¡ El que va a Sevilla pierde su silla !

The titular expression was used by my Gramatica professor when I unfortunately arrived late to his class a couple of Thursday´s ago.  The basic sentiment is the same as "if you move your feet, you lose your seat," but in this case is "he who goes to Sevilla, loses his seat," although it rhymes in Spanish.  I bring this expression up now a) because I like it and b) because I am going to Sevilla tomorrow!  Yay! 

It is another 12hr ride on the bus, but it definitely vale la pena (is worth the pain).  I am incredibly lucky to be staying with my good friend Meghan (from high school, who I also met down in Granada) and thusly saving tons of dinero (money) on housing.  I leave Thursday at 12pm (get in at midnight) and leave Sunday morning at 11am (and getting back into Oviedo just in time for a nights sleep before class on Monday).  I am pretty excited, not only because I found pretty cheap bus tickets (for about 100 euros less than the girls who are flying down), but I also get to see Meghan and have her show me around her city.  I have been so lucky with the amount of trips that I have been able to take here in Spain, especially after only having been here for (less than) two months!

In other news: I once again had to fix my sink, but actually became a hero in the eyes of my flatmate.  She was really scared and panicked, but I calmly showed her with my amazing plumbing skills.  Dell did call back, and I am now waiting for a technician to call me and set up a time for him to come and fix the screen.  I bought a spring Spanish coat, two new shirts, and sunglasses (my old ones broke) while the rebajas or sales are still going on. They last from right after christmas until the end of February. 

That´s all for now! I will be sure to update after I return from SEVILLA!!! Try and outlast the snow (if it´s causing you pain) and if not, just enjoy life! :)

61 degrees and balmy :)

The current temperature is 61 degrees here in Oviedo, and the people are out and about.  Sorry to those of you who are not enjoying the colder weather of the USA, I am not MEANING to brag (ok, maybe a little), but we have gone through our fair share of cold weather, and now we deserve this.

On my way here to the computer lab I saw: dogs being walked, children skipping down the street, old men sitting on park benches smoking cigars, and couples out on strolls.  The feeling of general happiness is palpable.  Even the sun has made an appearance for a couple of minutes per hour (it is northern Spain afterall, we can´t ask for too much).

Since the death of my computer, I was concerned that I would not have enough to occupy my days, but what it has forced me to do is engage in more Spanish activities.  Where before I would sit at my computer planning future trips, researching my future, or chatting with people, I now watch Spanish TV, read Spanish books, and just try and think in Spanish.  In the long run, I think this will turn out to be a terrific mishap for my Spanish.

I have been getting some requests for pictures of my costume for Carnaval, so I will post some here.  However, neither of them are very good pictures of me, so I am posting them smaller and ask that you please not enlarge them.  The other picture is not very good either, but is a picture of a portion of the crowd at Carnaval in Gijon, to try and give you some sense of the magnitude and variety of people walking around in costumes.

In other news, I have received my very first spanish test grade!  I don´t want to share it with you (cough, 95%, cough), but I was pretty pleased with the result.  While grades are obviously not the most important thing here, it still feels good to know that at least one of my tests has gone well so far.  Another personal test for me was watching two full episodes of ´´Ghost Whisperer´´ en Espanol and understanding almost all of it.  It still thrills me a little when I am able to do stuff like that, even though I should not be surprised at this point. 

That´s all for now! Best to all :)

Carnaval in Oviedo

A quick computer update: I haven't heard back from Dell yet, but I have contacted them and they should be contacting the Spanish branch.  Of course it is the weekend and Spain does not run on the weekends, so hopefully I will be hearing from them on Monday.  In the meantime I am lucky enough to be using my friend Lindsey's computer.  She does not have internet (not so lucky for her), and needs to come and use my wireless anyway, so it is a nice symbiotic relationship.  More updates if I ever regain my computer :(

A walk on La Pista


When I woke up today, the sun was not only shining but it was gorgeous temperature-wise.  It was not too cold, it was not too warm, just perfect.  Lindsey and I had decided that we were going to do something since we weren't travelling this weekend, and we decided on going on this 3 hr hike/walk called "La Pista" which winds its way up a mountain.  As soon as you get past a certain point, beautiful vistas open up: the sparkling white mountains towering in the background, the entire city of Oviedo laid out below, and rolling fields in the distance.  Of course, I completely forgot that I had not changed my camera batteries, so I could not take ANY pictures, but I will certainly be doing this walk again.  It was not only beautiful but incredibly taxing physically, but it was in a good way.  My feet and legs are killing me today, but that means I am I got good exercise!!!


