El fin de Oviedo

Oh Oviedo. How I miss thee.

So I am gone from Oviedo and I already miss it so much. But I definitely had the time of my life there and I cannot wait to get back!

My last week in Oviedo was definitely a fun one! After a great Monday night as mentioned before, the rest of the week was spent living it up as much as possible. Tuesday after classes I went out and about in Oviedo. Hit up some places around the old city and plaza de paraguas with my friend Laura and then some more of the TU crew, then of course back to al fondo to finish off the night. Wednesday was the last day of actual classes with our final exam being the next day. So I spent all night studying my butt off for that! Thursday I took my final (not too hard at all) and then handed in my final paper. After that was the preparations for the always adventurous dinner out with all the Temple crew paid for by Temple. I went over to the dorms to get ready and then made our way eventually to El Buchito which is the place we went to the first Oviedo dinner. Again, amazingggg food. I realized there that I am eating so many different things than I ever expected to even try in my life. We had an awesome grilled veggie platter, a grilled salmon/cheese/white asparagus platter, a seafood mix crab cake kinda thing that is hard to describe but amazinggg, octopus (yes I tried it, tasted awesome, but couldn´t really get over the texture), ox, black pig and lemon champagne sorbet. Plus of course unlimited sangria and thanks to certain people pulling strings with Jaime..lots of great wine too! After a 3 hour or so dinner we went out for our second to last night in Oviedo. We went on Calle Mon which is just a long street filled with tons of bars and clubs and we just hopped from one to another. It was a crazzzy night, even our prof showed up at the club, which was probably one of the best nights I had there. Friday, my last full day in Oviedo, was a sad but good day. We went to school to have our little graduation and a tiny fiesta afterwards. Some of us kinda skipped out on the fiesta and hit up the beach though. It was a great beach day, and our last experience with Gijón. After that I headed home since it was my host mamá´s birthday. I had a nice little dinner and then headed out for my last night. Pretty much everyone from the TU crew was at Al fondo´s and it was a greatttt time. Very sad though because as the night went on, more and more people would leave and we would have to say goodbye. Granted, we all go to the same school so we surely will see one another again, but it will never be in an environment like that. I had the time of my life with those people and I will miss them tremendously.

Finally Saturday morning came. The day I left Oviedo, my home away from home. I had to say goodbye to my host family which was reallly hard, I almost cried but I managed to hold it together, and I headed off to the bus station for the 12 hour bus ride to Barcelona. As we went down the highway I got my last glimpse of Oviedo and I realized how much I really loved that place and how I need to back asap.

Monday's Highlight...

Highlight of Monday:

Walking home from school and seeing the best bartender in the world drive past you up one of the tiny streets in old city.  He recognizes you, slows down, honks and waves...goes around the block to see you at the end of the street to wave hi again.  I felt like a true Oviedan/Oviedoite/I have no idea walking around town and people (well one person) knowing me.  Just when things start feeling normal, just about time to go... But anyways...then going to his amazing bar, Al Fondo Hay Sitio, and getting the hookup as usual because he very well may be the nicest man alive.  I'm talking about 2 1/2 bottles of great french wine, a round of whiskey shots, a delicious tropical drink, a shaker of something purple and delicious, oh and then just the whole bottle of whiskey so we could pour our own shots and let's not forget the constant food all night...all for free.  The only thing we paid for were beers, and with ten of us there and all of us feeling quite lovely by the end of the night, our tab was a mere 34 euro.  Needless to say we all threw in 5 euro to make it an even 50 and give our awesome friend a nice tip (and they don't tip here..).  Plus there was this adorable little girl there with her parents who I got to play with until we left at like 2 AM.  Don't ask me why the little girl was out so late, everyone is out late in Spain. All in all, another fantastic night in Oviedo.  And back to Al fondo again tonight por supuesto...

Ay Dios Mio..

Ay! Less than a week left in Oviedo.  I legitimately have no idea where the time went.  Let's try to figure it out, eah?

