My main goal in coming to Spain was obviously to better my Spanish. I, of course, wanted it to be The Jhonni Experience and to experience all kinds of growth- personal growth as far as attitudes, worldly perceptions, and independence; the growth of all kinds of knowledge- cooking, living on my own, dealing with roommates, attending an international school and dealing with an entirely different school system, etc; and lack of personal.. personal growth in the fact that I wanted to become healthier in how I eat, live, travel, to drop a few pounds, and also become accommodated to this lifestyle as I would like to take it back with me to the US. So back to the Spanish part.

While it is difficult to make friends anywhere and I do have a touch of language barrier opposing me [but more of a cultural one], it really is hard for me to make Spanish friends in Spain. As I have said, I have tons of new friends that are international students, but my Spanish friends are few. Diana was my first. One day before a class I later dropped, a girl approached a group of friends and I when we were speaking English and asked where we were from. From this sparked a long conversation and we found out that she was from Valencia. Her English was quite good and she asked us if we wanted to have lunch with her later. Our friendship with Diana blossomed and she introduced us to Sofía and Paula and Jenny and now we are all friends. Apart from them, as I mentioned in my last blog, I am friends with Jose from the excursion. Apart from this I have a few acquaintances. There is a girl from my Syntax class [with crazy cool highlights] that I see out and about everywhere. Her name is Julia. Another girl named Laura added me on Facebook and we have been talking and are planning to meet for a tandem soon.

I had previously gotten a bunch of names from a list and emailed people to see if they wanted to tandem. I finally came across someone that was free/responded and her name is Ana. Come to find out, she is not even a student, is 30ish, has 2 kids and lives with her boyfriend/baby’s daddy, and works at the school. She is super nice even though we don’t relate too much. We met one Monday before Fallas and spoke for an hour. Her English isn’t too good but she tries really hard and is super nice. We also met last Monday and are planning to meet again next Monday. So I have my Monday set up.

And every Tuesday night there is a group tandem at the Sofa Club, a restaurant at the mall [I have yet to shop at (but there’s a really great Chino nearby!)]. About 50 or so people go to that every Tuesday at 7 and I have been most Tuesdays and plan to continue. From that I have met some interesting folks: Raúl, a local Valencian PE teacher, Dario and Marco- two Italian dudes working here in Valencia, and Laura, a girl from Finland, and a few others I only know by face. Tuesday, check! Apart from that I have yet to meet the other Laura and there is one other girl. Monday night I was walking home with two other girls and a girl riding a bike circled and stopped right in front of us. She asked us where we were from and if we ever wanted to do a tandem. I had my pen and paper out before she could finish.

I think it important to have a more consistent tandem partner and while Ana and I meet every Monday, we don’t have that certain connection and once a week just isn’t enough. Maybe Marisa will be that person for me.