A Day In My Super Awkward Spanish Life

Holy family reunion!!! Oh my gosh, I just had the most interesting/awkward afternoon of my life!! Let me just tell you all that happened. Well, I came home from class at 2 just like every other day. It was cloudy out and cozy inside and I was really looking forward to taking a nice long siesta. I was nicely sitting at the table eating my lunch and minding my own business when I hear the doorbell. ¨That´s weird,¨ I thought, because I have never heard it ring and no one has ever come over. My host mom answers the door and it´s her 2 grandsons. One was really little and the other one looked like he could be my age. I was thinking ¨Oh, that´s nice that they came by to say hi¨ but no, they were staying. They came into the kitchen to meet me and we had to do that awkward cheek kiss thing. Well, let me tell you, I wanted to die. It was super awkward with the older one because I´m not used to getting that close to people, let alone guys, that I don´t know. Then the little boy came over and kissed one cheek, and when I leaned over to do the second one (which is custom here, they always do 2 cheeks), he moved. Then, they all started laughing at me and were like ¨Oh, she wants more!¨ So of course I was super embarrassed, but they left the room and I got over it. I was really not looking forward to spending the afternoon with them because I knew it would be super awkward. I really wanted to go hide in my room, but I forced myself to go in the other room with them and talk. I get in there and it was that still, awkward, super uncomfortable silence. I´m trying to make small talk with the older guy, asking him questions and stuff and trying to talk about the World Cup game, but he wanted nothing of it. He would just give me super short answers and then go back to watching his sports commentary show. I wanted to be like ¨Look dude, I´m not trying to flirt with you or anything, I´m engaged. I´m trying to make this as least awkward as possible. Help me out!¨ So, I´m sitting there bored out of my mind. I would never watch a sports commentary in English let alone one in Spanish that I can barely understand. I also couldn´t talk to the little one because he mumbled and was impossible to understand. So, after my 4th awkward question, the older guy reaches for the remote and turns up the TV, so I was like ok, fine, I get it! Just as I was about to get up to see if my host mom needed help, the doorbell rang again and in walked my host mom´s entire family!! Surprise family reunion!! Thanks for telling me Mercedes! I really appreciate it!! So, I´m like back to day one, freaking out, and overwhelmed with awkwardness. Then, get this, she has a whole huge lunch prepared for them. The same one that I ate!! I was like, umm I could have waited to eat with everyone. Then, she´s like ¨Anna, don´t you want to go take a nap?!¨ And I´m like NO! Not with all these people here!! I don´t want to be that weird foreign exchange student who hides in her room! So, I sat there on the couch next to them watching Dora the Explorer with the seven year old while everyone else at lunch. It was SO awkward! Especially since they didn´t pay any attention to me. Then, my host mom would talk about me, and I was like Umm, I CAN understand you!! It was nothing bad, but still. Oh, and to make it better, EVERYONE smoked! And I don´t mean just casually, it was like a freaking hot box in there! Her place is already tiny and stuffy, so just imagine it with 10 people smoking. Ya, I think I have the black lung. I was dying! The only ones not smoking the whole time were me, the 7 year old kid, and my host mom. AH!! Then, at one point, it was just me and the little 7 year old kid (his name is Miguel. I´m calling him that from now on) sitting on the couch eating our ice cream bars and watching Dora while the adults ignored us. Ay yi yi! Finally, they caught on that I knew Spanish because I would laugh at what they were saying. They asked me a few questions, but still didn´t talk to me much. Then, my host mom showed them the book of St. Louis that I gave her, and that sparked some conversation. They really liked it but couldn´t believe that there are no mountains or beaches around. They also asked me what Yankees are. They call all Americans that here, but I told them that just the people in the North are Yankees. They asked me if I was a Yankee or an Azul (which is what they called Southerners) and I told them neither. They got super confused and I told them that I am in the middle of the country and am neither one. They still didn´t get it, but oh well. Then, Miguel started being silly and lightened things up a bit. I was so happy he was there! I got to goof off with him a little bit. It is so funny how kids are exactly the same no matter where you go. I love it!! Finally, after 3 hours of this madness, they left. Finally, I could breathe!! Don´t get me wrong, they were all super nice to me and kept telling me how pretty I am and how good looking my family is. That seems to be the favorite comment here. But I was just really caught off guard. Next time, I really hope she tells me about this kind of thing instead of surprising me. I´m all for family gatherings, but I need time to prepare myself! Especially when everyone speaks another language. I am so exhausted right now! I think I´m going to go hang out with a couple of the girls until dinner because I need some English and American relief! Anyways, that´s my story of the day. I thought you all would get a kick out of it and enjoy it. Stay tuned for more updates like this one. I´m sure there will be plenty more.

