May 9, 2019 - Anna Riley

The buildings in Valencia were very colorful! It seemed as if there was more life to this city than Madrid. The streets were very narrow, which created a sense of adventure. The city was filled with different stores, but it did not seem as busy as Madrid. The stores were more spread out, and it did not seem like there were people constantly walking around. Speaking of stores, Horizons went to a large supermarket indoors. I felt overwhelmed by how many choices there were, but that made it fun. I eventually decided to buy a cup of fruit, which was very tasty. When I return to the United States, I am not going to want to eat their fruit because it will never be as good as the fruit in Europe.

While we were there, we saw the court house. The court house was adorned with different art. There was a grand mural on the ceiling of the court house and it was filled with angels. There were also many other religious references throughout the building. I thought it was interesting because it showed that even though there is technically a separation between church and state, the Catholic Church still plays a large roll in the Spanish culture. I adored the marble that was used for the staircases because it felt so smooth to the touch. The court house felt more like a mansion because it was adorned with statues and chandeliers. The courthouse showed off the history of Valencia, there were many references to the Spanish coat of arms. This is because Valencia used to be its own kingdom that was ruled by the moors, but Spain captured this city and made it their own.

Staircase at the courthouse.

With being four days into the trip, I am starting to make my homestay my own. This morning my roommate Danielle and I had toast and ice coffee. The iced coffee was homemade by using coffee powder and pouring milk into it. I had never seen anything like that before. For lunch, we had sandwiches. This sandwich is hard to explain. It seemed to be two pieces of bread with potato casserole squished in between. Qué rico!

Our homestay.

Aside from the delicious food, my favorite part of the trip was my class today. The class that is for this trip is called “Global Leadership.” From being on many different leadership retreats, I knew that this class would be full of self-reflection and listening to others as they self-reflect. Even though it was the first day of class, the Horizons instructors challenged me to look at my own leadership style and what I need to change. It was also relieving to hear the class open up about the struggles they were facing on the trip. This made me realize that I am not the only one having my problems.