Death by Comida

Ahhhh I sit down to write another blog post as I have just been stuffed like a bird by our Valencian host mom.  I swear I have no idea how Spanish girls stay so stick thin.  Like do they beat their mothers away with French bread clubs?  This is easily the 10th time this WEEK I've returned to my room full to the point of agony due to actual tears forming in my host mom's eyes when I tell her "No, no... I'm really really full... please don't bring seconds... no dessert no please no...." So there I go eating my fourth helping of tortilla de patata and oh yes please do bring me another helping of flan and maybe a second loaf of bread while you're at it.  Can't go offending our host families...!

Besides failing every tiny attempt at losing weight this summer, I am loving Valencia more and more.  I have an awesome internship at an English language school, the only place where I am looked up to for speaking English instead of being stared at like I recently grew a third eye.  I love the opportunity to speak Spanish all the time though, don't get me wrong.  Most of my opportunities lately have come from asking people how to find directions, since a map of Valencian streets looks more like a spider or maybe a 3-year-old came up with it than a city planner.  I actually got lost for three days straight going to my internship which, according to Google, is supposed to be only a 4 minute walk from my apartment.  The complete inability to find which street I'm on let alone which street I'm supposed to be looking for is likely more my own fault than Valencia's since I have seen more than one actual blind person navigating the city easily on their own...

Today we spent the most significant amount of time on the beach we've gotten since arriving which was incredible, except when I decided to play the "no-sunscreen" game and now look a little like a boiled lobster.  I'm fully hoping that my lack of ability to slim down in Spain will be made up for by my incredible Latin America-like tan.

Tonight will be Sara's and my first "clubbing adventure" in the city so I'm sure a decently interesting blog post is to follow... Adios for now!

Fourth day and fourth city!

Puessss it's day four of my Spanish adventure and so far everything's pretty good! I mean we have a few cases of lost luggage and one girl who, due to purchasing standby tickets, STILL is stuck in an American airport, but other than that everything has been pretty smooth on city tours and whatnot!  My biggest complaint is that the hotel, although super nice, only gave Sara and I one long capsular pillow to sleep on which so far has caused me some unrest and future chiropractic problems as well as accidentally punching Sara in the face in the night once by accident...

I had forgotten also about the long beautiful hair a lot of Spanish women have... I'm entranced. And since I just chopped all mine off and bought a cheap chino straightener that couldn't even melt a popsicle, I have a lot of hair envy right now. My poor chopped ponytail...

One great thing about Madrid is the large amount of time I get to spend with Julia and Chad (program directors)'s children who will likely spend their teenage years crushing the hearts of men everywhere in not one, but two languages. Here is Victoria, the youngest:

Madre mía. Anyhow, things will start getting better and beachier when we get into the Valencian routine! More to come!

Airports

Ahhhh airports. For some reason planes always make my stomach hurt and I just can't fathom how big BBQ restaurants or Mexican food places stay open in the terminals. Nothing like a rack of ribs before a four-hour flight to get your stomach niiiiice and settled. I do love people watching though, and that part of airports is fun. People are always speaking different languages and getting ready to fly off to thousands of different cities (well okay right now I'm in the Omaha airport so they're probably flying off to like.. One of five major American cities... But that's beside the point).

So far there's no real or exciting news regarding my trip to Spain... I'm just praying things go a little better than two years ago when I spent my birthday weeping in the leather chairs of hell AKA the D.C. Airport as we all waited out the snowstorm that would hold me captive for 36 horrible hours. Not to be dramatic. 

Welp we should be boarding in 30 minutes and I am getting pumped to start this trip!

Spain ROUND DOS!

This semester I was incredibly blessed to receive the opportunity to be a TA (or Teaching Assistant) for the upcoming "Summer on the Mediterranean" program in Valencia, Spain!!  Iowa State actually hired me (maybe they felt they owed me something for all the out of state tuition) and agreed to send me over for 6 weeks to help out the 90+ students on the program, many of whom speak little to no Spanish.  I am super excited, and I feel like I should make a more valiant effort this time abroad to actually update some sort of blog.  I'm pretty bad at being a loyal journaler, but between laying on the beach and... laying on the beach, I figure I can make some time to write about .... how it feels to lay on the Valencian beach.

I will post pictures and ridiculous stories as they occur!

Here's one to get us started...

Me in Spain: