Then there was March.

Pretend that this was posted in the beginning of March... ;)

Las Fallas has begun! Every day at 2:00 PM until March 19th there was a fireworks show called the Mascletás. This word along with pretty much any Las Fallas term is in Valencian, the language we do not speak! The whole city is buzzing with Fallas fever. Without warning, children are popping poppers and setting things on fire around every corner. If we didn't come to Spain with an anxiety disorder, we will definitely leave with one! Honestly though, we are getting more and more excited about this festival every day. We were definitely lucky to be in Spain during this time of the year to see something purely Valencian. The school even offered us a special class on Las Fallas and let me just say that the pictures will be worth the wait! As our mother says, it is the best festival in the world.. we'll see!

In other news, the Longwood girls have officially been to a bull fight!! We were lucky enough to be sitting next to a man born and raised in Valencia who explained the athletic aspects of the bull fight that one looks for in a good bullfighter. He explained the different roles that each of the men on the field contributed. We were also explained that bulls are raised their whole lives for this twenty minutes of suffering.
From my own personal perspective, you just don't know how sad it is to see a stadium full of people cheering at the death of an animal until you go to a bull fight. One bull was really smart in melting my previously hard heart by putting his cute little face over the wall. Ironically, I was assigned to write a paper on bull fighting the week before we went, my paper was in favor of continuing the tradition. After seeing the bull fight I won't be grabbing my picket sign anytime soon however I definitely won't be so quick to open my mouth in support of the massacre.

Word of the day; Matar-- To kill They audience was filled with screaming bullfighter fans "¡Mátalo!" "Kill it!!"

;) Janice

Tutoring.

It is my pleasure to finally introduce to you; Juan Luis also known as Juan Lu! Last week I went to tutor and Juan Luis' mother told me that we only had about 30 minutes to study as he was chosen to play on his select team that night. This was the best 30 minutes of studying Juan Lu and I have ever had. He was buzzing through his workbook to really maximize the time we had. He read it and slid the book to me as he repeated the information that he just memorized and repeated the process for the full thirty minutes. We're learning a lot about the Egyptian times!! After we studied for our full time, it was a hurricane to get his futbol stuff together and rush out of the door with him. He walked with me to the corner of the street where he had to leave to meet his dad in the parking garage. People in Spain park their cars in parking garages. The best way I have heard this city described is in comparison with downtown Richmond. Not too packed like New York but nevertheless it is a busy city where everyone lives in flats. What a wonderful day of tutoring!

30 Minutes to shred

I have officially come to LOVE our host mom. Around her daughter, she can get quite overwhelming. There is something about their relationship that we can't figure out but everything gets a little bit more intense when Maria Jesus -the daughter- is in the room.

The other day I got dressed for a run just to go outside to find it raining. When I came back inside momma Española said "It's raining outside! Come in, there's a health program on!" I entered to living room to see our mother standing in front of the TV where some women doing arm workouts. She tells me how to stand with one foot in front of the other; I did as I was told. Then as she notices the weight in the women's hands, she looks around the room and reaches for the candle and radio sitting next to her TV. With a 1970s radio in my hand and a vanilla candle in my mother's, we continue to swing our arms. Stretched out first to be even with the back leg and then with the front. Next, with our arms extended straight down, we lift our shoulders tightly and release. These were the only two exercises the women did, however we continued to work out through the first half of the program. When she released me from my workout I finished watching the program with her. Eventually she went upstairs to be with a friend at which point I switched the channel to watch scrubs in Spanish. Needless to say, I woke up sore the next day!

