On the way to Germany

The train I was on was headed to Barcelona where I would leave my suitcases with my prima Maria Elisa and then head to the airport to catch a flight to Frankfurt, Germany. First I had to survive the train ride. A 12 hour overnight train with no bed! After a long uncomfy night haha I made it to Barcelona. Before getting off the train I asked one of the workers if he could help take down my huge (probably 50lb) suitcases from the shelf. He said sorry I am only able to help children and the elderly and with a squeeze of my bicept he said you look strong, you can do it and started to walk away. I stopped him before he totally left and explained to him how much my suitcases weighed and that by myself I could not get them from the top shelf and asked him once again if he could help. He said sorry and walked away, I was shocked! So I asked a passenger to help me and he did an even helped me wheel it all the way onto the station where I was meeting Maria Elisa's husband. A wording advice: never have 3 suitcase, it is impossible to roll all 3 at once. If you have 3 get a suitcase where you can attach the smaller one too it. This is what I did t have and I had to find something to tie my smaller bag to the bigger bag so I could walk with all my stuff. It was extremely difficult but I finally made it with all three of my suit cases to meet my prima's husband and headed to the airport.

Some views of the city !

Calatrava "The space ship mall"

My last day in Oviedo

Friday May 18th, my last day in the city I have lived in the past 5 months. It's pretty crazy leaving after finally becoming accustomed to the culture and way of life. But I'm ready to go home and lose this Spanish food baby! Haha. Today I had to repack everything to make sure it fit neater. I through away some clothes and shoes but I am also going home with a lot of extra things. I am bringing home 2 bottles of Sidra, Chorizo, a large back of chocolate we don't have in the U.S, a small pot to make Spanish tortilla, a croqueta making kit, an Asturias towel, and little gifts and tshirts for people back home. For big trips my mom usually has to help me packing haha but this time I decided to be a big girl and do it myself. I fit everything in my 2 HUGE suitcases and then packed my small suitcase for the next 6 days in Germany and Barcelona before finally heading home. Manuel and Cristina cooked one last meal for me. They cooked me a typical Spanish meal. They make Chirizo a la sidra (my favorite) and tortilla. After lunch I met up with Cristina one last time to get some tea and say goodbye. I cried, I knew I would. She had truly become a great friend and it is sad saying see you later when we don't know when that later is! But I'm so happy to have met her.
Finally it was time for me to head to the train station. Cristina and Manuel brought me and helped me load my 2 huge suitcases onto the train. This train leaves so quickly and doesn't wait for anyone that while they were still on the train the doors closed and they couldn't get that back open. Manuel went looking quickly for someone who worked on the train to open them but couldn't find anyone. He came back and frantically started pushing buttons and finally got the door open. I was only able to give them each a quick 2 second hug before the train started moving and they had to jump off. This was better because I knew I would cry and saying goodbye so quickly didn't give me the chance to cry until after they left haha.





My last typical meal!





Goodbye room!!

My last night in Oviedo

. Thursday, May 17th was my Last day I classes and last night in Oviedo. After my vocab exam at 12 I went home to start packing all my things. At 9 I headed out to Gascona to meet with Suzanne and my two Spanish friends Crisina and Hugo for some sidra. We ordered some tapas of croquetas, tortilla, and patatas bravas and aioli. We sat there for about 3 hours just talkin and drinking, it was great we always have so much fun.
It was funny as a goodbye present I got Cristina a frame with a picture of us in it and for a goodbye present Cristina got me the exact same picture. Instead of a frame Cristina got me a figure pouring Sidra and on it there is a spot to clip the picture. I was going to get her a similar figure but decided to get a frame instead. It would have been funny of we got each other the same picture AND the same kind of figure to hold it up.
After Sidra Suzzane, Cristina, and I headed out to the bars to meet with the other Americans. Usually I am always with Cristina and her Friends but this time she was with me and other Americans. We had a great night just dancing and talking. How I am going to miss Cristina! And Hugo!

