Making friends, finding classes... etc etc

This morning I slept through my alarm... well actually, I think I turned it off in my sleep. I forgot that I usually set 2 or 3 alarms because I can do that in my sleep. In any case, I woke up at 8:45 and I needed to be on campus by 9:30. I took a shower, quickly ate, and walked as fast as I could to campus. My calves still hurt from it actually, and my chest a little too because I'm still finding it hard to breathe. It's not that I'm congested or anything, it just feels like I'm trying to breathe water because it is so humid.


About halfway there I realized that I had not written down the classroom number, so I beelined to the information center in the facultad del derecho (my college), found the number, and off I went. I was about 10 min later arriving, but it didn't matter because the professor had not arrived yet and everyone was just milling around outside. It seems strange to me how the professor generally lectures sitting behind a desk, never writing anything on the board, never pacing back and forth... just sitting still at the desk.

Everyone thinks my name is all kinds of hilarious, and they think I'm very exotic. Apparently American exchange students are rare here, usually the foreigners are from some other part of Europe.

After class I found a computer lab and worked on my online Tourism class for Tech because there is a test due by noon today EST... 6pm for me. Since the connection here is less than reliable, I decided the computer lab was a good call. After studying for an hour or so I took the test, got an A, and then set off to investigate how to get the wifi working.


I found the instructions online as to how to configure the wifi, and when I finally got to the end, I found out that I have to use a uniovi.es email address as a username. D'oh. I decided to seek out Paloma who was so helpful before and ask her what to do. Her office is in another facultad, so I walked over there, waited a bit, and finally someone else asked if they could help me since Paloma was busy. Someone told me that I have to get my email address from the administrative secretary of my facultad, so back to the facultad del derecho I went.

Once there, the confusion ensued. Long story short, most international students are from ERASMUS, a program for E.U students studying abroad, so everyone seems to assume that's what I am. They told me that I wasn't in the system and that I should come back on Monday. I thought about Pepijn, my Dutch friend, who in reference to the Spaniards said "mañana, mañana..." Which is it say, it seems like everyone wants to put off everything until later. Procrastinators of the world unite... tomorrow.

Oh yeah, so last night I did finally meet with Fito and he introduced me to some other students and we all went out for a drink. It boosted my self-esteem a lot, because while my Spanish family seems less than impressed with my Spanish speaking, these guys/girls were astounded. They all thought I had already been here for months!

A few of the girls said that they sometimes rented out a room in their apartment to ERASMUS students, and that it was always really annoying just how little they spoke and understood... so much so that they usually resorted to just speaking English most of the time. I found it a lot easier to understand the younger people and to talk, but maybe it was just because I felt more comfortable talking to people closer to my own age.


We stood around talking for a bit, and nibbling on tapas (little snacks that they serve in Spanish bars which are usually complementary)... I tried out a tapa with cabrales, a common cheese native to the Asturias area. It was really good actually, it reminded me a bit of brie. Usually the Spaniards hop around from bar to bar trying different tapas, but since most of us had class in the morning we retired a bit early and Fito/The British guy dropped me off near my house. Actually, something interesting about Spain: they close down streets for construction and whatever else, but they don't put up signs or anything. As a result, it is entirely acceptable to just drive up onto the sidewalks to make 3 point or U turns. Oh yeah, and people use their horns a lot here when they drive, for any little thing.

To be honest, I don't remember any of the names except for Fito... but here are a few pictures anyway:


The girl on the left in person looks a lot like Courtney Cox, and talks a lot like her too. The guy in the back is Fito's roommate, who is actually from Liverpool but has lived here for a few years now.


Beside me is Adolfo ("Fito"), and some of his friends posing in the back there.


Seriously, I just don't remember their names. Oh well. You'll notice that despite what I had heard, young people DO wear jeans all the time here much like in the U.S, however, I have yet to see a single person wearing a tshirt of any kind. I think I'm the only female in Spain who has sneakers, too.


I must have made a good impression on them anyhow though, because I got invited to a party this weekend. I haven't decided if I'll go or not, but we'll see. It might be a good way to meet some people, and the others that I met last night were all really nice.

Everyone has been freaking out about me not wearing a coat anywhere. It's friggin hot and humid out, I'd die in the sweaters and coats these people wear. Hell, when I go outside with just a tshirt I come back soaked in sweat.


I wish I had bothered to buy some new headphones for my mp3 player though.. mine are giving out on me big time. The sound goes in and out and it crackles pretty bad. Maybe I'll go check out MediaMarkt, which is Merche's brother's favorite store. She said it is like a toys r us for electronics lovers, haha.

Apparently everyone thinks I'm really strange for A) walking around the house in socks or barefoot in lieu of slippers and B) not tweezing my eyebrows halfway off. They would probably be appalled if they saw my legs that I haven't shaved in months, haha. No Shave 08!


Oh yeah, today is Becky's birthday apparently, so last night Merche made some bonbones with crushed almonds as a gift for her and everyone in her beauty school.

Pedro getting the wrappers ready for the bonbones, and Guinness supervising of course.

