Hello everybody! My second week in Villanueva has just begun, and things are going great! Last weekend I participated in my first “ruta de tapas,” which is a Spanish tradition of going around the different bars and restaurants in town and ordering a “tapa” and a drink at each spot.
A “tapa” is essentially a small dish, and each place has a different specialty. I enjoyed all of them! My favorite drink was a tasty mixture of carbonated juice and wine that’s called a “tinto de verano.” Absolutely delicious!
It has been quite hot this past week in Villanueva, so unfortunately I haven’t been doing much during the day other than working and going to the gym. The latter has been a great and productive way to pass time! The gym is very close to my house, and I enjoy running on the treadmill and stretching. It makes me feel better about the large amount of food that I consume every day!
A few of my friends and I went on a walk around Villanueva the other day and we saw the outskirts of the town, as well as a few horses and some goats. Unfortunately, our walk wasn’t very long, since we made the mistake of going out at one of the hottest points in the day. However, it was still lovely to explore more of Villanueva and gain a better sense of the town.
Work has mainly consisted of preparation for the intensive classes that begin in July. We each need to get assigned our specific classes before we can begin to write our actual lesson plans, but we have begun to make general vocab lists and quizzes that can be applied later. We have also made presentations about our hometowns, which we have been presenting to the different classes all week. My presentation is obviously about Berkeley, but I added a slide about Oakland and another about San Francisco in order to give students the bigger picture of the Bay Area as a whole. Speaking about my city has made me realize how much I truly love it; I could talk about it for hours. There are aspects of my home that I definitely miss while being here, but I am grateful for the opportunity to experience this new culture.
Maya, Kaelen and I are spending the day in Seville tomorrow, and I’m very excited! I’ll provide all the details in my next post, as I’m sure I’ll have a lot to talk about. Farewell!