Grandma mom and dad in Valencia

A shorter blog about my family visiting me in Valencia…

It was my midterms week so they kinda had to entertain themselves and I think that they did. The language barrier of course brought them a couple of adventures in restaurants and such but at least they got a great experience ;) Mondays and Wednesdays I have 3 classes so on those days they were really on their own until night.

On Tuesday we visited the beach yes the beach in October… for me it was kinda chilly but really it wasn’t bad at all and the water wasn’t quite as warm as I had remembered but it also wasn’t freezing cold like when I jumped into the Gilman’s pool to help get the stairs out last year in October or when we went swimming after cleaning up the beach front at the Emerging Leaders retreat in a lake last year in October. So I guess I can’t complain.

Grandma also really wanted to pick a wonderful Valencia orange and try it but she never got a chance. I have since tried now that they are in season and they are delicious and huge... bigger than my fist!

We also went to a Flamenco show that night which was my first Flamenco and it was really interesting but not quite what any of us were expecting. I think it is safe to safe we were expecting a girl in a pretty dress to be the dancer but that wasn’t what we got. We actually had a super sweaty man as the dancer. He was super good though, I couldn’t believe how quickly he was moving his feet! The music was really great too. The singer was amazing (I have been another show since and can compare) and the guitar… I just wanted to listen to it forever! So wonderful!!! Also completely indescribable, so I am not even going to try I have a video (I think) so just ask when I get back.

Wednesday night my host parents had invited them over to our apartment for a meal and just so they could meet. It was a super fun night and a delicious dinner. My host mom knows what I like so well that instead of a seafood dish she made a dish with cerdo (pig) just so I would eat it. It was delicious I still have to get the recipe (time is running out!) Most of the night I was translating back and forth between English and Spanish so that my family and padres could talk to each other. The fun thing about translating is you don’t actually have to be 100% sure about ever word because really the people you are translating don’t know what was said so you can just fill in the blanks of what you don’t know! My host padre recently told me that he can understand written English pretty well and I am sure some spoken too but he seemed satisfied with my translations. :)

Thursday was our last day in Valencia. Class in the morning for me and then we were on a flight to Rome! The next adventure!!!