Photos

Hey! I have a camera now and I just got back from Granada. A new blog will be up later but here is a link to view my photos from Granada for those who don’t have facebook. I’ll add captions soon too.
http://picasaweb.google.com/acgansen/Granada?feat=directlink#
Enjoy!

Oviedo

Hola a todos,

Since I’ve been reluctant to catch up on my blogging lately I’ve decided to update by category instead of chronologically to make it easier. In the future topics will cover my family, classes, friends, food, nightlife, and travel.  This one will be all about the city of Oviedo- enjoy!

The library where on nice days we sit outside and steal internet.

This city is deceiving because on the surface Oviedo seems comparable to any city in the U.S. (except that it’s obviously older than any city in the States). There are restaurants, bars, café’s with wifi, banks, bakeries, markets, and many stores in general. However, the Spanish culture lurks around every corner. Everything closes from 2-4pm except café’s. This is the time for comida(lunch) and a siesta- my favorite part of the day! Also, if I walk around the block I pass at least 10 café’s it seems and none of them are part of a chain. It’s amazing that with so many around that they all stay in business, but that’s where everybody goes when everything else closes in the afternoon or to get out of the house and see your friends in the evening. Oh, before I forget, Oviedo is one of the cleanest cities in Europe- though it’s hard to find trash cans anywhere. Every night the city streets and sidewalks are completely hosed down. We were walking home one night during this and were afraid of accidentally getting drenched! There are a million more big and small differences in their everyday life but I’ll discuss them in the other blogs.

Oviedo’s population is about 200,000 but it’s very condensed, it would probably only take about an hour to walk from one end to the other. Also, there are two towns about a half hour away by bus on the beach. I’ve been to Gijon already but only at night(more about that later in either the nightlife/travel blog) and I’m sure I’ll make it to Aviles soon.

I should mention that my apartment here is nice, and I have my own decent size room. It’s pretty average as far as I’ve seen in Oviedo and Gijon. I don’t know anyone here who lives in an actual house, everybody owns an apartment. I live on the 6th floor of an 8 story apartment building which is seems standard (yes there is an elevator). My apartment building is about a half hour from the University(walking) and about 20 min by bus. We normally only take the bus if it’s raining heavily or we’re running late for comida- we’ve got to work off all the food that our madres try to feed us!

Kayla and I in front of the Cathedral at night

My apartment is in the new part of Oviedo and besides the beautiful fountains that are scattered all around the city, my neighborhood isn’t anything special. The University, however, is near El Antigua which is the old part of town. This is where all the amazing architecture and interesting neighborhoods are. Along with many other interesting buildings there is an old Cathedral there that my art class is going to visit next week. Also, right by the Cathedral there is Calle Mon- this is a street that I will mention a lot during my nightlife blog hehe.

As well as being architecturally stunning, there are many beautiful parks within the city and the mountains are always provide a spectacular view as they surround the city. I’m able to walk about 10 min down my street to the edge of the city where there is a beautiful lookout of the surrounding landscape. On top of one of the mountains there is a gigantic statue of Jesus Christ visible from the city and is always lit up at night as well. This weekend we were supposed to “climb up to Christ” but it never happened due to some other plans that developed and the weather was less than ideal as well.

A fountain near the University

Speaking of the weather… I know you’re all jealous that I’m in Spain where it’s warm and sunny, that’s not entirely true. Though I have to admit, it beats a Midwest winter any day. When we first arrived the weather was not typical- there was snow on the palm trees! That was an interesting sight for sure. The snow and ice have been gone for a while though. The weather here is typically in the lower 50’s or upper 40’s and it rains all… the… time. However, there have been some days with pretty amazing weather so far. And though it rains a ton, normally it doesn’t last the entire day.

On the days that are sunny and beautiful the entire city becomes ten times more beautiful than it already is. It’s the days like that when I severely miss my camera. People have offered me their cameras to take a few pictures with, but it’s not the same. I knew all of my old camera’s in’s and out’s and I knew how to manipulate it to make the picture look exactly how I wanted. While a new camera is on its way courtesy of my parents, I feel that my old one deserves a proper good-bye. So adios my dear camera, you served me well for the all too short year that you’ve been in my possession. We’ve had our ups and downs but we’ve never stopped growing together. That is, sadly, until Saturday the 9th of January, 2010. Rest in Peace dear friend, you will be missed…

I’m trying to think if I missed anything, but nothing comes to mind now. If I think of something later I’ll make a note to mention it in a later blog.

