Thanksgiving dinner (which was like 2 weeks ago) went pretty good I have to say! Although the dessert didn't turn out to be as good as I had wanted...
But moving along......................
Few days after Thanksgiving I was waiting in my linguistics class and I overheard sounds that I recognized... English... AMERICAN ENGLISH!!! Two girls were sitting in front of me, and I asked them WHERE ARE YOU GUYS FROM???? Their names were Tara and Alex from Rutgers in New Jersey and thought I was another exchange student in Europe until I said I was from Canada; then they started to get excited! We talked so much and exchanged info! Apparently there are 4 other students from Rutgers too! Then during break there was a girl sitting next to me and she asked me in the perfect British accent, "Excuse me, did I hear you talking in English?" Uh, hell yes girl! Charlotte is from Leeds in UK and to be really honest the 4 of us were so ecstatic to know each other! Now my classes won't be boring anymore!
Tara later informed me about the workshop on Teaching English as Foreign Language. I signed up for it, and forwarded the info to Kristen and Chris. Kristen later told me she also signed up for it too! So the three of us went to the workshop the following week, and surprisingly we met close to 20 people from Florida State! Like, hello, WHERE DID THESE PEOPLE COME FROM??? I NEVER MET OR HEARD ABOUT THEM BEFORE!!! I talked to a lot of them, and apparently it's a program FSU has that sends students abroad to campuses that FSU has. All their courses are from FSU, but it's just taught here in Spain. So technically they're not exchange students. But there are like total of 40 people in this program? They enjoy it but wish they were able to interact with local students in Valencia. And guess what? They live like a block from my place!!! Absolutely unreal. I felt so much better after meeting these people and knowing that there were more people I can relate to in Spain!
Other than meeting people, school has been all right. I recently turned in a paper for theatre class (totaly don't know what I was writing), and other classes had been a bit slow and dry. Well, except one. My 19th Century Spanish novel class is interesting. We've been talking about Romanticism and the prof (and by the way, I just found out that he is FAMOSOOOOOO in the world of literary academic in Spain!!) mentioned Romantic works around the world. When he talked about North America, he gave examples like Edgar Allen Poe (the utter psychopath), and the entire time he was looking at me, since I was the only North American in the class of 50. Later he asked me in front of class if I had read Moby Dick, cause apparently he enjoyed it a lot. Um.. no. Not interested. He just said what a pity that I haven't read it considering I'm from North America =_____=
Anyway, that was last Friday.
This past weekend Kristen and I did the excursion organized by the university. Tara was supposed to come too but she overslept! I called to persuade her to come because she lived on rez, and plus we wouldn't really be leaving until 9:30 when it said we were leaving at 9:00. But she just didn't want to come :(
We went to Albufera, which is like a lake/swamp around Valencia, mountains, beaches, etc. The prof talked a lot about the geography and environment of the area. He was really really enthusiastic. Good for him. But it was a bit boring for me, LOL. The entire time, Kristen, Niina, Liisa (two Finnish girls I had met earlier during the university dinner) just talked in English and kind of ignored the presentation. We later met 4 really really friendly Italian girls and just chilled the entire time.
We got to the hostel pretty late, but it was in time for dinner! MMMMM. It was delicious! And after dinner there was "multicultural" party, but it was not where close to multicultural at all!! People really just drank and smoked and talked... there was music and dance, but it was... not... inspiring or entertaining...
I decided to go out for a walk in the woods with 4 other friends. We went to this open space where you could see the sky! O...M...G... I saw milky way for the first time in my LIFE!!! I was breathless. My friends just looked at me like I was some alien. And... I SAW 3 SHOOTING STARS!!!!!!!!!! It was so unreal. I just stared at the stars for like an hour! The Big Dipper was bright and I didn't have to lift my head up because it was horizontally right in front of my eyes glowing. Seeing the milky way, the stars, and the shooting stars really really made my excursion trip and my time in Spain more meaningful!
Sunday morning we did the 15 km hike!!!!!!!!!! At first I thought it won't be hard... until the last 6 km which it was UPHILL. But nevertheless the view was really nice! Nothing compared to Rockies or Alpes, but it indeed had its beauty. And there were GAZILLIONS of rosemary! I totally picked some for future cooking! And there was a donkey to accompany us too, LOL.
By the time I was about to die from hiking, it was time for lunch!!! We had 3 amazing paellas: veggie, chicken, chicken and rabbit! Well, since I was in Spain, I had to try rabbit meat! And it was goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood! I ate a lot that I could've died happy, LOL!
After that we packed things up and went back to Valencia. Now it's back to school, but only for 3 days, 'cause I'm heading off to Oxford on Thursday!!!! :D
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