The weeks fly by!

The big news last week was that I contacted my attorney to start the process to renew my student visa for next year. I’m needing a lot more Spanish studies. And I’m loving living here. If you’ve been reading this blog, you know that I have had plenty of cultural and logistic frustrations. Even so, I regularly stop and think, “Wow! I live here!” I feel gratitude for all of it.

The other thing I’ve started working on is exploring the possibility of getting citizenship with Slovakia! My maternal great grandparents were born there. If I can obtain citizenship with an EU country, it would make staying in Spain much easier if I decide that’s the right thing for me.

This week, I hosted a couch surfer (John) from Chicago. He’s in Spain for a yoga retreat. Before going to Barcelona, he spent the week here, exploring Valencia.

John and I went to the beach one day. We went to the City of Arts and Sciences another.

And on Saturday, we went with my friend Rafael from Argentina to see a government building for Valencia that is not normally open to the public.

Choir is starting work on Faure’s Requiem, which will be part of our Christmas concert. Here’s the music we’re preparing.

I’ve started watching a Netflix series called Breathless about a fictional hospital here in Valencia. I watch an episode in Spanish with Spanish subtitles and then I rewatch it in Spanish with English subtitles to see what I missed. I mention this because 1) it’s a way I’m working on my Spanish skills and 2) because it was filmed here and there are many shots of locations that I know, the most prominent of which is the building that I go to twice a week for choir rehearsals. It is same the building they use for exterior shots of the hospital. If you watch it, every time you see the front of the hospital, you’ll know that’s where I am twice a week.

To make it even more personal, in one episode, I saw my friend, Mar as an extra!

Sunday, I went with Rafael to the opera!

We saw Massenet’s Manon. Wow! It was fabulous! The sets, the costumes and the singing were amazing. The choreography was creative and enchanting. The Les Arts building is an incredible opera venue. And the work they do lives up to this great space!

The show started at 6 pm. Afterwards, we went to dinner at 10 pm, because that’s what you do in Spain.

This week will be relatively quiet for me. No couch surfers, no guests, just school, choir and Dima. Wednesday is a state holiday, recognizing the founding of Valencia by King James I.

The weather here is getting cooler (highs in the 70’s to low 80’s). It’s beautiful.

Have a great week!