Carnaval in Oviedo


So as you may recall, Carnaval came to Oviedo this Saturday.  Just to refresh your memories, it is a cross between Mardi Gras and Halloween.  People dress up during the day, go and watch the parade and then go out later at night, still dressed up.

Since I missed it in the other two cities, I finally got to see the parade.  It was a beautiful day and people were out in the streets in crowds.  Small children, teens, and adults, most dressed up, wandered the streets waiting for the parade.  The parade itself consisted of different groups of costumed people showing off their various talents or just their elaborate costumes.  It was really quite interesting to watch, but I think better explained by some of my pictures!

Bagpipers.

Dancers.

Pirate float.

Balloon costumes.

Balloon butterfly chica.

Music costume!

Batman spectator. 

More dancers.

Pirate bagpipers.

Kayakers. 

A little flamenco spectator. 

You can't really tell, but she was the ocean. 

Little firefighter spraying water.

A highway. 

More dancers.

Thats all for now folks! More updates I am sure after I come back tonight! Best to all!

Sunshine makes everything better.

So I have been a horrible blogger recently, but there is a reason to my madness.  APPARENTLY, there is this thing called the "Cultural Adjustment Curve."  It is one of those things that you look at and go "that will never happen to me, I am so much stronger than that."  Funny story though...it happens to everyone. No matter what.  It doesn't necessarily mean that you get frustrated with Spain, it could also just mean that you get homesick, frustrated at people, frustrated at your academics, frustrated at the weather, be that as it may.  So it is possible that I may have gotten a teensy eensy little ittle bit frustrated with a couple of the above things and did not want that crankyness to show in my blog...my bad :)

http://www.esf.edu/international/images/AdjustmentCurve.jpg

That all being said and done with, the sun is shining today, both figuratively and literally.  It is warm and lovely out.   Carnaval in Gijon left a lot to be desired, so I have one more chance to enjoy Carnaval at its finest in Oviedo this Saturday.  Wish me luck!  

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The first part of this blog was written about 6 hrs ago when the sun was shining and the sky was blue...The ironic part about thinking that things are going so well, is that something needs to go wrong immediately after you get so happy.  My computer unfortunately died, RIP.  My original reaction was to curl into the fetal position and cry for about an hour... However, after all of that and some frantic emailing with the best dad in the world, I realized something important:

No matter how bad things appear, there is ALWAYS someone worse off.  The more people I meet here, with their diverse backgrounds and histories, the more I realize how truly lucky I am.  I have family and friends who love me, good health, a world full of experiences at my fingertips, and opportunities that many would dream of.  I am not the victim of any tragic natural disasters or bad situations at all, and if the WORST thing that happens to me is that I have broken my computer permanently and had been feeling a little down for a short minute, than I should definitely not complain.  

I think that we all need to, or at least I need to, make sure that we examine on a weekly, if not daily, basis how lucky we are.  I don't want to say "count our blessings" but that is the general gist.  It is so easy to get bogged down with the little stuff in life, and I want to try and get some big picture perspective and appreciate how truly lucky I am.  

A flexible game-plan = the key to Spain.

So remember how I said I was going to Aviles for Carnaval?  Just kidding!  Turns out that did not work out, but I am actually not disappointed.  The Carnaval also comes to Gijon on Monday and Oviedo on Saturday, so I will just hit it up then. Oviedo has already started decorating for the occasion, and I snapped a couple preliminary pictures to show everybody.  And I actually have my costume now!  I am dressing as a cowgirl, which fits all of my criteria: cheap, cute, comfortable, and warm (we are going through a huge cold-snap at the moment, and warmth is the key to everything).  In fact, we had a little more snow here, an abnormality that continues to throw the whole city into a tizzy.  I tried to take a picture of it, but oddly enough, my camera did not seem to capture it in the dark...either way, that is what the picture of the lamp post is trying to demonstrate haha.

In Spain, it is very important to have no expectations or plans as to what you are going to be doing the next day, the next week, or even the next month.  This is a cultural thing that I am having a very hard time adjusting to, but I think in the long run it will be beneficial.  For example, whereas a change in plans such as not going to Aviles would normally throw my off balance, I adjusted quite well and moved onto other plans.  This is certainly a step in the right direction towards becoming a more well-rounded person, as well as assimilating into Spanish culture.

So now, instead of Aviles, I am headed to Gijon on Monday, to meet up with my group of Gijonian Spanish friends.  It promises to be a lot of fun, and they are really nice people.  It is always a plus to be hanging out with the locals!  I will be sure to update you all when I get back! :)

Camino de Santiago... a goal?