Merche dishing out the bon-bon goo. She ended up making 160-something of those things! Later on they put them in little baggies with ribbons to give out to the students later this afternoon.

Well I'll leave it at that for now. Tomorrow we're going to tour a bit of the historic Oviedo and such, and then who knows.

Hasta luego!

one more photo

While I was wandering around town a bit I found this fountain... there are lots of fountains around here actually, I'll try to get more pictures as I go along.

While I was out with Merche one day I saw "el gran culo"... for those of you who don't know what that means, I'll save it as a surprise for when I can post a photo. I'm sure I can find it again one of these days. There are lots of statues and art around the pedestrian commercial areas.. it's really quite beautiful, and the daffodils are starting to bloom.

A couple more photos

This is the building where my "vivienda" is... I suppose the best way to translate it would be a "flat". It is an apartment, but a really nice one. There really aren't houses around here, most of the residences are like this, but taller. We're on the 3rd floor, and Pedro's car lives underground in the garage.

This is another view of the hotel they are building. You can see the unique shape a little better here. It looks gorgeous. The ridges that you see towards the center of it is going to be the conference center.

Random Spain fact that I learned yesterday: Apparently all dogs have to have chips implanted in them. If you abandon a dog and it is caught by the animal control, they read the chip and give you a hefty fine of several thousand euros and throw you in jail! At the same time, they can use the chip (which is equipped with GPS) to track down dogs that run away or whatever. There's just no such thing as stray dogs here, because they're really concerned about stray dogs hurting people. Cats however, they don't seem to care about one way or another as they don't really post a thread.

This is the outside of the Facultad del Derecho, where all my classes are. Basically it is a gathering of buildings which are really close together with covered paths to cross between them, but it is more or less set up like a mini-campus with little places to sit down and such. Think of it as a donut, where the buildings are all around a very small central area, sort of.



This is the hospital near the house. I walk by it to get to campus and cut through the parking lot to cut a few minutes off my trip. Merche said that it is actually a learning hospital, so there are med students running around all the time doing their rounds.


Random note: For those of you who have asked, yes, I am checking my VT email if you want to contact me that way.

Just a couple of photos

This is the view from my room. There is a garden which belongs to the complex where I live, and next to that is a daycare... I usually wake up to the sound of kids screaming, laughing, and carrying on playing soccer or basketball ont he blacktop.

This is the view from the kitchen table, where you can see the cranes and such building the 5-star hotel. In the middle of the structure there will be a conference center of sorts (I have a better picture that I took on the way back from campus... I'll try to upload it later.) Since Oviedo is the capital of this region, which is Asturias, a lot of official business takes place here and they are building this hotel to house ministros, government officials, ambassadors from other countries, and whoever else has lots of money and power.

First day of class

Well, I went to class today... and so the madness begins.

Since I couldn't sleep last night, I slept in until about 10am this morning. I had a bite to eat (some special K with strawberries and raspberries along with toast covered in delicious jellies and such), and out the door I went to try to make my way to campus... this time, without Merche's help.

I have a map, but it doesn't really help because most of the streets don't have street signs at all of the corners. I knew that I needed to cut across the hospital parking lot, but after that, I wasn't really sure where to go. I got the the correct campus easily enough, but the problem was that I didn't know where the building for "la facultad del derecho" was. After wandering around for about 15 minutes or so, I found my way to the facultad. However by this time I was exhausted and drenched in sweat, because it is so very humid and hot here right now... and yet, everyone is wearing long pants and sweaters. Jay, you would die here right now. I feel sticky all the time, and I'm wishing I had brought a more summery wardrobe. Everyone says it gets cold here, so I'm hoping it just happens soon.

Next, to find the room. I was looking for room 314, but the thing is, there are multiple buildings, and the number of the classroom only refers to which facultad, not to a particular building.... and the schedules don't tell you which building this number happens to be in.

In addition, the numbers don't correspond to any particular floor. Being 314, I had figured that it would be on the 3rd floor, right? So up the stairs I go, until I find that it just sort of stops on planta 1 (they start counting floors as you go up... like ground floor, then floor 1, 2, and so on. This still makes sense to me, so whatever.) It just seems that one building has rooms 100-200 or so, another 300-400, and so on. Again, there is no actual way to tell, as there are no signs to tell you this, nor are they in order... the buidling that has rooms 100-200 is not next door to the one with 300-400. There are little covered paths to go from one building to another, because supposedly it rains a lot here.

So finally I find room 314, and there are students hanging out in the hallways as it was about 10 min before class was supposed to start. The door to the classroom was locked, so I figured they were all just waiting for the professor to arrive to open it or whatever. However, about 2 min before class started, everyone goes into another classroom and I'm there alone wondering what the hell is going on. I go downstairs and find an information desk. Turns out, that information desk is for another department, and they send me next door to the law department. I go there, and they tell me that a) the class has changed rooms and b) today is thursday, the class takes place monday, tuesday, and wednesday. Whoops. I've completely lost track of time.

