Valencia in June means...

spontaneous water gun fights in the River Turia!

new exhibits at the City of Arts and Sciences

the flowers are blooming

Eurocup madness

goodbyes

markets

religious festivities

beach

more reflections

Two weeks ago, I finished my last exam.  In a month, I expect to be pretty much done with my thesis. These last 8 months have really just flown by that it's hard to express my feelings... gratitude? relief? amazement? disappointment? joy? fear? I suppose all of the above. 

I'll start with the language. I'm still continuing to learn every single day. Some days I am amazed by my fluency and other days, at my lack thereof. Every day I discover new things about peninsular Spanish and the crazy colloquialisms (MANDAHUEVOS!). A few months ago I also reached the point where I need to translate a Spanish word or phrase into English, just because I'm so used to it, and I get frustrated because there isn't an English equivalent that has the same ring. This is a really odd feeling when it's not even your native language!

Another obvious yet still notable accomplishment is establishing friendships that are based solely in Spanish. I mean, I've had tons of hispanohablante friends, and when I traveled to Central America with Engineers Without Borders we only used Spanish. But, in the first case there was always English to fall back on and in the second case there was always somebody with a higher Spanish ability who could translate. Here I've made friends who are native Spanish speakers who speak nil English, native Spanish speakers who have a relatively high English level, and non-native speakers... but we always communicate in Spanish. It was only the other day when I brought an Australian couchsurfer to watch the Eurocup game with my friends that I realized how much I've taken the language for granted as the fact was that not only were my classmates from Spain literally incapable of communicating in English (they did understand our conversation, to a certain degree) but also that I've managed to socialize and work with them in solely their native language.

Next topic: my academic and professional pursuits. I'm several steps in the right direction towards my ever-evolving goal but I'm satisfied with everything so far. I really have struggled but learned a lot this year. Who thought that I would be able to learn engineering in Spanish? ELECTRICAL engineering, nonetheless? 

One of the biggest lifestyle changes I had was the bike. Started out with a reluctant, awkward relationship with the bike. Slowly I saw the advantages of biking in Valencia and I even started to enjoy using Valenbisi. The turning point came when I bought a bike... after that there was no turning back! Now I'm extremely dependent on my bike and it would be a tough adjustment to be without it.

Some things I really need to work on: being by myself and being ok with uncertainty. I always thought that growing up as an only child and being relatively mature for my age made me more independent. And it has. But being able to get around and take care of myself is way different from enjoying my own company all the time. I've realized that this happens to me because I'm generally very busy that I don't have time to realize it, but then I'll have some downtime and I'll feel quite alone. And about uncertainty... it's absolutely exciting and scary at the same time. Even if there isn't a specific person or entity pressuring me, I still feel the overall societal pressure to, well, succeed (however ambiguous that is). The biggest pressure is internal, as I know what I am capable of, I want to be challenged, and I want to make a difference. I'm proud to say that I remain an optimist and that things do turn out ok. 

Have I grown over these past 8 months? Absolutely. But I still remain (more or less) the same person, with (more or less) the same convictions and goals. I strong feel that my experiences in Valencia have given me a push in the right direction, brought me closer to and made me more sure of those goals.

l'albufera

 The latest bici excursion was last weekend to l'albufera. The Parque Nacional de la Albufera de Valencia is a protected region south of Valencia that is known for the freshwater lake, diverse wildlife, beach, and rice fields. It's also where paella was born!

There's a bike lane or path pretty much the entire way to the park as well as inside the park, which is extremely important in safety and comfort as I've learned from biking in the past months. The entire route is about 15 km or 9 miles (check out the here). The bike path took us under freeways, along the beach, across the freshwater lake, and through the small towns of l'albufera.

When we were pathing throuhg El Saler, a small problem occurred... Sarka got a flat tire. Turns out there's a thorn that is common to the area, and Sarka was not the only victim to its tire deflating properties. Anyways, we walked into the town and approach two abuelitos to ask where the nearest bike shop was. (They were chilling on a bench eating sunflower seeds, and it was obvious that they frequent the beach year-around.)  Apparently El Saler doesn't have any bike shops. But, as it turns out, one of the abuelitos had a magic Mary Poppins bag that was equipped with all kinds of bike-fixing tools! We were extremely lucky to have his help. He whipped out a bike pump, glue, tape, and other tools that I have never seen before and fixed the little tear! He explained that because of the thorns, flats are a very common occurrence - that's why he travels prepared.

After our break, we continued further south to the lake where we went on a boat tour and saw nesting birds and heard jumping fish around us.

With Johan (from Colombia) and Sarka (from the Czech Republic)

With the bike expert abuelito 

L'albufera boat tour 

The lake

At the end of the day, we were treated to a beautiful sunset.