Friends & Blessings

Prepare yourselves ladies & gentlemen. This post may get a tad overly sentimental. I'm writing it on my very last night in Oviedo. I'm tired, experiencing every emotion imaginable, and I have internet. This could lead to a genius post, or an awkward mess. If that last option is the case, then I suggest you divert your eyes as soon as it gets unbearable.

There's one aspect of study abroad that no one prepares you for: friendship. When I was on the airplane nervously awaiting my arrival in this foreign land I was anticipating many things. I considered forging the language barrier, submerging myself in another culture, and dealing with a host mother. The thought never even crossed my mind that I would be making lifelong friendships in far off lands.

I met some of the most incredible people on this journey and the story of my experience would have been incomprehensibly different without them. Like every story, there are good characters and bad. I met some of the most incredible people, as well as some of the most intolerable. Despite my moments of frustration, I wouldn't have traded any of these personalities I encountered. Every person, every outing, every excursion, and every conversation shaped my adventure here and I wouldn't change it for the world.

Before arriving in Oviedo, I didn't realize I would be spending day in and day out with the people that surrounded me. Everything I faced, I faced with them. If it wasn't for these amazing people I wouldn't have experienced all that I did, learned as much as I did, laughed as much, or drank as much cafe con leche. These individuals made my study abroad experience, and I couldn't be more grateful for them.

"When I'm worried and I can't sleep

I count my blessing instead of sheep
And I fall asleep, counting my blessings"

-(cue cheesy, but still rockin', Christmas song)

That brings me to blessings. I have yet to mention God much in my blog, but truth be told He has blessed me with this entire journey. I've been blessed with an incredible program, a wonderful host mother, a surprisingly awesome university, amazing friends, and countless life lessons. My faith has grown tremendously in this country in inexplicable ways. I've also been shown how many things I have back home to be thankful for. Things back home I've learned to appreciate more than ever: My home that I grew up in, WOU, Monmouth and all of its contents (including all the superb people), my stupendously supportive family, as well as anyone who's reading this. Trust me, if you're reading this then I've learned to appreciate the crap out of you.

Before I get any sappier I better call it a night.

My itinerary for the travels home on 12/19:

5:30am head to the bus station with the madre and Samy the dog

6:00am bus leaves Oviedo for the airport

7:50am fly to Paris

10:30am fly to Seattle

9:14pm arrive in Oakland and reunite with the fam

Parties to the Max

Ah, heavy sigh. My journey abroad is coming to a rapid end. This week I've had two goodbye parties. One was put on by AHA and the other was a function of the University of Oviedo. Abroad goodbyes are weird. There are some promises of "see you later" and other goodbyes that are entirely final. It's a mixture of every emotion imaginable.

The AHA party was spontaneously thrown together, but completely worth the last minute rush. All 25 students from my program gathered in the tiny AHA office for traditional drinks and goodies of Asturias. Everyone stopped by for a few minutes here and there. We were all able to bid farewell to one another as well as to the wonderful staff of AHA. I truly think I picked the best program. These Oviedo AHA people rule. We all reminisced, shared excitement for the return home, and relished in our final moments here.

The following day, today actually, we had a party in the university. My university rocks. We were supposed to have classes all the way through Friday, but we've already taken the final exams and received our end grades. So on Thursday the professors stopped classes at 1pm and organized a party in the common room. It was a potluck type deal and since the university has students from all over the world everyone was supposed to bring something that represented his or her country. The US kids contributed PB&Js and Oreos. Go America. At the party we chatted with our professors and everyone gushed over how great everyone else was. It got mushy and corny (that could have been because there was alcohol at the party. For real. The professors handed out glasses of a champagne type deal to every student. They literally made sure everyone had a glass of the drink in their hands. Oh life in Asturias). The party was fun and the food was delicious. Going to school at the University of Oviedo for 3 months was like a vacation, a very culturally diverse vacation.

I still have places to go, people to see (more like goodbyes to say), and things to do. I have one day left in this incredible city and I'm going to make the very best of it. Wish me luck.

The Final Countdown (Old school Europe shout out)

Well hello there last weekend in Oviedo, I didn’t see you coming.

Despite my disbelief, it is true. This weekend was my final weekend in Oviedo. And I couldn’t have asked for a better finale. I was able to do everything I wanted and more.

