2 Nights in Valencia

Sorry it has been a while since my last post but we have been in Valencia and I didn't bring my Computer.  The entire IES program took 8 charter buses for a 3 day, 2 night cultural experience of Southern Catalonia. 

Day 1
My bus left at 8:30 in the morning so my roommate and I woke up around 7:45 to shower and eat breakfast.  Waking up wasn't too bad and I just planned on sleeping on the bus.  Our first stop was Torres Vineyards, which was on the way to Valencia.  Torres is one of the largest vineyards in the world.  They make many different wines and a few brandies.  In 2006, I think, they won the award for best winery in Europe, and they also won an award for one of their brandies.  The entire winery is enormous with wineries in Spain, Chile, and Northern California.  They also import grapes from France and Itlay.  I am not sure how much wine they make but they can produce 16 million bottles of Brandy a year and way more wine.  This is what we took the tour in

The tour was very strange.  It was interesting and we learned a lot but it was very touristy, and there were no grapes because it is winter.  First we went around the Estate, but since the car had windows all of my pictures came out strange.  After seeing the grounds we went down into this tunnel and they had a movie playing with some narrator about the history, and we saw where they age the wine.

They age the wine up to 18 months and then age it some more in the bottle.  After the tour we did some "wine tasting" but our program decided to be cheap and give us only one taste of the cheapest wine.  I was kind of let down because I thought we were going to drink 3 or 4 and I was planning on buying my favorite one.  So I just went and bought a bottle of red wine that stuck out to me.  It was called Celeste and it was bottled in a castle in the mountains in Spain.  I wanted to sleep on the bus so I also bought a wine key (btw, I used the term wine key and not one person on the bus knew what I was talking about).  I opened my bottle and had about a glass and a half and then slept like a baby for the next two hours.

We arrived at the hotel around 5:15 and some people were going on a run at 6:30.  If you look at a map of Valencia you can see that a river used to run through the middle of the city.  However, it would flood a lot so they diverted it around the city.  Now what used to be a river is now a park that is great for running and biking because all the cars take the bridges over it.  We ran for about 50 minutes and it was a lot of fun.  Dinner was at 8:30.  We had some Paella, spaghetti, bread, and some other food.  Everyone was very impressed with the dinner because their home stay food is not that great or they have apartments or dorms, but the food at my home stay was so much better.  It made me feel extremely lucky about my living situation.  I also sat next to a girl from Cornell which was pretty cool, and we talked about Ithaca for a while. 

After dinner I took my bottle of wine and went to the hotel next door where some other buses were staying, and most of the people I have been hanging out with.  We got a little tipsy and went to the old part of Valencia where there are a lot of bars.  All of the professors and advisers said it was the place to go but it really wasn't that great.  We just danced and had some expensive drinks.  It was fun but nothing too exciting. 

Day 2
Breakfast was at 9 and we had to be ready by 10.  Our plan for the first part of the day was to go to the Aquarium.  Here is a map of the place.  It is the largest aquarium in Europe

It would have been a lot better if it wasn't raining the entire time but most of it was inside so it wasn't too bad.  We also went to the Barcelona aquarium with class on Tuesday but it was like comparing a kitty pool to the ocean.  They had many different sections including a dolphin show.  I took some videos

I have a ton of pictures but they didn't come out that well since you are not allowed to use flash and I don't have a great camera. 

After the aquarium a few of us went to get lunch next to the hotel.  We decided to get the buffet.  This lunch was amazing.  The first course was a buffet with Mediterranean salads, pasta, pizza, tuna on bread, and some kind of fried potato and cheese thing.  I was pretty full by the end of that.  Then for the second course we could choose between pizza or ravioli.  I got the pizza and it was a giant 12 inch pizza.  I ate about half of it and wanted to kill myself.  Then there was a final course dessert which was a cookie, ice cream sandwich.  We were all kind of nervous about the price since we didn't really understand what our waitress said but it ended up costing less than 10 euros and included a free drink.  We were amazed by the amount of food for the price.  I wanted to take a nice ciesta but I only had time for a nice hot shower before we had to do a walking tour of Valencia.  We had the option of not going but our adviser kind of guilt tripped everyone into coming, but I am glad she did because it was well worth it.  We went to a Cathedral that was increadible

Here is a nice model of the Cathedral since it is so huge, but it is from about the same angle as my picture, just from a birds eye view.  The Cathedral was very nice with tons of paintings, arches, gold, statues, and priceless objects.  One being the mummified arm of some saint, I forget his name. 

