what would you do for 20,000 euro?

So there is this thing in front of Nuevo Centro (the mall) here called La Casa de Cristal, and it is basically a dorm-room sized house made of glass with two people living in it.  For 33 days the entire world can see everything they do, and if they make it 33 days without leaving they get 20,000 euro.  They had never met each other before this contest, and now they are basically the same as animals on display in a zoo.  

I'm not sure what the point of the contest is besides giving away 20,000 euro, but it seems pretty creepy to me that people just stand and watch what you do all day.  I've walked past a couple times, I've seen the girl on her laptop and this morning when I was there they were both sleeping (yes, I did feel like a major creep while taking pictures).  Not being able to leave would also be difficult, 33 days is a LONG time to be stuck in a place this small. 

Here's your answer to the first thing you thought about when reading this: how do they shower? 

I'm not sure if I'd be able to do this...but 20,000 euro is a lot of money to earn in 33 days for basically doing nothing.

city biking? no, gracias

Who knew that riding a bike in Valencia would be so challenging?! I must have looked crazy or at least like I had no clue how to ride a bike.  My intercambio met me tonight riding one of the Valenbici's (valencia "bici") that can be rented for a yearly rate because of all the cars and traffic for the soccer game.  So I thought it would be fun to try riding it back to where he had to return it, about 3 blocks away.  
It was a challenging 3 blocks- all of the people walking to the stadium, cars parked everywhere, crosswalks...I just focused on trying not to hit anything.  The bikes are different than normal bikes.  They are heavier on the front (plus there is a basket) so mine just kept swerving all over the place because I wasn't going fast enough to stay balanced.  It's a good thing I walk everywhere, I don't think I possess enough hand-eye coordination to successfully steer a bike around in this city.  

short & sweet excursion to Xátiva

view from one side of the castle

The final group excursion was to a small town about 45 minutes from Valencia called Xátiva.  Like most of the places we've gone to, there's basically one big tourist attraction and in Xátiva it was the castle.  It doesn't look like your "typical" castle, it's really spread out and more like a giant wall with two peaks on each side.  It was another fun climb to the top, we started taking short cuts through the grass instead of staying on the switchback roads all the way to the top of the cliff.  

We also went to a museum called L'Almodí, where the famous upside-down portrait of Phillip V of Spain hangs.  He is hung upside down as punishment and in memory of his decision to burn the city of Xátiva after one of his victories in battle.  Xátiva is also the birthplace of two former Popes.  


It's hard to believe I will be on my way back to the U.S. in less than a month now.  Each week seems to go faster, and since I will be traveling for the rest of my weekends here, it will be even more of a blur.  I'm leaving for London on Friday night to begin my Harry Potter-filled adventure :)  We have mapped out various locations where the movies were filmed that we want to see for ourselves in addition to seeing part 1 of movie number 7.  Personally, I'm going to try my best to be the first muggle to get to Hogwarts through Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station.

la albufera and the "gondolas" of valencia

An impromptu roadtrip led a couple of friends and I to the nearby nature reserve called La Albufera.  The small town it is located in is called El Palmar, and when we arrived after our 30 minute bus ride from the city, it seemed like we were the only living people there.  It was about 10 a.m, so we figured the inhabitants just liked to sleep in on a Saturday morning.  

Ernesto

The "thing" to do at La Albufera is to go on a boat ride through the lake/large pond that is the source for growing rice and raising eels.  There also seemed to be an unusually high population of ducks.  So after passing numerous signs telling us to go on "un paseo en barca," we chose one, which happened to be a boat tour with one of the more "well-known" boat drivers in Palmar.  His name was Ernesto (we even saw a sign with his name on it later) and he explained what the different areas of the water were used for and the churches or other small buildings along the shore.  He also seemed to really get a kick out of all the ducks, because whenever we saw one he would point and yell "patos! patos!" 

After the boat trip, it took about 15 minutes to make a complete circle around the town (which is like a little peninsula surrounded by the water), then we proceeded to try and figure out if and when our bus would show up again.  We walked around asking people, and were finally told that the bus stop sign had fallen onto the ground (who knows how long ago), but it was definitely still there.  I liked how everyone knew the sign was on the ground, but clearly there was no hurry to fix it.  

pingüinos y delfines!

