Oviedo Es Como Un Cuento De Hadas

Hola a Todos!

I had a great week, yet again. It was a lot more relaxing as I am really starting to get settled in, and adjusting to the culture. My day to day life has consisted of cashing in on the two hours for siestas every day after school (although not much of a change from what I do at UNI.), working out, and hanging with Cruz at night. When I'm home, I often hang out in my bed. This would be considered very strange, but using a Celsius to Fahrenheit converter, I realized that our apartment is kept at 50 degrees daily. So, I obviously cuddle down in my sheets, read, and talk to my family and friends to pass some time before or after my nap. Now that I am no longer sore from adjusting to all the walking, I am going to start working out everyday. Today was a beautiful day, so I headed to El Parque Invierno. It is where everyone goes to workout as there are many paths and trails. It took me about fifteen minutes to get there, but it was so worth it. It was very amazing to run with such a picturesque background of the mountains, and also very head clearing. After supper, Cruz and I have gotten in the habit of reading together. Sounds sort of nerdy, but it has already helped my Spanish so much by being able to read a children's book out loud while Cruz does the dishes and corrects my pronunciation, and explains words I do not know. It's a collection by Bellatrix Potter, and turns out I can recall a few of these stories from my childhood.

This past week and weekend were very eventful aside from getting into my very thrilling routine. Last Tuesday me, Drea, and Ellie went to a bar to watch the Real Madrid, Barcelona game. Cruz explained to me that many people here do not have it on their cable, because it usually is a community event to go down to a bar with your fellow fans to watch the game. She could not have been more right. The first place we tried to go to was so packed that there wasn't even seating room outside. Yep, outside. We stood behind a huge crowd of people and decided that we were going to try somewhere else. Most places were very similar to this, but we ended up grabbing the last table pushed into a corner in another bar. It was so fun because people were starting chants and getting so into it. My host family told me I needed to choose a team, and so now I am all about Barcelona. I will require a Messi jersey after the performances I've seen so far, because he's totally a stud. I guess you could say the enthusiasm for soccer over here is not even comparable to that of in the United States. I definitely love it. :) On Thursday I got home to a slip that said I had mail. I was thrilled since I knew my family was sending me goodies. I asked Cruz where the post office was and started heading there right away. It was pouring rain, and I naturally I got lost. After ten minutes of wandering, I found it. The entire process I went through to retrieve it was such a hassle as it was really my first test of my Spanish. After a few misunderstandings had been cleared up, I got my package and headed home. Needless to say, the Reese's are half gone, one Easy Mac down, and all my Munchies devoured. I should reallyyy learn some self control, but hardly anyone snacks here. Later that night, we had our weekly meeting with our advisors Luna and Paula, and as always had a ton of fun. After that, we went and played some cards with a few Spaniards we've met while here, and then walked around the city as many people go out and about on Thursday nights. On Friday, Tino came over and prepared a French dish. It ended up being duck with marmalade over the top. I loved it so much that Tino made it again the next night. Tino and Cruz insisted on me taking pictures of the various dishes for my dad, since I told them that he loves cooking too. Although, not so sure how extensive your French cooking knowledge is, dad. We had mini dancing lessons in the dining room again, as Tino has a lot of fun trying to teach me how to dance. Cruz is a great dancer, and I'm getting better every time. I can't say enough how fortunate I was with my family, I love spending time with them.

While this was all a lot of fun, I had an amazing day yesterday. Me and Ellie decided to explore the local market. It was absolutely marvelous, lasting a many blocks. There was music playing, and stands of every kind open. Not to mention one of the most beautiful days here yet. It's something that I think everyone needs to experience. After the market Ellie, being aware of my bad experience and unnatural love for hamburgers, decided she wanted to try and take me to this hamburger place her and her family went to once. We got so lost, walking around for about an hour only to find it closed. However, we discovered a completely new area of town, some new parks, and gorgeous looking buildings. It was hands down one of the best days I've had here yet. I also finally got a picture with the statue of Woody Allen. I think I forgot to mention in previous blog entries that Woody Allen came to Oviedo to shoot Vicky and Christina Barcelona.  He was quoted, "Oviedo is Delicious, Exotic, Beautiful, Clean, Pleasant, Peaceful, and Kind to Pedestrians. It's as if it doesn't belong to this world, as if it could not possibly exist ... Oviedo is like a Fairy Tale (Oviedo Es Como Un Cuento De Hadas)." I find all of this to be completely true. The people here genuinely care about the city so much, because they all take pride in keeping it very clean. The streets are wet on my way to school everyday whether it rains for not, because they hose down the streets to keep it looking great. Every passing day I fall more and more in love with this city, and am reassured that this will be the experience of a lifetime. Even though it has hardly been a month, I could easily envision myself living here if I weren't so close to my family and friends at home. Crazy right? I mainly decided to stay here this weekend because I haven't been here a full weekend. I met a student who came here last year who returned for a month to visit again, and he said he regretted traveling every single weekend because when it came time for him to leave, he hadn't spent enough time in Oviedo and with his family. I feel the same way, and fully want to get the best cultural experience I can. I do, though, completely intend on taking advantage of my traveling opportunities. While here, I definitely want to hit London, Lisbon, and Paris. In Spain, I want to make sure I hit the south such as Sevilla and Granada, go to Barcelona, as well the islands Spain owns; The Grand Canaries and Ibiza.

