A few of the things I learned while studying abroad

1. You probably won't know every vocab word (do you in English?) but that shouldn't stop you from trying to communicate.
2. I love M&Ms a lot and they are a lot more expensive in Europe. 
3. Not everyone is going to like you- accept it, move on, and have a good time anyways.
4. Everyone has something to offer.
5. You can learn something from everyone. 
6. Embrace the new culture- you have a lot to learn. 
7. You learn so much OUTSIDE of the classroom.
8. I don't know... maybe... a new language?
9. Reading will speed up your learning and increase your vocab significantly. 
10. Learning something new > being embarrassed because you said something incorrectly. 
11. How to travel as much as possible for as cheaply as possible. 
12. God sends you strangers to help you out along the way. 
13. The random person sitting next you on the plane could be your next best friend. 
14. Baguettes drowning in nutella are worth every single calorie. 
15. Don't sweat gaining a few pounds- the food is worth it. 
16. You really don't need that much clothing to survive.
17. Some people are obsessed with apples. And others are obsessed with sidra.
18. They know you're foreign so accept it. 
19. Beer can taste like fruit snacks.
20. Try everything at least once, you'll probably be surprised. 
21. It's normal to peel the spines/bones out of your dinner. 
22. Grocery stores close at 9, plan appropriately. 
23. A lot  of (most) stores are closed on Sundays. 
24. That no matter how many miles separate you, your true friends won't forget you or stop loving you. 
25. The ins and outs of a new city. 
26. Being open to letting new people impact and change you life will teach you more than you can imagine. 
27. First impressions aren't always the best impressions. 
28. The way you are inherently can be a life lesson to someone else.
29. Disney music is just as good in Spanish as it is in English. 
30. Even people in Spain think I spell my name with two 'n's.
31. Spanish people think they "eespeak eeSpanish in eeSpain" when really they "speak Spanish in Spain." (sometimes I don't have the weirdest English accent)
32. Your dinner will have eyes sometimes. 
33. If you think it's a sidewalk, it's probably a street. 
34. The wimps go home at 4AM. 
35. There is no such thing as personal space.
36. No expect to find things at the same stores you would find them at in the US. 
37. In one meal, you will be served enough food to feed a family of four. Twice. 
38. On Spanish calendars, the weeks start on Mondays. 
39. Make native friends.
40. The Spanish don't really know how to do anything quickly. 
41. The Spanish have no concept of how long things really take (hence the reason they are frequently late).
42. You will forget to eat without bread. 
43. Prepare to miss American peanut-butter.
44. Your feet and public transportation can get you everywhere you need to go. 
45. Life here is all about family, friends, and community. 
46. They weren't kidding when they called la Asturias a natural paradise. 
47. Everyone in Europe wears scarves. 
48. Man purses are acceptable. 
49. They will probably think you speak great Spanish and refuse to believe they can speak English. 
50. Naps can be part of your daily life if you want without judgment.  

Don't make me leave this paradise

This past weekend, our director, Jaime, took us on a weekend excursion. We left Saturday morning and took a bus to a small town called Aseigu de Cabrales where we learned A LOT about the process of making goat cheese (we even saw the caves they keep it in). After our little tour of the Ruta de Queso, we went to an Espicha (a style of eating in Spain) and learned about the Sidra they make in that town. The sidra came from the ceiling and I think it is the best sidra I have had here. We ate a lot of really good food including the goat cheese we had learned about. After we got back on the bus and drove for another hour or so to a small town called Potes where we spent the night. We had dinner in the hotel and just hung out after dinner.

Sunday morning after breakfast, we took a short bus ride to the Monastery of St. Toribio de Liebana. At this monastery, the biggest piece of the Holy Cross is located and we got to touch it! The piece is from the left side of the cross and it is bigger than the piece of the cross at St. Peter's in Rome. It was moved to this monastery when the Christians were fighting the moors in order to protect it. After that awesome adventure, we headed to a mountain range (we spent the whole weekend in Picos de Europa) in Cantabria (the Spanish state next to the Asturias). We took a funicular up the side of the mountain (I was so scared!) but the view from the top was absolutely incredible. We hiked around for a bit and then had lunch on the top. After we started our bus ride back to Oviedo. At one point, when we were on the road that separated the mountains on the left and the beach on the right, Shannon turned to me and said "Mountains on the left, beach on the right, where are we?" and I responded "Paradise?"

It was such a wonderful weekend and it was so great that the whole group got to go. I'm not ready to leave Spain- I wish I had more time. Time has flown, I can't believe I have been here for four and half months.

