Let it Do What it Do...in Espana :)

I don't think I've ever come back with more stories from just one day before, until this day-trip to San Sebastian, Espana on the other side of the country from Oviedo. With my roommate Mary Ashley (MA), we hopped on a bus from Oviedo at 12:30AM Friday and arrived in San Sebastian around 6AM Saturday morning so that we could meet up with her friends who happened to be there for the weekend.

San Sebastian is well-known for its gorgeous northern beaches so when we arrived, our first thought was to find the beach of course! But, the instant we stepped off I couldn't stop my teeth from chattering. Turns out it was only 2 DEGREES Celsius there, and I definitely had not dressed warm enough! Beach weather my ass haha. Our original plan had been to go sleep on the beach until MA's friends gave her a call, but after a couple minutes we realized that was a terrible idea with the cold. After a few more minutes, we also realized not a thing would be open until at least 8AM, meaning we had to wait about 2 hours just to get a cup of coffee! And then another realization occurred- after 6 hours on a bus, we had to pee. We walked down the street and heard some old-school Cher playing from a bar, so we slowly walked in to find 3 drunk men still there and just staring at us. I was excited to at least be inside somewhere, but as we approached the bathroom a guy who worked there walked in front and just shook his head no. So it was back into the cold in search of a damn bathroom... MA had a guidebook with her and we decided we might as well check it out and see if it could tell us anything. While sitting on a bench with it, a drunken girl and a few guys got out of a taxi and walked towards us. One guy asked if we needed a taxi and we said we just wanted to find a place that was open with a bathroom, so he said, "Just follow us, I just paid 25EU so we could go to this bar that's still open!" We said hey why not? Haha so off we went following this drunken group of Spaniards when all we wanted was to pee. We were both wearing glasses still (I wanted to find a bathroom also to put my contacts in) and the instant we walked in the bar, we were hit with a filthy cloud of cigarette smoke which immediately fogged up both of our glasses. So I took them off and blindly wandered through the bar until I found the "bathroom", which turned out to just be one room and five guys were in there doing who knows what. After another minute of waiting we were both too disgusted to stay any longer, so we left. For the next hour and a half or so, we decided to just keep wandering. I figured eventually we'd find something interesting or useful... right?

So we kept wandering through this strange little town without seeing anything open, teeth still chattering. Around 7 or so, MA texted her friends saying we were here and to call when she woke up. Unfortunately, we didn't even know what hotel her friends were in so we started reading the guidebook to see if there was anything interesting to visit. I figured a big, well-known city like San Sebastian would have tons of things to see!! But so far I wasn't seeing anything good... I figured we must just be in a bad part of town. The guidebook mentioned a beautiful castle in the mountains that overlooked the whole city so that sounded like a nice place to see, why not? After another 30 minutes of wandering and passing delicious pasterlias that I wished were open, we decided to just grab a taxi and go to the castle because it didn't seem like her friend would respond and we didn't want to wait around any longer. But then another problem- where could we find a taxi? So once again, more wandering... finally we asked a little old lady and she told us there were taxis at the ayuntamiento, and to just keep walking straight and we'd run into it. So off we went, and I think we pretty much walked through the whole city... but no sign of the ayuntamiento. We came across an old industrial zone, no sign of the ocean, and just saw strange little malls that didn't look completed. All of a sudden this tall guy came out of nowhere asking if we were looking for a taxi and we all started walking together to find one. He had a strange Spanish accent and then he said he was actually from Romania haha. He said he had to be at work in like an hour and I could smell liquor so I guessed he had been partying all night because that's how they roll here. Nobody ever sleeps! Finally we walked back and found the ayuntamiento which turned out to be the pink building where the bus had dropped us off in the first place... but of course there were absolutely no signs letting us know that. The guy got into a taxi and we got out own, so we told the driver were wanted to go to Plaza sgdafg and he looked at us strange, saying he had never heard of it... we should him our map in the guidebook and he said "Oh, that's in San Sebastian! That's probably 60KM away and would cost you 70 EU or so..." MA and I just looked at each other and said at the same time, "Well where are we now?" Turns out we had been in a strange little city called Eira (or something) about 30 miles from San Sebastian, without even realizing it for 2 hours!!!!

