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!

First Few Days in Madrid

Well I haven't updated this blog since I have arrived in Spain... Obviously I'm not off to such a great start. I arrived in Madrid a few days ago and have been going non-stop ever since. When we first got here we took the metro to an area called Chueca in Madrid and found our hostel. It was down a tiny alley with a small sign. It looked just like an apartment from the outside so we were scared to walk in. So far the hostel hasn't been too bad but that's mostly due to the fact that we haven't spent that much time here.   The day after we arrived we adventured into the center of Madrid called Puerta del Sol and also walked to Plaza Mayor.  Both of these places are extremely beautiful and have incredible architecture around every corner.  We obviously don't have cell phone service and we have very limited internet opportunities but when we were in Salt Lake we made plans to meet up with some other kids on the study abroad at the Plaza Mayor at 10 am.  Growing up in this technological age I had my sincere doubts that we would be able to find our friends... Turns out I was wrong.. around 11 am our friends came wandering through Plaza Mayor with their suitcases and all, fresh off the plan from The U.S. I was stunned... It has also helped me realize that I don't always need my cell phone in order to make plans with people.. All it has required so far is a little more preparation and planning. Not only did we have plans to meet our friends at 10 am at Plaza Mayor but we also had plans to meet up with some other friends at 5 pm at the Puerta del Sol.. Once again we managed to meet up with everyone.  In between meeting friends in the morning and afternoon we decided to go see the Palacio Real (Royal Palace). It. Was. Amazing. I will try to include some pictures in this blog post but sadly we have not been able to take pictures in most of the cool places we have visited so far.   Along with visiting the palace we basically just explored the city and immersed ourselves in the Spanish culture.  It is so different here than in the United States.  Everyone seems to be more calm and not in a hurry to do anything really. Every restaurant has expansive outdoor seating and people will be sitting at these cafes all day drinking and smoking.  One thing that I have found extremely strange is I haven't seen people eat yet... Every time we tried to order food for our lunch or dinner we received very strange looks and most of the time they would come back and tell us they didn't have what we ordered.  It turns out they really only eat one meal a day around 2 pm.  The continental breakfast at our hostel has consisted of a roll and a cup of Cafe con Leche (coffee with milk).  We normally skipped lunch because we were busy running around the city so I never really saw anyone eat the main meal of the day.  For dinner I have seen people mostly eating chips and drinking beer and wine, and smoking, smoking, smoking.   Today I finally ate a meal at the right time and I ordered a sea food paella called "paella senorito" (no clue how it got that name). The paella was delicious and I am still full for dinner which now helps me understand why they don't eat a lot at night.  Today we went to the Museo Prado and the Museo Sofia Reina.  Both were fantastic but once again we were NOT allowed to take ANY pictures... I was really sad about this because in the Prado there were rooms and rooms full of Vlazquez and Gayo paintings which were phenomenal.  All of the guide books told us that the museum opened at 9 and I have had my experience will world class museums so I told all of my friends we needed to meet there by at least 8:30 which ended up being a really good thing because the museum ended up opening at 10 and Becca and I were the first people in line! we had to wait but by the time they opened the museum the line wrapped around the block.  Part of the reason the line was so long was because it is International Museum Day today and all of the museums had free admission.  Because we were the first in line I was basically alone in a room full of giant Valazquez paintings which was really incredible to see.  The Sofia Reina museum was much less crowded because it is all modern art and let me tell you I have never seen such modern art. I saw things today that would blow the MoMA out of the water. The Guerneca by Picasso was really incredible to see in person and once again I'm really sad I couldn't take a picture. Well I have seen basically all there is to see in Madrid and I am extremely exhausted because of it.  I feel like I have had a pretty good introduction to the Spanish culture so far and I am really excited to head up to Oviedo on Sunday.  Tomorrow I think we are planning a day trip to Toledo which is were Picasso lived for a while if I am not mistaken.  I will try to keep my blog more updated in the future it has just been a couple of hectic days trying to keep myself alive and fed in this crazy city.  I am having a blast and I will post another entry tomorrow!

Test Post

This whole blogging idea is a new thing for me but I figured it would be the easiest way to keep people updated on my whereabouts this summer. I’m doing a test post right now to see what this is all going to look like and figure out what exactly I’m doing… I suppose I’ll start by explaining exactly what my plans are for the summer. I am traveling with a group of U of U students to Spain to study Spanish abroad. Becca and I will be flying out of SLC on May 15th arriving in Madrid on May 16th. We will spend a couple days in Madrid and then make our way up north to Oviedo. We will be living with host families until June 23rd. From there a group of us will be traveling around for about ten days and then flying back to Salt Lake from Rome, Italy. Right now to prepare for my travel abroad this summer I am getting the last details in order such as: where exactly we are going to go after our time in Spain… The only thing we have figured out thus far is that we have a return flight from Rome… I suppose that’s all part of the adventure right? Regardless my lack of plans has my mom in a panic thinking I’m going to die in Europe… which may or may not be a fair assumption on her part.

Assuming I make it home from Europe I have a couple other travel plans for the summer. A week after I get home from Europe in July our family is headed to Sun Valley for the Utah State Bar Convention (dad has been asked to give a few speeches at the convention). After Sun Valley Maya and I will be traveling to San Francisco and thus preparing ourselves for a long road trip up the California coast and hopefully into Canada before heading back down to Anacortes Washington to visit Guemes Island for our annual vacation there. When we get back from Guemes I will be going back to school in a week. Hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze in a few days in southern Utah and then I’ll be back in school ready for some Utah football! One last trip that is in the works for the foreseeable future is during during fall break. Lucky for me fall break happens to occur the week I turn 21 so the obvious question is where would a 21 year-old travel for fall break? The answer is: Disneyland. Kalee and I are going to drive down to southern Cailfornia and begin our fall break with a couple days on the beach. After soaking in some sun (hopefully) we will then travel to Anaheim to spend a couple days at California Adventure and Disneyland! The Univeristy of Utah Utes play football against UCLA on my birthday that Saturday so we will head up to Pasadena to cheer on the Utes before heading back to Salt Lake to finish up the fall semester!

This blog thing is turning out to be quite a bit of fun. I never realized how much I would have to say…. Although I probably should have figured this would have been the case considering how much I have to say in real life.