So I re-consult the schedule that Merche helped me make out, and I realize that the class for thursday, "derecho de servicios del red" (uh... I'm not really sure how to translate this to be honest, but basically it is talking about how the infrastructure for public services, communications, etc work and such) also started at 12:30, it now being about 12:45, but luckily having figured out the system, or rather, lackthereof as far as classrooms go, I ran over there and took a seat.

The professor was calling out the names on her list to see who was present and assigning each of them topics for their final project accordingly. Once she finished with the list, she asked if anyone was there who wasn't called, so I raised my hand and explained that I was an international student so I technically wasn't registered in the class yet. She asked me my name so that she could write it down, and as I said it, the entire class busted out in laughter and the professor was like "Whew!! You'll have to write that down, I can't spell THAT! Where the hell are you from?!" I had to laugh, I mean, I never thought of Sandy Hobson being all that strange. I told her that I would just write it down for her after class.

After class, I went to talk to the professor and she explained the grading system to me. Final exam, 50%, end of the year project, 50%. She assigned me "gas" as my final project topic, basically, to explain how the system works across the country. However, she suggested that instead of just talking about Spain that I draw a comparison of how it differs between Spain and the U.S. She told me to look into it, and that if there wasn't a lot of information available on it to tell her and we would figure out something else, but whatever... I can't imagine it would be all that difficult.

After class, I sat in the shade outside and decided to whip out the laptop to see about the internet connection there. There was a good signal, but unfortunately one has to configure something in order to use it... some sort of certificate to identify that you're in fact, a student. Paloma gave me this paper yesterday with the site I needed to go to in order to configure it. Since the internet here at the house is a bit flakey, I can't get to the site which has the instructions. THE IRONY... one has to go online to figure out how to get online.

I enrolled in this program called A-DUO, which is basically a thing done by the office of international relations where they pair up international students with a local student to help get oriented, figure out how things work, look for housing, or whatever else. The person that was paired up with me weeks ago never responded to my emails, so the international relations office assigned me to someone else, Adolfo, or "fito" as he is called. He emailed me withing an hour or so, and asked for my phone number so that we could get in touch. I emailed him back within a few minutes with the number, and about 5 minutes after that he called. I told him that I already had housing and such so everything was fine, but that we could meet up some other time if he wanted to talk about other things.

I got a text from him today saying he wanted to meet, but honestly I'm a little nervous about it. I emailed him back, but I didn't particularly feel like talking on the phone. I'm really tired, and I don't really want to go meet with some guy that I don't know, alone. So, I suggested that if he wanted to meet that we go to a local cafe or something, hang out with friends or something in public.. but since I don't know the city, that I'd leave up to him.

I still haven't heard back from Aurora, this other advisor of sosrts that Paloma told me to contact about selecting new classes. In any case, I plan to continue attending the classes I picked out and just see how it goes, and we'll go from there.

Class today was difficult to follow, because basically the professor just sat down at the desk and talked for an hour without any kind of visual aid or participation from class. There is a syllabus online, so I'll go check that out to see about getting a textbook or something. I suppose I could ask Fito about that.

I took some pictures on my way back from campus... I'll upload a few later so you can see what I'm dealing with. Getting to campus was a bit confusing for me, but getting back was a breeze... not because I knew the way, but because all I had to do was follow the huge cranes from the hotel being built next door. I suppose there is an advantage to living next door to heavy machinery, eh? I made a few detours to explore the area and what shops were around and such, but then made my way back to the house without problems.

When I came back for lunch, Pablo was already here drinkign his cocao (a kid's chocolate drink) and we hung out on the couch watching The Simpsons in Spanish. Flanders is really, really un-funny in Spanish. He doesn't say diddly! For shame! Homer is still pretty hilarious though, although the way the men in The Simpsons act confuses Pedro a bit... he said to me, "They're always so crude! Nobody acts like this!"and I replied, "You obviously don't know many Americans."

Last night I saw Overhaullin' in Spanish, which is also pretty funny... it is so funny how the shows here are pretty much all the same... that is, except for the gameshows. There is this really popular gameshow here, I can't remember the name of it, but it is very interesting. The gameshows are much more intelligent. Contestants have to answer questions about famous authors, paintings, history, etc. Honestly, I'm lost most of the time... not because of the language, but because my knowledge of history and literature is severely lacking. I guess it is just too smart for me, but the rest of my Spanish family love it.

Merche told me that not this weekend but next, we will probably have the house to ourselves because Pedro and Merce are going to Muros to buy veal. They have a vacation house of sorts over there (Muros is a town near the beach, close to the airport actually) and apparently there is this place that sells veal for one weekend only so you have to go there when they are ready and buy hundreds of kilos of the stuff to put in the freezer. They send a message out to everyone letting them know to prepare their freezers the week before so they will have sufficient space. Veal is another one of those things that I have never tried, but we'll see how it goes.

Well, that is about all for now.... I am going to try to get some photos loaded up to share with you all in a bit, and then I was thinking about just wandering around town for awhile to check out the scenary and the shops nearby.

Well, that is about all for now!

