New to Valencia

Welcome on Expat.com Claire.Rafferty

I hope that you will establish lot of contacts via our web community By the way, are you in Valencia for studies or work? How are you finding it so far?

Regards

I'm here working as an au pair. It's really good so far, the weather is much better than Scotland!

hi iam new there also

Hi We are considering moving to Valencia just need to find work, we have an open mind on what we will do. How are you finding things? Did you speak much of the langauge before you went?.Laurence

hi claire, im in the same boat as you. I moved over here for work and am looking to make some more friends. Dont know if you still use this site as your last post was a while ago but if you get this then give me a shout?!

Hi Claire,

I'm thinking about moving to Valencia this autumn to live with my boyfriend, and am going to spend parts of the summer there as well. I would love to meet people there as my boyfriend is the only person I know there.
I also used work as an aur pair but in Sydney. How do you like it?

//Malin

well i would like to meet new people also so let's have a meeting

Sounds like a good idea!

Hi I'm moving over to Valencia in 4 weeks for a teaching job. I been taking Spanish lessons but couldnt be worse at it! Actually havent picked up a word yet Looking to meet some people so I wont to be lonely as I dont know anyone that lives over there yet! Thanks
Eilidh

Hi Eilidh!

Welcome to Expat.com

Armand

Hi Eilidh, right now I'm going back and forth between home and Valencia but going there to stay in the beginning of august. You should definitely let me know when you get there, I'm in the same boat as you. My spanish is really bad too, I'm planning to do a course for a few weeks when I get there to improve my communication skills from just nouns....
So how did you end up getting a job in Valencia? You're going to  teach english I'm guessing?

So let me know when you get there and we can have a beer, take a look at the city or something, would be fun!!

//Malin

Hi just realised i never replied. opps! move over in 6 days getting very excited now. bags are packed just need my plane to arrive! Hopefully i'll be able to make friends, once i get practicing my holas! haha. hows living there going for you?
got a job through a teaching website for the uk, has a section for international jobs and thought why not! not many jobs in scotland anyway, might as well do some travelling!

That's exiting, so you should be arriving anytime now So far so good for me, I been here a lot before though but only visiting so it's different now that I pretty much have to make a life here. But it's good weather and I live by the beach so I can't complain. Have you been to Valencia before?
Had my first Spanish class today as well, so hope I can get my head around the language enough to be able to communicate without the help of my boyfriend. Hablas Español?

Malin from Sweden wrote:

That's exiting, so you should be arriving anytime now So far so good for me, I been here a lot before though but only visiting so it's different now that I pretty much have to make a life here. But it's good weather and I live by the beach so I can't complain. Have you been to Valencia before?
Had my first Spanish class today as well, so hope I can get my head around the language enough to be able to communicate without the help of my boyfriend. Hablas Español?

hey Malin where do you take your lessons how many times/week ? please can you give us more info ?

Im about a 5 minute bus from the beach which is handy! been here for almost a week now and love it. I had only been here once for my interview so that was just a day trip. been doing a lot of touristy things this week so once my boyfriend goes back home next week ill get into normal living.
yo hablo espanol (only a little). i took an intensive course at home. was a 2 hour lesson (with 2 hours of homework) 5 days a week for a month. i thought i had picked up some words, enough to say the odd sentence but really didnt!! struggling to say anything!! Hoping that ill start picking up a little soon since not many people near me speak english. think i might need to start spainish classess here to spead things up!

Eilidh, I hope you're liking it so far! I am moving to Valencia in about a month to teach English, and my Spanish isn't that great yet How hard does it seem to be to communicate with people? My boyfriend is Spanish, and I've had him to rely on when I was in Spain previously. I'm a bit nervous about the language barrier. Any recommendations for fun places to go? It'd be nice to meet other English speakers when I get there!

