After all the birthday festivities, I was feeling a little under the weather and took it easy during the week. Monday, I had a fun day at school presenting about “At the Beach” vocabulary for 3rd grade and “In the Countryside” vocabulary for 4th grade. Tuesday, I had my private lessons after school and Lola & her son surprised me with earrings for my birthday!
Wednesday, it was gorgeous weather, which was perfect because we had a race for Unicef! The school I work for has a longstanding relationship with Unicef. We had a race around the school, where parents & relatives donated money for the students to run. I helped out at the water table for 5th grade, and when it was 6th grade’s turn, I joined in – I wouldn’t say I ran, more like a light jog around the short course, but it was a lot of fun! After the run, I opted for Zumba and danced to some reggaeton (which is a genre of Spanish music).
Later in the evening, I met up with Teresa and Andrea and they took me to their English class because their teacher has been asking to meet me. It was fun to meet new people and see how the class was taught – they were learning about modal verbs. If you asked me before this class to name a modal verb, I would’ve looked at you like you had 5 heads. Turns out, it’s the verbs “can, could, should, may, might, must, shall, will, and would.” I don’t think I’ve ever heard the phrase “modal verb,” so now I’m learning more about English in Spain too!!
On Thursday, I had class as usual and after school, I had my class with the 2 year old girl. We played some matching games about animals and colors and then watched some cartoons in English. It was difficult but it was still fun being able to play with her! After class, I met up with Teresa for an ice cream, even though the temperature dropped back down!! The constant swing in temperatures is NOT helping my health and I would appreciate it if the weather got it’s act together! I packed up my backpack because I was heading to Valencia very early Friday morning to meet up with Derek (my sister’s boyfriend’s brother) and his fiancé, Luisa.
Friday, after a bus ride and two trains, I made it to Valencia around noon. I was looking forward to spending my three hours of free time laying on the beach, but unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance. I got to the beach and there was so much wind whipping the sand across the beach that it was painful to lay down. I went to Playa de la Malvarrosa and the beach is just a huge expanse of sand with no trees or anything to block the sand from whipping across it. I was on the beach for maybe half an hour before I gave up because I had sand EVERYWHERE – even in my ears! I was disappointed, but I’m glad I still got to dip my toes in the Mediterranean and soak in a little bit of sun. I grabbed a beer at the beach bar and enjoyed the view without getting destroyed by sand!
After changing and getting rid of the sand that I could, I headed back to the city’s center to walk around a bit. I went to Mercado de Colón, a beautiful market with little vendor stands and restaurants. I started to venture towards the train station because I wanted to grab a 3 pm train to Xàtiva to meet up with Derek and Luisa. I passed by an ice cream shop and of course, I had to get some. I grabbed the train and I have to say, I’m pretty proud of myself for managing to travel solo this day and not getting lost at all!
Top Row: Mercado de Colón, Bottom Row: the bullfighting ring and the train station
Derek and Luisa picked me up from the train station and we went to their house to freshen up and relax a bit before heading to dinner. I was so glad to shower and finally get rid of all the sand. We went to dinner at a tapas place by their house that serves you a beer and a tapa is included. We had a great time catching up and sharing stories about teaching because they’re both teachers here. Turns out, we use the same books in our schools and are on the same lessons! After dinner, we went over to the bars and ended up running into a girl who’s in the same program as Derek, from Michigan. It was neat to meet more Americans in Spain!
Saturday, we had a relaxing morning and one of Luisa’s best friends stopped over to chat. One thing about Valencia and the surrounding towns – they speak Valenciano, which is a different language than regular Spain Spanish or Castellano. Valenciano is similar to Catalan, the language spoken in Cataluña (Barcelona area). It’s a mix of Spanish/Italian/French and very difficult to understand for me. Luisa speaks fluent Castellano, Valenciano, and English! She’s also learning Italian, which blew my mind!! Thankfully, everyone also speaks Castellano, so I was able to understand when they switched from Valenciano.
We went to a delicious Italian restaurant for lunch and then headed to the castle in Xàtiva. Unfortunately, my curse of bringing the bad weather has not disappeared and so it was pouring rain when we got to the castle. Derek and I ran for a quick picture of the views, but I wasn’t able to see the castle itself because of the rain (none of us had umbrellas or rain jackets because we didn’t think it was going to rain!). After that, we drove to Moixent, Luisa’s hometown, because there was a tapas fair at night. We met up with a bunch of her friends and enjoyed the little tapas fair. I tried wine from the region and it was really good! We went back to her parent’s house for dinner and I tried rice liquor – it tastes kind of like rumchata, but without the cinnamon aspect to it. We spent the night getting to know each other and her family was incredibly nice & funny.
Sunday, we had a great breakfast at Luisa’s parent’s house because we slept over, and drove to Valencia for the afternoon because my train was from there. We accidentally went to this terrible restaurant for some tapas and beers – for some reason, the waitress was incredibly rude to us! We met up with Luisa’s family one last time at the Marina Beach Club (super nice) and OF COURSE it rained, so I’ll need to go back to Valencia again when the weather is nice the whole time. We had a kind of close call with the train, but I made it! Next up, my parents are coming to visit!
aventuras de alyssa 