Hola amigos,
I suppose it's about time I told you about my trip to Valencia 2 weekends ago with the girls. :)
Well, on Friday I got up earlier than I had since I got here, 5:15 am! Yikes! After sluggishly getting ready, I called a taxi all by myself (woo! haha) and had him pick me up and then pick up my friend Megumi who was semi-close by. After an hour bus ride to Madrid, we took the most crowded Metro ride of your life! I'm pretty sure about 5 random people (besides the girls) got to second base with me, that's how crowded it was; we were smushed up like sardines. Next we took a 3 1/2 our train ride (which was actually quite nice, I chatted a lot with Erin and Anna), and then we finally arrived in sunny Valencia! 65 degrees F! Woo!
We then checked out our hostel which was legit! Very colorful :) And though we weren't supposed to eat or drink in our rooms, I broke the rules and ate the soggy but still tasty bocadillo (sandwhich/biscut) with tomato, cheese, and olive oil that my host mom mad me the day before (she's so sweet). We walked around a bit, enjoying the wonderful weather, and happened across an awesome candy store and GELATO...I had coffee-flavored, and it was glorious. We also passed one of the coolest signs I've ever seen...the street we were on was "Colon" from Christopher Columbus, and the sign read "Colon Fluid." LOL...Ironically though, I was the only one of our group who laughed at it!! Where's their sense of humor? Haha it's O.K. though, I told my sister later and she's making a copy of the picture. :) After taking many candid photos of Erin and Amy we had a quick rest at our hostel (we had walked around a lot!), and then headed out for dinner at an Italian restaurant. We decided that this will become a tradition in our weekend trips, because our first experience in Madrid was such a marvelous one, and we just love Italian food!
So, Saturday was, to say the least, INCREDIBLE!! Although Megumi was sick and could not join us for this day, which was super sad :( ...but it was still a fun day, besides having our tri-lingual friend with us :) ...We ate at Starbucks for breakfast and headed for the famous "Ciudad de las Artes y Ciencias" museum but were a bit side tracked but a lovely park on the way. Erin and Anna picked illegal oranges (and they didn't even taste good!), we took some pretty epic High School Musical jumping pictures, and watched old men drive toy boats on a pond...it was sweet. We finally made it to the museums in the late morning (we walked all the way there, quite a trek!) and let me tell you, it seriously was the coolest place on earth!!!! And we only went to 2 buildings out of 3! The first was the science building that was filled with all these cool and interactive things, like an energy section and one just about the body. For instance, in the energy/electronics one you could sit across from your friend and talk into a microphone; it would delay your voice, and then you had a switch where you could slide it back and forth to make the voice slower or faster. There was also this dark room where you stand in front of a wall, strike a pose, and a weird camera takes a picture of your silhouette that lingers for about 10 seconds...that was my favorite :) ...there were also some cool things in the body exhibit like being tested for your balance and doing fake surgery! Yeah! Let's just say I am very easily amused, so this place was like the ultimate playground...plus it was educational! Woo! I wish I could take my future classrooms there...
Anyway, after the fantastic science museum we headed over to the aquarium/zoo, or as Erin likes to call it, the "Oceanarium." We saw penguins dancing, walruses getting frisky, and a wonderful dolphin show! It was amazing! They trained the dolphins to flip the trainers up in the air and pedal backwards and flip over ropes, it was just so cool! And then Erin pointed out the most amazing part of it...she said, "OMG, these dolphins speak Spanish!" And I realized holy cow they do, since of their commands are in Spanish! I like it. :) I also think this would be the perfect job for my sister because she can use her Spanish and Zoology knowledge to train dolphins! Plus it's in a climate she'll tolerate :) Regardless, the Las Artes/Ciencias was the most fun I'd had since coming here, it was that impressive.
Well, after our adventures there we met up with some girls from SNC studying here which was so nice to see familiar faces, though I'm sure they were annoyed when we started mainly talking in inside jokes (that tends to happen a lot). Regardless, I hope they had fun. The next morning we headed to, can you guess it?--Starbucks! That apparently is another tradition in the making...and next we headed to the beach to stick our feet in the Mediterranean and catch up with some more friends from school studying there. It was very nice, though let me tell you, that water was cold! Worth it though :) After that we rushed to the train station with about 5 minutes to spare, and headed home!!! In all, FANTASTIC weekend, I LOVED Valencia, and though my heart is in Toledo, I think I would have like studying in Valencia as well.
O.K. well I see I'm starting to write a novel and I'm sure it's not very exciting anymore, but I realized I hadn't written in a week so I thought I better get on that! Hopefully the next blog will be more thought out but not so delayed! lol
Hasta luego amigos!!
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