More Pacific Coast

Today we drove from Eureka and continued our way north stopping through Redwood National Park.  The man at our hotel in Eureka gave us some advice on what to see inside the Redwoods and it was great information!  He told us to go to a place called "Fern Canyon" which required driving down a scenic dirt road for about ten miles.  We were concerned about the Mustang making it but it turns out that car can somewhat be considered an "off road vehicle" sometimes... maybe once a year.... on a good day....  Fern Canyon was beautiful!  It was were one of the Jurrasic Park movies was filmed so you can imagine the "out of this world" scenery we found there.  The park used to be submerged under the ocean about 300 million years ago and as the sea retreated it carved this deep canyon which is where we found ourselves today.  There is still a decent sized stream that runs down the canyon and the walls of the canyon are about one hundred feet tall.  The walls of the canyon are covered in "Five Finger Ferns," ferns that look like they have five long fingers...  In the floor of the canyon are massive stumps from trees that have died and fallen into the canyon.  The trees are now covered in all sorts of different types of mosses and creepy critters.  It was nice to walk through this canyon and get out of the car for a bit.  The man that took our money at the entrance was very surprised to see us there at 8 am and commended us for being the go getters we are!  It's worth it to get places early in my opinion, there wasn't another soul in the canyon when we went and as we were leaving the parking lot afterwards about five different minivans full of people showed up.  

After the Fern Canyon we drove through a place called Elk Meadows which contains a species of elk that were on the verge of extinction but now survive in small quantities in the Redwoods.  This type of elk are known as Roosevelt elk and they live in the grassy fields on the outsides of the forest.  Back in the 50's Elk Meadows was owned by a farmer so a lot of foreign grasses still grow in this meadow and that is mostly what the elk eat.  Because of this habitat the elk pretty much stay put (like the deer in Mount Olivet Cemetary in SLC) and so it is very likely you will see this herd when you drive through.  We were in fact fortunate enough to see the elk (and the cute babies!) and we took a lot of awesome pics!  

After Elk Meadows we took the scenic drive through the Redwoods and saw all of the massive trees.  Maya fell asleep on our way out and I saw another sign telling us to "drive through a tree" and after feeling so defeated from the day before I decided it was probably best not to wake Maya up and to keep driving...  The rest of the drive was pretty but mostly uneventful.  I passed another big herd of elk (Maya was still asleep).  Turns out driving is quite boring when the co-pilot is asleep.... 

As we crossed the border into Oregon we were instantly connected back to the coast.  We saw crystal blue water and amazing black cliffs and rocks which added a nice contrast to the white sand.  The Oregon coast has been very beautiful so far and right now we are in Coos Bay Oregon at a local Motel 6.  We each get our own bed which is fancy and we have a great view of the parking lot and our car which... hey I'm not complaining it's nice to be able to keep an eye on your car! 

Tomorrow we are driving the rest of the way through Oregon and into Washington where we will camp in a place called Chinook.  I probably won't have WiFi to post but I will write anyways and post it when I can.  I had a similar situation today... The Motel 6 is playing a cruel joke on us and making us pay $2.99 to use the WiFi... I mean come on who pays for WiFi in hotels anymore get with the times... It's not even the principle of the thing that has kept me from paying the $2.99 (I'm still feeling bitter about the wasted $5 on a tree we couldn't even drive through...).  The reason I have not paid for this service is because you have to enter your credit card information online and I'm just not sure I really want to do that... If I could just hand the lovely lady at the front office some cold hard cash that might be one thing.... But I digress 

We will be in touch and hopefully I will have this posted tomorrow morning! (7/31)

Pacific Coast Travels

Sorry I have not been blogging regularly.... It has taken us a while to get into the swing of things... driving all day, checking in and out of hotels, getting gas, food, ect.  So far things have been going great and the scenery has been beautiful!

Our journey began in Salt Lake City and on our first day we made our way to Reno Nevada.  If you have ever been anywhere in the state of Nevada you know what I'm saying when I say how horrible that state is...  There is nothing redeeming about Nevada besides the fact that I-80 is incredibly straight and you can quickly make your way to the border.  We stayed in a very nice hotel that night in Reno (Holiday Inn Express will never disappoint me) and we made the good decision to leave our room as little as possible.  We at at the local Applebees and stopped by the Harley Davidson store next to our hotel but other than that we were safely inside of our hotel and blissfully unaware of the nastiness outside of our window.

We promptly left Reno and found ourselves at Lake Tahoe.  Leaving Nevada we had to cross the border into California...  As we were approaching the gate I remembered that California always checks the produce coming in and out of the state..  I quickly remembered that I stole two apples that morning from our hotel in Reno and that they were currently hiding in the backseat in our very apparent red cooler.  Maya and I start shouting about whether or not we should lie to this man about said apples.. They looked so delicious did I really want to expose their identity and risk having them taken captive by this man in an orange vest? If we lied and said we didn't have any apples would he somehow know we were lying and then arrest us on the spot? We both decided it wasn't worth lying about and as we approached the gate the first question the man asked was "where are you coming from?" Where am I coming from? What is that supposed to mean? "UTAH!" I blurt out not knowing if I should have said that or Reno... I knew what question was coming next "Do you have any produce with you?" He asks looking in the backseat... "YES! WE HAVE TWO APPLES!" I almost shout... (I am not good at lying).  The man in the vest starts laughing at us realizing how nervous we were and told us we were fine and that our apples most likely came from California if we got them from our hotel in Reno.  We thanked him and were quickly on our way.  (Those apples were delicious and I'm glad we didn't have to sacrifice them to this man in the bright vest).

Lake Tahoe was beautiful and we took a route around half of the lake and ended up on the outskirts of San Francisco.  San Francisco wasn't too spectacular... We waited in traffic for over an hour and.... yep that's about it.

After that we went down highway 1 and saw our first glimpse of the ocean from the highway.  It was a very exciting moment.  We spent some time in Half Moon Bay which was a really fun surf town.  On one side of highway 1 were a a lot of farms with rows of some sort of plant life and the other had views of the ocean.  It was great.  We spent some time on the beach before heading to Redwood City to spend the night at a cheap motel.  Redwood City is a fun little city with lots and lots of restaurants.  It was fun to walk around for a minute but we were also tired and quickly retreated to our room for some sleep.

