Goldens.

Well I'm currently working on 2 blog entries, and hopefully, I can get them up within the next few days. But I figured I'd take a quick minute and write a bit. This past week was pretty good. The weather was beautiful for a few of the days (70+ and sunny). But the end of the week was slightly tainted with some homesickness. It's funny that even after almost 6 months here, I STILL get homesick. I got to talk with Mom, Dad, and Bryan today on skype, since Mom and Dad were down in North Carolina for parents weekend at Duke. They really enjoyed that. So I was super happy I got to talk to them-but it made me a little homesick. Then to top it all off, on my way home from the Bellas Artes Museum this afternoon, I see not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, but 6 golden retrievers within 10 minutes!! That is a bit ridiculous. I don't think I've ever seen that many golden retrievers in such a short timespan (except when Brandy was a puppy and we visited all of them--she was 1 of 11). It was quite comical and left me smiling.

This week we have 2 Italian girls staying with us who are 18. Amparo kept talking up how big Italian's appetites are, but tonight at dinner, they barely ate anything. Then after dinner, they went to the patio with a pack of cigarettes. It made Marli and I laugh, because they seem so young to be smoking--but in Europe, it seems like EVERYONE smokes. I have a feeling this week with them will filled with some interesting stories. All for now...going to finish up a little homework. And to excite you for my next blog entry...here is a picture. I will tell you what it is in my next entry!!!

Oodles of Sausages.

Last week, Marli, Nikki, Angela, and I decided that we wanted to go to Requena (a town about 1 hour away from Valencia) on Sunday, since they were having their annual "Muestra del Embutido Artesano y de Calidad de Requena"--in other words...it was a festival dedicated to the sausages of Requena.


Me, Nikki, and Angela outside the festival

We took the train at 12:30 and arrived in Requena a little before 2. After exiting the train station, I was able to smell sausages in the air. We walked down to the festival and started looking around. We went through at tent that was filled with information about vineyards near Requena and other things to do--mainly promoting tourism for the town. After exiting the tent, we found where the food was--and there was a ton of food!

The best thing to do at the festival was to purchase a ticket for 9 euro. With that ticket, you were given a small bowl and a wineglass in a tray...I found it similar to the Tomato Festival I went to with my parents at Hoyt Sherman once. We also received tickets. There were 5 tickets for embutidos (the sausages)--2 for wine--1 for water--1 for bread--and 1 for something called "amas de casa." We each used one of our wine tickets before heading in to the tent where all the sausages were.

Requena is famous for wine. The region "Utiel-Requena" has some of the best wines in Spain--and some of the wines have been said to rival the best French wines-just don't tell the French that. We were able to choose between a rosé and a red. After getting our wine, we headed into the tent where the sausages were. Meat shops were set up along each side of the tent, and when you went to a counter and gave them your ticket, they would take your bowl and fill it up with samples of different sausages.


One of our sample bowls.


We ate a ton of sausage--chorizo, longaniza, morcilla, salchicón, sobrasada...so much food! None of us were able to use all of our tickets--we got too full! We also ate bread and the "productos de amas de casa." It was all delicious!!

It was neat to be in Requena at the festival. It was not at all touristy. Most of the people were from Requena and just wanted to enjoy the products from their region. All in all--a really enjoyable day--and an experience that I will remember!

A Concert with 35,000+ of my closest friends.

This past weekend was filled with fun activities--fun activities that I didn't want to summarize in 1 blog--so I'm going to write a blog about each activity!

Saturday night was the biggest concert of the year in Valencia. Every winter, MTV España hosts a concert called "MTV Winter" in Valencia. Entrance is free, so a ton of people come. They said they would stop letting people in when it got to 30,000--but I found an article that said something about 35,000 people there--so I don't think they stuck with that. The main act of the concert was the Arctic Monkeys, a British band that my brother had introduced me to. Before they played, there were 3 other acts...Fuzzy White Casters, Mystery Jets, and Lightspeed Champion.



The concert began at 8:00. I arrived around 8:30 with Marli, Allison, Jenna, and Megan. There weren't a lot of people there then, and we slowly wormed our way through the crowd to see how close we could get. We really liked the Fuzzy White Casters and Lightspeed Champion. Mystery Jets were okay, but we were ready for them to be done after a few songs. Somehow Brian managed to find us after a series of phone calls and directions like "Do you see the black umbrella with paisley butterflies?" and "Well we're near a light tower..." and "Wait...you weren't just waving at me?". I am still astounded on how he managed to find us. Finally at around 10:30--the Arctic Monkeys came on. At this point the crowd had grown, but we weren't really sure how big it was until later. Everyone was super excited for the Arctic Monkeys, and people started jumping and pushing, and I guess you could say "moshing." Somehow during a really intense, upbeat song with lots of jumping and moving around--Marli got taken off with a group and ended up really close to the stage. Brian somehow fell back. Then Megan and Jenna ended up somewhere else too--which left me and Allison. After the end of that song, we were ready to be done with the "moshing" experience. So we decided to get out of the area--which probably took 20 minutes of weaving in and out of people who were all dancing. When we finally "resurfaced," we saw how immense the crowd was. We were in the front 1/5 of the crowd--pretty close to the front--the main "mosh pit" area. It was an unforgettable experience and a ton of fun. Then somehow, we managed to run into Sean and Tanner--and then found Chris, Billy, other Chris, Max, and Heather. When the concert finally finished--we met back up with everyone and headed out.








