Another long blog

I've had a great week here in Oviedo. Starting off from where I left off last, wednesday. Wednesday I of course went to school, which felt so long because we were all pretty ready for the weekend. During class we found out we would be having an exam. Great. So after the day was finally over, we went our separate ways and I went home to lunch. We had fish, my favorite, salad, which my host mom finally realized that I hate onions and tomatoes, and potatoes. Pretty great meal not gonna lie. You know, I keep forgetting to see if they have ranch here. I'm shocked I'm surviving without it. Anyways after my friend Douk and I went to the city. First we went to a printing shop, and then he wanted to get a new camera. Boy was that an adventure. The cameras were about the same in Spanish but they had changed places since the time before. I also grabbed some almonds and we were on our way. Next I went and got some postcards and found a couple cool souvenirs and what not. Next I went home and had rice with an egg and tomato sauce. yum. After dinner we talked a little but I needed to study. So I went in my room and studied....Facebook. Lol. I should of studied more but I didn't. Next day. Test. I go in and see how confident everyone else felt, and that worried me even more. The test was pretty easy and I think I did better then I thought! Whoo! After the test I went back home, and had lunch with my host mom, and then met with some people to go through the museum at the cathedral. This museum was so awesome. Not only were there tons of old artifacts and pictures, it it was a lot bigger then I thought it was going to be. My favorite part was the crosses. They were so unique and historic. The next day, which was Friday we went to a city called Llanes. Llanes was unbelievable. First we walked over to this dock and along side the do k were these huge cubes, all painted very uniquely and each one special in its own way. They were awesome. Next we went to find this awesome building off in the distance. We walked around everywhere to find this place. We ended up seeing this really old house that looked like it could of been from the movie the women in black. It was really creepy! After that we finally found this building that turned out to be a church. It looks just like a castle though. It was sooo pretty inside and out. After that went set out to find the tourist office to get a map. The holding also looked like a castle lol. After that we found the beach. The first beach was amazingly pretty and I am still in aw about how much I loved the beach. It was very secluded and not touristy. We laid here for a while and kind of just watched the ocean. The water was really cold but really clear. I was in aw. Next we went and got some ice cream. I got turròn, a flavor only found in Asturias, and has a nutty taste to it. Yum. Afterwords we went and found the other beach. This one was also very pretty. If you walked up this hill you would see the city plus the ocean. There was even a little square where it looked like you could get married, and I think that's where I'll eventually get married lol. After this we went to the bus station and were there about an hour early. Currently in Asturias there have been a ton of bus cancelations because of a strike. So we waited for our bus. Recap. We left for Llanes at about a quarter til 8 in the morning, and our bus home was at 9:15pm. Around 8:40pm the guy at the station came up to us and told us that there was no more buses for Oviedo today. We showed him our ticket and he went and talked to the other guy and said that there indeed was another. We decided to go wait by the bus but before we did a girl in our group wanted to use the bathroom first. While she is in the bathroom, we see the bus, that was supposedly ours, drive away!! That was the last bus and we missed it. Oviedo is about an hour and a half away from Oviedo, so it's pretty expensive. We started to freak and didn't know what to do. We look at our ticket and indeed it says 8:45. The man that told us that there was a bus came over and looked at our ticket. He said no no and said 8:45 es en la mañana, and flipped over our first ticket and we see the second one...that said 9:15....wow...did we feel stupid. Haha but it made for a great story. The next day we went to a Japanese restaurant. It was great! Not the best food ever but not horrible!! Later we went to a play called Yurma which was about a women who wanted to have kids but couldn't so she tries all these things to be able to have kids. In the end a lady told her the reason why was probably because of her husband, so she kills him. A very interesting play and is one that is well known in Oviedo. Then on Sunday we went to Gijon and walked around and relaxed at the beach. All in all, a great weekend. Now since I'm behind on my blog, I'm going to need to speed through the rest. This past week was pretty normal but let me give ya some highlights. Monday we played cards. And pretty much everyday. On Thursday we went into the museum above the cathedral and we had a homeless man follow us. Sooo weird. And scary. Then we watched the game, which was fun. Spain dominated! Woot! Then Friday I went to a bar and talked to a bunch of spainiards which was sooo awesome, they were in the process if learning English so I would talk in Spanish and they would respond in English. It was awesome. Then on Saturday I went on a canoe ride. This was sooo amazingly fun. I went down with my good ol buddy Douk. We were ahead of the crowd and were first to lunch, a fun interesting lunch that was...just interesting. After lunch we got back in the canoe and pressed on. We see some rapids ahead of us and I said that we should probably go around, but Douk thought otherwise. We went over the rapids and sure enough Douk fell out and filled our boat with water. I paddled our boat to the side and we after several attempts got the water out. There was also a fish in our boat, which was sooo funny. After getting stuck like five more times, Douk throwing his paddle out of the boat, and a lot of paddling we made it. It was a fun day. Went out that night. Then yesterday we went to the beach. Spain is amazing and I'm so sad that this is my last week.

