Amazing Weekend of Food

The two nest things I ate this weekend were Paella and churros stuffed with Dulce de Leche.  Amazing!!

My Paella of 4 chicken wings, yellow rice, and peppers before and then five minutes later.  Best thing I've ever eaten.  I eat some of it with this garlic sauce here and the rest with hot sauce!

Churros.  The first one is Dan's Churros with chocolate and the second picture is of the two I ordered.  I ordered one that was basically Boston Creme and the second filled with Dulce de Leche.

Barcelona

I left Vilanova Y Geltru on Sunday and had Monday and Tuesday in Barcelona.  I had to take the train by myself and had no idea what I was doing.  I was on the train for about 45 minutes when for some reason I suddenly thought I had gotten on the wrong train.  I showed the lady sitting next to me my ticket and asked her if I was on the wrong train.  She said yes and asked the lady behind me who also said yes.  I had no idea what to do! So I got off at the next stop and asked someone at the train station where I needed to go.  She told me to get on the next train going north and get off at the next stop.  Well, that't the train I was on so turns out I was going the right way the whole time!  I did this all in Spanish and the lady I was talking to on the train asked me where I was from and when I said Estadios Unidos she said she would have had no idea.  My Spanish accent is getting good! Somehow I found my way by asking random people on the street from the train station to the Bed and Breakfast everyone had already settled into.  When I finally got to the Bed and Breakfast I could not get in and could not call anyone to let me in because my phone ran out of minutes!  Thank God Carrie and her husband walked by and let me in.

    We hung out for a while in the Bed and Breakfast which was so nice.  There were three different rooms where everyone slept, a kitchen, a living room, and an awesome view because we were on the sixth floor.  That night we went out and experienced some Barcelona night life.  It's so different here in Spain than at home because here we don't go out until 12 and at home the bars are closing at 1. 

     The next day I was finally able to tour.  We got on a tour bus in the city and saw all different parts of the city.  Our first stop was parque Guell. This park was designed by the famous architect Gaudí.  I'll try to explain it a little but the pictures will show it off much better.  In the park we just walked through out it for about an hour and saw beautiful views of Barcelona.  The architecture is full of pillars and amazing colors and designs, you'll see in the pictures!  After the park we headed to see the Barcelona soccer stadium.  We took a tour of this and were able to see all the trophies, one of the lockers rooms, the press room, and see where the players sit on the bench on their covered, heated, Audi luxury seats.  One cool thing about this tour was there was a huge touch screen wall where you could view all the present and past players and see what country they were from and view video of them and the Barcelona team when they were on it.  

   After this we went to eat Paella.  The best thing I've ever eaten! It was 3:30 by the time we got to the restaurant and 4:15 by the time the restaurant brought out our 8 Paellas that we ordered.  I ordered a chicken one and put a garlic sauce on some of it and hot sauce on the rest. It had 4 chicken legs and a yellow sticky rice with peppers.   Our table used a full bottle of the hot sauce.  Once we got our Paella our table went dead quiet from us eating so much and within 10 minutes we were all stuffed and had licked our plates clean. 

     After Paella we just walked the streets a little looking to buy post cards, or soccer jerseys, or any little gifts we could buy for our host families and families and friends back home.  I bought my host dad a Barcelona soccer magnet for the fridge because he is a huge fan.  We walked into this market that had some of the coolest things I had ever seen.  Stands just filled with every type of candy I have ever seen,  stands filled with different types of nuts, and at least 50 different types of fruits and smoothies.  There were of course stands filled with ham, ham, and more ham.  And then areas that sold mystery meat.  Well I guess its not a mystery because everything was labeled...are you ready for this?  They were selling brain, stomach, kidneys, intestines, tongue,  hooves, and more of pig, cow, and lamb.  There was also lamb, sheep, and pig head with the eyes still in!   The cow tongues were absolutely huge!!  

