Carnaval in Portugal!

Hola a Todos.. Ha sido un tiempo!

I am currently writing this on my first day being home from school sick. It's not all too surprising that I'm sick given my long and adventure filled weekend, as well as the fact that Cruz is just starting to get over her sickness. It's all worth it, though, because I spent this last Friday-Tuesday in Portugal. We loaded the buses with ESN at 12:30 AM Friday, and set our sights on Lisbon. After a night of meager rest, we arrived around 10:30AM in the beautiful city, to our coordinators blasting The Pirates Of The Caribbean theme song. While it was really annoying to anyone trying to sleep, I couldn't stop laughing. We dropped our stuff off at a hostel, and began a busy day. The first thing we did was go on a little city tour that led us to a trolley that took us to the best view of the city. At the very top of Lisbon sits an enormous castle. We spent about two hours in total exploring every crevice, and going to the top of each tower. Not to mention taking plenty of pictures the magnificent view. After this, we were given free time, and we all decided to spend the perfect, sunny day eating outside, as well as lounging in the sun by the city square. After about an hour, a few of us were even sunburned. Including me. On our way back to the hostel, we stumbled upon a parade. Not the usual parade you would think of, though. Right now in most of Europe, a celebration called Carnival is going on. It is the celebration of the days before lent begins, and there are many various activities that it includes. This parade consisted of people of all ages dressing up in ridiculous costumes, some bands, and just people walking along the parade throwing confetti. It was one of the craziest things I've ever seen. After this, my friends and I walked around the city and did some exploring. We went to this old famous elevator called BellaLisa that has another great view of the city. However, my ticket was the only one that worked, so I went by myself. So worth it for the bird's eye view! After, I met my friends at the bottom and we succumbed to eating McDonald's. I wish I could say this only happened once....but it happened again the following day. I don't regret it though, it was amazing! Just a little piece of home I guess. After this delightful snack, we went to the main plaza where there was a huge concert in celebration for carnival.  We only made it for the end of it, yet the vibe was great, and we all had a ton of fun.

The next morning, before we took off for our next Portuguese city, we made a little pit stop in Bellin.  It is famous for desserts, and is right on the water. It was once again an ideal day, so we walked the water front and encountered street performers, markets, and a TON of pigeons. Bellin is famously known for its desserts, so naturally we had to get that to try, also. It was great start to the morning. After a few hours we met up back at the bus and headed for the city of Porto. Because ESN is always, always, always running late we didn't get there until later (we were about 5 hours behind schedule). Most of us in our group were exhausted by the time we arrived, and so we decided to stay in and just chill in the hostel to rest up for the next day's events. 

After our hostel breakfast, we got ready for our city tour. We saw many monuments, and historical churches. My favorite part though was the river. Its sparkling blue waters made it our top destination in Porto for the next two days. We talked, ate, and napped by the riverside. We realized while relaxing that it is sort of a blessing that we do not have our phones. In the United States, we all would have been undoubtedly texting, but here it was just so nice to not constantly have the interruption of technology. ESN organized a wine tasting for us for the famous Porto wine, as well as boat tour. I don't really know much about wine not being 21, but the tour of the business was very interesting. The boat tour offered breathtaking views, and so it was one of my favorite parts. The rest of the trip was spent looking in various stores, and getting ready for carnival. I purchased a cheap mask, as did most of my friends, and we got ready for the celebration! It was one of my favorite nights I've had in Europe yet! Portugal was definitely worth every cent that I spent, I loved every minute of the warm sunny cities. I would easily go back in heartbeat, and I am so grateful for the opportunity that I was given. It is so hard for me to believe that I only have about three more months in this paradise, time is flying so quickly. 

Things is Oviedo are about the same, except brilliantly sunny :). It definitely helped sooth the blow from coming back from the perfect climate of Portugal. Last week I had my first round of exams, and I was pretty nervous because I had no idea what to expect for testing. They all went very well, and I am hoping that I can keep it up for the rest of the semester. I am really looking forward to this weekend, as it is Carnival in Oviedo.  Get ready for a lot more crazy pictures and crazy costumes! I am hoping that I will be feeling better so I can enjoy the weekend, and with my antibiotics I received today that seems very possible! It has been hard being away from home this past week as Madalyn had her ACL reconstruction surgery, but all went well, and thanks to my dad's new Skype app on his phone I've been able to keep in touch with my family a lot easily (it's been used about 6 times in 2 days). Haha, not a bad thing, though. However, please keep her in your prayers!

Soccer At Last

Hello Everyone!

This week's entry will most likely be shorter than the rest. However, I guess we'll see what happens by the time I am actually finished :). I had an excellent week, but not much has been new news to report. Per usual, I will begin with the weather. Last week was miserable, and the rain didn't really let up until Friday. Tuesday was the worst day, as I woke up late. Knowing I couldn't miss my first class, I grabbed my stuff and took off. I ran the entire way to school in a downpour only arriving a few minutes late. At the end of the day, the weather seemed to not let up at all. Although, my entire walk home is uphill. Thus, I was trudging uphill in tide-like conditions. Kidding, sort of. My shoes were completely soaked through by the time I was halfway there, and the highlight was when I was standing too close to the street not paying attention, waiting for the light to change. While doing so, a car layed on its horn, and zoomed by inches in front of me. Conveniently, there was a huge puddle right in front of me, and I got completely soaked. Words can't describe how goofy the look was that Cruz gave me when I arrived home holding an umbrella, yet completely soaked.

