EJ

EJ is here. We had a quiet night. Bocadillos, a walk around the DEAD city and then back to watch some Spanish tv before bed...I had class this morning where I gave a presentation on Barca/La Liga/La Furia Roja. Cristina loved it because I didn't read the from paper. haha...chinese...

Cristina also told me today that her neighbor is Iker Casillas's aunt and she gets free tickets to RM games...wtf.

Mas

So I thought the night was done...but it wasn't. I went out of my room to go get my laundry and I ran into Salvador, Jose, and the new Argentine guy in the hall. Talked for a little bit and they were going to find Jose Manuel and Manuel. Asked me where my room was, it's so dirty I wouldn't tell them. Anyways, got my laundry and then met them in my neighbors room where a LOT of people were. Everyone was taking a shot and just hanging out...a Wednesday night...little strange. Now I am tired. But it was nice to be with everyone for a bit. The university ends classes this Friday...is this my last weekend with everyone? I need to find out so I can start taking pictures of everyone. Lots of people I will miss.

Vivir Bien

Today = boring. I don't even remember what I did in class. Gabriela made us go to a lecture today about the last of the Catholic Kings of Spain and literary reactions to his death or something...i'm not too sure because I slept through half of it and didn't really understand the second half. oops.

I cut my leg open today when I was working out, but I didn't even notice it until I went to stretch and my face went into an open wound and I saw that there was blood streaming down my leg and pooling in my sock...weird.

Watched the Real Madrid game tonight...f***ing Ronaldo...Tonyo says to me "I don't understand how you can support Barca. Americans live their colors and you support those separatists?!?"

Waiting for my laundry to finish so I can go to sleep. Erik comes tomorrow and mom and grandma come Saturday!

Strange Man

I almost forgot to share this odd story.

So I am on the train to Vila-Real. There is a guy whose seat is facing the other way and while just looking around the train our eyes meet for a second and he raises his eyebrows. I turn to look out my window.

Later he gets up and moves his bags so they are across the aisle from me and then he looks at me and asks me if he can sit in the seat next to me...there are like 4 other people in our train car so there is no need to sit near me. I just look at him like you can, but please don't. He does.

I just look out the window. Eventually I kinda look over half way and he is just staring and smiling at me. I have my headphones in, but he says something to me. I take one out and say "what"
Him: "Are you sad?"
Me: "No"
Him: "Are you sure, do you have a problem, can I help you?"
Me: "No. I do not have a problem."
Him: "Am I bothering you?"
Me: "A little. Yes."

I turn back out to the window. It was just a very weird thing and I didn't really want to deal with him. I hear him talking still so I take out a headphone again.

Him: "Where are you from?"
Me: "US"
Him: "ah, American..."
Me: "Yes."
Him: "That is close to Canada right?"
Me: "Yes."
Him: "I have a brother there. He has been there for 6 years."
Me: "In Canada?"
Him: "Yes. It's kinda far from Morocco"
Me: "Oh, so you are from Morocco"
Him: "Yes. What are you doing in Spain?"
Me: "I live in Avila and go to school there."
Him: "And you are traveling alone."
Me: "Just for right now"
Him: "Are you going to Barcelona"
Me: "Vila-Real"
Him: "Oh, I bet you have never been to Morocco"
Me: Actually I was there in February."

Now the train is at my stop and he moves so I can get my back and leave. He waves and smiles at me as I exit...super odd experience. Maybe it isn't that strange, but as a girl traveling alone to an unknown place, I was kinda bothered. What has become of this world? haha.

Back to Valencia and Back to Avila

Not too much to report after Villarreal experience. Came back to Valencia, spent the day enjoying the sun and walking around a bit. Tried two more paellas.

Lunch: Paella Valenciana.
4 stars: delicious, the best I had, but "Valenciana" means chicken, not seafood, so not
as good as it could possibly be.
Dinner: Paella de Moriscos
2 stars: really buttery. Not very good, but lots of seafood pieces so that was
enjoyable.

At dinner I ordered Sangria and it was made with more vodka than wine I swear. I was drunk by the end of the goblet that it was served in and I just walked home and went to sleep. Weird experience. Also, I asked for the cheapest room so I was sleeping with two other guys in a room...interesting. whatever.

In the morning I woke up earlier than planned and went to the Valencia CF store that had been closed Saturday and Sunday. It opened at 10:00 so I waited around 10 minutes and then went in and got me a Silva jersey. yay! Cheaper than normal too at the "official store". I was happy.

For breakfast I went to this cafe and they had waffles so I ordered one. Waffles in Spain: chocolate chips in the waffle and it is SMOTHERED with chocolate sauce...surprise! Interesting breakfast...would love a real waffle right now.

Easy trip back to Avila and now here I am...

Vila-Real: Poor Choices=GREAT experiences!

Poor Choice #1: Travel alone to Vila-Real.

This is a tiny pueblito. Smaller than Avila, why it has such a big futbol team I will never know. Arrived and had to find my way to my "hostel" which is a bar with some rooms that people can rent. It is the only place to rent rooms in the town. It is that small.

I had gotten directions off line, but when it came time to follow them I couldn't find one street so I ended up walking a lot longer than I had to and it was a little scary, but not THAT scary...anyways, with the help of one man walking his dog I found my way to Hostel La Masia. Got my key and paid and went to my room. There were a couple people wearing jerseys drinking at the bar when I arrived to I decided to change and join them. Put on my Xavi jersey and went to get a drink.

