Valencia Update

Dear all
Sorry for again not writing in such a (seemingly) long time! Quite a lot of things have happened, good ones but also a bit more annoying ones...:
last Thursday, to start where I left off, I met an Italian guy for dinner, whom I had met on facebook and we had an extremely nice evening - went for a walk through the old part of town and then had the typical Spanish dinner: tapas and sangria! :) He speaks almost perfect Spanish, so it was nice to exchange our experiences in Valencia so far - and practice the language, too!
Friday was a beautiful day and I used it to go to the beach with Brad (the English guy) - it was soooo great! I had my first lesson at 6 pm, which gave me a lot of time to enjoy the sun, the sea and just doing nothing - holiday feeling on a normal weekday!
Saturday was laundry day and mostly dedicated to being at home, skyping and reading - had a bit of a bad day, to be honest... but Sunday was much better - I met a German girl and we actually wanted to go to the museum of the America's cup (the sailing competition), which is near the port of Valencia. Seeing that the first time I was here (in August, with Tanja), we couldn't look at the port because the Formula 1 was in Valencia and everything was closed, I was very much interested in taking a look at it. Unfortunately, the museum was closed, so we just strolled around the port (which is huge!) and had icecream and got to know each other a bit better - another very nice person! :)
Sunday night, my friend Evelyn arrived from Zurich: she's the other student of the university of Zurich who is spending the year here in Valencia. She didn't know anyone here, didn't have a flat, had never been to Valencia before - so she was probably glad that I could show her everything... She actually already found a flat Sunday night and has moved in today, so she's very lucky, and it is simply just great to have someone who's in the same situation (missing friends and family, being in a relationship and missing someone terribly, having trouble with our home university and the learning agreement...) and speaks German! ;)
Well, and then the rain set in... maybe you've read about it in the newspapers: Spain is currently almost drowning in water! We (area between Valencia and Alicante) had the average annual amount of rain within 5 days and they had to evacuate several houses in other towns around us - here, we just had to walk in the water up to our ankles- can you imagine me, walking home at night, with my sneakers on??? of course I don't have any boots here... it was awful - when I came home, all soaked of course, I had to take another cold shower because the warm water was again not working, then I put my clothes out to dry (we have a covered balcony where normally, everything can dry within a reasonable time), but I couldn't take them in until today! And today, we had 30 degrees again and sunshine - it is crazy....!!!
Well, and right now Evelyn and I are facing a mayor problem regarding our studies: tomorrow, we need to see our coordinator in Spain to definitely decide on our learning agreement and do the final matriculation (which can't be changed afterwards...) - however, 2 of the courses we might do haven't taken place so far, so we have no clue what they include, if the professors are any good, how much work they give - and accordingly, how much they will count for us in Switzerland. Furthermore, we both need the confirmation of a professor at our home university that he is going to correct our papers once we get back - but he hasn't answered any of our e-mails and we are getting desperate....
Concerning my mobile phone: I went to the shop again TWICE, called the hotline another 3 times, my boyfriend keeps trying to come up with solutions across the internet, I am considering buying a new SIM card but don't want to loose a whole lot of money - catch 22!!! :( So I still don't have a Spanish number to give you, but if anyone needs my address here in Valencia, let me know - that at least won't change! ;)
so you see, life hasn't been boring for me so far! ;) But I really need to start working a bit for university, so far I haven't read anything and I guess I should... As always, I'll keep you updated - and am curious to hear what you all have been up to!!!

First rain - and mobile phone problems

Dear all
Sorry for not writing in a moment - or is it just my impression that I've been here for ages already? Everytime I talk to someone on skype or chat it seems that I haven't seen the people around me in weeks or months even, but I've only been here for 6 days... crazy!
Well... that bad luck day on Tuesday continued - I went to university in vain again, the other class didn't take place either! Then one of the toilets in our flat started leaking, and so far no one has come to fix it, so we always have to close the water after using it... according to a Spanish friend, this is fairly normal, but for me, who is used to Swiss standards, it is quite weird! ;)
Yesterday was a good day all in all, but it was raining all day long and I was already wet before I arrived at university for the first lesson - I guess that when it rains here, it just does much more than in other places! Anyway, the rain was then the main reason why I have still not been to any of the Erasmus parties - none of the people I know so far wanted to go out yesterday evening because of the rain!! Well, my boyfriend is definitely the one who benefits from it, seeing that I could be online in skype and videochat with him all night long! ;)
This morning I had another two lectures on literature and now that I've seen almost all the different options, I need to start deciding which ones I really want to attend... it's a hard decision!!!
Some of you have asked for my spanish mobile phone number... the thing is that I have a problem with my phone (or the SIM card, or the contract, or the company, or WHATEVER) and it's no use giving you the number if you can't contact me... What is happening is that everything works (calls within Spain, receiving calls from Switzerland, sending and receiving messages within Spain, sending texts to Switzerland) except for text messages from outside Spain - they just never arrive...! I tried everything, went to two different Vodafone shops, called the hotline, asked my flatmate to call the hotline, they did several little things to "help" but so far nothing has changed! This morning I did receive a message from a friend from England, which he had sent Saturday night, but all the other messages I should have received in the meantime are still lost... I'll keep you all updated about this, I'm going back to the store again tonight!
Well, there's not much more to tell at the moment - the weather is fine again, I'll have lunch with a friend from uni now (there's a greek restaurant just round the corner and we'll try that) and I am going for dinner with another student I met on facebook tonight ;)
Feel free to comment on all this, it's always good to hear from you all! ;)