Today we continued our way back through San Francisco (still glad we escaped that traffic) and up north to Eureka.  On our way we stopped at a couple beaches and took some photos and stretched our legs.  Maya (the champ) drove almost all day today while I had to close my eyes because "I was experiencing motion sickness."  :)
We passed through a mini Redwood Forest which was really fun.  On our way we kept seeing signs saying "COME DRIVE THROUGH A TREE!!!!" We were stoked... To say the least.  We faithfully followed the signs and quickly made our way to this famous tree.  We pull up to a gate and a lady asks us for five dollars "It's going to be worth it" Maya told me as we handed the lady our precious five dollar bill.  We followed a windy dirt road commenting on how pretty the landscape was... We felt like we found this secret gem and we felt like we were exploring a new land.  Well we get to this tree and it is not nearly as big around as we were expecting...  There was a line of minivans in front of us creeping their way toward this tree you can drive through.  We made fun of them as we waited in line for creeping through so slowly but before long it was finally our turn! We approached excitedly but quickly realized we probably weren't going to fit.... There we were making fun of the minivans for driving slowly and then it turns out we couldn't even fit at all!  The Mustang is a really wide car and the rearview mirrors don't fold in.... We backed up in shame and drove around the tree to the parking lot.  We thought we would find redemption in the gift shop but this was obviously a big tourist scam... The gift shop was full of crap (it was seeping from the port-a-potties outside... sorry TMI!)  BUT we recovered from this fail and continued on our way.  We drove down the Avenue of Giants which contains some Redwood Trees much like the ones I'm assuming we will find tomorrow in the national park.  Eureka has some charm but it is definitely a town I won't exactly miss.  I need to go do some research about where we are going tomorrow so I must part.  Sorry it took me so long to post this first entry I promise I will be better! Thank you loyal readers and I will keep you updated! 

More photos!!

Here is a mixture of some final photos of Oviedo. Most of these pictures are of places that I saw daily and didn't realize how much I would miss... Tonight I am in Madrid preparing for our next adventure but it was extremely sad leaving Oviedo this morning. There is a photo here of me and my friends with our Spanish professors.

Bittersweet Post (Final Post for Oviedo)

WARNING: I usually take time to somewhat revise my posts before posting them but I needed to get this post out before I leave Oviedo tomorrow so what you have here is just a random stream of consciousness over the past week or so. I apologize for any grammar mistakes! Enjoy or as they say in Spain... "Disfruten!"

It's probably about time I posted a new blog entry... If I could manage to keep this updated daily I wouldn't have to deal with the struggle of trying to remember everything five days later and then try to write it all down in one long exasperated entry. But once again here it goes!

Since our free weekend I have had many adventures... Mostly consisting of going to class, going home and trying to communicate with my host mom, afterwards going and playing cards at McDonalds, and then coming home and going to bed. Now I do have to explain myself with the whole McDonalds situation... First of all I need to explain just how nice this particular McDonalds is in Oviedo. It is three levels with very nice leather seating and now they have these fancy machines where you can order everything on a computer and then they have your food ready for you by the time you get to the cashier. Also the servings here are for normal people and the "large" is a manageable size rather than these so called "super sizes" we have in America. They also have WiFi. Most importantly though most of the time we go there so we don't have to worry about paying money at a cafe to get some overpriced mediocre muffin... most of the time we walk in to McDonalds and march right upstairs without buying anything and then spend the rest of the evening playing Hearts (most of the time I win.. hehe). Now despite the American connotation associated with McDonalds it is always full of Spaniards and I actually feel like I'm learning a lot about them while I spend hours in McDonalds. Long story short... the people watching is fantastic, we don't have to pay to sit and play cards and use their WiFi, and occasionally the food is actually quite good.

In fact I have only had negative experiences trying to play cards elsewhere and "immersing myself in the culture." One of our professors recommended that we buy churros con chocolate at this cafe called "Valor." So we headed there after school one day and sat down at a small table outside... The waitress was annoyed with our lack of communication abilities and once again we were left feeling like sad defeated baboons (a feeling I am VERY used to at this point). She comes back with our churros and leaves the check on the table. We enjoyed our churros and then decided it was time to play cards. We were playing for a few minutes when the wind picked up so we decided to move our game inside. The waitress had been glaring at us the entire time and when she saw that we were heading inside she ran over and said in Spanish: "you can't go in there with those" glaring at us with our cards. There was only one table with people at it inside and they looked like they were just sitting there enjoying some muffins... There weren't any tables full of people outside either! AND to make matters worse a homeless man walked right inside this so called fancy cafe and started selling some of his trinkets to the customers inside the restaurant. We just sat there and laughed... The cafe was obviously too fancy for us to play cards inside but apparently not fancy enough to kick a homeless man out who was selling what looked to me like voodoo dolls.

Anyways sorry for the brief digression about McDonalds, now onto more important things!

These last couple weeks I've had my first bar scene encounters in Oviedo (and my last as well). It's always weird when your professor encourages you go to bars and drink but I've started getting more used to it. Our professor set up what they called a "tandum" at a local Irish pub in town (I felt so at home! haha) The tandum was for the students from the University of Utah studying Spanish and for a group of students from Oviedo studying English to have a chance to talk to each other. I was nervous to go but it was one of the most rewarding experiences I've had here! The students were a bit older than us but they were really fun to talk to! They were so curious about the U.S and I felt comfortable talking because they were understanding of my trouble with Spanish like I was understanding of their trouble with English. They would ask us questions in English and we would respond to them in Spanish. It was nice because I always fully understood the questions I was being asked! I told them I was a Political Science major so they asked me a lot about current U.S politics. One of the things that confuses them the most is our current health care crisis. They aren't critical but one of them asked me "so... do people really not like the idea of having national healthcare? Do they not want health care provided by the government? Haven't you seen the success of it in Canada and Sweden?" I felt so stupid trying to convey the idea that some people are simply arguing against it just for the sake of arguing and that no we haven't looked at the success in other countries because we like to think that we always know what's best and don't like to follow the ideas of others. I had to tell him that it's confusing to me as well and that the idea of "big government" is a really old mentality in the U.S dating back to the very beginning and that it's still around today! It was really interesting to talk about though and they also had a lot to say about the current economic crisis in Spain as well. The bar was really fun and made me wonder why I hadn't gone before. The main guy in charge of everything was in his 50's and went and bought my friend and I a delicious beer. It's still a weird thing for me to drink alcohol, especially around my professors because I'm still technically underage at home but the drinking age in Asturias is 16 so it's very normal for a 20 year old like myself to drink beer. I'm really glad he bought us the beer though because I normally hate beer but for some reason that beer was delicious!

Anyways after visiting the Irish bar on Friday we prepared for our excursion on Saturday morning. We first met at an old cathedral and were given a tour. This cathedral we saw is pre-romanesque and still contains the paint on the walls from back then. It was so cool! After visiting the cathedral we headed over to the national park to kayak down the river (Rio de Sella if I'm not mistaken). It was an absolute blast. It took us a minute to get the hang of kayaking in the river (at one point we were sailing backwards) but the river was very mild and thankfully, very forgiving as well. The river was extremely wide and extremely clear. We could see giant fish swimming below us as we sailed down the river. We were given wetsuits thank goodness because it was pretty cold and we were kayaking in a mountain river. Most of the girls I was with were freaking out asking each other if they were going to wear a wetsuit because they obviously weren't the most fashionable items but my friend Becca and I grabbed them and strapped them on like champs. The rest of the girls just stared at our confidence (or lack of caring about fashion) and they followed our lead. Honestly I just wore one because I was cold and I didn't care what I looked like as long as I was warm! They gave us these sealed buckets with our lunches inside and we also put our rain jackets and cameras inside. It was a good thing because at one point it started pouring rain and by the time we were done with the trip we were soaking wet and decided to just dive into the river. It was so fun! We stopped halfway down the river and sat on the rocks and ate our lunches. We had some spectacular views of the green mountains surrounding us. Kayaking was a very memorable moment for me during this trip.

