Things I wish I could have told my year ago self.

As I sit on my terrace reflecting on the last 9 amazing months of my life and the experiences I have had, I've realised what I have been through and if someone had told me I would feel like this a year ago I wouldn't have believed them. Which got me thinking if I could have given my pre-year abroad self some advice, what would I have said...

Things I wish I could have told my year ago self

No amount of meetings, forms or internet articles will truly prepare you for the forthcoming 9 months. You'll be scared, worried and you won't want to leave but you'll be okay, yes you'll cry but you'd worry everyone around you if you didn't. The first few days will be hard and even at the end of your year abroad the thought of going somewhere new will still scare you, but you'll be able to do it easier.

At times you'll feel homesick and I mean that genuine sick to the stomach feeling that you just can't shake but you'll learn how to deal with it, how to make yourself feel better and indeed how to help others when they feel the same. This will make you appreciate home even more and know that when you get back things will still be the same.

You'll feel lonely and isolated but you'll also feel independent and worry free, everything balances itself out.

You'll have some of the happiest moments of your life and you won't ever forget the memories you have made. Well, except those you made after 1 euro wine or buckets of Sangria.

Your language will improve, at first you'll feel overwhelmed, you'll look blankly at everyone who speaks to you and hope they say it in English. But then you'll have moments where you'll think to yourself I can do this, where you are really proud of yourself, you'll handle issues at work entirely in foreign languages, you'll make phonecalls to solve problems. You'll forget that once you used to freak out buying a stamp.

You will make the best friends who will share some amazing experiences with you and become closer to those you already knew.

You'll spend an awful lot of time in airports, on planes and on trains. In fact at times it'll feel like you spend more time travelling than on your year abroad, bear with it, it's totally worth it.

Things will go wrong, just go with it, every experience you have good or bad is an experience, just take it as that.

Assignments from Hull University are going make you want to hit your head on the table, you'll get them done and end up with a pretty good mark, stress less, sunbathe more.

You burn, put on more suncream. You're more ginger than you like to think you are.

It will go so fast. You'll be sat on the penultimate day of your year abroad reflecting and wondering how it has disappeared so quickly, enjoy every moment.

Ultimately you're going to have the most amazing 9 months of your life. Enjoy it.

Someone once said 'The world is a book and those who don't travel read only one page' but someone else once said 'Home is where the heart is'. I like to think through my year abroad I've believed in both those sayings and when I leave I will leave a little bit of my heart where I've been so I will always consider them to be a part of me and a part of my home.

That time I tried to get on a plane...

Well this is going to be a blog and a half...

So last Tuesday I made my way on a luxury Vueling flight* to sunny Seville. Olivia met me at the airport and we made our way back to Huelva via Spain's very reliable** bus system.

We spent the evening, eating and catching up on the past months worth of Miranda-esque stories. On Monday we headed for the beach via Corte Inglés to find myself some beach suitable attire. I don't know whether it's worldwidely known but the Spaniards are not the bustiest of women and so finding a bikini proved pretty tricky, about an hour later I settled for a swimming costume and we headed to the beach. I like to think I embrace my gingerness, but it would appear I am slightly in denial in a 'yeah factor 15 is fine' kind of way. Factor 15 was not fine and I ended up with a back resembling a belisha beacon but a fun day on the beach was had otherwise. 
On Wednesday evening we headed to some of Olivia's friends for pre-drinks before embarking on an ESN night out. For those on ERASMUS you'll know that ESN is a very much marmite experience, depending on your personality and the quality of the ESN in your city of residence. For those not on ERASMUS, ESN is an organization that organizes nights out and trips for international students. Now, I am not a massive fan of ESN Oviedo but have to say that ESN Huelva was a brilliant night out. We wandered home at 6am covered in UV paint from head to toe, grand. 

Due to the 6am finish Thursday was very much a write off, we slept, went to the shop in a sleepy daze and wandered round for 15 minutes mumbling to each other about avocados and custard*** before heading back and having another nap, cooking fajitas and going to the port for drinks.

Friday was my first-last day so we caught the bus to Seville to spend the day there. Seville is very very beautiful and very very hot. We did all the touristy things from heading up the mushroom sculpture to taking photos of ourselves stood next to our respective city benches in Plaza de Espana. We took the bus home before heading to a Tapas restaurant at the Port for dinner.

