Living the Spanish Dream
After almost one month in Spain, I can say I am very happy to be here. It’s my first time in Spain and I’m already learning a lot from the language, the culture, the food …
I arrived here at the beginning of January 2023. Sadly, the first few days were mainly made of cleaning, tidying, organizing everything. At least, my mother was here to make it lighter and funnier. Of course, I visited Valencia and Quart de Poblet. I was quite surprised by my city which happened to be more active than what I had imagine! Associations, activities, markets, improvisation festivals, campaigns (among others, one I will present very soon) … I’m looking forward to discovering what Quart has to offer! Valencia capital is a nice city, I love wandering through the Turia gardens. The region is very sunny, and I like having fruits above my head in most streets. Life is good around here, definitely.
Secondly, I am also here to improve my Spanish. Coming with a B1 level, the first two weeks have been hard. Luckily, what they say about living in a country to learn does work, yet I still think it’s important to be active. I have been speaking Spanish every day since I have started to work, and I try to watch Spanish-speaking shows and TV and to do some exercises a few times a week. Working in a Spanish environment helped me to feel at ease but I still need to dare more! In Valencia, I also met a few French students (or expats) and it was nice to be able to express all my thoughts for once.
Finally, I should tell you more about my culinary experiences (because eating and cooking are my secret passion but ssshh). Coming to Valencia, I had to taste paella. During my first week, I went to a restaurant and had a paella del Senyoret (with seafoods) and during the last days of the month I tried a more traditional paella at church, one valenciana (with chicken, rabbit and snails) and one with vegetables. This is a only a small idea of all the diversity of paella and food here!
What are my next steps? First of all, meeting new people (not French); secondly, visiting other places around Valencia; thirdy, more food! and finally, sharing my city with my friends back home. I hope that next month I will write about all of the above 😉
