Today is our last day at school.. we´re pretty excited and also kind of sad. Yesterday during school we watched the movie ¨Volver¨ and then took our picnic to a park outside of the public library. After that we did a little souvenir shopping and then visited a musem about the fallas. Which are a series of fiestas here in Valencia every March. It´s been a good week and we´re excited about Madrid this weekend!
Lauren and Elizabeth

Back from Barcelona

We got back from Barcelona late last night, and are back at school this morning. The weekend trip was awesome-- we saw so many beautiful buildings and stayed in a nice, ultra-modern hotel. The cathedral Sagrada de Familia was absoloutely one of the most beautiful buildings that I´ve ever seen. Designed by the architect Gaudi, it is still under construction. The stain glass windows and spiral staircases were unlike anything we´d ever seen, and the museum alongside the cathedral was also incredible. We encountered many other tourists while shopping in the streets, and were surprised by the huge number of people in the city who spoke languages other than Spanish. Although Barcelona was great, it´s nice to be back home in Valencia with our host families.

Hello from Barcelona!

Barcelona is a lot different from the little sea-town of Valencia. It resembles New York City in a way-lots of hustle and bustle! Today we visited two projects of the great arquitect of Gaudi. His work is amazing! One being La Pedrera, a very intense looking apartment house looking thing! haha! It was amazing to look at! The other piece of arquitecture we visited today was La Segrada Familia, which was even more astounding! It was so beautiful! Although we didn´t get to ride the elevator up to the top to see a great view of the city of Barcelona the building itself was still amazing! Not only is the city of Barcelona fun, but also the awesome hotel we are staying in! This is my first European Hotel and it is really nice (definitly alot bigger than my closet of a bedroom at my house in Valencia, which I have grown to love). We also ate in a buffet-style restaurant tonight! It had food I actually liked-bread and pizza! haha! Just kidding, the food of Spain is growing on me alittle...meaning the cookies and the sweets not the seafood! Anyways it is getting late and I should probably let someone else have a chance at the computer! I hope everything is going well in Chattanooga!
Love,
Anne

Hello from Spain.. today is Elizabeths birthday so after school were going to a playground from "Gulliver´s travels" where there is a huge man with slides coming off of all sides of him. Yesterday we visited the art musuem and then went out for dinner at a tapas restaurant which was really good. The weather has gotten a lot better! Tomorrow morning we leave for a 4 hour bus ride to Barcelona for the weekend. Today should be fun, plus we have a "surprise activity" for elizabeth on the river!

lauren

hello! i am having such a fun time in spain its so pretty here and even though its really hot weather its still great. Today is Elizabeths birthday yayy. to celebrate, last night we went to get tapas a really good restaurant. we ate squid, moncheago cheese, shrimp, bread, croquettas, and asparagus. it was so good me gusta mucho. i think everyone is getting along really well and everyone is pretty much getting used to the Spanish ways. Today we are going to a big famous playground im pretty excited and we are going to barcelona saturday morning yayy. i dont know who is more excited me and caroline, or mama. she really likes us missing meals with her beucase she doesnt have to cook for us haha but she siad she loves our company. im having so much fun but i miss america a lot love meg

another update

Well yesterday´s flamenco classes were interesting to say the least. It is a lot harder than it looks, and we discovered that our coordination isn´t quite up to par. The good news is that we were all able to have a lot of laughs through our lack of flamenco skill, and I believe Sr. Alba enjoyed watching and documenting our experience as well, so I am sure you will all get to witness some of this later. Spain is still beautiful, and all is going well with everyone. Today after class, we are taking a visit to see the bullfighting arena, so we are all incredibly excited about that. We are about half way through our trip now, and we arent ready to come home quite yet. Several of us have a couple of new American girls staying with us for 3 days, but they dont speak Spanish at all so we play translator, which is kind of fun. I´m sure someone will update later. Sending my love, Elle.