Last Monday was amazing.  Probably the best night I have had thus far.  We all went to the Festival de Santa Carmen in Pola de Siero, which isn't too far from here.  It was a gigantic festival in a huge field.  There were thousands of people who, at the time we arrived, had been there alllll day.  People had insane amounts of food and cider.  It was very reminiscent of a Spanish version of folkfest.  So we take the bus there and make our way to el prao (the field).  We (a group of like 10-12 of us) ended up meeting a group of Spanish guys who were extremely nice and more than willing to share all of their food and cider, and did they have a lot of it.  They had an entire crate full of wine..so like 25 bottles and some in a cooler and a whole other crate in their cars.  This was pretty much the norm for everyone there. We ended up running into Jaime, our professor, who was there with his wife and kids.  Many hours and many bottles of cider later, we left the field to make our way into town.  Once there, there was tons of music and dancing..and the highlight of the festival...huge mobs of people moving from apartment building to apartment building chanting for people to throw out buckets of water from the high up floors onto the mass of people below.  It was crazy and ridiculous and I got soaked, but it was sooo much fun.

So that was definitely the highlight of the week!

The rest of the week was filled with school like always and the occasional experiences of the Oviedo night life.  Friday night was quite the fun night that involved a whole lot of bar/club hopping on one of the main streets of the old city.  Although tragically I did lose my phone that night.  I have no idea how since I never used it and I have all my other belongings, but once I got home I definitely did not have it anymore.  Sad face.

Saturday after much relaxing, I explored around the city a bit and took a bunch of pictures since my picture taking had decreased infinitely since arriving in Oviedo.  Saturday night was quite relaxing, just sitting outside and people watching at La plaza de paraguas (Umbrella plaza) which was quite packed, something that is kinda rare for Oviedo since it is summer and no one is here.  But here's the thing about Spain.  We left to go out at 10:45, extremely early for Spain...people were still eating dinner!  We only had maybe 4 beers and just hung around talking and the like, then suddenly I check what time it is and it is 3 AM.  Where did those 4 hours go?!  So my friend Laura and I decided it was time for some food (Doner Kabob, the greatest invention ever) and then to get home, even though the night was still young by Spanish standards.

Today was quite the nice day.  After attempting to sleep in, my sleep has been all over the place here, I got up and went to Gijón to spend the day at the beach.  It was great weather and a day at the beach was definitely very much needed.  The water is so clear there and pretty warm that I spent a lot of time in the water.  Heading home we stopped for a marienda (the snack between lunch and dinner) which was my first slice of pizza since I've been here (oh how i've missed it) and a San Miguel...followed shortly by some Dulce de Leche icecream (first icecream i have had since I've been here as well).  All in all, a very nice day....although it did result in a bit of sunburn.  But since when can I go to the beach and not return a little burnt?

So, 3 more days of classes starting tomorrow.  Final on Thursday, as well as our last group dinner with the Temple crew.  Friday is the University of Oviedo goodbye party and my last night out in Oviedo.  Then Saturday morning bright and early I get on a 12 hour bus ride to Barcelona.  Needless to say it will be a crazy couple of days...

Very Unrelated but Exciting Note..

Ahhh!

Stephen Kellogg News:

10/15 SK @ State College

10/16 AND 10/17 SK @ World Cafe Live (35$ for two day pass)

11/27 AND 11/28 SK @ Bowery Ballroom again! (35$ for two day pass)

PLUS...The Bear comes out 9/8! Who is a little excited.  Me.  That's who.

Where did the past 3 weeks go?

So I honestly can't believe I have less than 2 weeks until I leave Oviedo.  I really don't know when that happened.  I love this town, I am going to miss it so much.

But let's see what's happened recently...

Wayyy back in the day on the 8th, my birthday!, after classes we took the trip to Gijón which is a city about 20-30 minutes away and it is a costal town so that means beach! Granted, it wasn't the best weather but it was great to finally get to Gijón for the first time and experience it!  It is a pretty sweet place.  After we got back we went to the Boulevard of Cider.  This is a whole street in the Historic part of Oviedo that is just all Siderías and restaurants.  We had a fair few bottles of cider and got to witness how a true pro pours the cider without even looking.  Our waiter was the man!  Eventually more and more people joined up with us and we had about 20 people sitting out side and when we left we had gone through 15 bottles of cider (plus the birthday shot Laura got me! Thanks Laura!).  All in all, an enjoyable bday.

Thursday we had a Temple dinner at this amazing steak house and we had some seriously awesome food and sangria thanks to Temple University and Jaime (one of our coordinators, who is seriously the man).  It was a great time.  We got there at 9:45 and didn't leave til 1-130.  Which actually pretty per the usgue when it comes to Spaniards and their eating habits.

