Today is my 3 year anniversary of my return from Valencia, Spain. At least, I think it’s today… it’s either today or tomorrow. Oh well, it doesn’t really matter.
The point is, I had an immeasurably good time in Spain. So good, I still celebrate my return 3 years later. In honor of the 4 months I spent in a foreign country, I want to revive my “ramblings on Spain” essay I wrote the summer after I got back (I apologize for the lack of capitalization):
may 19, 2005
so, spain. it was certainly good times. i mean, 3 weeks after coming back i can hardly believe i was even there. i still remember day 1 when i was at jfk for 8 hours waiting for everything to get started. i still remember when the bus got to the stadium for the first time and all the families were waiting outside with signs with our names on them. i remember everything… everything like it was yesterday. i don’t even know where to start.
outside of school, of course, i had an awesome experience. there were some times when school was okay, but for the most part, i didn’t want to be there, other than to use my computer for the free internet. i would spend 7 hours just sitting and chekcing my email, uploading pictures, occasionally talking on aim (to ally sitting next to me), and changing my website. not much fun was had. well, there were a few things that were nice about spu. #1 - agustin reyes-torres. my conversation teacher. he was a cool guy… also, i feel like he actually cared about us and our lives and wanted us to have a good time in spain. #2 - isabel. the lady with the short blond hair at the desk. she was always very friendly and helpful. well, that’s probably about it. the bad outweighs the good in reference to spu. it smelled SO BAD in that place. when it was hot, people would be dropping like flies… well, not really, but we all wanted to. the entire building would smell like sewage, and the source was, of course, the girl’s bathroom. good god, i just wanted to throw up every time i was in there. okay, that’s all i have to say about that madness. i’m just so incredibly glad that it’s all over. i’ll never walk into that building again in my entire life.
directly outside of school was a whole ‘nother world, sorta. right next to the school was this bar called minon, which was cute with it’s short comfy couches. the guy that works there probably should know english by now due to the number of us who would go there between classes or after school or whatever. he was nice though and never treated anybody nasty. the best bar, however, close to the school was sal y pimienta. this was the place to be when it was nice outside. ally got me to drinking coffee after i ordered many a tea here. it was certainly good times. when school first started we would try to come here every night after class, but eventually that sorta ended; so we just started going there on random occassions when ally and i didn’t want to walk all the way home from piko’s.
so my family. i’m convinced that i had the best one, in terms of food and rules and such. i got sick and tired of ham and cheese bocadillos and rice dishes by mid april, but other than that, things were okay. dinner was always plesant whether i talked or not. the most awkward moments were my first few meals with the family (when i couldn’t believe how hot diana was and i was trying to figure out oscar’s age). after that, i got into the swing of things. our main meals were paella, rice/beef/peppers type thing, fried egg/mystery meat/french fries, and an occasional tortilla. i loved those freaking tortillas espanolas and it’s a shame i didn’t get to eat more of them. but yeah, i sorta kept my distance from them. when i wasn’t eating, i was either in my room with the door closed or in the shower, obviously with the door closed. overall, they were great.
so, some extra stuff that made valencia/spain really cool. #1 - bertals. to be more specific, the bertals in the plaza de la reina. that is the best place ever. it’s unfortunate that ally and i discovered those sweet filled croissants at the end of our stay b/c those were the bomb. they have decent prices for cafe con leche and te and their service is good. plus, their ice cream was pretty good. all of us spent many a hour just chillin in bertals. i spent many euro on cafe con leche with ally. she was always up for cafe con leche. if we weren’t at sal y pimienta or piko’s, you could find us at bertals. #2 - los bars. it’s a shame there’s no spanish word for “bar” b/c it sounds really bad with a spanish accent. plaza de canovas was the place to be every weekend (except fallas). st. pat’s was the place to be within canovas. it was a nice irish pub with places to sit and lots of drunk english people. we actually went there to watch the superbowl…. there were a few bars there, heineken, some others, some nice ones, but basically the best time was spent sitting down at the irish pub. of course, valencia has millions of other bars in other clubby neighborhoods, juan llorens, barrio carmen, but either they were too boring or filled with lots of sketchy people. like i said, most of my money was spent in st. pat’s. technically, nearly every place that serves cafe con leche in spain can double as a bar (even cafe y te has a bar). those spanish like their cerveza. #3 - fallas. this was totally a big deal but after the first few days i grew to hate it. the crowds at night were unbearable. i hated being out after 10pm. the highlights were the fallas (during the day), the booby falla near the plaza de ayuntamiento, and the bullfighting. the fallas were really, really cool. the amount of work those builders put into those fallas is amazing. yeah, and then they burned them all down - also, a spectacular sight. i have plenty of pictures of that grand event. the bullfighting was interesting as well. i didn’t really enjoy watching the bulls die, but i had to see it just to know. i can definitely see the art in it. oh, and the fireworks. those were incredible. i loved the fact that they would use fireworks not only for display (at night - which was a million times better than anything i’ve EVER seen in the states) but also for the intense noise during the day. the plaza de ayuntamiento was filled with so much smoke, it would block out the sun. crazy air pollution everyday at 2 pm during fallas. it was kinda cool though - in a “harmful to the environment” way.
i’m so glad i got to go and i got to experience spain. have i changed much? probably not. i made awesome friends. i danced. i busted a move whenever i felt the moment was right. i had more opportunities to grow. here in charlottesville i go through the same things everyday; in spain, while every weekday was the same, the weekends always brought something different. i have to remember to take those risks here too, when i have a chance. i learned a lot though. people are all the same; it doesn’t matter what language you speak or what country you live in. sure there are different national issues, but families are basically all the same. i love that connection. plus, regardless of how long i was in spain, i never “felt” like i was in spain. i could’ve been in another city in the states. i don’t think that says anything other than the fact that the world isn’t as big as you’d think. i would travel back to spain in a heartbeat. i mean, it was great. nothing super special, but there’s something about valencia that i will always long for. it now has a special place in my heart (even though it smells like dog poo).
