Living in Valencia Week 3

Week 3 started with just the typical “Mondays”..work, grocery shopping the Mercado Central, cooking, cleaning, etc.  I love to cook but I miss my cooking gadgets!  🙂 On this day it took K forever to fall asleep!  We recently have given up on the early bedtime here because she seems to be sleeping her full 12 hours even if she goes to bed at 8:30 so we have let her stay up and go to the park with us after dinner. We started that on Tuesday evening. She and Dustin played while I did a short work-out/run to the outdoor machines and came back to the playground. Bedtime went a bit better, she was over tired but Aunt Ash has magic powers and was able to leave the room and have her fall asleep on her own!  Ash might be in charge of bedtime from now on. I’m such a sucker when I’ve worked all day and she is asking for me, I have trouble saying no especially when we are in a “strange or new place.”

This week I had a lot of fun teaching. I incorporated some of the intercultural development activities into the Health Behaviors and Beliefs class that I learned from the CIEE conference I went to last year. In one activity the students were assigned a specific cultural non-verbal rule, for example they had to stand close, they had keep their distance, they don’t make eye contact because it is offensive, smiling during a conversation means it’s not being taking seriously, etc. Then they were instructed to engage in conversation with each other, when the person they are speaking with violates their non-verbal rule, they gave the person violating the rule a toothpick. Then they had to figure out each others non-verbal rules. I think they had a lot of fun! It’s so important as health care providers to remember how our non-verbals impact our patient communication.

Late Wednesday afternoon, the students and our family went to the aquarium called the Oceanographic. It’s expensive but as a group the discount made it much better for all and overall a cool place to see. It was sort of like SeaWorld. They had a dolphin show which Kenley loved! After the show we had Spanish Tapas dishes at a cafe near our home. Even Ashley was adventurous. We had a dish that was potatoes, bacon, and cheese, and the other dish was little quesadillas with basaltic vinegar on top. It had mushrooms inside but the cheese was the main flavor.

Thursday my students and I got to visit a local hospital. Here is a blog post that one of them wrote about the experience! After work we made dinner at home, and again went to the park afterwards. Dustin and K played while I ran down the “river” to the outdoor exercise area did some exercises and ran back.

Friday for lunch, Ashley K and I ate out.  We went to a place called Saona, it was delicious. It is a 2 min walk from our place. Might have to go back! Friday night after work was date night for Dustin and I .. Aunt Ahh-yay stayed with K, they enjoyed a popsicle before bed! K loves popsicles we make at home with just fruit and there is a place steps from our apartment building that has 100% fruit no sugar ones too!