Friday night my usual crowd and then some gathered to walk the merry streets of Oviedo. A week or so ago Christmas lights were strung up about the city in preparation for the jolly holiday rapidly approaching. On Friday night we decided to get roasted chestnuts and nosh on them while strolling about town. Unfortunately, all the chestnut stands were closed. We got bags of candy instead. Delicious substitution. (The next day I was able to try those roasted chestnuts. They aren’t as scrumptious and Christmas-y as they sound. They look like little brains and have an oddly squishy texture. Still fun to eat though). Friday was a pleasant and very seasonal evening.

On Saturday a group of us explored The Tent of Wonders. Ok, it’s not really called The Tent of Wonders. It’s street vendors enclosed in a large tent. I was able to get a good chunk of my Christmas/souvenir shopping done in that gigantic tent.

Ever since I got to Spain I’ve always tried to party like a Spaniard, which means staying out socializing until at least 5 in the morning. I always fail miserably at this attempt. Saturday night was my last chance to fulfill this Spanish goal. In honor of that, we all went out to Gascona , the lively hot-spot street. Gascona is lined with Sidrerias. We plopped ourselves down, all 10 of us, and ordered some Sidra. Sidra is the drink of Oviedo. It’s a fermented cider (or something like along those lines), which is poured from above the head down into a precisely slanted cup. On this particular night I decided to try Sidra for the first time. The way you drink Sidra is ridiculous. Immediately after it’s poured you have to chug the partially full glass. Once my glass was poured I swung into action, cheersed my friend, and gulped down the Sidra. Yuck. It was potent with an after taste of green olives. Despite my dislike for the taste, it was a fun experience to share with my fellow Oviedo crowd.

After our start to the night on Gascona we headed out to find our first bar of the night. We wandered into a surprisingly welcoming bar and we brought the party. I say “we brought the party” because we were literally the only ones in there. I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I sipped on a Coca-Cola, danced to some 80’s music, and chatted with some of my favorite ladies. From there we moved next door to the one and only B12 and then inevitably ended up in the chupito place. I don’t like either of these places, but somehow we always find our nights ending in one of them. We aren’t the only ones who experience this phenomenon; we ended up running into everyone else from AHA in each of those bars. Like always, we spent very little time dilly-dallying in the bars before deciding to wander home. Before calling it a night, a few of us were able to go over to one friend’s house and sip on hot chocolate. Once 3:30 rolled around I called it a night and went home. I got in at 3:45am. I got pretty dang close to my Spanish goal, finally.

I woke up at noon the next day and thought pretty highly of myself for staying out until the wee hours of the night…until my host mom woke up at 1:00pm and told me she stayed out until 5am. Crazy Spanish woman.

On Sunday I went to the market surrounding the cathedral one last time. That night a handful of us decided to check out the weekly ritual of nuns singing in part of the cathedral. We thought we’d hear some lovely singing and just get to watch it from a distance. Like usual, things didn’t go as planned. As we entered a woman ushered us to the area where the nuns do their thing so that we were right up in there with the holy people. It was awkward. We didn’t know what to do, where to look, or what to sing. The nuns and the rest of the attendees sang beautifully though. Once again, it was a good experience.

To top off my wonderful weekend, someone finally won the prize money on my favorite Spanish game show Pasapalabra. 322,000 Euros. My host mom and I both clapped for the lucky winner.

Braving Barcelona

Brace yourselves ladies and gentleman. This past weekend was a four day weekend, I traveled to Barcelona, and I met up with Anna Fraine. For those three reasons this shall be one gargantuan post (and for those three reasons it will also be full of awesomeness of course). With that said, let the story begin:

I stand in the middle of Terminal 2 in the Barcelona airport. It's 8:58pm, 23 minutes after Anna's flight was supposed to get in. I look at the arrivals board outside our meeting point of baggage claim. No flights from Prague*. After already having asked an airport attendant if I was in the correct location, I was out of ideas. Huge airport. Huger city. No cell phones. No airport pager system. No way to find my friend. Well this is off to a good start, I thought. Just as I was about to give up on my getaway weekend I heard the sound of relief- "KAAATE ARNOOOLD". It was the bellowing voice of Anna Fraine that I hadn't heard in over three months. We embraced in a no doubt picturesque reunion hug. I still have no idea how we found each other.

After getting slightly reacquainted, we headed out on a bus to find our hostel. We got a bit turned around in the large Plaza Catalunya, but eventually found our way to the main street closest to our accommodations. This main street was called La Rambla. It was jam packed and full of life all weekend long. There was always something to see and always something to eat. La Rambla was lined with vendors, artists, and performers of all sorts 24/7. My favorite street performers from the weekend included the Edward Scissor Hands impersonator, The Massive Fat Suit Lady, and the really sketchy mummy who wrapped Anna up in his mummy cloth and whispered "sexy". Since those kind of characters thoroughly freak me out (same goes for fully costumed Disneyland characters), I decided to keep my distance. As for the restaurants on this street, Anna and I were able to find some mouth-watering paella and consume it faster than we could say catch-of-the-day-shellfish-selection-over-rice-and-veggies (that's paella, btw). La Rambla was a main staple of our Barcelona experience.

