Barcelona

I am in Barcelona and i have to say the 12 hour bus ride wasn´t all that bad. It wasn´t full which was nice because i could sprawl out over two seats and sleep. We got here and couldn´t find our hostel, and carried our luggage very, very far before thinking we should probably just take a taxi. Barcelona is really gorgeous. I´m a little dissapointed that so many speak English, Katie and I don´t really get to practice our spanish as much here. And, there are much, much, more tourists, especially american tourists. Yesterday, we did some sightseeing and went sailing! There was a sailboat that you could board for about 12$ and there was a jazz band, sangria and the trip was quite long, an hour and a half. It was really fun, that´s been my favorite thing so far. Today, we´re going to the beach. Our hostel recepcionist recommended we go the gay beach because it´s a safer beach. I guess the other beaches, things get stolen a whole lot and a lot of people try to sell you things. We´ll just really have to watch our things, no napping i guess. Well we leave for Madrid tomorrow, so i´ll update later! I can´t wait to see everyone on Saturday, i miss the U.S. a little bit. Here are the things i miss, just a bit :).

1. josh
2. diet mountain dew
3. trashy reality shows
4. non-pork products (the spanish eat a lot of chorizo and other forms of pork).
5. my own bed

N

Yesterday, there was a soccer game between the students in Oviedo and Gijon on the beach.
I didn´t play, but i drank beer on the sidelines and cheered everyone on

This is Kim, and Me



After the game, we went to a celebration in Oviedo, called La Noche de San Juan.
We went to the big cathedral and they had a giant tree in the middle of the plaza, everyone wrote 1 regret they had this past year and threw it in the tree and then they lit the whole thing on fire and everyone danced around the fire. It was sort of a creepy holiday, they had some really creepy music playing, and creepy people on stilts, and a big fat guy in a diaper and nothing else. I was pretty much confused the whole time.

This is one of the creepy guys on stilts, he was squirting gasoline on the crowd, i´m sure of it


This is me, katie, kim

J

I can´t believe that it is my last week in Oviedo, i´m actually kind of sad. My host mom and i talked a lot today over some beers, she´s really sweet. I´m going to miss her and her dog and the nice, big meals she makes me.

This past weekend was really fun. We went to a place called Covadonga, it´s a religious site built into a cave, it was really, really pretty. It is probably my favorite place that i´ve been so far. I believe it is an important stop on a certain important pilgrimage that a lot of people walk to.



At Covadonga, there was a fountain and legend says that if you drink from all seven of its spickets, you´ll be married within the next year. And...i drank from all seven spickets, wish i´m sure Josh will be happy to hear.




These pictures are from Covadonga also






We also went to see a really pretty medieval bridge




After, we went canoe-ing. It was harder than i remembered, me and Katie were running into trees a lot :). It was really fun though. The spanish men love canoes. They go in big groups and wear crazy costumes, it´s really weird. This one guy had on something like this (and nothing else)



The men here, when they get together and drink, do really crazy things.
Anyway, it was fun.

Bilbao, etc.

On the bus, headed to Bilbao


All the girls, including our new friend Ieva from Lithuania


Eating kebabs


Totally lost


At the hostel

B-B-Bilbao

Me and some friends went to Bilbao this weekend. We were on the bus for 5 hours (which is a good prep for my 12 hour bus ride i will be taking from Oviedo to Barcelona, ugh). We had to figure out the transit system right when we got there, which was a little confusing. But finally we found our hostel, and it really wasn´t half bad. That same night we went up to this lookout point to see a great view of the city and drink beer. Next day, we went to the Guggenheim Museum, which i was really, really excited to see. It exceeded my expectations, i really loved the video installations. Then that night, we all went out and had some drinks. There were some very drunk spanish people trying to speek to us. They were talking about California, Baywatch, Pamela Anderson and David Hasselhoff, it was random. Then, today we left. And i must say it is kind of nice to be home and not in a hostel.

Bilbao, at sunset



Katie, Tyler, Me


The Guggenheim Museum


In front of the Guggenheim Museum


Bilbao,(behind the Guggenheim Museum)

Estoy Muy Enferma

I have been pretty sick lately, my body has not been taking the climate change very well. My throat feels extremely sore, i´m worried i might have strep throat! Or, this would not be good at all, i finally need my tonsels out :( i have a really big fear of that whole procedure. I just don´t know, but i hope that i get better soon. I´ll probably go to the pharmacy tomorrow and see if they can help me.

Museo de la Tortura

Today, we went to the city of Santillana del Mar, they have a museum of torture there. You can see a lot of the torture devices used during the Spanish Inquisition, some of them are still used today! (for interrogations, etc.)

It was really crazy, some of the people we were with walked out of the first part of it because they couldn´t stomach it. Next to the display´s they had pretty graphic descriptions of how the torture devices were used.




After the museum we went to the city of Comillas, there was a really sweet gothic palace there called the Palacio de Sobrellano,

also we went to a building that Gaudí designed,



and then I ran into Gaudí out in his garden,



We walked up this hill and found a really old and pretty cemetary right by the ocean,



and now that the day is done, i am really tired.
we leave tomorrow morning for Leon, which is going to be a great place (it´s an old fortress city). But instead of going to bed, we are all going out dancing. Going out with people can be hard sometimes, because the Spanish don´t start their night until about 12:00 am! Most of the young kids stay out until 6, it´s crazy.

O

It´s been raining pretty bad today so we went to the Museo de Asturias, it was amazing. They had a lot of local artists dated all the way back to 15th century. They also had a Dalí and a Picasso, which were totally mind-blowing. I loved it! The museum itself is beautiful, it´s tucked into this quaint, little street next to the oldest house in Asturias (which they are restoring). That house was there when Christopher Columbus discovered America. Tomorrow we have an excursion so i´m sure i´ll have more pictures to post, we´re visting a torture museum.

miss-understood

I am really excited for the school excursion this saturday, we are going to a torture museum (is that sick that i am really excited for it). I just think it´s interesting and crazy what they used to do to people. Katie and I are also going to Leon this weekend, i´m pretty excited to be in a new city. It seems like we have walked through all of Oviedo.

I have to walk all of that food off that my host mom has been feeding me. She´ll make me two sandwhiches in one sitting and be surprised that i didn´t devour both. She says she wants to make me fat, for my boyfriends sake.

I wish i didn´t stand out so much here, people are amazed at how white i am. My hosts mom´s boyfriend calls me `leche.´ and the other day, some spaniards said i looked just like Nicole Kidman (ha, probably because she´s the palest person they could think of).

All in all I´m loving it here, but sometimes i miss my home, my best friend, and my family (especially since they all left for hawaii).



This is us girls at the Playa de Rodilles



This is us at a sidreria last weekend. The sidra came out of a barrel in the wall and cost .40 euros per glass. (Sidra is pretty much apple cider with alcohol, it´s a traditional drink of Asturias).



I took this of the jellyfish at the Aquarium in Gijon.