Tuesday May 10th, 2011:
At twelve noon the day before I had said all my goodbyes, gotten all my good luck wishes and was anxiously prepared to go on my first trip to Europe. Around twelve hours later, the airports and planes were behind me and I was officially in Europe. Madrid was a beautiful city of around 6 million people. We went on a bus/walking tour of the city that led us around many popular sights including my favorite, The Museo de Prado. There we saw many pieces of very famous Spanish art. I had seen a few of the pieces before due to my art introduction class in my freshman year of college at Appalachian State.
Our tour then ended at the train station where we took the AVE, or Spain’s high-speed rail system, to Valencia. We then went by bus to our hostel for the 5 nights in Valencia, Hostel Penalty. After freshening up from the long trip, we met the international relations manager for the local college, Stan. We all went to a local tapas restaurant Jamon, Jamon. There we were served bottle after bottle of good wine beer and water; and dish after dish of the best Spanish food I had on the entire trip. I didn’t think they were ever going to stop bringing plates out. With a full stomach and a red face, a large group of us decided to walk off our dinner on the long trip back to the hostel.
Wednesday May 11th, 2011:
Our day started out with a trip to a local business, Fundar. There we were introduced to Nacho, who gave us a presentation on the requirements and processes of non-profits in Spain. There were two options, foundations and Associations. Fundar was a foundation that linked up individuals who wished to volunteer to projects where their help would fit the best. From there we all went to La Paz, a small restaurant by the beach where we again, were stuffed to the maximum with drinks and paella, the local Spanish delicacy. Stan explained to me that there is paella all over Spain, however Valencia’s was the best due to their water coming from desalinization.
After lunch we were all supposed to go on a walking tour of Valencia, but I was a little late, along with Darrin, Will, and Dr. Cazier. Instead, Darrin and I decided to go on a walking tour on our own, there we saw a crowd of people wearing soccer jerseys waiting outside of a hotel by a bus. There were police and guard rails put up so we could only figure that it was the Barcelona team leaving their hotel to prepare for their soccer match in town that evening. After seeing the team, and the chants and whistles for the team when they did depart, I was pretty excited about soccer. Since we had a free night, Will and I decided to go to the match to see one of the most famous teams in the world, and the most famous player in the world, Messi. It was the first professional soccer match I had ever been to, and it will be in the front of my mind for a very, very long time. After returning to an almost empty hostel, we walked down the street to find the rest of the group eating at a restaurant called donner kabob. I had never heard of these before but they definitely hit the spot. I had a lamb sandwich and the Marianis informed me that if you could eat donner kabob, you could eat anywhere in Europe.
Thursday May 12th, 2011
We went on a winery tour at the Tore Oria Winery outside of Valencia. There we saw the entire process of how their cava and wine was made. I found out through a brief interrogation of tour guide that the thousands of acres of vineyards surrounding the winery were not actually their vineyards; they purchased all of their grapes and yeasts from abroad. The tasting was fun and allowed us to carouse around with the other groups there that were on a tour. We met a group of Spanish girls who were in an English program together and I got to practice my Spanish speaking while they practiced their English speaking.
We then went to a try-storming session at the local college where we met Ampara. She was a delightful person who taught us about the up and coming knowledge-based entrepreneurial economy driven by innovation. We learned through quotations from famous individuals across the globe. My favorite quote of the presentation was, “Inside every small problem, there is a large problem trying to get out.” This was my favorite because in my undergrad, Appropriate Technologies, we were taught to break everything down into its simplest form to figure out the larger problems. Also we learned to be in the Now and here, because if you’re not, you’ll be Nowhere. I liked that little play on words and plan on using it in the near future at my new position.
Friday May 13th, 2011:
We all went on a walking tour of Valencia’s most beautiful and famous museums. We saw each museum including; arts, sciences, oceanographic, and their Imax theater, the hemispheric. The group all decided on gaining entrance to the oceanographic museum where we saw exhibits on everything from Tropical seas and wetlands to the seas of the Arctic and Antarctic. My favorites from the day included the dolphin and whale show and the shark tunnel.