I ordered "tinto de verano" which is just table wine with soda. The guy who owns the place just game me a bottle of soda and a bottle of wine and a glass and told me to do as I pleased with it. haha. There was a group of 4 guys next to me ordering shots. One of the guys asked if I wanted one. I declined. As the bartender started cutting up limes and game them some salt I asked, "tequila?" and they said yea, and asked if I wanted one again. I declined again, but started talking to them. They knew some guys who were in the police academy in Avila and were from Alicante. Talked about the game and Barca (they were all wearing jerseys, or in one case, a flag). I asked when they were heading out and they said "now" and offered to drive me to the stadium. I knew that I didn't know these guys at all, but the stadium was like a 1/2 hour walk so I said ok.


Poor Choice #2: Get in car with 4 strange men

On the car ride there one guy says to me, "so you travel to Valencia alone, then you travel from Valencia to Vila-Real alone, and now you are in a car with 4 strangers...As we say, you have some balls." Sorry to my mother, I promise I usually am much safer than this.

We parked and went to a bar that was FILLED with Barca fans. Everyone was singing Barca songs and chanting and the guys bought me a beer. I am not a huge beer person so I drank it very slowly, but they were going much faster than me. Every time they were ready for another round they would say, "you need a fresh one" and buy me a new beer so I drank three 1/2 beers. haha.

Went outside to greet the Barca bus as it came in and then we went to take our seats. When the team came out of the field I almost cried I was so excited. I had seen them before of course, but the obsession was a lot more mild than it is now. This was just a CRAZY experience. Xavi was questionable to play because he got hurt last game, but he played AND HE SCORED! First Messi, than Xavi, then Bojan, then Messi. 4-1 killing and Xavi played amazing (for me?). The stadium had so many Barca fans, I felt a little bad for Villa. Pep looked good in his suit.













After the game we got back in the car after hanging around outside the stadium a bit and singing some songs...we got stopped at a traffic light on our way back to the hostel by a police officer BECAUSE THE BARCA BUS WAS COMING THROUGH! We got out of the car and started waving our flags and scarves as the bus passed and then jumped back in the car quickly and one of the guys started screaming "SIGUE SIGUE!" which means follow...so we followed the bus for a while before we got stopped by a police officer again at a different light so we went home. It was sooo crazy. I was just dieing of happiness. I am pretty sure all my serotonin emptied. The guys wanted to go out to a club, but I was so exhausted to I said good night.

I did have to deal with a drunk phone call at 5:00 however. I pick up my phone and start talking in Spanish (I am sure this was my first spanish only phone call that I was fully able to understand and partake in - it was amazing) anyways...it's one of the guys. He sat by me in the car on the way back and started talking to me about his radio show, his new wife of 4 months and the differences between weddings in the US and Spain (haha)...he says to me on the phone: "What are you doing?" I say "sleeping" He says "We are coming to visit." I say "No, I am going to sleep, good night". I hear them come in, but they don't knock or anything so I felt better.

The next morning I get a text saying sorry for waking me up. I text back that it was ok and it was nice to meet them and I hoped he got his voice back soon (he had lost it within the first hour of singing and shouting in the bar). He texted back that it was nice to meet me and he hoped my travels finished well and I stayed safe.

Around noon I head to the train station, determined to find a shorter route I get kinda lost. I do, however, find my way eventually and get on a train back to Valencia. GREAT EXPERIENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! De Barca HASTA LA MUERTE!!!!!

Tot el camp
es un clam
som la gent blaugrana.

Tant se val d'on venim
si del sud o del nord
ara estem d'acord, estem d'acord,
una bandera ens agermana

Blaugrana al vent
un crit valent
tenim un nom el sap tothom:
BARCA BARCA BARCA!!!

Valencia: Paella and Silva Crazy

Where to start? I don't even know!!!! AMAZING weekend! If I had had someone to share it with would be the ONLY way to make it better. This was a series of (as I look upon it) probably poor choices and crazy occurrences. Simply amazing...have a mentioned that I saw XAVI!!! It's been what, 1.5 years? He is too amazing. And he gifted my visit with a goal...but I am getting ahead of myself. From the beginning I think is best:

Arrived around 10:30 pm in Valencia. Ate a sandwich on the train made in our lovely comedor and watched a super lame movie about something...jason statham or whatever his name is was some farmer who became king after some wizard dude killed his son and he went crazy on his ass.

Found my hostel and moved in for the night. Nice place and the lady at the desk was really nice and I chatted with her a bit in Spanish. In the morning I woke up pretty early to go an experience the city, but Valencia refuses to wake up until 10:30-11:00ish so I was just kinda wandering around and decided to walk through the large park.

















Valencia has this old dried-up river bed and it has been transformed into a GIANT park. Some parts are soccer field, dirt and grass, some are trails through trees, some parts are gardens, fountains, and at the end is the Parque de Ciencias where Santiago Calatrava went crazy. One of the coolest places I have ever visited.

Went back to the city center and sat in the Plaza de Ayudamiento for a while and took in the sun and read some of my book. For lunch I went to a little place and got Paella de Moriscos and Sangria. The only part I don't like about traveling alone is eating alone...not that I wouldn't prefer to have someone with me in all aspects of traveling...but I can enjoy myself. However, I always feel awkward eating alone. But I can take it. Made friends with my waiter who was from Argentina and enjoyed bonding over the fact that we were both Americans. haha. Good food though.

Got some hazelnut ice cream in the afternoon...now my FAVORITE flavor ever of ice cream...Europe has made my realize that this is the superior flavor of all flavors in most foods. Walked through the streets and found a little market that I looked through before heading back to check out of the hostel and catch my train to Vila-real.