Mi lugar favorito en Oviedo? Calle Uría

Hay muchas tiendas, y no hay muchas personas. Que perfecto :)

ENTRADA PARA CLASE: Hay muchos lugares bonitos en Oviedo, y me gusta verlos. Pero, mi favorito lugar es un sitio no muy turistico. Es Calle Uría, donde puede ir de compras, probar cosas nuevas, y despues puede relajarse en el Campo de San Francisco. Calle Uría es una calle importante en Oviedo con muchas tiendas, grandes y pequeñas, de ropa, comida, y dulces (¡ñam!). También hay edificios hermosos y estatuas interesantes. Me gusta porque es grande, pero no hay muchas personas allí como hay en Madrid. Siempre hay cosas para hacer, y siempre yo encontro alguna cosa nueva cuando yo visito.

Second Excursion

This past weekend we went on our second group excursion to Covadonga, Los Lagos, and Ribasedella. 

Our first stop was Covadonga, which is the evolved version of "Cueva De Doña" or lady of the cave (pretty sure that's what he said). Covadonga is located in the Picos de Europa, a large mountain range in the Asturias region. It was a pretty steep and winding climb for a tour bus! The first sight on the way to the top is the cave with a church built into the rocks above it:

There was a service going on in the church. The pews are outdoors. 

According to the locals, if you drink from each of the seven streams in this fountain, you will be blessed with marriage within the next year

Magical love fountain

Little waterfall

View from the fountain

 It was a little cloudy and rainy (of course), but such a beautiful place! and VERY popular. There were tons of tour groups there. As you drive up the winding road, you can catch glimpses of the beautiful basilica built at the top:

Bad light for photos :(

Once we reached the top, we got to go inside the basilica and get a great view of the surroundings from the top of the hill 

Someone said their host parents got married here. How cool would that be

Beautiful interior

I wish we could have stayed longer, but it was getting a little foggy and we still wanted to see the lakes even higher in the mountains. It turned out to be A LOT foggy and the road was barely bid enough for a huge tour bus. Problem was, there were tons of them coming down. Blind corners, steep drops + no rails, tiny roads, and limited visibility. Scariest ride of my life... We ended up surviving, with only a little motion sickness. Too bad you could only see about 10 feet in all directions! 

There's supposedly a lake behind us...

Even though we didn't get to see any lakes, I kind of liked the walk in the fog :) After the less harrowing trip down the mountain, our next stop was Ribasedella, a small fishing town on the coast. 

Little boats (and big boats) everywhere

Picturesque! 

Bridge to an island in the inlet

La Playa

It was a little too cold for the beach and the caves were closed for lunch (wth right! Everything closes for at least two hours for lunch in Spain. Even grocery stores.), so we just walked around, saw what there was to see, and tried some excellent crab :) Pretty good day! Next weekend: I'm headed to Barcelona for some more Gaudi!

The adventures of the "Pretty Womens" at Peggy Sue's American Diner

I've spent many an entry on the food here in Spain, and how similar all the restaurants are to each other. You can find the same options at just about any bar/restaurant in town, just at different prices and qualities. So today, Alexis and I decided to be adventurous and try some "American food" at the only American diner in town, Peggy Sue's. Now that I'm a foreigner, I finally have the chance to critique how authentic the American cuisine is in a different country.
Peggy's is a little diner decorated like a classic 50's burger joint. The puffy black chairs and booths stand on a checkered floor. The walls are mint and pink, hung with vintage posters of milkshakes and old cars. It's cute, and it more or less looks like home. Part of the menu was even in English, and the water was free! We sat down and (painstakingly) ordered in Spanish. We got cheese fries to start, I got a chicken sandwich and Alexis got chicken strips. The food was only a little off. In Spain, cheddar cheese = nacho cheese, so I had a lovely glaze of "Spanish cheddar" on my chicken sandwich, as well as the fries. Everything in Spain is fried in olive oil, so the chicken strips were also a little off, but still good!

Chicken Strips and Nacho Fries

so much nacho! They just think Americans are gross here!

Everything was going fine until Alexis absentmindedly stared at our waiter a little too long. He noticed.
Many things that we do out of politeness in America are taken as come-ons in Spain. Such as smiling. I realized that we had made the mistake of being too "smiley" and he began to get very flirty.. He kept coming over to our table after that, saying things I didn't understand, patting my arm, dancing here and there, singing the Beatles songs (as much as someone who doesn't know much English can), and telling us we were "pretty womens" (lol!). In Spain it is much more acceptable for men to cat call, whistle, stare, and tell women they are pretty. It is considered a compliment here rather than "being creepy," as it would be in America. He spoke so softly that we could barely hear him, let alone understand anything, so we just awkwardly smiled some more and didn't know what to say...