After this I took a long nap and woke up for dinner still full from lunch.  Dinner was the same as the night before and I didn't eat that much.  Everyone I talked to was extremely tired from the day and most people didn't go out.  I was also very tired but had the mindset that we were only in Valencia for one more night and I had to make the most of it, and I am glad I did.  Some of my friends wanted to go out so I went to have a few beers with them in the hotel and then we wanted to get some Agua De Valencia at a bar.  Agua de Valencia is basically a Mamosa with Cava (Spanish Champagne).  We herd of a good area to go that was close to the hotel.  We walked into a few places that were closing or didn't have the drink and eventually stumbled into a bar where a band was setting up.  Although they also didn't have the drink, we decided to stay.  The band started playing some classic rock from groups like the Rolling Stones and some other recognizable songs.  I have a video of them playing I Can't Get No Satisfaction but it was taking a long time to upload so I'll post it later.  But here is a picture of what they looked like

By this point in the night I was very impressed with what we found.  Just by chance we wandered into a bar where some Spanish Hombres were playing the rolling stones.  We stayed for about 2 hours and were grabbing our coats when I saw this Spanish Mujer getting on stage

I was with 3 girls and one other guy and we all looked at each other and said that we had to stay to see where this was going.  As we all kind of expected, she did a full strip tease for about 10 minutes.  We were all in shock because we had no idea what this place was.  The whole time the band was playing behind here and there was also no cover charge for this place.  So we just saw a live band and a sexy Spanish strip tease for free.  I also have another picture but it is not really appropriate for this so I will leave it out.  Sex is much less censored here in Spain.  At the news stands you can buy Playboys and Hustlers and this strip tease was more sexy and a performance.  In America, first this would never happen, and it would be much more pornographic and as much as an "art form."  Anyway, after that we went home and were very glad that we went out.

The next morning we were leaving for Barcelona at 8:45 in the morning.  We stopped in an old town called Tortossa but everyone was miserable and it was raining so we didn't really get much out of the tour.  I also got yelled at by my tour guide for talking which was very embarrassing.  I slept for most of the bus ride until about 3 when we stopped for lunch.  For lunch we were having a typical Spanish meal consisting of charred onion type things called Calçots

They were pretty good, especially with the sauce that you see.  We also had a lot of wine from these cool jugs called Porrons.  Here is a video of me drinking it.

Apparently it is the most sanitary way to drink wine, and it is also very fun.  Here is another video of Jourdan and Sierra drinking it.  He was pretty good at it. 

Later, one of the RA's was walking around video taping some of the people who could do it really well and this kid Rob at our table tried it.  He was good when the camera was not on but this time he tried and the wine came out the top and went all over his face.  I wish I had it on camera and I want to get it from the RA because it was hilarious. 

After the lunch we were all kind of drunk and passed out on the bus.  Our next stop was back in Barcelona.  It was a very fun trip, as you can probably tell but it would have been a lot better if it was not raining the entire time

Sant Llorenc Del Munt

I went on a hike on Saturday to a place called Sant Llorenc Del Munt.  It is a Monastery on top of a mountain about 1,100 meters above sea level. 

We woke up around 8 and aimed to get on the train at 9 to a smaller city inland called Terrassa.  This is a Catalan city in the mountains and another place that I will be going to later is called Montserrat.  When we got to Terrassa we took a cab to the mountain.  We told the cab driver to drive us to a path called Con Robert.  He dropped us off in what looked like a very expensive neighborhood with nice houses and told us to go up the road and take a left.  There was no trail and only a large cliff.  We walked back and ran into a guy walking his dog, who told us the right way to go.  It was about a half a kilometer walk just to the trail that the cab could have drove.  It also was not the Con Robert trail but a much more difficult trail to hike up.  The dog was very cheerful and cute.

We started hiking up and it was pretty steep.  I had no problem climbing up but we were with some city girls who took their time.  At first I was doubting the fact that they could complete the hike but in the long run I am glad they came.  They were a lot of fun and slowed us down so that we could enjoy the scenery.  If they didn't come we would have just rushed up the hike instead of taking in the view and landscape.  After the first climb we stopped to take a group photo with our final destination in the background.