A horse named Zeus

Today we didn't have school because it's Spain's version of Labor Day so Shannon and I got on another bus headed to Cangas de Onis. From there we transferred buses and took a short bus ride to Soto de Cangas (a little pueblo) to El Dorado, a horseback riding place!
We spent two hours horseback riding through the Asturias, don't be jealous it wasn't amazingly beautiful or anything. My horse's name was Zeus and Shannon's was Yankee. At one point my horse decided to lay down (his front legs) which created a nice little slide for me. It's just a good thing that it was my horse that decided he didn't want me on him anymore because Shannon wouldn't have been a happy camper. Of course, we stopped for Sidra along the way- this is Spain after all.
Overall it was a lovely day and I'm happy as always to be in Spain!

What a Semana Santa it was!

Hi friends, Felices Pascuas!

This past week we didn't have school because of Holy Week and my mom and I did some traveling. If you have been reading my blog during the semester you know how much I can write about different weekend trips... so I'm going to try and give a shorter version of the last week. As always pictures will be on facebook soon and if you want to know more just ask!

On Saturday the 16th, Shannon and I flew to Lisboa (Lisbon), Portugal to meet up with my mom who landed a few hours before us. It was super easy to get from the airport to the hotel (something Shannon and I aren't used to at all) and we ended up not having to pay for the bus. That night we walked to the oldest part of Lisboa and had a nice, traditional Portuguese dinner accompanied by green wine. The next day, Sunday, we did our main touring using a Lisboa card that provided us with free entrance into certain museums and a metro pass. We started at the Cathedral (the oldest building in Lisbon), followed by St. George's Castle, and then went to church for an English mass but there were very misbehaved children and we couldn't really hear much. Next we headed to Jeronimos' Monastery but stopped a nice market before we entered the Monastery followed by Belem Tower (with the narrowest steps but an awesome view!). Belem Tower is actually sitting in the water and you have to take a little bridge to get there. After about eight hours of touring, we ate some lunch/dinner depending on the schedule you are used to and wandered back towards the hotel. We did a little grocery shopping (so we could make PB&Js) and had a little dessert on the top floor of the hotel (with an awesome view of the city!). On Monday we took a train to Estoril beach and had a really tough day just laying on the beach, soaking in sun, and working really hard. That night for dinner we had Pizza Hut because Shannon and I sometimes miss American food. Shannon left really early Tuesday morning for Oviedo and my mom and I left middle of the day for Barcelona.

Tuesday night in Barcelona we walked La Rambla (a street filled with shops) and ate a Spanish dinner. Wednesday we walked around the city for eight hours (my feet hated me after that) but we saw alot! We went to the top of Montjuic for a lovely view of Barcelona, saw the famous Christopher Columbus statue, did some shopping, went to the Aquarium (the second biggest in Europe), and went the Picasso museum (which has his painting of Velásquez's Las Meninas (personally I prefer Velásquez's version which we saw in El Prado during our orientation week in Madrid)). On Thursday we did a six hour highlight tour (on a bus- yay!). The morning was all about Gaudi and we got to see Parc Guell, a few of the houses he designed, and La Sagrada Familia! It was awesome especially since the week before break we were studying Gaudi in my art class. I can give you more information about Gaudi if you want. Then in the afternoon we saw more highlights of the city (some of the monuments we saw on foot the day before), learned some history of the city, saw the Olympic stadium, and went to Pueblo Espanol (a reproduction of buildings of all over Spain). We went back to the hotel and took a siesta after all that and then went out for dinner. On Friday we went to a little mountain  community about an hour outside of the city called Montserrat where the Virgin Mary was sighted. It was a beautiful, beautiful place to visit (and get away from the world if you wanted to). On Saturday we flew to Oviedo. I was definitely missing my little Spanish city. Shannon and I took my mom around to the main highlights of Oviedo, we went for chocolate con churros (a delicious dessert), and out to a Sidreria to try the Sidra (the traditional drink of the Asturias). My mom got to meet my host parents too. On Easter, the three of  us went to mass at the church Shannon and I normally go to and then my mom and I walked to the park that I like to walk to on the edge of Oviedo before going to have lunch with Shannon's host family (who have sort of  adopted me). It was a really great Easter.

My mom got a good taste of Spain and my life in Oviedo I think. She tried most of my favorite foods here- tortilla, fabada, paella, chocolate con churros...

This morning my friend Lily drove my mom to the airport really early. I can't believe I only have a month left here- I'm not ready for this semester to be over!!!

Besos,
Ana

We came, We saw, We wandered

Hello friends!

First I want to thank everyone, near and far, for making my birthday wonderful.