I had been half-asleep on the bus when MA nudged me to get off, but she swears she heard the driver announce we were in San Sebastian that morning... apparantly she heard wrong though haha. Well we grabbed some coffee after talking to the taxi driver (he was really nice at least) and while watching something about Obama on TV, a really strange Spanish man who had been nearby violently playing a gambling game started speaking jibberish to us and I think asked for money, we both tried to completely ignore him but got super uncomfortable so went to the bathroom and took one of the funniest pictures ever:

I think it perfectly captures how I felt about that entire morning. The good thing was t]hat neither of us were even angry or frustrated, we both just went along with everything because I figured one way or another, we'd find something interesting to do since we were only there for a day. No WONDER everything looked so crappy, we weren't even there yet!! Luckily we found the bus station and hopped on a bus to the REAL San Sebastian. I took a tiny nap and when I woke up, everything look SO much better. We were also close to the South of France, and I was tempted to take a train and go have lunch there if we never heard back from her friends. Once off the bus, we grabbed a cab and told him to take us to the Plaza near the castle, thank GOD he knew what we were talking about. After a quick ride we were there... we finally made it!!! Now THIS was more like it:

It is a gorgeous coastal city, the architecture is very pretty and so intricate. I loved all the buildings and took as many pictures as I could! Pictures can't even capture how BLUE the water was, or how the sea sparkled on such a perfectly clear sunny day. We were so lucky to have absolutely clear skies all day. Sadly it was a little cold, I'd say in the 50s but that's ok, it was very pretty there. I was also excited to see a few other people taking pictures, something I NEVER see in Oviedo! I finally didn't feel like the only tourist haha. We did some more exploring and looked for a nice place to eat. We soon realized this city had some awesome pinchos (aka tapas), much more interesting and much more variety than what we have in Oviedo, which are pretty much just small sandwhiches. Check it out:

Luckily while we were eating, MA finally got a text from her friends and they ended up coming to our cafe to meet up. They were really nice and we told them we wanted to go see the castle on the mountain, but they wanted to go eat so we decided to just meet up with them later. We made our way over to the aquarium and started the 30 minute hike up to the castle. It wasn't bad at all, and half way there we came to a place with old canons and decided to relax there for 20 minutes or so. I felt SO completely relaxed, and we were overlooking the water just basking in the sun... I loved it. It was so serene. But way too short. Off we went hiking up that mountain, keeping track of the Jesus statue because it was at the very top of the mountain. When we finally made it to the top, we ran into her friends there afterall, so random! I basked in the sun some more while overlooking the entire city of San Sebastian, it was such a gorgeous view... I was just in awe of HOW FAR we had walked taking into account the 2 hours of walking around in the morning too haha. But besides that, I couldn't believe we had made it up the mountain to a castle in Spain, on my first spontaneous roadtrip... I felt so blissful. And I also realized this was still just the beginning of my adventures here.

Later that night we went out with her friends and they took us to PINCHO HEAVEN. Absolute HEAVEN. Not to mention the fact that MA and I wandered the city after the castle searching endlessly for food only to realize they weren't serving ANYWHEREEEE until 8PM.... we were hungry and cranky and exhausted. But the minute we met back up with her friends, they took us to heaven and I couldn't have been happier hahaha. We went to 3 different pincho restaurants, all different and all with different pinchos to try. And each bartender had so much character, I loved them! These pinchos were the most delicate, intricately made ones I had ever seen... and all were DELICIOUSSSSS. A perfect way to end our insanely long and crazy day. But that wasn't the end just yet!

After grabbing another taxi back to the bus station at midnight, we were sitting there minding our own business when a group of girls came up to us and asked us how to get a bus ticket to Bilbao. We told them our bus was headed that way and they could just buy it from the driver. Then we talked a bit more and one of them spoke English well, and she even taught us a little Basque which was cool!! I was so curious to hear what it sounded like. To me, it had the same sounds as in Spanish, just which words I didn't recognize at all. Very interesting, I liked it. The whole day we had seen signs written in Basque and it looks like such a weird language, not at ALL related to Spanish, but very interesting. Anyway we talked to the girls a little but they were so loud and random and I'm pretty sure had been drinking some haha. I said to MA, "Ohhh we're getting on the party bus tonight haha, is this real?!?!" I swear the entire day felt like a crazy random dream, maybe because we hadn't slept at all, or maybe because it was spontaneous, or maybe because it really was one of the most random days of my life so far... but it was great. Then on the bus the girls sat next to us in the very front and spoke in a mix of Basque and Spanish the whole hour before their stop. But we didn't mind at all, they were amusing and even played some Basque music out loud which I liked. Me and MA were talking a while and all of a sudden one of the girls put the phone in my face and told me to speak English to her friend!! So I said "heyyy sexy, what's your name?" I had no idea who it was, but the girl thought it was hilarious and kept repeating "sexy boyyyy" to him after that hahahaha. It was awesome, they were nice girls too so we had fun next to them. We were just both in awe of the series of events of that day... of yesterday. Already it feels like a far away dream that I will never be able to repeat. And sooo once the girls got off the bus, I managed to sleep a little bit until we got home to Oviedo around 6:30AM this morning. Once home, I PASSED OUT until 7:30PM today, and it felt sooo good. Now I'm even more excited to take crazy random trips over here, I loved it! Who needs sleep when you're traveling, there are no rules anymore. Next weekend (my birthday weekend! heyyy) I'm off to Galicia