My birthday

Of course on Wednesday of my bday I had 2 exams. I had my translation exam at 9, the oral part of my oral exam at 10, an the written part at 12. It was a stressful day but after all that finished I felt so stress free. It was finally a warm, sunny day and I could enjoy being outside. Our hispanoamerica class had learned about a novela that took place in Oviedo so with our teacher we took a tour around the parts where the novela had taken place. At every corner people in our class were running off to get away from the class and enjoy the day. At 3:30 we had our last lunch with our UMass group. It was great food, we had wine and sangria ad for meals we had these rice dishes that were similar to paella. We had a rice dish with chicken, one with venison, one with veggies, and one with cheese and mushrooms. They were so good and to top it off we had chocolate cake. I was absolutely stuffed after....and then I remembered I was going out to dinner with my host family for my birthday....uh oh...I went home and studied a little bit because of course I had another exam Thursday and then went for a run to try and free up some space in my stomach haha. At around 10 my host family and I headed to our favorite sidraria. We order what I had been craving since spring break...fried calamaries! We also had croquetas, lots of sidra, and brownies for dessert. They had bought candles for me and sang Feliz Cumpleaños. They are truly the best host family anyone could have asked for! They also got me a birthday present, earrings. They bought me the tous bear earrings which are very famous here in Spain. All in all it was an awesome 21st birthday! Also I have to mention that at exactly 12 am my time I skyped with my big sis Jenn and took my birthday shot haha.






Our last lunch as a group.



My midnight bday shot with Jenn!

Exams week

I have never had so little motivation to study for exams. This is my last week here in Oviedo and I want to be out seeing things and not inside studying. This week I still went and met with Cristina and went for runs and went on walks with my host family. I still studied quite a bit but when exams came I've never felt so unprepared!

Goodbye lunch with Nieves

On Sunday I met Nieves, her sister, and her girlfriend at the Calatrava mall to have lunch and hang out outside of school before I leave. Usually we meet every Thursday in the cafe in school for about 2 hours and just talk, it's great to practice. Because here in Oviedo they do not have very much international food I have been craving Chinese food. I asked Nieves if we could go somewhere and get sushi or anything Asian. In Calatrava there is a buffet all you can eat so we headed there. It was great! It's sad saying bye because I don't know when I'll be able to visit Spain again, but it's never a goodbye always a see you later

Monumentos de Naranco

Cristina and I took a bus too one of the mountains on the outskirts of Oviedo. We wanted to first see the monuments and then hike up to El Cristo but of course the weather was not nice once again so we couldn't go all the way up to Cristo. Hiking up to El Cristo is about a 2 hr hike and once you get up there you have a beautiful view of the whole city. That day was very foggy so their would be no point hiking to the top. The first monument we saw was a church built in the early 800s! Waaaaaaaaay older than our whole country. We stopped here took pictures and walked to the next monument. This was built around the same time and was a castle back in the day for a king. It is beautiful how old it is. One of the signs for Asturias is a window with three parts and looking through you see the green rolling hills paradise of Astutias. This window is in the castle and looking through you do see this view. After we ate lunch here we headed back down into the city. We stopped at Calatrava (the space ship mall) that looks like you are walking into the future when you go in. It's the biggest mall I have ever seen. We stopped for me to do some souvenir shopping and then each headed home.








Also with the window view I wrote about above that is a symbol of Asturias

Gijon with Cristina!

Friday I took the bus to Gijon and met up with Cristina and her friend Ines. We visited the Pre-Romanic thermal pools. These are now jus there for show but back before Roman times these were pools that were constructed so steam would warm them up. Then we walked along the pier and to the park. The park here was amazing, with tons of different types of chickens, turkeys, ducks, swans, and peacocks roaming around free. There was also this huge cage with all these different exotic and colorful birds I have never seen before. They even had ostriches! After this we headed to Ines house and waited for their friend Hugo to come over and we just sat and talked. Another great day with my Spanish friends!

¡Fútbol!

Tuesday I played soccer with my friend Camilo and his friends. We took a bus to the other side of the city so we could play under a covered court because of course it was raining! Well we got to the court and it was occupied by little kids so we walked until we found an open court outside. It was soaking wet and slippery but we decided to play anyways. We split up teams and played for over 2 hours, I was exhausted. I got today as well that I scored 4 goals, no big deal haha. Because we were playing outside on a cement court right after it rained it was very slippery. Well on one shot the ball was bouncing and I tried to shoot it out of the air with my left foot and my right came right out from under me. Let's just say I fell pretty hard and of course because I'm a girl everyone came running over to see if I was ok. I got right up so I wouldn't seem like I was hurt and so I would seem tougher! I said I was fine and kept playing. A little while later I looked at my elbow and knee and saw I was bleeding. This was towards the beginning of our game so by the time we were done my elbow and knee were all dried. Of course we played at a court far away from my house so I had to take the bus. First off it is not normal to see a girl in public wearing any gym or workout clothes. That on top of the fact that my elbow and knee were bloody people were staring at me like I was an alien. It was all worth it being able to play soccer for a few hours!