This weekend, I traveled to Amsterdam and Paris- it was quite the weekend. On Friday night we took a flight out of the Oviedo airport at 11PM to Barcelona and then at 6:45 AM we took a flight from Barcelona to Amsterdam. There were six of us from Temple, Felicia, Jenna, Dana, Kiersten, Shannon and I. It was a long night but most of us managed to get a few hours of sleep on the uncomfortable airport benches. When we arrived in Amsterdam at 9AM we all took a train to the central train station. On Saturday we went to the Van Gogh Museum all together before Shannon and I went off on our own a bit (since the other girls were staying for the whole weekend they did the other museums later). We did the Heineken experience and toured the Anne Frank house. The Heineken experience was actually a lot of fun, they told us about  the process of making the beer and gave us some of the history. The Anne Frank house was a great thing to be able to see. I of course cried when we watched the video of her dad talking about her diary. I thought it was awesome that we got to see her actual diary and that there was a specific exhibit on her sister, Margot. It is sad and hard to imagine eight people hiding in that space. After a long day we checked into our hostel and when I handed the person at the front desk our reservation he started talking to me in German because of my last name. Luckily he also spoke English.

On Sunday morning Shannon and I took a train from Amsterdam to Paris and all I have to say about arriving in Paris is that we had an adventure trying to get out of the train station and to our next destination, Versailles. The Palace of Versailles is the biggest palace in Europe and it was very elaborate but don't think you are going to get good directions to Marie Antoinette's estates...at least not in English. We never found them but we made a solid effort. We also decided to buy metro passes which was a very good idea since we were able to get around for all three days with them and the metro is relatively easy to figure out. We went to mass on Sunday night at Notre Dame, it was amazing to say the least even though we were both very tired and not feeling 100%. After mass we made the long awaited trek to our hostel which was located in the Montmartre area of Paris. We stayed in a six person room with four other girls who all turned out to be really awesome.  One of the girls, Julie, was on a two month trip around different parts of Europe. She is from Norway and can speak four or five languages. You wouldn't have known that she wasn't a native English speaker. The other three girls...wait for it...wait for it.... WERE FROM MINNESOTA!!!! They are students at the U of M and currently studying in England. Yup, so that was awesome.

Anyways on Monday we headed first to the Louvre. Now if you want to talk about a maze of a museum, the Louvre is a great example- Shannon and I were lost in Ancient Egypt for a solid half an hour at least. There is SO much art, we spent a couple of hours there but we barely scratched the surface I think. We did get to see famous works like the Mona Lisa. After we headed to Sainte Chapelle church- I have never seen such beautiful stained glass in my entire life. The entire chapel is stained glass- definitely check out my pictures on facebook for that. After we headed back Notre Dame where I lit a candle for my friend Kevin who talked about studying abroad in Paris. The Notre Dame treasury also houses the relics of the crown of thrones, pretty cool huh? I think Notre Dame was probably my favorite thing we saw in Paris- it was so beautiful words can't really describe it. Then we headed to the Pantheon but we couldn't go inside because it was closed until today. After we headed back to our hostel for a study/dinner break. We made arroz cubano because we missed Spain so we thought we should make ourselves some Spanish food. Monday night we went to the Arc of Triumph and had an amazing view of the city; however, that view was put to shame by the view we saw a half an hour later at the top of the Eiffel Tower. We went all the way to the top, I was personally not really a fan of the height but the view was pretty epic. I think Shannon fell in love with Paris on the top of the Eiffel Tour the way I fell in love with Galway so in a few years you will know where to find us in our respective cities.

Tuesday we had a light day but we did enjoy snacking on a French baguette with a jar of nutella...no judgment please. We went first the the Sacre Coeur church and then to the Moulin Rouge, and finally to the Musee de Orsay. However by this point we were pretty close to done enjoying looking at art. We spent some time just sitting on a park bench studying for our art test. Then we took a train and a bus to the airport. On the bus we met a really cool Australian family who was very happy to find some more English speakers. Our flight landed in Santander at 9:30 PM and our bus didn't leave until 3:30 bringing us back to Oviedo at 6AM. It's all part of the adventure I guess.

Pictures will be posted within a day or two.

Besos

Ana

'Cause her hair was black and her eyes were blue

"And I lost my  heart to [a] Galway..."

This past weekend, I traveled to Ireland with three friends from the Temple group- Shannon, Andrea, and John and I fell in love. We had to leave at 1 AM between Wednesday and Thursday even though our flight was at 11AM- I just love the ALSA's (Spanish bus company) schedules. The flight from Santander, Spain to Dublin, Ireland is only two hours but there is a time difference and so we arrived at noon. We took a bus straight to our hostel because our hostel was conveniently located two minutes from the central bus station. We were able to check in early and we took much needed naps before heading to my friend who is also studying abroad this semester, Amanda's apartment. She spent the afternoon and early night showing us some parts of Dublin like St. Stephen's green (a gorgeous park in the middle of Dublin) and the shopping street. Of course we had to stop and try a few chocolates from her favorite chocolate store. Then all five of us ate at a pub near the Temple bar area. I tried traditional Irish stew with lamb and it was delicious!!! It was also very wonderful to get to spend time with someone from home.