   Anyways, after staring at the lamb heads for a while we rode the tour bus around the city for a little while longer.  AJ lost his ticket for the bus so every time we had to get on the bus (3 times)  we all had to get on  first and then AJ had to pretend he was looking for his ticket in his pocket and Danielle would pull her out of her pocket and say Oh I was holding yours sorry!  Haha it worked every time.  The bus was also cool because there were two levels and we could ride on top where it was open and really see the city. 

   Finally Tuesday came to an end and we went back to the train station and took another horrible over night train back to Oviedo.  We got back and 8:30am and I had class at 9.  I went to classes dead tired with no paper and no pen!


      This cathedral has been being built for over 200 years and has 13 more to go.  But it's beautiful!!

Parque Guell

 
 

Barcelona Soccer Stadium

                                   

                                                                         Market

                                  
              

Seeing mi prima!

After we were in Tarragona for 2 days we took a train to Barcelona.  I got off a few stops early at Villanova Y Geltru where Maria Elisa lives.  It was so great to see Maria Elisa, her daughter Romina, and meet her husband. In her town there was also carnival the night before so her town was a mess! What is typical here is to have candy wars, where people literally just throw small hard candies at each other.  The streets were covered in thousands and thousands of hard candies and wrappers.  you couldn't walk anywhere without getting all the candy stuck to your shoes! I had to wear an old pair of Maria Elisa's so I didn't ruin mine.  And once those were ruined I had to use mine and tape the bottom of them haha.  When we were walking outside pushing Romina in the carriage it was almost getting hard to push because of all the candy stuck to the wheels.  While with Maria Elisa we went out for drinks, caught up on life, went for walks, went out for lunch and dinner, and went to the beach.




 

Carnival en Tarragona!

 

Carnival here in Spain is a huge thing. Everyone dresses up in costumes like its Halloween but the costumes here are much more full out!  people make their own costumes, or buy crazy ones (I saw someone dressed up as an orange juice and another a yogurt), paint their whole faces, paint their hair, and are just much more creative.  Carnival is a huge parade that goes throughout the streets for a couple of hours.  There are floats, with music, and dancers, and fire.  Everyone in the streets is dancing and having a good time.  I dressed up as a pirate.  All I did was buy a pirate hat, and earings, and a necklace all for 6 euros!

Tarragona

  I love this city.  I have never been somewhere and just absolutely loved a place so much, I didn't want to ever leave.  Tarragona is a small city so its not so crazy like Madrid or Barcelona and there are less tourists.  Tarragona is right on the Medditeranean and is an old Roman city so their are a lot of beautiful old Roman ruins. Our group went to the beach and visited the old Roman building and took a long tour around the city.  The center of the town is also beautiful.  There are shops, cafes, and restaurants, lining the streets with places to sit outside.  there is one main street with lanes on each side for cares to drive and a long wide sidewalk in the center for people to walk.  Some cool places we saw were and old Roman wall that surrounds the city like a barrier,  and an old mini Colosseum. I also cant describe how beautiful the ocean was.  I will put pictures up and not even try to describe!  One morning we got up to watch the sunrise.  We didn't see the sun come up because it was covered behind a wall of rocks but we saw it change from dark to bright and the color of the sky was purple.  In Tarragona we went to a flea market were we thought we could get some cool traditional things from Spain.  Well, I've never seen so much junk in my life haha, everything was old, rusty, and broken!  Our friend AJ bought a bayonet that was made in Toledo, Spain in the 1940s.  That buy was really cool but besides that they sold old cards, watches that didn't work, and dolls with no legs!     




 

 

 

Long Train Adventures

We took a Train to go to Tarragona last Friday.  We thought thought it would be must better than the buses we took to Madrid but we were wrong.  Manuel told me that, because we were taking an over night train (11 hour ride) that we would get small little beds.  Well, he was also wrong.  All we got were seats,  the leaned back and the foot rest went up but it was the most awkward seat ever.  The back leaned back pretty far but the root rest went up very little so we were trying to sleep leaned back with our feet just dangling.  It was so uncomfortable and for 11 hours!!  To top it off the train was not air pressurized and we were going through tunnels and mountains and all our ears were absolutely killing us.  AND the heat was on blast and we here all sweating  AND there was no wifi so I was dead to the world for 11 hours haha. When we first got on the train we were all excited and thought it was the coolest thing, an hour later we were all miserable.  On the way back from Barcelona we took another overnight train to make it to Oviedo a convenient 30 minutes before class and I slept on the rock hard floor because the chairs were that uncomfortable.  