Hasta luego!

Overwhelmed

Buenos dias,

Lo siento (I’m sorry) that it takes me so long to write these. To improve, I’m in the process of organizing a schedule for when I write/post. We all know how organized I am so we’ll see how that goes… haha.

Oh… also I apologize for any random Spanish words that appear here, It’s hard to get them out of your head when you hear them all day.

Anyway, it’s finally time for the good stuff- the reason I’m in Europe at all. Monday was The Day, the day that would determine the rest of my 5 month study abroad experience. It was overwhelming that’s for sure- it still is. And we were finally fully submerged into the Spanish language all day long.

In the morning we packed up and checked out of the hotel in order to go meet our new families. Thinking about it now I still get scared and nervous. Who knows what this family could be like? They speak a completely different language and live in a different culture- how will I adjust? Will they like me? Will I like them? These and many other worries were constantly running through my mind.

The first half hour with my new padres is all a blur now. I remember meeting them and then they drove me and another guy(Zach) studying abroad back to their place. Showed me my room, served us breakfast, stored his luggage until his madre got off work, and then carted us back to la Universidad de Oviedo. I feel like I was able to speak to and understand my padres a lot better that first day than the entire rest of the week. The reason I think is because Zach was there and we were able to help each other out and catch what the other missed.

The language school building at the University where I have all of my classes

And that only covers half of the morning. At 10:30 we were at the University listening to an Introduction Seminar for the language school–all in Spanish of course. And then we were given a test to determine our level for classes. The levels are Intermediate 1, 2, and 3 and Advanced 1, 2, and 3. We wouldn’t find out what we were assigned until the next day.

That’s a lot of stress and a lot of Spanish for one day, and it was still only 12:30pm. Since Zach lives in the same building but a floor below me we stuck together to try to figure out how to get home. Luckily Zach knew one of the other guys, Fletcher, who had arrived and met his madre early and lived right across the street from us. He had walked to school that morning so we followed him back.

The group that I walk with a lot

When we got back my madre fed us comida (the biggest meal of the day served as a late lunch). I should have realized then that I shouldn’t eat more than normal because every meal after that has been huge. She served us so much food, and she it seems like she takes offense or thinks we don’t like it when we don’t eat it all. It’s been one of the challenges that I’ve been slowly working on. It’s gotten a lot better though, she seems less offended and serving me a little less food nowadays. I think it’s finally gotten through that I just can’t eat that much, especially all at once.

It was hard those first few days because I wasn’t feeling very good for the first week to begin with so I never really had much of an appetite. I would only eat half of what she gave me, she would then ask if I didn’t like it- which was never the case- then I would say “no puedo comer mas” (I can’t eat any more) but then she would offer me yogurt, fruit, or a cookie. Everyone seemed to be having similar problems though with their padres too so at least I wasn’t alone.

That first day with Zach at lunch with us we were eating what looked and tasted like pot roast which we eventually found out was made with veal. An interesting choice of meat to me but it tasted the same as normal beef so I didn’t care much.

Then Zach left and met his madre and I unpacked and took my first of many wonderful siestas! That is one part of this culture that I’m definitely going to miss when I finally leave.

Later Fletcher, Zach and I went to go get some café con leche and wander around the neighborhood a bit. We eventually figured out that my friend Kayla lives really close too so now she walks with us everywhere as well.

First cafe con leche with Fletcher and Zach (Zach took the picture)

The days here seem a lot longer than in the States. I don’t mean light-wise, just in general there seems to be more time. We get up for class at 7:30 most days(Friday it’s 8:30 because I don’t have class till 10) and at 8:30 we walk 20 min/half hour to get to Campus. Classes are supposedly supposed to start on the hour and end 10 to, but really it’s the opposite- they don’t start until at least 10 after and end on the hour.  So we arrive around 9, class starts in 10 min. and we have 2-4 classes a day. My classes are always done by 2 but that’s because I’m in Intermediate 2 and all Intermediate classes start at 9 but finish at 2, while all advanced classes normally start at 10 and end at 3. Anyway, after classes are done we normally walk back home  which takes another half hour or so and is uphill most of the way. When I get home I have comida and then normally a siesta. Then it’s still only 5:30 and dinner isn’t until 9/9:30! So most afternoons/evenings we get together and wander around, get café con leche, or find something else to do. Splitting the day up that way just makes it seem so much longer.

