May 10, 2019 - Leigha Keck


Day three here in Valencia with our homestays and becoming accommodated with the area we will call home for the next two weeks. Today we started our day early, at 9:00a.m., with a two-hour class session. After class and before lunch – so for first snack – nine of us went to a local cafĂ© and talked over coffee and croissants.

All of us are looking so photogenic for the first snack of the day at the local cafe!

After lunch time we reconvened at the ISA office at 3:00p.m. to go to our service activity. For our activity we bought snacks, juices, and fruits to take to immigrants in Valencia while we listened to them and the stories they chose to share with us. This was a very personal encounter, hearing how these people got to Spain and the hardships they have had to go through

and still have to go through really showed their perseverance. Once we were done with the service activity we had a free evening to explore Valencia. Lorie, Jay, Josh, Danielle, Mariah, Anna, Jocelyn, Noah, Jacob, Rachel and I went together to find the Primark store. However, this trip became derailed and we found ourselves in a local souvenir shop and a local Starbucks where many of us ordered to compare the Starbucks in Spain to the Starbucks from home. The verdict? Pretty similar.

The group then split up and Mariah, Danielle, Anna, Lorie and I continued to shop while the rest of the group stayed back. We walked across the center or the city to get to the local “mall” and spent quite some time in Primark – an Ireland originated store that is very similar to America’s H&M. Later in the evening we ate dinner at Tony Roma’s which was good, not great. They could not separate our bills so all five of us ended up paying in mostly coins, the staff did not seem amused.

These are lemon trees in one of the parks on the walk home!

After dinner we all parted our separate ways and walked back to our homestays. I thought this was the best part of the night – while I completely enjoyed my time with these girls it was a great feeling to realize how familiar Valencia has come to feel in these past three days. As we left the restaurant everyone knew which way their homestay was without pulling out the GPS and everyone was able to navigate the city with ease. Also, being able to see the nightlife in Valencia was exciting there was a festival going on near Lorie and I’s homestay that was really cute!

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