September 16th

Wednesday is run day. I woke up bright and early, got my run in got breakfast, avoided doing work, went to Spanish, took a nap...my average Wednesday. But at 7pm is when the entertainment really started.

FSU had a movie night planned (with free pizza) that my friends and I went to. Alright, so the movie is called "Vicky Christina Barcelona," it's insane. Okay, so, long story semi-short. Christina and Vicky are best friends. Vicky's engaged to be married. Juan Carlos likes both Vicky and Christina. He hooks up with Vicky but Christina doesn't know. Juan Carlos then has Christina move in with him and they hook up. Maria Elena, Juan Carlos's ex-wife, then comes back into the picture and moves in with him and Christina. In the meantime Vicky has gotten married, but he doesn't know about Juan Carlos and neither does Christina. Somewhere along the way Juan Carlos, his ex, and Christina are all in some weird twisted relationship, until Christina decides it's not for her and leaves. After she left, Juan Carlos and Maria Elena no longer get along (again) and they break up. Juan Carlos then contacts Vicky and tries to get with her again, even though she's married now. When this happens the ex-wife walks in with a gun and starts shooting at them. And Vicky decides this is not for her either. And then the film doesn't end. It was narrated by, what sounded like, an essay some 7th grader wrote. "Christina did not go to dinner because she needed more rest," and "The restaurant was lovely," it was so, so, so, so entertaining. Dara, Lia, and I were the only ones, of my friends, to stay, but I ma glad we did. It was hilarious. It's not meant to be hilarious, I'm sure, but it was.

Paris planning will happen later tonight. Not much will actually get planned, but we'll have fun with the attempt.

My first night/day in the new apartment was much better. I could make actual food because the dishes I needed were clean and there weren't 7 or 8 people  sitting in the way ignoring me. My roommate came in late and I didn't even hear her and I didn't wake her up when I left at 8 this morning. We actually talk to each other and all is good right now.

Also: I bought a can of pop and when I got back to my friends, "Rebecca, what did you just buy?" They were taking bets on if I would call it a pop or soda...Jacqueline was correct, I bought a pop.

Day 1874573593475349: September 15th

Today I moved into my new apartment the "Princess Suite," as it's known by FSU Staff and Students. I moved with Crisol, who was also having issues with those in my apartment. The two of us, along with 2 of our PA's are living in the giant loft style apartment. There is enough space for about 12/15 people, but it's just us.

My closet has doubled in size and I'm no longer cursed with bunk beds. We're not as cramped in the bedroom or the kitchen here either, which is great. Although the circumstances for moving were not the greatest, it was obviously just meant to be.

We also signed up for groups for our Pyrenees trip today. The rooming assignments got a little worrying for me, but Lia and Brittany helped me out. I'm not in the same group as any of the friends I've made here, though, so I guess we'll see how that goes. I could look at this as an opportunity to branch out and meet new people, but I also understand that by now most people already have their cliques. It's only a 7 hour bus ride, and 2 days though, I'll be fine. I think.

This has definitely been an interesting week. I think everything seems harder because I'm much farther away from home than most. I don't think any of the problems I'm having are strange for freshman, it's just a little different when classes are 15 people and there are about 80 FSA/FYA students total.

We leave for Paris in nine days. We're leaving from the FSU Pyrenees trip and taking a bus to another city to catch a flight from there. We'll have about 3 and half days in Paris so I'm excited about that.

I also got mail from my parents and Aunt Phyllis today and mail is always exciting...especially when it comes with "Airmail" and "International" stamped everywhere.

I ran into Dara and Jacqueline on my way to dinner. We went to the Kepab place right outside of the study center. They serve greasy, American food to go, it's amazing when all one wants is a burger and fries and no need to dress up. They don't open until 8/8:30 at night and stay open super late. They invited me over to chill on the floor, the floor is my choice, of their apartment for a while. Currently, I'm Skyping Jake, even though it's Tuesday, so it's been a pretty good night of a not so awesome day.

Day 19

I got a nice run in, finished my math homework, and solved my roommate issues today. I don't know if solved is necessarily the correct terms, but I'm moving tomorrow so that's a plus for me. My flatmates have very different opinions on how civil, respectable humans should act. Regardless, I'm leaving, yay for me!