On Sunday we decided to go back to the beach one last time before we got ready to leave the following week. It was really fun until the storm started blowing in in the afternoon and we had to run for the hills (literally, we had to find a wall to hide behind so the wind wouldn't get us. We weren't too prepared for cold since we were going to the beach!)

So far my last week in Oviedo has been very bittersweet. I am so excited to go back to Madrid and visit Toledo this weekend and to head to Paris and Rome but I am really going to miss Oviedo. I'm so glad we got to spend a majority of our time here. It is definitely my favorite city to study in because it's small and pretty but at the same time they have the university and some cool malls with plenty of people watching to be had. My friends and I have really enjoyed hanging out at the parks here and visiting the local markets. I've really enjoyed the opportunity to spend a lot of time here and really embrace the Oviedo lifestyle (minus the excessive partying on weekends until 6 am).

Tomorrow is my last day and we had our final exam today. Of course I have been stressed about my grades but I'm used to this because I always stress about my grades. This afternoon my friends and I are going to meet up and play cards one last time together. After that we are going to go our separate ways to pack and then we are going to meet up at midnight (may God have mercy on my soul) to go to a karaoke bar to celebrate the end of classes. We don't have to be at school tomorrow until 10 am so I will most definitely use the extra time to sleep! At school tomorrow we are just going to say goodbye to our professors and have a small "graduation" ceremony. Afterwards my friend Ryan and I are going to go eat at an American diner in town called "Peggy Sues" I've heard it's really good and I'm excited to see what they think Americans are like in this diner. I think the name is hilarious.... It's been pretty stormy this week which made for some awesome photo-taking opportunities but today (the first day of summer) is nice and sunny so I think we will go to the park for a while as well!

I'm off to Madrid and then to Paris and Rome this weekend so I think my blogging might be even more sparse than it already has been and I apologize for this. If I am slacking too much feel free to send me an email and I'll respond I promise! you can send me an iMessage if you don't have my email.

Thank you my loyal readers and I will do my best to keep you updated! Can't wait to see everyone in about a week!

Pictures from the Weekend

Great Weekend in San Sebastián and Bilbao!

Right now I have the choice between writing my blog in Spanish for my class in Oviedo... Or writing my fun blog in English... I think it's pretty apparent which one I am choosing. My weekend can simply summed up into one word: "wow." Wow what an incredible weekend. San Sebastián and the Guggenheim in Bilbao were definitely highlights from my trip so far.

The weekend started when I walked to the bus station on Friday afternoon to prepare for our departure to San Sebastián that afternoon. Of course I was there about 45 minutes early when realistically I could have arrived about 10 minutes early and would have been just fine but... knowing me and more importantly knowing the bus strike that was going on at the time I figured I would be better safe than sorry. Once I got to the bus station I realized that none of the boards were lit up to tell you which platform your bus would be on... At this point I realized that I would have to struggle through yet another conversation with someone at the bus station in Spanish. I walked inside and saw that every platform was filled with a bus but as far as I could tell there weren't any bus drivers and no one seemed to be getting on the buses. I had checked the night before to see if our buses were still going but of course me being me I jumped to conclusions and thought we were going to be stranded in Oviedo and would not only miss out on our weekend in San Sebastián but that I would also be out the money that we spent for a hostel. After reaching these conclusions I decided I needed to go ask someone what was going on and where my bus was (assuming there still was one). I saw that the line had about 20 people in it and only one person working behind the counter. As I'm waiting in line I am adding everything up in my head: the board isn't lit up, there are no bus drivers, there are too many buses, the line is so long even if I do finally get the chance to talk to the one person working at the entire bus station I would probably miss the bus if it was in fact still going.... and finally... I am going to die in Oviedo. To make matters worse this man in line in front of me started talking to me and he said "no hay autobuses hoy" I couldn't tell if he was asking me if there weren't any buses that day or if he was telling me that there weren't any buses that day but regardless I freaked out even more. After talking to him for a few minutes I found out that he was an "extranjero" (tourist) as well. My friends also showed up eventually and it turned out that our bus was in fact still scheduled to go to San Sebastián that day. Because of the shortage of buses it took us about 6 hours to get there because we had to make what seemed like forty five stops on our way to there.

Despite the minor heart attack the bus ride was incredibly peaceful and beautiful. We followed the ocean most of the way there. Northern Spain is unique in the fact that they have many green mountains and once you get to the coast these mountains drop straight off into the ocean which makes for some really beautiful scenery. On top of that they also have the most pristine white sand beaches to sit on and enjoy the views. My friends and I really look forward to bus rides because they are some of the few precious moments where we aren't rushing from place to place trying to figure out how to stay alive and we can just sit back and enjoy some cherished American music. Even though I complained about the fact that we made fifteen million stops on our way to San Sebastián I actually really enjoyed it because it gave me a glimpse of even more small Spanish towns every single one containing at least one pretty church we could see from the bus.

Once we finally got to San Sebastián our next quest was finding our hostel. I had the name of the hostel and the street name and general location of where it was but that was it. The hostel was located in the old part of town which has very small, narrow, curvy, confusing, streets that are almost impossible to navigate rationally. We wandered down the main road through the town which was right next to this big river that is formed by the ocean and divides the town into two. The lamposts that lined the bridges along the road reflected off the dark water which was really pretty. There were also several statues that were quite impressive at night as well. Just walking down the street, even at night, I knew immediately that I would love this town. It is a classic European town and every time you picture what Europe would look like that stereotype would fit San Sebastián. The cobble stone roads lined with tall trees and the most beautiful historic architecture I have seen thus far. Once we got off this main road and started attempting to navigate the small paths that lead to our hostel (I say path because they basically were... no cars allowed and filled with people). We ran into many interesting characters in our journey to our hostel and most of them would begin to speak to us in Spanish and then by the looks on our faces would quickly turn to English asking us if we wanted to go to the bars with them... I was so shocked by the number of people that tried to hit on us in the five minutes it took us to find our hostel (we were determined to find it quickly to escape the drunken fools chasing us through the streets). Despite all of this trauma at first it was really funny to look back on and in fact I have a really funny story as an example of how dumbfounded I was by the forwardness of these boys on the street.

As we were walking down the street a kid on a bike rode up next to me and either because he was drunk or because he was too busy staring at me instead of the road a head of him almost kept running me over.. Regardless this is how the conversation went
boy: "hey girl what is your name?
me: jaw drops continued with a long awkward pause
boy: tried some other combination of words thinking I didn't understand him
me: long long pause followed by a faint... "Jaime??"
at this I walk quickly away from him and my friend Becca looks over at me and says... "Jaime? Of all the names Liv really??" and at this we all burst out laughing... this exchange with the incredibly drunk boy quickly became a highlight of the weekend. It's not that I am not used to getting creeped on because I definitely am... I think it was just a combination of stepping off the bus in a new strange city and being approached by millions of drunk kids while trying to find where we were going to sleep for the night was just all too overwhelming. I was not expecting boys to be crawling out of the woodwork (bars) and yelling at us on the street so I was completely shocked. It was really funny to look back on now because whenever someone yelled at us "Hey where's the party?!" we all just stared back at them with our jaws dropped... what I sight we must have been that first night.

