Oh, Valencia!

Slightly on-topic fact; "Oh, Valencia!" By the Decemberists is a fantastic song. It infact has nothing to do with the area in Spain, and is leaned more towards the stoy of a gang killing with a Romeo and Juliet related backround story.

I did, however, go to Valencia this past weekend. It was great to get out of Madrid for a little while, and I haven't really had an opportunity to do much traveling so far. I went with a friend, and we road-tripped it to his uncle's house in Elche (Valencia, but almost in Alicante). Of course, we got lost for 2 hours on the way, but when its a 4 hour trip already, and you have a car full of CD's and cookies, its not too bad.

We actually passed through La Mancha, which is where probably the most famous Spanish work of literature was based in; "Don Quijote." I read the book in english class last year, so that was kind of cool. There are actually a lot of windmills in La Mancha, but they are the big, creepy, modern, white ones, which I'm willing to bet were not the ones Don Quijote was mistaking for dragons; more like those tripods from War of the Worlds. If you are familiar with the book, you may also remember the "princess" Dulcinea. It turns out one of the most famous brothels in Spain is named Dulcinea, conveniently located also in La Mancha as well. Interesting use of a literature reference.

Since we arrived in Elche kind of late, it was too dark to see anything, but as soon as I looked out the window the next morning, I fell in love! The city is made up of forrests of palmtrees, and orchards or oranges, pomegranites, lemons, etc. I hadn't been thinking of California lately, considering that the Madrid weather isn't even close to what you may call pelasant, but the warm sun, beach, and palmtrees was a very sudden reminder of what I had left behind.

My friend's family were the nicest people ever, and took us all around Elche, which is impossible to navigate unless you have lived there your entire life. It is really nothing like Madrid, with its crowded apartments, unavoidable shopping centers, and millions of people. In Elche, there are some appartment buildings, but a lot of people leave in "casas de campo," basically, ranch-style houses on large plots of land, many with plenty of orchard space. Most of the houses are hundreds of years old, and have only dirt or gravel roads to enter by. I loved it!

On Saturday night, we met with the AFS volunteers, and a coupld of students, in the Valencia area. Everyone was super nice! We had a great time comparing our different exchange experiences, and talking about AFS politics. About 15 of us met at a cafe in the afternoon, and got along so well that we all ended up all going out to dinner together, and hanging out until it got too cold at 1am to keep walking around.

On Sunday we went to the beach, which I so desperately needed after not seeing an ocean since I went to Galicia 6 months ago. It was too cold to go in the water, but the sun was nice and we had typical Spanish calamari and "patatas bravas" (largely cut potatoes, fried, and with a white sauce) at a cafe on the beach.  

It was a great trip, and I will put up pictures as soon as I can steal them off of other people's cameras.

Today, I fell down the stairs at my school and fractured/sprained my foot! Everyone kept asking me if I was pushed or someone ran into me...but no, I tripped on absoloutly nothing alone on the stairs. My host dad had to come pick me up and take me to the hospital, where they put on a cast and gave the usual prescription of ice and ibruprofen.  It couldn't have hurt that bad because while I was crying in the hospital, I was still embarassed about the doctor having to see my nasty feet haha. My foot doesn't hurt so much anymore, but the fact that I'm stuck home on a 3 day weekend, and the first nice weather we have had since October, is really bumming me out. I'm working on a mental fast recovery...as in "maybe if I ignore it, the problem will go away!" That method always seems to work for broken electronics and appliances, so this shouldn't be too different. 


Love,
Chloe