20th Birthday in Paris!

After the Canaries, I only had a few days to unpack, repack, and rest up before leaving for Paris on Thursday night, April 12, to celebrate my birthday! Emma and Madison took an earlier trip, so they were already there waiting for Drea, Kelsey, and me to get there Friday morning. We made our way to the bus station to catch our 12:30am 6-hour bus on Thursday night to the Madrid airport. Drea and I fell asleep for the whole ride until we started making stops in Madrid. While Drea and I were chatting, I realized I had forgotten a towel for the hostel, and as we kept talking, I realized I forgot my camera charger. :( We were about five minutes away from our terminal when I turned to her once again and said, “Drea…I forgot my passport.” OOPS. She told me to search my stuff and make sure I didn’t have it, but I knew exactly where it was in my room in Oviedo.

Trying to remain calm, the three of us went around asking multiple airlines about other available flights to Paris, but eventually I was too upset and since I knew staying in Madrid not being able to fly anywhere would get me nowhere, Kelsey and Drea walked me to the metro, which I took to the bus station and bought the first bus back to Oviedo while Kels and Drea flew off to Paris without me:( The only positive about this was that I got to ride a first class bus with free meals and super comfy seats. Immediately after stepping into my apartment, I found my passport, exactly where I knew I’d left it. I put it in my bag and began searching for flights.

That night I flew out of Oviedo to Barcelona at 11pm and had to sleep in the Barca airport until my flight to Paris at 7:30am. Let’s just say I was slightly delusional while attempting to sleep in an airport for my first time ever, and I didn’t get much real sleep in, but I made it to Paris! Navigating the bus, trains, and metro in the huge city by myself was very intimidating, but all my research I had done after buying my tickets paid off when I FINALLY made it to my hostel and found my friends – it was such a relief. Luckily, the only thing that they had done without me was go to the Louvre, which is okay with me…I’ve never been much of a museum girl and art just doesn’t do it for me.

With no time to spare, we made our way to the Eiffel Tower, and I fell in love. The tower is AMAZING. I almost cried when I saw it. We took many pictures with it, and then made our way under it, where we bought and ate strawberry and nutella crepes that were DELCIOUS! We had a picnic under the Tower, and then went to the Arc de Triumph. We didn’t go up into the Eiffel Tower or Arc because the lines were waaay too long on this Saturday afternoon. I am a little sad that I never went up the Eiffel, but maybe later in my life. :) The Arc was very pretty and we hung out there for a little while, and then walked the Champs-Élysées, most famous and expensive shopping street in the world. We walked though Picasso’s neighborhood, then to the Basílica del Sacré Cœur, and ended our tour at Moulin Rouge! After all of this, we were all exhausted and ready to go back to the hostel. We stopped at the supermarket for some dinner, and went back to the hostel to nap. We woke up a little later ready to bring in my 20^th birthday. We went out on the town for the night and had a great time :)

 CREPE! Yummm :)

 Eating the crepe under the Eiffel...so cheesey!

 Arc de Triumph

 Basillica

 Holding the Eiffel :)

 Jumping!

Moulin Rouge!

We slept in on Sunday morning until around 12 – of course I choose to sleep in on my birthday :) – then went to Notre Dame which was gorgeous, inside and out. While we were wandering around the Notre Dame, we stumbled upon the Lovers Bridge, which Kelsey and I especially loved. For anyone that doesn’t know the story behind the bridge, two lovers go to this bridge with a lock that usually has their names or something special on it, lock it to the bridge, and throw the key into the river! SO CUTE! In order to escape the cold, we decided to go to a café to eat more crepes. Then, with nothing left on our to-do list for the daytime, we went back to the hostel and got ready for my birthday dinner. We found restaurant with a great deal for a 3-course meal, got some free drinks for my birthday, and ate a very yummy meal! Salad, steak, fries, and ice cream…YUMM! Our waiters were weird, but they loved us, and we had so much fun. The last thing that I wanted to do before leaving Paris was see the Eiffel Tower sparkle on the hour while lit up at dark, so we left the restaurant with 50 minutes to spare…and after some misread metro signs, ended up lost on the outskirts of the city, and missed the sparkling:( Granted, it was still beautiful lit up, but I had myself very excited to see the sparkles, and it was too cold to wait. So we went back to the hostel and went to sleep. Overall, it was a WONDERFUL day and I love that I hit my 20s in Paris!

 Lovers Bridge :)

 Lovers Bridge with Notre Dame in the background.

 Second crepe!

Free drinks for my birthday dinner!

Freezing cold by the tower all lit up!