Once we successfully arrived at our hostel it was time for some rest before our big morning. I was really excited to see what San Sebastián would look like during the day because I was already quite impressed with it in the dark. Our hostel was actually quite pleasant and they had a kitchen with breakfast in the morning but most importantly they had coffee!

After enjoying a lovely breakfast we went out in search of Bocadillos... Earlier on our trip I finally figured out a good way to eat good food and save money, it is by buying what is called a bocadillo. You have to be careful though because they have bocadillos everywhere and some cost a lot more than others. Bocadillos is basically the word in Spain for sandwich so of course there are all different shapes, sizes, and types of bocadillos. One afternoon when we were in a city north of Oviedo called Gijón I walked into this little tiny fruit store in search of something to eat. I saw a small paper sign that said "Bocadillos de Jamon" (ham sandwich) I asked how much it was and ordered one. The lady grabbed some fresh baked bread and loaded my sandwich with a lot of freshly sliced jamon and queso. The ham in Oviedo is very delicious and doesn't taste or look like it does in the United States. It looks more like pastrami and has a very mild but delicious flavor. When you order "jamon" the butcher grabs an entire pig leg (yes hoof still intact) and they slice some meet off of the leg. After I found this grand bocadillo in Gijón I've been searching for them everywhere we go. In San Sebastián we ran into many cafes that claimed to have bocadillos but they were about four euros for the size of a roll. The trick to finding cheap and filling bocadillos is to not look in a cafe but rather a small fruit stand like store. Eventually we found this very small fruit stand and squished our way to the back of the store and asked the lady if she had bocadillos. She was very kind and made us delicious sandwiches. We grabbed some fruit as well and headed to the beach.

The beaches in San Sebastián are some of the best beaches I have ever seen. In the summer (July and August) San Sebastián is packed with tourists but thankfully we haven't reached tourist season yet and we were basically alone on these pristine beaches. We were probably also alone because it was mostly cloudy all day and we had to wear our jackets most of the time. Sometimes we also had to run for cover when it started raining. Some might have been disappointed in this weather but to me it made the beaches and the ocean even prettier! I was also happy because I was able to take much better photos when it wasn't blazing sunlight.

After enjoying our bocadillos and avoiding the rain we decided to walk around the city and visit several shops. There are two beautiful cathedrals in San Sebastián as well. There are many beautiful historic buildings that line the beaches which was truly the best of both worlds.. I could sit on the beach and enjoy the rich history all at the same time.

Later in the afternoon we decided to go to the other beach in which isn't protected in a cove like the other beach we had visited earlier so the waves were much bigger... In fact these were some of the biggest waves I have ever seen. I was thankful to be observing them from the shore rather than first hand. Not only were they massive but they crashed one after another pretty consistently. This beach is considered to be one of the best surfing beaches in Europe and now I could see why.

Later that evening we decided to be adventurous and seek out some authentic food for dinner. I have to say eating out is not one of my favorite things to do in Spain... I never get full from the portions and everything is always incredibly overpriced. Not to mention I never understand the menus, although sometimes it's kinda fun not knowing what you are ordering. To make matters worse in the restaurants in San Sebastián is that most of the menus at the restaurants there aren't in Spanish but in Basque with a lot of x's and k's... I had no idea how to even begin pronouncing most of the things I was trying to read. We ended up at a restaurant with food already out on the bar which I found helpful and I just pointed at random things and ordered them. At first Becca and I weren't feeling very adventurous so we ordered the familiar "tortilla" (the egg and potato omelette type thing). After that I ended up ordering us a fried crepe with cheese and salmon in it which was delicious! We also ordered some risotto which was also good. Once again we paid about ten euros and were still starving once we left the restaurant. We decided we just needed to stick to our bocadillos and gelato in order to stay within our budget.

The two beaches in San Sebastián come together to form a point in the middle which is where you can find the old part of town. This point is also a small mountain with a statue of Christ at the top. It is incredibly green so we decided to walk up the path and check things out. Turns out there was an old castle nestled within the trees on this mountain with the Christ statue on top. At the top we had a view of both beaches and the entire city. The statues and parts of the castle were covered in moss and flowers. I felt like I was living in a fairy tale!

Once we left San Sebastián we headed for Bilbao for the night so we could wake up early and visit the Guggenheim museum. Bilbao was a dramatic change from San Sebastián. It's an incredibly dirty and depressed city. We walked by a park that I'm pretty sure has turned into the town dump. It was really sad somewhat gross to see. Let's just say we were glad to check into our hotel and go to sleep so we could wake up early to get to the museum. Becca and I woke up at 6 am in order to get ready and check out of the hotel and make our way to the museum before it opened at 10 am. Granted we had given ourselves probably about three hours to many to accomplish all of this but we were too excited to sleep. In the morning we attempted to find some food but the streets were absolutely dead... at 8 am... on a Sunday... It got so bad that we actually ended up back at the bus station and ordered food at the run down restaurant there. We ended up paying almost ten euros each for a mediocre breakfast but hey that's life. I got some coffee and that was all that mattered.

Because Bilbao is such an undesirable city we headed back to the Guggenheim as quickly as possible. It still confuses me why such an amazing building ended up in Bilbao but I'm not going to question it. Outside of the museum there is a giant statue of a dog made completely out of flowers which we thought was really cute. They love dogs in Spain so I had to wonder if that was the reason for this giant statue. Becca and I of course were the first ones in line (just like at the Prado in Madrid). We sat and anxiously waited for the security guard to unlock the doors.

The inside of the Guggenheim is just as impressive as the outside. When we bought our admission tickets they gave us free audio guides in English as well. I really enjoyed the audio guides and felt like I had an insight to some paintings and artists that I otherwise wouldn't have had. I learned that an important part of the Guggenheim is intertwining art with architecture and I can tell you they did a superb job of doing so. What made the Guggenheim even more exciting was the fact that they were having a huge David Hockney exhibition at the time. If you aren't familiar with David Hockney I strongly suggest you look up his work online. He is one impressive artist. Becca and I spent a good five hours at the Guggenheim looking at absolutely everything. The nice thing about the museum is because architecture is so important to them there is just as much to see of that as there is actual art. I didn't feel overwhelmed with room after room after room of paintings and paintings and paintings. The rooms were manageable and well planned out so you could easily walk through everything without feeling overwhelmed. We weren't allowed to take pictures once again but when the security guard wasn't looking I snapped a photo on my phone of David Hockney's huge painting of the Grand Canyon (which I will include in my blog).

After we finished our time at the museum we made another attempt to find some food and ended up finding some delicious tortilla sandwiches. We also attempted to find a grocery store because we would need to buy some food to eat dinner on the bus but of course this was once again another food crisis. Bilbao is the fourth biggest city in Spain and by God we couldn't find a grocery store to save our lives. The streets were absolutely dead (even for a Sunday) and eventually we came across this... convenience store.. deli place where we found some potato salad, rice pudding, yogurt, and sandwiches. I was so thankful for this random place... It saved my life.

