Barcelona and some!

Hola todos! Well hola madre y Cece! (because i know you guys read this! :)) So Barcelona was amazing!! I definitely think that it was my favorite city I have been to in Spain. All of the buildings were just so cool and classy and the beach was gorgeous! I just think that the vibe of this city was so unique. It was a big city feel but way more relaxed than any other city that big I have been to. On friday me and Kellie went to the beach while Eden was at work (she met us later). The beach was so pretty and very crowded. At first we sat down with our towels on the sand and then we saw some lounge chairs and asked how much they were. They were 6 euros to rent for the day and me and Kellie decided to do it! It was one of the best decisions we ever made. I can not tell you how relaxing it was to tan on the beach in Barcelona in a lounge chair...I was basically in heaven. Me and Kellie took turns going into the water because we couldn't leave our stuff unattended. The water was so warm compared to the water here in Oviedo it was wonderful! After the beach we went back to Eden's apartment and hung out for a little then went out to dinner to a place with really good seafood tapas. We had sangria and shared calamari, shrimp, and croquetas. We were out to dinner pretty late so we just went back to Eden's apartment and watched a movie and went to bed (we were all pretty tired from spending all day at the beach too). Saturday morning we got up and decided to do a bus tour around Barcelona!! This was such a good idea because it was sooo hot and we did not want to have to walk everywhere because Barcelona is really spread out. Basically I was obsessed with this touristy bus thing...i took a lot of unnecessary pictures of the bus because of how excited I was. It was a really cool way to see all of the city. We got off at the stops for La Sagrada Familia and Parque Guell. La Sagrada Familia is Gaudi's cathedral that was still in the process of being finished when he died. It is MASSIVE. It was only supposed to take 30 years or something but has obviously taken way longer than that. They are still working on it and expecting it to be done by 2012 i think? It was really cool. I like Gaudi's work because it is so intricate and strange. Parque Guell was done by Gaudi as well and it was SO COOL! I loved it. It was such a unique set up and what not. There were soo many people there. My favorite part about the park was the view from the top of the park. I was able to see all of Barcelona!! It was beautiful! On the bus we also passed by La Casa Botillo (and the other house that I forget the name of) which was also done by Gaudi. That was really cool as well. We decided not to go in because it was pretty expensive and had a really long line to get in. After sightseeing we took a siesta before we went to dinner which was much needed!! After dinner and getting ready we had a few cocktails on the terrace of Eden's apartment...i felt like I was on Sex and the City!! After a few cocktails we went to a really cool bar and hung out there for awhile and then went to a club!! It was soo cool! It was called Club Opium Mar and was so tight! I really really felt like I was in Sex and the City or on The Hills when I was there. We had to leave kinda early (4 in the monring haha which is kinda early for Spain) because me and Kellie had to be up at 8:15 to get ready to leave for the airport so needless to say I didn't get much sleep on Saturday night. Overall Barcelona was soo fun and very relaxing!! Im glad I spent my last weekend in Spain there :) Now I am back in Oviedo for my last couple days here :( I am sad but at the same time pretty excited to go back home. I have been here for almost 2 months so it is about that time. I can't believe that it is almost over! It went by so fast. This week is just basically getting ready to go home and for my final and do the last couple things I want to do!!

Well yesterday I went on an excursion to Gijon (even though I have been there A MILLION times) to go to the roman bath's museum. I was really glad I went because it was a beautiful day and we went on a walk that had such a nice view! Being near the ocean always makes me happy I realized so I enjoyed the scenery. The roman bath museum was not as big as i thought it was going to be and stuff but it was interesting. I sort of knew that Rome had a huge influence on Spain but I didn't really know the extent of it. The baths were discovered in the beginning of the 20th century during an excavation and there were 5 rooms discovered. There are a lot more rooms but they are not able to excavate them because they are underneath the cathedral...bummer. Anyway it was really cool to see and hear about how the roman culture influenced spain so much. I am so mad! I forget what i was gonna write in here...i was thinking about it during class (while i was listening of course) because it was something about class i know! I think it was just that just being in a classroom with people from a bunch of different countries has taught me so much. I like my advanced class because we talk about things that are useful to know about the culture instead of just going over grammar over and over and over again. It is really cool. And I love my teacher! She is just so fun! I can't believe I am going home in like 10 days... it has gone by so quickly! I have had a blast but not gonna like I am looking forward to being home in the states. 8 weeks is along time to be away from everybody and everything and just being away from comfort. Tomorrow night I leave for Barcelona! I am really excited! Me and my friend Kellie are going to go visit our friend Eden there who has her own apartment so it will be nice not to have to stay in a hostel and what not. I get back sunday afternoon so i will talk to you then...hasta!