A Post from Claire and Caroline <3

Hey! This is a post from Claire and Caroline, since Caroline forgot her password and can´t write for herself. We are about to start school for the day and are looking forward to Flamenco lessons later on. Yesterday we saw a lot of beautiful gardens and had time to play on the playground (Senor Alba posted pictures). Claire had potato and tuna for dinner last night, and Caroline had croquettas de pollo (they are SO GOOD). Two more American girls are coming to stay at Claire and Elle´s house for the next 3 days. The Swedish people in Caroline and Meg´s house are really nice and speak really good English but relatively poor Spanish; Mama is not pleased with them, but she loves Meg and Caroline. We are really looking forward to the Barcelona trip this weekend!

Playtime

We visited Viveros and the Jardines de Monforte yesterday. Both gardens are big and inviting, and we saw some birds and a couple of sweese, the new official plural form of swan according to Katie and Elle. We also went down to the old river and walked for a while, and there were plenty of opportunities to take silly pictures:
Keli & Elle climbing
Claire on top of the world
Caroline, Elle, Anne, and Lauren playing
Anne and Elle driving
Group under a tree I
Group under a tree II
Caroline, Anne, and Katie playing
Katie, Elle, Claire, and Caroline's back.

Boat Ride

We went to the Albufera on Saturday morning. The Albufera is a big fresh water lake right next to the sea, and it's surrounded by rice fields. We got to ride a boat and see some wildlife. Check out these pictures:
Caroline & Elizabeth
Keli & Payton
Claire, Jill & Meg
Ms. Harold, Lauren & Jessica

Buenas....

Hola a todos! (Hi everyone!)

It seems that I´m about the only one who hasn´t posted on the blog so here goes...

First, "buenas" is what most Spaniards will greet you with in the afternoon, short for "buenas tardes" (good afternoon). Hence the title of my blog. :)
The trip is off to a great start. It´s hard to believe that it´s already Thursday! The girls all seem to be having a wonderful time. I usually ask them how everything is going both in their classes and at home each day, and they usually can´t wait to share some funny or interesting experience with me. I´ve been so proud to hear all of them speaking in Spanish to different people throughout the day. Honestly, I wasn´t that brave at their age...my confidence came a few years later! Needless to say, I think that they are learning a lot and enjoying the differences that they are encountering between this culture and their own...at least most of the time. :)
On a personal note, it has been wonderful to be back in my "second home". After a three year hiatus, the smells, tastes, people, and sites of Valencia are rejuvenating. I am staying in a Catholic residence near the big soccer stadium. It has been a real treat, as dinner is always shared with a room full of college-age girls and very sweet teachers. I´m afraid I caught everyone´s attention there on the first night, after returning "after hours" (due to the welcome dinner with the school that was served later than originall planned.) The doors were locked, and everyone had gone to bed! However, after an hour of getting help from three college girls on the street, I was able to get in contact with a nun in the school, and she let me in! I was the talk of the school the following night at dinner!! :)
Well, I think that´s about it for now. I will try to posts some pictures in the future...we´ll be going to the beach tomorrow (the girls are thrilled) so I´m sure you will have a few shots of your bathing beauties soon enough!

Hasta la prómia, (Until the next time)
Ms. Harold

Pictures

Hey, Spain is completely awsome and here are some pictures so far! The first picture is of the salad that we were served for our welcoming dinner at a restaurante in downtown valencia. It was topped with tuna and other toppings. We also had rabbit paella. The second picture is of the view from the top of a tower that we climbed. We could see the whole city. The last picture is the whole group attop one of the other towers that we climbed!

Just a picture

Several girls have been writing lately, which is great! As they said, we don't have a lot of time in front of the computer, and they're still working on getting their pictures from their cameras to the computers. Therefore, I thought I'd post the only good one picture I took yesterday, since I know everyone wants to see their daughters and how they're doing. We came across this thingy (I'm sure it has a name in English that I either don't know or can't remember), and of course Lauren and Caroline wanted to climb it up.

Other than that, we went to the Torres de Serrano, the Lonja de la Seda, and the Plaza Redonda. Hopefully, the girls will be able to upload some of those pix soon, I know they took roughly a gazillion each, so they should have plenty to choose from!

¿Que Fem?

