Blessings

This week seemed to fly by -- especially the weekend. So, on Tuesday, I ended up going to the doctor with our program director, Ana, to have my enfermidad (sickness) looked at. On a side note, I think the word "enferma" holds so much more significance and weight than the English word "sick". Así (So) I will be using that a lot more often. Vale (Okay). So the doctor told me immediately that my enfermidad es (is) bug bites from some bug that stuck on my clothes. That bug then proceeded to cuddle up in my other clothes. Rude: he was not invited. (Another side note, the word for "to cuddle" in Spanish is "achuchar". When you want to make it a command [cuddle me], the word is "achúchame". Go ahead, say it. It's fun. You're welcome). Anyways, I went to the pharmacy and got medicated soap and hydrocortisone cream to put on. When I got back home, Nieves had another woman in the apartment just cleaning everything. Absolutely everything. Then, we took any article of clothing that I brought with me and washed it all at the laundromat down the street. I felt so bad that Nieves had to spend so much time, energy, and money that day. I tried to tell her how sorry I felt, but conveying any emotion other than confusion in Spanish is pretty difficult still. When that was all over, it was nice to be able to breathe again. All seems to be getting better but if any of you feel like saying a quick prayer or sending some good, healthy vibes my way, feel free to. I'd like very much to be rid of this inconvenience once and for all. 

On Wednesday night, I went speed dating with Olivia. Erasmus Speed dating. Yes, I have always wanted to do that. I love talking to people and I definitely didn't do it to actually get a date because, let's be honest (les-bihonest for you Pitch Perfect fans...) I probably wouldn't be able to understand them anyways...I met a couple nice folks. There was this kid from Hungary who only spoke English, so that was nice. He seemed to think I was funny, which is always a plus, I guess. Then, there was this Italian kid who I always see when I go out. He's a cutie, really. All was going so well talking with him! Well, up until the point that I mentioned that I like Chicago pizza better than Italian. He told me straight up, "You don't ever say that to an Italian..." Great. Good going there, Melissa. Having an actually successful conversation with a male specimen and you go and say that. Well, bump in the road, but I don't think it ruined the conversation. Ah well, maybe next time.

On Friday, Elise, Alex, and I left from class to go to Lisbon to visit Helena and her family. As soon as we got there, we began to do things. No resting for us. We went to the docks by the river and ate dinner and drank (a little too much too quickly to be honest). It was such a wonderful time. We ate at this Italian place and I had the most delicious meal I've ever eaten in my whole life: spinach ravioli with bacon. With a couple glasses of wine and a morangoshka (typical Portuguese drink that I remember from my first time in Lisbon: vodka, crushed strawberries, sent from God) already in me, this was a revolutionary and life-changing platter. After dinner, we went to a karaoke bar where Alex and I sang Adele. Why? I don't know, but we did. It happened. There's a picture. After this, we went to Helena's friend's house. Sofia is the nicest and I met her in 2011 when I first went to Lisbon. They were just having a get together with about 10 of her friends and she invited us as well. It was so fun. We sat and talked for hours. I was sobering up, therefore, becoming indescribably tired. We left and returned to Helena's apartment to go to bed. 

On Saturday, we pretty much walked our asses off. We got up and walked around the city until 4pm, when we took a free walking tour that took us even more around the city and up to the castle on the highest hill. It was a really great time. That day, it was Helena's mom's birthday, so we went up to their other house for a birthday dinner with a lot of her mom's friends. It was such a good time. It was one of those times where you just feel so incredibly blessed by the company of the people you're with. I was sitting at a table with my beloved sister, my friends Elise and Alex (who are just two of the most wonderful people you could ever imagine meeting), wine, laughter, and delicious food -- which is exactly what I told you this blog would be about. My heart could not have been more happy and I silently thanked God over and over again for this incredible opportunity, the love and friendship of a second family, and the experiences He's lined up for me in the future. 