Update!

Well since I haven't written in this since tuesday ill give a little info on what I have been doing this week! Wednesday a bunch of us went to this new beach called Luanco, it was beautiful! It was a little cloudy but it was still warm. Thursday I just kind of hung out I think.... hahah and school of course. Friday I just went to class and everything was fine until I had really bad stomach issues. It was s frustrating because it was like I had a reaction to something that I am not supposed to eat...but I did not eat anything that I wasn't supposed to!! Needless to say it was VERY frustrating. I could not walk, or stand up, and was having piercing pains underneath my belly button (what used to happen to me all of the time before I took my blood test thing) that feels like knives cutting into my stomach (great feeling right!?). So class was very uncomfortable for awhile there and i had to take a taxi home because i couldnt walk....it was a low moment. But after relaxing the rest of the day I felt a lot better. Friday night we went out in Oviedo and it was so much fun!I I had a blast!! Saturday my alarm didn't go off to go to the excursion which I was kinda bummed about but it was okay because the weather was kinda bad and I definitely didnt mind sleeping in! Saturday in the day I just kinda laid low (which was amazing) and watched some movies! I was okay with doing this because i knew that we were all going to gijon that night for the big festival there called La Semana Grande! I watched the movie It's Complicated and Baby Mama. It was really nice to watch movies in bed, it made me feel at home :) Saturday night was soo fun!! We left Oviedo for Gijon at like 11:30 and got to Gijon by midnight. When we got there the firework show was going on and it was awesome! We walked towards the water to go to the bars and clubs. Being by the water with all the boats was amazing! It reminded me of Catalina and it made me miss it alot! It was so pretty by the water....i tried capturing it in pictures but it just didnt happen. There were so many people in Gijon because of the festival so the clubs were all packed which was cool. The clubs in Gijon were a little better than the clubs in Oviedo because it is a bigger city and it is a city that everyone visits in the summer. We went to a couple clubs and danced the night away... it was beyond fun! At one of the clubs they even played Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys!! All of us were so excited! I got back to Oviedo at like 4 am and went to bed by 5. I didnt wake up this morning until 2 in the afternoon! Late I know but it felt so good to catch up on my sleep. The nightlife here is way more tiring than the states...but it is also way more fun! Today I met with Magda again and we just hung in the park and talked. It was cool because we talked about cultural differences and stuff and it was really interesting! Tomorrow (we dont have school because it is a holiday!) we are planning on going back to Llanes to go to the beach, if weather permits, which will be fun. Over all this weekend was a success! WOO!

I WANT A STOMACH TRANSPLANT AHORA

thats all. :)