We arrived in Barcelona late on Friday and simply explored the surrounding area for the duration of that night. The next day we attempted to go on a free walking tour, but failed. Instead we made our own tour and explored several sites of the city by means of the metro system. We first wandered into Guell's house of some sort. I don't know many details about that because, to be honest, it was boring. After that stint of boringness we meandered down to the port. We wandered about the sea front before making our way to the metro and heading to La Sagrada Familia. La Sagrada Familia (The Sacred Family) is the architect Gaudi's unfinished masterpiece. He intended for it to be a cathedral, but that intent may or may not come true. It's still being constructed, but from what it is thus far I can say La Sagrada Familia is easily the coolest cathedral I've been to (and trust me, I've seen my fair share). After being amazed by one work of Gaudi's we discovered another one of his treasures- Casa Batlló. This was a house Gaudi constructed with the theme of underwater in mind. It was incredible. Every detail exuded water in some manor, and yet was still conveniently practical. Gaudi's work never ceased to amaze me throughout the weekend.

Saturday night we met up with some Portuguese people that Anna had met through couch-surfing. In was an interesting mix of a night. The crowd we rolled with included one Portuguese guy, the tiniest Portuguese girl ever, two German girls, an Austrian girl, and a Lithuanian girl. The Portuguese girl was my entrainment for the evening. She was shorter than me with a child's frame and an explosive personality. At one point in the night she slapped the hand of a pickpocket to prevent theft from one of the German girls. The night was pleasant, until we got to a techno club. Ugh. All that electronic/techno music sounds the same to my ears. How do you even dance to that anyway? Once we realized the music wasn't getting any better, and we weren't becoming any less awkward at bopping along to the "beat", we decided to head home. That wrapped up Saturday for us.

We kicked off Sunday with a free tour of the Barcelona Picasso museum. There we met up with three of my friends from my Oviedo program. We all sauntered through the museum waiting to see some contorted faces or other famous Picasso works. No such luck. Turns out that stuff is in Madrid, Paris, and New York. I did, however, get to see Picasso's rendition of "Las Meninas" originally by Velázquez. Normally that last sentence would sound like blabber to me, but I had just learned about this painting in my art class, hence my level of enthusiasm for seeing it in person.

Once we finished being classy and looking at art, four of us headed out to find Park Guell. Park Guell is, well, uh, it's cool. I don't know much about it. I do know that in our attempt to find this park we ended up on an inadvertent hike. Great, my favorite (insert over exaggerated sarcasm here). Turns out the park was on a lower level, but after walking fifteen minutes uphill in a state of confusion we ended up at a pretty cool lookout point. After descending from the accidental hike location, we found Park Guell. Park Guell was actually really cool, I would suggest googling it. There were houses there that were modeled after the houses in Hansel & Gretel's fairy tale. They looked like giant delicious gingerbread houses. We also found the ANTM (America's Next Top Model) runway from cycle 7 when Caridee and Melrose walked in Barcelona. We had far too much fun with that. After mock-modeling our way through Park Guell, we had no plans and decided to take that opportunity to head to the beach. Yes, the beach. We had a late night stroll along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It was beautiful and freezing. Of course, I put my feet in and played Wave Tag.

By Monday we had seen everything we wanted to see and done everything we wanted to do. We took the day to go souvenir shopping and consume our last Barcelona treats. We found our way over to a large famous park. I can't remember it's name, I actually don't think we ever knew it. It had a giant, gorgeous, gold embellished fountain. It was massive. (ANTM cycle 7 filmed their commercial episode there). There was also a large, possibly life size, Mammoth statue. The park was a fantastic way to pass the rest of our time in the beautiful, beyond big Barcelona.

That night I dropped Anna off at her bus stop and we said our goodbyes and wishes of safe travels. We hugged it out and went our separate ways after one hectic, astounding weekend.