Sorry I have been so bad at updating the blog guys, I know you must all be anxiously awaiting to read something new, right? :P They installed wifi in the apartment a few days ago and it's like a whole new world!!

Ahhhh, I am FINALLY feeling better and just about normal again! The first 2 weeks here were just painful, I got so congested that I could barely recognize my voice anymore. Imagine trying to speak Spanish while holding your breath and your nose at the same time, that's how it sounded whenever I spoke. I kept saying, "I swear my accent isn't this bad, I don't know what's happening!!" Last week I got so fed up and finally went to a clinic (my roommate was awesome enough to come with me, I would have been afraid on my own). I was apprehensive about going because I don't have insurance yet, or if I do they will reimburse me later but I was afraid it would be really expensive. Luckily everything went pretty quickly and smooth there, turns out I had sinusitis and they gave me antibiotics and sent me on my way. I paid 55EU which was less than what I expected so I wasn't upset. And now I'm feeling so much better!! Gracias a Dios. Life is beautiful again!

So with my long lost health finally returning, I decided it was finally time for me to go out on Friday night.. my first night out in Oviedo! Before we got to the apartment party I swear we walked around half the city meeting up with people, what a workout. But at least we finally went to the actual party. I think house parties are really rare with Spanish people, but this was basically an Erasmus party with all international students. If I were still in the US this party would have been a dream come true for me, because we all know how much I love international people (especially guys :P), and yes it was fun but I was also a little disappointed there were no Spaniards there. Oh well, plenty of time still! But I talked to some interesting guys and the students there were from all over: Turkey, Belgium, France, Brazil, Mexico... so it was fun! We had to leave after a couple hours because people were getting too loud and drunk and the walls are paper thin here (worse than at Tech I think) so obviously the neighbors were not happy. We walked around the city for a bit with some cute French guys and ran into my landlord Eduardo, really nice Spanish guy (he's only 25 so I don't feel weird hanging out with him) and met his friends who were really nice. Spanish people are funny because they have a word for standing in the streets just drinking and chillin- hacer botellon. So we hicimos botellon until like 3:30am and my roomie and I got tired and got home around 4ish. But it was a good first night out, I'm still trying to get healthy so I can't go too crazy yet! Luckily we met some guys who are going on the trip to Leon this weekend with us so I'm super excited to finally take a trip.

CHURROS CON CHOCOLATE BLANCO
My God, I have been eating WAY too much chocolate. As in, an entire bar of chocolate AND a cup of hot chocolate everyday for at least the past week. And the hot chocolate here is DIVINE (as Aunt Phyllis would say haha), it's basically a melted chocolate bar in a cup. MMMMM. But it's taking a huge toll on my skin and so I need to go cold turkey and hope that it helps.... I mean that amount of chocolate can't be good for anyone. I'm out of control. But so far all the food here has been pretty delicious, although they don't seem to believe in spicy food which is a little sad. I think everyone needs some spice in their life!

As far as classes go, everything is coming together surprisingly. I was frustrated the first week of classes because I had trouble figuring out a good schedule and deciding which classes to take. They all sound so interesting on paper but the actual classes ended up being pretty disappointing. The lit classes I went to were INCREDIBLY BORING. The teaching style here is definitely different. It basically consists of the teacher standing and babbling on and on nonstop for an hour. No student interaction whatsoever. Plus it didn't help that I was so congested that everything sounded underwater to me. So I'd sit there unable to comprehend a single monotonous word in a couple classes... frustrating. Not because I don't understand Spanish, I just could NOT hear them. But little by little I explored, talked to people, sat in on different classes, and managed to find a couple teachers that are actually really interesting. I am now taking an English-Spanish translation class, 2 linguistics classes, and one BORING ASS lit class that I have to take. But the others are actually really interesting so I feel good about them. I think I'll learn a lot here!