The next morning, we went to see the Hunger Games on Champs-Élysées. We had a free morning before our flights, and since they don’t have the English version in Spain and we’re all obsessed with the books, we decided to all go see the movie. GREAT DECISION. It was so good! And when it was over, it left us the perfect amount of time to grab our luggage and catch our plane back to Oviedo.

I LOVED Paris. The passport oopsie was not fun, but it was worth every euro to still make the trip for a slightly shorter weekend!

Well, I’m down to one more trip to post about :) that will be coming soon! I hope everyone is keeping up with all of my new posts! I miss everyone back home and can’t believe I only have a few days left…ah! Thanks for reading!

Semana Santa! (Spring Break!)

Spring break in Spain is during what is called Semana Santa or Holy Week. Throughout the whole week, beginning the weekend before Easter, there are processions every day in many cities throughout Spain, which makes for a great week to travel!

The girls from UNI on this trip were Bailey, Lara, Emma, Emillie, Drea and me. We were spending the first weekend in Andalucía (southern Spain) with ESN, the group through the university that is for everyone studying abroad. Our week started at 2am on Saturday, March 31 with an eleven-ish hour bus ride to Grenada. Once we got there, we had a city tour which, as usual, brought us to the highest point of the city for us to take pictures. Drea, Lara, and I went with a group to get tapas that afternoon during free time, and then we continued our tour around the city, singing Spanish songs as a group at the top of our lungs, dancing, and having fun. We all took a little siesta when we got back to our hostel that night, then got ready and went out for the night. The next morning, Emma and Emillie were chosen among some other people to get up early and go with the coordinators to buy tickets to the Alhambra for the huge group of us. I pretended to be asleep while that was happening so I could sleep in longer. :)  But eventually, we got up and took the bus to the Alhambra. Because it is HUGE and we didn’t exactly know what we were seeing, we decided that since part of it reminded us of the maze in the Triwizard Tournament from Harry Potter, we were going to act out the maze scene on Bailey’s camera. I was Victor Krum. It was interesting to say the least, but it made the Alhambra very memorable! Next, we were off to Malaga! We first took the bus to the castle (highest point of the city, and a famous castle) where we toured in the rain. After the tour we took the bus back into the city where we saw our first Semana Santa procession! It was nothing like anything I’ve ever seen in the US, but very interesting and cool. That night, we went to a restaurant on the water for tapas, which was beautiful!

 Standing in the Alhambra!

 View from the castle in Malaga!

 Semana Santa Procession in Malaga.

 Plaza de Espana in Sevilla: there are murals of all the cities of Spain surrounding this plaza, and this is the Oviedo mural!

All of us girls with Ruben (yellow shirt) and Jose (green shirt)!

The next morning, we left for SEVILLA (Seville)! This has been my favorite city in Spain since I was there two years ago with Mom. It was the only city I had every desire to return to, and my friends got very sick of hearing me talk all about my LOVE for Sevilla. Once we got there, however, my friends quickly understood. The city is just so darn pretty, there’s no way someone couldn’t fall in love with it! We had some free time right when we got there, but since it was raining, we went to a restaurant and ordered burgers and fries and got ice cream for dessert. :) It cleared up after a little while, thank goodness, for our tour around the city with the group. The sad part about this day was that it was our last day with ESN. Our flight out to the Canaries left from Sevilla Tuesday morning, and ESN was leaving for Cordoba at Monday night. So at around 7pm, we walked back with the group to get our suitcases out of the bus, and say goodbye. :( We had all gotten so close with the tour guides, Ruben and Jose, and the whole group, that it made for a sad goodbye. But after the bus left, we were on our own in Sevilla! Stop one was to find our hostel. Well, since we’re in Spain, of course it started raining during this walk. As we sped up, we found out we couldn’t get to our street because of the processions, so we back tracked to where the bus left us and got two taxis. The taxi driver then informed us that because of the processions, he could only drive us to the street of our hostel, and we’d still have a walk. We decided that it would be worth it since we were hoping the rain would clear up while we rode. We were wrong. When we got out of the taxi, it was DOWNPOURING. We got our suitcases and took off running down the street in search for our hostel. Many people lined the streets with umbrellas, or standing under shelters, but we thought it would be best if we just ran. I did not have an umbrella. I think it’s safe to say that we made many people’s day that day, running through the streets wheeling multiple suitcases, SOAKING wet. When we got to the hostel finally, I was dripping on the floor, my clothes completely drenched…I may as well have just jumped into the lake. We just laughed about it; it was quite the experience. And I still love Sevilla. After checking in, we went up to change our clothes and settle in for the night. We went to the supermarket for a quick dinner and went to sleep early.

