My First Days in Valencia #HogsAbroad in Spain

Finally arriving in Valencia to live there was amazing. I can honestly say I fell in love with this city immediately. It is a big city (population of almost 800,000), but a small one at the same time in a weird way. It was perfect, and this was going to be my home for the next nine weeks. The first days here were spent in a hostel, and just wandering around the city since my program had not started yet. When the official start date came around we moved in with our host family. This is another area where I feel I struck gold. My host family consisted of a mother, a daughter who is 12, and a puppy (YAAAASSSSSS). They are the nicest and most considerate people, and I am so happy with my accommodation.

The first days consisted of learning how to get around the city on public transportation which is new concept to me since public transportation isn’t even thought of where I’m from in Northwest Arkansas. In our first meeting we met all the other interns in the program, and we discussed how to get around the city, safety, etc. At this meeting we finally ate our first authentic tapas which is a popular spanish food, and this brings me to the topic of food. 

Coming into this experience, I knew I had to be open minded with a lot of things, especially food, and those who know me, know that I am a really picky eater. When we got served tapas of tuna, I closed my eyes and just took a bite, and to my surprise I didn’t absolutely hate it! I wouldn’t order it again, but it wasn’t horrible. Since then I make sure to try everything, and there hasn’t been anything that I dislike. 

These first couple of days, the fact that I was going to live here sunk in, and it was a huge mix of emotions.

• Excitement: finally living in Spain like I have always wanted 

• Nerves: slightly new language (Spain Spanish is pretty different than Latin American Spanish), new culture, new place, new job, AHHHHH

•  Sadness: I wished my family could be here to experience everything that I am too

• And I-dont-knowness because I still don’t know 

The first Thursday that we were here happened to be a cool festival called Las Hogueras de San Juan. It was a traditional festival that takes place on the beach, and it’s the only day of the year where you can have a bonfire on the beach. Legend says that if you jump over the fire 3 times or jump over 12 waves at midnight, you will have good luck for the rest of the year. Our whole group of interns went without knowing much about it, and it was a nice welcome to Valencia. 

There were hundreds of people at the beach with concerts, food, and of course bonfires. We wished we had prepared to have our own bonfire to experience it completely, but we went empty handed. Instead, we asked a random group of locals if we could join them. They were really nice and like most people here, also spoke English, so it was cool to compare our cultures. It was a great first impression of Valencia, and it definitely left me hungry for more of what Valencia has to offer. 

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Read more from Gabriela at https://gjmolina.wordpress.com/

To find more internship and study abroad opportunities within Walton College, visit http://walton.uark.edu/global/index.php