Hola! Just kidding I'm not writing this blog in Spanish lol you thought. I finally made it to Spain wooo. I got here on Sunday around 7:30pm I wanna say? I was supposed to arrive earlier but my plane got delayed in Madrid but here I am. I went straight to my homestay and got to meet my host mom Angéles and my roommate Carly. They're both super sweet and I'm looking forward to getting to know them more the next two months! Since I got here late, the rest of my night mainly just consisted of unpacking and getting settled into my room.
On Monday, everyone in the program met up at "La Gorda" a statue that basically means "fat woman" before walking to the opening reception at a University of Oviedo building located in the "Old Quarter." The La Gorda statue was a statue of a fat lady and a fat baby naked in her lap. There were a lot of people that were taking pictures of themselves grabbing the butt of La Gorda which was funny. We weren't sure if it was just something people did or if there's a story behind it. Anyways, after the reception we all walked to "La Casa de Las Lenguas," which is the place where we take our classes. We stayed there until 2pm. Afterwards, Carly and I went home for lunch before exploring the city with a few people from our program that we had met at the orientation. The city is big but small at the same time. It is also really walking-friendly which is nice.
I really thought I avoided getting any jet lag until this morning(Tuesday). I went to bed the night before at 11:30 and woke up at 3:30am and could not get back to sleep, so I was so tired all day at school for the first day of classes which was sooooo amazing! I couldn't keep my eyes open and my head was hurting and then the thought of having to walk 30 minutes to get home...I wanted to die. After I FINALLY got home I was planning on taking a FAT nap before our first excursion but we accidentally took a longer way home and then had to eat lunch when we got home, so I barely had anytime to sleep before we had to leave again.
Our excursion was a short walk from our house to the "Catedral de Oviedo." The GEO staff gave us all a walking tour of the old quarter. The Old Quarter is so pretty it doesn't feel real. It felt like a movie set. The buildings are so old I can't even wrap my head around it. I forgot what the oldest building is so I couldn't tell ya but it's pretty crazy. After the tour we went to a restaurant close by where they paid for all of us to try la sidra; cider, which is really famous in Oviedo. It was kinda gross I'll say it. All it tasted like was apple cider vinegar but not as bad. Apparently the kind we tried, they only used apples, so it wasn't sweet. ALSO apparently traditionally once you finished your glass of cider, you're always supposed to leave a little bit at the end to throw on the ground where you drank it because when people drank cider in the "olden days" they shared one glass, so you were kind of getting rid of the backwash by throwing the last bit out I'm assuming.
After the walking tour a group of us just went to a cute ice cream shop before going shopping (my fave) ;) There's a lot of local clothing stores as well as European brands and every store seems to have sales going on. After going shopping, Carly and I just went home to relax before dinner, and now I finally have time and some energy to write this lol. But it's weird, even though I've only been here two days, it feels like I've been here so much longer. I think it's because I do so much in one day that it almost feels like two, but I am NOT complaining.
Photo Details:
1) My view of Spain from the plane to Madrid before we landed.
2) My room in my homestay!
3) A really pretty church that I don't know the name of, oops.
4) One side of the Cathedral of Oviedo. The holes on the cathedral are from the Spanish Revolutionary war.On the left the building in the foreground is the oldest architecture Oviedo has. It was built in the 9th century and existed during "el Camino de Santiago"
5) A street within the Old Quarter with a view of the Cathedral.
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