Girl's Nights, Shopping, and Paella

10/8 Today I went to my much-visited Mercadona, where I bought my usual items of frozen bravas, fruit, and bread. That afternoon, my friend Rachel was nearby so she stopped and visited me at the piso. We ended up going online and looked at our options for plane tickets to take a long weekend trip to Porto, Portugal! I am so excited! I’d always wanted to go visit Portugal, it’s so close and yet it never seemed to work out. I was really happy that my chance had finally arrived! The good thing about it too, is that we plan on ordering them with Ryanair- a super cheap European airline (that America really needs to pick up on), and it would only cost us around 30 euros for a roundtrip flight. We talked a little about hostel options, and planned to meet later this week to officially buy them. She then left and went to her class at the University. That evening, Bárbara’s dad drove she and I over to Marissa’s apartment, where we reunited with Rachel and the four of us had a “girl’s night”. She graciously made us some delicious tortillas for dinner, and we started drinking some wine right away of course! It came up that Rachel, although she grew up in America, had never seen the Little Mermaid (La Sirenita). We were all appalled, and so naturally we started the evening out by watching it. Then, just because we wanted to mix it up I guess, we watched another movie that was the polar opposite… “The Strangers”. It was really scary, and we kept freaking out at any noise we heard of course. Coco the dog kept us company, and we stayed up talking and laughing til about 3am. We spent the night in their guest room, and the fact that they have air conditioning at their apartment, combined with the super comfy bed, meant that I slept like a baby.

Struggle to open the Skyline Can

The following day (10/9) was a Spanish national “fiesta” or holiday, so everyone was off work and every single store was closed for the day. I believe it was “Día de España”, and everyone celebrated by relaxing and not working. America really needs to pick up on that too- that when it’s a holiday everything shuts down, not just a few places… everything. After sleeping in super late and then taking the long metro ride back home from Benifer to Facultats, Bárbara and I spent the rest of the day hanging out and being girly. I talked to a bunch of people on Skype, and then we discovered that our one and only toilet was broken. Bárbara’s poor Dad had to come over and fix it for us. He is such a sweet guy, seriously. He constantly drives us places and he is always very willing to help us with whatever random problem we have- it is nice to have a “Dad away from home” :) Gracias Salva! For dinner that night, Bárbara and I tried to make my much-missed Cincinnati Skyline Chili Three-Way. We cooked pasta, poured the chili on it, and sprinkled some cheese. Not exactly the same as back home, but it was still delicious. My Mom had mailed me two cans of the chili as a gift, and in that moment I was so happy. The step where we "poured the chili" was actually very difficult. Bárbara doesn't have a can opener, and it took us about 45 minutes to get the thing open. We tried a knife, a match, a screwdriver, throwing it, watching youTube videos on how to open it, etc. and finally after stabbing it multiple times with a knife we were able to pry it open with a spoon. It was hilarious but well worth it!

Homemade Tortilla + Bravas con Aioli

10/10 Today was a normal day, this meant Bárbara was back to work, but lucky me had plans to hang out with Whitney. Around 2 I walked over to her and Raúl’s apartment to meet them for lunch (served at 3, remember, we’re on Spain time). She cooked us some tasty paella and I finally got to meet their friend Ferran. He introduced the two of them a few years ago when he was Whitney’s intercambio during her study abroad. I guess now he can say he is a successful matchmaker! Their other friend Ricardo joined us too, and I got in some good Spanish speaking practice for sure. I found out Ricardo’s Dad is apparently a famous Spanish racecar driver, and that the gigantic local race track is named in honor of him. Small world (El mundo es un pañuelo!) We all hung out there for a while, just chatting. By the time I headed back to my piso it was almost time for dinner. Since Bárbara’s dad had to come back again to fix our toilet, he decided to bring us dinner. We had the honor of eating his specialty “tortilla de patatas”. Nobody makes it as good as him- it’s really true. It was so delicious. I made the two of us some bravas with aioli to go along with it, and we had a very delicious Spanish meal!

Yogurt after a rough day of shopping in Valencia

10/11 I spent my morning being a good little student and studying Spanish notes that I have, and then that afternoon I took the bus over to the other side of town where Rachel and Ruben live. I met Rachel at her apartment. She has two cats and I am always so happy to play with them- what can I say, I’m a cat person. So anyways, she was on a break between classes and we sat down and OFFICIALLY ordered our Ryanair plane tickets for a roundtrip flight to Porto (or Oporto) Portugal in a few weeks! I AM SO EXCITED!!  After that, I took the bus downtown to the city center. I walked around for a little while by myself just taking in the sights and being happy because I was there, because simply being in Valencia makes me happy. Especially the old part of town, it is beautiful. Around 5 I met up with Bárbara and we went shopping at some discount stores, and then we got some frozen yogurt together. We took the bus back home together, and then Whitney came over around 9 for my Spanish class. We did our hour long class on the couch, and then after that she stayed and hung out for a while. It may just seem like another “average” day, but it’s the little things like going downtown and having good friends that make it exciting. The two of us stayed up pretty late, she was waiting for Raúl to pick her up on his way home from work around 4 in the morning. We didn’t make it past 3 and then we both fell asleep. That (early) morning 10/12 Whitney left, and then around 6am Bárbara left with her suitcase for the airport, for her weekend of visiting her boyfriend Nathan in Santander. I spent my day giving the piso a thorough cleaning, since my friends from America were arriving the next day!! At 6 that evening Lorena came over for a bit, and we had an intercambio (language exchange). It lasted about two hours, and after our conversations I felt really confident in my Spanish, and I think I gave her some pretty good English material to learn and work on too. I went to bed “early” that night in anticipation of the big weekend ahead of me!

Downtown Valencia- Shopping District