Valencia - mi ciudad adoptiva

Hello mundo! This will be a picture-less post, i kind of need to update on what i actually do here in spain! Ok so first of all, i LOVE it here. it took a little while to get acclimated to their siesta and find places where i can eat at normal times, but seriously. It's the best. Por ejemplo, I have been having problems because a lot of the cafes that only have wifi make you sit down and order before you really can use their internet (awkward story about this in a moment). So I have been searching and searching for somewhere where i can use the computer and do homework that has wifi (starbucks ironically does not have wifi here....????) and today i found it. There are these cafe s called cafe y te that have free wifi all over the city, and in the plaza de ayuntamiento one is located right next to a burger king. BK doesn't care if you don't order anything and use their tables! and you get the free wifi access. IT WAS THE BEST. i literally sat 20 feet from this huge fountain facing gorgeous buildings as the sun was going down writing a paper "in the modernist style of observation" for my lit class. So legit. These 2 older women were sitting there for a long time to, we kind of had a silent bond going on. i think they thought i was weird because at one point i was skyping without sound and i was making random hand and facial gestures at the computer screen. Also, they don't really have apple here - meaning my computer is a bit of a novelty. and of course everyone is interested by the kappa delta sticker. i am going back there tomorrow to study (now that i know how it's done). i finally bought a converter that FITS in the plug (who knew that all the plugs in valencia are formed in circles instead of squares?) that was $2.50 euro so i can take camera pictures tomorrow.

Ok so now for random anecdote of awkward cafe story. Today I had about 2 hours to kill before I had to go back to the uva school to meet claire and discuss our plans to go to madrid at the end of june. i was searching for wifi, internet addict that i am, and sat down at a table in this cafe y te place. next to me was some guy using a laptop and drinking coffee. after about 5 minutes this waitress comes over and asks me what i would like (in spanish). i am confused, because i didn't realize i had to order - valencian cafes actually care about your buisness? what? anyways i stammer "agua" and this woman says to me "orange juice?" in english. and i say "no agua....como agua regular????" then she was like ohhh you want AGUA? not my most shining moment in terms of spanish. anyways so this guy observes the interaction and says in english "oh are you visiting spain?" he actually spoke semi decent conversational english but then as he divulged his life story (a venezuelan pilates instructor whose mother is from valencia who instructed me to go to a rando bar in madrid his friend owns...he gave me a sketch note about it) he defaulted to spanish. talk about forward men, his opening line after the obvious oh you speak horrible spanish was "you have very beautiful legs." literally. seriously? his name was Miguel, probs won't be seeing him ever again. anyways i will now avoid that particular cafe between the hours of 2-4 on a regular basis.

Other life updates - i went shopping the other day (surprise) and bought the MOST awesome red shoes. i wore them today, it was so exciting. my madre said that a lot of the stores have sales at the end of june/beginning of july so i will look for those reductions in prices when the time arrives.

what elseeee. it's hard to remember everything because i haven't posted in SO LONG. school is moving along, kind of nerdy of me but i really enjoy attending class and i don't know what i would do with myself if i was just chilling at home. well i wouldn't be just chilling at home, but still you get the drift.

This friday I am going to Granada to see the Alhambra so that is exciting. We went to Pensicola last weekend (gorgeous, though kind of touristy beach). I have to say, and this might just be a personal opinion, i thought that the pictures of peniscola were actually a lot neater than seeing peniscola itself. I don't know why. I think i just really liked the castle at Xativa and Peniscola is a lot smaller and less intense. Altho who knows, my camera was uncharged and so i didn't take pictures - maybe that adversely affected my enjoyment. I will probably go back next session - since it's already paid for by UVA.

Now I am off to do work (which fills me with mild excitment?). can't believe it's basically already midterms. Still over 50 more days to go in Spain though. Soooo excited. More to come when interesting things happen to me - which is literally all the time. Seriously, my life is that random. Ok besos hasta pronto