My apartment!

I took some pictures of my apartment, because I thought you all would like to see where I´m living.

Here is my bedroom:

This is the view from my window:

This is the tiny hall that my bag would barely fit through:

Here is my nasty, janky shower. It´s so disgusting! The rest of my bathroom is nice and clean. I don´t get it.

This is mi vida en España!

Las Playas y Las Montañas!

The past few days here in Oviedo have been awesome!! I mean, this whole time has been great, but this past week especially has been wonderful. I´ve done and seen so much, it´s crazy!! Where to start?! Well, after the craziness of the World Cup settled down, us Americans got bored and decided we needed more excitement. The city is surrounded by mountains, and on one of them there is a big statue of Jesus. He overlooks the city with his arms stretched out. We didn´t really notice it until one night when it was kind of hazy. He was all lit up and it looked like he was floating. It was awesome! So, we all decided that we wanted to find a way to hike to the top of the mountain to the statue. Well, it just so happened that the University was leading a tour up there a few days later. Perfect! So, on Tuesday we made the hike. We just had to walk to the mountain, all the was up to the top of the mountain, back down the mountain, and then back home from the mountain. It only took 5 hours, no biggie. Oh, my, gosh - I was SO tired by the end!!! It wasn´t too bad hiking up most of the way because it was a pretty slow and steady incline (these mountains are no rockies). Well, like I said, it was like this MOST of the way. For about the last 1/5 of the way there, it was straight up!! And I am not exaggerating one bit! It was so steep that I could literally stick my hand out and touch the ground in front of me. Now, I know I´m pretty short, but that is just ridiculous. Needless to say, I was panting for my life when I got to the top! I thought I was going to pass out because I haven´t exercised in a long time and all this fried food that my host mom is feeding me is definitely not helping. It was so worth the dreadful climb though. The view was amazing! We could see the entire city! We even picked out the University. The statue was beautiful too! I´m so glad I did it! Now, everytime I look up there I think ¨Ya, I was up there¨. Here are some pictures of the view:

Ok, so I need to back up a little bit. Sorry, I know I´m super unorganized. Oh well. On Sunday, the day of the World Cup we ventured to the beach for the first time. I think I already talked about that, but I´m not positive, so I´m just going to tell you again. Don´t worry, I have pictures. Anyways, the beach is 30 minutes away in a town called Gijón. (I love that I can make accents on these computers!). We got there, and it was not quite what I was expecting. It was SUPER crowded, but I wasn´t going to complain because afterall, I was at the beach. We put our stuff down, and it immediately got soaked just from sitting there. Then, like 10 minutes later, we had to move back because the tide was coming up. We repeated this every 10 minutes after that, until we were camped out on the steps leading down to the beach. There was literally no beach left. It was crazy! I´ve never seen such a high tide!

This is a picture of the water coming all the way up to the steps. Don´t worry, I didnt just take a picture of my ugly feet.