Alex, Elise, and myself

The streets of Lisbon

Helena and I

The view from the terrace

The other view from the terrace

The four of us

Lena with Lisbon in the background

Getting Into the Swing of Things

...and no, that's not a typo. Este fin de semana pasada fue (era? I can never tell which tense of verb I need. Grammer....) El Festival de San Mateo y había fiestas in todos calles del Oviedo (This past weekend was the Festival of San Mateo [the patron saint of Oviedo] and there were parties in every street). Hence, "swig" of things. I mentioned in my previous post how Nick had a new English friend, Simon. Well, turns out, Simon has some more English friends. There's a program in Europe called the Erasmus Programme. It's a European program that enables European university students to live and study in another country. There's a ton of Erasmus students here and our new English friend is a part of that program as well.  On Friday, we all went to Simon's house for a tea party. Here, we met three English girls: Alex, Annie, and Olivia. It was so fun. We drank tea and coffee, ate different postres (desserts/cakes) and shared in some great conversation (It's so relieving to be able to speak English sometimes!). Our new friends informed us that there is a special event for Erasmus students that night to celebrate San Mateo and invited us to come along. Of course, we agreed. After this shindig, we went home to rest for a little while before going out at night to the first night of San Mateo.

Well, the Erasmus party. Lord have mercy. First of all, there's a word the Spanish use to describe what we did that night: un botellón. There must have been over 50 Erasmus students (plus us four crashers...) and we all walked to a public park to compete in drinking games. Carried in tow was enough sangria to fill a 32-gallon garbage can (Literally...I know because that's what it was mixed in and served out of. From the brand-new garbage can, to the plastic bottles that once held the orange juice used to make the sangria, to our cups). When we got to the park, the games commenced. Luckily, I'm smart enough to know my limits and when to stop because, if not, people would die. (My teacher later recounted that, on the weekends, the emergency rooms here just line kids up to give them B12 injections to bring them out of alcohol comas. Crazy stuff.) Well, amongst these games, I became pretty good friends with an English girl named Olivia -- mainly because we look a lot alike and our personalities are very similar as well. We're practically twins. After the games wound down, we walked into the streets where the parties were in full swing. It must have been about 2:30 or 3am by this time. We went into this first place (which we'll call the Octopus bar because of the paper mâché octopus above the stairs). It was alright -- I'm not huge into dancing, but that's fine. After this, we went to this place called B12 (yes, like the vitamin). I like this place because there are a lot of Erasmus students here and it's nice to meet people. I became pretty tired, so I headed out shortly after we arrived here. I returned to my apartment at 4am and went directly to bed.

The next morning, we had an excursion with Ana (our program director) at 10am. At this time you might be thinking, "but Melissa, if you had an excursion the next day, shouldn't you have taken it easy the night before?" and to this I'd reply, "yeah, probably... but YOLO". (Yeah, I used YOLO. Get over it). So, here I am, on the bus on the way to see some caves with the rest of my hungover compañeros. Anytime we were on the bus, we were all sleeping. Like, dead to the world, sleeping. We arrived in Ribadesella and walked to the caves. These things were amazing. The first cave was enormous and had a natural skylight that opened up at the top of the mountain. In the olden days, people used to have meetings, picnics, and major events here. I couldn't stop thinking about how wonderful the acoustics were in there and it took a lot of self control to not break out in song just to see what it would sound like... At the next cave, we saw cave paintings that were incredibly old. The natives drew pictures of your standard horses, but to know they were so incredibly old was incomprehensible. By this time, it was around 3:30 and we were all starving. We went to lunch and the van picked us up at 4:30.

Our next stop was a museum recounting the traces of dinosaurs found in Asturias (our province). It was very interesting and it surprised all of us how easy it was to understand what our guide was saying. However, by the end of the tour, all we wanted to do was pass out again. We were so tired. By the time we went back, it was already 6pm. I came home to find a message from Olivia asking if I wanted to come over for drinks before we go out again that night. I told her that I wasn't going out because I was so tired. Her reply? "As the Americans say, YOLO". That's literally all it took, folks. I put my dress on and napped in it until it was time to walk to her flat. 