Friday was the ridiculous that was the Espicha. An espicha is a traditional Austurian party that just involves lots of snacks and lots of cider and lots of music.  The espicha was thrown by our university to welcome us.  So there were about 200 of us there.  It was in this amazinggg place about 10 min away from Oviedo.  It was definitely one of the most awesome places Ive been.  There were hundreds of empty cider bottles hanging from the ceiling and walls and there were huge "cider barrels" that you had tables in them you could dine in.  We took over about 3/4 of the entire restaurant with our ridiculousness.  There was traditional music and dancing.  And mostly there was lotsss of cider.  Instead of bottles they have hugeee pressurized barrels and you just go up to one of the people working them and they turn the spicket and the cider flies out of there faster than you can imagine.  He fills your glass up a bit and off you go.  Probably to return again in a few minutes.  By the end of the night one of the waiters was letting us pour our own cider which was a seriously awesome, yet wet and sticky, experience.  The party went on for hours.  And then everyone piled on the buses to get back home and we just continued the night out at the bars, or so I was told bc everything is a little fuzzy after that. Haha.  But it was definitely an amazing time!

Saturday we went to Gijón again, this time we actually experienced the beach!  It was really nice, and they have a few beaches.  One is real and one is artificial.  Of course the real one is nicer, but the beach isn't too long and when the tide comes in the beach all but disappears so ya gotta make your way back to the fake beach, which is definitely still nice too.  Not too much else of excitement happened for the rest of the weekend.  Sunday was just filled with resting for the first time after an exhausting 2 weeks.

This past week was filled mostly with school stuff.  Yes, I am actually taking classes here and yes I actually do have to do some work.  But I still managed to go out a few nights and have good times and managed to do some shopping and a also fit in some time to go to one of the parks and relax with some wine.  Oh and how could it have ever slipped my mind?...I may or may not have gone to see Harry Potter in IMAX 3-D on the day it opened and saw the first showing of it in Oviedo (and yes, it was in Spanish).  Oh lordy was it amazing!  Can't wait to see it again in english!

Thursday night I quite possible had the best food of my life.  We (as in the Temple crew, thanks to TU and Jaime again) went to El Club de Tenis aka the Country Club of Oviedo. Jaime's grandfather was one of the founders and so we definitely got the hook up.  Everything about this place was amazing.  It was so nice inside and as soon as we got there our huge table (for about 30) was set up with pitchers upon pitchers of sangria and bottles upon bottles of wine. First we had the best Gazpacho I've ever had, granted I've only had it a few times and it's all been since I've been here but it was amazing.  They brought out the soup and then the waiter came around and you could pick which of the fresh veggies you wanted in it. They had tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, peppers, crutons!, and i'm sure a few things I'm forgetting.  After that we had this white asparagus with smoked salmon and two types of cheese all together in this melty cheesy goodness.  My lord was it delicious.  Then I had an amazing steak.  It was very thinly sliced but it was the longest piece of steak I've ever seen, it literally didnot fit on my plate.  Of course with the steak we had french fries, since they are the side dish of choice for everything in Spain.  It was sooo good, but I was stuffed after the asparagus so it was an effort to eat a lot of the steak.  After that we had this amazinggg desert.  It was this little cup made of chocolate with a lemon sherbet type of thing in the bottom with fresh fruit on top. Wow it was sooo good.  Then after that we had our after dinner shots and coffee.  Often in Spain for desert you will get a choice of an actual desert, coffee or a shot of something.  But since this was the country club we got all three!  After that many of us went out with Jaime to a bar back in the main part of the city.  It was such a fun night!  Granted I didn't get home til 3 and I had a test the next day but oh well....When in Spain, right?

Friday was a pretty chill night.  We wanted to take it pretty easy to save up for Saturday.  We just went out to a few places and had some drinks.  Went to la plaza de paraguas (or the umbrella plaza) which is just a plaza with a bunch of bars and restaurants but also with a huge wooden umbrella in the middle that you can sit on.  Haha.  Don't ask me why.  It was quite the relaxing night, but I still didn't go home til like 330 which was kinda rough when I had to get up at 8 the next day and doing the same thing the night before.

Saturday morning was an excursion to Conga de Onís, los lagos and Covadonga.  Conga de Onís was a nice little town about an hour away.  It was very pretty and had an awesome bridge built by the romans that goes over this river.  Highlight of this part of the trip: one of the kids for my group, Mike, jumped off the bridge into the river in his boxers.  Awesome and hysterical.

