I´m here in beautiful Oviedo, where it rains and rains and rains. Here is a quick rundown of my trip so far:
(1) I got to Dallas on time, but my plane to Madrid was delayed two hours. By the time I reached the Madrid airport and got to the bus station, it was 1pm. Caught the 2pm bus, arrived in Oviedo at around 7:30pm, walked to the Cathedral in the pouring rain, and met up with my host family. I did not have a second to breathe. I missed dinner (they eat at, like, 10pm here, not even exaggerating) because I wanted to go to bed - part of it was that I was tired of trying to understand rapid Spanish and felt delirious and jet-lagged.
I was picked up by Maribel, my host mom, and her daughter Isa, Isa´s husband, and her 1.5 year old son, Daniel (Dani). When we got to Maribel´s apartment, where she and her other daughter (Val) live, she showed me around the apartment. (Sidenote: it took me until Tuesday to figure out how to work the doorknob and lock. It shouldn´t be that complicated, but it was hard, and Maribel kept trying to explain how to open it in Spanish and I only understood, like, twelve words.) I have my own set of keys, even. She then introduced me to her cat, Muffy, who, she says, loves ear wax. So she uses used Qtips to lure Muffy out of the living room where she scratches furniture. Yup.
(2) Monday. My class was to meet at the Cathedral and then walk to school together. On my way to the Cathedral, a woman with missing teeth asked me for money for breakfast. I told her I didn´t speak much English and then asked her how to get to the Cathedral. Once I met my class, we all walked to class together. Apparently I live right around the corner from the University of Oviedo, but because I was so confused about navigating the city (because I had to walk to the Cathedral, not school, this morning) I spent an hour looking for my apartment. I found my apartment at 3pm, my host sister served me ¨lentejas¨ for lunch that Maribel made, and since Val is learning English, we speak really great Spanglish together. It´s awesome to be able to communicate with someone. Monday night, some of the kids from my program and I walked around town, eventually getting lost. Guess what kind of sordid folk we ran into? MORMON MISSIONARIES! One is from Washington state and one is from California. They were super nice and pointed us in the right direction.
(3) Tuesday. Nicole and I got lost after school when we were exploring. Some good news, though; (a) I successfully bought a phone. Using only Spanish. And I was really damn good at it, too. (b) Guess who rain into the missionaries again after being lost for two hours? That´s right. Oviedo isn´t that small, so I must just be lucky. They even replaced my crappy, torn up map (yeah, already) and told me where to find an internet cafe. They really are super nice. I´m going to try to remember to buy them lunch before I leave Oviedo. My host mom and friends have my phone number in case they need to contact me (and vice versa). Long distance calls are super expensive so I probably won´t call anyone in the states (Estados Unidos) with it but I have it in case of emergency.
(4) Wednesday. Giant soccer game between Manchester and Barcelona. We didn´t go, obviously, but everyone hit the bars and cafeterias to watch the game on tv. Nicole, Lori and I found this amazing little restaurant where we went for tapas. The owner was so nice and patient. And he took a picture of us at the dinner table - hopefully I´ll get a copy of ut up on here soon. Also, Nicole and I both had delicious local Spanish beers and we watched the game with our host. His name was Gose or something unusual like that. After that, the three of us were going to hunt for dessert but lots of things were getting ready to close (it was about 10:30pm), and then we ran into a different girl from our program who convinced us to stay up pretty late. We hung out at a couple of bars, watching Spaniards and embarassing Americans from our program, stumbling through the streets. Some guy harassed Nicole and I on the way back to our apartments, so I kneed him in the balls. Nothing too exciting.
(5) We were so tired at school today. I´m glad it´s over. I went home and because my host mom is at work, Val served me a new batch of lentejas that Maribel made. I´m certain she made it again because I´ve been raving so much about it. Now I´m at the internet cafe/bar that the missionaries told me about. Just checking my email before I head out to meet a group of people from our program. I need to find postcards, anyway.
I want to talk about food in Spain for a moment, too. It´s amazing. They cook things from scratch and don´t live on fast food and canned food. Everything is fresh and groceries are cheaper than in the United States. Let´s just do a run down on what I´ve had so far:
Monday: toast with butter and jam with coffee for breakfast at 7:30am, a yummy cookie (galleta) that wasn´t as disgustingly sweet as American cookies for my midmorning snack at noon, lentejas (lentil soup) for lunch at 3, and free chorizo tapas at my neighborhood cafeteria for dinner at 10.
Tuesday: breakfast was toast with butter, midmorning snack was a cookie and a banana, lunch was potato fries, bread soup and calamari (calamari was not my favorite thing ever), and for dinner my host mom made me a giant slab of salmon and a giant garden salad with sidre and olive oil dressing.
Wednesday: 2 pieces of toast with butter for breakfast, a galleta and a pear for my snack, potato and vegetable soup and a small bowl of strawberries for lunch, and then I went out for dinner for tapas with the girls.
Today: coffee and Coca Cola Light (way better than Diet Coke!) for breakfast (my school cafeteria makes it SO good), midmorning snack was a galleta, a pear, and a nectarine, and lunch was a different lenteja stew from before.
I don´t know what dinner is yet, but I´m going to get so fat here. Also, my host mom is vacationing to Portugal tonight through Sunday night, so she won´t be around for awhile, and Val will be taking care of me. She says we´re having chorizo for lunch tomorrow. Yum!
Oh, and by the way, my plumbing (aside from being kind of lo-flo toilets and not knowing if I should let ït¨ mellow or flush it down) is not scary. Some of my classmates got host families with scary, old plumbing, but I was glad that at least something here reminds me of America. My terlet.