In contrast, Wednesday proved to be a much better day. I was invited at the Superbowl party last week to play soccer. Through word of mouth, I showed up at the meeting place to quickly find out I would be the only girl. Not that unusual, considering most of the pick up games I play at home are the same way. However, I was pretty nervous because this is Europe, and most people learn how to play from the time they start walking. Since I have been dying to play since I've arrived, I still jumped on the opportunity. Quickly, the Spanish guys we played against let it be known that almost no girls play in Spain. I ended up being able to hold my own pretty well, scoring a goal and having an assist out of three goals. I should also mention, though, that I fell down countless times and even got hit full force in the face with the ball. So graceful. The first hour was pretty fun, but because there were no subs and it seemed intense the entire time, I got exhausted and was dragging the final half hour. Oh, I had to play goalie too. Not my best position....

Thursday we met up with our advisors. Paula brought an advice book that each group of students fills out at the end of each semester. It was so amazing to get the chance to read it, and hear about the experiences the other students had. The best part was reading the funny advice and comments about the teachers. We spent a solid half hour mimicking some of the weird quirks of our professors, and ended up laughing until we were all crying. Each and every entry solidified, once again, that this will be the best experience of our lives. They all highly suggested to try our best to immerse ourselves in the language and culture. Also, the entries all said something along the lines of don't worry about the money that you spend, because it is the best possible way you could spend it. I am a little precarious about that bit of advice, but it is the best time in my life for traveling.

Friday I was asked to play soccer again, so I headed out right after school. I was even more nervous because one of the guys told me that this is a lot more intense, and taken more seriously (news to me, I thought the last time was taken seriously too). I was still so sore from the last time we played, but I figured nothing would help it more than to play again. The guys we played this time were all very good, but I seemed to be able to keep up the entire time. When I got back to the pizo, I was taking my shoes off when I noticed my entire sock was drenched with blood. Cruz freaked out, and kept saying we should go to the hospital. Luckily, Danny was around to calm her down, and tell her it wasn't a big deal since all I could do was stiffle my laugh since I was imaging how different my dad's reaction would be. It ended up being that my largest toe nail was cut, and completely destroyed. Pretty painful to walk on, but Cruz went to the pharmacy and got me a little contraption to put around my toe. Friday night was pretty chill as we headed to an apartment that our friends from Boston own. Cruz is pretty sick right now, so there really wasn't much going on around the house.

Today I woke up, and went with some friends to the market. It is my favorite way to spend Sunday because the atmosphere is absolutely marvelous. The streets were packed, vendors were haggling, and some live music from street performers was blaring. I found a few treasures that I already cannot wait to give to people back home. Because it was very cold out, we headed home early. Thank goodness, though, because at the door I was greeted with a huge rib dinner. It was hands down one of the best meals I have had here, and filled me up quickly.

I know this hasn't been the most exciting blog entry, but I've been studying a lot for two exams I have this coming week. I'm not sure what to expect in either one, so I guess I'll just have to find out. My Spanish has improved greatly, and I also seem to be a lot more confident in my speaking. Already, though, I can feel my English declining quickly. I know that may seem strange, but I keep finding myself using the same sentence structure as is used in Spanish Grammar. My favorite example: "What are you doing tonight for the party of Superbowl?" I also seem to be a lot less careless when it comes to making grammatical errors, so I apologize if any of you have noticed this.  This weekend I will be heading to Portugal with the club, so that seems to be promising as far as my next week's blog entry goes.

Where Has The Time Gone?

Hi Everyone!

Once again I have the same intro, but I really have had another great week.  On Tuesday Kelsey, Lara, and I decided that we were going to climb Mt. Naranco again. This is excellent exercise, and we wanted to memorize the way to the top so that we could take those we knew when they came to visit. We only took one wrong turn, which is pretty impressive considering there is one sign in four kilometers, and since we take many very small, one person wide paths. We brought our lunches, and it was so worth the time it took to go up. Even though I'd already seen the view, it seemed just as impressionable as the first time.

The weather here has continued to hold consistent to its reputation, and I've made the bold observation that Oviedo weather is crazier than Iowa weather. I really didn't think I would ever be able to say that about any place. On my way to school on Wednesday I unfortunately stepped outside into snow flurries (I really shouldn't be so spoiled in my thinking, because snow flurries are still 10X better than the snow filled ditches I would see at home). It was so strange and very comical to walk to school, because the people here are so dramatic when it comes to the weather. Heaven forbid it should get to 30 degrees. I saw countless long fur coats, people with covered faces, and even snow boots. The best thing I saw, though, were ALL of the people using their umbrellas for the snow. I got a really good laugh out of it. When I left school, it seemed the weather had drastically changed. It was sunny, and had heated up about 20 degrees. I got really warm walking home, and there was no sign of any snow. Pretty crazy.