That was the end of the weekend, but that's not the end of my story. You lucky readers get a bonus tidbit. It's a story about our hostel. Our hostel situation was a bit last minute, therefore some of the common comforts had to suffer. We were in a room with three bunk bed sets, so six beds. We shared the room with five Asians and one French woman throughout various points of the trip. With these kind of accommodations we obviously didn't have our own luxurious bathrooms. Instead we had dorm style public bathrooms. That didn't bother me, but our shower experience did. One night Anna and I both decided to hit the showers after a long day. After a few minutes into my shower the water became unbearably hot. Due to my discomfort I reached to adjust the temperature. As I touched the handle I felt an odd sensation. It felt like when your hand is either falling asleep or waking up after falling asleep. It was all tingly. It happened a few times before I realized I couldn't touch the handle for more than a couple seconds. I shouted over to Anna "Hey Anna...does it feel like you're being-" Anna cut me off with her urgent response of "-electrocuted?!" Yes folks, I'm pretty sure I was gently electrocuted several times during that shower. It's safe to say I only showered once this weekend.

*(For those of you who don't know, Anna is my friend who studied abroad in Prague this term. We planned to fly from our individual cities/countries to meet in Barcelona for the weekend)

Thanksgiving & Segovia

Last week was Thanksgiving. I was in Spain. Spain = not the United States. Luckily for me I didn't have a moment to sigh over missing my country because my program directors of AHA organized a Thanksgiving meal for everyone. We gathered at a cafe near our University to partake in Thanksgiving goodness. As I walked in the door of the cafe I could have sworn I'd flown overseas and returned to the land of turkey, stuffing, and American pride. The Spanish woman who owned the cafe, along with some AHA staff members, slaved in the kitchen all day to prepare this meal for us homesick kids. It was delicious. The turkey was succulent, the stuffing was fluffed, the cranberries were...well they weren't can-shaped but they were still good. They even made pumpkin pie from scratch, I think, although I've never seen pumpkins around. The food was good and the company was enjoyable. It was nothing compared to actual family, but the makeshift Spanish student family sufficed. We even went around the table and said what we were thankful for. Man, us Americans sure do know how to thrust a US tradition on a tiny Spanish cafe.

That all took place Wednesday night, which as you know was not Thanksgiving day. The actual day of Thanksgiving was spent on a bus. That bus was headed to Segovia for the weekend. This was the last AHA organized excursion. The main attraction of Segovia is the ancient Roman Aqueduct (see my fbook for pictures). That thing sure was old. Someone said it was from the first century, but I find that hard to believe. Google if you care to prove that rumor wrong. In Segovia we also saw a castle that was allegedly the castle Walt Disney based the magical kingdom off of- but apparently there are dozens of other castles that claim the same thing. Either way, it was still cool to see a castle.

Segovia was our home base, but we also explored Avila and La Granja. In Avila we saw a huge wall. It actually has a name more specific than just "wall" but I can't remember it. This thing was ginormous though. It surrounded the old territory of Avila. We got to walk on top of it. So cool. I could have crushed everything in sight for miles with my thumb and index finger.

In La Granja we went to a palace. The word "palace" was kind of deceiving. We ended up getting an hour tour of mostly super old school tapestries. There was some really neat ceiling art, but the tour guide dwelled on the tapestries. The cool part about palaces is that they usually have gardens. This palace had a magical garden. Ok, it was a regular garden, but while we were wandering through the garden area is started SNOWING. Snow! How magical! And just in time for the holiday season. Snow makes everything magical.

After a snow-kissed weekend we headed back home to face studying and a week of exams. Good news is I survived my tests, for the most part. Now I'm preparing for a four day weekend in Barcelona with the one and only Anna Fraine. Prepare yourselves- there are bound to be stories after this reunion.

A Weekend in Wine Country

Phew. I just got back from my last AHA-organized excursion and I finally have a moment to breathe. I have multiple weekends to gush about, but for organization's sake I'm going to break them up into a couple entries. And for no apparent reason I decided to tell you all that.

Wine Country- Logroño

The weekend of the 21st & 22nd I went to Spanish Wine Country with two friends (Shani and Aubrey). We spent 2 1/8 days-ish there. It was a really neat and relaxing weekend. Here's how it went down:

Friday-

9:00pm our train left from Oviedo to Logrono. Since it was a night train ride, we got to be in a sleeping car with four tiny beds and a sink. For those of you who have never had the joyful experience of a sleeping train car, it's set up like two sets of slim bunk-beds in the space of less than half of a dorm room. I actually slept very well. Before I got to sleep though, the three of us girls were chatting it up in our all-too-small room. While chatting, a very drunk and slightly wobbly British man wandered through our open to door to join our conversation. We had run into this man earlier when we accidentally entered the men's sleeping section of the train. I'm mentioning this man because while chit-chatting with us he said the funniest British phrase. In his comical British accent he asked "are you girls here on business or just for a weekend jolly?". I now love the word "jolly" and am going to use it as much as possible.

