We aren't in Kansas anymore...
If you're reading this, know that I have made it to Valencia! It was a long journey and even though it's only been two days I've learned so much. So get ready ladies and gentleman because this is gonna be a long one.
Traveling
Four airports and three flights later, I made it to Valencia. Both of my bags were under 50lbs (woohoo more European shopping for me) even though my mom was convinced they would be more. Learn to pack light and less! I flew Jetblue, an airline I had never flown before and ended up getting a great deal on bag prices. I thought I had calculated the cost of the bags correctly the day before but I had not. I was so stressed with making sure I had everything and packing that I really just skimmed the websites and articles telling me the cost for bags. Even though I got lucky and it ended up being cheaper than I thought, always do your research!
In Boston, I had a two hour layover which ended up being super nice. At my terminal I found a girl in the same program as me who had the same remaining flights. BOS to LIS was a little harder to get through compared to the first flight. A mandatory passport check was required before flying to Lisbon and that was the first time I got nervous. I showed my passport, ID, and Visa while she asked my purpose for going to Europe. The guy next to me had to present his acceptance letter from his university abroad and another girl had to show some kind of bank documents. Paper doesn't weigh much and you can never bring too much proof so pack all the travel documents you think you might need.
LIS to VLC was a mess... to say the least. Think a two hour layover in Lisbon, Portugal is enough time to get to your next flight? Think again. When we got off the plane, we took a bus to the airport building. The departure board didn't tell us (Carly and I, we met in BOS and is on my same program) what gate our flight was, only the area, and we didn't know where that was. They were poorly directing those with US passports to a different line (there were six lines and airport was packed). We asked multiple people if we were in the right spot and they would nod or just say "yes." I guess Portuguese people just don't want to say "I don't know what you're saying." After standing in the wrong line for minutes a friend directed us to the correct line that was slower moving but shorter. As we were waiting a lady would come by yelling destinations that had planes leaving soon like "Vienna, Barcelona, Milan," and if you had that flight she would put you in the express line. It took a good hour and a half to finally get to the people who stamp your passport and by that time my shoulders were aching. The man who stamped my passport actually made my day. He was younger, early twenties I'm guessing and spoke English well. He asked me If I spoke Spanish to which I replied "yes." He then proceeded to ask why I was going, where I was studying, what I was studying, etc. Our conversation WAS ALL IN SPANISH! I was honestly so excited and my Spanish just poured out of me which got me really excited for Spain. The giddiness didn't last long though. I waited for Carly to get through customs and as we were talking about how we, "finally got through" and "I' sure we'll be fine now," we rounded the corner to see and even longer line for security that would put DIA to shame. We for sure were not gonna make our flight. I was pretty tired at this point and really just wanted to get to Valencia and said, "Where's the lady that calls the flights for the express line?" not expecting to see her at all when all of a sudden, she rounded the corner and called "Valencia." I don't even want to think about missing a flight in Europe, let alone a country that speaks neither English or Spanish. We were ushered through to express security and skipped the whole line. We rushed to our gate, were some of the last on the plane, but hey we made it. The plane was pretty empty on the way and they gave out some amazing chocolate that legit tasted like brownie batter.
Valencia!
I was worried the entire time my luggage would get lost but no worries because it didn't. A line of taxi's were outside and we learned you have to go to the front of the line, you can't just pick a taxi I guess. Our driver was extremely nice and we spoke in Spanish most of the way. One thing to take from that is never be shy to try your Spanish (or any language you aren't good at) with locals. In Spain they like when you try and are more than happy to help you out. They also give the best information. I was able to ask him the best way to get to the university, how most people travel around, how far the beach is, and a bunch of other stuff.
Once we got there we found the outside of the apartment is adorable. The front gate can't be accessed by car so he dropped us at the street and we only had to walk half a block. There is a sketchy one person elevator that I will be using only to transport my luggage and marble stairs leading up each floor. Upon first impression, we thought the apartment was adorable. There's eight of us total in a co-ed shared apartment. The doors to most all the rooms are arched and have some sort of glass work on them, the bathroom looks nice and modern, and we have a large kitchen area. My room has two wardrobes, a desk, dresser, and even a balcony that I am obsessed with (currently typing on it right now) that overlooks the pedestrian sidewalk. For my bed they pushed two twin beds together to make a full? Yeah I don't think that's how it works, so basically I just sleep on a twin, have an extra bed, and two comforters but it's surprisingly comfy. Although it looks awesome, we have come to find it is not too awesome.
List of things that are wrong... so far:
My feels
Valencia is the perfect balance between history and city life. There is always something going on and you never run out of things to do. It's modern and full of life but also historical and different, the small one-way streets make everything feel closer like the city is holding on to you. I can feel the lives around me are lived at a much slower pace. People walk slower than I do, cashiers are not in a rush to get you out of the store, and I tend to eat faster than others. I am trying to learn to have patience like those around me but when's the last time anyone has ever heard of me going slow? Never. It's colder here than I thought. No snow or anything but the mornings and evenings are right at or above freezing so jackets are essential here.
School
I think school here is the same yet different? They don't schedule Friday classes, classes are much longer, textbooks are much cheaper, and we have so many days off I am running out of ideas on how to fill them. Campus is very large and as of right now, confusing but not different than a large university in the US. I haven't received any homework as of yet but they did talk about how we will have some. Teachers here also don't seem to have office hours to visit so that will be interesting.
I tried to sum up the last three days as best I could but I didn't realize so much had happened already. So far... I am loving it!
