Valencia y Intercambio

The Camel in the parade!

More pictures of the parade.

Parade--Super cool costumes!

Paella!!

Me at the beach!

Flamenco--it was amazing!

The view from the tower in the city.

Another view of the city!

La Ciudad de Las Ciencias.

La Ciudad de Las Ciencias.

Hello All!!

So I went to Valencia over the four-day weekend. It was a little rough getting there cause it was a long bus ride but overall the trip was worth it. On Friday it was the Valencia festival day so there was a parade. It was uber cool! The costumes were amazing and the music and dancing was phenomenal. Also there was a camel! Yeah I know! Wicked! On Saturday we explored the city and walked through the older part of town where all of the Churches and Plazas are located. It was really beautiful. We also went up into the tower of the Cathedral and could see an amazing view of the city. It sun also happened to be setting so it was beyond beautiful. On Sunday we went to La Ciudad de Las Ciencias. Basically it is a part of Valencia with a bunch of science museums and such. The buildings themselves are works of art! We tried to go to the Aquariam there but it was way too crowded and we didn't have tickets ahead of time. So instead we went to the beach. And ate Paella!! It was amazing!

So that was basically Valencia. It's a pretty big city so it was hard to see in only a few days but we did our best. I am glad to be back in Granada and back at home with Ana! She is the sweetest. She made us this amazing desert when we got back! Yum!

So backtracking a little, last Thursday I met with my intercambio for the first time. I have mentioned this program before but it's been awhile! Intercambio is when I meet up with a Spainard who is studying English. The goal is to meet up about once a week for about an hour and talk half the time in Spanish and half the time in English. My intercambio's name is Virginia and she is 19 and studying Spanish at the University of Granada. She is super nice and friendly! Libby and I went together cause intially there was suppossed to be another girl that was going to meet up with the both of us. It was tons of fun! We talked for about two hours! She talked slower for us so we can understand and overall our Spanish was pretty good. We had to talk slowly for her in English so she could understand us. I think we are about on the same level so it's nice and the conversation flows well. I think we talked more in Spanish because she was having trouble talking. She said for her it's much easier to read and write than it is to talk. That is the same for me but it is easier to talk now that I have been living in Spain and speaking Spanish everyday. We are going to meet up again this week. She even invited us to go to some of her classes with her at the University when we have free time. And she invited us to play Karaoke at her house!! Hopefully we will get to do that cause it sounds like so much fun!

Classes are going good. Just the usual. Which is never a bad thing. There is less homework here which is nice, but that also means that most of the grade is based on tests. I'm not too worried about the classes though. They are interesting and fun so far!

This week shoudl be pretty normal and boring. I am actually glad!! The last few weeks have been crazy!

More later,

Annie