Hasta luego!
(1) I got to Dallas on time, but my plane to Madrid was delayed two hours. By the time I reached the Madrid airport and got to the bus station, it was 1pm. Caught the 2pm bus, arrived in Oviedo at around 7:30pm, walked to the Cathedral in the pouring rain, and met up with my host family. I did not have a second to breathe. I missed dinner (they eat at, like, 10pm here, not even exaggerating) because I wanted to go to bed - part of it was that I was tired of trying to understand rapid Spanish and felt delirious and jet-lagged.
I was picked up by Maribel, my host mom, and her daughter Isa, Isa´s husband, and her 1.5 year old son, Daniel (Dani). When we got to Maribel´s apartment, where she and her other daughter (Val) live, she showed me around the apartment. (Sidenote: it took me until Tuesday to figure out how to work the doorknob and lock. It shouldn´t be that complicated, but it was hard, and Maribel kept trying to explain how to open it in Spanish and I only understood, like, twelve words.) I have my own set of keys, even. She then introduced me to her cat, Muffy, who, she says, loves ear wax. So she uses used Qtips to lure Muffy out of the living room where she scratches furniture. Yup.
(2) Monday. My class was to meet at the Cathedral and then walk to school together. On my way to the Cathedral, a woman with missing teeth asked me for money for breakfast. I told her I didn´t speak much English and then asked her how to get to the Cathedral. Once I met my class, we all walked to class together. Apparently I live right around the corner from the University of Oviedo, but because I was so confused about navigating the city (because I had to walk to the Cathedral, not school, this morning) I spent an hour looking for my apartment. I found my apartment at 3pm, my host sister served me ¨lentejas¨ for lunch that Maribel made, and since Val is learning English, we speak really great Spanglish together. It´s awesome to be able to communicate with someone. Monday night, some of the kids from my program and I walked around town, eventually getting lost. Guess what kind of sordid folk we ran into? MORMON MISSIONARIES! One is from Washington state and one is from California. They were super nice and pointed us in the right direction.
(3) Tuesday. Nicole and I got lost after school when we were exploring. Some good news, though; (a) I successfully bought a phone. Using only Spanish. And I was really damn good at it, too. (b) Guess who rain into the missionaries again after being lost for two hours? That´s right. Oviedo isn´t that small, so I must just be lucky. They even replaced my crappy, torn up map (yeah, already) and told me where to find an internet cafe. They really are super nice. I´m going to try to remember to buy them lunch before I leave Oviedo. My host mom and friends have my phone number in case they need to contact me (and vice versa). Long distance calls are super expensive so I probably won´t call anyone in the states (Estados Unidos) with it but I have it in case of emergency.
(4) Wednesday. Giant soccer game between Manchester and Barcelona. We didn´t go, obviously, but everyone hit the bars and cafeterias to watch the game on tv. Nicole, Lori and I found this amazing little restaurant where we went for tapas. The owner was so nice and patient. And he took a picture of us at the dinner table - hopefully I´ll get a copy of ut up on here soon. Also, Nicole and I both had delicious local Spanish beers and we watched the game with our host. His name was Gose or something unusual like that. After that, the three of us were going to hunt for dessert but lots of things were getting ready to close (it was about 10:30pm), and then we ran into a different girl from our program who convinced us to stay up pretty late. We hung out at a couple of bars, watching Spaniards and embarassing Americans from our program, stumbling through the streets. Some guy harassed Nicole and I on the way back to our apartments, so I kneed him in the balls. Nothing too exciting.
(5) We were so tired at school today. I´m glad it´s over. I went home and because my host mom is at work, Val served me a new batch of lentejas that Maribel made. I´m certain she made it again because I´ve been raving so much about it. Now I´m at the internet cafe/bar that the missionaries told me about. Just checking my email before I head out to meet a group of people from our program. I need to find postcards, anyway.
I want to talk about food in Spain for a moment, too. It´s amazing. They cook things from scratch and don´t live on fast food and canned food. Everything is fresh and groceries are cheaper than in the United States. Let´s just do a run down on what I´ve had so far:
Monday: toast with butter and jam with coffee for breakfast at 7:30am, a yummy cookie (galleta) that wasn´t as disgustingly sweet as American cookies for my midmorning snack at noon, lentejas (lentil soup) for lunch at 3, and free chorizo tapas at my neighborhood cafeteria for dinner at 10.
Tuesday: breakfast was toast with butter, midmorning snack was a cookie and a banana, lunch was potato fries, bread soup and calamari (calamari was not my favorite thing ever), and for dinner my host mom made me a giant slab of salmon and a giant garden salad with sidre and olive oil dressing.
Wednesday: 2 pieces of toast with butter for breakfast, a galleta and a pear for my snack, potato and vegetable soup and a small bowl of strawberries for lunch, and then I went out for dinner for tapas with the girls.
Today: coffee and Coca Cola Light (way better than Diet Coke!) for breakfast (my school cafeteria makes it SO good), midmorning snack was a galleta, a pear, and a nectarine, and lunch was a different lenteja stew from before.
I don´t know what dinner is yet, but I´m going to get so fat here. Also, my host mom is vacationing to Portugal tonight through Sunday night, so she won´t be around for awhile, and Val will be taking care of me. She says we´re having chorizo for lunch tomorrow. Yum!
Oh, and by the way, my plumbing (aside from being kind of lo-flo toilets and not knowing if I should let ït¨ mellow or flush it down) is not scary. Some of my classmates got host families with scary, old plumbing, but I was glad that at least something here reminds me of America. My terlet.
You should mail me your food.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you're having a good time over there. You've probably already forgotten us!