The Strange and the Odd

One of the coolest things about living in a new country is experiencing all the strange and new things. Here are just a few:

1. The Food. Lot's of things about the food I like - chocolate for breakfast, lots of fruits. But other things I don't - salad dressing is not common and NO Ranch. They have olive oil, lemon juice, and vinegar for the salads but not much else. It's very sad. They also serve bread for EVERY meal and there are always tomatoes for breakfast.

2. No lined paper. It has been hard for me to get used to the fact that they do not use lined paper - only graph paper.

3. Everyone in Spain has 2 last names. I believe they get one from the mother and father.

4. 24 hour clocks & the metric system. Everything is done in military time. This was hard to get used to at first but it's better now. But when the signs say things in grams, kilos, etc. I have no idea what that really means. Celsius is definitely the worst! What do you wear when the temperature says its 17* Celsius??

The world is just a crazy place!

Spain Does Not Believe In Work

I have now officially been in Spain a month and this week is my first full week of school. Spain has already had two festivals and you get time off school for everything. They just don't believe in school work here. The first festival was October 4-5, Moros y Cristianos. This festival includes a large parade through the city on Saturday night and (in Sagunto) a finale scene between the Moors and the Christians at the castle on Sunday morning. The parade is super cool with lots of amazing costumes and animals (the only thing it was missing was the people who throw candy). The second festival was October 10-14. It's called Mercadillo Medieval. Sadly, I was gone on the school camping trip for this festival so I don't know much about it. All I know is that it includes a large medieval market where medieval clothes, food, etc. are sold. Sounds pretty awesome to me!

The People

We have a quite a mix of people here in Sagunto. First of all, there are the ACA students. There are 30 of us from all over the US- Oakwood, Southern, Walla Walla, etc. including three from Barbados (which I learned has a maximum speed limit of 35 mph). Then there are the Theology students. They come from many places, though there are several from Spain, Portugal, and Romania. Apparently a lot of Romanians come to Spain to find work, similar to the Hispanics in America. The campus also has an elementary school and a highschool which are almost entirely composed of Spanish speaking people except there is an American, Britain, and a German. Lastly, the campus has about 5 volunteers which come from a lot of different places as well. The mix of people creates a fun atmosphere!

Valencia

Another day of site-seeing. Valencia is about 45 minutes away from the school and it is the 3rd largest city in Spain. Lot's of very cool things to see here. There is a neat strip of very modern architecture which includes El Palacio de Musica, the science center, and other cool buildings. The city also includes several historic buildings spread throughout the main downtown area. I couldn't tell you about them all - you'll just come have to visit yourself.

The one building worth mentioning is La Iglesia de Santo Juan de la Cruz. Beautiful on the outside and the inside. For a small fee, you can climb the 207 VERY steep steps to the top of the tower attached to the Cathedral. Beautiful view from here.

After a morning of touring, we had the afternoon for shopping and siteseeing. We had the opportunity to look at very expensive clothes, try Spanish Orchata (Different from the Orchata in the States or Mexico), and practice our map reading skills. This is not always easy when the streets curve, dead end or turn into alleys. One last note of interest - as we were walking out of the bookstore, we saw a guy with a videocamera filming. I didn't think anything of it but it turns out we were on the local news! Craziness!