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!
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