My weekend!

Today was just another day of me going to my classes and coming home then studying so instead I am going to talk about my very fun weekend I had!

Saturday, Alicia and I went to the Oceanographic museum which is right down the road from our house! This is the largest aquarium in all of Europe! I am not one to stare at fishes all day but this place was gorgeous, probably my favorite thing I have done here in Valencia. There were different sections of marine life such as those that live in warmer waters and those of the arctic. There was a super cool tunnel that was all glass so you could see sharks swimming right above your head! We also got to see a dolphin show which was incredible. How the people are able to communicate with the dolphins are beyond me.

Sunday I ran in my first Color Run! This is a 5k run that people throw colors at you at every kilometer! There was awesome music and was really fun to run in with my friends from my school. There was a huge dance party after it this was the most relaxed I had been in a while because I had no worries! Kind of cool I got to do my first color run in Valencia! I still have pink in my hair! 

This weekend taught me to live out every free moment you get because each second is precious. 

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Today was much like other days of my week. Exciting, a bit overwhelming, slightly stressful, and interesting! I have been waking up earlier because I have a class at 9am. With the metro and the bus, it takes a bit of time to get to class. I have a new Spanish class with an awesome professor who reminds me of my favorite Spanish high school teacher. They even look alike! I actually had a break today between my classes and it was very nice! It's weird writing an English here because my brain is so focused on learning Spanish that I've had to actually delete words I accidently wrote in Spanish. I can't wait to be officially bilingual. After my last class, I went home and probably spend the most on my homework and studying Spanish. I have a book that I bought last week that I own in English but the book I bought here is in Spanish. It is very difficult to read but I am trying! I went to bed pretty early, I think because my brain was tired from all the Spanish lately! A pretty boring day to say, but I am excited at the improvement I see in my Spanish!

This is what the front door of my campus looks like! 

My Only English Class!

With my program here in Valencia, my professor is allowing me to take one class in English mainly for our sanity! The class I chose is English as a second language with children's literature. The class is very easy to me because I am the only native English speaker in the class and the other students wish to learn more English. Today the teacher was trying to get the class to pronounce different vowels the way English speakers do. I came into class and the professor said "Nancy! You are going to be a teacher today!" I was a little stunned and nervous and I said "ahhh okay!" She clicked to the next slide show and a poem from Mother Goose was shown. 

The professor then wanted me to read it and the class was amazed. I never noticed how different the p's sound in English with Spanish. I do know I stress my p's too much in Spanish but here I was seeing the opposite. I was nervous to read because it is a tongue twister! When a Spanish speaker sees the word "Peter" they think Pit-ah not Peet-errr. I love this class and it's more than learning how to speak English but it's specifically talks about how to teach children these pronunciations. Even though I am not an elementary major, I know this will be very valuable to have in my future job as a high school teacher whether it be with Special Education students or teaching Spanish. 

Day by Day:

After yesterday with my nervous encounter with one of my professors who was worried about my Spanish level, I had only one class today which is actually my only English speaking class. It’s cool though because in my group everyone speaks Spanish so I speak Spanish too but I also help my group do extraordinary well with the English we have to write and speak to our professor. We are learning how to teach ESL through children’s literature. Even though this isn’t necessarily required for my major, it is still something really fun and cool to do! After my class I took the metro home and had a nice talk with my host mom, Rosa in Spanish. I can feel my language skills improving all the time. I just hope things pick up a bit more with my two education classes that are in Spanish. I am quite nervous to go to my only class tomorrow that is with the professor who is worried about my Spanish and pointed out to the whole class that I was from the States. I get too nervous easily. After I study my grammar and played a few Spanish games with Rayni. Then we had fish for dinner. I went to meet up with my three best friends from the university, two are from Portugal and one is from Belgium. Their Spanish is much better than mine, which is great for me! We walked around the city and then I came home. I just need to take everything day by day.

Here is a picture I captured at night of my favorite spot in this city!

Today I woke up thinking this was going to be a long day. I have somehow obtained a sore throat and a horrible headache with less than 4 hours of sleep to my second days of class. My first day wasn't the greatest but my second day was a little bit better! Most likely because it was my only class in English! It is about Children's literature and I was the only native English speaker there. This class will definitely be fun and a nice break from my other classes that are in Spanish! On the way to the metro, I made friends with two girls from Portugal. I introduced to my other friend Sara who is from Belgium and we all got on the metro together. Then the driver said that there was a malfunction with another train so it was going to be a few hours before we could leave. A taxi from where my classes are to back home would be really expensive, so the four us all went to a small pub to eat lunch and that was really fun! Then we came back and the metro was running again. I made it home and my roommate from China, Rayni, wanted to go get some frozen yogurt in the center. We shopped around a little bit and then headed home for dinner. We had paella and that tasted really good! Then the rest of the night I just organized my classes and of course studied more Spanish!  

