the Bats

Tuesday we got to visit the inside and take a special tour of the Valencia C.F., which stands for Clube de Futbol. I'm not really a huge soccer person (I think that stems from my awful experiences as goalie in 1st grade) but it was cool to get the behind-the-scenes tour. There are 2 soccer teams in Valencia, and this one is the club of the "wealthy," whatever that means. The other team is a little further outside the city. This stadium right now holds 50,000 people, but they are in the process of building a new one that will hold 75,000. It doesn't seem like that much of an increase to me in the grand scheme of things, but no one asked my opinion before deciding to build the new stadium. Oh well! It is like right in the middle of the city, and once they tear the stadium down they plan on building apartment buildings with a big mall in the middle. Sounds kind of like what they are doing to Buckhead to me. It's like a little piece of home right here in Valencia!

After the soccer stadium, we ate lunch; delicious pizza, yum! We had class after that for 4 hours and then everybody went home to get ready for the flamenco show. Most of the girls that are here came over to our apartment (Santo Tomas) to have a few drinks and hang out before the flamenco show, since the place where it was is like a 5 minute walk from our house. The inside of Radio City (the club that had flamenco) was not really set up very well for a show, which made it hard to see, but I coul definitely hear the men singing and playing instruments, and I was able to watch on a TV from where I stood. After about an hour everyone started getting pretty restless, and you have to be very quiet inside the show, so I'm pretty sure that the majority of our group migrated to the bar area where you could talk and be noisy. We went to a couple bars right in our neighborhood to wind up the night. I think everybody had a great time and they are definitely convinced that our house is closest to fun stuff, which means people will come over more. We like friends =)

Yesterday we were supposed to have class, but it was cancelled. As nerdy as it sounds, I actually look forward to our classes one, because its the only time we hang out as a big group, and two, I'm learning a lot about Spanish culture and it's relatively interesting to me. Who'd a thought I would actually gain something educational out of coming to Valencia? Just kidding, Mom! Instead of having class, I laid in my bed or on the couch in my pajamas ALL DAY. We have been waiting, what, 4 weeks now? Yes, 4 weeks to have internet installed. The man FINALLY came yesterday. Jill & Erika (2 of my roommates) were just about to leave to go to the internet cafe around the corner when the buzzer buzzed. We answered and he said he was the "Telefonica man" as we call him, and we did a little happy dance. Okay, more like a big happy dance. It is SO SO SO nice to be able to sit in our apartment and check email, post pictures, and just kind of bumble around the internet instead of having to leave, pay, and be in public in order to talk to family & friends. Even though I only have 2 weeks left, I am PUMPED!!!


Several of my roommates are biology majors, and part of their curriculum is spending a few days a week in "the lab." Since we have a long weekend, a bunch of the girls are going to Frankfurt, Germany, and my roommates were supposed to go to the lab today. I'm so excited because they decided not to go and are instead going to come play with me at the beach! I thought for sure I was going to have to entertain myself today, which would have been fine, but I'm glad I will have some company. Katerina, another girl on the trip, sent me an email this morning asking what my plans were for the break, so hopefully I will have more friends to play with while everyone else is traveling Europe. After my stint in Italy, I'm quite content right here in Valencia :)

Next week we have a long day Monday because we are touring the Valencia goverment plaza and then we have like 5 hours of class, partly to make up for not having class yesterday I would assume. Then we don't have class Tuesday or Wednesday and Thursday we leave for Barcelona. My biology roommates have a field trip Tues-Thurs and then the rest of us are in Barcelona Thurs-Sat. Hopefully on Sunday we'll be able to get a group together to go on this caving adventure. It's sounding like people are interested, but I'll have to wait and see. I kind of need to get in touch with the people, but we have no phone so I'm not entirely sure how to do that.

Anyway, I'm going to make some breakfast and get ready for a glorious day at the beach.

Ciao!