We had our first excursion set up by the program on Saturday to Xativa (X's are pronounced like J's). Marissa and I made it to school on the bus by ourselves which was a minor accomplishment. The bus ride to Xativa took about an hour. The town is half-idyllic European houses and churches and half modern apartment skyrises and modern shops. We hiked around the town and saw the different architecture of he churchs. We stopped by a museum but the signs explaining the art was not in Spanish- we were thinking it might be Valenciano?
Then we made the massive climb to a Castle which was gorgeous. It overlooked the city completely. We sat on steps inside the castle and ate lunch as we pinched ourselves. Yes we were really eating lunch in a castle in Spain. I spent most of the day with Ashley, Amy, and Marissa (housemate) who are all from Wisconsin.
It was a great bonding trip with the group although I'm sure we looked funny as we paraded through the town in our backpacks and American-ness. There were 72 of us on the excursion!
The program organized a night out for us so that we could enjoy Valencia at night but safely. There was a program staff member there and it was another great bonding time for the group! I met new people that I'd like to talk to more so it was great meeting place.
Today (Sunday) was a lazy day to recuperate from the time change, cultural shifts, and the hike yesterday! My shin muscles feel a little tight today from walking uphill so much!
We just got back from our first Valencia futbol game! Ashley, Amy, Natasha, Marissa and I met at school (although Ashley's bus had to detour around an accident and she walked for almost an hour trying to find our school). We finally were all together at 8:30 and the game started at 9. We were pretty convinced we weren't going to get tickets but we wanted to walk around the stadium anyway. But we got tickets!! Luckily, they had 5 together. All the fans had on their Valencia scarves and orange hats. I guess this is the one futbol season I'll wear orange to a game (boo clemson!). The game was so fun!! I think the final score was 4-1 (Valencia scored 2 more goals but those didn't count because they were offsides). I can't wait to go to another game!
Spanish assessment test in the morning! Good night!
Love,
Lizzy
Ps. We had paella today lunch which is a mixture of rice, beans, green beans and a certain spice. It's a food fairly specific to Spain. We had paella with chicken instead of the usual seafood. It was delicious!!
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