M(ar) on the GO: Week 14 in Valencia

11.30.22 and 12.01.22 Studying!
I didn’t do much this Wednesday and Thursday other than studying for my biochemistry final, but I was able to get out of the host house and study at Starbucks after my Spanish oral exam. On Thursday, after K and I’s class, we headed to our favorite burrito place for dinner as a sort of “good luck on your final tomorrow” dinner. They were amazing as always!

12.02.22 Biochemistry Final!

I finally took my biochemistry final exam! After an ungodly amount of studying and memorizing cycles, which weren’t even on the exam, I took my final and am officially done with my biochemistry class. Once the final ended, K and I celebrated by going shopping for mittens and her coat for our upcoming vacation. We also realized we only have two more weeks left as roommates 😦

12.03.22 and 12.04.22 Relaxing weekend!

K and I did absolutely nothing but watch holiday movies on Saturday during the day. We did leave the host house to go shopping for her suitcase and Christmas gifts for our friends back home later in the evening, but it was a lazy day. 

On Sunday, we went to the orange fields of our host family’s friends. K and I got to spend the morning with our host dad picking and eating oranges. They were amazing and we ate at least six oranges while picking three bags worth of them. Once we finished up in the fields, our host dad took us to Port Saplaya for lunch at a Chinese restaurant. After lunch, we walked around the town, nicknamed “little Venice,” for half an hour before returning home for a siesta. We rounded out our day by watching movies since we had a busy two weeks ahead of us!

12.05.22 Classes!

My first class was canceled today so I ended up watching holiday movies on Netflix until my evening class with K. It was a nice day to be cozy under the blankets, waiting for my class. Once class ended, K and I headed to our favorite grocery store, Mercadona, to pick up salads and hummus for dinner. We watched Pretty Little Liars while we ate and then packed for our trip starting tomorrow. Then we called it a night a little early since we had to wake up and travel all day on Friday.

 

12.06.22 Valencia to Munich!

This morning K and I met up with E at the train station for our 9:30am train out of Valencia to Madrid. We arrived in Madrid a little before 11:30am and grabbed some Starbucks before heading to an Asian place for lunch. The noodles and spring rolls were delicious. We sat and caught up for a couple hours before heading to the Madrid airport. Security and check in were smooth sailing and we just had quite a few hours to sit and waste. We got more Starbucks while we waited for our 7:40 flight to Munich. Our flight landed a bit after 10:00pm, so we were looking at Ubers (85 euros) or using the public transit system (13 euros each). Obviously, we chose to take the train system from the airport to the stop near our hotel (Centro Hotel Mondial). We checked-in around 11:30 pm and went straight to bed since we were all super tired and also had a full day of exploring ahead of us!

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Read more from Margo at https://margospcom.wordpress.com/

M(ar) on the GO: Week 13 in Valencia

11.23.22 to 11.24.22 Classes!

Wednesday was a super normal class day! On Thursday, I had a Spanish oral exam and my program celebrated Thanksgiving at a local restaurant. For my oral exam, we were to choose a topic we could talk about for a minimum of seven minutes in Spanish. I chose to present about Arkansas Gameday and I was able to talk for 15 minutes and answer multiple questions, all in Spanish! Thanksgiving dinner was super fun, it was nice to all get together as a group. I ended up leaving a little early to celebrate with my host family and K back home as well!

11.25.22 to 11.27.22 Studying!

This weekend was extremely boring. I stayed in Valencia and spent the entire weekend studying for my biochemistry exam and then also working on a human physiology assignment. On Saturday night, K and I joined her dad and his friends for tapas and drinks in the city center! Overall, it was an extremely productive weekend!

11.28.22 to 11.29.22 Classes!

On Monday, my roommate and I realized we have less than 3 weeks left here in Valencia. While I am sad my time here is coming to an end, I am so excited to go home and see all my people! Classes were normal on Monday and Tuesday. I continued studying for biochemistry and began prepping for the second part of my Spanish oral exam this Thursday! It was a pretty normal and laidback week with not a lot going on!

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Read more from Margo at https://margospcom.wordpress.com/

M(ar) on the GO: Week 12 in Valencia

11.16.22 shopping and ramen!

K and I had been planning to go shopping for weeks now because we were wanting to buy clothing you could layer or keep warm in. This included looser pants to fit leggings under and turtlenecks. Since we are going to Munich and Prague in December we figured keeping warm there would be difficult given we packed for a Valencia winter (50 degrees F lowest during the day). After shopping, we did our roomie dinner date that we started doing once a week so that we could try different types of restaurants. This week was Buga Ramen. We ordered gyoza, edamame, and ramen. It was delicious but I’m not sure we will go back since we want to try a different restaurant each week. 