It can be pretty difficult at times, I've struggled but slowly getting to grips with things. Deciphering what they are saying as they speak so fast is what I found really difficult!
There are a few Irish pubs about and one American pub that I'm aware of, they all do intercambio nights so a great way to meet people both Spanish and English speakers

Well to be honest the only time I've been to anywhere that doesn't speak English is the town hall. But there were people who did and they translated for me. Been able to set up bank account, buy tickets for attractions, find out where places are, ask for directions etc a lot of people speak at least a little English. Have a Spanish flatmate so hoping she will help me learn. I'm teaching too! In a school out in l'Eiiana. What stage you working with? Maybe we can swap lesson plans haha. Have you got a flat yet? I stay right nice to the science center. Love it. Not too noisy and not too many tourists. Makes me feel like a local! Ha. Best places I've been to is the bio park (amazing zoo!!!) and the science and arts center. You get a 3 day pass to the aquarium (great dolphin show) science centre, the IMAX theatre (the Hubble movie, was completely amazing and all in English with headsets but the monkey one and Hubble are all head sets so no background Spanish to distract you) and the dinosaur thingy which was ok. Could see why kids love it. My boyfriend was fascinated...though he still acts like a 5 year old. If you have a car or anything then I would say you should go to oliva a town outside of the city. Near alicante. It has amazing beaches. Quite location and the sea is crystal clear. Not sure about night out places. Kind of stayed away from town because I find it a bit too busy for me, and since I moved over here alone dont really know many people apart from my flatmate. Once I find friends and head out I'll let you know!

My boyfriend is also spanish and I've also been relying on him a lot which has been quite bad for me since I never get to get used to handle situations alone and practice my spanish. But I just spent 3 weeks doing an intensive spanish course which was really good, I really recomend it.
If you're looking to meet people I know that there are some pubs in and around El Carmen that has language exchange nights. I've only been to one of these once but there was quite alot of people and it's probably the best way to meet english speaking people in Valencia.

That's good to know that you haven't had much of a problem communicating! That's one of my biggest worries. Honestly, I'm not positive what level I'm going to be teaching. I think it will be intermediate levels, because it's all English based and obviously I don't speak enough Spanish to teach beginners. I will let you know as soon as I find out though, it would be helpful to swap/share lesson plans! I've never taught an entire class before, so I am kind of nervous about this as well.

And no, I haven't found a flat yet. I have a friend who I can stay with the first 2 or 3 weeks, and I plan on looking seriously for an apartment once I get there. Most of the apartments I've seen are near the universities, so I imagine I'll end up near there. I do love the area you're staying! The ciudad de las artes y las ciencias is so nice! I've heard awesome things about the biopark, and honestly I'm so excited to go there. I'm not in a huge hurry to see the dinosaurs, but maybe eventually haha! I'm glad your boyfriend enjoyed it at least! The 3 day pass sounds like a good deal. I think the biopark is around 25 Euros on it's own, right?

As far as a car, no I don't plan on having one, but I'll have to check out that beach. Have you been to Cullera? It's a really nice beach too! And Alboraya is the home of horchata, and I'm dying to go back there Whenever I arrive in late September, maybe we could meet for merienda one day! I have just a few Spanish friends in Valencia, but I don't want to follow them around the whole time because I won't know anyone else haha!

Malin, thanks for the advice about the El Carmen area! The language exchange night sounds like a cool idea. I'm also going to take some kind of intensive Spanish course. Where did you go for that? Was it in Valencia?

If you want a nice beach and not go all the way out to Cullera there's El Saler, El Perellonet y El Perelló it's a lot closer, just take the yellow bus

I went to Babylon Idiomas. It's right inbetween Plaza de la Reina and Plaza de Ayudamiento (not sure if I spelled that one right) so it's right in the centre of Valencia. I'm really happy with them. All the teachers are spanish and don't speak any english in class so you really have to practice talking and they are very good at explaining grammar, words etc. in spanish so everyone understands. babylon-idiomas.com/

Hello!
I am from Valencia, I have been living in the UK and abroad for two years and I d love to meet people from other countries.

Anybody who wants to meet?visit the city etc?

See you!

hey Claire. I'm also an Au Pair in Valencia, would be cool to share the experience with someone! My main job is to teach English to  the children, so I'm pretty much free while they're at school.  Let me know if you want to get together

Hi Nadia,
I'm pretty much free during the days too, since I'm studying and am completely free to decide over my time. I used to work as an Au Pair in Australia a few years back. But right now I'm here in Valencia living with my boyfriend. I was thinking about visiting the city of science especially the oceanographic sometime during next week,come along if you can!!