Then, on Saturday (yesterday) we had another excursion! We have those every Saturday, in case I haven´t mentioned that. It was the plan that we were going to go to Los Lagos, which are lakes way high up in the mountains. I´ve heard that it´s amazing and a beautiful view, so I was super excited!! First, we stopped at this tiny town. It was super cute! We walked around, ate at a café, and enjoyed the view for about an hour. Then, we headed out for Los Lagos! We got to the base of the mountain, and then our teacher came onto the microphone on the bus. We couldn´t go up to Los Lagos. It was cloudy, therefore making it too dangerous for the buses to go up there because the drivers wouldn´t be able to see very well and the roads are tiny. I was SO upset!! That was the whole reason I wanted to go on that excursion! (Although, I probably would have been like peeing in my pants on those roads. I hate mountain roads!) Instead, we stayed in this town called Covadonga. It had a huge church tucked into the mountains, and that´s it. The church was really cool and the veiw was great, but I was still really disappointed. Here´s a picture of the church:

Then, after we left the church, we were told that we were going to the beach since we couldn´t go up to Los Lagos. I was excited, but was thinking that this beach better be amazing or I´m still going to be mad. We pull into the bus station in the town that supposedly has a beach, and there is a rocky shore next to this ugly little river. I was SO mad!!! That was NOT a beach!! Well, luckily, they quickly told us that the river bank was not a beach. There really was a real beach there! We walked through town and found it. Oh, my, goodness, it was AMAZING!!!! One of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen!!! It was not at all croweded and was tucked away in the mountains! I couldn´t believe it! The mountains and the beach all in one place! I love the mountains, but prefer the beach, but mountains plus the beach in one package equals HEAVEN! The sand was super soft and amazing, and the water was blue and beautiful. On either side of the beach, there were mountains that jetted up and the water crashed up onto the rocks. It kind of looked like Hawaii. This definitely made up for not going to the lakes. We layed on the beach and napped a little bit, and then I explored the rocks. We were only there for 2 1/2 hours, so I didn´t get to explore as much as I wanted too, but we already decided that we´re coming back next Saturday for the entire day. I can´t wait! It´s going to be awesome! I really hope the weather is nice!! Anyways, here are some pictures:

Then, today we went on a float trip! We took a bus close to the beach we were at yesterday. It was a little river in the middle of these amazing mountains!! We had such an awesome view the entire time! Not onlywas it absolutely gorgeous, but it was SO MUCH FUN!!! We rode in kayaks, which were really a combination of a canoe and a kayak. They were a little bit bigger than a real kayak, but much smaller than a canoe. Anyways, we could either do a 2 person or a single. Naturally, Chrissy and I wanted one together. (We have been attached at the hip this whole trip. We hit it off so well, it´s awesome!! We have so much fun together!). That was dangerous from the start. We can´t stop laughing when we´re together on a normal basis, so we knew we would be dying the whole time down the river. We got in, and they shot us down this schute thing into the river! Chrissy was in the back and couldn´t stear, so we immediately ended up on the bank across from the entrance. Then, I remembered that I knew how to stear from all of my summers at camp, so we switched. After that we were pros! Well, kind of. The river was pretty calm with a few small rapids. We paddled and paddled. We were getting so tired and so hungry! Our lunch stopped seemed like an eternity away! But, we finally got there and relaxed. There was this tent set up with a bar in it. It was pretty funny! Only in Spain. There was also this big bridge that people were jumping off of! It was really high, and they had to time it just right so they didn´t jump onto a kayak coming through! I didn´t do it, because that was way too risky for me. Especially since you had to climb over a rope at the top to jump off. If that rop wasn´t there I probably would have done it, but that was the deal breaker for me. After lunch, we went on our way to the end. Chrissy and I were doing really well until a group of these super obnoxious Spanish people bombarded us. They were HORRIBLE at kayaking and kept running into us and getting us off course! They didn´t even say sorry either! They just kind of laughed and continued to do it. I guess you could call them the rednecks of Spain. It was so annoying, but finally we paddled ahead of them. Then, there was a patch of pretty big rapids. Me and Chrissy went right for them because it looked like so much fun! Well, we didn´t see that there were a lot of rocks. We did an awesome job dodging them until the biggest one. I couldnt stear away in time so we hit it head on. We hit pretty dang hard too! We both grunted and like leaned forward a lot. We immediately started cracking up! We didn´t tip at all so that was good! Then, we finally made it to the end. I think every part of my body is going to be sore tomorrow. That was such a hard work out! It was so much fun though, and I´m so glad I did it!

