David Day

My morning started with a special guest lecture from a professor at Florida State's satellite campus in Valencia. It was incredible. We learned about Spain’s economy and its social and political perspective. Two interesting facts I learned was that Spain has the largest unemployment rate and the lowest birth rate in the world. He mentioned the history of the Spanish reign dating back to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in the 16th century to today’s ambassadors. The three main things I got out of the lecture was what problems Spain was facing today. The first being corruption; people of power and political parties are using their power to influence elections.  Next, Catalonia is trying to gain its independence from Spain. The third topic is education, which ties into the second topic as well. Catalonia is using their charter schools to teach the kids how Spain has been robbing them and they should separate. The charter schools are also teaching the kids more conservative views even though all of Spain is liberal, it is just a matter of how extreme liberal they are.

After the lecture Kirt and I headed back home where we took a siesta and had lunch with our homestay mom. She cooked spinach, chicken, and bread for us. It was delicious and we had ice cream for dessert. After our siesta, we all visited the MUVIM museum. This was a phenomenal experience full of history. It was so much history I could not absorb it all at once. We all had to line up in a straight line and was shocked when a man in a dark black outfit walked out and waved us in. He looked like a mixture of Darth Vader and Jesus. He walked us in and they had the music playing. It felt like I was in a video game. We watched this projector, while standing up, of space and moved on to view waxed ancient men with audio voices talking for them. They were creating the encyclopedia with the ink and the feather. As we proceeded to walk, we went on this circular object that spanned us around representing when Galileo first found out that the planets could move. This whole part of the tour represented the Enlightenment period. This was definitely a unique museum, but I enjoyed the experience. While I do not have a picture of inside the museum due to them making use turn our phone off, below shows the outside of the museum and a modeled replica of Valencia.

As I was walking back home I took a picture outside of Estació del Nord. This is the most stunning railway station I have ever seen. After making it home, my homestay served Kirt and I pizza, french fries, and bread. To wrap up the night we went down to the local pub and talked Spanish with American students who have been here since January. It was great talking Spanish with them because they knew our struggle. I enjoyed hearing their experiences in Valencia and they seemed so excited to chat with Americans because they barely see any. Everyone enjoyed this event and it was nice to hear their thoughts on Valenica.