My Life in Valencia

A belated Happy New Year to you all! It’s hard to believe that we are almost at the end of February already. The last couple of months have been busy both with work and socially which is good. The moment I got back to Valencia, I hit the ground running with work, welcoming a new 170 or so new study abroad students. We also opened up the second floor of our new annex renovation and I got to move into my new permanent office. Once the renovation is done (still a little ways off), I´ll try to take a video tour of it for everyone.

So far in 2025 I have been focusing on building my community outside of Berklee and so I have been going out a lot with friends. One of my former faculty colleagues from Hampshire spent the month of January in Valencia and it was fun meeting up with her and showing her different parts of the city. I also went to a fashion show…my first ever, and went to a cool exhibit of Picasso and Sorrolla (a Valencian artist).

I also got back into yoga and my running training after taking much of the month of December off. March 2 I am running my first 10K road race so I’ve been gearing up to it with the help of my amazing trainer, Katherine. A couple weekends ago we did her beloved 10K Bridges route. We met at the Palau de la Música and then weaved our way down to the City of Arts and Sciences and then back up all the way to the Torres de Serrano and back to the Palau de la Música. You can see the route and the pictures of our run below. The idea was that we ran between each bridge, crossed it walking, and then ran on the other side to the next bridge, crossed back over etc. (you get the idea). When walking on the bridges Katherine took pictures to mark our route. The last photo you can see Berklee in the distance. Super fun!

Hard to believe it but tomorrow is the kickoff of Fallas, la Criada. I´m looking forward to seeing all the festivities and the Fallas themselves but I am not looking forward to all the noise and crowds. Next week the students and I will go check out the Ninots and vote on our favorite to be saved from the fires. I will be sure to take videos and photos of all the Fallas mania and of course of my first ever 10K. I am very excited!!