Here´s us at the finish! Yay, we made it!! Here´s a super ugly picture of me and Chrissy in our awkward life vests before we started. It even had a strap that went in between our legs. We didn´t use it. I couldn´t do it.

This is the river that we floated on and the amazing view we had the whole time. Sorry I didn´t take more pictures of the float trip. I didn´t want to risk getting my camera wet and ruined.

Well, this was officially a huge, fatty update! I hope you all enjoy!!!

Old Paris Updates!

Ok, so I know I was really bad at updating this while I was in Rome and Paris, so here are a few pictures and updates from Paris.

This was the first day we got to Paris. We got all dressed up our first night and took a picnic to the Eiffel Tower. It was SO awesome! This was the view we had right when we got out of the metro station. Talk about dramatic entrances into Europe! First, the Colosseum, now the Eiffel Tower!! It was so cool getting to see it up close and personal!

This was the view we had from our picnic in the little park next to the Eiffel Tower. It was so awesome! There was hardly anyone there because it was kind of tucked away, so we just layed in the grass and enjoyed the view. It was really cool looking when it was all lit up. It seemed so surreal and like a dream! I kept leaning over to Chrissy and telling her that I couldn´t believe we were actually there!!

This was the best lunch of my LIFE!! Orangina and a ham and cheese bagette in FRANCE!!! I drank orangina at it´s source. All of you know how great that is for me! It was wonderful. The cheese was HEAVENLY and Orangina was everywhere!!! I didn´t have to go searching for it for once! I actually enjoyed another wonderful orangina a few hours later while I was on the boat cruise. I took full advantage!

Well, I know this was kind of a boring update, but I figure pictures are more fun to look at than reading a whole bunch. At least, I like looking at pictures better. Stay tuned for more Spain updates! They´re coming, I promise!!!

¨Yo soy Español, Español, Español!!¨

Oh my goodness, last night was one of the most amazing nights of my life!!! It was so much fun and such a great experience!! For those of you who are lost right now, Spain won the World Cup for the first time ever last night...and I was THERE!!!!! It was so awesome!!!! People were going crazy!!! We were yelling in the streets, all of the cars were honking, everyone was chanting and celebrating, it was so cool! They blocked off one of the streets and set up a huge screen for everyone to watch. There were probably a couple of thousand people there. I could barely see since I´m so short and I was on my tip toes the whole time, but it was SO worth it!!! (Even though my calves kill today). After Spain won the game, we went to this huge fountain in the center of town, and everyone jumped in. It was CRAZY!!!! There were probably 100 people in the fountain and then another couple thousand people on the streets surrounding it. People were splashing hard core and they had this huge soccer ball that they were volleying around. I wasn´t going to get in because I had jeans and tennis shoes on and was planning on staying out for a while afterwards, but then I was like well ¨When am I going to be in Spain again when they win the world cup for the first time ever? umm, NEVER!¨ So I jumped in jeans and all. Even though I was completely soaked and miserable afterwards, it was SO worth it. When I got home, my host mom saw that I was drenched and started cracking up. She thought it was great that I celebrated and got in the fountain! Anyways, sorry this is so quick. I have to go meet my group and professor at the cathedral. I´ll give more updates later. Here are some pictures of the madness:

Some Funny Stories So Far

So, I have forgotten some funny stories that have happened throughout my trip so far. While I was in Rome at the Vatican Museum, I was walking out of it and a vendor guy was trying to sell me stuff. I completely ignored him, didn´t even look at him or anything because I didnt want to deal with it, so I guess that made him mad and he said ¨MEOWWWWW¨ right in my ear. Yes, I got meowed at. Naturally, I was like what the heck?! That was SO weird! But then I immediately started laughing because it was hilarious. Another story - I was in Paris and Chrissy and I were in a phone store trying to find headphones with a microphone. The guy working there didn´t speak any English, so we were just looking around minding our own business. Well, he starts trying to talk to us so I tell him that we didnt speak French, in French. Ya, huge mistake. He took that as I do speak French. I kept talking and talking and talking and I kept telling him that I didnt understand him - in French. I really had no idea what in the world he was saying, but he was super convinced that I did. Finally, we just started cracking up and left the store because he wouldnt stop talking to us. He probably thought we were some stupid Americans. Oh well.