11.17.22 school!

Thursdays are my longest day of classes with Spanish at 10:30am, followed by Biochemistry, and then Spanish culture ending at 7pm. I’m always exhausted after a day of classes and walking but I am also excited after Thursdays because that usually means we have a trip coming up and we did. K and I got ice cream after our last class before heading home to pack our bags for Barcelona! 

11.18.22 to 11.20.22 Barcelona! 

Day 1! K and I took a train out of Joaquin Sorolla at 6:55am and arrived in Barcelona a little before 10:00am. Our Airbnb was right next to Sagrada Familia, less than 5 minutes, so perfect location, but an hour walk from Barcelona Sants train station. I found a cute little brunch place halfway between the two and we stopped there for two hours while waiting to check into the airbnb and drop our bags off. We walked by the Sagrada Familia on the way to our airbnb and took a couple pictures of it with the cloudy sky. 

We headed in the direction of her dad’s hotel but we had 3 or 4 hours to kill so we explored the shops and the different streets. After walking and window shopping for a bit we stopped at one of those restaurants with bread and toppings where you pay by the slice of bread. It’s a style very common in the north of Spain and this restaurant had “Bilbao ” in the name. It was delicious and the perfect use of time while we waited for her dad to get all checked in!

For dinner, we met up with her dad and his friend at a Vietnamese restaurant and ate amazing Pho. Since we had been up since 6:00am, we headed for an early night. We did pass the Sagrada Familia again in the dark!

Day 2!! One of the most constant struggles K and I have had literally in Spain, is how to unlock the doors. It took us 40 minutes this morning to unlock and open the front door of the airbnb so that we could go meet her dad at the Sagrada Familia. We had planned to eat a full breakfast before going but we didn’t have time to so we stopped at 365 cafe and ordered lattes and croissants. We were still on time to meet up with her dad, thank goodness. 

We had a 9:00am entry ticket to the Sagrada Familia and 9:45am entry to the Nativity Tower. The outside of the basilica was amazing, the height of the towers, the intricate designs of the stonework, you couldn’t capture it all in one photo. But, my favorite part was the interior ceiling of the church. It had the tops of the tree pillars, stained glass, and beautiful arches. The walls of the building were covered in stained glass, but the inside had only 3 or 4 statues which was a lot less compared to the exterior surfaces. We accidentally missed the huge overlook of the Nativity Tower. Nonetheless, we were able to look out the tiny windows on the staircase and see the whole city and the statues way up there! The ticket price was extremely worth it and I think this is a must see location in Spain. 

After touring the Sagrada Familia, we all headed to a brunch place nearby. I ordered the breakfast taco without cheese and it was amazing. The side of guac and hot sauce reminded me of my breakfasts back home this summer. Next up, we headed to a busy street to see two more buildings designed by Gaudí. These two were Casa Milà y Casa Battló . Gaudí definitely was brilliant but personally, I would not want to live inside either of those buildings because of his interior design ideas. 

We spent hours just walking around the city. K and I ate gyoza and chocolate covered strawberries at the Boquería and drank coffee in a square. I truly believe the best thing to do in any city is to just wander around, walk in random places, and try new things. I also bought jeans at Zara that are super cute and comfortable. K and her dad shopped around for a coat for a bit before returning to his hotel so we could all rest a little before dinner. We met up at a smaller tapas place with some of his friends. It was amazing and I couldn’t even tell you all the different things we tried there. K and I were exhausted from a long day of walking and exploring so we returned back to our Airbnb to study for 30 minutes before calling it a night.

Day 3!! K and I had a 1:00pm train out of Barcelona Sants so we were able to explore a little more of the city this morning. We headed to Cafe 365 near our airbnb before starting a 35 minute walk to Park Guell. We definitely entered on the wrong side and exited too early, but it was okay because we were still able to see the huge Dragon staircase entrance, just from the outside. While on the inside, though, we were able to see the gardens, the viaducts, the laundry room, and the nature square. After wandering in the park for an hour we started the hour-long hike to the train station. We stopped near the end of our walk for coffee and sandwiches before heading to the correct dock for our train to Valencia Nord. Overall, an amazing trip and definitely made some of my top memories here.

11.21.22 and 11.22.22 studying and classes!

Monday and Tuesday were normal days with classes and lots of studying for my upcoming presentation and test. Overall week 12 was amazing, but I can not wait to go home! 

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Read more from Margo at https://margospcom.wordpress.com/