The next morning we got up and made our way to the airport to go to the CANARIES! There was a strike going on that day among airline workers or something, so we had a few delays, but we made it there eventually! We took the bus to the part of the island that we were staying on then walked along the water to our hostel. It was different than I was expecting…since it’s right off Africa, it was pretty desert-y and not tropical, but still a beach and gorgeous of course! We checked into our hostel, which turned out to be a GREAT hostel. We had a whole floor to ourselves, complete with our own full kitchen, two bedrooms, two full bathrooms, and a living area. All for only 12 euro each per night! The owner, Manuel, was very friendly and helpful. We also met Pepe, a 23-year-old from Poland who is backpacking around by himself, who set out our breakfast for us every morning and worked around the hostel, changing the beds and mostly doing the dirty work. We hung out with him a lot throughout the week; he spoke great English and was so much fun!

The first day, we made our way to the supermarket to buy lunch and dinner food for the week, then packed some sandwiches and headed to the beach! That night we made spaghetti for dinner as a group and had a great night. Wednesday and Thursday were very similar; we slept in a little bit, ate some breakfast, packed lunches and went to the beach all day long! Somehow the two redheads managed to not sun burn all week! The rest of the girls can’t say the same… Wednesday night we went out for dinner and somehow were convinced by the owner of a restaurant to go in and eat at a Lebanese restaurant. The food was very strange; I was not a fan, but I did try everything! We stayed in the hostel that night after dinner and played games together until we were all ready for bed early.

Friday was a big day for me! Through our hostel, we were offered a great deal to go PARAGLIDING for a super discounted price. To clarify, I am not talking about parasailing; I’m talking about flying through the air over land and water very high up under a parachute! While they were hooking me into the parachute, my whole body was shaking with fear; the professional was laughing at me while trying to calm me down. To get into the air, both of us had to run along the runway that ran to the edge of the cliff, which was scary enough, but worse that we didn’t even get into the air until almost the edge! So scary. But once we were in the air, it was the coolest sensation. I was still tense and nervous but seeing the island and ocean from so high up and so free, was unreal. No words can describe it! I was flying for about half an hour-40 minutes, then when it was time to go down, I felt like we were nose diving; it was so fast! I screamed a lot. We had a very smooth landing, and after it was all over, I was so happy to have done it! I paraglided in the Canary Islands! Not many people can say that :)

Saturday was our last day in the Islands, and Pepe came with us to the beach. We had seen a picture on the internet of six people spelling out the word LOVE with their bodies on the beach in front of the water, and since there were six of us, we decided to try it! Since Pepe was there with us, we had a great photographer. After many “auditions” for each letter, and MANY attempts at perfecting the letter O, we made a great picture! I will post it on here :) I was the L! That night for our last dinner in the Canaries, we made homemade guacamole and fajitas since we loved them so much in the mountains. Yummy!

Sunday morning (Easter), we got up very early and headed to the airport to fly back to Sevilla. We had a few hours to spend there before our bus back to Oviedo, and since it was BEAUTIFUL weather this time, thank goodness, we walked all around the city, took a tour in a horse-drawn carriage, souvenir shopped, and enjoyed Sevilla! We also had a great Easter meal…at McDonalds. We took a very long bus ride home over night and arrived back in Oviedo Monday morning, where we slept all day in order to prep for our return to classes on Tuesday! It was an INCREDIBLE Spring Break. Relaxation and beach time were exactly what we had needed after so many trips of nonstop touring. I will post some pictures of the highlights of this post for you all to see :) 

 Bailey and me on our first morning in the Canaries!

 Emma and me at the Lebanese restaurant.

 Pepe and me in front of the cathedral of Las Palmas!

 What I was about to do!

 I'm flying!

 Chillin' on the beach :)

 Easter lunch!

 On our horse ride through Sevilla!

 Our horse's name was Chico :)

 Our LOVE picture! :)

PARAGLIDING!

Mountain Trip Continued...

I forgot to add the best part! Remember that I said that we were given 150 euro to buy groceries for the dinner, breakfast, and snacks for 15 people?! Well, it's a good thing that groceries are pretty cheap here... This is the list of what we bought...

7 chocolate bars, 11 bags of chips, 6 bottles of wine, 8 L of pop, 4 L of Sunny D, 1 bottle of Kas, 2 bottles of pineapple juice, 1 bottle of strawberry juice, 10 boxes of milk, 8 chicken breasts, 4 full peppers, 3 full pineapples, 3 lbs of strawberries, 5 bananas, 8 kiwis, 6 cups of salsa, 4 cups of queso, 3 bags of cheetos, 2 bags of tomato chips, 3 tomatoes, a head of lettuce, 2 bags of shredded cheese, 5 kit kat bars, 3 bueno bars, 3 bags of sour candy, 6 onions, 30 tortillas, 36 eggs, 2 boxes of cereal, 2 L of tea, 30 muffins, 2 pots of coffee, 2 loaves of bread, and 3 bags of oranges.