Ya está,
Janice

Febrero loco

In summation, February was just as the Spaniards say, crazy.. Febrero loco. We haven't written in a while because this week was midterm CRUNCH! We both had five exams the fifth of which we will take on Tuesday so we're still not exactly finished but this weekend we will act like we're finished! We're going out for Sangria and tapas tonight with some friends!
In February we learned a lot about our own culture. A teacher was appalled that we weren't familiar with the works of Elizabeth Taylor. She took us downstairs to the computer lab to pull her up online. One of us also learned that there every four years there is something that we call leap year in which there are only 28 days in February. We should be learning a lot about our own politics because I'm pretty sure these Spaniards know a ton more than we do about Obama than we do.
For the midterms, we began our study cram with some chocolate, snacks, and coke. To get out of the house we told our mom that we were meeting a friend downstairs to return a book. Then we got our snacks and coke put them in Katie's purse and snuck back in the house. One might ask, "Why all of the effort? Why not just tell her?" She would definitely lecture us for like 45 minutes on nutrition.
So February down, it's hard to believe that we've been here for so long already! Hasta Luego
Janice

Gracia Espana

Yes, I am in Europe. Yes, I am at the beach. Yes, there will always be topless women...WoW. All I have to say about this subject is that if you are over 40..tops 50 or over 140 pounds, don't do it! Keep the bathing suit on Spaniards.

Funny story, So let me tell you a little bit about the little old Spanish woman we live with. Eating healthy is very very important to her, she loves her two daughters, her favorite color is green (hints her adorable bright green sweater she loves), she has taken every class you can possibly think of, from cooking to massages, she thinks that women don't need to get married and if you want children...Do not fret for technology has given us the option of paying a visit to the Doctor...yup. Every morning she listens to the news on her dinky little hand held radio and talks about all the devistating things happening in the world. She informs us about the weather and then she will explain what vitamins are in the food we are eating and how vegitables are an imortant part of your diet. I love this woman...ha. So last night she cooked us sliced potatoes, over a little bed of lettuce and topped it with slices of tomatoes, oil and vinegar...we have tomatos every day. Anyways, I was having a hard time eating this specific meal that night because she had put a lot of oil on the dish and the potatoes were really soaked in the stuff. At the end of my meal, I had possibly a sliver of a potato left and maybe a little bit of the tomato seeds...but the woman starts yelling at me! She straight up told me there are starving people in the world and i should eat everything on my plate...haha. So when she turned her back, my sassy clever roommate...yes in this point of the story Janice is solely my roommate....scrapped her left-overs on my plate, during that time our mother turned around and started laughing and said, "that's right, eat it all!"...Well, Let me tell you something, you know what I did? I ate every crumb my little Spanish fork could scoop up. .There wasn't going to be a single starving person disapointed in me! No sir. Thank you Janice Linthicum, yet again, for turning a funny sitution to a HiLaRiOuS one. I do love you. :)

This weekend was probably one of my favorite weekends; janice and i really got to know Valencia. We set out without a map into the old streets near Mercado Central and La Plaza de la Reina. We winded in and out of the skinny alleyways, passing the cute old men contently smiling playing their accordians. Janice and I told ourselves that we were not going to be embarrassed by the touristy act of capturing the beauty of Spain on our cameras; we were simply Amercians that day. By golly we have to buy fotos like that back in the states, we can't just walk down the street and Kodak that Jank, ha. We took pictures of everything! From the virbrant purple eggplants at the food market, to the graffiti on the old cracked and piant chipped walls. It was a glorious day. Spain handed us a free gift that day, with a big fat grin it gave us a big blue ribboned box and said "yup, that's right...Enjoy"...Gracias Espana.

Parlez vous Francais

Katie and I went on an adventure this past weekend to a nearby pueblo. We were supposed to go with some friends but the alarm didn't wake us up on time. The alarm clock made us late!! We traveled alone and explored on our own as well which ended up being perfect. It was honestly one of my favorite days and for the most part it was just me and Katie exploring *going down unmarked roads* alone. I love her more all the time!!
Okay, I'm just going to come out with the awesome news... Katie and I used our French on the train.. This was definitely the highlight for me. Luckily, I was able to sit with another French speaker on the way home from the town where I could speak French again. Umm also, there are two girls living in our house for a few days from.. FRANCE! We totally spoke French to them at dinner as well. For the passed two days I have woken up to the sound of French girls getting ready and gone to bed to the sound of giggling Frenchies. They're 14 and 15. I definitely consider all of this to be a sign. I'm moving on to conquer French next..! Maybe I'll study abroad in Canada. The dreams just keep coming, anything is possible ;) Thank you Longwood University for requiring language majors to take four levels of another language! I love French.

