March 4

I had a piece of toasted baguette with strawberry jam with a café cortado, great way to start my day. I was leaving breakfast right as Diego was, so we walked together. He has plans to meet up with his friend in Istanbul, Turkey, who ironically enough he calls Turk. We both talked about how awesome it was going to be to see someone we are close to in Europe. I got so excited for this next week.

In Literature class, we started our unit on Theatre. It just worked out that we started reading La Casa de Bernarda Alba (the play I did my paper on). Celia called on me a couple times to explain some themes, which was fun. In culture class, we talked about Fallas and some of the traditions. I am so excited for that week, it is one huge weeklong party in which the population doubles. Best of all, we have school off too.

The walk back from class was awesome, the weather was absolutely perfect and the sun was shining. When I got back to the dorm, I ate a spaghetti and meat sauce sandwich. After, I threw a couple loads of laundry in and went up to the rooftop patio. I read some of my book and talked with everyone that hadn’t already left for Düsseldorf and Paris for the weekend. Everyone doesn’t have class tomorrow so most people are taking advantage of the long weekend and traveling.

I came down after about an hour and a half and folded my laundry. It always feels great to have all of your laundry done. I skyped with Laura for a while before she went to class. After, I went with Dave, Greg and Allie on a walk around the city. The temperature had dropped a bit, but I still felt great in a polo and khaki pants. Dave and I got a Crepe in the Plaza de la Virgen that was out of this world.

When we got back, I had about ten minutes before I had an “intercambio” (exchange) with a Spanish student in our dorm meeting room. Basically, we speak for a while in Spanish and then a while in English and back and forth. It was so cool because I saw some much of myself as a Spanish-learner in her when she tried to speak English. My student was a 26-year-old named Maria from Valencia. I asked her all about Fallas and talked about how much fun Granada was going to be. She commented me on how well I spoke Spanish, which made me feel good. We all commented afterward how much it boosted our confidence to see them fumble with words sometimes the same way we do.

The activity lasted for an hour, so I was just in time for dinner to start. We had pork chops, which were mediocre (I made a pork sandwich) and had some ham pizza bread that is one of my favorites. After dinner, I went to our dorm’s computer lab and printed out all of my confirmation receipts and boarding pass for the whole weekend. I came back, sent my business letter to my teacher and packed up my bag. I am so excited.

I am about to head to bed, I decided to blog tonight because I need to wake up at 5:00 for my 8:00 flight. The gate closes at 7:30 and it is a twenty-minute metro ride to the Valencia airport. I am so excited.