Can't sleep... whee stories

Today began with a welcoming meeting for all of the international students. Pedro drove Merche and I over there, and Merche helped me find the right room and all of that… I ended up being about 15 minutes late, and honestly, Merche was surprised that they had started on time. "Hora Latina" is not like what we’re used to, and punctuality, or rather lacktherof, usually isn’t a big deal. She waited for me at a nearby café called "El perro verde" (The Green Dog) and told me to meet her there when I was finished.

Well, after winding around various hallways and such to find the exit, I was completely disoriented in a town I know next to nothing about so of course, I was already lost. I asked a couple people if they could direct me to El perro verde, but nobody had any idea what I was talking about. Most of the locals just sort of looked at me like I was some insane American looking for a green dog. In any case, I called Merche but she didn’t pick up her phone. I walked around the block and finally got my bearings and found the café. It was full of cigarette smoke and people, and it was so loud that Merche didn’t hear her phone ring when I called. Whatever, I found it, right?

It seems like everyone in Spain smokes, that is, except me and my Spanish family. Actually, in the Madrid airport there were these little smoking kiosks everywhere, looks a bit like enclosed bus stops, where smokers would cram themselves inside to take a puff. Most of the bars and cafes here also allow smoking inside, and as far as I could tell, there doesn’t seem to be such thing as a "non smoking section." Then again, I haven’t really been to many cafes and restaurants yet, so I might have to revise that statement.

As I mentioned before, I have to completely change all of the classes I had picked out.
After pouring over pages upon pages of classes in the Campus Cristo, I picked out a few that I hope will work out. Apparently the classes I picked out before either had time conflicts or were not really meant for people who had never studied law before. I met with this woman named Paloma (I think that is such a beautiful name… in Spanish, "paloma" means "dove") who is sort of like an academic advisor for international students taking normal classes like me. She was extremely nice and very helpful.. with quite the sense of humor. I was pretty stressed out over the prospect of not having any classes, and well, I suppose it is the culture clash at work. I was getting all worried and she was just like "shhh shhh stop worrying, it’s not a big deal, whatever… you have until March 10th to figure out what classes you want to take." March 10th? Seriously? Two weeks of class will go by before some people have even registered?

I was worried about the fact that I had picked out my classes originally to fit with my schedule, which is to say, when my plane leaves Spain, since technically they have exams through the whole month of July and I am returning on June 10th. Also, I had wanted to take classes that had the "continuous evaluation" option, where basically one’s regular attendance and participation is the major weight of one’s grade instead of a final exam. Apparently Spaniards can take a class in several ways sometime, like for example if someone wants to take a class but also works on one of the days that class is held, they can take the class anyway as attendance is not a big deal, and in fact, it is expected that a lot of people won’t attend in lieu of the exam option.

In any case, Paloma said that most professors are willing to accommodate international students when it comes to exams, especially since they aren’t actually earning their diploma from Oviedo but instead are more here to experience the culture and improve their Spanish.

Oh yeah, and honestly, I am a little upset about this one: Originally, I had chosen Oviedo as my study abroad site because, among other reasons, they have a really big facultad (like a college within a university) for Spanish philology. However, when I went to the website to look for classes, I found that most of the classes were year-long, and therefore I couldn’t just jump in halfway through. Paloma told me that apparently they can make exceptions, again, especially for international students, and just divide up the credits accordingly. It is a little late for that now, because the facultad de humanidades, home to philology, is on the other side of the city and it would be a really big pain in the ass to get over there as often as I would need to. The international relations office placed me with this family since they are located so nearby to the Campus Cristo, home of law, sciences, business, labor studies, marketing, etc. In any case, I still think studying law, business, etc in Spanish will benefit me a lot in learning new vocabulary.

Although at first I was very much against taking the "Spanish classes for foreigners," I am thinking about taking the month-long intensive course for Spanish-English translation. It starts next week, and takes place every day Monday through Friday during the evenings. I’ll only earn one VT credit from it, but since this is actually relevant to the career I wish to pursue, it seems like a good idea, even if it does cost a little extra.

I asked Paloma a few other questions, for example, what the deal is with use of the gym facilities and whatnot. Apparently, it works nothing like what we do at VT. First of all, one has to pay each time they go to the fitness center, use the weight room, use the sauna, swim in the pool, use the tennis courts, or whatever. Students can buy a "tarjeta deportiva" which costs about 30 euros, but carries with it a ton of discounts. Honestly, I don’t really know if it is worth it for me. There are lots of fitness classes and also classes to teach various sports/activities like snorkeling, sailing, skiing, hiking, aikido, and more. I might look into one of those instead, but of course, they cost money too. Nothing here is free like it is at Tech, it seems… although there are student discounts.