Hola! Spain is going great.. today during school we watched a movie about a funny little fat kid ..it showed a lot about the Spanish culture. Then we learned the rhythms and some facts about Flamenco dancing. After school 4 of us went on the metro with Señor Alba to his house for lunch. His mother made us paella with seafood in it, this time along with lots of other small dishes. We had our first lesson in peeling shrimp here. First you pop of the tail then the HEAD, eyes included. Everything was really delicious! Now we are headed back to the school to meet up with everyone so we can climb another tower, tour Lonja de la Seda (Silk Palace), and then go to a few shops. We can´t wait for all the other experiences!

Hasta Luego,

Elizabeth, Lauren, "Jess", and Caroline H.

first days in spain

okay so Spain is very interesting to me. Its a lot like Italy with the arcitecture and stuff. The people talk really fast and we look like tourists but i think we are getting around just fine. There is a lot of walking that has to be done, but its nothing I can´t handle thanks to Gran and Dot´s girls camp hahah.
In our house we found out that we will be staying with a couple from Sweden too. They speak English, but they don´t know Spanish very well but they are very nice. We just switched rooms with them last night becuase our room was bigger than theirs and they are staying for three months while we are staying for only three weeks but I am happy for the switch since they had a better view.
The family that Caroline and I are staying with is actually just a mother, we asked her what we should call her and she said call me mama dolores! She is so funny. Caroline and I are going to try to take pictures with her later so you guys can see. She is quite a good cook, the other day we had paella, but it wasn´t what you´d think its chicken, vegetables, and rice and its actually really good, its an authentic Valencian dish.
Our classes are really interesting and we are going to learn some traditional dances. I´m having a lot of fun and we finally got a beautiful day! I´ll try to update the blog as much as possible!
Adios!
Meg

finally a clear sky

the rain has finally stopped and valencia is gorgeous. the warmer weather has arrived and we put down the jackets and replaced them with shorts and t-shirts. we´ve done some great sight seeing, and being in Spain is getting so much better every single day. We are all becoming accustomed to staying here, the families are great, and everything is going well. We are going to the beach later this week, and everyone is really pumped about that. Don´t worry parents, we are taking a lot of pictures while we are here. It is kind of hard to write on the blog because there are 14 of us using 3 computers for 30 minutes, but we will all write more often when we can. I think they are bringing some other computers later in the week. We walk as many places as possible, but we ride the bus a lot too. Claire and I live too far away to walk to school in the mornings, so we walk part of the way and then catch the bus for the rest, as do many of the girls on the trip. Our family makes us more `Americanized´ foods in our house, but everything we have had here has been great, except I wasn´t a huge fan of the paella. More to come later!

Elle

Spain without rain!

Now that the rain has let up, Valencia´s beauty has really begun to show! Walking through the city, we see everything from pastry shops to designer clothing stores to chineese resturants. To reach school each day, we get to walk through the city and take a bus. We pass beautiful parks, scenery, and buildings hundreds of years old. Yesterday we hiked up a huge spiral tower attached to the Valencia Cathedral. From the top, we could see the entire city. The contrast between modern and ancient buildings was striking and beautiful, and the weather was great! The host families are verry sweet, and classes are hard but fun. I´m sure we´ll learn even more Spanish here than we were expecting to, and also come home with some very interesting cultural experiences!

=Claire=

Hello!

Hola! Valencia is gettting better each day! The first few days were tough getting used to the families and the food! My and Keli´s family is nice and they make us good good! We had a tortilla de patatas last night and they even gave us ice cream for desert! Yum! We went shopping some yesterday and saw the train station! I hope we get to ride a train! Well we are in school right now learning alot about the language and culture of Spain! I hope everything is going well in Chattanogoa!

Love,
Anne

El Miguelete

Today we climbed to the top of the Miguelete, the tower next to the Cathedral. The picture accompanying this text was taken on top of the tower, and you can see part of Valencia in the background. I didn't take many pictures (as opposed to the girls, who took dozens), but I hope you like them:

Claire, Caroline, Emma & Katie

Elizabeth, Lauren & Caroline

Group 01

Group 02

Group 03

Group 04

HOLA!

