Springtime!
Spring is here in Valence! The flowers are blooming, the sun is shining, and I've been soaking it up as much as possible. I'm running a half marathon in Annecy in 3 weeks, and now I can run outside in shorts! This week, I did a long run by the river and I came across a couple of swans...
As excited as I am about how beautiful Valence is these days, I have to back up to the second half of my vacation! As soon as Alex left France, I hopped on a plane myself and went to Spain to visit my friend Adair from Vandy! She's been living in Sevilla teaching English, and I couldn't miss this opportunity to go visit her there.
Everything worked out perfectly so that Adair didn't have to work while I was visiting, and we had almost 4 whole days to play together in Spain. She showed me all around the beautiful area where she's living and we had a blast hanging out with her friends! On my first night, we had tapas and she took me to a very authentic Spanish bar where we tasted cured ham straight off the pig's leg!
We decided to take a day trip to Cadiz on the second day of my trip with a couple of her girlfriends! Cadiz is right on the ocean and is the oldest city in Europe. It was the week of Mardi Gras while I was there, so a huge Carnival festival was happening! Everyone wears costumes and wanders the streets, so Adair and I went and bought some little Indian headbands for us so that we could get festive!
We decided to take a day trip to Cadiz on the second day of my trip with a couple of her girlfriends! Cadiz is right on the ocean and is the oldest city in Europe. It was the week of Mardi Gras while I was there, so a huge Carnival festival was happening! Everyone wears costumes and wanders the streets, so Adair and I went and bought some little Indian headbands for us so that we could get festive!
It was so great to just be in Sevilla with Adair and get to catch up! It was the perfect way to spend the second half of my vacation. Adair was the best hostess and showed me her favorite parts of the city, including the Plaza de Espana!
After a very well-spent vacation, I headed back to Valence to get myself together to start teaching again! I've loved my classes these past couple of weeks- we started in with some of my new material right after the break, and it's been really entertaining. We're doing faces, body parts, describing people, and giving directions- and you can find a lot of funny games and activities to use with these topics. Anyway, while I was getting this together, I took a break to go to my first professional bike race! The Paris-Nice is a big professional race that cyclists use to train for the Tour de France. The American RadioShack team (the one that Lance Armstrong was on) and the Garmin team were both there! The mountain stage always ends near Valence, so Fiona and I went with two of our German friends!
Another highlight was Fiona's birthday last weekend! I invited all of our best girlfriends over to my apartment and we had a total girls' night to celebrate! We went and picked up Chinese food, I made a cookie cake, we made Smores, and then we watched a chick flick. Unfortunately, I don't have any of the pictures from it just yet!
I've had the best couple of weeks hanging out with my roommates and friends here and soaking up the nice weather! I'm going to head to bed early tonight because I'm headed out bright and early tomorrow morning for a ski trip to Serre Chevalier for the weekend with some of my French and British buddies!
I've had the best couple of weeks hanging out with my roommates and friends here and soaking up the nice weather! I'm going to head to bed early tonight because I'm headed out bright and early tomorrow morning for a ski trip to Serre Chevalier for the weekend with some of my French and British buddies!
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