The bus ride home was once again a very enjoyable experience and I had WiFi on the bus so I was able to send some messages and pictures home to my family so they could see how my weekend went.

I apologize it has taken me so long to post this! As you can see I have quite a lot to say about my fantastic weekend. Things are getting more crazy around here as we begin to wrap up our studies and begin preparing for our post program travels. Next Friday is my last day of class in Oviedo and then we will be heading back to Madrid to fly to Paris and then onto Rome. I am sad that Oviedo is coming to an end but there are still adventures to be had! I will do my best to keep my blog updated on these adventures!

More Midweek Adventures!

So far this week has been pretty eventful! Yesterday my friends and I decided we were going to go see a movie in Spanish at the local movie
theater. I was really surprised at how nice the movie theater in Oviedo is. It's a lot bigger and nicer than the ones in Utah. You could easily fit two times the amount of people in one theater here... Anyways we decided to see "Blancanieves" (Snow White). Honestly I didn't really understand any of it based on the dialogue and it was especially hard to follow because it is an American movie that was re-recorded in Spanish "dubbed" so the actors mouths were off the entire time. I understood a little bit of the plot simply based on the action of the movie. Regardless it was a really fun experience. The movie started at 5:15 so we showed up around 4:50 expecting to walk right up and buy tickets but once again we forgot about the Spanish Siesta which lasts until 5 pm. We were shocked when we showed up to the movie theater and no one was there to take our money! Sure enough around 5:10 they opened the theater back up and we were able to go in and buy our tickets.. You would think by this time I would understand the Spanish lifestyle but some days it still baffles me. I guess what makes it the most confusing is that not everything closes down for the siesta and hardly anyone takes a literal "siesta" anymore. But sure enough if you walk around town around 3-4 pm the streets are much quieter than they are around 7 pm.

Yesterday I also went to the Heladería Verdú which is where my host mom told me to go to get the best ice cream in Oviedo. It's a small shack set up inside the Parque San Francisco and I had to listen very intently to my host mom's instructions to be sure I found the right place. She told me to ask for "helado turrón" which can only be found in either Asturias or Oviedo (I didn't quite understand what she was trying to tell me). So I walked up and confidently ordered it and sure enough the ice cream man understood what I was asking for. It was the most peculiar ice cream I have ever had and I still am not sure how to describe it.... It was very sweet but didn't have a particular flavor that I could recognize. It had small brown chunks in it that somewhat resembled peanut butter but they didn't taste like peanut butter at all. I suppose it will always be a mystery and you will have to journey to Oviedo and find the small ice cream shack "Heladería Verdú" in order to understand the difficulty I am having trying to explain it.

Ice cream and a movie pretty much sums up my day yesterday and today we went on a very fun hike to the Santa María del Turnacon... something or other (everything has such long names here!). Regardless it is a giant statue of Christ that overlooks the city of Oviedo. It can be compared to the statue of Christ overlooking Río de Janeiro but obviously not quite as big. Along the way we passed several churches that are over 1,000 years old and still have the original intricate window frames in them. The statue was a really cool thing to see and there was also an amazing view of all of Oviedo and had it not been stormy and cloudy we would have been able to see all the way to the ocean! Not to mention the hike was a nice bit of exercise to work off all of the bread I have been eating here! Spaniards LOVE their bread... They eat it with everything... all day everyday... fresh from the bakery. But don't get me wrong it's incredibly tasty!

Hmmm other things of interest.... Oh there is a strike going on right now with the bus companies and many of the normal routes have been shut down temporarily. This meant that we had to take taxis to our hike today (which was the first time I have been in a car in a month!). The strike also affects buses that travel around the country and we had a brief moment of panic today thinking the strike would affect our travel plans for the weekend. Thank goodness it was only the bus right after ours that got cancelled this weekend. On Thursday afternoon we are headed to San Sebastian which is considered to have some of the top beaches in the world (we'll see about that). Regardless it will be a really cool place to visit because it is in the Basque region of Spain really close to the boarder of France. On Sunday we are going to Bilbao to see the famous Guggenheim Museum and then we will be back in Oviedo Sunday night ready to go back to school and learn some more Spanish! I won't have internet this weekend but I promise to post a lengthy description of my weekend when I return on Monday.

Tomorrow should be pretty uneventful... We are planning on stopping by the bus station to make sure everything is okay for our travel this weekend as far as the strike is concerned (there is the nicest man that works there and so I'm hoping I'll be able to talk to him). After that Becca and I are heading to the mall to try on swimming suits before the weekend and we are also planning on stopping by the grocery stores to pick up some food to help us stay in our budget for the weekend! After that I think we are going to study for a bit because we have a small exam on Thursday before the long weekend.

Things are going well and as of today I am officially halfway through the program! We are already discussing our plans for leaving which has been really weird to think about because it feels like we just got here! Regardless we still have some adventures ahead!

More weekend photos!

Here are a few of my favorite pics from the weekend. Some highlights include a Picasso painting in a small art museum in Oviedo, and various pictures of the city and places we visited today on our excursion!

Coffee and Beaches and Mountains Oh My!