On another note, I have some shocking news: I have finally started....... to cook!! Well, I'm just starting with simple things like omelettes right now, but it's definitely a start especially for me. I LOVE living in this apartment, I moved out of Mercedes' place afterall and although I felt bad about it, I have to do what's best for me and she completely understood. It's so nice having roommates here and we all get along well so I'm really really happy. Things are falling into place afterall.

pretty view of the mountains from my apartment... I need to go there!

this puppy in the pet store was soooo cuteeeee...there are puppies everywhere here

My my my how quickly things change here. Today was my first day of classes and I'd say it was a success because I definitely met some nice people so I'm really happy about that. The funny thing is that I've seriously only been meeting girls so far, what's up with that?? It might be because I am just more comfortable talking to girls in the beginning because I don't know anything or anyone and I don't know, somehow guys seem less approachable to me right now. But I'll get there, I'm not worried.

Well I've only gone to two classes so far and it's funny because tomorrow is the second day and they've already cancelled school for Carnival!! So funny. I guess it's similar to Halloween because people dress in costumes and basically just party in the streets all night. It will be in Oviedo this weekend so I can't wait to see how it is, I don't have a costume but we'll see what happens. The lifestyle here is so laid back, it's so lo que pasa. Valeeeee. Es lo que dicen aqui en veza de okay, dicen vale. So I really need to stop saying okay since nobody says it here. It's harder than I thought to stop. My Spanish is only mas o menos right now compared to the Spaniards but I signed up for an intensive course with most of the Erasmus kids (the European exchange students) and we'll start Wednesday I think. It's a two hour class every night for a month, but it was only 25EU which is so cheap. I think it will help a lot. I just want to be totally fluent right now, por favor!! Pero no es posible, tengo que trabajar para lo que quiero.

This weekend was so spontaneous and great. I took a bus to Gijon which is half an hour away and met up with these Danish girls I met at school on Friday. They are awesome and so nice, I really like them. Finally went out for the first time Sat night and it was great because their apartment is literally right by the beach so we walked right by it while bar happing, it's so gorgeous there. I'm jealous they're right by it! I would love to live with them and the offer was/is still open but it's just too inconvenient since campus is at least a 30 min bus ride away. But I was just impressed by the fact that I just called them, left my house and found the bus station somehow, and then took a bus all by myself without any problems as if I had done it a million times. I'm strangely at ease here for the most part, even though I pretty much get lost everyday. But I just take it as an opportunity to explore, because what else can I do? Every now and then I'll ask for directions but more often than not, I find myself wandering and checking out all the different shops around here, I mean if I have some free time why not explore?

After staying at the Danish girls' apartment I realized how much better they have it, seriously. And it's about half of what I have to pay, plus all student flats come fully furnished and they are NICE. I'm amazed, why the hell am I paying twice the price to live with a lady when I could live with students and actually have people to hang out with for much less? I think it would be a LOT more interesting to live with international students. The biggest dilemma is I met a very sweet American girl today who offered me a great room near campus but she lives with another American and I really want to speak Spanish at home... and I'm sure I would just speak English with them all the time. I really did not come here to speak English, I just want to become fluent in Spanish and the best way is to live with other Spanish speakers. Ugh it's such a shame. But I have tons of #s I could call to go see their available rooms.... sigh.....

I've only been to two other countries in my life, and both of them were much different than VA or Spain. Honduras and Nicaragua- two of the best experiences of my life but also two places where I would never want to live. The culture I experienced there was COMPLETELY different from Spain and home; they are third world countries afterall. Although I was only there for less than a month, I remember adjusting much quicker than I thought possible, within a week I'd say. But in both cases I was always with a friend, I always had someone to be around and share my anxiety or happiness.