Traveling
Four airports and three flights later, I made it to Valencia. Both of my bags were under 50lbs (woohoo more European shopping for me) even though my mom was convinced they would be more. Learn to pack light and less! I flew Jetblue, an airline I had never flown before and ended up getting a great deal on bag prices. I thought I had calculated the cost of the bags correctly the day before but I had not. I was so stressed with making sure I had everything and packing that I really just skimmed the websites and articles telling me the cost for bags. Even though I got lucky and it ended up being cheaper than I thought, always do your research!
In Boston, I had a two hour layover which ended up being super nice. At my terminal I found a girl in the same program as me who had the same remaining flights. BOS to LIS was a little harder to get through compared to the first flight. A mandatory passport check was required before flying to Lisbon and that was the first time I got nervous. I showed my passport, ID, and Visa while she asked my purpose for going to Europe. The guy next to me had to present his acceptance letter from his university abroad and another girl had to show some kind of bank documents. Paper doesn't weigh much and you can never bring too much proof so pack all the travel documents you think you might need.
LIS to VLC was a mess... to say the least. Think a two hour layover in Lisbon, Portugal is enough time to get to your next flight? Think again. When we got off the plane, we took a bus to the airport building. The departure board didn't tell us (Carly and I, we met in BOS and is on my same program) what gate our flight was, only the area, and we didn't know where that was. They were poorly directing those with US passports to a different line (there were six lines and airport was packed). We asked multiple people if we were in the right spot and they would nod or just say "yes." I guess Portuguese people just don't want to say "I don't know what you're saying." After standing in the wrong line for minutes a friend directed us to the correct line that was slower moving but shorter. As we were waiting a lady would come by yelling destinations that had planes leaving soon like "Vienna, Barcelona, Milan," and if you had that flight she would put you in the express line. It took a good hour and a half to finally get to the people who stamp your passport and by that time my shoulders were aching. The man who stamped my passport actually made my day. He was younger, early twenties I'm guessing and spoke English well. He asked me If I spoke Spanish to which I replied "yes." He then proceeded to ask why I was going, where I was studying, what I was studying, etc. Our conversation WAS ALL IN SPANISH! I was honestly so excited and my Spanish just poured out of me which got me really excited for Spain. The giddiness didn't last long though. I waited for Carly to get through customs and as we were talking about how we, "finally got through" and "I' sure we'll be fine now," we rounded the corner to see and even longer line for security that would put DIA to shame. We for sure were not gonna make our flight. I was pretty tired at this point and really just wanted to get to Valencia and said, "Where's the lady that calls the flights for the express line?" not expecting to see her at all when all of a sudden, she rounded the corner and called "Valencia." I don't even want to think about missing a flight in Europe, let alone a country that speaks neither English or Spanish. We were ushered through to express security and skipped the whole line. We rushed to our gate, were some of the last on the plane, but hey we made it. The plane was pretty empty on the way and they gave out some amazing chocolate that legit tasted like brownie batter.
Valencia!
I was worried the entire time my luggage would get lost but no worries because it didn't. A line of taxi's were outside and we learned you have to go to the front of the line, you can't just pick a taxi I guess. Our driver was extremely nice and we spoke in Spanish most of the way. One thing to take from that is never be shy to try your Spanish (or any language you aren't good at) with locals. In Spain they like when you try and are more than happy to help you out. They also give the best information. I was able to ask him the best way to get to the university, how most people travel around, how far the beach is, and a bunch of other stuff.
Once we got there we found the outside of the apartment is adorable. The front gate can't be accessed by car so he dropped us at the street and we only had to walk half a block. There is a sketchy one person elevator that I will be using only to transport my luggage and marble stairs leading up each floor. Upon first impression, we thought the apartment was adorable. There's eight of us total in a co-ed shared apartment. The doors to most all the rooms are arched and have some sort of glass work on them, the bathroom looks nice and modern, and we have a large kitchen area. My room has two wardrobes, a desk, dresser, and even a balcony that I am obsessed with (currently typing on it right now) that overlooks the pedestrian sidewalk. For my bed they pushed two twin beds together to make a full? Yeah I don't think that's how it works, so basically I just sleep on a twin, have an extra bed, and two comforters but it's surprisingly comfy. Although it looks awesome, we have come to find it is not too awesome.
List of things that are wrong... so far:
- Sometimes the front gate doesn't lock
- Our heater doesn't work (it's freaking cold here okay)
- Our showers are freezing
- We have no hot water anywhere
- The stove only works with copper bottom pans... we were not provided these pans
- Some of the lights don't work
- Not all the windows shut
- Almost all the dishes have pre-existing stuff on it (we moved in one day ago and just cooked)
- Our couches have gross stains
- Our walls have small holes and stains sometimes
My feels
Valencia is the perfect balance between history and city life. There is always something going on and you never run out of things to do. It's modern and full of life but also historical and different, the small one-way streets make everything feel closer like the city is holding on to you. I can feel the lives around me are lived at a much slower pace. People walk slower than I do, cashiers are not in a rush to get you out of the store, and I tend to eat faster than others. I am trying to learn to have patience like those around me but when's the last time anyone has ever heard of me going slow? Never. It's colder here than I thought. No snow or anything but the mornings and evenings are right at or above freezing so jackets are essential here.
School
I think school here is the same yet different? They don't schedule Friday classes, classes are much longer, textbooks are much cheaper, and we have so many days off I am running out of ideas on how to fill them. Campus is very large and as of right now, confusing but not different than a large university in the US. I haven't received any homework as of yet but they did talk about how we will have some. Teachers here also don't seem to have office hours to visit so that will be interesting.
I tried to sum up the last three days as best I could but I didn't realize so much had happened already. So far... I am loving it!
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