Hi everyone! I don´t get much time on the computer each day, but I wanted to let everyone know I´m having fun and it´s a pretty differnt and interesting, more than I ever imagined. I share a tiny room and bathroom, but my host mom is really sweet. I´m at our school which is on a street straight out of a magazine. All the balconies and flowers are so pretty. The food takes some getting used to, and I´ve had more rabbit in two days than I´ve had in my whole life! I hope everyone´s having a good summer, and I´ll try to send pictures in an email rather than on here, but it´s hard cause our apartment doesn´t have a computer. So I´ll hopefully talk to everyone soon!

Adios!
Jill

First Day

The girls had their first class yesterday morning. We battled the rain to get to school, but even though it stayed cloudy for the rest of the day, it barely rained at all after 1:00PM or so, so we had that much to be thankful for. The girls got to ride the bus a couple of times, and walk around town. We went to the City Hall square and checked out several stores nearby (I've discovered girls seem to have some kind of obsession with purses). The girls took some pictures (Elizabeth and Lauren had her cameras out all the time, unless they were checking out dresses and shoes), and they hope they have some free time at some point to post them here.

We also checked out the Plaza de la Virgen and Plaza de la Reina, to which we'll be returning later today. Claire was the first one to get an ice cream, and half the group followed her example.

Finally, and right before dinner, we went to El Corte Inglés to help Jill find a journal, which added just some more walking to our day (all that exercise!). After a traditional paella dinner, we defied the elements (bus schedules being one of said elements) and returned home, eager to go to bed and get some rest before today's activities.

We're Here!

Greetings from Europe! We made it to Valencia, and the girls will be taking their first lesson in less than two hours. Their first lesson in the classroom, that is, because they have already had to put their Spanish to good use. Yesterday, we stopped for lunch somewhere in between Madrid and Valencia, and the girls had the opportunity (or should I say the obligation?) to read the menu and order in Spanish. It was, for the most part, a successful meal...

Regarding the trip itself, I think most of you know we had a bit of unexpected fun at the ATL airport, where they told us our flight was going to be delayed and we therefore had to wait for a couple of extra hours (I know Emma took lots of pictures). As a result, and once we got to Newark, we had to rush through the terminal to get to our second flight (Keli and Anne get special awards for being really fast!). It was close (way too close), but we made it, so that was good. On the plane they showed Fool's Gold and The Spiderwick Chronicles, but I think most of us fell asleep and didn't really watch anything.

The weather was nice until we got to Valencia. It was raining then, and it's raining now, so hopefully everyone brought umbrellas or raincoats. I will be leaving to meet with the girls as soon as I'm done typing this, and then they'll go to their aforementioned first class. Later, we'll be meeting at the City Hall square after lessons and lunch, and then we'll go to school to get the tour and orientation, which will be followed by a welcome dinner. Hopefully, the weather will have improved by then!

Rain

Hi everyone!

I already emailed you about this, but I thought I'd post it here too, just in case you don't check you email before we leave. I was talking to my sister, and she said it's been raining in Valencia for the last four days, so you might want to keep that in mind when you pack. Get an umbrella or a raincoat or something, just in case the rain decides to stay for a while longer. And if you don't have any room left, just take out those shoes you really don't need. Just an idea.

My Carry-on Bag

We've already discussed what to carry with you on the plane (no sharp objects, no eyeliner, etc.). I like to travel as light as possible, and that also includes the backpack I'll take as my carry-on bag. To give you an idea of what you might like to pack for yourself, this is what I'll put in mine:

1. A couple of books (The Other Boleyn Girl among them).

2. This week's Entertainment Weekly.

3. My Sketchbook.

4. Drawing supplies (non-threatening pencils, pens and markers)

5. Music. Since I'm the only person in the US who still doesn't own an iPod, I guess I'll be carrying my old fashioned CD player and a bunch of CDs.

6. A folder with information about the trip.

I remember Ms. Harold also mentioned snacks (no produce), so feel free to bring that too. Just remember the bag can't be too big, or they will make you check it in!