Ok, now for some Spain stories. So, my first night here my mom made me dinner. (btw, whenever i refer to my mom, i mean my host mom.) She made me a fried egg and ham. Harmless, right?! WRONG!! I took a bite of the egg and it was so salty that I almost threw up right there. It was horrible! Like, I was crunching salt. I couldnt eat it and I didnt want to offend her, so I just scarfed down the ham and told her I was full. The next day, she made me a salad. Just lettuce and dressing, what could go wrong? Well, appàrently she coats her salad with salt too! So, after that I decided that I had to say something. At dinner the next night, I saw her getting that salt out, so immediately I go ¨NO ME GUSTA MUCHA SAL EN MI COMIDA!¨ (Which means I dont like a lot of salt on my food.) She goes, oh! Ok! She thought it was strange, but layed off the salt thank goodness. Now, everytime she cooks she jokes with me that she´s only using a tiny bit of salt. OH! I can´t believe I forgot to tell this story - when I first got to Oviedo and met my host mom, she grabbed my face and was telling me how beautiful I was. She had my head in a firm grip and kept moving it towards different people and saying ¨Don´t you think she´s so beautiful!¨ She did it to my professor too, which I hadnt talked to much before and he was just like ¨Oh, yaaa...¨ As if I wasnt overwhelmed enough, having a grandma that I just met squeezing my face definitely didnt help. Anyways, Im out of time. Hope you enjoy!

Sorry!

Hey! I know, I know, I´ve dropped off the face of the earth for a few days. I´ve been super bad about keeping you all updated. Sorry! But hey, in a way that´s good because it means that I´ve been busy and having fun! I don´t have time to give you a full update, but here´s the short version: the rest of Rome - great! Paris - awesome (except for the lack of AC and stinky people). I´ll put up pictures and more in depth updates later. I just got to Oviedo and well - it has been interesting so far! On the train from Madrid to Oveido I sat next to this really nice girl. She was 16 and from a town near Oviedo. I practiced my spanish with her and she practiced her english with me. It was really good! Then, I got to Oviedo and met my family - or lack there of. Its just me and an old lady. Exactly what I didnt want, but she´s really sweet and was super excited for me to get there. It was SO cute! When I showed up at the University, she was standing there with the letter I sent her (which had a picture of me) and when I walked up she had a huge smile on her face and said ¨Anna!¨ She greeted me with a huge hug and immediately started talking my ear off. haha! We walked to her apartment which was close to the University (thankfully) and showed me around. I have my own room and bathroom, which is nice! After showing me around, she made me some food. It was some janky pasta that was already sitting on the stove for who knows how long, some old,. hard bread, and some chicken. Oh well, she said that tomorrow we will have something better. I sure hope so! Then, she turned on the TV and it just so happened that The Notebook was on in spanish!! We watched that and then I showed her my pictures from Rome and Paris. Then, she talked my ear off some more and I´m not gonna lie, I understood probably 10% of what she said. She talks SO fast its ridiculous! I told her to slow down, but that didn´t really happen. Then, we rode the bus to her son´s house. He´s in his 50s I would guess. He has a wife and a daughter (maybe more kids, but that´s all that I met). I was so sad though because his daughter was leaving right when I got there. I need another young soul around here! Oh well. Her son and his wife were really nice. They made me feel at home and they actually understood that I dont know spanish that well so they talked slower. We sat around and watched another super sad movie. Luckily it was in spanish and I didnt understand much because it was so sad I was about to cry! If it were in english I for sure would have bawled and that would have been super embarrassing! Then, instead of riding the bus back, we walked. That was a long walk. Especially since she talked the whole time and I still understood almost nothing. I probably covered all of Oviedo in my first few hours there! Anyways, and now I´m here at the internet cafe writing this. My madre made me come in here (I mean there was no objection on my part). She was like you need to call your family and boyfriend! haha! Anyways, I have my placement test for my spanish classes tomorrow. I´m so nervous!! Wish me luck! Adios for now