It was a crazy, unbelievable experience. There were people EVERYWHERE. It was the largest concert I've ever been too. Imagine Hilton Coliseum and fill it and then double it--then add another 5,000 people. That's how many people were there. INCREDIBLE!!! Marli and I called it a night early, since we had a big day planned for Sunday (see next blog entry)!!

America's Cup--food for thought.

As I talked about in my previous blog post, the America's Cup has been going on this week. The America's Cup is the best of 3 races, and all 3 races were supposed to take place this week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday). On Monday, there was not enough wind. On Wednesday, the teams debated over whether or not it was good sailing conditions--USA said yes---Swiss said no. I heard a sailing expert say it was good conditions--but they ended up not racing. On Friday, there was enough wind, and they raced for the first time. The US team was victorious--beating the Swiss team by over 10 minutes! I watched a little bit of it on tv, but then it switched back to news. They will continue races next week on Monday and Wednesday, if necessary. It's a very interesting sport, a sport with a lot of money in it. Now here's a little food for thought. Below are the crew lists from yesterday's race for the Swiss and US teams.

Alinghi 5 Crew List (Swiss team...)

Piet van Nieuwenhuijzen (NED), Bow 1
Curtis Blewett (CAN), Bow 2
Jan Dekker (RSA/FRA), Bow 3
Rodney Ardern (NZL),Pitman
Simon Daubney (NZL), Trimmer upwind
Nils Frei (SUI), Trimmer downwind
Warwick Fleury (NZL), Mainsail trimmer
Pierre-Yves Jorand (SUI), Traveller
Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI), Helmsman
Brad Butterworth (NZL), Tactician
Murray Jones (NZL), Strategist
Juan Vila (ESP), Navigator
Loïck Peyron (FRA), Floater
Peter Evans (NZL), Pre-start

BMW ORACLE Racing Team Crew List (USA team)

Brad Webb (NZL), Bowman
Simone de Mari (ITA), Pitman
Ross Halcrow (NZL), Jib Trimmer
Dirk de Ridder (NED), Wing Sail Trimmer
Joey Newton (AUS), Wing Sail Caddy
John Kostecki (USA), Tactician
James Spithill (AUS), Skipper/Helmsman
Matteo Plazzi (ITA), Navigator
Thierry Fouchier (FRA), Aft Pit
Matthew Mason (NZL), Mast

To me, it is a bit strange that there are only 2 Swiss men on the Swiss crew and only 1 American on the US team. The teams have the US and Swiss designations, because the owners of the teams are from those countries. When you have money, you can pick the best of the best to be on your team, and most of the time, that means picking people from outside your country. I just found the crew lists to be interesting, so I thought I'd share that with all of you. Below is the link to the America's Cup site--you can check out photos, read about the sport, the races, etc ,etc....so check it out!


http://www.americascup.com/en/regate/programme-resultats/programme-49-814

It's AMERICA'S CUP TIME!!!!

This week in Valencia is the 33rd America's Cup.
Now if it's called "America's Cup"--why is it in Valencia, Spain??
Well I am going to tell you.

The America’s Cup is a trophy awarded to the winner of the America's Cup sailing regatta match. It is the oldest active trophy in international sport, predating the Modern Olympics by 45 years. Originally named the Royal Yacht Squadron Cup, it became known as the "America's Cup" after the first yacht to win the trophy, the schooner America. (wikipedia told me this)

Back in 2003, the Société Nautique de Genève (Swiss team) beat the defending champs, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. This meant that the next America's Cup will be held in the defender's homeland. Switzerland is a landlocked country--so they set out trying to pick a city. And they picked Valencia. The 32nd America's Cup was held in Valencia in 2007--and yet again the Swiss won--electing to hold it in Valencia again.

Now this year's America's Cup has some controversy surrounding it--I would look up 33rd America's Cup for more info. In the end it is a regatta between 2 teams--the defenders (Swiss) and the challenger. The challenging club is the Golden Gate Yacht Club--and the specific challenger (boat) is the BMW Oracle Racing, US-17.