But now it's different. For the first time in my life I have absolutely no familiar faces here. I think the fact that my apartment is 20 minutes from campus also contributes to the sense of isolation of I've been feeling. It would be nice to live closer to campus so that I could meet more students nearby, because right now I don't know of anyone who lives near me. My host mom is very nice but she's still new to me and I just can't always express myself the way I want to in English. Sure, she said she was impressed with my Spanish, but I still don't quite believe her. Because I want to be better, I want to feel completely at ease with speaking it and I don't. I know it's only been... three days here and I'm probably being too impatient but I really hate this feeling of uneasiness. But then again, 3 days is nothing. I'm going to be here 5 months after all, and I know that eventually I will get better with my Spanish. I just want to fast forward until I feel comfortable!! But I know I have to build up to it.

So is this culture shock, this uneasy feeling? It must be. Don't get me wrong, the city of Oviedo is gorgeous for sure. I finally decided to not worry about looking like a tourist and I whipped out my camera as I walked down the streets. I'm so worried about blending in but even if I don't, who cares? I am me and I'm here to experience all that I can.

Today I had orientation for international students so I finally got a chance to mingle with people! I wasn't sure who spoke English or what, so I just stayed quiet at first and sat down. They just gave a brief overview of the school and everything but it was all in Spanish. I just keep wondering, what do the students who don't know Spanish well do here?? Do they have translators? Because I honestly could not get by at all on my own if I couldn't speak Spanish here. It was funny because I had been speaking Spanish since Tuesday, for three days, so when I finally started speaking English to a few girls from Denmark I actually felt really weird speaking my own language! How interesting. But it was great because as soon as I met them we all decided to go shopping and I took them around because I knew where the mall and other shops were. It was a lot of fun and they were all super nice girls. I don't know if I'll see them again though because they're from Gijon, not Oviedo, but I could always take the bus there somehow.

Well, it's Friday and all I want to do is sleep, how sad is that? I'm just so tired......

I am finally here in Oviedo, Spain... can you believe it? I feel like I have been talking about coming to Spain FOREVER and now I am actually, truly, 100% here. In a Spanish flat with a Spanish host mom who doesn't know any English. So surreal....

I was surprisingly calm the night before I left for Spain, I actually slept well and really didn't feel that nervous. Before I got to the airport on Monday I was too anxious to eat anything but once I was there on my own I felt alright. I spent a good 8 hours in the airport that day, so crazy!! Somehow it passed pretty quickly though. I think I slept maybe 3 hours on the 7 hour flight to Madrid and once I was there... well I don't even know how I felt. I was happy to be in Spain but at the same time, I just felt numb from the tiredness I guess. Surprisingly I didn't hear any person speaking English which surprised me because I thought at least in that airport there would still be some English... but nothing! And so I spent all of Tuesday on my own navigating that airport. I was pleasantly surprised at how well I could communicate with people right away and barely had any problems understanding people. Amazingly I didn't panic even when it took me over an hour to find my bus to Oviedo... but once I found it I felt fine again. The whole day was pretty calm for me, the bus ride was at least 6 hours and I would have taken pictures of the scenery but it was mostly just brown plains... not very exciting.

Luckily I met this very nice lady from Brazil while on the bus who was also going to Oviedo and once we arrived, she met up with her husband who lived there. I asked her where I could find the taxis but then they offered me a ride to Mercedes' (my host mom) apartment so I wouldn't have to taxi. Now I realize that it's usually not a good idea to get rides from strangers, but I had been talking to her throughout the day and they seemed like good people. Why else would they offer me a ride and stuff all my heavy luggage in their tiny car? And the lady was nice enough to walk with me to the apartment door and show me how to use the phone outside to let Mercedes know I was there. I was so grateful they helped me get there!!

Mercedes was so happy to meet me, she's very sweet and such a warm lady, I really like her. When we first met she was surprised that I was brunette and said I could pass for a girl from Spain; that made my night! Haha my goal in life is to pass for a Spaniard basically. Anyway last night I passed out for probably 12 hours, I was exhausted and still am. Today Mercedes walked with me to the school's international relations office and I sat down with a lady who handed me a bunch of papers and told me I have to go see someone else tomorrow who will handle my schedule. I finally saw a couple foreign students for the first time which got me excited, I'm not alone! But I haven't had a chance to talk to any students yet, it's only my first day afterall. We walked around some more and had chocolate with churros which were YUMMY. The city of Oviedo is very clean and just so charming, I really like it so far. I'm sorry that I haven't taken any pictures yet, but I will once I get settled! I'm just so tired, there are a lot of things to take in. I'm excited for orientation on Friday because I really want to meet other students and finally make some friends!

I miss you all, leave me a comment and let me know how you're doing!!