Speaking of student discounts, I still have to get my "tarjeta univeritaria" made… student ID, essentially. There are little machines all around campus that can make the card for you, but apparently it takes them weeks to process it, sometimes months. Paloma told me that this one Italian girl submitted the request for her card, and by the time she left, she still didn’t have it. It doesn’t really matter though, because the only thing it is really used for is discounts, and most places will award the discount anyway if you tell them you are waiting on a card. She also said I could submit the request online and instead of having the machine take my picture, just upload one of my own. I had read on the website that I needed passport sized photos with me in hand when I arrived here so that I could get an ID made, but apparently that has all changed.
I also asked about wireless access… there has been wireless available in the libraries of each campus for quite some time now, but at the moment they are in the process of installing access points so that one will have access all over campus. In any case, the buildings are so close together I’ll bet you could pick up a signal from the library sometimes anyhow. I might try it out tomorrow.
Oh yeah I told Jay on the phone while I was in Philly but I forgot to mention to the rest of you, I somehow managed to break one of the nose pieces on my glasses just before boarding the plane to Madrid, d’oh.. luckily I had one of those crappy little repair kits in my backpack, so right now I have a temporary adhesive thingy in place of it, but I really need to get it fixed. I saw a few optics places around, but I need to ask where would be the best place to go.

Merce made me this crazy stuff which was basically calamari, fried up kind of like onion rings but in sticks for dinner, and also cooked a big bowl of cauliflower.. which was surprisingly delicious. I’m not sure what she did, but it was good. Pedro and Merce went to Los Rastrillos today and brought me some "bon-bones", which is exactly what you think it is, bon-bons basically, but usually with some sort of almond inside. There is an adult learning center of sorts where Merce takes restoration and cooking classes, and in Los Rastrillos the school sells some of the things that they make, like the bonbones, to help pay for costs. Oh yeah, these classes for adults, are completely free of charge.

Although Merche studied English for a long while in Ireland, Merce and Pedro don’t speak a word of it hardly… which is a good thing, for me. Merce knows one phrase and one phrase only, which she learned in London: "Please mind the gap!" Pablo, Becky’s son (older brother of Maria… I think he is probably 7 years old or so?) Is starting to learn English in school. After school he comes to the house as grandparents when they retire generally look after the children while their own children are still working during the day. Pablo, knowing that I am an American, likes to try out a few English phrases every now and then on me. "Hah-LOW Sandy! Haww ahhr yoo?"

Becky stops by every evening after work with her boyfriend Jonnie to visit for a few minutes, as her beauty school is just down the street from the flat. She is an interesting girl, very animated and very nice. Jonnie is also just lovely, he seems very sweet and always seems interested to hear how I like Oviedo… although I still haven’t really seen much, to be honest.
When Merche and I visited Becky at her salon, I was reading the price list (they do discounted beauty treatments, haircuts, manicures, etc, since it is a beauty school and the work is done by students.) Well, apparently "caviar treatments" are very popular here. I’m not really sure what it does, but it is some sort of facial. Hey, whatever floats your boat.

Becky told us this hilarious story about one of her students, who apparently had a pet tarantula that escaped its enclosure… when her mother returned home and swung the door open, the tarantula was behind it and SPLAT! No more spidey-friend for her. Becky is terrified of spiders, so she was mortified to hear that anyone would want one as a pet.

Speaking of being mortified, apparently everyone around here wears slippers around the house, even though it is always very warm and humid… at least, to me it is. I’ve been sweating a lot, and I have found it a bit hard to breathe at times… I suppose I will grow accustomed to it eventually.

I also still have to get used to the city noise: In addition to the hospital which is next door with ambulances zooming back and forth, they are constructing a 5-star hotel next door to the house and the cranes seem to operate on through the night. The building looks really interesting though, perhaps I will take a picture tomorrow on my way out to campus.

Well... time to try to sleep again...

Scheduling issues, and a few pics...

Well, today was fairly stressful... Long story short, I have to pick out classes again because the ones I have simply won't work. Luckily the one class I had scheduled for today was cancelled because the professor is out with the flu.


Jay and I at the Ronaoke airport, ready to leave for Spain.


Elephant ready in carry-on, guarding the pringles and chex mix. He makes an excellent pillow.



This is Merce, slicing the "jamon cerrano" for us to eat.

Yesterday when Merche took me to the international relations office, we saw 2 peacocks hanging out on the roof of a library on the San Francisco campus. Their feathers were folded up when I started to take pictures, but then they started posing for us! I must admit, that was the first time I had ever seen a peacock outside of a zoo before. I had to ask how to say "peacock" in Spanish... again, just one of those things I had never come across before. You know what they call them? Pavos reales... Literally, "royal turkeys." I had to laugh. The peacocks just roam free around there apparently, and boy do they yell. Honestly, I didn't even know peacocks made noise.




I am getting more and more comfortable with the language and my speech is already improving. A few people asked me for translations for curse words in English, and apparrently they are really amused at how reluctant I am to curse loudly in public... In Spain, to curse is to speak the language, which is to say, everyone curses constantly, and nobody really cares quite like they do in the U.S. It is also very interesting how much more provocative some of the advertisements on the street are, for lingerie or whatever else. On TV, there are certainly scene that would normally get cut out in their American counterparts.




Merche loves to watch crime shows like CSI, Law and Order, The Closer, etc.. but they are all dubbed in Spanish of course. It seems strange to me, the different voices I mean.



