Soccer Game

One weekend in February, Olivia, Christi, Ali and I went to a Real Oviedo game with Olivia's dad who is visiting, Christi's hostdad and Christi's hostdad's friends. Apparently the Oviedo team is very bad, or that is what everyone kept telling us. But, they didn't lose the game! It was a tie, 2-2.

Even though Real Oviedo is not a very good team, they have a very dedicated fan section that was chanting and waving flags nearly the whole time.

Afterwards we went to a couple of different sidrerías and got a lot of practice speaking Spanish!

A couple of weeks later, we went to another game, which we actually won!

My Walk to School

*Note: I'm now going to publish a couple of entries that I was working on previously and never got published. Also, this pictures were taken on the ONE day it snowed in Oviedo.*

Everyday I walk about 10-15 minutes to get to school.

I go down my street and cross the street to the Hotel Astures.

You can kind of see in this picture what I mention later about
there being a stoplight for both sides of the crosswalk.

Then across the perpendicular street to a tattoo parlor.

It honestly took me 1 1/2 months to even notice what it said.

Follow that street and go around the Spanish Red Cross.

Cross the street to a furniture store, around that corner, along the wall full of graffiti, cross another street and then you’re basically on campus.

Something different about Spanish stoplights is that there are no buttons to push to cross the street. Everything is just on a timer. Also, since the streets are by no means in a perfect grid, sometimes there is a stoplight on both sides of the crosswalk, so a car could start turning, but then would have to stop in front of the crosswalk. And, also because the streets are not in a grid, I often have to go out of my way.

I really enjoy my walk to school, especially when it’s not raining. One of my favorite things about Spain is seeing all the parents with baby strollers and the parents walking their kids to school. Often the parent will carry or roll their child’s backpack for them, and I think it’s really adorable to see a dad carry his daughter’s pink backpack.

Something that's really different here is my attitude towards walking. At UNI when I would have to walk 15-20 minutes to get back to ROTH from campus, I would be really annoyed and feel like it was a waste of time. Here, it's normal to have to walk that much or more to get places. So, I wonder if my attitude will change back to what it was when I return to the U.S. and my schedule gets busier or not.

A Day Trip to León

The first of May is Labor Day in Spain, and we didn't have classes, so Tucker and I took a little trip to León, which is just under 2 hours away by bus.

The main thing to see in León is the Cathedral and that was what we did first. Audio guides came with our admission fee, and I thought they were really good. The really cool aspect of this cathedral in particular is the stained glass windows. There are 1,800 square meters of stained glass!

Another landmark in León is a work by Gaudí, Casa de los Botines, which is now a bank.

Me with the statue of Gaudí

One interesting aspect to the day was, since it was Labor Day, there were unions marching and holding rallies.

León is a really nice place to take a day trip and I'm glad we took the chance to go!

Barcelona: Part 2

Saturday it rained on and off all day, but we still persevered and took a free Gaudí walking tour. The first stop was Palau Güell.

This was the mansion that Gaudí designed for Eusebi Güell.

The next was Casa Batlló. This was commissioned by the Batlló family and can be interpreted in different ways. I believe the most popular one is the story of St. George slaying the Dragon. The roof looks like the scales of a dragon. At the bottom, it looks like the bones of whatever the dragon has eaten. The cross on top is supposed to be St. George's lance.

Casa Batlló is on the right and you can compare the style of Gaudí
with the style of  Cadafalch who designed Casa Amatller on the left.

Up next was Casa Mila, which is also known as La Pedrera, which means The Quarry. 

Also in this area of town, the sidewalks consisted of these tiles designed by Gaudí.

Finally, we went to see La Sagrada Familia, Gaudí's undoubtedly largest work. The construction began in 1882 and it is not scheduled to be finished until 2026. 

There are three different sides to La Sagrada Familia that tell three different stories. This one is the Birth of Christ.

This side is the Death of Christ and contains the 14 Stations of the Cross.

And this final side is the least complete. It will be the main entrance to the church and is the Resurrection of Christ. Eventually there will be a bridge leading to the door so you can 'ascend' and the facade will feature clouds.

I really enjoyed seeing Gaudí's designs throughout Barcelona and once La Sagrada Familia is finished, I plan to come back!

Barcelona: Part 1

The last weekend of April I took my last major trip before my parents come to Barcelona. Unfortunately, we picked the one weekend that it was rainy in Barcelona. It was pouring Thursday evening when we arrived so we just ran to the grocery store for supper and then spent the rest of the night in the hostel.

Friday we decided to take a free Old City tour. Here are the highlights of our tour:

Santa Maria del Pi - This rose window is one of the biggest in Europe

Our tour guide explained the process to make designs like this on a building.
First, you cover it with the white plaster, then with the red plaster.
Then, the design is carved into the plaster.

This is the flag of those who want Cataluña to be an independent country.

The flags of Cataluña, Spain, and Barcelona

This is a sculpture made to represent the traditional Barcelona 'Human Towers.'

Human Tower   Source

This is in the courtyard of the Cathedral in Barcelona.
The Cathedral is dedicated to Eulalia of Barcelona.
13 geese are kept there to represent the 13 tortures she suffered at the age of 13.

Remains of Temple of Augustus, a Roman temple

Those stairs apparently were featured in paintings of Ferdinand and Isabella
receiving Columbus, but it was not actually where they met him.

After the tour, we sat by the pier and ate lunch.

That afternoon, we took advantage of it not raining and went to Parc Güell. Parc Güell was designed by Gaudí  and was originally going to be a park full of houses of the wealthy people of Barcelona. But, only three people ended up building houses there: Gaudí, Güell, and their lawyer friend. Parc Güell reminds me of Candy Land.

These are two of the houses.

The famous mosaic salamander

To finish the night, we went to the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc fountain show with music and lights. At the beginning it was still pretty light out, but as it got darker and you could see the different colored lights better, it was cooler.