Back to our adventure.. Pictures tell the story best:

Tonight I have tutoring again and I'm still loving it. Keep Juan Luis in mind. He's having a hard time getting over the fact that I only have 10 classes total in a week and he has 31. "That's double.. NO TRIPLE.. NO MORE THAN TRIPLE what you have in a week!" he said as he put his hand on his shaking head. The poor kid has to wake up at 7 for six classes and I wake up at 9 for two.. He was very angry to find out that I don't go to school on Friday. He even gave ME homework to do on my excursion. The kid is funny. We were going over future tenses Monday night and he said, "I will be president of the United States. I will have a lot of money. I will give you a little bit." How generous spaniards are...

Okay, that's all I have for now. Katie posted some more pictures on Facebook. I'm gonna go for a run before our 12:00 class.

Word of the day: La oruga -- the caterpillar Why do I know that?? I have no clue.. But, now you know!

~Janice

Words as wide as skies

My new favorite thing in Spain is Vida Abundante. This past Sunday we went with some new friends to a church not far from our school. Let me just say that it was wonderful. Everyone was really welcoming. I think we got a kiss on each cheek from everyone. The worship was David Crowder's "How He Loves Us" -- ¡Cuanto nos ama!, Chris Tomlin's "Sing Sing Sing" -- ¡Vamos a cantar!, and (someone's) "Oh Happy Day" -- ¡Oh día feliz!" During worship I thought about David Crowder's song "I need you." I couldn't stop thinking about the words to that song.


I need words as wide as skies
I need a language as large as this longing inside.
I need a voice bigger than mine.
And I need a song to sing you that I’ve yet to find.

I've always loved this song but now that I can speak two languages, it has a new meaning. I love moments like my Vida Abundante moment when two languages doesn't even begin to provide a wide enough vocabulary to describe the joy of belonging to the conqueror of death. Honestly, these are the moments when I remember why I study/LOVE Spanish and why I have to live my life for Jesus. Clearly, the words will never be enough. I'm still found speechless.

The word of the day: Well, I love the fact that I learn a new phrase pretty much everyday! So I'll share a new expression. Anyone who studied Spanish knows that Hasta Luego means see you later but I learned that if you'll be back pretty quickly you can say "Hasta ahora." This is one of my new favorites. So, if you didn't know hasta luego, now you have two new ones ;)

Hasta ahora tíos ;)
Janice

Tony & Guy Academy

Today I got a new European haircut! Okay honestly, it looks exactly the same but a trillion times more healthy. It would be far too embarassing to confess to all of you when my last haircut was. I guess I'll just let you lose sleep over that mystery. So, the hair cut was free. There's a hairdressing academy on the other side of town next to the bull fighting plaza. If you remember my previous post "snacks and maps" we tried to go the other day without many good directions. This time my "sister" showed me where it was on an actual map and I found it all alone. There were two teachers overseeing all of the students after every step and making sure no major damage was done. I don't know my hairdressers name, actually, I was so nervous inside because I felt like an obvious target so when he asked me my name I thought he asked "How are you?" and I said "Bien.. Oh my name, my name's Janice." Despite the initial break down, I felt a connection with my new hairdresser, no name friend. This is actually an understatement, I'm sure Katie would agree to that. Every since my haircut this unidentified friend of mine comes up everyday but we had a bond. My hairdresser and I understood one another even if we didn't communicate very much, he was very focused! He took a lot of time with every move he made. Let me tell you though, you clearly don't need a lot of experience to do a good job washing someone's hair. It was like a massage! Anyway, I trusted this 20 something boy with four months of experience with my hair. My haircut was just practice and he needed someone willing to take a chance on him. Everyday I am only hoping that people will trust me enough to take a chance on a conversation with me and hopefully, it will come out as well as my haircut. As for my hairdresser friend, his future looks bright!