From there, Tim, Darrin, and I decided to take a walk to the beach. This adventure turned into about a 30-minute hike, but we saw a lot of interesting sites along the way. Valencia hosts the Americas cup every once in a while, which is the largest boating competition in the world. We walked by the countries team’s warehouses where they store and work on their boats before and during the competition. Next we saw the Formula One racing track, which was awesome. I really wished there was a race there that weekend. However, if there were, there probably wouldn’t have even been standing room on the streets. Finally, we passed their large Port, where there were huge cranes loading and unloading boxes off of large ships. We then ate a small lunch and rested on the beach for the rest of the day.
Saturday May 14th, 2011:
Free day at the Beach.
Sunday May 15th, 2011:
We all were up and ready for our trip to Rome by 9:30. The security at the airport was very lax, I didn’t have to remove my computer from my carry on, nor take off my shoes to go through the detectors. After hanging out in the airport for a couple hours, we boarded for our trip to Rome. Along the flight we went through my first air pocket, which is where a plane falls anywhere from 100 to 1000 feet in altitude. I thought it was awesome; some others were white-knuckled on their seats and armrests after that though.
After arriving in Rome, we went on a guided bus tour to our hotel, Hotel Atlante Gardens. A large group of us, around 14, went walking around Rome and saw a bunch of the sights lit up at night. At dinner, we were bombarded with 10-12 Euro antipastas, or appetizers, that we did not order and of course, ended up paying around 50 euros a piece for dinner. There we met a man who was there for an alumni trip for ETSU. I thought it was amazing that we were 4500 miles away and met someone that lived about 45 minutes away in the states. At the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier I met a family from Chapel Hill. Again, I was taken back from going from the strangeness of Valencia to meeting North Carolinians all over the place in Rome. This is where I decided to stick to very touristy areas for the rest of my trip in order to have the ability to find more English speakers. We then saw the ruins and the coliseum at night and I got some amazing photos, which I will post on ASULearn.
Monday May 16th, 2011:
Due to having some free time until our tour of the Vatican, and a long night of walking around Rome, I slept until about 11:30, which felt great to do after many days with little sleep. Trey, Tim, Will, Alex, and I walked around Rome for a while where we saw the Pantheon and a couple large squares where there were human statues and large obelisks. The Pantheon was amazing, I would have loved to seen it at it’s peak in the early ages.
We then went on our walking tour of the Vatican, which was also amazing. I’ve seen countless photos of the Sistine Chapel and Vatican square but to be there, with the thousands of other people, was great. You could tell that the Vatican sate is the richest state in the world; they have every famous piece of art you can think of in those few buildings, along with tons and tons of rare marbles and stone. I had a great time.
After the Vatican, we went shopping for our families, and I got fitted for my first real Italian Made suit. I’m super duper excited about finding a chance to wear it when I get back to the US. Will and I then found the laundry mat, and washed our clothes until 20:30. After unpacking our laundry, we found the roof of our hotel, which had an amazing view of the city. We also found a full moon to gaze at, good drinks to be had, great friends to hang out with, and great conversations to be had. Afterwards, we found some live music about 10 meters from the hotel. Great day.
Tuesday May 17th, 2011:
I woke up at 7:15 on Tuesday because I left two of my favorite shirts at the cleaners the night before, luckily they had them for me ready to go so I was able to get back to meet the group for our trip to Enel Green Power. I’m glad I did because this was my favorite school related trip that we did. There we met David, who taught us about Enel, the growing global energy demand, and renewable energies. Being an undergraduate of Appropriate Technologies, I was in my prime here. David and I agreed on a lot of things, but there were also differences that we had that I think stemmed from cultural differences.
After the lecture, which was cut short due to some passport problems, we went on a tour of Enel’s hydroelectric power plant outside of Rome. It provides one third of the electricity to Tivoli, two other hydroelectric plants on the same river supply the rest. I had a great time here, and if you do this trip again, I highly recommend you go back and get the full lecture.
We then took a bus tour of Rome where our tour guide was very, very informational. She knew everything about her city, and I admire that. I know it’s her job, but still, dates, times, and facts upon facts. The tour was awesome.
Finally, the tour ended, we quickly changed clothes and went to lunch with the entire group. I had the Quattro Stagione Pizza, which translates to 4 seasons. It was great. After completing our evaluations, we wrapped up the trip with a few words from everybody and called it a night. Thank you guys for this opportunity, I had an amazing time.
-John McFee
