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| My cute dress! |
9/3 After the first day of my last week
of conversation classes at the Don Quijote school building, I came home and got ready
for the Gasquet family birthday dinner for Bárbara’s Mom. I put on a super cute
low back dress and we walked to the metro stop in Benimaclet to wait and meet up
there with her parents. We were going to go to a Spanish restaurant in the
centre but there was a change of plans so we ended up going to a Chinese buffet
restaurant. That was fine with me- all you can eat dessert AND soy sauce? I’m
down. Also that night I talked to my boyfriend John and we officially confirmed
the dates he’d be flying to Spain to visit me! I’m so pumped! Then, the next two days
were pretty uneventful for me; on Tuesday (9/4)
I went to class then hung out alone. I walked around the city for a few hours
just to kill the time, and then once Bárbara got off work we went out to a
little restaurant for some patatas bravas. On Wednesday (9/5) I went to class, but then after that I was super low-key and
basically just went to Mercadona, worked on planning for my upcoming trip to Morocco
with John, and started making a frame made out of the shells I collected
on the beach in Cullera. That night, Bárbara left to go to Madrid with ISA
to pick up the incoming group of students that will be studying in Valencia for
the fall semester. Man, I remember being a little 20 year old and coming her to
study abroad with ISA- those were the days! So, after a night alone in our
little piso, I spent my Thursday (9/6)
hanging out with Whitney and her American friend Sandra who was in town to
visit her. I was so happy they didn’t mind me tagging along, otherwise I think I’d
have been very bored and lonely all week. I met up with the ladies that morning
at Whitney’s place, and we walked to the Museum of Fine Arts, or Museo de
Bellas Artes. It was free entry and a neat old building, and many of the painting
were from a locally famous painter named Joaquin Sorolla. I enjoyed it, but I
think I’m a bit spoiled art museum wise after having been to the Louvre. Things
still impress and interest me, but I don’t know if anything will have quite as
much an effect as “that one” in Paris J. After the museum we went back to
Whitney’s apartment and Sandra and I were treated to a delicious meal of paella
along with Raúl Whitney made it herself, and I especially loved it because she
made a vegetarian version. I’m not particularly fond of eating the rabbit meat
that’s usually in paella, so I was excited for this paella de verduras. We spent the rest of the day together laying
out and chatting at the beach, Playa Malvarrosa. For dinner, they let me hang
out and eat pizza with them at Whitney’s apartment! I was happy to have a nice
relaxing day with some girlfriends. I was worried I’d be “intruding” on their
friend alone time, but luckily they didn’t seem to mind too much!
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| Paella de Verduras! |
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| Photo Frame! |
Friday (9/7) I decided to be a rebel and skip
my class again, and I slept in and finished the picture frame I was making
from the shells. It was nice outside and not too hot, so I decided to go for a
walk. I ended up making the 45 minute stroll to the local Burger King. Judge me
if you want, but Spanish food just didn’t sound good to me today. I can’t
explain the joy I felt eating some juicy fried chicken with ketchup. Anyways,
during my walk I also went past the street Polo y Peyrolón that I used to live on with Sarah and our host mom
Esperanza back in the day. It was definitely a nice little walk down memory
lane. I can’t believe that was more than 5 years ago! Seriously, time flies. The
rest of the afternoon I basically did nothing, and then I met up with Marissa.
The two of us walked to the cute little sushi restaurant Miss Sushi and there
we met up with Whitney and Sandra. The four of us had a nice little dinner
together, and then we went out to some of the bars that were close by. We
played pool at a British place called Big Ben, and we had some colorfully delicious
girly drinks. We finished off the night at some place with cushy chairs, and
then all day Saturday I did nothing. Seriously, I was a waste of life. But I
enjoyed it. It was okay to have a “do nothing” day because the next morning, I
had plans to go on a day trip!
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| Drinks at the Pub! |
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| Streets of Peniscola |
Bright and
early Sunday morning (9/9) I was
picked up at the piso by Raúl, Whitney, and Sandra. We rode in the car for two hours to the
lovely beachside town of Peñiscola. I went there with Greaham and
Christina back in July, remember? It’s the town with the old castle built into
the side of the rocks with all this awesome history relating to the knights Templar-
in case you forgot. So, once we got there we walked around the quaint little
streets on the interior part of the town. We got to see a little parade going
on because it was the city’s “saint day”. They were also preparing for a big “running
of the bulls” event for tomorrow night, which sadly we did not get to see. Once
we were done exploring we had a delicious lunch next to the beach, and then we
made our way down to the sand. Whitney and Raúl went back to the car to get
their snorkel equipment, and Sandra and I did some tanning. Unfortunately,
after about just 30 minutes the sun decided to hide behind several clouds. I
still decided to go snorkeling out in the ocean later on despite this. It was a bit chilly but I love swimming in the ocean and wouldn't let something like that stop me! Whitney
and Raúl were looking near the rocks, but I decided it was too painful to scrape
my feet on, so I just swam out really deep with only my goggles. I felt like a
bad ass exploring the rocks and seeing the little fish. Sadly there weren't many shells, but it was still awesome. It was a
really cool feeling though, to be out in the middle of the Mediterranean just
floating around and loving life! The view was also gorgeous, even with the clouds. We probably would have stayed longer, but it started to lightning. So, sadly, we headed to Valencia, and back at home, Bárbara was back from Madrid. No more nights alone in the piso thinking every
sound is a murderer!
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| Beach at the Start of the Day |
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| Beach at the End of the Day |
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