Sevilla: Day 2

We began our second day in Sevilla by going to Casa de Pilatos, which is basically a mansion. It was really cool architecture though. I loved the ceilings. Every room had a different ceiling.

The courtyard

An ornate ceiling

That afternoon my parents tried churros con chocolate for the first time.

And that evening we attended a flamenco show in the Flamenco Dance Museum.

My parents come to visit!

My last day of class was Friday, May 17 and the next day my parents were flying into Madrid. So, Saturday at 6:30 a.m., I caught the bus to Madrid to meet them at the airport. Everyone arrived safely, and they found our meeting point, so it was all good. Now, it was time to go to Sevilla! We took the fast train to Sevilla so it only took 2 1/2 hours. The first night we basically just got settled in and found supper and that was it.

The next day, we went to the Cathedral in Sevilla. This is where Christopher Columbus is buried. Part of the Cathedral, called La Giralda, used to be a minaret, but was converted to a bell tower for the cathedral. The majority of the way up was a ramp and then there were a few stairs to the top.

Christopher Columbus' tomb

The view of Sevilla from the top of La Giralda

A courtyard of orange trees in the cathedral

After lunch, we headed towards the Plaza de España. A scene for Star Wars Episode I was shot here. I thought it was so beautiful, and it was probably my favorite thing in Sevilla. It is just so pretty!

You could rent row boats in the little canal.

There were mosaic depictions of all the major cities,
and here I am posing in front of Oviedo's mosaic.

Nathan Comes to Visit!

My friend Nathan who was studying in Salamanca spring semester, finally came to visit me my last weekend in Oviedo after I visited him in February. :) You can read his account of the weekend here. He picked a good weekend to visit because, not only did it barely rain all weekend, the Feria de la Ascención was going on as well.

Nathan arrived Friday evening. I helped get him settled in to his hostel, and then we walked around my university campus and then met some of my fellow UNI students to go out.

The next morning, I met Nathan at his hostel so we could hike the El Christo. We were really lucky that it wasn't rainy that weekend, because Oviedo isn't a super big tourist destination. The hike took about 4 hours to go up and back down.

There are a couple of really old churches on the route up the mountain.

The view of Oviedo from the top.

I didn't notice the first time, but there are a bunch of locks on the fence around El Cristo.

That afternoon we check out the Feria a little. It was basically a huge market with one plaza filled with booths selling crafts and one plaza filled with booths selling cheeses, sausages, honey, and other types of food. We also ducked into the cathedral to take a peek, and that night met up with our UNI friends again so that Nathan could try sidra (cider), an Asturian specialty. And then, on Sunday, Nathan headed back to Salamanca.

The Final Weeks in Oviedo

I apologize for the long delay in blogging. Everything's just been kind of crazy with coming back home and working all the time. BUT, I am determined to get all caught up this week. So, here we go!

As some of you may know, I gave English lessons throughout the semester. There was a group of two 9 year-olds, a group of three 8 year-olds, including my host sister, and one 5 year-old girl. They all lived on my block and my host mom was the one who hooked me up with the gig. I really enjoyed the opportunity to put my teaching skills into action!

My last week of English lessons was my second-to-last week in Oviedo. I made sure to take pictures with all the girls before I left.

One of my 9 year-olds. The other girl couldn't come that day.

My 5 year-old.

2 of my 8 year-olds and one of their little sisters.

All of my 8 year-olds with the little sister.

Me and my host sister.

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!