Also, the hike was just under 7 miles!

Here are a few more pictures from the hike. We ran into some wildlife! And there's a picture of us eating our lunch, as well as a couple more pictures of the beautiful views.

Okay, that's all for the mountain trip. :)

Climbing a Mountain is Hard

Two new blogs within a week! That's a first :) Here's the story of my mountain trip!

The weekend after Stephie left, Paula and Luna (our advisors over here) took us to a pueblo near the Picos Mountains. Because of the way the budget works out, they planned this trip for us with no extra charge! Both Paula and Luna’s boyfriends came as well, along with Luna’s boyfriend’s seven-year-old son, Ethan, who was the cutest little boy.

Before leaving Oviedo, we went to the supermarket to spend 150 euro on dinner for that night, breakfast for the next morning, and lots of snacks and drinks to use up the rest of the money. We drove in three different cars to the pueblo, where we had two side-by-side houses rented for the night. Right when we pulled into the pueblo, we were off on our hike up the mountain. Here is background information on this hike: first and foremost, we had been told ever since talk about his trip began that it was a “gradual, easy hike”. Second, it is a five-hour hike. Third, everyone had one water bottle (plus I had an almost-empty Gatorade as well). Finally, it was very, very warm outside.

We began our hike at around 11:30 in the morning, and it was very gradual and easy, like we had been told. Not long into the hike, we came across a type of water well, where Paula and Luna refilled their water bottles, but none of us girls thought to do so as well because we thought half a water bottle would be plenty. So we continued climbing the mountain, getting sweatier and sweatier as the mountain got steeper and steeper. After one hour, we were all so tired. None of us had expected the steepness or the extreme heat. It was then that were also told that the next water refill well would be found during the decline. Great. So we started pacing ourselves very carefully with what little water we each had left, and continued up this gigantic mountain. With about 40 minutes to go until we reached the top, we all gave in to our growling stomachs and took a short break to eat a piece of fruit or part of a sandwich, then prepared ourselves for one final push to the top! I was out of water, and so exhausted; there were many times where turning around sounded way too good, BUT I was going to get to the top! FINALLY, we reached our stopping point very near the top, where we were all able to sit down, eat our packed lunches, take pictures, and relax in the sun. The views from the top made everything so worth it. I had seen pictures in magazines and books like this, but never anything even remotely close to this in person. It was breathtaking. We were surrounded by mountains on all sides of us, and with the blue sky and bright sun, I was in awe. We climbed one more little hill up to the tippy top after lunch, took pictures, and then began the decline.

Heading down was obviously much easier, but our thirstiness was very much taking over at this point. We were searching high and low for this well to refill our water. Eventually, the ground became wet and muddy…a great sign! Soon we were hopping from rock to rock, surface to surface of the water, trying to keep ourselves from getting our whole foot stuck in mud. The water had to be close! Again, after way too long, we found the water. I drank two whole bottles full before even taking a breath; I can easily say it was the best water I’ve ever drank. After drinking two more water bottles, and filling two for my backpack, we were ready to be done with our hike. We descended the mountain for a little over an hour and eventually made it to the ground again, so relieved to be done, but proud to have finished. We got back to the house at around 6pm, hungry, thirsty, and ready for naps! That night we made fajitas for everyone, with chips and salsa, and a HUGE fruit salad for dessert. :) I was one happy camper after this meal!

The next morning I was the last of us girls to wake up (shocker), and came downstairs to a yummy breakfast – eggs, cereal, muffins, and fruit. We all ate, packed up our bags, cleaned up the place, and drove back home! It was a quick trip, but it sure was a great bonding experience for all of us girls and I love the fact that I can now tell people that I have climbed a mountain in Spain!

Family Time in Europe!

Well, I have two weeks to get all caught up on this before I get home! At least this semester has taught me that I do not have a future career in blogging…

As promised, I will start with my trip to Prague. On March 8, I flew out of Oviedo to Madrid very early in the morning. Immediately after landing, I checked the screen to find the gate to find my connecting flight, knowing that I had visitors waiting for me there. Walking through the terminal, I finally spotted Nana, waving at me. Tears came to my eyes as I sped up, just wanting to hug her. Seeing someone from home was exactly what I had needed, and I was so happy to see her! After freshening up after their long flight, Stephie and Mom were finally making their way over to the gate as well. I met them half way with huge hugs for them as well. I hadn’t realized until then how much I had missed my family. We sat together catching up until boarding time, and then flew over to Prague!