Last night Merche made me dinner, which she called spaghetti, but it wasn't quite what I expected. Apparently, they don't do meatballs or meatsauce like we know. They use tuna. It was very, very strange. I ate it, it wasn't as bad as I expected, but not really my favorite.

Today for lunch she made me "huevo con blanco", which was basically white rice with a fried egg but with this weird tomato sauce stuff which is kind of like ketchup but not as sweet. It was REALLY good though, and the dressing for the salad was AWESOME! It was basically a mix of cider (apple) vinegar and VERY virgin olive oil.. it looks strange though, the olive oil I mean... not like the stuff I'm used to, this was very dark, and miraculously didn't make me sick. (for those of you who don't know, normally I can't eat a lot of oils due to the whole lack of a gall bladder thing.)



Well, I'll end it here for now, because I need to work on looking for classes. I might actually take one class for foreigners, which lasts for a month but is held everyday (intensive) and costs an extra 25 euros, but it specializes in Spanish-English translation. We'll see how it goes.

Getting used to things...

I wrote this last night since I couldn't sleep... just a few little comments
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So, today Merche took me to the office of international relations, and they gave me a bunch of papers and a map…. Which I desperately needed. Oviedo seems like a big city to me, but I know for most of you it is just a town. I guess I’m just used to smaller places. Everything is tall, every store has apartments above it, but everything is also very uniform in height. Merche told me this is because there is a rule in place in the entire city that one cannot built anything that disrupts the "paisaje"… which roughly means landscape, or rather the view of the landscape.

The people here are very proud of their city and they also take a lot of pride in their cleanliness. According to Merche, Oviedo is the cleanest city in Europe. I’ve read this elsewhere before, but I imagine this title is up for debate. Either way, I decided just to be impressed rather than challenge her claim. I will say however, there is not a spec of trash to be seen on the streets. This is probably because there are trash cans ever 20ft or so all along the street, so I suppose there isn’t much excuse. Some of the trash cans on the street are even divided into sections for recycling. Apparently everyone here recycles everything, even oils, all on their own free will. All of the buses run on biofuel too.

Merche seems to be having fun helping me "desaprender mexicano" (unlearn Mexican)… It seems that my vocabulary is very Mexican and South American according to people here, and sometimes the words just plain don’t work because they have completely different meanings. I am already starting to understand everyone a lot better, but my speaking still needs a lot of work. I think it is mostly because I am nervous though to be honest, and I haven’t learned how to think on my feet in Spanish to keep up with a fast-paced conversation… and boy do they talk fast. I suppose I am used to professors in the U.S, who know that Spanish is not my first language, and so they enunciate a lot and talk very clearly. Here, nobody is showing me any mercy.

Merche LOVES to talk. The only problem is, sometimes I can’t get a word in edgewise! Sometimes I just resort to interrupting her, which she doesn’t seem to mind. Maybe that’s just how they do things here. I mean, I was listening to her go on and on and on, meanwhile her dinner getting colder and colder, talking about her mp3 player (which is ridiculously cool, by the way… it is a good bit smaller than mine and has an external speaker and 2 headphone jacks so people can share, and a colored video screen like an ipod to watch movies.)… anyway, being the polite American that I am, I was patiently waiting and finally I realized that every time I waited to make a comment, the subject pretty much always changed somehow and the moment is gone… because they just never stop talking. Part of me wonders if this is why she enjoys taking in international students so much... to have someone new to talk to who doesn't know all of her stories!

I am grateful however, because it has been really great practice, and the family is always very eager to talk to me. Pedro (the father) is very intelligent and boy, does he know his history. He has been telling me all sorts of stories of Spanish history and he just goes on for hours. To be honest, sometimes I get a little bored (and tired… Toby is absolutely right, concentrating on a new language 24 hours a day really does suck the energy out of you), but I still sit patiently and listen, trying to understand everything. Shh, don’t tell anyone, but I think I might actually be starting to appreciate some of those Spanish lit classes that Dr. Panford (or as Jay and I call him, The Pan Man) taught that Tech made me take, because I was able to follow the history a lot better since I was already familiar with a few names and major events.

For the most part I’ve been doing just fine today, just a few random words here and there that I haven’t come across before… like plums. Somehow, plums never came up in conversation before. Merce (the mother) makes her own jellies and jams from fresh fruit, which are DELICIOUS! This morning I was greeted with a table set just for me with toast, and a whole array of home made jellies for me to try out. I need to look up a few of the flavors, because to be honest, I don’t know what they were, but I know they were delicious. There was orange, strawberry, plum… and a couple others. She makes other types too like pear and apple, but I’ll have to try those out another day.

They always have a bowl of fresh fruit available because Merce goes to the market several times a week. The fruit here is REALLY good too… especially those oranges straight from Valencia, and I’ve really enjoyed the pears.

When the exchange program told me that meals were included, I figured that it was a matter of me eating off of whatever was in the kitchen or whatever the family made for dinner. Little did I know that this meant that I have my own personal cook more or less. Merce is an excellent cook, and she is very proud of it too. She definitely aims to please. She is super paranoid that I don’t like something, or that something will make me sick, or that I need more food, or whatever, but thus far everything has been pretty good honestly. Plus, the family eats lunch together more or less, but dinner is a lot more laid back, as Spaniards pretty much snack around most of the day and eat "dinner" around 9 or 10 at night… just something small.