Well things are going just great right now... I know it will make everyone happy and relieved to know I have finally figured out the coffee situation.. The world can continue on it's peaceful course now (it was almost a crisis I'll admit it. And if you have ever seen me without coffee you would know). I suppose it is a good thing but it's also a teriffying thing to see how different I am now that I have coffee in the morning. I am more alert and much happier! I finally went to the store (taking moms advice) and looked for some instant coffee. They have it everywhere. I feel like I was definitely missing out on some basic Spanish custom of drinking instant coffee. In the mornings I get up and grab my coffee out from under my desk (I don't want my host mom to be offended... but I also don't want to try to have that complex conversation with her either). I put some milk and water in a mug and then heat it up in the microwave and then add the coffee and then BAM! Cup o' Joe for the morning. It's been great... Yesterday was a local holiday in Oviedo so everything was closed and we didn't have class. It's an ancient holiday that dates back to some time where the queen of Asturias gave all of the peasants the day off and also gave them all a sandwich to eat in the park. Today people still take sandwiches to the park and apparently it is still quite the big deal around here. Everything was closed in Oviedo so Ryan and I decided to hop on a bus to a nearby city called Luanco for some time in the sun. It was so nice! We spent all day on the beach relaxing and listening to music. The beach we went to was hidden in a little alcove so the waves weren't very big and it was really shallow which was totally my pace as far as the ocecan goes. After our nice peaceful Tuesday it was back to the grind finishing up a week of school. School hasn't been too bad so far but it does get a little hard to pay attention after four hours of nothing but Spanish. The classroom makes me feel very smart because the professor is so enthusiastic whenever we get anything right so it gives me a false impression of my speaking abilities.. These are quickly dashed once I get back out on the streets and try to purchase allergy medicine at the pharmacy. Ryan and I made a pathetic attempt to try and act out "allergys" to the clerk at the pharmacy and eventually gave up and asked if they spoke English. We struggled our way through asking her if they were "non-drowsy" as well. One of my favorite things so far about Spain is listening to stories from my friends about all the funny things that have happened to them while trying to communicate with the locals in Oviedo. One of my friends tried to get some coffee to go this morning so she went into a cafe and said "cafe ir porfavor" which directly translates into English as "cofee to go please". The people at the cafe laughed and laughed at her because in Spanish "ir" means "to go" but it refers only to objects and people that can actually move so they made a joke about how the coffee was going to leave with her from the cafe. Sometimes the communication barrier here can be frustrating but for the most part the people here are incredibly patient and understanding. And now for the latest update on my whereabouts and experiences in this beautiful country. I think Spain is the hidden gem of Europe... You don't ever hear people really talk about Spain but it has been one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen and I wish I could spend some time in southern Spain so I could compare. Northern Spain has been nothing like I was expecting. It is so green and mountainous here in Asturias! It was rainy and foggy today but we went up into the mountains to see a couple small fishing towns one of which has an ancient basicalla at the top of a mountain with a chapel in a small cave on the side of a mountain. It was one of the most phenomenal things I have ever seen. I wish my pictures could do it justice. The long windy road up to the basilica was lush and green with little cottages covered in flowers and moss lining the roads. After we visited the church we climbed even further into the mountains to see the lakes although there was so much fog we couldn't see more than two feet in front of us. I am kinda sad that we couldn't see the lake very well because there are supposedly some amazing views from the top but at the same time the fog was beautiful and quite unlike anything I have ever seen before. The long windy road up to the lakes was incredibly narrow and dropped off on both sides at some point.. It reminded me a lot of the Road to Hana in Hawaii or a very green version of Hell's Backbone in southern Utah. It was an adventure to say the least! I know I probably sound like a broken record at this point but I need to say it again: I am so happy to be here! This truly has been the experience of a lifetime. I am also really thankful for the kids I've met here and have become such close friends with. You really bond with people when you are trying to survive in a foreign country together. Anyways, after this we went back down the mountain and crossed this huge river a couple of times which is apparently the river we are going to go kayaking down in a couple weeks! We ended up in a small fishing village on the ocean which had some of the most amazing views I have ever seen! We climbed to the top of this grassy hill on one side of the beach and had an incredible view of the rocky cliffs and ocean below. At the top of this hill was a small church and a quaint stone trail that lead to it. I have to say Europe is far exceeding my expectations and it has lived up to every vision I have ever had of what I thought it would look like here. Needless to say our excursion today was something I will remember for the rest of my life! I am currently back at my house right now writing my blog and watching the rain outside. Tonight my friends and I are meeting up after dinner to go see a movie in Spanish and then we are headed to a local Karaoke bar my host mom has been telling me I need to go to. After that we might go dancing somewhere...? I'm not sure I will make it that long considering the Karaoke bar doesn't even open until midnight! Most clubs and bars in Spain don't open until 2 am and then they stay open until 8 am... I will never be able to experience the bar scene like a true local I guess and honestly I'm not too sad about it. I like going to bed at a reasonable time! Tomorrow afternoon I am meeting my friends at the local Sunday market in "Old Oviedo" near the cathedral. Markets have taken place in this spot for many centuries in Oviedo so it will be cool to experience that. After that we might go on a hike depending on the weather and then we are headed to a cafe to plan our free weekend. Next week we don't have class on Friday and they are giving us the weekend to go explore. My friends and I are planning to take a bus to San Sebastian and Bilbao which are on the coast of Spain near the border of France. Apparently the beaches there are some of the best in the world. There is the Guggeneheim museum in Bilbao as well which I am really excited to see. As of next Wednesday I am officially halfway through the program and I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by! There are many more adventures to be had before the end and I will try to keep my blog as updated as possible with tales and pictures! ¡Hasta Luego!

Pics from the Weekend

The first picture is of a street in Leon which we visited on Saturday. The second picture is a funny picture of my friend Becca as we were served fruit in a can at a restaurant... The third picture is of the beautiful cathedral in Leon and the fourth is a picture of all of us enjoying ourselves at the cafe last night

first week complete!

I have survived my first week living in Oviedo! I can't believe it's already been a week. We only have two more weekend excursions which is weird to think about... We also have one free weekend and I think my friends and I were talking about taking a bus to the border and seeing a concert in southern France and then spending the rest of the weekend on the beach which will be really fun! Our excursion yesterday was somewhat of a let down because we were supposed to go up into the mountains and see some lakes as well as a view of the entire valley of Oviedo but it was supposed to rain so we had to think of something else to do. We ended up going to Astorga and Leon which were pretty cool but were a lot like Oviedo so there wasn't really anything new to see except a couple really cool looking cathedrals and Roman ruins. So I suppose I can't really complain... Traveling is fun but it can also be really hard. Recently we have had extreme trouble with eating out. This weekend we went to two horrible, overpriced restaurants which was really disappointing. I am determined to find some good authentic Spanish food somewhere! I've also had trouble finding coffee which is always an adventure. In Spain most restaurants, shops, ect don't open until 10 am or later. The only McDonalds in Oviedo (which is quite a journey from my house but would have been worth it to get some coffee to go) doesn't open until 11 am. I was the only persons on the street yesterday morning at 9 am. It's also an incredible challenge to not only find coffee but to find coffee that I can get to go. Spain is all about going out and spending a lot of time wherever you go. That being said, we had a wonderful Saturday night to make up for our failed attempt on Friday night. Last night one of our professors from the University of Utah (she is originally from Oviedo) told us that her friends were going to be playing music at a local bar/cafe that night and that we should go check it out. We found the bar and we instantly knew we were in the right place. None of us really enjoy the upbeat bar scenes where you are shoved in a corner and trying to shout at each other in order to try and have a conversation. This place was right up our alley. There was an outdoor patio covered in a clear plastic tent with dim relaxing lighting and our professors friends were in fact singing and they were great! They sang a lot of American music that we all recognized. American music has a strong influence in Spain and so it was comforting to hear some music that reminded me of home. We sat outside and drank coffee (once again the coffee failed me but it was okay!) and listened to music. It was the perfect way to spend a Saturday night! The waiters were incredibly nice and understanding of our horrible Spanish speaking abilities. I suppose the nice thing about the laid back lifestyle in Spain was we sat at this cafe for a good three hours or so and never felt pressured to hurry up and leave like you do in the U.S. I ordered one coffee and my friends ordered a couple beers and we were totally fine to sit there as long as we liked. I will definitely be going back to this cafe! Today I slept in which was really nice and now I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do about my coffee situation... a daily battle. Later my friends and I are meeting up to go for a walk around a park we haven't visited and then we are going to do homework and study in a little cafe by the school. All in all things are going very well and I am so happy to be here!