No Longer In Iowa

I don't know where to begin! This past week was better than last week in many ways, yet more challenging. I had my first negative experience here, and hopefully my last. Last night I was walking home with a friend, and a group of guys were walking towards us. Being in the middle of a conversation, I didn't pay much attention to them until I felt my arm pulled very roughly and came face to face with a young boy, probably about 13/14. He was trying to take my bag, and me not knowing what was going on yelled, "What are you doing?!" (in English, obviously so helpful). He kept trying to pull on it, but I didn't budge, unaware of what I should do. Luckily after about twenty seconds of him trying to drag it away, a motorcycle came down the street and he and the other guys took off. It was pretty scary and eye opening since I was pretty close to home. I was very lucky that my friend was there too, and that the motorcycle drove by, because the group of guys were pretty daunting. After it happened, my friend said she saw them fan out across the street making it obvious we were about to hit some trouble. It could have been a lot worse, but I ended up with my bag and an experience that made me realize I am no longer in Iowa. Until then I have just been under the pretenses that I could walk around, and do whatever I wanted as I do in the US.  Now I know I need to pay careful attention to my surroundings, and not be so naïve. My host family again proved to be very helpful and consoling as they quickly explained that this is very rare for Oviedo, and that they haven't ever heard of this occurring in our area. Also, they called the police, who informed them that they are aware of this group of guys, and were going to look into it since it occurred on a street with many cameras. Again, I am very lucky.

I experienced the typical weather here for the first time; rain, rain, rain. Asturias is known for its rainy, cloudy weather. However, according to my host mother, this winter has been quite the exception. I was excited in the first place that I had completely avoided an Iowa winter and the snow, but even more elated that I may be getting out of a very rainy season. I wasn't as lucky as I first thought. It rained a few times during the week, and a lot this weekend. I learned quickly from my mistakes to keep an umbrella on me all the time. Rain is so expected here that people own umbrellas like accessories. There are umbrella shops, and umbrella holders in almost every single place you go into. My host mom came home so excited to show me her new umbrella she got on sale. She owns about eight of all different patterns and designs.

Thursday, me and a few girls went to the huge mall out of town. Rebajas is going on (the whole month of January is the only time during the year that they have sales or rabajas), and we obviously had to take advantage. We had to take the bus, but the bus system was a lot easier than that I had previously conceived.   We shopped for a few hours, and only made it about half way around the first floor. Needless to say, we're going back again this week, when things are even more on sale, and before the sale ends. Everyone, get excited for your souvenirs :). Thursday night we met up with our advisors to talk about our experiences thus far, and after were surprised to find out that we were going for dancing lessons. We had a teacher and we learned the basic steps for the Meringue and Salsa, and had to put it to use as we were paired with others in the place. In my case, a 30 year old man. Haha, it was very fun all in all.

The highlight of my week was our trip with our club, ESN. We went to Pais Vasco, which consisted of the cities Bilbao and San Sebastian. It took about five hours to get there, but it was worth the wait. We went to San Sebastian first, which was very rainy. It is right on the ocean with a famous beach, and yet another breathtaking view as we took a trolley to the top of a mountain. We then checked into our hostel, which was a very new experience for me. It wasn't that bad, but I didn't allow myself to spend time thinking about how clean the sheets reallyyyy were, or how often the bathroom was cleaned. We made new friends from Boston, Massachusetts, and Italy. The next day, we went to Bilbao, known famously for it's Guggenheim Museum of Modern Art. While I am not really a museum person normally, I liked it a lot. They had a headset we could listen to for each exhibit, and that made me appreciate each piece a lot more than I would have. We had a lot of free time in between the museum, and me and my friends Lara, Kelsey, and Ellie played cards and ate a lot. We started off having pinchos (small sandwiches), found a sweet shop and bought unique looking cookies, and finally left there to find some churros. While there I decided I absolutely needed some french fries, and thinking that they would be small since they were 2 euro, I was surprised with a platter. We ended up all sharing them and eating them as fast as we could because we were running late. As usual, it didn't really matter that we were late since nothing ever sticks to schedule. I thoroughly enjoyed both cities, preferring Bilbao slightly due to its very beautiful older part of town. I was very tired when we returned yesterday, but it turns out I don't sleep as well I wish I could on buses. However it was very hard to even consider sleeping half the time because our tour guides, Ruben and Yoni, were constantly playing disco music loudly, and singing songs into the speaker system. It was pretty annoying at 7AM, but very entertaining in the end.