Shopping Adventure

Yesterday I went shopping for new boots. My broke and in needed some for Barcelona. I bought a pair near my house a few days a go but when I was walking the other day I found others that I liked better. So I bought those and returned the ones I already bought for store credit. As I'm walking in the new ones there is something wrong and poking me only in the left foot. So I went home, cleaned them and returned them at the other store for, once again, store credit. After I returned those boots I was on a mission to buy some I really liked that we're comfortable. So I went walking all around the city. I walked to two different malls, tons of stores on the streets, and to the main shopping streets in the city. The main shopping streets are about a 45 min walk from my house. Finally I found boots that I liked in a Chinese store (there are tons of them here). I tried on two pairs of boots and with both of them the right one was smaller than the left. I needed a 39 for my right foot and a 38 for my left. That's not normal so I told the lady and all she said was that I had a problem with my feet! Well that's never happened to me before so clearly it's not me haha. So I left there and started to walk home. I had already been walking about two hours and all the stores were staring to close. Then, of course it starts to rain and I forgot my umbrella. I ran the whole 45 min home in the pouring rain. Rain was getting all over my classes and I couldn't see. While running I saw a Colombian restaurant and bought empanadas haha. I ran all the way to the mall across the street from my house so I could get there before they closed. I finally got there with 20 min to spare, red from running, sweating, and wet with frizzy hair from the rain. I ended up rebuying the boots I bought first haha. What a day.

Carnival

Carnival is coming up! This weekend I'll be there for the one in Barcelona and next weekend I'll be here for the one in Oviedo. Carnival here is a huge parade all around Spain. Everyone dresses up just like Halloween. I went out and bought a pirate hat ! At her school Cristina's classes had a completion for the best themed costumes. Cristina did the Olympics and all her kids made costumes. I help your color some. Later I'll have a post about how carnival actually is!

Skype Sessions

Clearly we like cats...

An adventure and a beautiful view!

Today I met up with my Spanish friend Nieve and her sister. Nieve is trying to learn English and me Spanish so we speak half in English and half in Spanish. This way we both hear the language, practice speaking it, and can correct each other. Us three met at the bus station and walked to this path that leads up to another path on the side of this mountain. We walked the path and saw some of the most amazing views of the city! We talked for a while about visiting some other cities near Oviedo and her teaching me to cook traditional Spanish foods! I think this is the beginning of a good friendship haha. We also meet every week in between our classes in the cafe jus to talk and practice the languages.

Bingo Bingo Nunca Mas!!

Saturday night I was invited to play bingo with the people from the association where I teach English. I thought It would be good because none of them speak English and it's just more opportunity for me to speak Spanish. Turns out everyone was from Ecuador and I once again stuck out like a sore thumb amongst my own people haha. We had real empanadas! With chicken and beef and potatoes and cheese! Not the kind from here with tomato flavored tuna inside haha..not bad but not as good. Well we played until 2 in the morning and it was very hard to hide my bad mood. Bingo is fun for a short amount of time but not till 2 am! When I left Guido, the boss told me I hope you weren't bored and win a prize next time u play with us! In my head I'm like if bingo until 2am is a normal thing you won't see me again haha. The Spanish speaking was awesome but I couldn't take anymore bingo by 12am and we played until 2...

Pulpa

On Friday Manuel, Cristina, and I went out for sidra. We were talking about the places I should visit and we we're talking about Galicia a town on the coast that has awesome shellfish. I can't really eat shellfish so I said outloud in Spanish that I bet I could eat the octopus. All of a sudden Manuel says let's get octopus for dinner! I've never tried it before but I heard its awesome. We ordered this tiny fried squid thing, octopus, and potatoes. We also had this wine that you have to drink out of a special cup and hold only with 2 fingers. It was awesome! Had a little spice and was sooooo good!