Janice

My loves...

This week I have fallen in love with many things, some of them not being my first time falling, but more like a renewing or expanding of my love...such as my love for music. This weekend me, janice, and Dani got to go and see the Salsbury Orchestra play along with their choir. It was quite a fiasco getting to our free tickets and our awesome seats....but when we finally sat down the audience started clapping for the classy, gray haired director. My body completely became still. He took a bow and the audience immediately silenced themselves. He raised his little stick and his students formed into position with their instruments. Then it happened.....it´s always hard to describe the sensation I get when I hear music I love. My hair stands up on my arms, my heart sinks, and I completely focus all my attention to what is being played. The orchestra played three long pieces and then when they were done the choir stood. I had never heard a choir that large sing with a orchestra before....it was love at first sight. I watched the tenors and altos open their mouths to form the vowels properly.....the bass scrunch their chins going as low as their diaphrame can let them. I walked out of that concert hall....content. I think this was just a week of music....I have really been trying to expand my spanish playlist and I have found some great songs! So here is my list of songs:
1. Enrique Iglesias and Luis Guerra - cuando me enamoro
2. Shakiera - Loca, Gitana
3. Te Extrano
4. Ricky Martin feat Natalia Jemenez - lo mejor de mi vida eres tu
5. Calos Baute
This is only a taste.....Enjoy my friends....disfrute!
Another thing that I am always doing but this week it seemed to really be a HOt topic....is of course my amazing family! This week me and Janice have stayed up late everynight pillowtalking about our funny family stories and the tough family stories and so on....its been a great bonding experience. I got to tell Janice my little testimony about josh and about how strong and amazing my family has become since his accident....It never gets old telling that story, I think its because its such an important thing to tell people how real and alive God is through the worst of times. I think we should always cherrish him in our darkest and crapiest times...haha. I could def go all day about how much I adore my family, my goofy brothers, my adorable and beautiful sister-in law, my amazing mother that I consider my hero, of course I am a daddys girl...so that says enough about him...haha.
So me and Janice have been able to find time to do our devo time here in Spain, and let me tell you something, that girl loves the Lord! She has put a new and refreshing love of searching christ in my heart! So this is my little shout out slash thank you to Janice Madena Lithicum...who has a beautiful name....haha.
This past week me and janice have successfully met our first cool spanish student, her name is Marina and she is precious. We went out for some drinks this past weekend and I totally fell in love with this girl! She was absolutely adorable and we sat and talked in Castillian for 4 hours or more. Which those of you who dont know what Castillian is, its a certian dialect they use here in Spain. There are many different types of spanish in the good old country of spain, lucky me...haha. Marina told us that she hadnt been talking to us in Valenciano, me and janice were like....HECK YEAH, take that Spain! haha.
Another love I have is the book, Eat, Pray, Love.....this book was written for the hearts of all the travelors, wanna be travelors, and soon to be travelors.
Well I hope you take the music suggestion seriously... ; )

Kate
                       

Mi amigo, Juan Luis.

¡Day two of tutoring English to my new friend, Juan Luis! I had to reschedule my tutoring session from yesterday to today because our mother took us to the theater. When Esperanza tells us to do something, Katie and I do it. The other day she wanted us to go to a Ceramics museum. She explained that students always get to the end of their semester with a list of "should've could'ves". If we don't leave in a time frame that she finds appropriate she comes into our room aggressively speaking Spanish and waving her hands and pointing to her watch. ¡We've learned not to mess with mama Española! So, when I told her that I had to study and she said to switch it, I SWITCHED IT!
Hopefully, the pre-tutoring jitters won't last beyond the second session. It doesn't make sense to be nervous about a family as welcoming as the Santiagos. One thing can not be denied though.. the kid is a nerd. While we were going over possesive adjectives to prepare for his exam tomorrow, I gave him multiple examples. For two of my examples he very confidantly corrected me. Thankfully, he was just confused and it set me up beautifully to teach him the right form but his confidence made me extremely nervous. But atleast he asks questions now last time all he would say was "sì". Now, if only I could get him to put down his Spanish/English dictionary. If I, the American, am sitting in front of you ready to explain a word or tell you the spanish translation why should we spend ten minutes looking for it.
Despite his lack of social skills, I just find him to be wonderful. When I was about to leave he saw RedSox written on the front of my sweatshirt. He immediately stopped me from leaving to show me his mini Red Sox baseball bat that he got in New York. What an awesome kid! ¡¡In New York, he bought Boston paraphernalia!!

