May 13, 2019 - Jocy Ramirez



\The trip in its entirety has been full of so much fun and adventure. May 13th was no different than anything we had experienced but it definitely took us for a loop. Although, it was RJ’s birthday! We started our day with singing happy birthday and continued with class at nine in the morning for two hours. Afterwards, we all headed for a bike tour of Valencia. After trials and tribulations, we were finally able to stop halfway in our tour for lunch at a park. It was awesome to sit and relax with everyone while we enjoyed all of our lunches. We played card games and watched as ducks and birds surrounded us for our food. It was entertaining to watch how close the ducks would get to us because of our food. Once our stomachs were full and we were hydrated, we persisted with the bike tour. We biked through the park that surrounds the city.

Jess (left) and I posing in front of the Torres de Serrano.

A picture while biking. Left to right: Jay, Kiersten, Mekayla, Me.

We biked all around the exterior of Valencia, making sure to pass ‘la Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias’ which is the part of the city full of monuments that have to do with the arts and sciences of the city. Many of us couldn’t keep up with Maria, our tour guide from ISA, who was leading the bike tour. She found it amusing that we couldn’t keep up with her. After buckets of sweat, horrible sunburns, awful tan lines, and about 4 hours of biking around, we returned back to our starting point and we returned the bikes. We headed towards the beach on the bus a little later than anticipated so many of us couldn’t get in the water or tan like we wanted.  Upon arrival, we headed to a local cafe for food to recharge for the volleyball that was to come. After the long day we had, we managed to split into teams and play several great rounds of volleyball. We got both Ronnell and RJ to join us and it began to get competitive. It was nice to see everyone having a great time with each other, whether they were playing volleyball or laying in the sand and talking with one another. Overall, it was a very eventful and memorable day with everyone. Being in Spain with this group of people has been nothing short of amazing and I cannot wait to see what the next 2 weeks have in store for all of us.

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