For the 17th through the 20th I went to Valencia for their yearly fiesta Fallas. I stayed in the dorm in Sagunto so I got to hang out with other Americans and in general have a good time. I was supposed to go by train and arrive fairly early Friday afternoon, but I accidentally took the wrong bus and didn't end up at the train station on time. Instead I ended up on the wrong side of town at the end of the bus line. They kicked everyone (me...) off the bus and drove away leaving me with my bags and a long walk to the next stop. I ended up walking an hour home with my rather bulky bags...
But all was well, Anabel and Ruth (the lady I'm living with and the 4 and 5 year old teacher) made a last minute decision to go to Valencia as well so I got a free ride down.
Saturday I got up and met with the family I had visited earlier this year. The father used to live in Walla Walla and both of them speak English. We had lunch and I played with their little daughters and their dogs. Good times. Saturday night I met up with some friends and we all went out to see the town. We ended up staying out super late and got back to the dorm early the next morning. We got to see lots of statues and shops and people, but I forgot to take my camera. Sunday night I got ride to town to see the fireworks show from a Portuguese cop with three girls I know Brittany, Chelsea, and Tarah. There was a huge firework show that night that we got to see. The whole thing was better than any grand finale I have ever seen in the states and it lasted almost an hour. Monday night we went out again this time with the school bus and got to see a bunch of the statues burned. The crowds are so thick that you can barely move and then there are a series of explosions and suddenly the whole giant statue in front of you is burning. It didn't take long before we were pushing back into the crowd to try and escape the heat. It was really interesting to see the things burn though.
It was interesting spending so much time with English speakers. Although I am in no way fluent in Spanish I have begun to think in it a little bit. I've been speaking and hearing it for so long that my brain process has started to adapt to my vocal process. So I think in a mixture of Spanish and broken English, at least until I catch myself doing it and switch to real English in my head. Talking with people for long amounts of time brought this to my mind even more. I was stuttering over conjugations and having a hard time finding words quite often. It got better as the weekend went on, but it was very interesting to me.
But all was well, Anabel and Ruth (the lady I'm living with and the 4 and 5 year old teacher) made a last minute decision to go to Valencia as well so I got a free ride down.
Saturday I got up and met with the family I had visited earlier this year. The father used to live in Walla Walla and both of them speak English. We had lunch and I played with their little daughters and their dogs. Good times. Saturday night I met up with some friends and we all went out to see the town. We ended up staying out super late and got back to the dorm early the next morning. We got to see lots of statues and shops and people, but I forgot to take my camera. Sunday night I got ride to town to see the fireworks show from a Portuguese cop with three girls I know Brittany, Chelsea, and Tarah. There was a huge firework show that night that we got to see. The whole thing was better than any grand finale I have ever seen in the states and it lasted almost an hour. Monday night we went out again this time with the school bus and got to see a bunch of the statues burned. The crowds are so thick that you can barely move and then there are a series of explosions and suddenly the whole giant statue in front of you is burning. It didn't take long before we were pushing back into the crowd to try and escape the heat. It was really interesting to see the things burn though.
It was interesting spending so much time with English speakers. Although I am in no way fluent in Spanish I have begun to think in it a little bit. I've been speaking and hearing it for so long that my brain process has started to adapt to my vocal process. So I think in a mixture of Spanish and broken English, at least until I catch myself doing it and switch to real English in my head. Talking with people for long amounts of time brought this to my mind even more. I was stuttering over conjugations and having a hard time finding words quite often. It got better as the weekend went on, but it was very interesting to me.
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