Dear Juan, I really hope you get an A on your exam tomorrow!

The ins and outs of Spanish life

Blogging about our adventures is a lot harder than I expected it to be. All weekend I would laugh at the thought of telling all of my dear friends about the different situations we have been getting ourselves into. Somehow, these great stories don't translate as well as I would like them to.

I just wish I could explain how much I love being here and hearing Spanish all the time except for all of the English music. Dear Spain, get your own music. I didn't fly 10 hours or so just to hear more Rihanna and JUSTIN BEIBER.. Yeah, he was on the news last night. Ay ay ay! I love our mother more everyday, she has been so silly recently. Sometimes the three of us just laugh and laugh after we eat dinner. My favorite was when she was telling us that her hands have gotten too fat for her gloves.

There's a "valencibi" bike system here in Valencia. Basically, it works like a red box only with bikes. There are stations all over the city where you can get or drop off bikes. It only costs 18€ to get a year pass and 2€ for a week. Katie and I walked through the entire city looking for a bike station that would let us buy a week long pass that actually had bikes. When we finally found a fully functioning bike station we had been looking for atleast an hour! We did it though and WE FOUND THE MEDITTARANIAN!!! It takes about twenty minutes to ride our bikes to the beach and it is beyond beautiful. Yesterday Katie and I went back during the siesta and ate an orange on the boardwalk. She said "So, straight ahead of us is Italy?" and as she pointed right "and that's Africa?" What a humbling realization that was!

Monday was my first day of tutoring English. After arriving a half hour late (I got lost for the FIRST TIME), I met a fourteen year old boy who looks ten. I tutor him in his New York City styled home on "the other side of the river," where the money is in Valencia by the way.  I love this little boy already. That night I had a hard time falling asleep because I thought about this family for a long time. It's been the highlight of my week being able to meet this family. Juan and I bonded for quite some time over his love of sports; he loves the Madrid soccer team, Micheal Phelps, the Lakers, and Nadal (tennis)! Which is clear as soon as you walk in his room to see posters all over his wall. His parents were wonderful, his dad loves the superbowl and even knew that the Eagles were from Philadelphia! The parents beamed over Juan's superb soccer abilities and his indoor soccer team. And let me tell you that the kid can speak some English.. He's a very smart, somewhat nerdy Spaniard!

Allow me to defend myself on the half hour late issue. I have been on time to class everyday except for that one time I had the time wrong and I'm an expert navigator.. So, take that.

Spain is going to give me lung cancer.. Everyone and their dog smokes here. Clearly, I have yet to see a dog smoking but you get the severity of the issue. Even the Americans who teach English have conformed to the nicatine addicted society. What's worst is that you walk passed the hospital and see atleast three women in scrubs smoking together. Ironic..

Personally, I miss young life as much as my actual family and I miss my family a lot! So, dear Southside teammates and Randolph Henry students who may be reading this, I MISS YOU! Dear tennis girls, I pass two different tennis courts on my walk to school everyday. It's a daily reminder of you beautiful girls!  There's also a raquetball/tennis court box game that I have yet to figure out.. More on that to come later, for now just know that they love tennis here!

Snacks and Maps.

The snacks we snuck into our house. That night we had dessert for the first time.

Where we ended up after 10 minutes of looking aimlessly for a peluqueria.. The will be no Virginians in Spain getting haircuts today. Next time we'll make sure we really do understand our momma before we leave the house. Lesson learned.