So, Merce made me "dinner" and I was thinking that the family was going to sit at the table and eat. However, I was presented with a table with new table cloth, fine china (made in Oviedo), table set, the works, all just for me. Pedro even gave me a glass of red wine from one of the local wineries to try out. I'm not a huge fan of wine, but it was pretty good.

All of the plates and such seem very formal to me, but then again, I’m used to college life where you settle for something that is at least clean… who cares about matching, right? When Merce asked me if I’d like some coffee since she was making some, I was expecting just a casual coffee mug or something because we were watching a soccer game (Real Madrid and Rome) on TV in the living room… but no, she busts out the fine china yet again. I was reminded of that British TV show "Are You Being Served?" where Hyacinth’s neighbor is always really nervous around the fine china and usually ends up dropping something because she’s shaking so much.

The elevators are all really, really small. I can think of a few Americans that wouldn’t fit in there by themselves, much less with other people. There is definitely no such thing as personal space in those things, even for just two people. It was quite a task to fit myself, my bags, and Merche in the same elevator when I arrived from the airport.

I have a cell phone now, because Merche insisted that it was very important that they have a way to contact me in case I get lost or something, and also everyone really relies on you having one. For those of you who are not familiar with SIM cards, basically you can unlock a phone and just buy your own card and use it with whatever carrier. Well, there is more to it, but that is the simple version. Merche had a couple of old phones lying around so she gave me one of those and I just had to buy a card which was only a few euros.

I got a plan where calls to other Vodafone users up to 60 minutes only count as 1 minute as far as charges go… and my family all use Vodafone of course, and it is one of the more popular networks in the area. You can change plans at any time, there’s no contract, completely pay as you go. Also, I can recharge it anywhere really… Merche recharged her card at the grocery store when we were checking out! She wanted to buy me some Honey Nut Cheerios so that I would feel more at home, but the grocery store didn’t have them so she got me some Special K with. Everyone is so sweet here.

Well, I have to wake up early so I am going to wrap this up. Until next time!

whoops

Okay I can't resist, I will write a little more even though I just spent an hour on the post that disappeared.

Well, today I met Maria, the little girl I posted a picture of before... She is precious. I bought a little VT denim jacket for her before I left Blacksburg (shhh it was on sale!)

For those who are reading this regularly, don't forget that you can click on the images to make them larger.... it is just easier to read with smaller pictures.

This is Maria and Pedro, my Spanish father hehe.. he is always very nicely dressed, even though he is retired.

----photo removed----

I will write more later, or perhaps tomorrow... it is getting late and I have to go to a meeting for international students at 8am across town, but Pedro said he would drive me there.

Oh yeah, and classes start tomorrow but I still haven't been registered in classes... very interesting. We shall see, more on that later.

Hasta luego!

...oh my goodness.

So I typed out a novel, and then when I went to publish it, I lost connection and lost EVERYTHING. Since it is past 10pm here (which is time to eat for the Spanish), I'll have to re-do it later.

I'm sorry everyone!!!

Thanks for all the comments though, it is nice to know that people are reading and are thinking about me.

Hopefully the internet will be fixed soon so that I can do this on my own computer at my own without using Merche's laptop... which is questionable at times.

I have arrived!

Well, 24 hours ago or so I was in Roanoke and now I am here, awake and very time-challenged... man time zones and air travel can mess with your head.

I am pretty tired right now so I will try to just hit the main points of my travel and perhaps elaborate more later when I get my computer up and running... something seems to be wrong with the ethernet card connection and the wifi is out at the house for some reason, but I hope to get things resolved in the next day or two. I feel bad hogging Merche's computer.

Leaving Roanoke was extremely difficult for me... It was so hard to turn my back on Jay and his mom, and I won't lie, I cried.

I arrived in Philly in no time at all and found myself wandering around the massive airport. I finally figured out that I needed to take a shuttle to my next gate so I boarded the bus and heard some familiar sounds of Blacksburg... ye ole BT. The bus was the exact same make, the same engine sounds, the same layout... I felt strangely at home, and it made me feel a little better.

I found a Travelexx booth to exchange what cash I had on me and it dawned on me that my hostelling international membership included some sort of discount... I got a decent exchange rate, and since I was a member, no commission charges and no extra fees. Just straight up cash. I totally win.

Once I arrived in Madrid, the hilarity began. I thought Philly had a big airport... boy was I wrong. This place was madness. I had to laugh though as we landed, because apparently there is an airline called Pron Air. I'm not kidding. A huge airplane parked next to us with Pron Air printed on the side of it. Hilarious.

Upon my arrival I had to look for the Iberia counter to check in since I was changing airlines. After a lot of confusion, I figure out that I actually have to physically exit the airport to get to the check in counters, which means going through security again. Meanwhile, I ran into a Hokie who came up to me and said she saw me in Roanoke and Philly strangely enough but didn't get a chance to get a hold of me. Speaking of Philly, I was really amused at how much Rocky merchandise there was in the Philadelphia airport.