Once upon a time, there was a farmer in a pasture toiling away until he began to see all of these shooting stars, but they were all falling onto the same location.  Amazed, he hurried to the spot and discovered a tomb with the remains of James, one of the Apostles, in it..  Because of this amazing discovery, the town was renamed "Santiago de Composetela" (Sant Iago = St James, and Campos Etela = country of stars (campus de estrella), how cool is that?)   At least, this is how it was described to me by my Art History teacher today.

Along the path

http://s4.hubimg.com/u/324567_f520.jpg

Santiago de Compostela was and still is a pilgrimage hotspot, hosting tons of pilgrims from all across the world.  There are many different routes you can take, starting from many different places all over Europe, and they are very often taken advantage of.  In the olden days, people came for strictly religious purposes, to ask for forgiveness or a favor (or sometimes prisoners were given the option to go to prison or make the pilgrimage...lets guess which many of them chose!).  Our art teacher also told us the story of a man who went to ask Santiago for his wife to be able to have children, and when he returned she was pregnant!  While definitely a miracle, the husband had unfortunately been gone on his pilgrimage for over 2 years...awkward!

The Cathedral: 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Santiago.de.Compostela.Catedral.Noche.jpg

I bring this all up because now I really want to walk part of the trail!  The main Spanish part takes a solid month to do, so maybe not that...but I am definitely aiming for maybe a week at the end of school or perhaps a long weekend sometime.  I am at least doing tentative research, but due to the cold snap we have been having (can anyone say climate change?) now does not seem to be the ideal time.  There is just something so intriguing about the idea of travelling on the open road (well, path) alone with your thoughts and 360 degree panoramic views, ending at a religious cathedral so monumental that it dwarfs most others.

So, thoughts?  Should I do it? For a week?  For a weekend?  Man, I wish I had a month to do the whole thing, but let's face it, I probably am not in shape anyway!!!

Routine, routine, routine.

Well, this may actually be a good thing, but I have nothing new to report!  I have fallen into a simple routine of balancing school, friends, travelling, and relaxing in Spain.  It really has been good here so far.  No, I take it back.  It has been AMAZING here so far.  I don't mean to go overboard about how grateful I am to be here, but not a day goes by that I don't appreciate being here.

Anyway, here are some teensy updates, nothing big:

• I have officially bought my tickets to Seville for the weekend of February 25.  I am going to stay with Meghan (from high school) so the only cost to me is the price of another 12hr bus trip.  I will leave Thursday afternoon and get back late Sunday night.  I am so excited!
• I am looking forward to both Lex and my parents coming to visit soon!
• Carnaval is coming up this weekend in a town called Aviles.  It seems to be a cross between Halloween and Mardi Gras.  You dress up, sometimes as characters, or just with masks, and there are huge parties, foam and streamers in the streets, and gosh knows what else!  Either way, it seems to be this huge thing here.  So we shall see!
• Thats all for now!  Here are some group pics from Covadonga!

Me, Lindsey, Simone, Shintaro, Hiroto

Tomonori, Shintaro, Simone, Me, Lindsey

One month in...

I know it is hard to believe, but I have now been in Spain for a little over a month!  So I thought now might be a good time to reflect on how my trip has been so far.  Sorry, this will probably be more boring than the rest, but I think for myself I need to evaluate where I am, and where I want to get in the next four months.

Spanish:

Already I am noticing that my Spanish is improving.  What I really needed was confidence, and that is something that only comes with practice.  My grammar and vocabulary tended to be pretty good already but I really needed the ability to make small talk and hold my own in a real conversation.  I am by no means saying I can now do that with no effort at all, but what I have is a teensy bit more self-assuredness when I talk.  The faulty sentence construction, missing vocab words, and pronunciation can all come later, but what is most important right now is that I open my mouth to speak.


When I first got here, I let everyone else talk for me, watching them struggle through asking directions and inquiring about prices.  Now I am the one pushing ahead and asking for help when I need it, always in Spanish (sometimes incorrectly), but at least I am attempting.

That being said, there is a lot of work to do.  I don´t have a host family and my friends are mostly American, so it is not quite the immersion experience that I had been hoping for.  Since I have no settled into my routine here in Spain, it is time to mix things up a bit and make sure that I am getting the most out of my experience here.  I may have mentioned before, but I am going to start watching more Spanish tv and reading Spanish novels.  We only get 6 channels on the tv in my apartment (my landlord has yet to switch with the digital change), but during lunch and dinner, instead of watching American tv on my computer, I am going to watch whatever I can find.  It doesn´t really matter if it is interesting, as long as I am being exposed to the language.  The same with reading, I am just going to settle into a good book and go for it.