I though we did the timed picture but I guess my roommate Jourdan took the picture.  If you look closely right above us is a building on the top of the mountain.  That is where we wanted to go.  Along the way we took our time and enjoyed the scenery.  It took us about 2 hours to get to the top.  Here are a few pictures from along the way

 This is Montserrat

 This was a cliff and a very long way down to the bottom.  No picture could really capture the feeling of standing close to the edge

When we got to the top we took another group photo that in my mind came out extremely well

We drew some attention from this picture and a few other groups did the same thing.  I love the way the shadows look, the background, and how we are all just silhouettes.  There was also some guy filming with a really big camera who said that we would be in some video in 2-3 months.  He gave us the website address but I have not checked it out yet.

The Monastery was a lot newer than I had expected.  The it was built in 1876, but I was expecting it to be hundreds of years old or something.  There was also a restaurant and a bar up top and there were a lot of people there.  The best part about the top was that you could see the Pyrenees Mountains about 100 KM away.  You could see the snow caps and the jagged mountain range.  My camera is not that great and you can't really see them in my picture.

We started walking down, this time following the Con Robert trail but when we got to the bottom we were confused about where to go.  We were expecting some sort of information booth or bus or taxi service but there was nothing.  So we decided to start walking.  Along the way we passed some very nice houses.  The people that lived here were extremely wealthy.  They had nice cars, beautiful houses, pools, great views, gates, and many many dogs.  Here are some pictures

The houses were hard to get pictures of because they all had fences and gates but they were amazing.  We ended up walking about 2.5 km to a bus stop where we had some snacks and called taxis to come pick us up.  

By the time I got home I was extremely tired and took about a 3 hour nap from 5-8.  We probably walked between 6 and 8 miles throughout the whole day, although it is really hard to tell because we didn't really take a marked trail up the mountain thanks to our crappy taxi drivers.  Although most of the pictures came out pretty well, none of them can really capture how steep the mountain was or how far you could see to the horizon.  This has been my best experience here so far and it ranks among the most amazing places I have ever been in the entire world.  Now I can't wait till we come back to climb Montserrat which is more touristy but apparently even more amazing with rich history, caves, and numerous temples along the hike up.

From Wednesday to Friday all IES students are going to Valencia and have class off.  We are going to some museums, going to a winery, and some more stuff while there so it should be fun.  My next post will probably be Friday or some time after that

Classes

So this past Wednesday was our first day of classes.  Each one is 3 credits except our Spanish so I am taking 5 classes and 16 credits.

They are...
Advanced Spanish for Liberal Arts (this one actually our orientation class so it has been every day)
Catalan Language for Beginners
Catalan Culture Studies
The City as a Place to Live: The Barcelona Experience
Mediterranean Oceanography

We haven't really started since there has only been one class but they all sound pretty interesting.  Although, I think I am going to have a lot of work which kinda sucks.  Ill manage to get the work done and still have an amazing time.  The Catalan language class sounds pretty hard but there are a lot of words that are similar to Spanish.  Catalan sounds a lot like French though and I think it is closer to French but I don't know any French.  My favorite professor so far is probably the Catalan Culture Studies.  He was cracking jokes the entire time and is going to take us on a few field trips.  The class is going to focus on a brief history of Catalonia for the first few weeks and then jump into modern politics and why Catalonia plays a large part in the European Union without being an independent state.  The Barcelona Experience  class is an architecture class that uses Barcelona as an example for European cities.  The final is a 5 page paper on an area in Barcelona.  It seems kinda interesting but also pretty hard so I am slightly worried about this one.  I also have no knowledge of Architecture.  The Mediterranean Oceanography class sounds really fun.  Next Tuesday we get to go to the Aquarium which I have wanted to check out since I found out it existed, so that should be fun.  We are also doing 2 fieldtrips one weekend in February outside of the city.  The professor is really passionate about what he is studying and teaching.  This attitude always rubs off on me so it should be a good class.

Family and Food

I am very lucky because I have an amazing family here and my mom is a great cook.  Last Sunday she made Paella.  It is a typical spanish dish with rice and seafood (or chicken, meat, tofu).  She made it with Gambas, which are crayfish.  They taste a lot like lobster but they are small and more tender.  I think they might be my favorite seafood.  Here is a picture of the platter

I guess Sunday is Paella day for my family so it will be great.  They also had their entire family over for lunch.  Lunch here is the big meal and they eat small dinners...although they give us a ton of food for dinner.  If I don't work out I will probably gain a lot of weight but I won't let that happen. 

