Valencia with pictures

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I made this entry easy for you guys . . . full of pictures WITH COMMENTS that I think are pretty good-

I have been feeling really stupid at school so any encouragement to be smart would be nice.

LEAH and DAD --- read the captions at least 😊 I know you guys just scan my pictures!!

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Photos

The journey
It took us a while to get to Valencia because we took the slow train there- but we got to see a bunch of amazing Spain terrain.
Oh- and it is a wonder I even made the bus conisdering Luz Helena woke me up at 8:06 AM, I jumped in a taxi to get to Atocha, and got on our 8:50 AM train.
Thursday was a late night

Our hostel
It was adorable

Pretty statue
Valencia was a pretty city

Eating our sandwiches
Our host families always give us about four sandwiches for our journeys. So that is what we ate on Friday.

Gulliver playground
This is an example of how random Valencia is . . . Kelly and I were leisurely walking through the park when we came across a giant Gulliver jungle gym. Yes, someone felt it necessary to create a giant figure of this fictonary character and then allow children to climb all over it---there are about five hundred different ways your kid could potentially die from playing on this thing- there ARE NO safety bars.

Paella
Me eating paella.

From window of our hostel
We had a great view from out hostel--you just cannot see it.

Jacqui, Kelly and I
Okay, so this is our new Australian friend that has the guts to travel around W. Europe solo for 3 months. I would just run out of money.
Anyway, did I mention the people who ran this hostel (which was amazing and super cheap) were all on crack? Well, we don't know for sure, but they must have been on something. It took us about 30min.for two people to check us in at the front desk because they felt it necessary to count the entire cash register before giving us our change. (this was AFTER we had reminded them that we didn't pay for our hostel yet, we had only payed the deposit online---they thought we paid and weren't expecting any money at first).
So, one eveing as we were leaving (we invited Jacqui to join us for dinner) we asked one of the crazy employees to take a picture of us. He made us take one with two backgrounds (because he thought the hotel background looked cool). I thought he only took two pictures -- but when I uploaded my memory card onto my computer I found he took about eight---I have no idea how or when or why but he did.

My favorite picture EVER
This is me on one of the other random jungle gyms in the random park (that I think was created over a filledin river? at least Spanish people know how to take care of their landscapes)
This is just one BIG rope mountain climb thing (Val you would know the name for this). Again, millions of ways for your kid to fall off of this.

Another crazy Valenciano story
So, as Kelly and I were walking back to our hostel very late (early one morning) we came across this bunch of very nice looking boys who were very drunk. They were coming from one of the five million weddings that go on daily. They saw us picked some flowers from the flower pots that lined the street we were on and told us to put them in our hair. We obeyed, then, after seeing how fun it was for us (I guess??) they went to the flowerpots again and got HANDFULS of flowers and stuck them in their hair. handfuls- stems, dirt and ALL. It was hilarious. Then, they decided to take a picture of them selves, which is when we stepped in and took one as well, which is when we started talking and they found out we were from the states and they said- do you like Bush? and we said NO and then they were like "take a picture !" and we took a picture and in this picture you see them doing something with their hands --- it supposedly was there sign for "we hate Bush"

wierd thing about Valencia
This picture just captivates how odd Valencia is at times- I never really knew what kind of city I was in. It is the 3rd largest city in Spain and yet it is so random and not as put together as cities like Madrid and Barcelona (1 and 2).
But I really loved it, and I will probally work here one day because it may be the only "big city" in Spain that I will be able to afford ot live in.
And maybe by the time I get back there it will be a little bit more put together. I think it just got hit by this big wave of success (economically, mostly from tourism, and new invested capital) that its taking a while for all of Valencia to catch up to what parts of Valenica already accomplished.

again, dichotomy
everywhere
nothing makes sense here.
Another example:
Kelly and I were in a GROCERY story. We went to the panaderia (the bakery section) to get some yummy fresh bread- we asked the girl (who was not retarted from what we could tell) where the CHEESE was--again GROCERY store--and she responded--loud and clear and in Spainsh but we can understand it--"I don't know where the cheese is, but maybe you could as she cash register and they could point you in the right direction".
We walked directly straight and to the right of here and there was the cheese.
I wish I worked at a grocery store in Spain because evidently in Valencia it is perfectly acceptable to have no idea where anything is - even when it is a staple food in Europe and anywhere I guess.

Comments

[Lauren]

I love the story about the guys and the flowerpots. It was definitely what I needed to hear to lift my quickly falling spirits (yeah midterm later today that covers 15 effing chapters and i have no clue how to study for it and am losing hope). I think the one guy looks like Freddie Prince (prinz?) Jr.

[Stephie]

GOOD LUCK ON YOUR TEST youwill do great
Unlike ME HERE who cannot do better than a B on ANYTHING I AM ALMOST LOSING IT I feel stupid all the time AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Love ya:)