After a solid hour of sleep, our train stopped in Logrono...at 3am. Before the trip we decided we wanted to be cheap and spontaneous and not pay for a hostel on Friday night. In theory that was a good idea. In reality we spent the hours of 3am-8am in the train station. To this day I cannot remember for the life of me what we did for those 5 mysterious hours.

Saturday-

After the mystery train station time we found our way to our hostel. The woman running the place was kind enough to let us in at 9am (undoubtedly hours before opening time). She looked at us and said "oh, right, you're the American girls" and then led us to our room. She took pity on us for being tired looking and, well, American.

Once we were more rested we decided to explore the city. It was an adorable town with a big city look mixed in with ancient alleyways. We spent the rest of the day meandering and waiting for a museum to open. We had to wait until 5pm for this museum to open and it turned out to be lame. Really lame. I don't even remember what it was about, probably a museum on the history of being lame. But, while killing time waiting for that museum to open up we found another museum (to be mentioned later) with an outdoor display. The outdoor display was full of sound experiments, like a giant xylophone, as well as a bunch of other cool stuff.

Saturday night we went out on the town for the "camino de pinchos y vinos," which just meant wandering around and having appetizers and wine. We tried some local food (like calamari) and some wine. Semi-side note: since I'm not accustomed to the taste of wine, or alcohol at all, prior to this weekend I thought all wine tasted like a cork. Along with some vegetable tempora, I had my first full glass of wine. I did not like it. I did, however, feel like a classy grown up.

Sunday-

Sunday was the best day. On this day we actually had something planned. We made a reservation to get a tour of a winery. We got a bit lost on the way there and then once we found the building we couldn't find the entrance. "Where is the freaking door?" was uttered from all of our mouths in one form or another. Once inside we were greeted by the nicest men who ran the place. One man, the one was giving the tour, spoke some English. He was delighted to hear that Shani and I were from California. He told us that he had recently visited Napa Valley and loved it. I felt super cool for knowing the slightest bit about Napa. The tour guide man led us to the rest of the group and introduced us as the American girls. (Apparently people in Logrono knew we were coming and braced themselves for the "American girls"). The tour was great. We got to see the whole sha-bang, including an art room containing pieces pertaining to wine. At the end we had a tasting. I thought I was going to be able to do that thing where you sip the wine and then spit it in a bucket- no such luck. We had two glasses of wine, one red and one white. The tour guide taught us how to taste the wine properly- including a tidbit about oxidizing the wine (which appears like slurping) in which I nearly drooled and almost choked, so much for being classy. As I mentioned, we each got two glasses of wine and not a spit bucket. As I also mentioned, I'm not accustomed to alcohol. After two glasses of wine (which weren't actually full glasses, just tasting size) I was feeling dizzy. As my friend tried to get me to help her pick out some wine, I thought to myself "oh crap Kate, stay calm. One foot in front of the other. Don't be drunk, don't be drunk, don't be drunk". I wished hard enough and it came true- I wasn't drunk. But I do think I had my first encounter with being on the way to being tipsy. The whole winery adventure was quite the experience.

After the winery we had half a day and some night to kill before our train came. We spent that time in the coolest hands-on museum. This was the museum I mentioned earlier. It was so cool that you couldn't even wear shoes inside. It had bunches of different displays and games that all required you to use your hands and senses. The place was filled with children and accompanying adults. We were the only ones over the age of 8 without child to accompany. It was awesome.

We passed the rest of our day/night eating and going to a movie before heading home to Oviedo. Our train didn't get in until 8am Monday morning, just in time for classes. Even with the lack of sleep and mystery hours, I had a great time. It was a weekend in which I was able to sip wine like a classy grown up and then squeal like a five year old in a children's museum all in one town.

Blogging Fail

Hey blogging world. Just a heads up that I am going to neglect (and already have been neglecting) my blog for a bit. I would love to sit down and write about my relaxing weekend in Logrono as well as my makeshift Thanksgiving dinner with the AHA crowd. Unfortunately I'm swamped with studying and packing. I'm currently in the middle of studying for some tests unusually close to both my midterms and finals. So my mid-midterms...or pre-finals...or I'm just talking nonsense. Anywho, I'm headed to Segovia and Los Aviles this weekend for my last AHA organized excursion. It should be fun and freezing (maybe snow!). Wish me luck.

Oh and happy Thanksgiving!