A lot of days in Spain.

Soooo first of all sorry it looks like I haven't been writing, I have! I just haven't finished and then I end up going another couple days without writing and yeah. So first I want to talk about my first Friday night in Oviedo. And let me just tell you up front....what a disappointment. We went to this restaurant in old Oviedo and ordered some drinks and some tapas. First of all, or drinks were horrid. Soooooo gross. Then we ordered the spanish tortilla and it wasn't even cooked all the way. Then after we went to el parque de san Francisco and we stood next to this number because the date is like mowed into the grass and we wanted to see if it changed at midnight. So we waited and right at night this white truck appears and gets out. We were sooo excited that this was actually happening!!! It was real! So we all get our cameras out to document this awesome adventure. As get into position the guy gets in the truck and drives away. Awesome. Turns out that he was just changing the garbage, so I guess we will never know. Oh and I left my only jacket at the restaurant and so we had to walk all the way back to get it. You can bet we had a very early to bed kind of night that night lol. The next day we had our first excursion. We went to León and a place called Astorga. Astorga was beyond awesome. We saw a different cathedral like the one below and a castle looking palace. Then we walked around the city and saw some awesome view points, ruins, and a chocolate museum! The chocolate museum sounds awesome, but don't be fooled. It was totally lame. Basically it had an upstairs with a weird old machine that didnt work, and a video in spanish of a guy making chocolate. Wasn't at all exciting. Next we went to Leòn and walked around, and had lunch. Our lunch was horrible, and our fruit was from a can... It looked so awesome but to be honest there wasn't a lot to do. And that wraps up the first excursion and pretty much everything bad about the weekend. But I can't complain a lot because I'm in Spain!!! Later that night...things finally turned around. We went to this bar and their was live music. It was really cool, and very chill. They sang a lot of American songs but I felt like I liked them all. Next we went to someone's apartment and played hearts by the elevator. Sounds lame but it was a blast. The next day was Sunday and I got to meet a girl named Helen. She was the girl before me and she is currently teaching kids English and living with a different family. It was really good to talk to her and get some tips about Spain. Monday was a typical day. If you don't know what that means read my previous blog. Tuesday was actually a holiday here in Oviedo. I don't know much about it I just know people go to the park and eat a sandwich, anyways I went to a city called Luanco. In this town was a very nice beach so pretty much spent the whole day at the beach, it was heaven and a much needed break from school. After school Wednesday we went to the aquarium in a city called Gijon. The aquarium was soooo awesome. They had tons of animals and if you know anything about me, it's that I love to go to the zoo or....SEAWORLD! Lol. Thursday was an awesome day. I went to an art museum and in this art museum they had a painting done by Pablo Picasso himself and many more interesting paintings. Then we went and saw some nuns singing, which was soo awesome. Later that night I went with my good friend Becca and got "churros con chocolate" which is what it sounds like but you dip the churros in the chocolate. It's very weird but sooo good. Now onto Saturday, which was a busy day for me. I went on my excursion to Covadonga, Los Lagos and Ribadesella. These were some amazing places and totally topped the last excursion. Covadonga was a beautiful place up in the mountains. I can't tell you how amazing they were. The mountains here are so green and look like they are from lord of the rings. Covadonga had a huge church that was probably the prettiest church I've seen, exterior wise. It's just amazing. Then they have this huge cave that leads to this small version of a church and they were holding mass there. After that we went down these steps to the waterfall. So pretty. Then their we're these seven spouts that some of the water came through. It's said that if you drink from all seven you'll be married in a year. So I wouldn't get married that quickly, I drank from one. Best water I've had here in Europe by far. Next we headed up to Los Lagos. These lakes are said to be some of the most beautiful lakes in the world. The drive up there was an adventure for sure. The roads were very small and only one car fit...properly. And on the other side of these crowds was the cliff. If that's not close enough to death, it was foggy. So foggy that we couldn't see in front of us. But we risked it. Luckily we made it there in time and thank god for a good bus driver lol. When we got to the lake, we could barley see it because of the fog but nevertheless a very cool experience. Next we went to Ribadesella. This was a pretty city with a very pretty beach. We climbed up to this lighthouse looking building and wow. Breathtaking view. The pictures here are from my iPod but the others were much better. After we got home, I went to see snow white with my host sister and Helen. It was great because I got to test my Spanish knowledge and I knew more then I tough which made me very happy. And the popcorn here is very delicious. And I really love my host sister, she is sooo nice. On Sunday I went to Gijon and went to the beach. Gijon is a great city but even with a beach, it doesn't compare to Oviedo. We found this spot though with a very pretty view and grass. We just payed on the grass and even rolled down it. A good day. Today was an awesome day also. We went on a hike that was pretty uphill for 99% of it. I realized that I'm not uh of a hiker. Anyways the hike up was so pretty. Tons and tons of beautiful views and buildings, and you could see the whole city which was so awesome. Well I'm sorry for the delay on this. It took a couple tries to write and a complete write-over. I love spain and can't believe I'm halfway done with it. Thanks for reading, and feel free to comment.