Day 17 Part 2

We went out to dinner, at the Asian restaurant Lia and I found, for Jacqueline's birthday. On the walk back we had to find the only Ben and Jerry's in Valencia, because that's what Jacqueline wanted, but they were closed. That was all okay with us though, because we got her ice cream cakes...but she didn't know. We went back to Lia's apartment and busted out the cake and candles. We sang very badly and ate both cakes. It was a great night but we all were up super early so we're all going to crash super early. It definitely feels like we've been friends for more than two weeks.

Day 16 and 17 Part One

I skipped out on the FSU Water Sports outing, but that was okay with me. I instead finished quite a lot of ECON homework I had been putting off and I went shopping. I took a walk to find a rain jacket  (which was super helpful for Saturday) and then lunch was take-away paella. I am very attached to paella now. Nothing super exciting happened until around 1 am...

Here's the scoop: we were planning on taking a bus to the hot springs in Montanejos, Spain and surprising Jacqueline for her birthday. The bus that would get us there, or so we thought, stops at Barracas, about a half an hour from the springs. This is a problem because the town of Barracas has a population of, like, 12. Not really, it's about 150, but is that really much of a difference? Anyways, because it is such a small town there are no taxis. This resulted in a last minute planning session with Dara, who was adamant on going, and ended with us going to be around 2:30/3 in the morning. We talked with the receptionists, and they couldn't find much to help us, so we decided the tickets were paid for and we were going on an adventure.

The only thing we could really find to do in Barracas was hike so we hiked. We met up at 7:15 am for the 8 am bus and we were on our way. Dara started talking with some of the more local people as to what we should do and hiking seemed to be our only option. When we got there it was super foggy so we waited in a pub. The man working there was named Igor, we talked with him for a while and I had some delicious hot chocolate. We hiked on a mostly stone/dirth pathway, there were lots of ants and bees, and we didn't really get lost...not really. It was most definitely an adventure. We got back to the town 3 hours before our bus left but we found Guadalupe, someone Dara was talking to on the bus, and she told us a bus was leaving in 15 minutes.

As we waited she showed us the mushrooms, eggplant, and squash she picked from the fields there and then...she gave them to us! Once the bus got there she explained to the driver our situation, and then she paid the extra euro for us all to take the earlier bus! Pay it forward, that's our goal. She talked to Dara on the way to her town and explained how to cook everything she gave us. She owns a restaurant 6 km away from Baraccas and told us to visit next time. Mmm, next time...

Day 15

Thursday consisted of figuring out how to work the postal system, homework, and magic shows. After Spanish class I attempted to do more of my online ECON because the quizzes for chapter 1 "expire" on Sunday night. I had to download a free trial of the book...I should have gotten the book, so I could work on the study guides. Nothing on the study guides are on his power points which is stupid.

Glass ceiling in Post Office

Then I got Dara to come to the post office with me and we met Brittnay and Lia along the way. So we all trekked through the Valencian Post Office utterly confused how everything was supposed to work. We figured out that there are machines, right when you walk through the doors, where you choose if you're there to receive a package, send a parcel, need information and something else. You have to choose the one you're there for and it gives you a receipt with a number and a letter. There were about 8 people working and numbers like H088 and G378 flashed on the screens above the person working. You have to watch very carefully or they might skip over you. Luckily, I got a little old lady who was singing when we got up to her and all I had to do was point and say something along the lines of, "uno sellos, Estados Unidos." She took what I had told me "uno euro," I paid her and that was that. 

I went back to the study center library to work on more of my homework after Dara and I got lunch then I decided that I needed a break and went for a walk. I was trying to get the majority of my homework done that night because we had plans later that evening, Friday, and Saturday. I got most done before we took taxis to the City of Arts and Sciences where someone was putting on a magic show. It was very creepy and in the last hour it was all "hypnoses" and this guy just kept throwing these people around like rag dolls, and it just made me uncomfortable. It went from 10:15pm to 12:15am and, of course, midnight is too early for the club. 