During this week there will be 3 regattas. The winner wins all. The first regatta is tomorrow at 10, but today there was a bit of an opening ceremony plus mascleta and other fun events. There was a fundraiser for Haiti selling paella (typical Valencian dish)--but it wasn't just normal paella--it was PAELLA GIGANTE (giant paella). The pans were hugs--at least 15 feet across and filled--with hundreds of people waiting in line to get paella. Today Marli, Nikki, and I went to the opening and saw the mascelta, ate a picnic, and looked around. Later we went to a medieval market, which was kinda cool-but my favorite part of the day was being at the port for the opening.

Now the video below is from part of the mascleta. A mascleta is something that is uniquely Valencian--you won't find it in other parts of the world. It is a coordinated firework/firecracker display in the middle of the day. It's loud and crazy--and really really neat. Everyone loves the mascleta...from 2 year olds to grandmothers! Enjoy the video--the sound is a little weak on the recording...amplify times 5 to get what it really sounded like!

Finding a little sunshine.

Today has been much improved over yesterday and my frustration blog. I had my 2 fave classes today, and in between class I talked with Nikki about things happening in our lives and a little about some possible trips. And then I got home and ate lunch--and it was good. I find that if it's just Amparo, Marli, and me--we talk and it's fine. We talked a lot today--for more than 30 minutes after finishing dessert. We talked about cooking and spices and different things we'd like to make. Sometime we are going to make some Indian food and also Chinese food, since her son, Paco, gave her a wok a few years ago. We talked for probably 15 minutes about meatballs-which we had today in our rice dish. It sounds strange, but it was delicious. Then we talked about our classes, and we talked for a long time about language and how it's ever changing and the differences between Northern and Southern Spain--and North and South in the US. It was all good. Then we also talked about us talking more at dinner...which I didn't really get upset about. I explained my difficulties of talking with all the interrupting and also that I'm not really informed on the subjects that they talk about, and she understood what I meant, which was good. So I'm feeling better after talking at lunch. I know that I can interrupt--I just don't think I'm comfortable with that at the moment, but I will work on it.

It's already the weekend for me, as the new group is going to Barcelona this weekend. Since we went last semester, we (the year kids) can't go. But Marli, Nikki, and I are planning on going to Sagunto (a town near Valencia) for a day trip--as well as spending one day at the beach. It's not warm enough for bathing suits, but at least we can soak up a little sun and relax. All for now.

P.S. And now I'm planning on making orange jello tapioca salad...it's a family thing--and it sounds really yummy at the moment! Hopefully I can find whipped cream, as I have everything else!

Frustrations and Looking for Sunshine.

I've been here for about 5 months, and right now is a bit of a difficult transition. It's that feeling of new--with new classes and new people, but it lacks a certain luster. Over my Christmas break, I was lucky enough to see my family, my boyfriend, plus a really good friend from the past. So currently, I have withdrawal issues. Simply put, I'm feeling homesick, but this time, I'm not in a new place, and this whole experience doesn't have the same charming effect as before. I don't have that insatiable desire to go out and explore and have drinks and see everything imaginable--the new kids are like children on Christmas morning--everything is new and exciting. For me, it's nothing new--just the same.

Also, I have been here long enough that I have developed frustrations with certain habits here. My biggest one is conversation at the dinner table. Interrupting is very common here (and in the rest of Europe from what I've experienced), and frankly, I don't like it. I don't enjoy interrupting another person's sentence to throw in my own ideas. To me, it feels rude and inappropriate. Tonight after dinner, Amparo told Marli and me that we need to talk more at the table like Matoos--the Slovakian guy who is currently living in our house for 3 weeks. He asks questions and he and Amparo go back and forth interrupting each other--debating. I really don't enjoy putting in my opinion, because no matter what I say, it is ALWAYS wrong. Whatever I say, there is always something to criticize, so I find it better just to keep my opinions to myself. Lately, some dinner conversations have turned into "criticize America time"--which again, I try to say something, but it's wrong. It's just frustrating to talk to people who don't listen to your opinions and thoughts. Talking to people who always say "No, that's not how it is...it's like this..." or "Well everything would be better with this rather than that..."--it gets a little old...so I don't talk much to avoid getting angry and even more frustrated.

I'm trying to look for the bright spots and sunshine in all of this, with being homesick again and with the frustrations with communicating--I'm trying to do things to make me happy and give me joy. Being alone in the house and turning up my music really loud and just dancing around helps a ton. Plus going on walks or just laying in the río and talking with friends....it all helps.

This is a bit of a reality check--just because I'm in Spain for the year doesn't mean that it is all smiles, sunshine, traveling, and going out. There are ups and downs--days that you love, and days that you don't enjoy It's not just a dream world here--but I'm going to keep looking for the best in everything, and I know it will all work out.