Well today was quite the day here in Oviedo! School was just a normal day until my conversation class began. So each day we have a new topic that we discuss (movies, entertainment, literature etc) and today's topic was modes of communication. A Simple, normal, and pretty boring topic that I really don't have a strong opinion about. The conversation started out normal until we got really off topic and it turned to education (keep in mind this is a room half full of people from the states and about half from Germany) which got a little more intense because they were for sure stabbing the education system in America....and then it proceeded to head down the path of RELIGION!! YIKES...as you can imagine this conversation took a turn to awkward town really fast. Basically it turned into the Germans accusing America of not being a free country because we are not allowed to teach one type of religion in our schools and how we can not discuss religion in the class room etc etc. We all tried to explain that that is a freedom for us but they did not understand. One of the guys even asked us to answer this question...he basically said "So if you had to choose between being able to practice your own religion or not having religion taught in school you would choose not having religion taught in school?" All of us tried to explain that we do have freedom of religion and that is why we can't strictly teach about one religion (except in private schools etc). We even went into depth about how at our university we can choose to take religion classes and that we learned about all different religions in highschool but it had to do with history and blah blah blah...needless to say it was very hard to explain in spanish lol. I actually really enjoyed conversation class today because it was so controversial! I was able to stay really active in the convo! Anyway, after that I came back ate lunch, took a 20 minute siesta, and then headed off to meet my conversation partner! I was really nervous because I had no idea what to expect! Luckily she was such a sweetheart!! It was really fun to talk to her in spanish and in english...i think this is going to help me a lot! We talked about the movies that she has seen in english, twilight, our travels, our studies, and other stuff! She even has heard of "On the Rocks" an acapella group at University of Oregon that is really good! I had no idea that they were that good to get all the way to Spain! She was really excited when I told her that that group was from my university! it was really neat! After I hung out with my conversation partner for about an hour and a half I met Reme so that she could take me to the herbal thingy place. She was soo helpful and I ended up getting some fruit pill chewy thing that I am not sure what it is at all, but well see if it works haha. After the herbal thingy place Reme took me out for a beer and we sat at the cafe for about 2 hours! It was really fun! I was impressed with myself that I was able to hold my own on the spanish front for over two hours! We talked about all the cultural differences between here and the states and the different traditions etc. It was really cool talking to someone who has visited the states multiple times so she knew what I was talking about when i mentioned stuff from home. After our little date I walked around by myself to get back to my dorms. It felt really nice to be out and about by myself and knowing where I was going and stuff. I was in such a good mood and then I came back in my dorm and say the SADDEST thing I have ever seen. A dead kitten :( I was NOT okay when I saw this, I was devastated. Luckily it wasn't gatita, but it was a really cute black kitten with white paws...SO SAD. Sorry to end on such a depressing note haha...but anyway tomorrow we are hopefully going to a new beach near Oviedo called Luanco! It is supposed to be really pretty! Hasta!


PS I WANT THIS AHORRA

Omg I am so excited for tomorrow! I am doing something that I am really happy about...so there is this thing here in Europe called Tandem. It is a program where two people are sort of conversation partners..i guess that is how you would describe it in the states? But anyway so it is really big here in Spain and at the University of Oviedo because a lot of the people here want to learn english, and there was an opportunity to sign up for it and I took it! Sooo I finally got an email back from them this afternoon and was matched up with a partner who is Spanish and speaks a little english and wants to learn the language with my help! So we are meeting tomorrow at 5:10 and half the time we are going to talk in Spanish so she can help me, and half the time we are going to talk in english so that i can help her! Apparently student's who have done this program have increased their ability to talk in spanish by a lot so I am really excited. I feel like this is something that I would never get to do in the states and it is such a cool opportunity to do here in Spain! Anyway, my tandem partner emailed me today and we have been kinda talking! She even added me on Facebook! Her name is Magda and she seems very sweet! She said that she was really excited to meet me and talk! I am kind of nervous because it seems like her english is pretty good which means i might look really stupid trying to learn better spanish but I am more excited! Also, tomorrow after my Tandem thing, Reme is taking me to a herbal medicine store with herbal remedies and plants that are only made from natural things...so kind of like a hippie store in the states i guess? haha. Well see how it goes!

Soo It is Sunday night and I am EXHAUSTED. Friday night was really fun! The espicha was just as fun as i remembered and it was nice getting to know the new people that are here! The other people that are studying at the university are from all over the world. There are people from Russia, Tusnia, Germany, Japan, and Italy! It was funny because there were several tables of food and the table that we were all standing around (we as in the only americans there) had ZERO leftovers of food, and then you look at all the other tables with the europeans and international students and there were TONS of food left. All of us just laughed and went over to their tables and continued to eat. After the espicha we went out to our favorite bar (bar campa) and hung out. I unfortunately had a little too much to drink and decided to go home early and get into bed. The next day was the excursion and a lot us were not able to make it because of lack of sleep and other reasons hahah so we relaxed all day which was SOOOOOO nice. I feel like i never get down time here to just chill and sleep in so i really enjoyed it. We all went out to dinner and then got ready to go out! Saturday was really fun! I got to know all of the new people in our program and they are all really cool! Today i got to sleep in and just did my hw and lounged. It was kind of a gloomy day so it was nice to hang out inside. Tomorrow I have to talk about an anecdote in front of the class in Spanish and i am kind of nervous....all of the germans in my class are SO good at spanish and it is really intimidating. AND they all speak english too so I feel really stupid around them. Side note it is soo cool having people from all over the world in my class. Most days we spend the last hour of class talking about our country's and the stereotypes associated with them and stuff. Did you know that even though Spain is considered a Catholic country...most people stopped going to church? My teacher was telling us that they are "catholic" only because their grandparents are "catholic" etc etc. She said there would maybe be 20 people at church on a sunday here...which is so weird! Everything is still closed on sundays and she said its just so that the spanish can catch up on their sleep from the weekend haha. It was also interesting to hear what the other countries thought about us...it was not good let me tell you. Americans are all:Fat, ignorant, stupid, only eat McDonald's, arrogant...etc etc. SOOO thats great hahah Anyway...today I had a re-realization that I am in Spain..it was really weird. I think it was because I skyped with friends and stuff this week and realized that I haven't seen or talked to anyone in so long. I am really proud of myself that I did this because I am learning so much about myself and other people.. its really cool! Tomorrow Remev(an older women who helps us) is taking me to the Farmacia to get some herbal remedies for my stomach problems so well see if that helps!! Adios!

