Otra Cosa: Valencia-a-a

This weekend I went over to Valencia, which is about a 4 hour bus ride from Madrid. Since I haven't updated since early early last week, I will share whats been going on before that first. :)

Last week the heat was extreme. Every single day it reached up to 36/37, even 39 degrees Celsius, so very high 90s to low 100s. After a miserable night trying to sleep Saturday and Sunday, I finally got myself a real fan from El Corte Ingles on Monday. Best. Purchase. Ever.

On Tuesday night Patricia, whose room I took when I moved in, was back in Madrid to defend her thesis. After she was done, we all went out with her friends for dinner, and then came back to the apartment and made Mojitios with whatever plant that you are supposed to use. (It's not mint... but it is). Patricia and her friends didn't speak much English at all, and so it was nice to be able to hang out with people and speak only Spanish and feel as though I could still participate in the conversation or whatever. It's just such a strange feeling.

So speaking of speaking Spanish, on Wednesday I met up with Laura, who has agreed to do some kind of intercambio with me. We met at a cafe inside Santiago Bernabeu, which was cool, and ended up taking for about 3 hours. She is just the sweetest person, we had really interesting conversation, and I do think that meeting up with her weekly is going to be a great help. Tomorrow we are going to meet again and walk around downtown Madrid, and maybe see a museum. After this I tried to go to the intercambio at the bar where its a group setting instead of just one on one, but the place was so packed that you couldn't even fit in the door. So instead TJ and myself went to the intercambio Thursday, and ended up staying until close!

A new roommate has also moved in, who seems pretty cool. He doesn't speak any English, or if he does he doesn't speak much, which is great! Having Laura and Kristin to live with when I came here was one of the best things about my experience. They have been so incredibly nice to me while they were here, and gave me a group of people to hang out with when I knew practically no one. However, it was inevitable that they would be leaving eventually, and so at least now the new roommate can help me practice Spanish like Etor does.

I have been reading a lot after work when its the hottest outside, starting actually cooking real food thanks to Etor's disgust when I told him the things I eat at home (mac & cheese and ramen), and I've started running in the mornings before work. I feel like when I am in Madrid, I am staring to have this sense of normality. And then, something will happen, and I'll realize this place is so not normal at all. However, going to work every day, seeing the same faces, knowing almost exactly how to navigate this city - it's making me feel like when I leave in August I will not be ready. It's my 6th week here, so I will be exactly half way at the end of this week. That does not feel normal.

And then there's Valencia!

Friday after work I hurried home and headed for the bus station. I met TJ on the bus at 5 and by 10 PM we had arrived at our hostel. As soon as I stepped foot outside of the bus I could just feel the change in weather. It reminded me exactly of stepping of the plane in Hawaii, that kind of serious humidity.
The hostel was one of the best parts of the whole Valencia experience. Upon checking in, we could hear the live band setting up at the bar/common room. What?? It was crazy. And there, in our room we met Curt, who was coincidentally doing exactly what we were. He has an internship in Madrid for the summer, and decided to take a weekend trip to Valencia. We grabbed some dinner with him and he ended up hanging out with us literally until the bus ride home.

So, after the live band thing and hanging out at the hostel, we left and went on the bar/club crawl with the huge hostel group.

The next morning the hostal had organized a "Beach Day", which was a perfect way to get over to the beach. The bus ride there was one of the worst of my life, as there were probably 30 or 40 of us college-aged tourists hung over and jammed on a small and horribly-driven bus. It was rough. But the beach was beautiful (pictured above!) and we had so much fun. There was a really cool market set up there where we ate lunch and walked around for a while... and at this market was a CAMEL! so crazy. I did not ride it, because my bathsuit just did not seem appropriate camel-riding clothing, but TJ and Curt. Seriously, a camel.

The beach did leave me with a terrible sun burn. I had put on sunscreen that day more than once, but it just did not work at all. I am in some serious pain today, but both of my roommates hooked me up with some after-sun stuff. Seriously though, ouch.

That night we walked around the city, had some dinner on the hooker-street (accident), and then went back to the hostel for the live DJ that was there. This hostel was legit. We met a guy from Turkey in the common room and he went out to the bars with us. I had met another guy from Turkey at my last hostel, who was also just as nice and personable. This guy is 23 years old and literally traveled almost the entire world. His English was awesome, and he spoke like 3 other languages. He told us when he was 13 he made a list of all the things he wanted to do by the age of 25. WHAT? When I was 13 I was not thinking about traveling the world the next ten years. It was just really impressive, and hearing his perspective of his time spent in America was interesting.

We saw the city on a walking tour Sunday, and then after drinking some horchata, a famous nutty beverage of Valencia, we got ready to head home. Sunburn + bus ride home was painful, but that's okay. Overall, I would just describe Valencia as fun. It was a perfect break from the craziness of Madrid, as during the day Valencia was a really quiet and calm city. And then at night, we could experience its unmatched Spanish night-life. However, if I ever return, I will buy SPF 90 and reapply every 5 minutes. (serious)