Two words: Fire Water. That was the name of the whiskey we decided on for the night. It was such a fun night. After we met up with some other Erasmus students and the rest of my American group, we went to the octopus bar. After spending some time here, we left to find another place. However, many people wanted to dance. I don't necessarily enjoy dancing, so Olivia, Alex (English), Alex (American), and I went to B12. We had such a good time. I returned to my apartment at 5am -- which is insane for old-soul Melissa. 

On Sunday, I woke up at 11 to go to mass. I still can't understand a lot, but it's really cool to be apart of such a large faith community. And to be honest, it really doesn't matter what they're saying as long as we're all praying to Jesus. Am I right? After mass, I met up with Olivia and American Alex to get some pizza. It was good pizza -- better than the microwave stuff that I've been eating for dinner sometimes. Chicagoans would kill the owners of this microwavable pizza company. It's a crime. After pizza, Nieves wanted to take me to the beach, even though it was freezing out. Here's a little update on Melissa Problems: Recently, I've developed an allergic reaction of some sorts. There are itchy red blotches on my body and I don't know what they're from. I went to a pharmacy and the pharmacist told me that it's an allergic reaction and he gave me an antihistamine. It's getting better! Nieves believes that sea water can cure anything, so on the COLDEST day, she decides to make me swim in the ocean. I may or may not have been mumbling profanities in between my valiant attempts to tell her in Spanish how badly I do NOT want to do this. Alas, I found my self waist-deep in the ocean with Nieves literally slopping and kicking water on any part of my body that wasn't submerged. This is the point where I confirm the profanity mumbling. 

Also, forgot to mention our cultural visit on Wednesday. We went to a lovely little place in the country with a really nice golf course and walked around. We had some wine at the clubhouse and then proceeded to (quickly -- because we loved sitting and drinking wine so much...) to see a castle. It was a full week, hence the not blogging for awhile thing. Hope all is well with everyone back in the states!

The golf course

My glass of wine at the clubhouse. I'm so proud of this picture!

Loved the color of this building.

The mountains by the golf  course

The castle

Ribadesella

A typical ancient Asturian house

Mountains in Ribadesella

I love the colors of this building

The sea in Ribadesella!

All of us and Simon (English man) at Nick's birthday dinner

My English twin: Olivia

Small Trip, Big Post

     First off, let me begin by saying that I wish I a backup stomach so I could eat everything this country offers me. Thank God Rollins pays for a gym membership, because I'd come home in December and the Discovery Health channel would be knocking on my door for an episode of The World's Largest (insert noun here). The gym here is really great. On a side note, I found that the Red Cross is right across from the gym. On Tuesday, I'm going to go in there and see if I can volunteer there while I'm here! Fingers crossed! Anyways, at the gym they play only American music, think 97 ZOK type stuff. My usual work out is about an hour and a half here. I start off with cardio on the elliptical and do a high-altitude, high-pace for 17 minutes (because the machine will only let me do 20 minutes and I can't read the directions to make it go longer...), then I go to the rowing machine and do that for another  10-15 minutes at a high efficiency. Despues (After that), I do some weight machines (usually 3 reps of 10 or 12). The gym has this awesome circuit lined up that includes lights that tell you when to switch. After the weight machines, I usually do the circuit three times. A little ab work and streching to cool down usually gets me about an  hour and 15 or an hour and a half. So, thank the Lord that Rollins pays for that...That's all I could think about yesterday, when I was eating lunch in the mountains. So, here's the scoop about yesterday:

     I slept in until noon -- a solid night's sleep that was well-needed. It was the first night that I had dreamed in Spanish. I don't remember exactly what I was dreaming about, but I think it's so cool that, even when you're sleeping, your brain is processing the language. When I woke up, Nieves was already at work. I decided that, since it's been raining here the past couple day, I would go to buy a pair of rainboots that Nick and I found. They were €60.00. They are sage green, mid-calf height, and came with a pair of matching leg warmers that poke out at the top. The boots are fabric boots with a plastic covering that make them really easy to clean. They'll be perfect for Florida, too. I bought another pair of little boots that are warm for the coming winter. It's already pretty much 65 degrees here every day. I love it -- fall weather and fall fashion. There's a picture of the boots at the bottom of this post. I instagrammed it because it was my first European purchase other than booze. My dad and cousin Ashley would be so proud...

     The night before yesterday, Nieves told me to be outside the café Titanic (the café al lado de mi casa [next to my house]) at 2:00 with my guitar. We were going to meet her friend Pepita for lunch; an American student who had studied and lived with Pepita three years ago was back for a visit with her boyfriend. When I got downstairs, no one was there. I figured: this is the first misunderstanding of many to come and I'm standing here for no reason looking like the lost American. I texted Nieves to make sure I was right. She assured me that Pepita would be there soon para me recoge (Grammer lesson: para - in order to. recogerse - to pick up. Looks like: 'me she picks up' Literal translation: 'she picks me up') Eventually, I was collected and we drove 15 minutes to the country surrounding Oviedo. We arrived at Soley's house, another friend of Nieves'. Here, we met Isabel (the woman who walked the mountain with Nieves on I the first day -- remember the 'tapas' story...?) and Chispa, Soley's dog. When we arrived, we went straight into the bar and ate lunch. As I have said before, lunch here is huge and today was no exception. s Soley was saying how everything we will be eating tonight came from her land -- including the Sidra (Cider. Here in Oviedo, there is a culture of drinking cider. The camarero [waiter] holds the bottle over his head and your glass below his waist. Professionals don't have to look when they're pouring it. That's how they decanter and oxygenate the cider. The waiter fills your glass and it is customary to drink it in large gulps. When the waiter comes around again to refill your glass, he throws whatever liquid is left into the street because it looses its freshness after sitting in your glass for too long). Soley's family owns a local sidra factory (sidraría).

     The first course was some type of meat and little potatoes. The meat had little bones in it that I had to pick out -- that was a surprise. Even more surprising? Someone had asked what it was and Soley replied "conejo". That word sounded familiar until suddenly it hit me: I learned that word when studying pets, not food. Conejo is bunny. I just ate a rabbit. All I could think about was Easter...and Peter Rabbit. Although, I'm sure if I asked Soley what the rabbit's name was, she'd say "cena" (dinner), not Peter. Still, I felt a bit malicious after that. Although, it was delicious. Maliciously delicious. Second course was chicken (from her yard, which I don't feel bad eating because I despise birds...) in a tomato sauce and there was a plate of fresh tomatoes and a hunk of cheese. I don't like tomatoes, but I tried the cheese on a piece of bread and the closest thing I could describe it as is cream cheese. I'm a cheese lover, so it was delicious. After this course, Soley brought out a large amount of bread (a typical Asturian artisan bread) and a giant hunk of blue cheese (queso azul). At this point, I'm in heaven. I adore blue cheese. So, of course, my full stomach felt empty and I ate that too. After THAT, they brought out dessert: ice cream and a raspberry tart. Yeah, no. I took the tiniest piece of the raspberry tart to be polite but I thought I was going to explode. This is when I thought about multiple personality disorder. If I had multiple personalities, the previous personality would be full and the new one wouldn't know I had eaten so much so I could continue to eat....I don't know if that makes any sense to anyone but me, but that's what I thought about.