School, life, and Spain.

Hola!Being in Spain everyday feels so unreal. Each day i wake up and am in aw at what I see. Let me tell you my typical day in Spain. Wake up at 8:00am and get in the shower and get ready for my day. Then my host mom, named Clara which I just barley learned her name, has breakfast ready for me. Usually the same thing, bread and cereal, with coffee or what not. Then I say chao to my host mom as she tells me to have a good day and then I'm off. Off down the road of this new city, everyday an adventure. As I'm walking down the street I see many things. I walk by a lot of stores and shops of every kind. Full of shoes, flowers, meat, clothes, bags, toys, and yes even comics. I also walk by this little house cottage thing which was built during the 1100s. How crazy is it that I walk by such a historic building and live in such a historic country that I've only read about in books. It's still mind bottling to me. Anyways I cross a couple streets and meet Liv, Becca, Douk, and Elli every morning before class. We have a couple chats about the previous night and then go to class. Liv, Elli, Becca and I are all in the same class. First up class with María. Yes María like west side story. And yes, like I she loves that movie! I asked....anywho, my class is so fun! She keeps things interesting because of many different reasons. Firstly she teaches with her hands, face, body language and voice. Second she brings students lives into her lessons, like how many siblings or things like that. Third she speaks a little English and when she does she has a British accent!!!!! Sooooo awesome! It's so funny that if you'd like I'll tell you how she sounds when I get back in the states. After she leaves we have our conversation class with coacha...at least I think that's her name lol. She basically talks about whatever I decided. Kind of throws me off sometimes but I like her a lot! It's hard to learn Spanish from someone who only speaks Spanish but I can feel my Spanish get a lot better. Then after school we have a HUGE lunch. This is at about 2pm. Lunch changes from day to day but nonetheless very big. Today was the first lunch that worried me. It was a normal salad with raw fish on it. Like totally raw. I ate it though and it was really really good! Anywho after lunch I usually go explore the city with my friends. We sometimes just walk around and explore or go shopping or anything really. A couple day ago we went on a tour with everyone from the program. It was awesome! We went into a cathedral which was beyond beautiful. It was amazing to see all of the history behind everything. After we walked around the city more and went to a very old university in Oviedo. Soooo awesome. Looked like it was from Harry potter, no joke. After all the excitement of the day you have dinner, at this time it's about 9 or 10 at night. We eat, usually something small, but I'm ok with it because lunch is so big. After dinner I usually do my homework or go out again. Last night was an interesting one. We had a party called " Una espicha". This party is special for many reasons. Their is tons of music played with a special flute like instrument that has a bag, and drums. Then their is a ton of socializing and food. And no sitting. Sitting is rude at an espicha. The food, for the most part was good. Tons of Spanish Tortillas, fish, bread cheese, calamari, and much much more. Then their was some awesome dessert that was like a crepe without filling but better. Wait...were missing a super important part of an espicha. Sidra. Sudra is an alcoholic beverage that taste like cider. It is kept in these huge barrel and when they pour it, they hold the cup far away from the barrel and it kind of fountains in. You have to drink sidra as soon as you get it because it's best that way and gets nasty if you let it sit there. This was all quite the experience and a lot of people had way too much fun with the sidra. Sidra is very strong so they said not to mix it with the wine. Some people don't listen so things got a little crazy. People were singing and dancing and overall was a very good atmosphere. But after the party I went straight home and went to bed because I had class the next day. Overall Spain is a very fun place, and is oh so beautiful. I am blessed to be here and want to tale advantage of every opportunity. I just wanna let my family and friends know that I miss them and love them, and wish they were here to experience this with me. It's dinner time now, so I better go! Chao!