We had a very smart, friendly driver from the airport to the hotel who taught us a lot about the city and its history. That night we snacked on some food in the hotel room then ate a yummy French dinner at a restaurant that Rick Steves wrote about. The next morning we had the first half of our city tour with Rick Steves’ recommended tour guide, Yana. We toured the Old Town/Jewish Town and it was gorgeous. Yana had such a passion for history, so she knew everything about everything we saw and was able to answer all of our questions. My favorite part was the Old Town Square and the architecture that surrounds the whole square, but there were so many different buildings, churches, towers, etc. that were just so cool and unlike anything else I’ve seen in all my travels this semester. That afternoon, we visited Terezin Concentration Camp. We had a pamphlet that Stephie read to us to explain all of the rooms and areas throughout the camp. After learning about the Holocaust in school, I thought I had a pretty good grasp on the war, but nothing could have prepared me for this experience. Seeing firsthand the conditions the prisoners were forced to live under (broken boards for beds, disgusting sinks, and a room full of “shower heads” on the ceiling for showering) was horrible. We even saw the room where all of the records of the prisoners were kept; each file marked with each prisoner’s number. We saw the “doctor’s office”, the single and double cells, execution grounds, and walked the tunnel that prisoners had to walk through in order to be tortured/killed. We ended the experience with a visit to the museum, where we saw things that were made by prisoners while imprisoned, pictures of many people involved, and much more. This was where everything became the most real for me. I was so overwhelmed by the whole experience and even was choked up walking through parts of the camp and museum, but it was very interesting. On the way out of the camp, I dropped and broke my camera. :( It was a sad afternoon.

We took the bus back into town and later went to dinner at a Czech restaurant where we ate very typical Czech food: fried cheese, different types of sausage, steamed cabbage…very interesting food and not bad tasting! The next morning, we met Yana again for our tour of “the hill” which was the castle and cathedral. They were all gorgeous and the top of the hill was a STUNNING view of the city. Yana was without a doubt an amazing tour guide and I think it’s safe to say that without her, we would have been lost in Prague with no idea what we were seeing. We had lunch at a vegetarian restaurant and later, dinner at a Mexican restaurant, that, again, Rick Steves recommended. Two and a half months without Mexican had been a challenge for me, so it was a GREAT treat!

The next morning, we slept in a little bit, ate a yummy breakfast in the hotel then made our way to the airport and made our way to Oviedo. :) Prague was an amazing city; it was such a great trip, but I was ready to go back to my home in Spain.

We ate dinner in a restaurant that Pablo and Camino had taken me to before, and we had some typical yummy Spanish dishes (lots of ham, cheese, and potatoes!). The next morning, I had to go back to class, so my family took a trip to a neighboring city called Aviles. When I got home from class, I met up with them to take them on a tour of my beautiful city. It took no time at all for them to fall in love with my city, as well, which made me so happy. :) That night, I introduced them to Sidra. I demonstrated the rules for drinking it, and Stephie, Mom, and Nana all followed suit chugging their cup of Sidra, swishing around the last little bit, then dumping the rest on the ground. Nana switched to wine after her first cup, but the three of us continued to drink Sidra and eat some yummy tapas. We then went to Camino’s bar for a delicious dinner. Camino and Pablo joined us for most of it, so Stephie and I spoke Spanish most of the time and we all had a great time. Even Nana spoke a little Spanish! They all loved my host parents, and, of course, Longo :) The next day, I went to class and my family took the train to a different neighboring city, Gijon. After class, we went to lunch at Camino’s bar, and then Stephie, Mom and I went shopping for the afternoon. We went out to drinks on the “Ruta de los Vinos” (Wine Street) for cocktail hour, then to an American-ish restaurant for dinner. Mom and Nana were leaving early the next morning, so we went back to the hotel after dinner, where we said goodbye until May 19. :(

Stephie met me at my school the next morning and came with me to two of my classes. My teachers didn’t even realize she was a guest; one of my teachers even treated her like all the rest of us. We ate most of our meals at Camino’s bar that week and spent all the time we could together. Sharing my tiny bed in my TINY room was interesting, but we made it work. For her birthday, I took her to the market in between my classes, which she loved. For dinner, I took her to the restaurant with the BEST burgers I have ever tasted that Pablo and Camino had taken me to during my first few weeks here. We then met up with Paula and Luna, my advisors here, then went out to celebrate Stephie’s 22^nd! Her flight out was quite early the next morning…and when her alarm failed to go off to wake her up, she ended up missing her flight. After some desperate calls home to our parents, Mom found her a new flight for the next morning, which gave her one more day with me! We spent most of the day watching movies and talking about life. It was a great day :) we set a total of six alarms that night between the two of us to make SURE she wouldn’t miss her flight again…and she didn’t. I cried a little when she left because I knew that meant that I would not be seeing anyone else from home until May 19, and that seemed so far away.