The first few days of classes I went to more than I was actually able to take in order to determine which ones I would like best. I finally decided on Grammar, Vocabulary, Art, Translation, and Hispanoamerica. I really like all of them except Hispanoamerica but that doubles up for credit in my major and my gen-eds. I also don’t care much for my Translation teacher as a teacher but she seems like a really nice person and the class will be useful.

Though it’s all slowly getting easier, Monday and Tuesday were very hard. And I admit that I may have cracked under frustration and stress a couple of times. I couldn’t wait to get out of the house the first week because I was scared to talk to my padres thinking they wouldn’t be able to understand me or I them.

But don’t worry, as my madre says- I will learn a lot! And I am. Already it’s easier to hold a conversation with her. Before you know it I’ll be talking up a storm!

I think that’s good for now,

Hasta Luego!

p.s. any pictures in this blog and probably the next few as well are taken by the other students that I know here because I don’t have a working camera yet.

“Adverse Weather”

Hola,

I’m still adjusting to things here but it’s getting a little easier. There is a lot to write about for this first week so it won’t all come at once. And as of right now I’m still figuring out internet stuff so who knows when this will actually be posted.

Anyway, where were we? Oh yea, our second day in London.

We didn’t plan out Saturday as well as we did Friday but that’s the fun of it right? We first stopped at the London Eye again and found out that it wouldn’t be opening all day. That was a bummer mainly because it was also supposed to be the last day it was open before it shut down for a month for maintenance. Good thing we went up the Westminster Cathedral’s Campanile the night before.

Our tour guide of the Tower of London

While we were over there we saw a sign for a boat ride down to the Tower of London which was our next stop anyway. It was a more interesting way of travel to get there, but overall not worth the fare.

The tower of London was definitely worth the money. We listened to the tour guide for 45 min then wandered around ourselves. Most of the time the tour guide was talking we were outside and it was really cold outside. It was really interesting though because I know a lot more of that history than I did when I was there last and I even remembered a story or two that the guide told from last time.

After the Tower we walked a little closer to Tower Bridge to get a picture of it but then moved on because it was rather cold.

We then went to St. Paul’s Cathedral. That place is HUGE. It made the Westminster Cathedral look like a small town church. I was almost a little intimidated by it. In addition to it’s enormity, it was exceptionally beautiful. We were also able to walk up to the first gallery of the dome. It was a really neat experience looking down on a Cathedral of that size. There are two other galleries as well but they were closed due to the “adverse weather.”

When we finished gawking at the Cathedral we walked across the Millennium Bridge and took some amazing pictures of that scene at night. At which point, my camera broke for good.

St. Paul's Cathedral from the Millennium Bridge while it's flurrying.

The lens had been acting up all trip, I think it was because it was out in the cold so much. But after those last few pictures I wasn’t able to fix it again. That was a big bummer.

We continued on to the Tate Modern Art Museum which was free and interesting. However, I can’t say I’m a huge fan-or should I say that I don’t always understand- some styles of Modern Art.

After all of that walking for two days in a row mine and Joelle’s feet hurt so bad that we barely made it back to Hotel! Haha, well we made it and relaxed there for a bit before having a late dinner at a Korean/Chinese place nearby. Needless to say I was excited to get Korean food, though I don’t exactly remember what it was- it was good. We then got all packed up again so we were ready to go to Oviedo on Sunday Morning.

The trip in general took longer than I thought- we flew out at 11am but didn’t arrive at our hotel until around 8pm. But it was ok, neither of us lost our bags but my friend Kayla that we met up with in the Madrid airport did unfortunately. That was Sunday and she just received her bags on Thursday. And a bunch of other people, from UNI as well as other places lost their bags as well. Some haven’t even received them yet. So Joelle and I were pretty lucky.