Mi casa nueva

Hey everyone,I am in the beautiful city of Oviedo. The town is so pretty. It is probably the cleanest town I've seen in Spain and I can't explain to you how nice everyone is here. So story of last night, my first night in Madrid. So we drove 5 to 6 hours from Madrid to Spain. The bus ride was amazing. Listening to music and looking out the window was awesome. Oviedo has by far the prettiest mountains I have ever seen. It is sooo green. When we got to Oviedo and I stepped off the bus, I instantly became very nervous of what was coming. My new family. I was sooo nervous walking to the school because I had no idea what to expect. I even thought of going to get a tattoo so I would take my mind off the worry of my new family. But we still have a lot of time in Spain...so we'll see haha. I bet my mom is so happy reading that. So anyways we walk into the school and you can feel the nervousness from everyone in that room. One by one everyone was leaving with their new families. I, of course with my luck, was the last one to be picked up. With every person that walked in I thought, is that my family in Spain? So finally this lady walks in and she looks very nice. Is this my mother in Spain? And no, no it wasn't. It was my new sister in Spain. My mother was in Madrid and was coming later that day. So we walked and I find out that my new sister, whose name is barbara, spoke a little English, but not much. She was super nice though and we talked a lot about Adele and Amy winehouse. And she loves rock music. The music in Spain is mostly American music, it's a little odd but kind of cool. Anyways we have dinner, which was rice with tomato sauce, with a fried egg on top and bread. The strawberries for dessert. It was pretty good. and I instantly started studying Spanish. Barbara needed to go home so I was left home alone for about an hour. Then juego, my new brother who also lives in an apartment with my sister up a few floors, came in. He is nearly fluent in English, and seemed really nice. Then he too leaves and I'm alone for one more hour when my mother and sister walk in. She is such a nice lady, but at first I feel like she thinks I'm stupid lol. Anyways after a while we go to bed. I set my alarm but it didn't go off which worried me but my mother woke me up. We eat breakfast it's bread coffee and cereal. Then she takes me to school and I tried my best to look at street signs so I could find my way back. School was great my first teacher was really nice and helpful and I think I could learn a lot from her. After I come home and eat lunch. Lunch is pretty big here so I made sure to come. Finding my way home I thought would be hard but I did it. For lunch I had this meat, I think was pork, potatoes and green soup lol. And of course bread. Then we had yogurt for dessert. After I gave her the salt water taffy and she was very excited. Then we talked for a while and I told her that I have been studying Spanish for two semesters and she said I was very intelligent and was learning quickly. This made me happy. They have a dog here named Tina and I love her already she is sooo cute. Well I need to get going. For those of you who already read this im vey sorry. Im adding a little more. So after i wrote what you see above, I went to meet my friends Douk, Becca and Liv. They are for sure my best friends here. We had so many adventures together. First of all, who knew that finding cheap evryday products would be so hard! We ended up going to three stores Just to find these at a decent price. It was a lot harder than you'd imagine. And watch out, because if you leave the store empty handed they will assume you are stealing, especially if your blonde or speak English lol. First, we went and found eachothers houses and mapped out where to meet so we could walk to school together. Which gave us the chance to see the city and really find ourselves if that makes any sense. Walking around the city you find many strange things, for instane we found this huge statue that looks like a butt. We call it the butt ststue. We decided to take pictures with the statue when all of the sudden we see this man who is walking away from us but has his head turned and we all have no idea what was going on. He looked at us for what felt like ages and he wouldnt stop. Talk about a creepo'! Then we went to the mall......holy wow!!!!! The mall is huge and doesn't look like it belongs in Oviedo because it looks so modern. And it is so big! The biggest mall i have ever been too, and were going back tomorrow which will be loads of fun but i hope i wont spend a lot of money. After we had to say our goodbyes and go back home. When i got home my mom had dinner ready. Tortillas and salad with fruit. I know what your thinking....tortillas in Spain??? What????? These arent the same thing. No. No they are not. They are like potatos and bread like things but they are very, very good. Probably the best thing ive eaten in spain somgar. Anyways i have to go get some shut eye, hasta luego, Adios!