Having my family here was definitely a highlight of my semester. Not only did I LOVE showing them my city and introducing them to my family here, but it was what has gotten me through all of these months away from home. I am so grateful to have the best family in the world :)

Carnaval, Futbol, Oviedo, Happiness

Hello again! I have a very, very busy month ahead of me, so I am trying to get this all caught up so that I can be more on prompt with my blogging :)

The weekend after Portugal, it was Oviedo’s turn to celebrate Carnaval! On Saturday , February 25, a group of my friends and I went to watch the Carnaval Parade that goes all the way through the main streets of the city, and ends in the huge plaza in front of the Cathedral. The streets were PACKED with people all the way from the beginning to the end of the parade. I had no idea it was such a big deal! People came from surrounding towns and even as far as Madrid to watch this parade! Crazy! The costumes that people wore ranged from anything to everything – Smurfs, peacocks, Barbies, animals, cowboys/cowgirls… everything you can imagine. There were even some overly amazing, elaborate, gorgeous costumes that made my jaw drop. I could easily say it was the coolest parade I’ve ever seen, and they didn’t even throw out candy!

After the parade, everyone congregated in the Cathedral Square for the costume contest. The Square was so crowded; the atmosphere was crazy! The YMCA song was played while we were waiting for the contest to start, and that was when all of the Americans throughout the whole plaza could be easily spotted…Spaniards don’t know that song. With the music playing, people singing and dancing all around, there was no where I would have rather been. :)

After the contest, we all went back to our apartments and put on our costumes to go out to experience the night life of Carnaval! I wore an elaborate mask over my eyes, a golden dress, pink tights, and black boots. Other costumes that my friends wore were a bird, a cat, black swan, an Indian, another mask/dress combo, and a member of the mafia. It was so much fun to dress up and go all out. That night, the streets were crazy, loud, and super full of people in costumes. Oviedo loves Carnaval, that’s for sure!

One Sunday morning, Bailey and I got up to go to the market together. The market is another very big deal in Oviedo. It is open three days a week, but Sundays are the best, busiest days. When she and I found the plaza, we were shocked by the numerous stands lining up and down the streets all around us. There were all kinds of people everywhere, and so many choices of things to look at. It was probably about 25 times bigger than I had imagined. We spent a few hours wandering around, bargaining down our purchases, and people watching. Afterwards, we wanted to go find a café to eat some lunch, but since barely anything is open on Sundays, we were in for a search. Unfortunately, weaving throughout the streets so many times, we both lost all sense of direction and managed to end up completely lost. We were to the point where nothing looked familiar, and we were starving. On the bright side, the weather was gorgeous, and we were seeing buildings/fountains/sculptures that we had never seen before, so we couldn’t complain too much. Eventually we found a candy store, brought some of our favorite candy, asked for directions, and headed towards my favorite burger restaurant. After about another hour of walking, getting lost again, and calling Camino for help, we found the burger place…closed. Stomachs growling, we ended up at the first open place we came to on our way home, Yuppi. We both ordered huge meals and ate every last bit. We decided it was one of our favorite days yet in Oviedo. :)

When people say that Europeans love their soccer, I never understood the extent of the phrase…until I went to a restaurant during a Barcelona/Real Madrid game with Bailey and Drea. Not only do people line the streets/bars to watch, but the people are CRAZY! Bailey and Drea talked about wanting to go to a game sometime this semester, and that brings me to Sunday, March 4. Bailey, Madison, Heather, Drea, and I all bought tickets to see a Real Madrid vs. Espanyol futbol game! We all took the 12:30am overnight bus to Madrid and arrived around 7am. After hanging out in the café at the bus station for a couple hours until the sun came up, we took the metro to Puerta del Sol and began touring. I was the only one that had been to Madrid before, so we had to do all the touristy things such as see all of the plazas, go to the market, the Cathedral and Royal Palace. We were tired after all of the walking on little sleep, so we went to a café for a couple of hours to relax before the soccer game! Drea, Bailey and I had bought Real Madrid Ronaldo jerseys ahead of time, so when we rode the metro with all of the other fans on their way to the game, we fit right in. The stadium was all lit up and beautiful, with people and scarf stands everywhere we looked! We wandered around a little bit, then made our way into the stadium. I had my first experience with a pick-pocketer within the crowds. All of my things were safely zipped into my backpack, but when a man behind me started slowly unzipping the pockets, I was lucky that my friends noticed and stopped him before he could snatch anything. I’m so lucky! Don’t worry, I was very careful after that. We found our seats eventually, took lots of pictures and watched our first ever professional soccer game! Danny was jealous that I was watching both the number one player and the number one team in the world. :) It was very fun to watch. The crowd was wild and loud, and although the score was 5-0, we got to watch Ronaldo make some sweet goals. After the game, we took the metro back to the bus station, were we waited for two hours for our 2am bus back to Oviedo. We all snuggled up in our own row of seats for the ride home and slept until the bus arrived in Oviedo at 8:30am, then made our way to our 9am classes. It was a long day, but so much fun!