     After this monster of a meal, we took a tour of Soley's land. I've attached some pictures at the bottom for y'all to see. We began by seeing the animals. First stop: chicken coop. This was my nightmare. Thirty (30!!!!) chickens were kept in this coop. Most of them were walking around freely in the large pasture, leaving only 2 or 3 around me in the coop. I literally screamed anytime one flapped it's wings and I refused to follow Soley into the large pasture where most of the chickens roamed. If you know me, you know this is literally my nightmare. So, after what seemed like eternity, we left that hell-hole. Next stop: conejos (bunnies). There were about 6 bunnies in there and I couldn't help but feel guilty for their friend Peter who had disappeared a mere 8 hours ago...There were baby bunnies in there and their cuteness took my mind off Peter. They were smaller than my hand! So cute. After the bunnies, we toured the fruit trees in the back of her house. There are eating apples, sidra apples, lemons, cherries, grapes, figs, and hazelnuts.

     Soley told us about the house: her misabuelo (great-grandfather) built it and it is over 120 years old. He planted the customary tree (Tissua tree) next to the house. It is said that the tree is supposed to protect the house. It was really incredible to know that this house has seen so many generations pass through it. We sat and talked outside for nearly 3 hours after that. I can understand big chunks of conversation, but the details are what throw me. We watched Soley make Chispa do tricks! He's been in dog school for 2 and a half years, but he still doesn't listen. However, he can do this super awesome trick where Soley bends over and Chispa will vault over her. It was pretty impressive...They made me try this liquor -- the only way to describe it would be to call it a sweet (like REALLY sweet) whiskey. I could feel in burning a hole in my esophagus on it's way down...After this three hour rest (from eating), we ate some more!! Just a pincho (small snack) of bread and tortilla de patata (it's pretty literally an omelette with potatoes and onions. It's probably my favorite thing to eat, ever). By the time we finished this, it was time for all of us to return to the city to meet Nieves (the woman I live with) for coffee. It was about 9:30 when we got to the café. We talked, drank coffee, had churros with the coffee (literally all people do here is eat. I can't do it. My host mom thinks I don't eat anything and she's not shy about telling me either...)

     After about an hour in the café, I met up with Nick and his new English friend Simon. We had a drink at a bar and just talked. Those are my favorite types of evenings. It was pretty cold out and neither of the guys brought a jacket, so we called it a night and went our separate ways. That's quite a day and I apologize for such a long post! If you made it to the end of this, I'm metaphorically giving you a medal of friendship right now...

This is a view of the mountains from the balcony

This is an aerial view of her house that was hanging in the hallway

Chispa!!

Soley, Nathan (Allison's novio [boyfriend]), and Allison (previous student)'s arm

Pepita and a little bit of the terreza (patio or terrace)

Boots

Tapas

Funny story about the title of this blog. More about that later.

So today was a whirlwind. Actually, the past two days have flown by. Figuratively and quite literally. I feel like I've been away for months. In the past two days, I've racked up a whopping 6 hours of sleep. After traveling for what seemed like ten days, Elise and I arrived in Oviedo and the program director, Anna, picked us up from the airport and brought us to a hotel. After we got settled, we went out for lunch. In Spain, lunch is the mother of all meals. You literally pick two (2) entrees. WHAT. They don't skimp on the portions or the heaviness of the meals either. My Lord. They follow that up with dessert and coffee. Which, of course, is my favorite part. The coffee here is so strong -- thanks to Steph's French Press for 6 weeks, I can now drink straight up black coffee. My host mom thinks I'm a champ for that. After lunch, we walked around the city. If you were to picture the French village that Belle (from Beauty and the Beast) walks around singing that song with the people hanging out the windows, you'd be picturing Oviedo. Except people speak Spanish here rather than sing with you in English. And I wouldn't recommend singing while you walk in the streets like Belle did. No one will sing with you. After the walk around the city, Elise and I went back to the hotel and we went for a run in the park that's in the center of the city. It's not too common to have people running outside (at least that's what I've gathered from the strange looks we got. Those could also be attributed to the fact that I look like a rabid beagle when I run. I haven't figured out which is the source of the looks yet). After the run, we went back, showered, and got ready for dinner. Ana was picking the boys (Alex and Nick) up from the airport and we would meet them for dinner. After dinner, Ana left us and we went out for drinks (I know, first night. Don't judge us). We stayed out until about 2:30. There are "low cost" bars here. They're dangerous --- every glass of wine or one glass of beer is only €1. Dangerous, I told you. We happened upon this square -- La Plaza de los Borrachos (The square of the drunks). That's not the real name, but it should be. Literally, at least 50 people, 50 drunk people, packed into this square with music, loud talking, empty bottles etc. It was a good time, to say the least. Knowing me, you'd ask: But Melissa, you are a grandma. How did you manage to stay up so late? Answer: I have no idea. But it was crazy awesome and I went to bed pretty much the second we got back to the hotel. Old habits die hard.