Spanish word for the weekend: Triquiniqui; picky. Our Spanish mother loves that Katie and I like all of the food she makes for us, or atleast say that we do. In the past she has had students with a lot of preferences or dislikes and she has to eat whatever they want. We explained the word picky and asked her for the spanish translation. When she told us this silly word both of us laughed so hard eventually having our mama laugh with us. It was definitely a moment Katie and I can take home with us and always remember. She and I were laughing histarically and our mom grinned from ear to ear. ¡We are definitely not triquiniqui!

The school is closed on Saturdays and Sundays so don't look for another update from the Spanish ladies until Monday atleast.  You also might like to know that we definitely enjoy not having classes on Friday! Have a great weekend followers!

What the French toast is in this soup??

Meal times around here in our new home are quite interesting. Breakfast is our favorite meal. She serves us coffee with cookies to dip in our coffee and little muffins. The coffee here is the best I've ever had. Every morning we just wish she would give us a to go cup full instead of the literal cup of coffee. Lunch and dinner are always about the same. Esperanza, our mom, is always trying to feed us healthy food and telling us what's good and bad for us. She loves putting tomatoes in front of us and telling us to eat them all. I HATE tomatoes... Conversations are getting easier and along with health, she loves politics. Everyday she has something new to say about Obama. Needless to say, meals are a lesson in themselves.

For dinner one night we had what can only be descrived as fish soup. While our mother ate hers she casually removed bone particles from her mouth. In the middle of dinner she asks us if we want "tostada français". We both excitedly say "Sì, por favor" and begin kicking each other under the table. To us, french toast at this point would be like winning the lottery. Not to mention it does happen to be one of my favorites. We continue eating our soup when she returns with eggs and put it on a piece of bread. For future Spain travelers, tostada français is NOT French toast... Major. Let. Down!

Adventures Abroad

As most of you know this is not my first time studying abroad, so it has been very interesting talking to Janice about everything. Everynight before we go to bed I will look at her and go,"So how you doing so far?" Though I have to admit that warm, beachy, rural Costa Rica is NOTHING like cityside Spain. So it´s been different but a good different. I have never experienced the city, except for the occasional trip to richmond...which is usually to Maymont park. ha. The things I like most about studying abroad is:
1. You get thrown into the most vulnerable position you will ever be put in. You have not familiarities, which in my position makes me cling to the one familiarity I have GOD. I not until you are in the most vulnerbal states, do you truely find the presence of God.
2. The Smells, weird I know....I LOVE THE NEW SMELLS!  .........interruption, Dani just bought us an orange, PRAISE JESUS! .... Here the streets are lined with Orange trees, so there is a citrus smell you get every now and then. In Costa Rica...there were to many! On my walk to school I would smell the banana trees coming out of my house, then I would turn the corner and smell the fresh bread being put out at the panaderia, then I would walk down the street and pass the little old man sitting on his "street corner" stool smoking his cigar, my school that was full of every flower you can possibly think of, and I think one of my favorites was coming back home to the smell of lunch my mama tica was preparing.
3. AMIGOS...I was blessed to have already known Janice before I got here, so I came with an AMAZING and FUN companion. Though my favorite thing is meeting the natives...that sounds like I am christopher Columbus exploring the new world...hehe. But its so true, last semester God introduced me to a precious, and would end up being my best friend, girl from BEND, ORegon, Rachel Lambert. I made a most embarrasing first impression on the plane, after I rudely told I her I wanted the window seat....and then followed it by cussing at her in my sleep our first night in the hotel room...haha. I got to meet a lot of the locals in Costa Rica by going with my brother to a futbol game. There I met my main reason for learning Spanish, an adorable boy named Carlos. We would go on walks and he would point to things and I would have to say them in Spanish..I LEARNED SO MUCH. It´s a little harder here to meet new friends but luckily we are finding them in the school. Janice and I got to teach English one night to the spanish students.....TALK ABOUT FUN! First off, can I just say how funny and witty (agruda) Janice is! She had the whole class laughing! After class we exchanged numbers with a girl named Anna, who is a nursing major (shout out to Sarah and Amber!). She was adorable.
4. Getting lost...or what I like to call it "exploring". Janice and I went for a walk around the city trying to find this cheap store we heard about, ended up running into a rather large old man without teeth who asked us if we were lost...embarrassing..ha. He proceeded to tell us how much he liked Abraham Lincoln....random I know. That is one of my favorite things about getting lost, is having to talk to the locals and using the language..YAY spanish!