First impressions

Dear all
Wow, where to start with my further first impressions? Well, yesterday was my first day at university here in Valencia, and it was quite interesting. The first class in the morning was about South American colonial literature and the teacher was great, very lively and motivated, so I'm really looking forward to that class! Then I missed a class, because there was an Erasmus information session - which didn't tell us much more that we already knew, but well... ;) the class I had yesterday evening (it's so strange to sit at university until 8 or 9 pm...!) was a bit more boring, again South American literature, but this time from the 20th century.
Then at night I went to a bar a French girl I had met at university told me about, where there's an Erasmus meeting every Monday night. The French girl brought along about 8 other people, who all seemed very nice, and we all had a really good time. They then went on to a little club, and I went to take a look but left soon because I was simply too tired- I had hardly slept at all again the night before... Instead I "met" my boyfriend on skype and we talked until late at night, which was so good, seeing that I already miss him and all the people around me quite much!
And today just seems to be one of those days when everything goes wrong! When I woke up, my flatmate asked me if she could use my shower because hers wasn't working and together we found out that we didn't have any running water in the flat... after lots of waiting, we got a bit, but it was just cold - great start into the day! :P Then I left for university, extremely tired because I had got up again short after 7 to be at uni at 9 - just to find out when I got there that the classes for this morning have been cancelled - which meant that actually, my first class for today is this afternoon at 3! I went back home and slept for an hour! :P
Now I have just met my other flat mate who just arrived from her hometown - I can't yet say much about her seeing that she came with her boyfriend and they are putting all her stuff in her room at the moment..
Well, that's it for now! :) Hopefully talk to you all soon!

Post 1 from Valencia!

Wow here it goes, my first post from Valencia!
I arrived here yesterday around 3 pm, after a good flight with an amazing landing: we came in over the harbour of Valencia and the plane was already so low that I could actually see the university and the house I’m living in!!! Contrary to what I had heard in advance, the weather was beautful and very warm (28 degrees!!!), which made walking to my flat from the metro station (with all the luggage) quite hard – seeing that I was wearing a long sleeved shirt and jeans! But as soon as I had reached the flat, I felt so much better, because one of my flatmates, Luci (that’s the one I had already been in touch with before and whose nice e-mails convinced me that this would be a good flat to live in ;)) was already there and she gave me a very warm welcome and we started chatting straight away. I guess we’ll get along very well, seeing that she is the same age as me, has similar interests and I liked her from the very first moment on. The flat is great, too –as I already wrote, it’s located perfectly: at a 15 minutes walking distance from my department building and in the middle of the students’ area with all the bars, clubs and shops around it!
After I had unpacked at least some of my stuff, I went to one of the nearby supermarkets with my flatmate and we bought something to eat for the evening. We had dinner at home, kept talking about all kinds of stuff and then I already had my first night out, although it was very short: I had „met“ an English guy via Facebook, who is going to study with me here, and we had exchanged lots of e-mails about our future studies and decided to meet as soon as we’re both here. So yesterday night I met him in front of our department and we went to a little bar to have a Sangria together. We started speaking Spanish but he didn’t feel very comfortable and said less and less - so before I would have led the conversation all by myself we changed to English, which was useful for me, too! He seems to be a really nice guy, we got along very well, and I’m really glad that I already know someone before university starts tomorrow!
Well, and today, I just did nothing! :) I got up around 11, after having finally slept well again (the last few weeks have been so nerveracking that I hardly slept at all…) and when I saw that Luci had not even gotten up, I went back to my room and finished unpacking. Then she woke up, too, and we had breakfast together. She told me that she was in the mood for just staying at home, watching TV, doing stuff for university – and seeing that the weather wasn’t great anyway and I don’t yet know anyone to hang out with, I decided to do just the same and stayed at home, too. Which is why I spent pretty much the whole afternoon in my room, reading, looking up last information about my classes on the internet, talking to people on Skype – and it was good! :)
So tomorrow, my Erasmus life really starts. I will keep you updated about my first impressions of all my fellow students, the university, maybe the first erasmus party tomorrow night…

Just a thought

Absence diminishes little passions and increases great ones, as wind extinguishes candles and fans a fire.
This is what keeps me going at the moment, and takes away at least part of the fear the whole going-away-thing is giving me.....