Ropes course and Kayaking!

Last Saturday our whole group of Umassers went on a trip to an adventure park. There we were harnessed up and brought to the high ropes course. It started off easy but keep getting harder with every level. We had to climb up trees and rock walls, walk across planks, ropes, and different wobbly beams, and take a zip line to each new level. There were even some Tarzan ropes where we had to jump off platforms holding the rope and either swing into a giant cushion or on the next level swing to a net, grab and climb up it to the next level. It got very hard and took a ton of effort to move from one thing to the next.

After about 2 hours on the rope course we got suited up in full body wet suits with special water shoes and a light rain jacket. We paired up and after they showed us how to row properly we set off down the river (or sella as it was called). There were two other parties of people, a bachelor party and a bridesmaid party. The bachelor party was rowing close to us and were so drunk they kept flipping over haha. Danielle and I were partners for a while but we could not keep the boat straight and went in circles a few times and every time there was a change in currents we almost flipped haha. So we switched with AJ and Dan, Danielle went with AJ and I went with Dan. After the switch rowing became much easier. We ended up being on the river for over 2 hours and rowed 13 km (around 8 miles)! Towards the end it started to rain and the wind picked up; I felt like I was in a movie. My arms where burning but I kept paddling because I wanted to get out of the rain, hardcore! Haha. The best was going over the small spots of waves and getting splashed with water. When I finally made it to the end we all hoped on a bus and headed back to the park. All in all it was a great day!

           

Pipas!

Pipas or sunflower seeds are a way of life here. You eat them during every soccer game and just while walking down the street. I go through two bags now while watching soccer games. Here people it pipas differently than we do in the US. How we eat it is put the whole thing in our mouth crack it in half and eat the seed. Here they hold it in their hand only bite the top and get the seed out with their tongue. My host dad does all this is about 5 sec! He tried teaching me to eat a pipa like a Spaniard but I just couldn't do it haha.

The Study Abroad Life !!

Just look at these haha...more to come!


http://thestudyabroadlife.tumblr.com/post/22600695005/when-you-get-back-to-your-own-bed-after-a-weekend-in

http://thestudyabroadlife.tumblr.com/post/22661941932/when-my-wifi-drops-another-skype-conversation-back-to

http://thestudyabroadlife.tumblr.com/post/22501602829/when-someone-interrupts-me-while-i-decide-which-flavor

http://thestudyabroadlife.tumblr.com/post/22368932892/when-i-get-a-care-package-with-all-my-favorite-american

Cangas de Narcea

On Sunday I went to Cangas de Narcea to visit Cristina with two of her friends.  Cristina is from Cangas, its a pueblo about an hour away from Oviedo that's beautiful! The drive to Cangas was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen.  It is an hour drive through the mountains where everything is green and bright.  Cows, sheep, and horses roam the pastures.  The coolest thing is seeing rivers run in between the mountains.

In Cangas we all walked around th epueblo for a few hours.  We went to a few parks to sit and eat, saw the Pre-Romanic bridge, and walked to the Paseo del Vinos.  It is a walk along a river in the woods where their are many grape vines hanging and you can go to a museum all about wine.  Perfect, I love wine!  We walked around the pueblo for about 4 hours until we stopped in a cafe to drink something and later went to get dinner.  It is so awesome having Cristina as a friend who really shows me around and invites me to go places with her friends.

Dia De Los Trabajadores

Tuesday was a national holiday where almost no one was working and no one had work.  A long weekend in Spanish is called a puente, so last weekend was a puente.  On Tuesday, Dia De Los Trabajadores (Day of the workers), I went to the river in Aviles with my host family.  It was awesome!  On the river there are lots of people kayaking and there was a sports complex right down the road.  We met up with many of Cristina and Manuels friends and in the end were a group of about 15.  We had two small grills and a picnic table and sat around for hours eating, drinking sidra, and talking.  The are where we were on the edge of the river was a large grass filled with other people grilling and playing soccer.  I also poured my first Sidra and got it all in the cup!