Valencia: Week 1

Bienvenido a Valencia! It has officially been a week since I've moved into my residencia, or dorm building in Valencia, Spain. Valencia is a really cool city that is a lot less touristy than Madird. It's right on the water and I can see mountains and the Mediterranean Sea right from my dorm window! It is definitely hot and humid here, but it's really not that bad. No AC in the residencia, but we get a really nice breeze through the window! We get 3 meals a day for free, that mostly consists of ham (surprise), salad and bread. I live in a double room with one other girl, in suite with 3 other girls and the 5 of us share a bathroom.

The school I go to here is the Centre d'Idiomas which is part of the Universidad de Valencia. It is about a 15 minute walk from the dorms and I go every morning for three hours of intensive language classes. After that, we sometimes have tours, events, meetings or lectures. Then free time for the rest of the day! :)

Drive from Madrid to Valencia

View from my dorm window

Where classes are

Tour of Old Valencia

On Monday, we had a group tour of downtown Valencia, which is a short bus ride from the residencia. It was nice to get my bearings on where we were and what is out there, since before that we had just chilled in the dorm and went to class. Downtown Valencia has intricate architecture just like the rest of Spain I've seen so far, but seems significantly older. Here are some of the highlights of the tour:

Plaza de la Virgen

Cathedral de la Virgen

Plaza de Ayuntamiento (town square/city hall)

Espectáculo Flamenco! 

Thursday night, we had the privilege of attending an authentic Spanish flamenco show at Cafe del Duende in downtown Valencia. It was such an incredible show. We got there at 10:30 to get seats in this tiny bar for the show that started at 11:30. There was a male guitar player, 2 male singers, a female dancer and a male dancer. It went on for an hour an a half with a quick break in the middle. There was so much passion and energy coming from the performers that it completely captivated the audience. I'm definitely going to remember that performance for a while.

Service-Learning 

As part of the dialogue, all of us are required to complete 10 hours of community service. The leaders of the program set it up, and we just have to go to fulfill it. We did a few hours in Madrid and we are completing it here in Valencia. My service is at La Residencia Fortuny, which is a place for the elderly to live after retirement. It is about a 25 minute walk from our dorms, and we stayed there for 2 hours. 

Fridays are game days at Fortuny. The day I went, it was juego de bolos, or bowling. When the first person would bowl their first 2 balls, the other 2 volunteers and I would collect the balls and set up the pins again. This went on for about an hour, then we reconvened on the terrace and talked to the residents for a while, all in Spanish. They asked us about our lives and our experiences in Valencia so far. Then we asked them about their lives and time at Fortuny. It is great practice to communicate in Spanish like this, although sometimes challenging. We were able to understand each other, even if it took a couple tries. I'll go back next week to help out on the next game day! :)

On Saturday, we had a day trip to L'Albufera, a nearby beach town and the surrounding fishing towns. Blog post coming soon! And next week, we're going to a bullfight and then travelling to Granada for the weekend. So many exciting things happening in the next 16 days!