Sitting in what I think look like giant urinals in
front of the Art and Science Center

Me and Dara at the show

They went out and found food and we made it to the club around 1, had to wait in a line until 1:30 and Jacqueline and I decided at 2 we would be done. This club is called Mya and it was much better than the last one we went to, however, it was just too much for one night. I was half asleep by the time intermission at the magic show came around, because it's really difficult to be interested in something when you have no idea what he is saying. Once it hit 2 we were headed out, 4 of us ended leaving and we got back to the apartments around 2:30am, before the Spaniards had even begun to think about going out for the night.

There was this water sports activity planned for Friday that I decided not to attend. FSU was taking 2 buses filled with about 50 people each at 10 in the morning. I needed a break from people and activities and whatnot. I woke up at 6am to Skype with Jake, after falling asleep only after 3am, then I went back to sleep until 11:30 and I feel much better. 

Saturday we're taking an 8am bus somewhere (that I can't disclose yet in case Jacqueline somehow finds this) and it's a surprise for Jacqueline's 18th birthday. In my "group" of 5, 3 of us have September birthdays. Oooh! And Lia's roommate, Aleesia shares a birthday with me...but she's a baby, she'll only be 18. 

Days 12-14

Monday

Drying clothes...

Well, Monday my roommate has a 9am class. She was running late and left the door open as she was scurrying around to get ready. I could hear every other person that was awake trampling out the door, right passed me, very loudly. I was up. I figured out that Monday at 8:45 in the morning is the best time to do laundry in this apartment because just about everyone has classes. My first class is at 2:30pm on Mondays. 

I went out looking for dinner around 6pm because I hadn't eaten much of anything "real" all day and I was hungry. The Spaniards, however, don't normally eat dinner until 8/9 at night and most everywhere was closed. I happened to run into the girls, who were going to a culture exchange, and I just tagged along with them. When we got the exchange the bartender informed us it didn't start until later in September. As we were trying to figure out what we should do or where we should go we met this Spanish couple who was also there for the exchange. Carlos is 17 speaks English pretty well and his (not) girlfriend is Valentina who is 19 and working on her English. She's spent her life in Bulgaria and Spain so she speaks Spanish, Bulgarian, English, and she's trying to learn Italian. 

We left that place to go to McDonalds, because "It's cheaper," according to Carlos. After looking at the prices I am not too sure, anyways we talked some more with them. The girls practicing their Spanish and me just listening...

Before we separated we exchanged contact information and we'll see where that leads us.

Tuesday

Tuesday there was a "concert" for us in our study center. Caitlin Mahoney was an FSU Study Abroad student in 2010 and she' touring Europe with her new album. She sang, and chatted, and gave us advice.

This is one of her videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76DqBtkeJvc

Afterwards everyone was going out to this International Student Dinner, which was free food, but as we started walking and someone mentioned how we had to take a cab or bus Lia and I decided against it and went off to find our own food. It was after 10pm and many places were closed. We turned down a side street and found this cute Asian restaurant. We ended up having a 4 course meal for less that 7 Euros each, that's pretty impressive.

Walking back from dinner Tuesday

Once we got back one of my flatmates was upset and we had like a heart to heart thing going on with her, and another one of my flatmates that had walked in, about our living situation and friends and whatnot. That was nice, then Lia and I had a little talk before she went back up to her suite. She's pretty great. I'm glad that she's one of my friends and that our group is full of awesome people.

The wifi was out last night from about 10pm to 9am the next morning. It was rough. It's very difficult to do online work when there is no internet. It's also super difficult to have contact with anyone because we all use wifi to communicate with each other and everyone abroad.

Wednesday

It's Wednesday so today started with a run and a trip to a Patisserie, or whatever they call it in Spain, and today I got an Ensaimada and it was delicious. I only had Spanish class today and then I went shopping and I should be set for the next two weeks, hopefully. Now I'm back, not doing homework and instead writing this post. There's a tapas tour tonight that we're doing so we'll see how that goes. (They gave us one tapas, but free wine. We decided to go out to dinner instead. We found a great place that takes our cheques! We'll be back, I'm sure.)