This past week was called Cultural Week. There were eight classes offered to choose from, and the point is to widen our cultural knowledge. I chose to take a video class, and a photography/newspaper class. In video, Emma and I made a Spanish video about a guy asking a girl to be his girlfriend, and the rapid decline of their relationship, ending in a break up. Emma and I found it to be awkward and hilarious, and when it was shown in front of the class, they agreed. It was voted to be one of the three shown in front of all of the exchange students on Friday when the projects from all classes were presented. Ours got the most laughs, and Emma and I were proud. The photography/newspaper class focused on the theme “Spain is Different”, and we were to find pictures to support the theme, and write about our thoughts. It was fun, but I much preferred the video class. After all of the dancing, singing, acting, radio broadcasting, video watching, and many presentations on Friday, we were served free wine and tapas (snacks) through the university!

Now for a quick life update:

Everything is still going perfectly. My host parents are beyond awesome; we’re getting much better at communicating, and they have been complimenting me on my Spanish improvements lately. I plan on teaching Camino how to make “American cookies” (chocolate chip cookies) sometime soon! I still eat at Camino’s restaurant every day for lunch and dinner, and the food is wonderful. I spend a lot of time during the week in the café in the building where all of my classes are. Whenever we have a break from class, we sit together at the café, play cards, do the little homework that we have, and talk. We also love the pinchos de pollo (chicken sandwiches) and donuts that they sell for so cheap! The weather is getting super nice here. I’ve been going to the parks after school a lot during the week! I have successfully started and finished the entire Hunger Games trilogy, but the movie doesn’t hit theaters here for about a month. We’re all planning on going to that as soon as it opens in English. We just got back from a trip to the mountains with our advisors, Paula and Luna, this weekend, which I will write about in a separate blog. And, of course, I was lucky enough to travel to Prague with Stephie, Mom, and Nana two weeks ago, and then show them around my beautiful city. That will also be in a separate blog.

As I mentioned, this is about to be an incredibly busy month. This weekend begins my Spring Break! I will be traveling to Grenada, Mallorca, and Sevilla then heading to the Canary Islands to relax on the beach, parasail, learn to surf, and much more I am sure! The weekend after that, I am headed to Paris to bring in my 20^th birthday! And at the end of April, I’ll be going to London and Ireland for a long weekend! I have so much to look forward to, and I cannot wait:)

I hope you all can tell how happy I am here:) I have 55 days left abroad, so I am making sure to take every opportunity I am given! I can’t believe it’s past the half way mark…ah! Other than that, I don’t know much more to report! I will hopefully be posting a Prague/mountain blog in the next few days before I leave. Love and miss everyone lots!

Portugal Trip!!

Hi! As most of you probably know, I went to Portugal from Friday, February 17 until Tuesday the 21^st! I went with a group through the university that is for exchange students. On Wednesday the 15^th, I received an email telling me that there was no room for me on the trip, and I was on the waiting list. Let’s just say that my response was the most desperate, pleading email that I’ve ever sent. All but one of the UNI girls were going (the other had her boyfriend here), and after hearing Stephie rave about Portugal, I was devastated at the thought of not going. Luckily, I received a phone call on Thursday night telling me that there was one place on the trip open and it was for me! Nothing like last minute, but it was such a relief :)

