How odd it has been to be home.  It is not that it was hard to fit back in to this routine, but the fact that nothing here has changed.  This makes it feel as though the past 5 months were a dream of somesort, because they were so far removed from the ordinary.  I loved every single second of my time abroad and cannot believe how much my fluency has increased, especially in speaking.  It is not that I am particularly sad about being back, simply that it is weird to think back on how fast the semester went and everything that I experienced.  I hope to return in October to visit my roommate and some other friends!  I definitely am no saying “goodbye” to Oviedo, simply “see you later- hasta luego!”

I overheard a girl talking excitedly about the fact that she was going home in a few days.  My thoughts are running in the absolute opposite direction as I contemplate that I will really be leaving in a few short days.  Luckily, I am staying for about an extra week just to have some time to spend with my roommate and another friend who is staying here, as well as some time to take pictures of everything that I haven’t yet.  Also, there is an awesome festival this week which showcases Asturian culture, sort of like how we have medieval fairs and such.  Everyone is dressed in traditional garb and there is food, wares and entertainment galore.  I bought some cheese to take home and sampled several different kinds of food, all of which were delicious.  I also saw several bagpipe and dancing exhibitions.

I cannot believe that my time here is almost over.  It has been an incredible five months and I am spending as much time as possible with my roommate and other friends.  It is so nice to finally be able to wear short sleeves, although I still haven’t broken out shorts yet.  I was too optimistic when I had my mom bring over a suitcase full of summer clothes… some days I want my sweaters back!  However, when it is nice out everyone spends as much time as possible outdoors.

I went on an amazing trip with a group that is here from Boston!  We did Toledo, Salamanca, and Leon in a weekend.  Toledo was beautiful and is known for having been one of the only cities where Jews, Christians, and Muslims resided peacefully together.  There are over 100 religious buildings, and from this comes our expression “Holy Toledo!”  It was so beautiful and was my favorite city.  They also are  known for their marzipan and gold jewelry, which they make with a process called damascening that involved hammering thin layers of gold onto other, less precious metal.  Salamanca is a “college town” and home to the oldest university in Spain.  There are many american college students there and I met up with two of my friends from Geneseo who are there this semester.  The nightlife is quite a site, and we found a place with some awesome tapas before we started our evening.  Tapas are small snacks that are served with a glass of wine or beer around 5pm.  As people eat dinner later, many times they will have a snack around this time and a fun way to do that is to go to different bars and sample their tapas.  Each bar has a different one, and one of the best places to go to “tapear” (the verb “to go tapa-ing) is Leon, our last stop on the trip.  The cathedral there is very impressive, and we ended our round of tapas with some icecream in front of it.  We also went to a modern art museum which was… interesting    It was an amazing trip!

Well I finally went to a futbol (soccer) game.  I figured it was probably illegal to come to Spain and not watch even one game, so when a group that works with the international students offered us tickets to a local Oviedo game, a bunch of us went.  I am NOT a soccer fan even in the itsy bitsy least, but as I said, it seemed like something I should probably do while here in Spain.  So…. what can I say; it wasn’t a very good game even by soccer fans’ standards and it started to sprinkle towards the end, but it was fun to hang out with friends for the afternoon, and we got a tour of the field and stadium

Studying abroad as a language major is different in that your main objective is to increase your fluency in the target language.  When the study abroad trip has nothing to do with your major, the focus usually becomes travel and therefore classes can tend to come in third or fourth or fifth…. on the priority list.  Even as a language major, the experiences you have outside of the classroom are very very important, but the classes do take on a different significance, which probably means I should mention them!  My teachers are excellent.  They speak in Spanish all of the time, and several of them don’t even know english, therefore getting rid of the temptation to fall back on it.  The classes are 50 minutes long, three times a week, and you can take up to 5.  I am taking 4 because the other ones that are offered would not transfer for me.  There are beginning, intermediate and advanced sections, and this semester there are two level of intermediate and three of advanced.  The choices are translation, grammar, phonetics, vocabulary, precolumbian history, literature, and culture.  There is also a film series that they offer for which you watch films throughout the semester and then answer questions about them, which transfers at two credits.  I really enjoy translation.  You actually learn a lot of vocabulary through it because of all the words you have to look up for the texts, and because we discuss which words work in certain situations and grammar and idioms etc.  You are allowed two unexcused absences before it starts affecting your grade, but most of the teachers are also usually understanding if you tell them ahead of time when you are going to miss for a trip or something.  There is not very much homework but the best thing you can do when learning a language is to consider that your “homework” is using that language all the time, including with friends who speak your native tongue!

