Day 2 in Paris!

The next day Elizabeth an I went to the Eiffel Tower, AMAZING!! We climbed the steps all the way to the second level, 1000 steps. We finally made it to the top, sweating and out a breath, to see the most amazing views of Paris.

After the Eiffel Tower we took the metro over to see the Arc de Troimphe. It is a huge arc in the middle of a traffic circle that has sculpted different images of battles in France history. While in this area we found a cute place to eat outside.

From here we headed to the Musée de Lourve. This is also beautiful. The museum is shaped in a large square and in the middle outside is a huge court yard with water fountains and big class triangles. You have to go down the triangles to get to the museum. This is the museum where the Mona Lisa is. This museum has 3 floors (I think) with thousands and thousands of works of art from different time periods. There are scultptures from Roman, Greek, and Egyptian time periods, and paintings of religious figures and Battles from all around the world.

We left here and headed to this church called Sacre Coeur de Montmarte. It's outside the city on top o a large hill. From here you have a view of the whole city, it's so amazing. This church is more in the ok part of town so the streets are very narrow and made with cobblestone. Cafes and churches line the streets and everyone is outside eating. I love the atmosphere here. We walked to the nearby Mulan Rouge from here just to take pictures. You can't be near there and not go! On the way we walke by a store that sold bread that was called something in Fench with the name Grenier!

Later for dinner we went to a cafe to eat dinner. We asked for a traditional French meal but those were expensive caviars or some form of uncooked meat, so I ordered chucked and mashed potatoes haha. But the lady told me it had a French sauce on it. It was the first time I've had non fried chicken since I've left home.

That night we headed to see the Eiffel Tower while it was all lit up..it's like a light show, it's even more beautiful at night. While there we got crepes with chocolate because you can't go to Paris an not eat crepes!

The next day I had to leave to come back to Oviedo. I had time before my flight so Elizabeth and I went to a cafe to sit outside and have something to drink. I love just being able to sit outside and watch everything that's happening in the city!

Versalles Castle

Elizabeth, the girl from Argentina, an I set off the see te farthest tourist spot, the Versalles Castle. It wa amazing. We touring around the inside and outside. The castle on the inside has hundreds of rooms for all the different kings, famous paintings of all the battles, columns of marble and gold, and ceilings with such detail you could stand there for an hour just staring at everything. The ceilings to me are the most beautiful. Outside there are acres and acres and acres of park with beautiful fountains and gardens with hundreds of flower beds. We toured this for about 5 hours went back to our hostel and passed out for the night!

Paris !!

Paris is amazing and I never wanted to leave! Getting there was an adventure.  Because I had to meet my friend Elizabeth on Saturday morning I took a late flight to Barcelona, had to spend the night on the benches there and take a & am flight to Paris.  When I got to Paris I had to figure out how to get to my Hostel which was about an hour away without speaking any French! I took the airport train to the metro got off switched lines twice and then had to walk to my hotel.  When I  finally got there I was SO relieved that I didn't get lost!  While there I was waiting for Elizabeth I met this girl from Argentina who did not speak a word of English.  We started talking and she told me that shes been backpacking all around Europe all by herself for the last 3 weeks!  We became friendly and when Elizabeth showed up we all went and did some site seeing.

                                                 My Bed for the night in the Barca airport:

My tandem is moving :(

Since I've been here I've had one tandem partner named Andres. We meet twice a week for about 2 hours each time in a cafe and just practice English and Spanish. We sit there with topics to talk about, a dictionary, and paper to write down our new vocab. We talk in mostly Spanish and I love it because I feel like I learn so much during these hours. Well now Andres is moving to Mallorca :( I'll no longer have these 4 hours a week to really speak Spanish and help someone else with their English. I have to other tandem partners but I feel I learn the most here. I am going to put a flyer up in the library/study building right next to my house to see if anyone is interested in learning English and helping me with my Spanish.

Springfield + Ecuador

In the mall across the street from my house their is a clothes store called Springfield. It's actually very popular here in Spain. Two stores over is an Ecuador store that displays art of the country. I just think its very funny that I'm all the way here in Spain and there's one store with the name of where I was born and one from where my family is from.