Some Great Spanish Experiences

So far I have been in Spain for a week but it feels like I've been here forever. It's amazing how time flies once you get settled into the lifestyle and culture here. Last night the group of students from the University of Utah went to a traditional Spanish "Espicha" which is a type of party specific to the region of Asturias where I am staying. Austurias is one of the oldest regions in Spain and has a wide variety of very old tradtions. The "Espicha" is a very common one. We went to a bar called a "Sideria" that is obviously known for its Sidra which is a type of alcoholic cider beverage. There were a bunch of long tables set up in the room with various food to eat. Typically at an Espicha people just walk around to differnt tables and sample the food and drinks while talking with friends. It's a very informal setting and there is often music and dancing as well. Some people showed up in costume and attempted to teach us all the traditional dance. It was a lot of fun and one of the coolest parts was the Sidra that you get out of a gigantic barrel next to the wall. The "waiter" (for lack of a better term) turns on a spiggot on the barrel and then the Sidra shoots out and he holds the cup about four or five feet away from the spiggot. It was quite unlike anything we would ever see in the U.S for sure. It was a great experience and it was interesting to see influences from other cultures at the Espicha. The music sounded very Celtic and they had a man playing the bagpipe, the dancers were dressed in costumes that looked like they came from Holland and the food definitely had a traditional Spanish flavor. After the great party last night today has been very uneventful. I just went to class as per usual and I took a very long siesta after lunch. I went home and ate lunch with my host mom and we talked about the weather, futbol (soccer), different places around Spain, and politics.. You know, the usual. It's amazing how much people from Spain know about U.S politics and it makes me feel ashamed that I don't know more about what is going on internationally. My host mom knows all about Obama and Romney and our political system and I honestly knew nothing about the politics in Spain before I came here. Well anyways sorry for the brief digression.Tonight I am going to go out with some friends to a local bar to play cards. My host mom recommended that we visit a local karaoke bar where apparently a lot of students hang out so we'll see how that goes! We are making tonight an early night because we have a big excursion planned in the morning. Tomorrow morning we are meeting at the school and then we are off to Leon and (I temporarily forgot the name... Argosta or something like that). In Leon we are going to visit a true Gothic cathedral that is very historically significant and took over one hundred years to build. I learned today that the archetiect of the LDS temple in SLC was very inspired by various cathedrals around Europe, especially the one we are visiting tomorrow in Leon. I'm excited to get out and about around different parts in Spain! Thank you for reading my blog loyal followers and I will be sure to keep you updated!Hasta Luego!

Wednesday Tours

Yesterday it was incredibly sunny and somewhat hot in Oviedo which is extremely rare. It's usually cloudy most of the days and very cold in the mornings. The sunny weather was great because we went on a fascinating tour of the old part of Oviedo which is one of the best places to find examples of pre romanesque architecture. We learned a lot about the history of Oviedo which was fascinating. Once again we have sunny weather today and I am just about to meet up with my friends to go take some pictures of Old Oviedo before we meet the entire group to go to a big fiesta. I will definitely have a lot of stories from tonight for my blog post tomorrow so... stay posted!

Tuesday Travels

Today I had my second day of class which went very well. My professor Maria is awesome and she thinks we are so funny. We laugh at the miscommunications between us because she can't speak English very well and we can't speak Spanish very well. She is really animated and tries to act out things she can't find the words to explain. Speaking of her crazy animated gestures I have have a funny and somewhat embarrassing story from class today with Maria. At the beginning of class she was explaining the attendance sheet and said "Firmar!" and made a crazy gesture with her hand that resembled scribbling. She handed me the sheet first and I wrote down my name in the "nombre" box and then next to the date I scribbled in the box just like her gesture a few minutes before... I passed the sheet to my friend Ryan and he said "Wait... Are you supposed to sign it or fill in the box?" Right at that moment I rembembered that "Firmar" means "to sign" and I felt so stupid. The teacher came over and looked at my scribbles and started laughing. Soon the whole class was laughing including myself... It was an embarassing moment but also an incredibly funny moment. I told the class that I have a horse and she has been using me as an example ever since because "caballo" (horse) is one of our vocab words. She also told us how she hates "mariposas" (butterflies) and she thinks we are all weird for thinking they are pretty. Maybe she is thinking of moths... I'm loving the Spainish daily routines and my mama and I are starting to get more and more on the same page. Today at lunch we talked about all sorts of things such as our favorite movies and actors. American cinema is popular all around the world so she knows all about American actors. Her favorite actresses are Meryil Streep and Glen Close. She also loves Robert DeNiro and George Clooney (she has a picture of George Clooney cut out of a magazine and taped inside the cabinet door in the kitchen). She talked to me about Antonio Banderas as well because he was originally from Spain. We also use Antonio Banderas a lot in class as an example we can all relate to. In Spain they also listen to a lot of American music and it's been really weird to walk into the mall and hear American music inside the Spanish shops. One random thing I have observed about Spain that have been hard to get used to... they use military time here which has been impossible to keep track of. I'm always counting on my fingers trying to figure out the time after noon. After I finished eating I asked her if she needed help cleaning the kitchen and she said no no and then asked me if I was going to go talk to my family. During our siesta I usually FaceTime my family because it's really early in the morning there and I try to catch my dad and sister before they leave for work and school. I took the cutest picture on my iPad of my family this morning. It was so awesome to see everyone and it felt like I was home with them. Once I finished talking to my family in Utah I told my mom that I was going to meet up with some friends at school and do homework and then go shopping afterwards. She is totally chill with me doing pretty much whatever and doesn't expect me to be at home that much which is nice. I really like talking to her at lunch and getting to know her better as well as Spanish customs but it's also nice to be able to have the freedom to go out and explore the city as well. She usually just leaves me food if either of us aren't going to be there around 9 or 10 pm when it's time for a light dinner.

Pictures!

I downloaded the "Blogger" app on my iPad so I can upload some pictures. This is a picture of me and my friends in El Parque San Fransisco yesterday

First Day Out and About in the New City!