The bus left at 12:30am on Friday night, so we boarded the bus and went straight to sleep. We were woken up around 11ish in the morning in Lisoa (Lisbon)! We checked into the hostel, dropped off our bags, then went on a tour of the city, starting with riding in a tram up to a high point of the city where there were gorgeous views and an ancient castle. We explored as a group then split up for free time. My friends and I went up into the castle, took pictures and looked over the beautiful views. The castle was huge and so cool. We then all met back in a group, sang a Spanish song in a circle that caused many Portuguese people to stop and stare, then we were on our way back to the hostel. We were all starving so we ate a quick lunch in our room (sandwiches that our madres sent with us). After lunch, we had some more free time so we decided to soak up the GORGEOUS, sunny weather that we never get in Oviedo, and we went to a central plaza and sat against a monument directly in the sun. In a t-shirt and leggings, I was sweating. It was wonderful. We then explored the area a little bit, where we found another plaza with people everywhere. We sat down again to people watch and take in the city. It was about this time when we decided to skip the official city tour with the group. Instead, we explored more, watched the Carnaval Parade (which was unlike ANY parade I’ve ever seen! AMAZING!), shopped in a few souvenir shops, then went to an outdoor concert in the main plaza we were at earlier. When we got back to the hostel, we heard that the city tour was a bore, so we definitely made the right decision to ditch and ended up having a great time :) We then went back to the hostel, rested up a bit, then got ready to head out on the town and experience the night life of Lisboa! 

The next morning, we took the bus to another part of Lisbon, called Belem. Here, there was a huge park on the water where we took some pictures and were intrigued by the street performers. Bailey, Lara, Christina (another student we met from Boston), and Adam (a student from Ireland!) were all craving McDonalds and heard there was one near. The other girls were just going to lay out in the park and I was wanting to explore, so I went on the hunt for McDonalds. It was a little bit of a walk along the water, and we got to pass through a pretty market on our way too! We found McDonalds (the most high-tech McDonalds I have ever seen in my life), and ate our meals outside sitting in the grass of another park. We then went to order “postres” (desserts) that are famous in Portugal. Mine is pictured :) they were different, but actually really tasty! Walking back, we saw a street performer painted all golden and wearing an elaborate golden outfit. She sat peacefully cross-legged in the grass, one hand on each knee, holding a stack of cards in one hand. When she heard someone drop coins into the box in fron of her, she slowly took her other hand and took a card out of the stack. Then she slowly bowed down as she handed the card to the person (eyes closed the whole time). Bailey and I got our futures from her! We couldn’t understand them because they were in Portuguese, but the bolded word on my card meant “power”. Who knows what that means for my future! We then walked back to the bus, and were off to the next city, Coimbra. Right when we got there, we started heading up narrow, steep, cobblestone streets for a good half an hour. There were two churches on the way that we stopped and to listen about, but I was not impressed. We saw some pretty views, but there was nothing too special about this city; none of us were quite sure why we’d stopped there. But we did get to eat Pizza Hut for dinner, which was absolutely delicious :) (a very American day of food, I know). We then caught the bus and left for the next city: Porto! We arrived around 8ish, and as everyone else in the group went out, all but two of us UNI girls stayed in our hostel and had a slumber party, wanting to rest up for the next day.

We woke up the next morning, ate breakfast in the hostel then toured through Porto. The city is beautiful, something about the atmosphere made me so happy there! After our tour we went to the river to sit and bask in the sun (the weather and sun never failed us). I got a sandwich at a café near the water along with a strawberry milkshake. The sandwich was so yummy, the milkshake on the other hand, not so yummy. It was actually pretty gross, but I had a little bit of a withdrawal from ice cream so it sufficed. About an hour later, a few of us went to the restaurant right by where we were sitting, sat outside, and ordered sangria. It was a perfect afternoon :) I got my first little sunburn of the year and it was so worth it! We then went to a wine tasting and tour of a wine museum. It was interesting since I know nothing about wine! For the tasting, we tried port wine – one white and one red. Both of them were yucky. Then we went on a boat tour through the city. It was a really pretty boat! We sat inside because it was chilly, but it was very pretty nonetheless; we all know I love being on the water anywhere. That night we all dressed up for Carnaval and celebrated Portuguese style! Carnaval is the celebration that lasts up to a week in Spain that celebrates Fat Tuesday/the beginning of Lent. People dress up crazy like we would for Halloween in the US!

The next morning we all woke up with one hour to pack, eat breakfast, get dressed and check out. Then we walked to the river one more time to relax until we had to get back on the bus. We slept on the way to Braga, where we toured two GORGEOUS churches/cathedrals, and then had some free time to explore the city. Instead I sat with Michelle, Emma, and Drea and ate some delicious churros (the best I’ve had all semester!) Then we hopped back on the bus and slept all the way home to Oviedo! We got home around 2am, so needless to say, I slept until the last minute when I had to get up and return to classes.

It was an AMAZING trip. I can safely say that I would return to Portugal later on in life and be perfectly happy :)

Sorry again for the length of this post. And the HUGE delay. More to come about more of the semester! Hopefully soon :) Missing everyone!