Los lagos (the lakes) was amazingggg.  We went up one of the mountains in our bus (and when I say we went up the mountain I mean 45 min+ trek up the craziest, tiniest, roads you've ever seen.  There were cows all over the place and they would just decide to hang out in the road.  Needless to say it made it a bit difficult to get a huge tour bus up the mountain.  But the ride up was one of the most beautiful things I've seen.  Just being surrounded by mountains and country side and hundreds of cows.  When we got to the top there were two lakes we could hike to.  Wow were they beautiful.  I have never seen something that was just perfect before.  You have this huge pristine lake in the mountains.  You are still surrounded by cows, and I don't mean you could see them in the distance, I mean you had to walk next to them constantly to get where you were going.  You are just surrounded by mountains and you can see the snow covered Picos de Europa (Peaks of Europe)...called so because they would be the first thing that sailors could see when they were making their way back to Europe back in the day.  It was breath-takingly beautiful and I have definitely never seen anything as perfect and gorgeous in my life. 

After that we went to Covadonga which in at the bottom of the mountain we had just climbed up.  There is a huge beautiful church there and also a sanctuary build, literally, into the mountain about a little water fall.  When we went up there, they were having mass so it is definitely something that is still in use.  It was really cool to see.  Finally we made our way back home.

Once home I had about a 45 minute turn around time to get myself together to go out.  We went to Gijón to experience the last night of Semana Negra (Black week) it is a crazy, crazy festival out of the beaches outside of Gijón.  There were more tents set up selling food and clothes and anything you could think of than you could imagine.  There were full bars set up everywhere and full clubs as well.  They had the craziest carnival rides you could imagine...actually they were more of rides you would have to pay they extra 2o bucks to go on at Dorney Park or something of the like then carnival rides.  It was the craziest, more sensory overloading thing I've been to.  There were just so many people, most completely drunk, having a great time.  The thing to do afterwards is to go back into Gijón and make your way through the bars.  We didn't make it to that, but we still didn't get home til 6 in the morning and I wasn't in bed til 7 (because of that freaking 40 minute walk from the train station).  It was definitely an experience I am quite glad I had!!

Now it is Sunday and I definitely slept in til 4 PM and just plan on being a bum allll day.  Time to just relax before another week of craziness.  Wow, only 12 days until I leave Oviedo.  That is going to be a sad, sad day.  But I did just purchase my bus ticket to Barcelona for the last 5 days of my trip so that should be quite the adventure as well!

Sorry for the obnoxious length of this, but I never have time on a consistent basis to update, so I gotta make the most out of it when I can!

Besitos,

Lauren 

A week and a half in..

Pfew!  It's hard to believe it's only been a week and half (more or less) since I got to Spain.  It just doesn't seem possible that so much could have been jammed into those few days..

Way back on the 3rd we took our first legit excursion.  We went first to Segovia and after to Avila which are both about an hour or so away from Madrid.  Both towns are just completely beautiful. In Segovia, the capital city of Castilla y Leon, we got to see the oldest and greatest Roman Aqueducts in existence as well as the huge wall built to protect the city.  We also got to visit the Alcazar castle, and let me tell you...who needs to visit Disney Land when you can just see the real castle there?!  It was really quite awesome.  While there we also got to see our fair share of churches and cathedrals but they have kind of all meshed together in my brain at this point unfortunately.  But definitely one of the highlights of being in Segovia was the food experience.  One of the choices was Suckling Pig which Segovia is famous for.  One of the traditions is to bring out the entire piglet, quite cute if I do say so myself, and in order to show how tender it is, the waiter will cut the pig with a plate.  I think most of us were expecting just one cut through the pig to demonstrate this, but no...after the first and showing it off. BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM! The pig is completely cut up...all with a plate.  It was pretttty crazy, and awesome.

Avila was great as well.  They also have an impressive wall surrounding the city.  We also got to see another impressive gothic cathedral.  But I'm pretty sure after the pig, nothing could blow my mind like that.

On the 4th we went to Toledo.  Besides having a breath-taking view of the surrounding area, we got to see the greatest Gothic Cathedral of Spain.  And it was quite impressive.  Seeing all these towns with so much history in them makes me feel so jipped living in the US with such little history.  I want to live in a town where you are just surround by a thousand years of history.  *Sigh*

By far the greatest occurrence of the 4th was the parade I got to go to.  Parade you might ask? They had a 4th of July parade in Spain?  Welll...not quite.  The 4th was the 2009 Madrid Gay Pride Parade.  And this was hands down one of the craziest things I have ever witnessed in my life.  There were just an inexpressible number of people all in the best of moods.  The parade was the longest one Ive ever seen (we were there for more than 2 hours and it started before we got there and wasn't even close to being done when we left).  I will never see anything close to the ridiculous stuff I saw during that parade.  It was seriously a once in a lifetime experience I am so glad I got to enjoy.

