valencia2026

Back when I first arrived in Valencia, there was a field trip (there's that term again!) by rail to Benicassim for a paella festival where I met an American couple who had up and left the U.S. (Baltimore, so we had shared memories of Charm City) and settled in Castello, a seaside city a little over an hour north of Valencia. I was very intrigued by their decision (a recent one, they're less than a year in) to become real expats, and we chatted at some length while enjoying the paella. They invited me to come to visit for a day, which I finally did last Saturday. Mary Carol and Frank, over the course of a single afternoon, became friends..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T...

(Not original to me, but I had to borrow it.)--------------------------- Since coming to Spain, I thought I’d be learning a language. Turns out I’ve been learning how to live. Here, meals aren’t rushed they’re basically social events with snacks. Lunch can last longer than my old attention span, and no one’s panicking about it. Shops close on Sundays and nobody spirals. Rest isn’t laziness, it’s just… normal. People actually sit outside. For hours. With one coffee. And somehow that counts as a productive afternoon. Time feels stretchy here. No one’s trying to win the day. Spain hasn’t just taught me vocabulary. It’s taught me how to slow down, sit in the sun, and stop acting like I’m late for something that isn’t even happening.

The culmination of Las Fallas is yet three weeks away, but the noise has already begun. Las Fallas is a unique Valencian celebration I discovered when I began to plan this trip many months ago and, probably unconsciously, arranged my dates around being here. This morning the first mascietas (fireworks explosions) could be heard here in El Carmen, kilometers away from Plaza Ayuntaamiento, where from now until mid-March, at 2 pm, el boomo will happen every day. This is not just firecrackers, these are battlefield-like sonic events that shake one to one's being. If I were in Kyiv, or Gaza or Yemen (god help those poor citizens) I would dive for shelter; but in Valencia, at Fallas, it's all simply part of the wallpaper.----------------------------- https://www.instagram.com/p/DG8PuJsIcC-/--------------------------------------------------------------------- Although the explosions started slowly, this morning, it seems that the frequency (and the volume ) will escalate until...

No school on Friday, and a four-day week came just in time. The Monday through Friday class regimen, while productive in terms of progress in the language, becomes a wee bit routine, dare one say tedious. Kind of like work. I now see why so many of my fellow students opted for one, two, maybe three weeks en escuela, and then, vamos! I am about to enter week number six, and while alternately feeling both capable and then underwater, a decision has been reached. In March, I have a series of visitors from my U.S. life, and it has become clear that going to school all week while simultaneously enjoying Valencia, and Espana in general, with mi amigos, is just not possible. Classes just take too much juice...and that, in combination with some very intermittent night-time sleep, as well as my advanced age, have led me to deciding that time with friends in Spain, (because that's where I am, after all) trumps language immersion, at least a little bit. And so...I will shorten my plann...

...or WOW as they say in Espanol. First tme I've had dinner before 7pm since getting here. Paella from Mercado Central. Bueno...

Like waking up on a Saturday to blue sky and sunshine, when your phone received an alert the night before warning of storms and high winds coming. Like going to the gym, looking inside the glass door to see only darkness, thinking that it's closed (on a Saturday morning!?!), only to buzz yourself in and being the only person working out. Like walking into the farmacia for the first time and learning that they really do carry ibuprofen over the counter.

Well, last week I had a Super Sabado in Xativa and Bocairent, and this week a Super Viernes (Friday)! All of us in my class (Alexandra, Montreal; Heiner, Switzerland; Mae, Phillipines; Karim, Hague; and Agnes, Germany) came to morning class ready to call it a week. Over the four days so far, we worked hard, were taught a lot and tried to retain some. We were confronted this morning with Professora Raquel, a funny and very expressive instructor, but she teaches almost exclusively in Spanish, very little English , and speaks muy rapido, which requires a great deal of attention, and frankly, mental energy.................. After the break, Raquel handed out a sheet of paper which had a headline that included the words "Mercado Central" (the huge market I've referred to earlier) but I didn't pay much more attention until we all started to leave class and school for ----- Mercado Central! Yes, a school field trip! We proceeded to hike to Mercado, about ten minutes, a...

SUPER SABADO ....................................................... Saturday 7 February was a field trip day to the neighboring city/towns of Xativa and Bocairent, an hour +or- away from Valencia - a trip organized by the school. We were accompanied by a class from another Spanish language school, a lot of young people (early 20s), mostly American. It was illuminating to overhear their conversations, reminding me sweetly of what it was like to travel Europe at a more tender age...lots of chatter about clubs, food discoveries and post-punk (who knew?) music - while the slightly more age-advantaged day travelers like myself instead questioned aloud how much hiking we'd have to do upon arrival. Surprisingly, we older folk pretty much kept up the pace, and with a lot less complaining than by the young travelers. Xativa, besides being the site of a kick-ass castle at the top of a mountain with killer views, is also the birthplace of Pope Alexander VI, aka Rodrigo Borgia, of the inf...

The View From My Terrace You will notice clouds, proof positive that it's not always pure blue sky and sunshine! It's also still a bit cool outside so I am very much looking forward to cafe con leche on the deck soon, and on an ongoing basis.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Monday (Lunes), 2 February - So, I left Estados Unidos on the seventh of January and set down in Valencia on the eighth; this Thursday or so will mark the end of my fourth week of the adventure, pretty much a third of my planned time away. A little time for reflection, perhaps, and some lessons learned?--------------------------------------------A new class this week with new people; from Montreal, Britain, Switzerland, Israel, Germany and Syria. A fun group that got a particular kick out of realizing during class that a form of the spanish verb "to take" or "to have" is "tomas", which is identical to my escu...