That night we had dinner with our Spanish contacts here and all of the students from UNI. Traditional Spanish style- we didn’t meet up until 9:30pm and had a tapas style dinner. It was all delicious. I think my favorite so far were the croquetas- dumplingish amazingness!

Anyway, that’s all for now. I’ve finally finished London so look out for the next installment coming soon covering meeting my family and the first few days of classes.

Hasta Luego.

Anna

The Beginning

I wrote this a few days ago but it only covers the first day of London. I will eventually catch up but it´s difficult right now because my access to the internet is very limited(I´ll get into that some other time). Soon I will add in a few photos for this blog later but if you haven´t seen them yet you can find them on my facebook page. Also.. notice the new header? I thought it was a good time to change it from a picture from Germany to one of my new adventure! Enjoy the blog:

Hola!

Wow… what a week! Honestly I think I’m in shock right now. I’m so mentally worn out that I’m struggling to find the words for this blog.

Well I should start at the beginning… yea, I think that would be a good idea. I really should have written an intro to the semester before I left for Europe, but that didn’t happen this time around. For the few who stumble across this blog that don’t know what’s going on- I’m studying abroad in Oviedo, Spain for a semester.

It all started with packing and goodbyes. I have to say, I was more scared and nervous than excited this last week. It’s all very intimidating. Luckily I spent 2 days in London before I came to Oviedo to re-energize the traveler in me and to tuck my worries away for a while.

Nothing too exciting happened on the way to London except that our original flight was cancelled so we were re-routed through Dallas and arrived a little later than we were supposed to.

The portal to the Ministry of Magic

When we arrived in London, I was exhausted and Joelle really wanted to take a shower so we checked in right away and spent some time in our hotel room. Later, we went out and wandered around Paddington(the area we were staying in). We had fun taking pictures and marveling at British novelties like the telephone booths and double-decker buses. We grabbed something to eat at a local restaurant and then headed back to the hotel to plan out Friday and Saturday.

We debated for a very long time whether or not to take a bus tour of any kind but ended up deciding that it would be more efficient and cheaper to go from place to place via the tube. That was the best choice we could have made. Since I had already been to London I knew most of the big sights to see and thanks to a couple of traveling books, we were able to get from place to place with ease and they also gave a little background on the sights so we could be our own tour guides.

Inside the Westminster Cathedral

On Friday we woke up and went to Hyde Park nearby, in which is the Kensington Palace. We then took the tube to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard ceremony- lot’s of people, but ultimately not that special. We then continued to Westminster Cathedral. I’ve been to so many Cathedrals in Europe you would think that they get boring or start to all look the same. But no, I was very impressed with this Cathedral. It had a personality very different from the Cathedrals I’ve seen- absolutely magnificent, I loved that the ceiling was completely mosaic tiles, and at the same time I felt very at home. We then ate lunch and continued to Westminster Abbey. That was amazing as one would expect, and it was nice that the audio tour was included in the entrance price. I had seen the abbey with my parents before but as with the Tower of London on the next day, it meant a lot more to me this time than it did then because I’m more familiar with Europe’s history.

Houses of Parliament

What amazed me was how beautiful it was outside. I absolutely love the pictures of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament during the sunset. And yet, for London the temperature and the chance of light snow created “adverse weather conditions” that resulted in the London Eye being closed the entire duration of our stay. I don’t know what they’re complaining about- honestly it barely flurried when we were there and nothing stuck, and the temperature was cold but not dangerously so.

In addition, on Friday we made it to Trafalgar Square and back to Westminster Abbey to go up the Campanile and see the city because we knew that the London Eye may not be open the next day. We then went to Piccadilly Square to check it out and ended up buying tickets to Mamma Mia! for that evening.

The show was fun, it wasn’t mind-blowing by any means but I loved that all of the actors had accents-not all were British ones though. I also really enjoyed watching the audience at the end because a lot of people stood up and danced with the closing songs- including the little old Asian lady sitting in front of me who seemed to know only basic English. Haha, they made me smile.

After an extremely long and busy day we then returned to our hotel and turned in for the night.

And I’m afraid that is where I have to leave it for now because I’m very tired and want to go to bed. My family doesn’t have wireless internet so I am writing this tonight but I won’t post it until I find an internet source to use.

Still lots to catch up on but it will come, I promise…

Adios!

Anna