Valencia 2010

So before the Chile adventure starts, (and it has started and it is wonderful) I need to play a little bit of catch-up. At the beginning of last semester I was talking to my Spanish Independent Study Professor, Chris Swafford, about what on earth a 21 year-old kid does at home for all of January and most of February while all of her friends are off at college. I´m so glad I brought the subject up because we came to the conclusion that she goes to stay with Chris and the Earlham Program in Valencia, Spain for two weeks. I´ve hiked in the northwestern part of the country (Burgos-Santiago) as well as studied in the central southern area of (Madrid-Ciudad Real-Cordoba) and on the Island of Menorca, but I have never been to Cataluña and the Barcelona area. I refuse to pick a favorite, they all have their own charms. However, I will say that this trip has made it clear in my mind that I will have to live in this country for at least two or three years at some point. You´re all welcome to come visit :)
My favorite part of the trip (academically speaking) were the art museums and places of interest around the city. In Barcelona and a few surrounding towns, we saw the Picasso Museum, a Miró Museum, the Dahlí exhibit, and several architectural feats by Gaudí (a house he designed for himself is pictured above.) They were all fabulous, but my recomendations would be to skip out on Picasso and hit the Miró and Dahlí exhibits. Also, if the weather is permitting the park by Gaudí (Guell) was very cool and offered some beautiful views of a sunset over Barcelona.
My friend Lo, happened to be on the Earlham program while I was visiting and we had a great time roaming around Barcelona´s nightlife together. This is a fountain a little to the North of ¨Las Ramblas¨the happening district in Barcelona.


Back to the city of Valenica, above is a picture of the city of the arts and sciences. Valencia is trying to revamp itself with a modern/futuristic style, and with the architecture and museums in this quadrant of the city they definitely succeed. I cannot decide if I was more impressed with the outside or the inside of the museums. I should note that this wavering is probably biased, the two current special topic exhibits at the museum of the sciences are genetics as well as drug history coupled with brain chemistry. (That´s basically everything my major encompasses in a couple thousand square feet...I had only planned on staying an hour and a half and ended up staying 4) Hanging out a Valencia´s beach with the Earlham gang. It was too cold to go swimming (unless your name is Andrew...), but we definitely enjoyed catching some sun, writing our names in the sand, and eating BK shakes and fries (which are much better than BK in the USA, fyi) on our beach blanket.