On Friday, the four of us toured the city of Dublin by a Hop on, Hop off bus. It is a cheap and efficient way to see the city, we paid about fifteen euro and it took us all over Dublin and told us history of the city and the places it stopped along the way. You can get on and off the bus as many times as you want for two days. Our first stop was Trinity College, founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1593 on lands that her father, King Henry VIII , had taken. In the old library (aka my heaven, I almost cried at the beauty of this library, seriously shelves and shelves of the oldest books in the library and you would have to climb a ladder to reach many of the shelves), they have the Book of Kells, an elaborate copy of the Gospels in Latin. It was beautiful. Our next stop was Christ Church Cathedral followed by St. Patrick's Cathedral. Dublin has two cathedrals because St. Patrick's was built outside of the city to avoid paying the high taxes and having to follow all the rules. We also saw Dublin Castle, the Guinness Storehouse (the only real brewery left in Ireland, the rest (and there were many) have disappeared), and the Gaol. The Gaol (Jail) has a museum with lots of information on Ireland's history. During the potato famine many tried to end up in jail because jail food was considered a luxury. Friday night we mostly just hung out in our hostel, we cooked ourselves dinner in the hostel kitchen- piles (literally) of pasta. I also played mom on Friday and Saturday and made us a few sandwiches to get us through the day without spending lots of money on food.

On Saturday, we got up early and took a train to Galway. Galway is a small town so we wandered and saw the sea. I want to live there someday, it's absolutely beautiful. We saw Lynch's castle which is now a bank, St. Nicholas' church (the oldest medieval parish that is still in constant use and where Christopher Columbus visited in 1477!), Eyre Park, and the beautiful Cathedral where I lit a candle for my grandma who passed away this semester and who was very proud of her Irish heritage. I also bought a claddagh ring and we found fresh bagels (which don't exist in Spain) at this little market. When we returned to Dublin, we went to a bar in the Temple Bar Area. We called it a relatively early night but it was another perfect day.

We left at noon from Ireland. Our flight was a little delayed and they told us if we were delayed five more minutes we would have had to stay in Dublin for the night. Thankfully we didn't since we had non-refundable bus tickets from Santander to Oviedo (which takes two to two and half hours). Overall, it was an AWESOME weekend, Ireland and Spain are currently fighting for my heart. I definitely didn't want to leave Ireland even if it meant continuing to share a room with fifteen other people (our hostel was set up kind of like camp style but it was clean and great, nothing to complain about).  Also in Ireland, I fit in, I looked like the people and everyone on the street didn't turn around and stare at me like everyday in Oviedo. However, it surprised me how easy it was to switch back to speaking in Spanish and the fact that I missed speaking in Spanish.

Muchos besos!

Ana

Everyday There is Something to Learn

Hola!

I don't have anything in particular to report but I thought I would update about the recent events in my life in Oviedo. The weeks fly by here and everyday I learn something new.

As of this past week, I have three tandem partners (speaking partners, we speak half the time in English and half the time in Spanish to practice). My first tandem partner, Carmela, is a librarian (perfect, right?) and she treats me like a daughter. We spend at least three hours a week together. We usually go to cafes or walk through the park. I have been meeting with her since the second week I was in Oviedo. She is really easy to talk to and my dates with her are some of the best parts of my week. My second tandem partner, Paula, is studying English here in Oviedo. She is eighteen and VERY shy. She is a sweetheart but it's like pulling teeth to try and get her to talk. My third, Alicia, I just met this week and we were twins in another life I think. She is the friend of my friend Shannon's tandem partner, but we share a very large love of books, and her favorite book is also Pride and Prejudice (Orgullo y Prejucio). We spent a lot of time talking about books and she took me to a secondhand bookstore in Oviedo. She is a law student who also studies English. Every time I have a tandem date I learn something new. For example Carmela taught me "hacer autostop" = to hitchhike.

This week we also had our third "Jaime dinner." Jaime, our director, takes us to nice restaurants about once a month and they are so much fun. We also get to try lots of different foods, for example we had duck liver covered in white chocolate, salmon, risotto with mushrooms, and other interesting foods this Thursday.

Shannon and I make an effort to walk daily in an attempt to counteract the amount of food we eat. I spend a lot of time with her family, her little three year old sister is precious and named one of her dolls after me.

I think I really do learn something new everyday. I continue to love Spain but I definitely miss friends from home and Philadelphia.

Besos,
Ana