Mmm...Pancakes and French Toast!

Last week Thea made Italian pasta for dinner so it was decided I needed to cook an American meal. It was difficult coming up with an idea...Americans don´t have a staple food as Italians and pasta. Finally I decided on pancakes :). I made a list and my host mom bought what I needed. Today for lunch I made pancakes, french toast, bacon, and scrambled eggs with cheese. We also had watermelon. They loved it all! The table was nearly licked clean when we finished. "¡Buenisimo!" they said. Bueno is good, but buenisimo is really good, lol. I realized when we sat down I had forgotten to get orange juice and they began to pour wine in everyone´s glass. Pancakes and wine...strange combination! They called it summer wine...it was carbonated and a bit sweet, so almost juice-like...it worked, lol.

These past few days have been great! Thursday we signed up for nautical activities through the University and spent 3 hours at the beach learning how to windsurf, kayak andmanual surf. Manal surfing [I´m not sure if this is the right name] is basically balancing on a big surf board and rowing around--it is really difficult! I am still extremely sore! It was great though...a lot of fun. We even saw small jellyfish [a little bigger than softball-sized] swimming below our kayaks!

Friday we had our final exam for our Spanish class and a few of us went on a boat trip through the University to a nearby island called Tabarca. We took a large catamaran there and had a half hour to snorkel before we had dinner on the boat. Unfortunetely half an hour was more than enough to see the three fish that were there in the water. I´ve read in several places that Tabarca is great for snorkeling though we most definitely did not find a good spot. Fish or no fish, it was fun swimming around. The boat ride was super nice and we watch the sunset on our way back.

Today I have began packing and preparing for the train ride tomorrow to Barcelona where we will fly out of on Monday morning. We are to be in Cedar Rapids late Monday evening. So, this is probably my last post from Spain :[. It is has been a quick trip, but quite the experience!

The castle and Alicante as we left the port on the catamaran to Tabarca.

Megan, Jenny and I relaxing on the catamaran!

The sunset on the way back...it was so pretty!

The port when we were on our way back was also beautiful.

My host family after pancakes and french toast! The grandmother, Thea, me, Mariles, Alfonso, and Iban.

A Weekend in Valencia...Yes Please!

We took the train on Saturday morning and arrived in Valencia at 11:30 in the morning. We set off walking down the street among beautiful buildings. Valenica is the city I always imagined when I though Spain...the fountains, the architecture, the little craft markets. We ended up in the central market--much like the one in Barcelona--with all fruit, meat, and what not for sale. It was pretty, but once you´ve seen one... The catedral was close by, so we stopped there next...so beautiful! We spent an hour or so walking around inside listening to an audio tour. In the plaza outside the catedral was a small craft market where we spent considerable time going between venders and buying this and that. Loaded down with our purchases, we decided it was a good time to go find a hostal for the night. We were recommended a couple by the school and found one close by. After that we walked to this art museum that is home to famous paintings like those by Franciso Goya!

In my guide book it says you can go to this nearby lake which is home to over 90 species of birds and surrounded by rice patties and go on a boat to watch the sunset. So we set off for a bus...ended up walking for 40 minutes, rode the bus for another 30 mintues, only to find out we would have to walk another mile and a half to get to the lake! We were already exhausted, so decided to buy a giant cookie and some drinks from the little supermarket near the bus stop and waited for the next bus back to the city. The entire adventure cost us nearly 4 hours, but we seemed to have a lot of fun. We finially made it for dinner at 11 [normal in Spain] and had a traditional Spanish meal of paella. It is a rice stirfry sort of thing. We had seafood paella and Valencian paelly...both of which were amazing! Apparently the night life in Valenica is quite extrordinary, but we were too tired to do anything but return to our hostal and sleep.

We woke up relatively early the next morning and headed straight to the City of Sciences and Art---this amazing complex with some of the greatest modern architecture in the world. Here is a famous science museum, art museam and aquarium. We went to the aquaruim which is the largest in Europe and had a blast. We saw octupi and sharks, walked through tunnels surrounded by water and fish, watched a sweet dolphin show, and had a great meal. We had plans to do a few other things before we left Valencia, but spent the entire day at the aquarium and arrived in Alicante on the train around 7 pm.

Here is the post office in Valenica...just a sample of how beautiful the city is.

While walking around we found the Kansas Cafe! Haha.

This is part of the catedral...amazing, huh?

Part of the City of Sciences and Art at sunset.

More of the complex at sunset...it is huge!

Megan, Jenny and I with one of our shark friends in a tunnel at the aquarium!