Boy, has time flown by since I've been in Oviedo. I can't believe it's already November 2nd! To conclude from my previous blog post, my most wonderful and loving mother sent me a care package with all sorts of pumpkin things. I've been baking about once a week and my host family absolutely loves it! If you couldn't tell, pumpkin isn't too popular around here, so when my host family tasted pumpkin bread and pumpkin bars (with a gingerbread crust) they loved it. In fact, not two hours after I had made the pumpkin bars, half of them were gone. Chielo (my host mom) asked if I ate them! When I told her "no", we deduced that the son had devoured them - the quiet, stealthy son. It's always the quiet ones...
Things here in Oviedo are fantastic! It's beginning to rain a lot here now. My paragüas (umbrella) is not strong enough and has turned inside out a couple times now. Classes are going well. We're in the "mid-term" part of classes so many professors are giving us midterms or papers that we need to turn in. I have a Vocabulary exam on the 7th (which I still need to make flashcards for...), an art history paper that's due on Nov. 22nd, a Hispanoamerica essay (which, I actually don't know when that's due...), and a poem that's due on Monday. I sat in a café all day yesterday (well, all day meaning when I actually woke up at 2pm until 8pm) to work on my art history essay. I'm hoping to finish it today. Other than those obligations, classes are easy and nothing really new to report on the school front.
Last Saturday, our group went to Covadonga. I absolutely love it here. This town is in the mountains and the big things to see are the mountain lakes and the chapel that's built into the side of the mountain. I love it here. As you walk up the mountain, you are literally surrounded by goats and horses and cows with their bells and their sounds. It's straight out of The Sound of Music. It was pretty cold and windy up there, but it was so absolutely worth it. This is the perfect place to take a picnic and just sit there for a while. Absolutely stunning.
Alex, Nick, Elise, and I - we decided this would be
our Christmas card this year.
After we were enamored here for awhile, we travelled to the chapel. This is the spot where, supposedly, the Virgin Mary appeared to the King of Spain and, from there, he won the Battle of Covadonga. Outside the chapel, there is a fountain with seven spouts. It is urban legend that, if one drinks out of every spout in one breath, they will be married in a year. So you better believe that I was up there drinking from those spouts! Just another thing keeping me single: my torso was too short to adequately reach the spouts - so I used my hands to cup the water and drink it from there. Hopefully that works too...
La Santa Cueva - The Sacred Cave
I'm laughing because I can't reach the spouts. My life.
The Basilica can be seen behind the statue. I love this picture.
Oh! So things are going very well with teaching Miguel! Last week, we were playing with magnetic words and putting them into sentences. I would make one and he would make one and then we would share them with each other. I was peering through his English workbook to see what topics would be coming up in the next coming weeks when he tapped me on the shoulder and said (in broken English), "Melissa, I wrote a sentence about you". I looked down at the table and this is what I saw:
"I love this girl" - tell me he isn't the cutest nug you've ever seen. Love you too Miguel!
I also have just started working with a woman who lives in the house right below mine. Her name is María and she wants to practice speaking in English. She's taking classes at the Escuela Oficial de Los Lenguas (Official School of Language - owned and operated by the Spanish government). We had our first hour-long session today and it went really well! I look at the topics that she is studying this year in the class and ask her questions. For example, today we talked about learning languages, family, and hobbies. She is can get the point across, but needs help with fluidity. Also, she told me that she needs a lot of help with the writing part of the language, so I told her to keep a small diary in English and I can correct it every week. I really enjoy talking to her (well, talking in general - getting to know people, etc.) so I really, really like doing it. She pays me €13 an hour and we are going to meet twice a week. I really hope to help her improve her language.
Speaking of improving language, I now have a conversation partner from the university! Her name is Olaya and she's awesome. Alex's conversation partner, Alberto, is really good friends with Olaya, so we often hang out together. It's really great to have Spanish friends. We went out last weekend to play a game (pretty much the equivalent to America's Quarters). You have four short glasses (not shot glasses, but not big enough to be normal glasses) and you use the 5 centivos coin to bounce it off the table and into the glasses. Each glass is one point and, if you get it in the center of the four glasses, you get four points. Each point equates to half a glass. When you miss, you count up all the points you've made so far and equate that to glasses (i.e. If I make three coins into the cups and one in the middle, that equates to 7-half glasses (4 for the center and 3 for each of the coins in the cups). I can either choose to drink it all myself or distribute the drinks to the other players. The game is traditionally played with a drink called calimocho - it is a mixture of red wine and Coca-Cola. It sounds gross, but trust me, it's not. The bar mixes it in a watering can and then you pour it into paper cups. This makes it easier to pour into the small glasses. It's hysterical and I was surprisingly good and it! We went out on Thursday because it was Halloween! I didn't really have a costume, so I wore my black flats, lace tights, a leather skirt, a grey shirt with a white lace collar, a grey cardigan, and a grey woolen headband. It was very subtle (mainly because I didn't have anything else to do...), but I was 50 shades of Grey. Yeah, no one got it. But, pasélo bien (I had a good time), and that's really all that matters.
Yep, there ya go. That happened.
Olaya and I on a night out
Olaya, myself, Alberto, y Alex
That's pretty much it for Spanish news! I do want to leave you with something though: I've recently seen research on what makes people happy. I know, it's a strange topic to research, but I found it interesting. Research shows that, people who recognize the little things, the everyday blessings, and the people who feel grateful, tend to be the happiest. Since Thanksgiving is this month, I decided to start a list called 30 Days of Grateful. At the end of the day (or the next morning) I think about the day and write down a couple of things I'm grateful for. At the end of the month, think about how many wonderful things you'll have written down! It's a great way to visually recognize the little gifts God has given you. For example, yesterday's list reads, "Nov. 1st - Today I'm grateful for motivation, productivity, and coffee". I challenge you (if anyone's actually still reading my blog...I wouldn't blame you if you weren't!) to start your own list. I'm going to post mine at the end of November and I would LOVE to see what you're all thankful for as well!
Until next time!
Melissa
xxx