Okay so yesterday I had a pretty bad day. As everyone knows I have the most random and ridiculous stomach problems, and they have gotten progressively worse here. I have not gone one day without having some sort of stomach issues and for the first half of my experience I kind of just went with it and hoped it would get better. For some reason yesterday I had had it with my stomach and completely lost it when I got home from school. I think all of my frustration was just pent up and I finally let it all out. It is so frustrating because I am not eating things that I am not supposed to and I can barely eat anything here and so when I have all these stomach problems here its extra frustrating because I have no idea what is going on....ughh. Also my conversation yesterday was really frustrating. My teacher is pretty condescending and stern and when she asks you a question she just points at you and gives you this look like she is waiting for you to say something stupid so that she can criticize you....ugh I almost cried in class yesterday when she literally corrected everything i said in a condescending manner. AND the weather was really gloomy yesterday (which was nice because it wasn't scorching hot but it was really humid) which i think made things a little worse as well. BUT after I got out all of my frustrations through my tears I felt SO much better. Because I had a bad day I was really happy when everyone was going out on the town because I thought that it would be a perfect pick me up to get out of the dorms and explore! There is a plaza that everyone goes to here called La Plaza del Sol. At night it is where all the young people drink. There is a bar there called Bar Campo that we go to every time we go out. There were quite a few of us there last night which was really fun. We were all having a good time! There was a band in the plaza that played an impromptu concert sort of thing and it was soo cool! Everyone was dancing in the streets and singing along. I really enjoyed the music...it was really upbeat and fun. A girl that we were sitting with from Oviedo said that they were playing music that was typically music played during the Paso Doble which is cool. It made me really want to learn how to Salsa dance!! It was all fun and games until the police came and told them that they had to stop playing....BUMMER. Everyone was yelling at the police and saying something along the lines of things Americans would say if the cops busted a party hah. After we sat in the plaza for awhile we all went to the clubs. I had SO much fun dancing last night! They played music that we all knew and it was just really nice to let loose. I didn't go to bed until 3:30 last night (which is earlier on the weekends haha) but I still survived class today! I even talked a lot more in conversation. Tonight we are going to an Espicha ( a traditional Austurian fiesta with food and mucho sidra! ) that the school puts on for us. I went last session and it was soo fun!! There was free food and drinks and dancing and mingling! Just what i need to kick start the weekend! Tomorrow there is an excursion to La Senda del Oso which I don't really know much about...but I am going! I will let you know how it goes!

Ps I want a new one of these...


Because I feel like this all of the time..