I slept for a whole 5 hours before I woke up to go to mass. Alex and I went to mass at the Cathedral. It was just unbelievably beautiful and I understood a whole lot of nothing. But that's okay. It'll come. After mass, we walked around for a while and then returned to the hotel to get our things and meet Ana and our host families. My host mom's name is Nieves and she lives acerca de (close to) the hotel we stayed at, so we walked (with my 2 bags and a guitar case) to her apartment. It should only be a 15 minute walk, at most, but I swear my hand was going to fall off from dragging that whale of a suitcase across the streets. I could literally see the Carpal Tunnel forming in my wrists and hands as I walked. Awful stuff. Once we got to the apartment, I talked to Nieves for a while and got a grand tour of the apartment. Here's the lowdown: as soon as you walk in, there's a door for her master bedroom and bath. There is one hallway and all the other rooms are off this hallway. On the left is my bathroom, on the right is the kitchen (with a door at the end of the kitchen that opens to a balcony that looks over the plaza with cafés. There are always people there and children playing. Great view), the living room with the TV, couches, and a dining table and chairs is on the right as well just before my bedroom at the end of the hallway. I'll attach some pictures to the bottom of this bad boy so you can see what it's like in here. After I was settled in, we ate lunch together in the kitchen. Carne asada y papas fritas y ensalada con sandia (roasted meat and fried potatoes and salad with watermelon). Era muy deliciousa (It was very delicious). After this, we siesta-ed. Yes, I did just combine the Spanish word "siesta" with the English form of past tense "ed". So, that happened. I was laying on my bed, looking through my phone, and the next thing I know, it was 10 minutes later and I had just woken up. A ten minute nap that felt like 3 hours. There was drool and everything -- now that's an intense nap.

Nieves and I left at 5:50 to meet up with her friend Isabel to take a walk/hike up to the mountains. We walked for 2 hours. FUNNY STORY TIME: So Nieves and Isabel are talking and I'm pretty much trying to absorb as much Spanish as I can. I can get chunks, but since it's not all clicking, it's really easy to zone out. In one of these zoning out periods, I hear them ask me a question. All I can gather from the question is "Quieres..tapas en Deciembre?" So, of course, I'm all over the idea of making tapas in December. I love food. I say yes. Then all of a sudden, Nieves is talking about how this tapa-making session is actually a 5-hour hike from Oviedo a Santiago. Wait a minute, I didn't sign up for this. I just want to eat tapas. Low and behold, I am now walking five hours to another Spanish city sometime in December. Way to go Melissa. When we walked all the way back into the city, we went to a café for some coffee and had a wonderful conversation. We talked a lot about Spain and Isabel was on her phone googling (is "to google" a verb? It is in this blog...) Chicago. They loved the idea of Lake Michigan and the boats and were fascinated by how many people live there. It was a really nice time. By the time we left, it was dark out. Nieves and walked to where my classes will be tomorrow, and we returned to the apartment. This day has been amazing, but so incredibly long. I feel so incredibly blessed to have this opportunity and it's been so totally mind-blowing to explore this city that God made. He did a decent job.