Finally on the 5th we made the 6 hour trek up north to Oviedo, the capital of the province of Austurias after the joy of trying to move out of the hotel.  Lets just say when you live on the 5th floor of the hotel and the elevator decides not to function when you are running late to catch your bus to leave at 8 in the morning, it's not the most fun start to the day.  But it was made up for later. This ride was one of the most beautiful things I've experienced.  This province is called the "Natural Paradise" and let me tell you...it is true.  Just imagine traveling through the mountains seeing some of the most breath-taking vistas of the mountains and lakes.  It was so beautiful.

Once we arrived in Oviedo, I was met by my host family who took me back to their house which is an apartment just outside the heart of the city.  They are some of the nicest people ever.  The first night we were there they took me to a fiesta...a festival that was about 20 minutes outside Oviedo.  It was Renaissance Faire-esque but with the added bonus of a full concert by a band that was very popular in Spain during the 60s and 70s.  It was so much fun!  Plus I got the added bonus of enjoying the famous Cider for the first time.  Oviedo is well known for their cider and it is quite delish!  It's poured from up high into a glass held at an angle.  When the cider hits the glass from so high it mixes the air into it making it taste better.  You get just a about an inch or two of cider in your glass and you drink it all at once leaving just a little bit remaining.  Once you are done you dump the remaining on the ground and hand back the glass so the next person can have a glass.  It is very enjoyable and a fun experience.

Monday I made the 3o minute walk to the University for the first time.  Phew it is tiring...especially when this city is like San Francisco with how their roads go up and down.  The campus is nice..pretty small but like the rest of the town it has an amazing view.  Monday night we went to another festival, this time with my friend Laura as well.  This one was up in the hills of Oviedo and much more like a carnival, but also with a concert (a ridiculous but great band from Cuba) and some fireworks this time (see I got pretty much all aspects of the 4th of july here)!

Well I think that is all the time I have for now.  I'll update asap with the birthday celebrations and anything else exciting that happens!

Hasta Luego!

Hola de Madrid!!

Ahh Madrid. The beauty is only riveled by the heat. It is a tad bit warm. And when I say a tad, I mean obnoxiously scorchingly hot. But that is the least of my worries. So I arrived in Madrid Monday morning. It was so excited. Granted I was exhausted from my long trip and the lovely jet lag (only having two hours of night is something that really messes with you), but the trip here was good and we managed to make it to the hotel in one piece, so life couldn´t have been better. Our hotel is quite nice. Right in the heart of Madrid. It has a balcony with a beautiful view. Only problem is the intense lack of AC in this place. And when it is 95 degress plus, that makes it a little difficult to relax in.

The first day we arrived, after taking a nice nap we started adventuring. We mangage to stumble upon El Parque de Retiro...which is more or less like the central park of Madrid. It is huge and beautiful. It was so nice to just relax there and people watch. We also mad our way in the opposite direction towards Puerta del Sol which is a huge commercial district with more stores of every sort than you could imagine. Tons of cute little jewelry stands and the like. I´ve been back there numerous times and it is so nice. For dinner we dined at this lovely resturant outside with the nicest waiter. We spilt a pitcher of Sangria and just relaxed outside for more than two hours.

The next day other people from our group started to arrive. The day was filled with more adventuring and taking in the sights. We found Plaza Mayor which is so beautiful.

Yesterday was the first day of traveling around with our group and a tour guide to take in the sights. We first went to el Palacio Real, or the royal palace. Let me tell you, the Spainards now how to do it right. So is soooo beautiful there and just full of such history. With our awesome tour guide Geraldo I learned sooo much. After there we went to the Museo de Prado or the Prado Museum. Full of some awesome works of art. So sweet.

Today we took the bus out to La valle de los caidos which is the Valley of the Dead. It is a hugge place that Franco had created to demonstrate his power. It was pretty beautiful, but it felt kinda weird to be admiring a place that a dictator created...but ya know its history. After that we saw yet another palace which wasn´t nearly as beautiful as el palacio real, but still nice.

So Sunday morning I leave for oviedo which will be amazing. As for now I´m off to have a siesta! Adios!