More differences I've noticed. Well, first of all, everyone eats ham here. ALL THE TIME. It is literally in everything I've eaten so far. I usually don't eat it in the US, but I've grown to like it since I really don't have many options. Its pretty weird. Speaking of meat, I have eaten far more here than I ever do in the US. I like meat, but at home I always prefer the side dishes. While here, I told myself I was going to try everything that Cruz made, and I have actually enjoyed all of it. She told me she noticed a difference from their culture and our culture, and told me that tomorrow she is teaching me how to properly use a knife and fork. She says most Americans do it wrong, and I'm positive I do, since I make a complete disaster of my plate every time I try and eat something. Kind of embarassing, but that should be interesting. Another difference I've noticed is how cold they keep the apartments. It's not just mine, it seems to be any building. I think my mom started to notice how often I kept my coat on, and the massive amount of layers I started wearing and showed me how to turn up the heat. A privilege I still haven't gotten in my own house ;) just kidding dad.

The 17 days I've been here have proved to me quickly that I've made the correct choice in studying abroad. Before I left I was worried that I wouldn't like it here, or that I would get really homesick over the course of five months, but I know I've made the right decision and am so blessed for the opportunity that I have gotten. It's so great too that I have such great family and friends that are willing to bend their schedules and make time for me even with the time change. It really helps more than they know. My host mom told me tonight that my Spanish is getting better and better which is a relief, but I find it hard to believe considering I stumble my way through many sentences. I'll be posting pictures soon from my trip this past weekend, and I'm going to try and blog more frequently so that these posts aren't so long!

Life in Spain

Hola a todos! I have been asked to keep a blog while studying here in Spain, so I am obliging.  I do think it's a good idea though, already so much has happened! We arrived on the 7th, and stayed two nights in a hotel. We were all so tired and overwhelmed by the city that we didn't do a lot of exploring. Last Monday, the moment of truth came when we were picked up by our host families. I was super nervous because I know that it doesn't always work out with the families. My host mom, Cruz, had emailed me prior telling me about herself and her interests. From the email, we sounded pretty compatible. I immediately recognized her because she had sent me pictures. Her partner, Tino was with her. They picked me up in a cab, and I quickly found out neither speak any English. We went to my new home where I will live for the next 5 months. I live on a very popular street in Oviedo; Calle Mon. It is in the part Antigua of town, which means that it's in the older part. Almost everyone here knows how to get there because I live about a minute away from the brilliant La Catedral. I love it already, all the buildings are older and beautiful. My apartment is very decent sized, besides my room. It's very small, but all my things fit just fine. The whole place is decorated very nicely, and it's very modern. The biggest plus? It has wifi, which some of my friends were not as lucky to get. During the week it is just me and Cruz, who is a high school art and history teacher in a nearby small town. This being said, we have almost the same schedule since we both are at school, so it works out nicely. On the weekends, however, she informed me that we will have many guests. Her partner, Tino, lives in a small town nearby, and he comes for the entire weekend. He has two sons: one is 24, the other 19. I met his older son, Danny, this weekend who speaks very good English. It was a lot easier to communicate with him around explaining various traditions and foods I didn't know. They are all so kind and generous, very easy to get along with. Tino is very entertaining and makes fun of my accent by plugging his nose and speaking. He is also constantly teasing everyone and cracking jokes, which I'm plenty used to from my dad. haha. We had a lot of fun this past weekend as they taught me how to dance the Salsa. Sooo fun. I definitely got very lucky with my family.


It is about a 20 minute walk to school, about 15 if I'm walking fast. I have 5 classes: translation, vocab, literature, Hispanic literature, and oral. So far I reallyyy love all but the literature classes. My professor's voice for lit kinda makes me want to go into a coma, and since I still am getting used to the time change, its easy to dose off. Especially since both classes are back to back on Tuesdays and Fridays. I have at least one friend in each class, plus a few other exchange students that I kind of know. I sat by one of them, Freddy, on the plane to Oviedo, so it was nice to get to know someone before class started. Classes aren't too bad though, at least yet, and I definitely needed a break from UNI's business core classes. However, I pulled a "dumb American" mistake while answering a question in class. Instead of saying, "he had 5 months to live", I said,"he had 5 tables to live". The Spanish words are very similar, but it was still pretty embarrassing. Kinda funny though. Speaking of dumb mistakes, last night while trying to remember the word ice to ask Cruz for some for my ankle, I ended up saying something different. She immediately bursted out laughing, and turns out I said something about a glacier. I guess it would be pretty hard to ice my ankle with a glacier...


