Valencia.  We went to La Casa Batlló, famous for its oval windows, wavey mosaic facade, and curving roof.  A pefect Barcelonian ending to an amazing weekend :]