Today we had our group excursion to the Oceanográfico, which is the only part of the City of Arts and Sciences that wasn't designed by Santiago Calatrava.  It is a huge complex of different aquariums with creatures from all over the world- Mediterranean, Arctic, South Pole, ect.  It pretty much had everything- beluga whales, seahorses, walruses, sharks, and a bazillion other types of sea creatures. 


It was a really fun aquarium because it had tunnels that you could walk through underneath all of the fish, and there was even a weird "bubble" that you crawled into and sat in which made you feel like you were sitting inside a fish tank.  

sitting inside the bubble

I was thoroughly amused by some of the spanish names for the animals, like pingüinos for penguins, and caballitos del mar for seahorses (which literally translates to "little horses of the sea").  We had perfect weather for this trip (we were outside most of the time), it doesn't feel like November at all because lately it's been around 75 degrees and sunny all the time.  

The best part of the aquarium was the dolphin show (a.k.a. los delfines).  I've seen dolphin shows before but it never ceases to amaze me how clever dolphins are and I always am amazed by how well trained they are.  How do they train them to do two flips in the air? Or spin vertically? Also, how on earth do the trainers managed to stay balanced on the noses of the dolphins while underwater?! I might never know these answers, but I do know that it would probably be awesome to be a dolphin trainer. 

55 degrees?? time to break out the jackets and scarves

I met with my intercambio for the first time in over a month tonight, and I definitely think my spanish has improved since the last time we met (it would be kind of depressing if that didn't happen...).  I was able to carry on a pretty good conversation with the words seeming to come to me without thinking.  He showed me around his old university and then we drove to the Mediterranean, which I did not realize was only about a three minute drive from where I live.  Probably because I'm never in cars here and usually walk everywhere.  


It was really pretty to see the Mediterranean at night (and to actually see stars!) when we walked out on some kind of pier to see the entire city.  He seemed to think it was cold when we were out on that pier, and I had to explain to him that if I were in Wisconsin now and it was 55 degrees, I probably wouldn't have even had my coat on.  Valencia has turned me into a wimp when it comes to temperatures, and it will probably be funny to see how ridiculously cold I am when I get back.  I don't even want to imagine the freezing cold 6 a.m track practices that are in my future...

más Zume, por favor!

Last night I went with my friend and two spanish girls (my friend's intercambio) to a zumeria, which could be translated into "juice bar."  It is located on a tiny street in the downtown center of Valencia, and I never would have known about it if these two spanish girls hadn't taken us there.  It's called Zume and they serve fresh fruit smoothies and crepes.  There were so many choices for smoothie flavors, it was a struggle to decide because I probably would have loved all of them.  They are served in gigantic glass goblets with colorful straws that I would need to use both hands to pick up.  I chose an orange-strawberry-banana-milk combination, but I'm certain I will be going back to try others! They all had fun names like Tutti-Frutti, and *bonus* it's no smoking and comes with free wi-fi! Hmm..new homework spot perhaps? 


We sat in the back of the juice bar where there were tiny tables surrounded by colorful cushions and pillows lining the walls on the floor where you sat (very cute). It was nearly empty when we were there at 8 pm, but I'm betting it gets more crowded later at night.  


Zume was the first smoothie I've had in Spain, and it was a delicious and refreshing way to end my day :)  

walking in a bubble

An article we read for my Latin American civilization class got me thinking about how different living in a city is compared to what I've been used to or what my previous thoughts were about living in a city.  I've come to realize that, although there are 800,000 people living in Valencia, it could easily be a very solitary life here.  The article we read was about how the cities have evolved over the years, and how the streets and plazas became a place of communicating ideas and interacting with people.


The article mentioned how with the increase in modernization and urbanization, our methods of communication have become more and more impersonal.  It used the example of how someone can go to an airport and not need to use any type of personal communication to get information or find their way.  There's electronic communication for everything.  People can go to the grocery store and not talk to anyone- the level of anonymity has risen so much that even with living in a city you could go days without talking to anyone.  I've realized this several times here, usually on Sundays if I'm just doing homework, walking around, or going for a run.  Sitting on the bus for a half hour every time I go to the track gives me a good opportunity to people watch- and wonder where everyone goes when they get off the bus. 


Sometimes I feel like I am just wandering around in a bubble as more and more cars and buses fly by when I'm walking to school.  It reminds me of the scene in Across the Universe, where they sing the song "Come Together," as the massive crowds of people on the sidewalk somehow manage to walk like they have been choreographed not to run into each other.