Im sure I could bore you for hours talking about all the things I love about studying abroad, but these will do. LOVE AND MISS EVERYONE!

Pura Vida,
Kate

¡Sagunto a Roman City in Spain!

Longwood students. Andrew, Dani, Janice, Katie.

Us with some of our new friends. They're awesome and they go to a christian school in Wisconsin, Oral Roberts University. They all love Spanish and Jesus. What are the odds?

Up close and personal to Sagunto.

The castle. It's a kilometer long.

Part of the ruin.

¡A little cafe con leche in Sagunto!

¡Bienvenido a nuestra casa!

The living room

Our bathroom

Our bidet

Our sink

Our bedroom. Katie's by the window.

The hallway by our room. Go down and the living room is straigh ahead, the kitchen to the left, the exit to the right.

Hallway bathroom.

Our kitchen. We have meals with our mama española at that table.

 Òjala que nos gusten nuestra casa y habitaciònes!

I love watching you learn Spanish....

Day one, Katie forgot to turn ON the alarm clock. She set it but the turning it on part must have been too much for her. So we wake up to the sound of mama española waking us up in time for breakfast. She was sweet though, "tranquila, tranquila, solamente el primer dìa. No pasa nada! No pasa nada!" Janice had class at 9:00 and made it on time and Katie doesn't have class until 12:00 that lucky girl. "Que dicha!" We have all but one class together. We each have one alone. Our teachers are all perfecto. Isabella is the name of our phonetics teacher, today we got to watch her mouth as she demonstrated the difference between "p" and "b". Our favorite was when she twisted her mouth and stuck out her tongue all while talking a hundred miles an hour.... impressive. Me gusta eso.
Today's lunch was soooo good. Cauliflower with oil and vinegar, and something yummy that looked like little raviolis but were some type of fried bread with turkey inside... wow that was hard to explain. She actually ate with us for the first time and ever since Katie told her about her mothers Cancer she tells her all the healthy things to eat to avoid Cancer... She writes them down diligently.... NOT. Today was the most fun pow-wowing about different words and all of the successful women in our lives like the Valencian mayor.
Apparently we need to learn the hours for the afternoon siesta because today we went to buy our books but the door was blocked by huge steal bars. They're serious about their breaks here in Spain.We found a nearby park though and talked for a while, it is beautiful in the Valencian parks!


Today's word of the day is: "la alcalde" Rita Babarà (mujeres ganan)
Hasta luego guapos.. ;)

First impressions..

• The Madrid airport is awesome and probably better than the American ones I've been too.
• Dear sun, where are you and why won't you wake up before 9? If I have to wake up, so do you!
• The Valencia airport loses luggage. 
• Living with our mama española is like living with your grandma. She calls us guapa and takes good care of us. We loved her walking us to school today!
• Metros are easy but slow..
• Food, what food? No worries about our bathing suit this year... ;)
• The soccer stadium is 2 minutes from our house! Heck yes! 
• January 18th may as well have not of been put in a calendar
• Valencian beaches are perfection! Bring on the tan!
• We're going to pass on the bidet in our bathroom. yeeeaaahhhh.
• Orange foundation, blue eye shadow, cherry red lipstick = a non feminist fashionista! Hello Tour Guides of Valencia
• Thanks Spain for ripping us off on that cash exchange. You do understand we're students right? Stupid economy...
• Katie and I are excited to live together in our precious room with our wonderful mama española for this semester! (we still love you Candice and Katy!)

Nos encanta la vida sin subtitulos. Estamos muy emocionado sobre estos tres meses en España.

Janice y Katie ;)