Valencia

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This past weekend we all loaded into buses and headed down to Valencia, the land of the oranges! On the way down we stopped in a small town called Tarragona. In Tarragona we toured the ancient ruins and ate lunch by the ocean. Some of the ruins included a giant stadium where they held chariot races. I think the best part of the entire trip there was when Lauren, Tina, and I bought our own lunch and ate it by the ocean. We had "pan con tomate" which is just tomatoe rubbed on bread. It is a traditional Catalan dish and it began when during the Spanish Civil War the people did not have enough money to buy fresh bread. Instead, the bought older bread and in order to make it soft they rubbed tomato on it!
We arrived in Valencia at around 8pm on Friday night and were assigned roommates. I got lucky and had a great rommie named Megan. The hotel we stayed at was called Barcelo and had very modern decor, and was very nice with a wonderful view of the city. I had bad dreams the first night and I think it was because of the crazy decorations... it reminded me of Beetlejuice. Anyway, all day Saturday we had a tour guide which took us around the city. It is a beautiful city, but I am still partial to Barcelona. We visted the largest market in Spain, but I unfortunately did not have time to get an orange. Sunday was spent going to the aquarium and their science museum. The dolphin show was pretty good, but the science museum was nothing after being to the ones in the states. I did find a little road-bike exhibit though! Valencia is also known for its paella, a rice dish with lots of varieties of meats mixed in. The first place we went had delicious paella and the second wasn't quite as good, but more expensive!
We got back to Barcelona late last night and classes started today. I had my intensive Spanish class as well as a film class in Spanish. The film class is basically about documentaries - we analyze them and at the end make one of our own. Our professor for that class speaks practically no English, so it should be great practice!

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Photos

fan lesson
i bought a traditional flamenco fan in valencia, and this is my tour guide trying to teach me how to open it like a pro

woohoo!
finally got it!

beach at valencia
i'm not sure whose camera a picture was being taken with, but hopefully i can find it soon.

beach at valencia
some of my apartment-mates and i hanging out on the beach

tunnel under tarragona
this tunnel was used by the "beautiful people," as the tour guide called them, to get to their seats for the theatre/circus shows