Def should probably be sleeping right now (12:06 here) butttt writing this post. Today I went to the Lladro Factory, which manufactures all the Lladro porcelain and is the only factory in the entire world...and it just happens to be located in Valencia. They showed us the process to make one simple piece. It's ridiculous. The people who make them have to be trained for 3 years before they are allowed to work on even the simplest pieces. It's really too bad they wouldn't let us take pictures inside the room because it was really neat. and for anyone who hasn't seen Lladro pieces (which I really hadn't so I'm betting you haven't either) they are gorgeous. The pictures really don't do them justice. For example we saw the woman making flowers. She made every single one of them by hand. Amazing. I really liked one that was a flower cart. Unfortunately it was a few thousand euros. NBD of course compared to the one that was 120,000 euros. Let's not even try and think about what that costs in american dollars. Luckily for those of us who are at times more frugal, they have a locked other store where they have the "defective" pieces at lower prices. Many of them did not have flowers, sadly, but they had some cool stuff. I really want to go back next session.

Today I met my intercambio, Andrea, in the Plaza de Ayuntamiento. I think my spanish has improved soooo much more than I expected it to because we basically talked fluently in spanish for 40 minutes. Nonstop. I mean she translated some words for me, but still. Impressive I must say.

Yesterday I went to the Cathedral for the thousandth time, but this time for the tour and the Holy Grail. Sooo the Valencian Cathedral is basically REALLY legit. It has the relic arm of San Vicente Martir (ironic that it's in the Cathedral because the church dedicated to him is literally 50 yards away) and none other than the HOLY GRAIL. The actual Holy Grail. I feel so accomplished that I have seen it. Who would think that it's in Valencia? I forget the reason that it's here, but I bought books on it from the Nun in the bookstore. She was nice. I like Nuns. Also there are just random works of Fransisco Goya hanging in the Cathedral, no big deal. He wasn't important at all. Its basically like a giant art museum. Gotta love the Catholics...or the patrons of the Church 500-600 years ago.

Last night I went to a class on how to make paella. SO NEAT. Ok I have seriously tried to upload pictures to this blog/facebook but there is some sort of server failure when the uploading finishes and it will never work. So paella valenciana - the staple Valencian dish - has rice, vegetable, some type of bean unique to Spain, assorted spices and broth, chicken and rabbit. Rabbit does not taste good. It is noticeably tougher than chicken and there is a conejo named Thumper that lives in our kitchen here. Needless to say I did not eat any rabbit. We also made some sort of black rice squid paella and a blood sausage and squash paella. And flan and sangria. It was really good. I am not a chef and cannot do any justice in descriptions, hopefully my picture will upload at some point in the near future.

Oh and just an fyi for all you world cup fans, Spain has redeemed themselves after the disastrous outcome with Switzerland (i think) and beat Honduras yesterday night. Viva Espana.

This past weekend I went to the beach all weekend instead of Barcelona...best decision ever. Less intelligent decisions of recent noteworthiness include typing this entry when I need to get up in 6 hours. Oh before I publish this, stay tuned for my thoughts on Coke Zero. Why does everyone drink it? I am trying it tomorrow...i.e. today.

Que vaya bien