I’d like to pick this blog post up almost exactly where I left the last one off- Valentine’s day! I personally had a wonderful Valentine’s day, despite our extra Friday class. There was granola at breakfast (this is very important to the start of any good day in the Peset), and then class with Manuel was pretty uneventful. I headed straight to the beach after classes. I was so confident that I got on the right bus…. but I didn’t. I thankfully realized it at not a horrible point in the ride and was able to hop off to look for another bus… then that bus didn’t come when it said it was, so I decided to bite the bullet and just walk the rest of the way. I ended up walking through a pretty cool part of Valencia! I wandered into one corner store and the shop owner was excitedly chatting with a customer about the soccer game he was watching on his laptop. It just felt calm, and the pace of life seemed slower than the part of the city where I live.
That evening, Anna Rose and I received a fun surprise- Sam had bought flowers for all the girls in our group! I’m doing my best to keep them alive out on our patio, but I know they won’t last long without a larger pot, which we’re lacking. Also that day, I got treated to a cookie and a cinnamon from Juliet, courtesy of Zach!
Zach also built me a custom video game as a present, which was about the cutest and sweetest gift I’ve ever received! That solidified my good mood for the rest of the day.
We got off to an early-ish start on Saturday morning to head to Albarracín! A fun fact about Spain is that roughly 70% of the land is uninhabited- something which became quite obvious as we spent large stretches of the latter half of the drive without seeing much of anything. Interestingly though, we passed an airport with lots filled with large planes. After a quick google search, we discovered that it’s used as a spot to store and work on planes, due to the area’s moderate and dry climate. In part, a plane graveyard, in part a repair center. Pretty interesting!
About 20 minutes past the airport, we reached Albarracín!
I was immediately taken by the town. Sam tried to say it reminded him of Helen, GA, but this was quickly shot down by the group. Since arriving in Spain, I’ve been to plenty of really old places. Churches that were hundreds of years old, castles too. But I’ve noticed it doesn’t always really hit me how much history resides in these places. Albarracín wasn’t like that. I really felt like I had stepped into a different time period.
We also got lucky and had the most beautiful weather throughout the day. As we hiked up to the Murallas (medieval walls) the sky stared back as a brilliant blue that just illuminated the whole valley! The streets of the city were skinny and winding, with buildings that tilted out over the cobblestone streets.
The views from the Muralla were truly breathtaking. I could only imagine how the city would’ve appeared when the wall still completely encircled the city. I think that Albarracín definitely has been one of my favorite small towns we’ve visited.
That night we came back and a few people decided to go out, but Anna Rose and I were too tired, so we opted for a movie instead. We were planning to watch To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, but Xavy and Marta appeared in the doorway, hoping to watch Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. We folded. And I’m so glad we did. Each night following that, we’ve been piling into the movie room to watch the next in the series. Last night was Harry Potter y el Caliz de Fuego (we’ve been watching them all in english but with spanish subtitles) and I’m hopeful that tonight we’ll watch the fifth. It’s been so fun because each night we’ve gained more people. At first it was three of the Spanish students, then Anna Rose and I joined, and then last night there were a total of 12 of us all piled in together.
On another note, I’ve been trying to get back on my game for applying for internships. I’ve reached out to a few connections from which I’m currently waiting to hear back from, so wish me luck!
Recently I’ve made an effort to do a bit more wandering around the city, something which I should’ve started doing earlier. Above are two photos from my recent wanders that I particularly liked! The arched walkway was a preserved part of the wall that used to circle the city under the reign of Jaume I.
I also took a photo of a particularly bad Peset meal, which features the classic soup, something that translated to dog food (it ended up just being meat and potatoes baked together), and french fries. I definitely need to start trying to chef something up from the tiny salad bar, because eating this on the regular CANNOT be good for my body. Anyways… for postre I got a banana and then Cola-Cao and milk. I’ll miss Cola-Cao when I go back to the States (it’s very similar to Nesquik, but all the students swear it’s much better).
Finally, I have two photos from our group activities from this week! First, is Oliver peeking into a little house that was outside the modern art museum. I didn’t particularly love the museum, but the building it was in, an old monastery, was quite beautiful. I will say though, Oliver, James, Sam, Neil and I had a great time coming up with things that the abstract pieces could represent. We were trying our best to explain our odd interpretations in Spanish, which added another level of humor to it as well. Afterwards, Caroline, Anna Rose, and I went to Sukie Cookie, a shop really similar to Crumbl cookie that’s around the corner from the Peset. It was so good. Our discovery of that spot is nothing short of dangerous. It’s even better than Crumbl, and just as expensive. We’ve decided to moderate ourselves by splitting the massive cookies no more than once a week. We’ll see how well that holds up. Wednesday afternoon we took a group trip to the Cathedral of San Nicolas, which is right next to the Peset. It was gorgeous! I’d never been inside before and I couldn’t believe such a beautiful church was secretly tucked away so close to where I’m living. A fun addition to the experience was the arrival of a local school’s orchestra, which set up and played as we walked around and looked at the capillas and the art that covered the ceilings!
Well, it’s almost time for dinner so I think I’m going to end this blog post here! I hope you’re all having a great week so far, and if you magically hear of any film internships, you know where to find me.
Sincerely,
Caroline
P.S. During lunch in Albarracín we got deep into discussing what Harry Potter house everyone would be in. What’s yours?
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