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!