Madrid

So I want to start out with my crazy journey to Spain. I wake up on wednesday and get ready to go. Of course I had to check my packing list about 19 times until I was actually convinced I had everything. So I go downstairs and look at the clock, it was 6:30am..so....i wasn't going to the airport until 7:30am. So after saying goodbye to my sister, I I went to the kitchen and attempted to eat some cereal...yep didn't happen. I was far too nervous to eat. So many firsts. First time on a plane, first time in another country, and first time past those awful people at the airport called security. Anyways my brother and sister-in-law show up to take me to the airport, so I firstly go say adios to them. I had to wake them up and tell them I was leaving. They were a little too tired to care. Lol. Said goodbye to my mom and was out the door. I just kept thinking about whether this all was truly happening and it was. The drive to the airport seemed like ages. My brother and his wife giving me some awesome advice on flying. I felt as if I was going into the hunger games...lol jk, or am I? Anyways I get to the airport and get to my gate. Cake. Similar decide to go explore the airport, and try and find a beverage. As I'm going down the escalator I start looking for my ticket and can't find it. After panicking looking for it, it was nowhere to be found. I look up to go find it and see Melinda, one of the girls I was going to Madrid with. We walk up to the gate together and I finally find my ticket. Then we meet Danielle, another girl going to madrid, and get on the plane. I get on the plane and sit next to this girl, who told me her name I just can't spell it. She was in America going to school and was heading home to Mongolia. She was so terrified of airplanes. When it was time to take off she starts hyperventilating and I had no idea what to do, because this was my first flight ever. So we take off and I was totally fine. Flying was fun and not too bad on my stomach. We get off the plane and quickly find a place to go. We sit down and guess what...NO WIFI! Did I mention this was a 6 hour layover at LAX. So we spent most of our time inside but did make it outside and saw the most unusual building. So we took a lot of pictures of it and went back inside. During these 6 hours we probably talked about everything. Favorite color, politics, Obama. Elections, marriage, school, majors, the list really does go on and on. Finally it's time to go...oh wait the plane was having maintinence issues, and we were delayed about an hour or so. On this plane I sat next to a girl who was originally from Russia but was currently living in California. She was going to explore Europe. Behind me was a man and a women who never stopped talking. NEVER. Across from me was an old man who kept hitting on the girls next to him, but they didn't seem to mind much. The plane had no tv or anything. The only tv they had was for communication. The food was okay. It was sort of a prep for Spain I think. I get to Spain and get on the metro and find y way to the area of my hostel pretty easily. I see the sign and walk over to it with no clue how to get there. I hit the button and go inside. I look up and see a beautiful staircase and start to go up looking for or that said hostel luz. Looking around, I saw nothing, no sign. Going up and down the stairs about 5 times I asked a women in spanish. ¿Donde esta hostel luz? She had no idea where this place was but was really nice. Finally I reach a lady who just so happens to be the counter lady at hostel luz. We go inside and I am trying to communicate to this lady in spanish that I'm with Douk, my roomie in Madrid and I need to get into the room. so I think that she thought that I needed my own room so she was going to give me my own room when Becca, Liv, and Douk come to the rescue. Then after we got over the excitement of everything we went to lunch and walked around. We took lots of pictures and had lots of fun. Then we went home and went to bed. The next day we got up early and we went to a museum called prado, here we saw lots of different historical art. This art museum was huge, and I learned that back then men would pose in paintings with dogs to show that they were looking for a women. Next we went to Reina de Sofia, which is a modern art museum. We saw tons of different art and types of art. Some were videos, some sculptures and some just sketches. But the best part was they had some work by Picasso ,which was just the cherry on top of the Sunday. Then after lots of walking around we went to this local market. We went before but didn't get anything. But that night we did and it was amazing. It had such a different feel that you would never find in America. Then we come to today, sorry tis is so long lol. Today we went to toledo which is an hour and a half from where we were at. Toledo was so pretty words can't describe how much I loved it. Then we went inside an old cathedral which was just amazing. Then after we went to the royal palace. Wow. This was amazingly awesome. So much to see, and so many rooms. It's crazy how the weaalthy lived back then. As food the food here, you rarely see people eat unless it's lunchtime. Other than that their is a lot of drinking. Like they put alcohol in coffee and juice and stuff. So crazy. The food is pretty good here but I think I'm playing it too safe.im going to start trying some new foods.

Before I go...

Hey everyone! This is the blog I am going to be using while I'm in Spain! This will give you a chance to see what I am up to, so I'll be posting experiences and pictures of my Journey in Spain. Today is the day before i leave for Spain. I am really nervous about not being able to understand the people in Spain with their accents and with their different form of conjugation. However I am really excited for all the new adventures to be had in Spain. I think Spain will be a very beautiful place because that is what everyone who has been there has told me. I am not too nervous about the host family situation, i am just nervous about not being able to communicate with them as well as I want to. I am excited for the new town, new place type of thing. When i travel, i usually like to just get lost in the city and find my way back on my own. It really helps me to not only find things, but I get to explore the new city. From this experience I hope to gain more knowledge about the Spanish Culture, and learn more Spanish!