The mom is named Adela, the dad Jose.  They are very nice people and they let us do what ever we want, as long as we lock the door and be safe.  They are also very easy to talk to and correct our Spanish when we make mistakes which is helpful.  They have 2 kids, both older.  I don't know them very well and they are not around too much.  Jose's mom was also over for dinner.  She was very hard to understand and spoke with a strong accent.  We always eat dinner with the Adela and Jose and it is a great time to ask questions and practice our Spanish.  There is also a Korean student living with us but she hardly comes out of her room or talks to the family so I don't know her at all.

Another Barcelona Game and then back to George Paynes to watch the Jets beat the Patriots

Today we decided to go to the stadium.  We got tickets online for about 30 Euros and went to the stadium earlier in the day to get our tickets and try to get some jerseys.  We also went to George Paynes again before the game to have a few beers and watch Seattle lose very badly.  They were down 24-0 when we went to the soccer game.  This time at the game we were on the upper level but surprisingly we had a great view of the field.  I also brought my camera and have some pictures of the game, including a goal

 

This was from our seats.  The stadium holds 125,000 people and explodes with noise when the fans cheer.  Nothing I have seen in the US comes close

GOOOOOAAAAAALLLLL.  If you look closely at number 17's foot, Pedro, he scored on that shot.  I was pretty excited when I got it on camera.

 Nothing special about this picture, just on a corner...not sure where the ball is though

Barcelona ended up winning the game 4-1 and broke a record for most consecutive wins, but I can't find it online.  I think my homestay dad told me this and I might have misunderstood.  I know they broke some kind of record though.

After the game we went back to George Paynes to watch the rest of the Jets vs. Patriots game.  When we got there the Jets were up 7-3.  The main room was extremely crowded so we decided to go to the front room where the game was also on. 

While there we met some very interesting German people.  They started hitting on the girl we were with and gave her a drink but then we talked to them for a while.  They were wearing the Green man costumes from Always Sunny in Philedalphia but theirs were red and black.  I had to take a picture of them.

You can barely see the guy in black but they were pretty entertaining.  Eventually the girl we were with, Yennice, got a little creeped out and we went to watch the rest of the game in the other room.  They were both pretty drunk and drinking redbull vodkas so they were hyped up on energy drinks.  They were also hitting on her a lot and being really weird, but it was fun while it lasted 

So we went to watch the rest of the game and we found a spot where we could see the TV.  Since it was Sunday, people were doing Karaoke but almost everyone who sang was terrible.  Sometimes a song came on and the entire bar sang along...like Sweet Caroline.  Especially since the Patriots game was on and I know it is played during the 7th inning stretch at Red Sox games, so the bar jumped into song and dance like a movie. 

Here is my favorite picture of the night, Tom Brady with his head down.  I always love watching the patriots loose, even though I am not a Jets fan.  Although out of the Bears, Packers, Steelers, and Jets, I would like to see the Jets beat the Packers in the Super Bowl.

Pictures from George Paynes

We met up with some people there and there were some people from my Spanish class sitting at the table next to us.  I tried to get some good pictures to show the bar but it was hard because it was so crowded.  It is very big with 2 floors and a front room.  Also has a projection screen tv and Karaoke on Sundays

Playoffs

Hola,

So on Saturday morning we woke up around 2:00 in the afternoon because we didn't get to sleep until about 5 in the morning.  We didn't get out of the house until about 4 but we still made use of some daylight.  Juordan and I went to meet up with some people at a market called La Boqueria.  This market was extremely crowded and had everything from fruits and vegetables to meats, seafood and cheeses. here are some pictures

The market had some pretty strange stuff but a lot of really good food.  The last picture is of some strange spiky red fruit that I have not had since I was in the British Virgin Islands in 2004.  You peal the skin and chew on the fruit and spit out the seed.  I can't really explain the taste but they are really good.  I tried to avoid the fish section because I hate the smell but they there were tons of fish including some massive squid (above).

That night we went to a place called George Paynes Irish Pub.  It is a very large bar that was showing the American Football games.  We bought some pitchers for 10 Euros each which is not too bad and watched both of the games.  Although they closed at like 3:30 so we didn't get to finish the second game.  Luckily the metro runs all night on Saturday so we didn't have to take the bus home.  It was fun watching the first game there, Ravens vs. Steelers, and although I was rooting for the Ravens it was a great game and a lot of fun.  

Pictures from the first few days...let me know if you want me to explain any of them