REPRESENT!!

Semana Cultural

This week was cultural week at school which mean I only had to take 2 classes that had something to do with the Spanish culture. I chose dance and theater, I had the most amazing schedule with class from 11-2. At 11 for an hour I went to dance class and learned the Pasa Doble, Cha Cha, Salsa, and Marengue. At the end of the week some of us had to perform in front of everyone and I volunteered so on Friday I showed of my natural born Ecua merengue skills to everyone haha.
Theater was also really fun. We had 2 hours of basically improve in Spanish. It sounds scary but everyone in my class was very relaxed and we had the most hilarious improvs. On wed we chose groups and had to make up Akita we would perform at the end of the week. Our group made a a really funny skit of a plane crashing. I was the pregnant lady who's water broke while crashing and had to give birth on the flight. We had one boy on our plane who yelled he didn't want to die a virgin when we heard the plane was going down and ran to the plane bathroom with another lady on board. The we're hidden but the audience could see clothes flying everyone. We had a crazy old lady who was praying, a drunk lady, and little girl, a lady who jumped off, and a flight attendant who was so nervous she couldn't stop smoking. In the end we landed fine and all walked off the plane extremely confused and me with my fake baby! Haha. Best week of school ever.

León

I went to Leon again last weekend with the host family. The first night we got there I went out with Cristina, Manuel and their 2 friends. In Leon when you go out to the tapa bars you get pretty small drinks and very big tapas. It's the other way around in Oviedo, you get normal size drinks and tiny tapas. In Leon these tapas were our dinner, every bar is known for a different type of tapa. Cristina, her friend and I ordered caña con limon which is a very small beer with lemon making it very light and smooth. For the tapas it depended on where we went but we got giant croquetas (I ordered spicy of course), bread with cheese and all the different kinds of meet embutidos, chorizo on a stick over a bowl on fire to cook it, and even a small slice of pizza. I like this night life because it is going out, drinking a little, eating, and just having a good time with friends.
That night we also stopped by to see the Leon cathedral all lit up. It's beautiful, unlike it better than the Oviedo cathedral.

                                                                   Here are the tapas

                                     

                                     
                                       
                                  La Catedral durante la noche y donde estuvimos para tomar tapas

             

                                         

The next day we went out to the pueblo house and had a BBQ. I love the natural feel out there. We ate the usual Spanish BBQ food of chorizo, lamb ribs, and some other type of pig meat that I honestly don't know what it is. All this was accompanied by some bread, salad, and to end it strawberries with whipped cream. After lunch Cristina, Manuel, Cristina's dad, and I went to the pueblo bar. This pueblo is so small then we you go into the bar it's full if old men playing dominos and everyone knows everyone. Like a tiny Midwest town I would guess. Everyone kept asking who I was because I was the knew girl and everyone knew it. This pueblo is the kind where people eat their own chicken, use those eggs, grown their own veggies, and fix everything about their own houses. The center is so small that if your walking by and blink you'll miss it. All it is is a small circle of trees. After drinking our coffee and leaving the bar Cristina, Manuel, and I headed to a nearby small city name Astorga.
           

Astorga is small and known for its sweets. Almost every store sells some type of candy, chocolate, or sweets. We bought these sweets called Hojaldres. They are flakey break and honey. They are Manuel's favorite and now I know why, you can't eat only one. This town is very cool because there is a cathedral and palace designed by Gaudi. The cathedral has all the details at the top because this cathedral was built for God not humans.
                                  
                 
                       Worlds biggest Chocolate bars haha                Hojaldres

                                   


  That night we went out again with Cristina and Manuels friends but just to 2 different bars. They asked me a million questions about the US. About the food, the customs, the culture, salaries, housing, universities, and everything toucan think of. It is funny to hear everyone's different stereotypes of the US and to see how curious people are.
The next day we headed out and took a walk around Leon to see it during the day. It is a pretty city with some buildings designed by Gaudi and some other ancient religious buildings that are wry beautiful. There is a pilgrimage to Leon and there are very many religious references to the pilgrimage around the city. Leon is a very cool place to visit for a weekend.