La vida escolar en Valencia

As you may know, I have spent some time in a spanish school recently, helping the pupils there with their english. The students I have been teaching are a similar age to you in Dyffryn School, and they are very keen to become your pen-pals!

                                   

IES Jose Rodrigo Botet - Your partner school in Valencia!

This is the 'segunda clase' - the equivalent of year 8

This is the 'tercera clase' - the equivalent of year 9

                                             

This is another 'tercera clase'

 And again, another 'tercera clase'

                                                                                                              

In the 'segunda clase', the students are about 13 years old and in 'tercera clase', the students are 14 years old

Check out these videos of some of the pupils talking about what they like to do in their spare time!

                                 

                                       

La vida en Valencia

So I have been living in Valencia for about 8 weeks now, and I'm really settling in well to the spanish way of life, I could definitely get used to the constant sunshine and warm weather!

I live in a flat right in the centre of the student area 'Avenida de Blasco Ibanez' in Valencia. It's about a 20 minute walk from my university faculty, and the same distance away from the beach... you can guess where I prefer going!
I'm living in an erasmus flat with two french boys, 3 other english students (one  is actually from Cardiff too, which is nice for a bit of home comfort!), a spanish girl from Ibiza, a dutch boy and an italian girl. We all get on really well, and it's really interesting to live with such a diverse mix of people.

                        

Aquí tenéis algunos de mis compañeros de piso: Elena, Priya, Me, Quentin, Leo, Toon and Grace

                                                               

                                                      
 Aquí tenéis la vista desde la terraza de mi piso y mi habitación

Lectures at university started at the beginning of October, and I'm finally starting to get my head round the spanish way of studying. Classes can start as early as 8 in the morning, and some don't finish until 9 at night... a very long day and not at all like university in Cardiff. Recently, there have been a lot of strikes by students and professors who oppose the planned education cuts here in Spain, so this has meant a lot of my classes have been cancelled over the past few weeks.

I've taken advantage of my ample free time and the glorious weather by taking some trips and exploring this great country I now call my home...

Dos fotos de la playa en Javea, Costa Blanca

 La playa 'El Saler', unos 20 kms fuera de Valencia

                                 
                                                          Alicante

At the end of september, some friends and I took a trip to the island of Ibiza for a few days. 

As you can see from this map, Valencia is just a short ferry ride away from the so called 'white isle'. 


On the thursday night of our trip, my friends and I went to a club to watch David Guetta perform in his closing party for the season. Somehow, with some great luck, a friend managed to get us into the VIP area, where low and behold, we had the great pleasure of meeting... Jonathan Ross! I was so excited (as I'm a bit of a sucker for celebrities!!) We chatted with him for a good while, he was a really nice and down to earth guy, and even told me he knew where my hometown, Chepstow, is because he enjoys visiting the Wye Valley... who'd have known! 

Mis compañeros de piso Priya, Toon y yo con el cómico britanico Jonathan Ross!

Besides my trips around the local area, I've also had some friends from the UK come to visit me out here. It's been really great to show them around my new home, and of course, as nice as my new friends are, it's always lovely to see your home friends! The flight to Valencia from Bristol airport only takes two hours, and is pretty affordable, so my friends really have no excuses in not taking advantage of there free accommodation in Valencia!

Mis amigos Jess, James y yo, enfrente de la catedral de Santa María de Valencia





Aquí están mis compañeras de piso en Cardiff, Sammy, Rosie y yo enfrente de la Plaza de Toros, Valencia













The end of summer has seen Valencia hosting numerous fiestas and holidays. Some of these I attended with my friends and housemates

Disfrutando cerveza a la fiesta de 'Oktoberfest', en septiembre

La Tomatina de Buñol en augusto

I have also been enjoying the doing touristy things like visiting the city's aquarium 'Oceanográfic' en la Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias de Valencia









y 'Bioparc', un zoo en el corazón de Valencia...




The past few weeks in Valencia have been great fun and I am enjoying my spanish adventure so much! I feel very lucky to be able to live and study in such an amazing city... I'll keep you all posted with my new tales of 'mi nueva vida en Valencia!'

Hasta pronto chicos !

un fin de semana en Valencia - A weekend in Valencia

¡Hola a todos!

Before I make the big move next month, my family and I decided it would be a good idea to visit Valencia for a long weekend to do a spot of flat hunting, see the university and most of all, to see the city I'll be calling home for the next six months. And what a successful weekend we had!


After missing various metro stops, attempting to ask for directions in my somewhat broken spanish and several wrong turns, we arrived at my flat. It is on the same avenue as my uni campus, right in the hard of Valencia's student district. The flat is very modern inside, and very clean (something my mother was very pleased about!), and I will be living with 8 other students, from all over the world. So far I know I will be living with two other girls from the UK, a girl from Italy and a boy from Holland. The whole point of our year abroad is to experience life in a new culture, and it seems I'll be doing just that by living in my new and very international abode! Being on the 14th floor (there is a lift, thank god!), our flat has access to the buildings rooftop terrace, with views spanning right over the city. I can see many a glass of sangría being consumed there after a (hard!) day of lectures...

Here is a pic of the block my flat is in - right up there at the top is where I'll be living!

And here is the university building 'facultat de Filologia, Traducció i Comunicació' (in english - faculty of language, translation and communication) where I'll be studying modules like spanish grammar, translation and literature. Note how the sign here is written in Valencian rather than spanish - I noticed how the further you get into the city, the more the signs are written in spanish




Of course my trip was a good excuse to escape the dreary british weather for a few days, and Valencia didn't disappoint! Clear blue skies and 33 degrees by ten in the morning meant I managed to find time in our busy schedule to top up my tan on the beautiful beach

Las bellas playas de Valencia - I can't wait to head down here after lectures and on weekends. It's safe to say I definitely won't miss the british climate!










After a busy few days, we spent all day saturday sight seeing and strolling around Valencia city centre. From what I can tell, the centre itself is made up of plazas or squares, filled with shops, restaurants and bars. We spent our last evening in Valencia sitting in the evening sun in la Plaza de la Reina, enjoying a traditional Valencian paella (which was amazing!)

                                  La Plaza de la Reina - in the heart of Valencia

                                
La comida tradicional valenciana - Paella! Valencian paella is the traditional spanish rice dish, but with chicken, peppers and beans


As we wined and dined, bands played music through the streets, as the locals were celebrating the 'Feria de Julio' - July Fair. Traditionally, 'La Feria de Julio' was introduced by the city's government in the 1870's to encourage the people of Valencia to stay in the city during the hot summer months, rather than flee to the surrounding hills to escape the heat and humidity. Nowadays, 'La Feria de Julio' sees a month of various concerts, theatre, open air cinema, traditional fiestas, sports events, funfairs and bullfighting

 We were lucky enough to watch the official opening of the fair with the performance of the San Luis Bertran Bugles and Drums band through the plaza

And earlier in the week, we saw preparations being made to the sand sculptures display on the beach promenade

Just by spending three days in Valencia, I could already see a vast improvement in my spanish. I found that very few people speak actually english there, despite it being a fairly touristy city, so I was encouraged to speak their language at every opportunity. Having seen what the city has to offer, I cannot wait to move there. I have felt many emotions towards my time abroad; fear, nerves and a lot of stress, but finally I can see exactly why we are encouraged by our universities to do this. In just the three short days I was there, I fell in love with the city and I even got the thumbs up from my family, who up until now have been a bit apprehensive about the whole 'Sophie's moving abroad thing' - so that is definitely a result! It will be hard at times I am sure, but I can't wait to embark on this great adventure

¡Hasta luego, Valencia! I'll see you in five weeks!