Today I had my first day of my translation internship at the University of Valencia. I practically ran there after getting out of my 20th century Spanish history class and was nervous about arriving 5 minutes late, but was greeted with a typical Valencian "no pasa nada" ("don't worry about it/every things fine). I then got settled at a computer set up for me to translate articles for the next 2 hours. I spent the first 5 minutes mindlessly reading paragraphs in español while reminiscing at how much this reminded me of my summer class in political science, in which I had to read law cases for 17 hours a week and record certain facts about each one. Luckily, this dreadful thought quickly slipped my mind as I began to grow interested in the content of my work. The 2 hours passed before I knew it, and the professor signed my time sheet and wished me a great break & safe travels.
Speaking of which: after school this Thursday, my university has a 1 week break, during which I will travel with my friend Jackie to Barcelona with a large group of students. Then from there we will spend 4 days in Sicily (time to visit the homeland!) followed by a nice 3 days in Ibiza, an island off the coast of Valencia. (THANK YOU SO MUCH DAD!!!). Traveling around Europe when you're already here is a great deal cheaper than traveling to a specific country from the US. For example, my flight to sicily is only 20 Euros, an insanely good deal. I want to take advantage of this amazing opportunity and see as much of the world as I can. Many others from my school are traveling to Paris, Rome, Venice, Florence, Portugal, etc., but I thought Sicily and Ibiza would be a great getaway, and the season to visit is just about ending so I'm happy the dates worked out so well.
However, in the mean time I have loads of school work to complete before I can embark on this adventure. Which is what I'm currently taking a much-needed break from to write this post.
I've also been tutoring Nacho (& found out that his real name is Ignacio) in science, reading, and history-- all in English. I'm sorry, I can't help it but every time his mom yells his name it just brings a smile to my face.
"Nachooooooo"
Nacho's family is from Madrid, and his mother invited me to take a weekend trip there with them for some unplanned weekend in the future. I am already looking forward to this and am so happy that they've taken such a quick liking to me. It's a much different experience traveling with spaniards who know the area than as a tourist completely foreign to the inside scoop. The Nacho family (as I will now refer to them) are hard-core Real Madrid (fútbol team) fans, so I might luck out and be able to see a game in the Madrid stadium! We'll see though, they weren't too happy when I mentioned that I was a Barcelona fan (huge rivalry), but I told them watching a game has the potential to change my mind :)
Now I'm just hanging out in the library at my school with 2 other students waiting for our school soccer game at 7!
Hopefully I'll score another goal today, I'll let you all know how it goes
Besos
I was just reading through one of my friend's blogs, and I don't think I could've said this better: "I am so blessed to be able to live here for a semester. While some things are becoming familiar and less exciting, it is the little quirks of Valencia that keep me entranced and thoroughly in love with life in the city."
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