On Valencia

Hey fam!

Guess where I am? YOU GOT IT

On the bus.

…I hate the bus.

I am going to give it to you straight: there is next to nothing I enjoy about traveling by bus. Mostly because I am a wimpy thing and it takes anywhere to be 35 and 60 minutes for me to get sick. Usually less. SO in my attempt to keep it real with y’all I will not sugar coat my discomfort. So every time I mention I’m typing from a bus you can just sigh and say “ay…pobrecita” like Gloria would if she were here. And could read English haha.

So we went to Valencia yesterday!! The landscape in Spain is insane. I was talking with our tour guide telling her it’s crazy because in the United States every state is a little different obviously, but mostly you think of it in coasts like east coast/west coast, Midwest, south… and they’re all very different geographically. And it’s the same with spain but in a country so so much smaller? That blows my mind. I guess actually mostly I am just surprised when I see palm trees. And I’m pretty sure they’ve been in almost every city haha… love you Mom.

Valencia was kind of a struggle. I know you are already aware of my love for the bus, but I will expound just a little bit more on the struggle that was being on a bus from 8 am to 2 pm. So the buses we rent are way nice coach buses, don’t get me wrong. We travel comfortably. But I don’t know if the roads to Valencia are paved with broken bones of a Spanish War’s past or what because that was the bumpiest ride ever. And I know that sounds like a very small thing to care about, but it is impossible to sleep through and I was sick almost immediately from it and thought this is gonna be it, this is the day I’m going to puke on this bus. Oh freaking no. Good thing I’ve got this cereal bag.  Haha . We had to run out the door at like 7:50 am to meet the bus at 8 so Kat and I grabbed a yogurt and dry cereal and threw it in these plastic bags that were essentially one step down from a target bag. Where is a Ziploc when you need one…

Anywhoooo

Other odd things that are probably normal outside of America: so we have to stop every two hours legally with the bus driver, but the issue is we normally have to buy something or pay to use the bathroom. Not always, but enough.

We got to tour Valencia and it wasn’t really my favorite city. It was still cool to see, but I honestly was struggling to think of what we did because all I can think of is being on the bus. All the dayz. It had some sweet street graffiti though! And the tour guide was really fun to talk to. We walked the city for a while, but the other half of our tour was with her (with a mic) while being on the bus sooo…. . . 

We also got to drive past the science museum downtown! Which sounds like an average time, but it was cool because it was built by the architect Santiago Calatrava which is something I can only remember because of the Art Museum back home.

We finished our tour, got back to the hotel, really wanted to go to the playa but it was too late at night and it was a 30 minute walk to a beach you can’t swim in after sunset, so I got indian food in the middle of Spain. It was great. Went to bed. End of day.

Sorry it looks like I’m such a tiquismiquis today haha. But life is good!

Count your blessings! Look for light! Appreciate not being on a bus!

Pease, love, and fresh air,

Jessie

Oh shoot I totally forgot I wanted to mention this as a tack-on tangent to what I wrote previously about Spain & it’s languages: In Valencia, the people speak a different language called Valenciano. This one makes a lot more sense than Basque; Valenciano is close to French, but closer to Italian. I can tell you that I noticed this  (with my French expertise from 4 months of French 101) because all of the restaurants use this “ d’ “ in the same way Spanish uses “del”.  End of astoundingly insightful comment. It blows my mind, a lot of people here are trilingual. As in fluent in Spanish and Valenciano, and then usually a bit of English. Although not American-english, “ingles britanico” (like UK English). So if we’re not getting a few laughs at our Mexican-sounding Spanish, it’s our super American English. I love America. America rocks. Oh right right!

AND

We found a store right by our university called I think… “American Store?” or “American Shop?” something like that. It sells all these things I didn’t even realize weren’t in Spain. Such as but not limited to:

Dr pepper

Pancake mix

Fondant?

Certain potato chips

A lot of candies

..like mint M&Ms

Pretzel M&Ms

Reese’s Cups

Jif Peanut Butter

Poptarts

Marshmallow Fluff

So you know, the American essentials.