Me and all the girls from UNI are all involved in ESN, a club here at the college. Last week was welcome week and we did things like went to a movie, went on a city tour, tried salsa dancing, and tried Asturias' famous cider called Sidria. It's like apple cider, only composed partly of beer. It is only available in northern Spain, and everyone here is crazy about it. Also, through ESN we went on a hike up to Monte Naranco to see El Cristo. In total, I think it was over 4 miles. It's really about time that I learn the metric system, and convert everything. I wish globalization was a little further along as far as that goes. The hike was amazing though, and the view was so gorgeous.  I want to do it again. We also went to the town of Gijon, which is about 20 minutes away from here. It is similar to Oviedo, but it has the coast. While it was very pretty, I still prefer Oviedo. Yesterday with the club we went to three towns: Covadonga, Cangas de Oris, and Ribadesella. We took a bus because it was about an hour and half away. The first town, Covadonga, was breathtaking because it is a town in the mountains. It also has an interesting past. There is a beautiful church that the city is built around, as well as another church built into the mountains. Pelayo promised that if they defeated the Muslims that he would build the virgin of Covadonga a church. The Muslims were not used to the rugged terrain and the Spaniards clearly had an advantage being on the mountain tops. Since they defeated the Muslims, the church was built, and exists today. There also was a fountain, and it is said that if you drink out of all of them in less than a minute, you are to wed in less than a year. Don't worry, I only drank out of one. :) The reason for going to the next town is the beautiful, long river that flows through it, as well as its famous bridge constructed by the Romans centuries ago.  While here, I tried churros for the first time. I loved them, but lets just say if I make a habit out of eating them, I'll come back looking like la gorda (check the statue picture I uploaded on fbook). The final town was my favorite, and even though it was raining, so very beautiful. It is an ocean town, and after a short hike up to cliff, we could see the ocean for miles. I took a ton of pictures because I couldn't get enough of it. However, since it was so cold, me and a few friends got drinks and spent time in a cafe playing cards. 


There are also some things here that I've noticed that are so different from the States. Not necessarily bad differences either. First of all, everyone here seems to eat a lot healthier. I rarely see someone overweight walking around. The food is very different, but in a good way. As many of you know I'm pretty picky. However, so far I've eaten so many new things---and liked almost all of it. The first day, I ordered a hamburger, or so I thought. It ended up being lamb. Not my favorite. I don't think I'll acquire that taste...how American of me. I also love all the fish and seafood so far. Cruz is an excellent cook, and we've had a lot of salmon and cod. We also had seafood pasta which I loved. I asked Danny what was in it, because of the unusual texture, and we had to look it up in the dictionary. Turns out, I had been eating baby eel. So. Weird. I honestly didn't that would EVER happen. Another unusual thing I've noticed is how well behaved dogs are. Seriously, hardly any dogs seem to be on leashes. Even the huge ones. They are all so obedient and never, ever bark. But, lets be real. I wouldn't trade Mags in for one of these machines. Also, the culture is so very different. Which, yeah, is to be expected. Spain seems to have the ideal life for me. Everyday from around 2-4 almost everything closes for "siestas" or naps. One of my favorite things, too, is that no one is ever in a hurry. Many people are always late because of it. I guess life is too short to not pay attention to your surroundings, and what is going on around you. Also, drinking seems to be a big part of the culture here. Not heavy or binge drinking by any means, but it is expected and very customary for a family to go out for a glass of wine or sidria before supper every Friday and Saturday. Many other families have wine or beer with supper, but we do not. Speaking of meals, it was hard to adjust to eating so late. Lunch is at 2 or 3, and Supper is at 9 or 10. Another observation about life here is that it seems to be so easy. Hardly anyone seems stressed or unhappy. Things aren't really planned all the way through, and are expected to be a little spontaneous in this way. I especially notice this at school with the seemly disorganization of some of my professors. It's not a bad thing, but it is hard for me to adjust to since I like some structure. 


I can already feel my Spanish getting better and better everyday. However, while I notice this vast improvement, I am beginning to notice a slight decline in my English grammar and especially my spelling. The biggest difference is the sentence structure. In English, the adjectives are usually before the noun, and in Spanish they are after. However, I guess the entire sentence structure is different. I've noticed that I've mixed this up a few times already while translating in my head, and it sort of gives me a headache trying to figure it all out. I'm going to try and keep them separate, and make Rae Larson proud!


However, like clock work, It's definitely time for a nap. This post was very long, but like I said, a lot has happened this first week! I have plenty of pictures to go along with this entry, so feel free to check it 1,2.  http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2670660284063.2123741.1182780102&type=1