I came here to become fluent, and I will be darned if I am going to leave here without being close!

Traveling:

This is one area I must say that I think I have exceeded my wildest expectations.  I never, EVER, imagined that within my first month I would have seen this much of Spain.  Honestly, if I never go on any daytrips again I will STILL have seen more than I thought (but don´t worry, I am sticking to my one trip per weekend plan).  You may have noticed, on the side of my blog I am now keeping a list of all the cities I have visited so far, mostly so that I can keep track fro myself, but for your enjoyment as well.  I only get to do this once (at least in this manner) so I really want to take as much advantage as I possibly can.

Classes:

So far my classes are all going well, except I have not had any actual tests, so really it is hard to know!  This week testing starts in a couple of classes so it will be interesting to see where I am on everything.  However, since I am discussing my goals, I am going to try to start studying more outside of class.  Grammar and Phonetics both come without a lot of homework, yet they are areas I particularly need to work on.  So, I am going to start reviewing the new grammar that I am learning and start practicing reading things outloud in Spanish.  I can speak ok and read ok, but combing the two is apparently a very slow process.  Fonetics is also more about the pronunciation of things, which will really only improve if I start practicing at home.

Learning about Oviedo:

Since this city is going to be my home for the next 4 months, I feel I need to learn more about its history, art, architecture, etc.  I walk by beautiful fountains, buildings, and statues every day but I know nothing about them.  So, I found on the Oviedo tourism site a walking tour of the city that I can download onto my iPod!  Seriously, you can do anything with technology these days!  So the next sunny day that I can (though it is Northern Spain, the weather tends not to cooperate), I am going to walk around the city, iPod and camera in hand, and learn about my temporary home-town.

I am also continually getting lost, so I am hoping the more I walk around, the easier it will be to find where I want to go.  I always get to my destination eventually, but sometimes I find that if I do not take the exact same route everytime I end up lost.  This really should not happen anymore, because Oviedo is not that big.  We only have about 200,000 people, but they all live in apartment buildings so the city is not spread out very far geographically.  

I do love it here though, and as cities go it is pretty swell.  One fact I do know is that Oviedo claims to be the cleanest city in Europe, and I certainly would believe it.  They have garbage cans everywhere for your use, and streetcleaners that work 24/7 to make sure the sidewalks and streets are sparkling.  Apparently they get paid pretty well too...perhaps an alternate career for me? Something to think about for sure.... :)

Meeting new people:

I did not come here to make best friends, I already have a pretty good set at home :)  However,that being said, it is important to meet people here so that you have companions to travel with, people to go grab coffee with, or just people to sit with in classes.  So I have made a real effort to spread out my friend groups so that I am meeting as many new people as possible, and additionally learning as many new things as possible.  As much as having a new friend from Iowa may not be as exotic as my new friends from New Zealand or Japan, the Midwest still has a completely different outlook on life than we do on the East coast.  My goal for the upcoming months would be to meet even more people, especially those who only want to speak Spanish.

Food:

Because I do not live with a host-family, traditional Spanish food is much more difficult to come by without eating out a restaurant every day.  To ensure however that I am getting the full gastronomic experience I am trying a couple of different things.  First, I have been trying different frozen spanish foods, or re-heatable ones such as Empanadas.  Secondly, I have seen what my classmates have for meals and mimic it in my own home.  For example, it is pretty popular here to have a "bocadillo" or sandwich here for lunch (the biggest meal of the day.  When I say sandwich though, it is better to picture a 6 inch sub, and not peanut butter and jelly.  Tuna is especially popular on them, so that is what I have started having for lunch.  Thirdly, whenever I travel I attempt to taste the food of the area.  For example, when we went to Granada we had Tapas, especially seafood, because that is what was popular in the area.

Even though I may not be getting a traditional Spanish meal everyday in my apartment, I am actually learning quite a bit about living on my own.  I have never had to make all of my own meals every single day and I am learning how to combine variety, taste, price, and ease of cooking in order to best suit my needs.

Well I think that is quite enough of that, but it was important for me to realize what I have done and what I still need to do to take advantage of this amazing opportunity.  I am still in disbelief that I am able to currently study in Spain and travel as much as I have and will continue to do.  Hasta luego!

Covadonga: Chocolate Azul

As I mentioned yesterday, we took a day trip to Covadonga today!  It is this beautiful little town with a church and this really interesting chapel that is literally inside a cave.  It is hard to describe  it, but I will try and show you.  There were strict rules about not taking photos, and I am a respectful tourist.

This is our typical mode of transportation on these trips.  The ALSA bus system runs all throughout Spain and is amazingly efficient.