*note... I don't know why but my iPad loses the formatting when I try to post these enteries. Originally I have separate paragraphs but for some reason when it posts it makes it all in one big blob. I'll try to fix it on a real computer tomorrow as well as add some photos hopefully. When I woke up this morning I made myself some cereal and then I walked to class. Pretty uneventful considering I live five minutes away from campus and both my host mom and sister were asleep when I got up. I found out that there are a lot of different kids from other universities studying at the Universidad de Oviedo as well so we all had a big introduction meeting in one of the auditoriums when we got to school this morning. All of the speakers during our introduction spoke completely in Spanish... And they all spoke fast... None of us understood anything they said besides "grupo de Utah" so I figured I was in the right place at least. Afterwards we broke off into smaller groups for our classes. Our professors only speak in Spanish to us but they understand we don't know much so they talk slowly and sometimes repeat things a few times using different words. So far I feel like I'm surviving. I had another brief moment of panic (one of many on this trip) when I was trying to find my house today. They gave us some maps of Oviedo during our introduction session today and my friends and I thought we had figured out where everyone lived so we were going to try and walk home together. I sort of forgot that I needed to pay attention to where I was going and before I knew it I looked up and I had no idea where I was. My friends were somewhat lost as well and I decided I needed to turn around before I got even more lost. My host family lives really close to the university so I never really took the time to learn the address I just figured I would know my way around. Well I ended up wandering around for a good half hour trying to get back to the university to retrace my steps. I started panicking because there was no way to ask anyone for directions. I didn't know the address of my house and there are multiple Universidad de Oviedo campuses and I had no idea which one to ask for! I finally found the university and when I turned around I realized I had been walking down the right street for the past 15 minutes or so! Things look so different when you are walking the other way I suppose... Well after that crisis ended another one arose. When I got home I said hello to my host mom and went and set my things down in my room. I didn't quite know if she was planning on making me lunch or not because the day before I think we had a conversation about me fixing myself food if I needed it (which was terrifying because when I looked in the fridge I didn't recognize any of the food). So I figured I should be social and I walked out into our very small living room and sat down on the couch. She was working on the computer and looked over at me and laughed and then kept typing. I felt so awkward! I then pretended that I needed to use the bathroom so I could escape this awkward encounter. I walked back into my room and my mama came in and said "Olivia! Ayudarte!" which was her asking me to help her. So I walked out and much to my relief she was asking me to help her with lunch. She had me set the table and then we sat down to eat our salads and tortillas. Tortillas in Spain are not the tortillas we think of in Utah. Tortillas in Spain are somewhat like an omelette filled with potatoes (that's the best way I can describe it). It was pretty good and definitely filling. We also had a salad and pan. She also poured me a glass of wine for lunch which surprised me at first until I remembered the conversation I had earlier with my professor about how the drinking age in the Oviedo region is 16! Regardless I could not finish my glass of wine.. especially at two in the afternoon! After my "siesta" I met up with my friends at the university (none of us can figure out another meeting point yet..) and we decided to adventure around the city and look for a cheap place to buy shampoo and all of our other basic necessities. We walked through the old part of Oviedo which dates back to 1100. It was amazing. We are going on a tour of the Cathedral in the center of the city later this week which will be really exciting. We also went to the mall in Oviedo which is gigantic! And after a lot of effort we found each others houses and planned a route so we can all walk to school together in the morning. Slowly but surely we are figuring out a routine! Once I made it back to my house I found that both my mama and my sister were gone. I remembered my mama telling me that she would leave me notes if she wasn't going to be here about what to do for dinner. I found a note in my room and when I walked into the cocina I found a tray set out with a glass of water, a ham sandwich (with roasted red peppers!), and a yogurt. It was so cute! I was so happy that she made me dinner. A much needed item of comfort after my hectic day in the new city! I didn't think I would have so much to write about but everyday I see something new and figure out new things about Spanish culture. I also realized that the five-year-olds walking down the street with their moms know a heck of a lot more Spanish than I do which is somewhat discouraging. As I was walking home I overheard these two little boys shouting "la chica es fea! La chica es fea!" (The girl is ugly). I thought it was hilarious. Spanish phrase of the day: today I learned that girls in Spain say "Que mono!" whenever something is "cute". It can refer to just about anything. I have been using it ever since. Yes mono does mean "monkey"... not sure how that slang came to be.

First Day in Oviedo

Today has been a very busy and interesting day! We started at the flea market this morning which was pretty cool although it was in a kind of questionable part of town. I bought a couple things to take home from the flea market and then we checked out of our hostel. We didn't really know how to discuss the whole check-out process in Spanish with the person working at the desk so when we got down stairs we handed them the key and said, "Adios!!". I stopped and looked at them for a minute hoping they would see my backpacks and realize this was my attempt to tell them I was checking out for good (we had to give them our hotel key every time we left even if we weren't checking out). They said "Adios!" back and I assumed that was sufficient. We took the metro to the bus station and waited for our bus. The bus we were taking to Oviedo goes all the way to Gijon so "Oviedo" didn't appear on the screen of places to go... Long story short we just about missed the bus to Oviedo. When I found out we weren't at the right platform I ran up to a woman and asked her where the bus for Oviedo was. For some reason I was able to speak Spanish to her better than I have thus far on my trip. I suppose if I'm in a stressful situation I figure out what to say pretty quickly! We barely made it to the bus but it was a very pretty ride to Oviedo. It was interesting to see the landscape change pretty rapidly once we got out of Madrid. Madrid is full of pretty buildings and definitely has a more fast paced lifestyle but as soon as you leave the city it immediately becomes a very green and open landscape. There weren't a lot of towns in between Madrid and Oviedo. Once we started getting closer to Oviedo we started getting into a more mountainous region. We drove through a lot of tunnels through the mountains which I thought was really cool. The landscape is completely different here from Utah. It's quite cool here and it has been raining for the last couple of days (I found this out from my host family which I will go into detail about in a minute). Once we got to Oviedo we found our way to the Universidad de Oviedo where we will be studying in Las Casas de las Lenguas. We all sat in a big group and waited for our host families to come pick us up. We were all really nervous and didn't know how to approach them when they arrived. In Spain when you meet someone for the first time it is polite to kiss them on each cheek (they don't hug like we do in America). So when my host mom arrived I walked up to her and then kissed her on both cheeks... It worked! She walked with me from the University back to her apartment and I understood almost everything she said to me, including our conversation about how well I understood her but how I have a hard time responding. Her apartment in Oviedo is very small and the rooms are really close together. They don't ve a lot of open space like you would see in an apartment in Utah. She has a daughter who is 25 who speaks a little English although both of them speak Spanish to me. My host mom told me I have a strange last name and I told her it's Irish. I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm from Ireland now. So far it's gone really well and both the mom and daughter are really nice. I think we are about to have a light dinner (at 9pm) It's so different living in Spain and it has already been an awesome experience. I have my own little room with a closet and desk and my family has wifi so that's a bonus! I'm going to walk to school tommorrow for my first day of classes! I'm really excited to be here and I'm sure eI will have some fun stories to share soon :)

Final Day in Madrid

Today was my first experience with a Spain rainstorm. We woke up in the morning and headed to the subway station in shorts and t-shirts... We got off the subway and started walking through the park when it started pouring rain. We hid underneath an awning on a building thinking it would be like Utah where the storms come quickly and leave quickly but it didn't. We ended up having to run to the next subway station in the rain and ended back up at our hostel to change into more apporpriate attire. The trip wasn't a total loss and we got to see a lot of cool buildings that we hadn't seen before. The wind made the Spanish flags fly on the top of the buildings so I got a lot of cool pictures. Once we changed clothes we headed back out into the rain and did some shopping on Fuencarral, the street where our hostel is. Spain has a lot of cool shops and all of the people here dress very fashionably... That must be why I look completely out of place when I walk down the street in my sneakers, t-shirt, and jeans. The shops were really cool and I wanted to buy some stuff but I decided I need to wait for Oviedo and other places we visit. We are headed to the local flee market tomorrow morning. Flee markets have been in existence in this part of Madrid for over 400 years. I'm hoping they will have some cool souveniers I can take back for my friends and family. After the flee market tomorrow we are headed to the bus station to take a five hour bus ride up to Oviedo where I will be spending the next month. Tomorrow I should have much more interesting things to talk about because that is when I will meet my host family. I'm not sure what to expect at this point but hopefully I will find wifi somewhere so I can update my blog. I would like to add some pictures at some point but my iPad is making it extremely difficult to do so. You can check out my facebook page for a few key pictures from the trip so far and I plan on adding a bunch more when I get back home in July. Hasta mañana amigos!