My "wth is going on" face

Needless to say, it was a very strange cultural experience. The good news is, we got a free brownie out of it, and an invitation/coupon to the bar where he was working that night :) Maybe we'll have to do this more often... ;)

La Playa de Luanco

ENTRADA PARA CLASE: Este es un parte de la playa en Luanco, cuarenta minutos al norte de Oviedo. Solamente siete euros por un día muy relajante aquí. La comida está rico, la gente es amable, y el paisaje es increíble. ¡Muy perfecto!

hace buen tiempo para la playa :)

Costumbres Españoles

ENTRADA PARA CLASE: En la clase de conversación este semana pasada, hemos hablado sobre las diferencias entre de los costumbres en España y los en América. Hay mucha diferencia. Por ejemplo, me sorprendió que en España, es muy raro a sonreír a personas que no conoce cuando se pasas en la calle, y nunca se dice "hola" a desconocidos. En los Estados Unidos (en el parte al oeste) es amable a decir "¿hola, como está?" cuando pasa una persona en la calle. En mi experiencia, los Españoles no dicen "perdón" o "lo siento" mucho cuando me golpean en la calle tampoco. No es necesario aquí.. Este es extraño porque cuando se conoce a alguien por el tiempo primero o segundo (mas o menos), es necesario que se dan dos besos en las mejillas. ¡Es demasiado amable! Pero a la familia, no se dan besos. Solamente conocidos, y no abrazos nada para alguien, salvo su esposo/a.
Pero, hay una cosa muy similar. Los Españoles hacen mucho ruido en la calle. En todo de Europa los Americanos tienen la reputación que son ruidoso, y los Españoles son lo mismo. ¡En ciudades grandes, es muy difícil para dormir!
Otras diferencias interesantes:
1. Se come muy tarde. La comida a las dos de la tarde y la cena a las nueve o diez de la noche.
2. Dice "¡Que aproveche!" cuando alguien va a comer después de las otras personas. Mi familia aquí intentó a enseñar esto a mí, pero es muy raro y difícil para recordar.
3. ¡Se desayuna muy poco! Todos los días yo como leche y galletas para el desayuno.
4. Los jovenes beben cuando tienen 18 años aquí, y es normal que ellos beben en las calles con barras entre de 11 y 3 de la noche, y bailan en una discoteca entre de 3 y 5. Las familias de los estudiantes aquí animanlo... ¡Que raro!

Astorga y León

Today we took a bus to Astorga and León for the first Saturday excursion. They're both in Asturias and have really beautiful cathedrals that are open to the public. Astorga was my favorite by far. The first thing we went to was the "Museo de los caminos," which is actually a famous castle designed by Antoni Gaudí for the bishop presiding at the time. According to my travel guide, no subsequent bishops ever lived there because "it's bizarre appearance as well as phenomenal cost so horrified the diocese." It's too bad, because it's a beautiful building! It has vaulted ceilings and stained glass windows everywhere, so there's a lot of very nice natural light.

No pictures allowed inside this one! :(

We checked out the Catedral de Santa María next door. It's huge, and so detailed!

Intricate carvings on the whole exterior

me:door ratio

We of course had to stop by the chocolate museum.. :) It was fairly interesting, but very small. But I got to sample chocolate made from Peruvian cocoa beans! It's very different from typical store chocolate..
The last stop in Astorga was the old Roman plaza, where we found this park with an incredible view of the valley:

Spanish countryside :)

We arrived in León just as the weather started to get nippy, but the sun was still out for a while. We walked by the Roman wall that used to encircle the old city, and stopped for some lunch at a bar. It wasn't a terribly exciting city. There's not much to do, apart from some shopping and seeing the massive cathedral there. We stopped by when it opened at 4, and made it just in time to take a look around before they closed for a wedding. What a great wedding venue! It's very similar to the Toledo cathedral, but has one of the better displays of stained glass that I've seen so far.

Sorry for the blur. slow shutter + no tripod

Can't say that I'd bother going back to León a second time, but it's nice to say that I've seen it! Tomorrow: chillin at the Sunday market and maybe some sightseeing around town.

More about the food...

So, apparently I eat all wrong. My host family likes to make fun of me because I eat my salad or bread after my dinner. They eat both of those at the same time as their dinner. Then they were appalled that I peel oranges with my hands and not a knife. It's just not as efficient with a knife! Spanish people peel all of their fruit, so they also think I'm strange when I eat a pear or apple with the skin on it still. Most things are not eaten with your hands. I had to eat my sandwich today with a fork and knife, which wasn't bad because it had a fried egg on it (tasted really great too! grilled cheese with fried egg, lettuce, and lunch meat). Everyone here uses that kind of milk that you don't have to refrigerate until it's opened. I guess fresh milk is really expensive, so everyone just stocks up on three months-worth of milk and drinks that instead. Not necessarily drinks I guess, because only children drink milk here. Adults usually only put it in their coffee.
The food in all the restaurants is very similar. They serve lots of "bocadillos," a little sandwich with dried meat, kabobs, and potato omelettes. "Paella," a rice stir fry with seafood in it, is really popular as well. On Monday for lunch my host family cooked Fabada, one of the most common meals in the region. It's a soup with potatoes and lentils or rice, and whatever meat they have leftover. It was pretty good! besides the chorizo (spanish sausage). Everything is just so different!