Beautiful church in a beautiful setting.

If you are wondering to yourself, is this part of this amazing church?  Nope!  It's the bathroom!!!!

So this is the cave, if you can see, in the very background.  It is actually an entire chapel, with a pulpit and seating etc.  It is just gorgeous.  

Church again.  Love the colors!

Lindsey, Me, and the Church

Inside the Cave.  You can see the church from here as well.  

Entrance to the chapel inside the cave.

Chapel in the cave.

Me in front of a waterfall underneath the cave.

This little guy followed us from the church down to the waterfall and waited patiently by our side (until Simone eventually fed him and then he NEVER left us ever, surprise, surprise).  We needed a name for him, so I voted for "El Amigo."

Part of our fearless group: Simone (Italian), Hiroto (Japanese), and Lindsey (American).  As always, there will be more group photos to come.  

After we hit up all of the tourist spots, we unfortunately still had four hours until the next bus to Oviedo.  So we tried hiking up a hill but it led to nowhere, and eventually we ended up at the top of this hill, sitting at a little bar over-looking all of the city.  Originally, I was very disappointed that we had so much down-time, but eventually I realized that we were in a peaceful, beautiful town, the conversation was good, and the weather was perfect.   

The great part about travelling with the boys from Japan and one from Italy is that we were forced to speak Spanish.  It was a terrific experience, and as the day got on I found it easier and easier to be myself while speaking Spanish.  

We ended up playing children's games from our respective countries.  It was actually really fun.  I introduced hangman, the Japanese had a couple fun ones, as did Simone.  I snapped this picture because I couldn't believe that I was playing MASH (a game to predict your future, which I played on the playground all the time when I was little) in Spain with foreign students.  

Eventually we got on the correct bus and slept our way back to Oviedo.  It was such an enjoyable night and Lindsey and I had so much fun speaking only in Spanish that starting on Monday, the two of us will try very hard to speak no more English.  Obviously some will slip out, but we can try!

And on that note, I want to make one tiny comment.  It is very hard to be here with so many people not making an effort to speak Spanish.  I understand speaking English when you are in a large group of Americans; it just comes naturally.  But when you are at a large gathering and there are a couple of foreign students who speak no English, it would be the polite, and academic, thing to do to make an effort to speak to them in a language they can understand, and that you are here to learn.  

Ah well, enough ranting.   Hope you all are having a great weekend!

Appreciating the little things.

As I have no substantive updates for the moment, I thought I would take this time to show you some of the little things that are easy to take for granted.  I am in Spain, an entire ocean away from home, in a new and exciting place, and sometimes it is hard for me to remember.  But when I take the time to look around me and see where I am, I realize what an amazing opportunity I have been given.

Everything in Spain is just a little bit different and more exciting.  To demonstrate this, I took some pictures on my walk back home from school to show tiny yet amazing things that I pass everyday at least twice and need to start appreciating.  I never want to stop being thankful for studying in a foreign country.  Ever.

Right on my university campus, a gorgeous orange tree in a courtyard.  

People love to walk their dogs all the time on campus too.  It is adorable!

A nice view of the street I walk on, but also look at the box holding the tree.  Even something as simple as that is more intricate!

Palm trees!  Enough said.

This is not a great picture, but the lightposts here are AWESOME and quite pretty.

A lottery stand.  Most people would just throw up a little wooden structure, but look at what a great stand this is!  Lottery here is HUGE.

My bird fountain.  Fountains here are also very popular.  In the day, they are always running and quite pretty, but at night they are lit up with different colored lights depending on the fountain.  I have yet to capture a good picture of the nighttime effects yet.

It is rather difficult to make out, but in the background is a snow-covered mountain and the cathedral all in one view.  Every morning, right about the time when I am thinking "man do I not want to go to school right now," I turn a corner and see the sun peaking over the cathedral and shimmering off the mountains.  Even though I see it every day, it still takes my breath away.

Mailbox! Neat-o!

This crosswalk takes me a solid five minutes to get across every day.
The store with the green awning is my favorite teensy grocery store.  I go there to get fresh bread or fresh fruit.  The store attendants already know who I am! Although in fairness, I stick out like a sore thumb.

Almost home!  But look at the trees, how stubby they are?  The city chops off the branches for the winter to protect the trees.

Again, tricky to see, but this is a view of the countryside, in between apartment buildings.

That's all for now guys!  Tomorrow I am going with a group of friends to Covadonga!  I had never heard of it either, so don't feel bad.  But it is about a two hour bus ride away, is supposed to be beautiful, so it'll be great!  Plus it is continuing with my plan of taking a trip every weekend!  

Best to all!