180 days in Valencia 2024
Week 1
Day 1
Long 8 hour flight, then 7 hour layover, then 3 hour flight where I felt so out of it. I was drifting between sleep and being awake and it was the weirdest feeling ever. I prayed to God that the flights wouldn’t crash because that’s honestly the scariest situation to be in.
Met everybody. I was nervous, but everyone turned out to be super nice. It made me realize that maybe I’m not as repulsive as I make myself out to be and that I don’t have to meek and nervous all the time. I should make a point to remember people’s names quickly.
I noticed that everyone there drinks and smokes, so I felt left out. It felt like I was shoved into a group of people with vices and I didn’t fit in. I need to learn how to be comfortable being sober around regularly non-sober people.
There was also this unassuming small Japanese kid who pregames bars all the time and also smoked a cig on the first day, which was funny. It’s so normal to do these kinds of things that I feel so ostracised, but I still share things in common with them like shows, videogames, and classes. It’s weird to see how normal people are normal in everything else and I can relate to them in everything except their party life.
Day 2
Orientation day. We went out to eat at the UPV dining hall and it was pretty great. I went for my first shopping trip and my spanish was pretty good. Spain is pretty big on recycling so they charged me 30 cents for some reusable, sturdy plastic bags that I absolutely love. I then went with my new dorm friends to have dinner in our dining hall. That shit was ass. At least it forces me to cook.
Day 3
First day of classes. I can speak spanish pretty decently and I got over my fear of asking people for help. I feel confident just asking anybody about anything (except if they’re my age - then they outrizz me and will mog me).
I walked to school with my new friend when it was still dark at 7:40 AM and had differential equations.
I rode the valenbici system and made an absolute fool of myself for not knowing how to redock the bike, but I figured out you had to press some stupid button.
I bought a brita filter from the grocery store. I think I’m failing in my budgeting.
Day 4
Overslept because I slept at 1 AM, but I arrived at USAC office at 10:45 and then enrolled in spanish civilization. I didn’t eat anything before my class at 11:15 because the vending machines didn’t work. I stayed hungry all throughout the class. The teacher asked me why my spanish was so good and why I was so handsome - ok, that second part never happened - and I replied with, “I learned from watching squid games in spanish.” But then I went with some friends to get breakfast, which was a donut and some coffee for me. Then we went to spanish composition class and it was pretty fun. It reminded me of high school. Then we went to get a kabob at school cuz we were so hungry. And then we went to the bookstore to get our books for school. And then we biked home, which was a very long bike ride and my legs almost tired out. My friend offered to ride the bike the rest of the way for me. I returned back to my dorm and wasted time on twitter. Then I got dinner with friends.
Day 5
- Went for scary run on beach
- Wasted time on twitter
- Went to great mosque of Valencia
- Went to central market
- Went back to great mosque of Valencia
- Went home and wasted time.
Yeah, not so productive, but today I learned how the buses worked.
Day 13
Today I went to the bioparc and saw a bunch of cool animals and fishes. I then went to the city of arts and sciences and finished it up by first going to the museum, then to the hemispheric, walking in the umbracle, and then finishing up with the Caixaforum. I expected the hemisferic movie to be worse, but to my surprise it wasn't. However, it wasn't great either. I made a fool of myself in the pizza restaurant. Never going back there again.