Madrid

So I just had my second day of classes for the new session and they are going pretty well. I really like my advanced teacher, she is really animated and helpful and doesn't make us feel stupid when we make a mistake. So Madrid this weekend was really fun, but definitely more of a learning experience. I for one did not realize how HUGE Madrid is. I just thought it was going to be like San Francisco or Los Angeles, but NO it was bigger than both of those cities combined! I definitely was not prepared to conquer this big of a city in only 3 days. BUT we did the best that we could and I think we did pretty damn good job! On Friday, traveling kind of got the best of us so we were all really tired. We left the dorms at like 7 am and didn't get to the hostel until like 2 pm so it was a long day. But we still did some touristy things! We went to the plaza mayor and the puerta del sol (which are famous plazas with pretty buildings, sculptures, and TONS of shopping!) Don't worry I didn't really buy anything for myself but I did by gifts for others!! On Friday we went to dinner at Burger King because that was the only place that we could find and could agree on. I regretted my decision to eat there later on that night because it did not settle well with my stomach...ay ay ay. After dinner we got ready to go out and left the hostel at like 12 am (early for Spain). We didn't really know much about the night life here so this was the most difficult thing to conquer in Madrid, and sadly to day we did not conquer it haha. On Friday we did go to a gay bar which was really fun but we were so tired that we went back to the hostel at about 2 ish and went to bed. It is a good thing we went to bed kind of early because we had a big day ahead of us at the Museo del Prado! Saturday we went to the Museo del Prado which I was really really excited about. I am not huge on art or anything but I knew of some really famous paintings that I had learned about in my spanish art classes at Oregon that I was really excited to see. My favorite painting at the Prado was Las Meninas by Velazquez. I have learned so much about this painting through all my years of school that it was amazing to see it in a museum and stand in front of it. It was a pretty big painting and I felt really lucky to have seen it in person. We saw a lot of Velazquez, Greco, Goya, Rembrandt, Breughal (sp?) and some other famous people that have slipped my mind at the moment....(i have them all written down somewhere!) After the Prado we went to the Parque del Buen Retiro to see El Palacio del Cristol (which we later found out was an exhibit from La Sofia Reina). The park was REALLY REALLY big (as is everything in Madrid it seems) and we had a hard time finding the palace. The park was beautiful though so it was nice to look at everything. After the palacio del cristol we stumbled upon a strange museum in la casa de velazquez. I am still not sure what it was...but we think it was something about the digestive system??? I have no idea lol. After the park we went back to our hostel and napped which we did a lot of this weekend. For dinner we had a nice long dinner at this italian restaurant..it was sooo good! It was such a comfort to see food that I love to eat at home! Since the night before we went out too early, we decided to go out way later. We left our hostel at about 2 ish and went to a pub that we stumbled upon that ended up being really cool! We hung there for awhile until we tried to go find a club. We got really confused because we didn't know that the bars closed at 3 am so that everyone would go to the clubs which didn't open until 3 am. So we tried to find clubs or bars that were open and we did not have any success. We even met some people from Brazil who are living in Madrid and went to find clubs with them but they couldn't find any that were open. Needless to say we felt a little defeated and went back to bed. Sunday we woke up and got ready to go El Palacio Real (the royal palace) I was VERY excited about this because as we all know I would kill to be a princess of any country haha. The palace was breathtaking on the outside. I had never seen something so huge and beautiful at the same time. When we went in I was in heaven...i finally found somewhere that I could permanently fit in! ( :) hahaha ) There were big gorgeous chandeliers everywhere and luxurious curtains, furniture, and decorations. Every ceiling in every room had these really elaborate paintings on them and sculptures...it was really phenomenal. The tour didn't take very long so after the palace we just went back to the hostel and slept yet again haha. We went to a buffet place for a late lunch/early dinner after we napped and then dilly dallied until we were going to go out. All of us were determined to get this night life down the last night we were there...and surprise surprise we did not! We even talked for like 20 minutes with the guy who worked at the hostel about which clubs to go to and what time to leave etc etc. We ended up in a sketch part of town where nothing was open...we were pretty done with Madrid night life after sunday..we were all kinda bummed that we never ended up going to a club in madrid...but esta bien haha. Monday morning we had to be out of our hostel at 11 am and our flight was not until 9:25 at night so luckily we were able to leave our bags at the hostel. We kinda just did some shopping for souvenirs and gifts for people, then had lunch and hung out in starbucks (the first one we saw in Spain!! so exciting!) unitl we left for the airport. When we got to the airport (5 hours early haha) we said goodbye to our friend Eden which was sad but we will see her in 3 weeks when we go visit her in Barcelona!! When we were at the airport we all talked about how we were excited to go back to Oviedo because it is what feels comfortable to us...this was really exciting because it reminded us that we were having such a great time in Oviedo that we wanted to go back!! :) We didn't get to the dorms until around midnight so we were pretty tired for the first day of new classes but it all worked out! Over all I am really happy that I went to Madrid because I saw things I have always wanted to see. It was a huge learning experience for me and I am excited for my next traveling adventure do Barcelona :)