This is a picture of one of the stops and trains of Metro Valencia. These stations are very clean and organized. It's a nice bit of a city experience to ride these to get to my classes!  

A Relaxing Day:

I can't really say I did a whole lot yesterday. It was pretty exciting to get my picture taken for my student card! It's a little silly how there's the huge green photo booths that are only for taking your school picture. I should be receiving my card in about two weeks! Then I came home and Rosa cooked some delicious pot roast that is just like the one my mother makes! It's always nice having some food you recognized. Though Spain isn't too much of a cultural shock when it comes to it's cuisine. The most different thing about the way they eat are the times they eat at. I always need a snack at about 6pm because there is no way I can make it to dinner at 9pm! I officially have my schedule and I am very exciting for my classes to start next week, however I am also very nervous about my two education courses in Spanish. I really hope people are patient with me. I feel myself getting better everyday but it's a very slow process. My biggest fear is that I won't be fluent when I come home but I have so much here that I don't think it'll be an issue---Hopefully!!! After lunch I was studying my grammar and making vocab flash cards, when Lena asked if I wanted to go to the park with her. The local park is the rio I mentioned in my last post. It's a lovely spot to lay out to get some sun, or study in the shade! After we went to dinner in Valencia's "China Town" because my other roommate, Rayni is from China. We had traditional Lo Mein and that was the best one I have ever had! After dinner Rayni and I walked to a local bar and had some drink that was wine and soda mixed together. It was really good! This was pretty much my day, but it was a nice calm day for sure! Here is a picture of the Rio park from a bridge I was standing on! You can see the slight rainbow in the back! 

Another beautiful day in Valencia! Today I went to the center of the city to shop around a little bit. The train station is a gorgeous site in the middle of the city. I love walking by it and seeing the structure. This is used to get to several different cities throughout Spain and all the way to France too! Unfortunately, it started to rain today and I ended my shopping/exploring trip early. Today the bus was very packed and busy. There are not many seats on the bus and it is mostly for standing which I think is different from American buses that have more seating. In the limited seating you are not allowed to sit in the green seats because they are reserved for handicapped, women who are pregnant, and the elderly. I arrived back at the house to wait for my friend Lena to come back from her classes. She is from Germany and is studying international business. We walked around the ciudad de artes y ciencias which has some very gorgeous buildings that you can pay to see art and sciences! The water is my favorite thing about the place because it reminds me of home. We walked along the Rio which is a river that the city has had rerouted to go around the city because of flooding issues. Now this path is a beautiful 10km park that you can walk and run. We came home and I had bread ham with cheese for dinner. It was an overall laid back day in Valencia!

Here are the buildings from the ciudad de artes y ciencias during an early sunset! 

The First Day of School!

Today wasn't exactly the first day, but it was welcome day for international students at Catholic University of Valencia! We woke up early and our host mom, Rosa made us toast and then we were off! We have two bus routes we have to take in order to get to one of the several college campuses. It's crazy that I go to college that is big enough to have several different campuses! We were so nervous when we first arrived but then the vice president we had met before at Nazareth College recognized us and lead us to the correct presentation. During his speech he even gave Nazareth College a shout out by saying "Welcome Nazareth College students!" It's pretty funny that there are only two of us from NAZ and several different faculties came up to us so excited to have us. When they pulled all the Americans aside, the vice president wanted us to stay. I think we are special Americans! THe presentation was all in English since that is like the universal language in our world. I kind of wish I didn't grow up with English as my first language so I could of lived in a country that encouraged students to master several languages instead of just being satisfied with knowing the most popular language. After the presentation I met with my "buddy" Fátima and her friends. UCV has a buddy program that I highly recommend any international student enroll in if going to UCV. She has been an amazing friend and very helpful in transitioning from being away from home. She and I have grown very close these past few days. I am still adjusting to everyone kissing my cheeks! If I had a dollar for every greeting kiss I got, I probably could have paid off my student loan! All her friends think my accent is so cute and adorable which is quite strange. They don't get a lot of Americans at this university so when they get to speak to one, it's amazing to them!  We went to a small castle and wandered around the center of Valencia. I keep falling in love with the city more and more everyday. We then ate at an Italian restaurant and there for "La comida" and there you can ate a 2-course meal and dessert for under 12 euros! I just stuck with spaghetti since I really needed a familiar food after being overloaded with information! After we talked and walked some more and then I rode the bus back by myself for the first time. I was so proud of myself for not getting lost that I went to my favorite bakery and bought 2 empenados with onion in them. Everything at that bakery is freshly made and is usually under 2 euros. Then for dinner Alicia and I went with our two roommates, Lena and Rayni to dinner. Today was a pretty exciting day and a perfect end! Here is a picture of my new friends from UCV in the castle today!