My roommate is a secretary at youth club for girls and the one weekend there was an excursion some of them could go to at a nearby national park. I went along with them as a "monitor" and we hiked some trails while later on all of the girls kept complaining how tired they were and how they were so hungry. After lunch we went to this so-called cave where they had Neolithic cave drawings. It wasn't nearly as exciting as it sounds because the cave was basically a big rock outside and you could barely see the drawings on the cave.
This past weekend I went to Valencia with a friend who is in the same program as me, but lives in Catalunya, the northern part of Spain that borders France and the Mediterranean. Her program is so different than mine because once we get accepted our regions are in charge of the different details. She has to give two presentations later on in the year about her role in the program and she had to have all this paperwork in by a certain time so she could get paid. She also has to attend two more orientations about what they can do to improve in the classroom. We have to do none of the above! She also has a time set apart where she talks with the teacher she is working with on what activities she can do so it goes along with what the students are learning. I basically come up with something and ask the teacher if it's okay if the next week I do this or that and she says yes. I try to do it based off a theme like the one week it was Halloween and next week I'm going to talk about schools in the U.S.
Valencia is a great city though! I was fortunate to stay in a hostel located in the city center so I could walk to most of the major sights like the Cathedral, a neat ceramic museum where the inside really looked like a palace, etc. Valencia is famous for paella, a rice and vegetable dish mixed with fish, but we didn't eat that because neither of us really liked what was in it. They're also famous for their oranges and the one morning at breakfast I had orange juice and it was the freshest orange juice I've ever had. I also found a cafe where most of the menu items are chocolate, my favorite, so my friend and I split churros that you dipped in chocolate. Right next to my hostel there was a cupcake store called Cupcake Valencia that had a bunch of different varieties of cupcakes. Yum!
There is this really cool part of the city called the Arts and Sciences center where it is a bunch of different buildings, but the architecture of the buildings is what makes it really neat! They have a science museum there, a place where sporting events are being held like right now there was a professional tennis championship going on, an aquarium, and an IMAX theatre. We went to the aquarium on Saturday and I knew it was one of the biggest in the world, but I expected it to be like Newport Aquarium where it was just one really big building, but it wasn't. It was a bunch of different buildings divided into different places like Arctic, Temperate, Tropical, etc. and you had to walk outside to get to the different ones. We were lucky enough to be there when there was a dolphin show which was very cool to see! On Monday after my friend had to catch her train I went back to the IMAX, called L' Hemisferic, and saw a show on Arabia. I tried to watch it in English in first just because I wanted to be sure I could understand it, but we had to wear these weird headsets that went completely around your head and it had a microphone in it. There was a button you pushed to change the language, but when I pushed it, it only stayed on Spanish so I watched it in Spanish. Luckily I understood most of it except for a few sentences here and there so I felt very proud of myself! Also on Monday Sarah and I went to the beach. I thought there might have been a boardwalk area, but there wasn't, only a couple of restaurants. It was cool when we went, in the 60s, but there were still people there in bathing suits!
Me at the Arts and Sciences area in Valencia
This week was a pretty good week so far! I received a package from home that we were worried about reaching here because on facebook under the auxiliares group there were a few girls saying they had packages sent from home, but they were stuck in Madrid and they either had to go to Madrid to get them or pay a large amount of money to get it to them. Luckily my package came and I was so excited! I was surprised to find Lost Season 6 in there (yayyy!!!!!) which made me extremely happy. I also had a card from my sister and her yearbook photo from this year. The things she says just cracks me up! The day before I had received a card from one of my best friends which also made me extremely happy! I also received my first paycheck the day before unexpectedly so that was great too! I hoped that my good fortune extended to Friday which was when I had to go to the National Police to pick up my NIE, my number so I can stay in Spain. I easily received it and then I went to the library where my library card was ready and I checked out two books in Spanish. Then I went and opened a bank account, although they later called my roommate later and said I needed some papers that showed my economic status in Spain (not too sure on that. I have to talk to my school Monday) and then I was FINALLY able to get the internet so overall it was a good week!
The Cathedral in Sevilla
Me in front of the Alhambra in Granada
Also, if you want to see more pictures from my time in Spain you can look at them on my facebook, but if we aren't friends yet you need to add me! facebook.com/katie.collins.l.
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