I found an Iberia counter among the sea of people and seemingly endless lines, and of course... it is closed. I waited there for about an hour with a few others that were gathering around me and finally I ran to the information desk to ask if there were any others open elsewhere. I'm told that in fact there are others, and that this was an old counter and Iberia has since moved to another terminal entirely... they just never took the sign down.

So I hop on a bus, where the trip actually took about 20 minutes to get to the next terminal... and this was on a highway! I arrived to the correct terminal and stand in a HUGE line of people, but it moved rather quickly, and finally make my way up front. The lady at the counter asks me where my baggage tickets are... Huh? Tickets? I wasn't told of any such things in Roanoke...

After the lady explained to me that I was basically up shit creek without a paddle and that I would never see my bags again if I didn't have a number, I pulled out every boarding pass, ticket, envelope, anything at all having to do with tickets that I had and laid it all out on the counter. As luck would have it, there was a copy of the number on some random envelope that was crumpled and nearly disentegrated... I had very nearly thrown it away earlier, in fact. Away I went.

I was looking for Puerta F to find my gate and seeing G, H, I, J, and K.... no F. Turns out, my ticket was printed kinda wonky or something because the text didn't line up to the labels on the paper correctly and there in fact, is no Puerta F. In fact, turns out that my gate was "JFK", which also incidentally doesn't exist.... more on that later.

So, apparently I have to go through security a second time... oh the joy. I got my liquids in a baggie, I'm good to go, right? Well, I had forgotten about the water leftover in my nalgene bottle. After having waited for no lie, 20min on the two girls decked out in bling-bling who were somehow dumbfounded as to why the metal detector kept going off (still wearing the massive jewelry and high heeled boots with metal buckles...), the TSA guy holds up my bag and shows me the nalgene bottle with water. He tells me I can either step out of line and dump it out in the sink in the bathroom, or they will throw it away.

I took the bottle from him and my belongings in the trays and stepped past the metal detector on my way to a bathroom when it dawned on me that I could simply just chug the water and not have to stand in line again. So away I chug, and back through the metal detector clean, and the TSA security guy looks up at me a bit confused as to why I was back so quickly, and he smiles at me and says, in Spanish, "What did you do, drink the bomb?" "Yep, does that work?" "Indeed it does, go through!" Atleast he had a sense of humor.

Okay, about the mysterious missing gate... I found an Iberia airline customer service desk after wandering around for a bit and asked the lady where my gate was located. She tells me that she doesn't know where the gate is because the pilot hasn't arrived yet. She explained that apparently the planes don't have assigned gates for each flight, the pilot just more or less parks the plane somewhere and then they figure it out. So, in this huge airport, I have no idea which side of the airport I am supposed to be hanging around, and I have 1 hour to go before my flight leaves.

Meanwhile, I had been wondering how to get a hold of people to let them know I was in Madrid. I found a payphone, put one of the two coins I had received form the exchange, which happen to both be worth 2 euros a piece. I dialed the number and such, and it turns out the information page I printed out with my phone card did not actually include my pin number. Doh. So I hang up, expecting change, but no such luck. Turns out, the machine just eats whatever you put in there regardless of how much you actually use. Grr...

So I boot up my laptop and think hey, atleast I could get an email out and find that pin number right? I find a wifi network, connect, and as luck would have it... it isn't exactly free. In fact, the cheapest is 1 hour for 10 euros. I found an internet kiosk where you could just put in how many minutes you wanted and charge it to a credit card. Perfect, right? I only needed 5 to get the pin. I try and try, but to no avail... the credit card reader is broken.

The other option is to put in coins and again, not receive any change back. I was running out of time before my flight and rather far away from any stores to make change, so I decided just to go with it. I ended up with 20min of internet time and wrote a few emails, got the pin, etc, and got it all worked out. I was still angry about it though.

I finally get on the plane to Oviedo, and I started to feel sick. I currently have a bit of a sore throat and I am a bit dizzy, but that is probably just because I haven't slept in a day or two. I get off the plane and look for my luggage... it isn't there. Thankfully right about then I happen to look up and realize that they stuffed the international luggage in a seperate room behind a glass wall, no signs, no nothing. I see my bags, grab them, and away I went.

I saw Merche and Pedro waiting for me and they take me to the little cafe in the airport for a little tapa.. like a mini ham sandwich of sorts in this case. We talked for awhile, and wow, Merche loves to talk. They are all really lovely people actually, and apparrently I am their 6th exchange student.

Once we arrived at the house (after a slight detour through the city to show me a bit of the town) we had some delicious coffee and they stuffed me with all sorts of little pastries and such. I have my own room, my own bathroom even, and once the internet gets fixed I´ll have that too. Tomorrow we are going to the international relations office to get all my classes worked out and whatnot, and well... I suppose that is all for now. Guiness the cat really likes the smell of my bags, apparently.

Well I think I need a shower... That is all for now :-)