Time flies by when you are having fun!

Sorry I have not blogged in awhile this week has flown by. Here is a little recap of one of my last weeks here in Valencia!

Saturday July 7 - I went on a day trip with the school to Segunto which is a town a half hour north of Valencia. We toured a Roman Theater and learned a little about the history of the town then it was a beach day! The beach there was beautiful!The water was so blue and calm. We attempted to swim to a buoy but then realized that it was much farther than we thought so we just floated in the water for awhile. It was a very relaxing day! Frist photo is Sam, Anna, Sara and I at the theater. Second photo is on the beach!

Sunday July 8 - After a relaxed morning and finishing two papers I headed to the Rio. Sara, Anna, Sam and I had a little photo shoot. It was really hot but still so pretty. Here are two photos from our photo shoot.

Monday July 9 - I went to the Mercado de Russafa in the morning with Anna. There is the normal market and then on mondays the streets are full of vendors. They are selling a variety of things from clothes, shoes and jewelry to random household goods. I got a necklace! I then headed to my 420 class. It was the usual two hour discussion of spanish literature. I had a chill afternoon with Tyler. He got a doner kebab sandwich and we walked the Rio. There are so many people running, walking, biking, hanging out in the Rio even though it is really hot! On the way home we ran into Tyler host padre so I got to meet him which was cool.

Tuesday July 10 - This was a beach day! I went to the beach after my two morning classes and stayed until almost 7. I took a very nice beach nap and got in a good swim. I laid not under my umbrella for about an hour to improve my tan. I am actually fairly tan for me but its mostly just freckles.
Anna and I at the beach!

MSU in the sand!

Wednesday July 11 - I slept until my afternoon class. Portland has international nights once a week to help people practice their english and spanish. I went and ended up talking to two guys and one guy from France. We spoke in english at first to help them practice and then in spanish. We just talked about random things but it was fun to talk to locals and practice my spanish.

Thursday July 12 - I had my normal morning classes and then off to the beach. It was a chill normal beach day until I decided that it was time to get buried in the sand. It had been discussed before but never followed through. Nobody besides Chris and I was really into but we wanted to be buried so we started digging. Digging is hard when you do not have a shovel. We used the pole to the umbrella to loosen the sand to make it a little easier.

We finally got a hole big enough so that we could fit in it. We laid down and our friends covered us. They used their feet so there was a lot of sand in my face! Eventually we were buried and good to go! People on the beach looked at us funny. After about ten minutes of laying in the the sand we escaped. Despite being completely covered in sand it was so much fun! 

   After dinner we went out to the beach. Almost everyone from our group came out so it was fun to be all together again! We stayed out until the sunrise and it was prettier than last time.
Genna, Sam, Sara and I at Portland before the beach.

 The start of the sunrise over the Mediterranean!

 It was beautiful!

Friday July 13 - After watching the sunrise I just slept until lunch. I was productive in the afternoon with a little bit of homework. After dinner I went to a local place to play some cards with friends.

Saturday July 14 - I got up and went shopping with Sara and Anna. We went to Colon street and found some good deals! I got a pair of shoes, skirt, tank top and a dress all for 25 euro! I came home for lunch and headed to the beach. A good beach nap is always great! I had dinner with just my madre because my roommate went out. She made me pizza! It was nice to hang out with her. After dinner we watched part of a movie. There are no commercials during movies on TV here  or at least not during the one we watched. I headed out witha  few people to the beach. It was my last saturday here in Valencia so we danced the night away!

Sunday July 15 - Today is a homework day:( I have three exams this week so Iam working on finishing the study guides. I am going to explore old town after I put in some studying.

Happy 4th of July

Monday July 2 - Monday was a chill day. I slept in until 11 and then went to class. After a nice walk in the Rio I came home to work on my project. I had to do a powerpoint presentation about the attitude toward nudity and sex in Spain.

Tuesday July 3 - I had my presentation in the morning, it went very well! To celebrate being done I went to the beach! I am loving the beach more and more everyday! I still lay under my umbrella a majority of the time I am there because I do not want any sunburn ruining my fun!

Wednesday July 4 - 4th of July and my anniversary with Jon Spain style. I was able to skype Jon for about an hour in the afternoon before he was off for his day of holiday fun which was so nice! After I skyped I went to the beach! It was a little windy on the beach so not too unbearably hot. I am getting tanner and tanner each day aka I have a lot of freckles! To celebrate the 4th we went to the American bar Portland. Portland was serving american food all afternoon and was full of people who were here traveling and studying. I met students from Cedarville Ohio, Iowa State, Virginia and North Carolina State. It was fun to hear about their travels. There was no parade or fireworks or Mackinac Island so it did not really feel like the 4th of July. I will just have to see some fireworks when I get home! Below is Sam and on on the 4th! We both dont really own any red, white and blue so we just wore cute dresses:)

Thursday July 5 - In my morning class we had a speaker come in and talk about the Camino de Santiago. It was a really nice presentation and made me want to travel and do something big! After class I went to the beach again! I took a nice siesta on the beach. We got a spot right near the water so I could hear the waves right next to me better. After dinner we went to a local bar to hang out. We then went to a discoteca on the beach. We stayed to watch the sunrise over the Mediterranean Sea.

Friday July 6 - I slept in until lunch. We had rice and a fried egg for lunch which was not very filling. I am excited to eat normal food when I get home! I have already put in my requests to my mom of what I want! After lunch I went shopping with Anna and Sara. There are a ton of sales here in July so practically all of the stores are having  rebajas. I wanted to get a cute dress but didn't fall in love with any but I did get a bag. I came home and took a nap until dinner.

Tomorrow I am going on a day trip with the school to see a roman theatre.

Owling in Madrid

Last weekend I went to Madrid with three friends. It was a great relaxing weekend. It is so nice to travel with four people instead of the large group like in Barcelona. We rediscovered owling so we owled all the city. I will tell you about our weekend through pictures!

We rode avanza bus there. As we were getting on the bus we were worried we were going to be really warm on the bus. It was quite the opposite, the AC was on high the whole four hours. I had the goosebumps!

 Our first night we grabbed dinner at a restaurant near our hostel. I had broken eggs which is two fried eggs on top of french fries. It was interesting. We explored after dinner. The city is beautiful with so much to see. We found a concert in the streets. Below is a fountain!

 We owled too!

 Saturday morning we got up and had breakfast at our hostel. I had toast. We then headed out exploring with our new friend from denmark.

 The streets were shaded by these huge canopies so it was a nice temperature as we walked.

 We went inside the Palacio which was really cool. We werent allowed to take any pictures inside but the view from the courtyard was nice.

 We owled with statues.

 Sunday morning we went to the Real Madrid Stadium. It was so cool to walk around and see it.

 I owled on the field.

 After grabbing some lunch we explored a beautiful park.We only had 2 hours so we couldn't see the whole park but what we saw was beautiful! I do not know if you can see in the picture but you could rent row boats and boat around the little lake area.

It was a fun weekend of exploring. We got back to Valencia during the EuroCup finals game. So I grabbed a taxi home from bus station to drop off my backpack and biked to meet up with others to see the end of the game. SPAIN WON!! The place was crazy! Everyone flooded the streets. People were lighting off fireworks in the streets and dancing and singing. I mostly just watched crazy spaniards. It was fun to be here in Spain when they won though!