From Povtevedra, where the house was located, we took a train up to Santiago de Compostela, where it is believe the bones of St. James are enshrined within the cathedral.  This is the last stop on the pilgramage many people make, called The Way of Saint James.  From there, we rented a car to get back to Oviedo, and then next day used it to go to Covadonga, which is the point that the Moors suffered a major defeat at the hands of Pelayo, signaling the end of their advance across the Iberian Peninsula, and preserving the culture of Asturias which is why there are romanesque and pre-romanesque architectural wonders found in this region, as they were not destroyed by the Moors.  They built a church into the side of the mountain that is just incredible!
We made a pilgrimage of our own on his last day here, up to the Statue “el Cristo.”  This statue of Jesus with outstreched arms is placed way up on one of the surrounding mountains and is therefore visible from nearly every point in the city.  I had heard people talk about walking up to it so I thought it was no big deal… until we were over two hours into the walk and completely exhausted!  However, it was a beautiful day, we we got some great shots of the city, which as you can see is completely protected by some very serious mountains, and we found a shorter way down!  On our way home, we ran into the Semana Santa parade and watched it for a little while.  They are not as grandiose as they are in the south of Spain, but it was still impressive that men carry around these heavy floats, as well as the different outfits that people wear.  It was a wonderful week, and now here are some pictures of it!

The day after my mom and sister left, my fiance came to spend a week with me!  We did a bit more traveling and took some awesome pictures (over 700!).  We went to Galicia, the providence to the west of Asturias, and stayed in a beautiful casa rural on the western coast.  A casa rural is like a bed and breakfast, only I think there are more here than in the US and many of them are centuries old houses that people have redone and turned into wonderful (and often cheaper!) alternatives to hostals or hotels.  You can find them way out in the middle of nowhere, all over Spain, and ours was called Casa Torre Vella.  We could see the ocean from the house as well as a few of the many vineyards that blanket Galicia.  Joe really loved the fresh orange juice the housekeeper made for us every morning, with oranges picked from the trees around the house, and I liked the cheese and crusty fresh bread. 
The beach was so beautiful, less industrialized than that of Gijon, and there were only ever 2 or 3 people there.  Galicia is also know for its wonderful seafood and while I didn’t try pulpo (octopus), their specialty, I did have some delicious cod.  We were so blessed with good weather the whole week (yes, it literally rained only when I was walking home from the bus station in the middle of the night, then it was nice for another week!!). 

I’m going to head for bed now, and post the rest of our adventures soon!

My mom and sister just spent an awesome week here with me!  We only travelled out of Oviedo as far as Gijon to go to the beach, but I had so much fun showing them this beautiful city.  We had AMAZING weather and it was dry all week long!  Of course it started raining as I walked home from accompanying them to the bus stop on the night they left.  It seemed like Asturias was laughing at me, like the rain had just been playing hide and seek for the week and was ready to show it’s face once again once the outsiders were gone.  Sort of like how siblings are so sweet and polite in public and anytime a stranger remarks how good they are you think “well you can have them then” but I digress….

It was a beautiful sunny day when we went to the beach, but while some locals thought it was sunny enough to sunbathe sans clothing, we three opted to keep all of our clothes on, including pants and jackets as the breeze could be quite chilly.  Another day we went up to the summer palace and church that were built  in the 800’s (yes, you read that right!  These are pre-romanesque buildings!) for the king, called Santa María del Naranco and San Miguel de Lillo. 

I was so glad to be able to share this place with them, as there are only so much that pictures and words can do. 
(as always, click on the pictures to make them bigger!)

Oviedo has a beautiful theater called the Campoamor, and students get half price tickets if you buy them the day of the show.  There is a dance series this semester and I went to the first one tonight.  The theater is so pretty inside and as you can see the decor is very old giving it lots of character (take a look at the box seats!).  Also adding to the atmosphere are the older ladies in their dresses and fancy fur coats, with gentlemen holding umbrellas for them.  I had such a great time and was so excited to find out about the half price tickets that I plan on going several more times this semester.