Thursday was definitely one of two highlights of my week. We usually meet with our advisors at a local bar to discuss our classes and daily life, but this week we were invited to join them for free dancing lessons. I was a little skeptical at first because they were said to be taught in Spanish, which is challenging enough considering I would have problems understanding dancing lessons in English. Our first class was break dancing. Yep, break dancing. It was also my favorite, and the easiest for me since I have so much swag. Haha, just kidding. Seriously though. It was so fun.The only thing I could half way decently do was a headstand which really surprised me. The next class was the Flamenco. I decided to just watch it since I was pretty tired from all the break dancing. I'm pretty sure I made the right decision since the dance included intricate steps while moving your hands and wrists at the same time. Every single person in that class had some difficulties with it, except for Kelsey being a  fabulous dancer back home and all. After the Flamenco was belly dancing. It was the most packed class with girls/women of all ages. The instructor made us reveal our stomachs so that she would make sure we were doing it right which was weird at first. It was the most challenging thing I can say that I've tried yet.  I would try it again for sure. The final class was  the Salsa. I felt like I had a good understanding and grip in that class since Tino and I dance together nearly every weekend. All in all, it was a very exciting and fun night until I got super lost on the way home. It took me nearly fifty minutes to find my way home, but I love the city so much that I didn't mind it. Especially since having to ask in Spanish for directions and navigate using the Spanish street system isn't the easiest thing. Very great practice though. Also on Thursday, a girl , Lisa, from England came to stay with us for the weekend. She stayed with Cruz in the past and decided to come for the weekend to catch up and visit. I really liked hanging out with her, and it was so nice to hear about her experience and relate it to mine. Also, having someone to talk to in English at dinners was a relief since she could translate some things for me.

Yesterday was my other highlight. Cruz woke me up early and her, Tino, Lisa, and myself went to the coast for a picnic and a hike. The hike took a few hours, but it was so worthwhile. We were constantly surrounded by a snowy mountain range on one side, and the beautiful, sparkling ocean on the other. After we stopped briefly for lunch, we walked to a cliff side where I encountered the strangest sight. We saw the bufones, which translates to jesters in English. I've never seen anything so miraculous before. There were many deep craters in the ground and when the wind and ocean would pick up, the water would spray out of the top right in front of your eyes. The day we went wasn't even that windy, but I still was so impressed and in awe of its beauty. I undoubtedly want to go back again.  After we came back I took a long nap, because I knew I was going to have a long night ahead of me. All of the girls and I went to a local bar to watch the Superbowl.  While I'm not big into the NFL, they offered hot dogs and tacos. Naturally, it was quickly added to my calendar. With the time change, the game started at 12:30 AM. It was such a blast to hang out with everyone, and some of our other American friends we've met here. Since I didn't get to bed until nearly 5 AM, today proved to be a rough day for class, but I just somehow managed to not fall asleep.

Here are some more cultural differences that I've noticed more in the past few weeks. First of all, I've seen some police officers walking around. It's very hard to take them seriously when their uniform is similar to leggings, boots, and a helmet. I also think another reason I find it hard to take them seriously is because I imagine my Uncle Jason wearing a similar getup. Another thing I've noticed while being here is that nearly everyone has a blatant staring problem. It seems no matter how European I dress or try to fit in, it's still completely obvious I am tourist. Not to mention that aside from my American friends, my name is known as "La Rubia" or the blonde. No kidding, everywhere I go, people will give me weird look and stare at me the entire time I walk by, and EVERYONE calls me the blonde. Other things I've noticed have had to do yet again with food.  I am completely addicted to this candy called Regaliz. It is a long thin piece of fruit flavored delight covered in sugar. Luckily, a bag only costs one euro which so far is kind of adding up. Whoops :). The next difference I noticed is that desert is mandatory after each and every meal. I know it's utterly ridiculous to complain about this, but for some unknown reason, out of every person seated at our table, I get the largest proportions of food. Maybe because Americans are known to eat more? Either way it's not even a little bit rational, and I can never finish my plate. By the time I try and stuff myself full of the normal meal, Cruz is creating a platter of desert. Cookies, fruit, and yogurt are usually what it entails, but lately there has been a lot of cake and other sweets. I honestly hardly ever want it, but every time I say I do not, I think Cruz gets offended so I try and eat less to save room for desert. Unsurprisingly, this past weekend brought some more interesting food. I hate to admit it, but after I completely devoured what I thought was a chicken leg, it turned out being a rabbit leg. :S I'm also pretty sure that Tino said we might have horse, which I really don't think I'll be able to do unless I eat it without asking. This has been my strategy thus far, but after this experience I might reconsider.

As my title suggests, the time has flown since I have been here. It's been one month already, and I cannot believe it. Is it strange that I already have a sickening feeling knotting up in my stomach when I think of leaving in four months? I'll have to take advantage of every second of every day while I am here. I have updated my facebook album with more pictures from the weekend from our dancing lessons, to showing some of the food dishes we've consumed. Feel free to check it out! http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2670660284063.2123741.1182780102&type=3