Now, here began the most disastrous day of my life. So my plane was at 17:00, we planned to get on the 14:00 bus to Seville which would leave me plenty of time to get to the airport and check in. We stopped off to get lunch to eat on the bus on the way and got to the station in plenty of time at 13:30 and went to buy tickets. Then Spain just decided there was to be no 14:00 bus that day. This is when the original panic started, the next bus was at 15:00 and it took just under 2 hours in total to get to the airport. We decided to explore other options, now I know I've blogged about Spain's terrible train system before so I wasn't holding out much hope. Sure enough when we got to the train station there wasn't a train for another hour and it took longer than the bus. At this point hysteria started kicking in and we realised there was nothing we could do except get the 15:00 bus and just hope. So we ate lunch in the train station, walked back to the bus station and got on the 15:00 bus. I mentioned hysteria had kicked in and this came in the form of talking and laughing a lot on the bus to Seville, much to the dismay of an old man who shouted at us when the bus arrived saying we talked too much so he couldn't sleep, he then hit me with his walking stick, oh Spain. Here began the rush as until we reached the airport we weren't giving up hope that I would make the plane. So we ran to the airport bus, hopped on and crossed fingers and toes. Then we hit every red light, the drivers got out and changed, all the traffic in the world appeared, in short I got to the airport 6 minutes before my plane left the tarmac. 

Plaza de Espana, Sevilla

Now this already seems like a disastrous day but I wasn't aware just how many more things would or indeed could go wrong. So we had to wait at the airport to meet Michelle off her plane as she was coming to stay until Tuesday. So we sat for a few hours just wondering why and how I'd managed to miss my plane. Michelle's plane was then delayed by 45 minutes, this caused us to get back to Seville too late to catch the bus back to Huelva. We were essentially stranded in Seville for the night and so began the search for a hostel, on the Saturday night of Feria. Things weren't looking promising but eventually we found one which was really nice, went to find food before sleeping. It worked out quite well as the next day we were able to spend the whole day exploring Seville, once again it was very beautiful but very very hot. 

On Monday we headed to the beach again this time I was armed with factor 50 kindly lent to me by Olivia's friend**** and was determined not to burn. I'm a fool and burnt my bum cheeks and the back of my legs, pretty much the part of my legs I depend on most for you know, sitting on.
The evening was spent at Cien Montaditos followed by drinks at a bar in Huelva. 
The next day I really did manage to leave but not before spending 6 hours in Seville airport, here I am, back in Oviedo with only 3 days left of my entire year abroad, thoughts on that to follow.

 All in all a fantastic sun filled week, well worth the extra plane ticket.

*sense my sarcasm

**again, sense it.
***not together, we were hungover not sick.

****shoutout Simon, much appreciated.

Punta Umbria

Oviedo Bench in Plaza de Espana

That time the sun came out in Asturias...

The first half of this week was mainly spent dining out, and exercising in the usual rainy and occasionally windy weather. Then Asturias surprised us and the sun made an appearance for the first time in a few weeks so we naturally in true British style took to the balcony equipped with suncream and snacks. 

Gijón

On Sunday we decided as it was meant to be hotter than the previous already quite hot day to head to Gijón to the beach. Now, the phrase 'looks can be deceiving' springs to mind as as much of a glorious sunny day as it was, the wind off the sea was comparable to the icy winds of Hull in January. But we were not put off by this and still insisted on sitting on the beach, eating sand infused paella and enjoying the exfoliating sensation of sand whipping us from every angle, before admitting defeat and heading to get coffee. 

We made our way back to Oviedo where there was a lot less wind and it was a lot warmer to enjoy the rest of the day's sun on our terrace. As it was Sunday, despite it being 25 degrees we still cooked a roast dinner and enjoyed it outside watching the sun set over the city. As life goes, I can't really complain. 

Tomorrow I fly to Seville to meet Olivia and stay the week in Huelva exploring the south of Spain. Not sure how well my little ginger self will cope but I am armed with factor 30. 

Happy Monday!*

*I should note, today is a bank holiday in England, and Spain is carrying on as normal, first time for everything.

It's the final countdown...

So Easter is over and I'm back in Spain for the last leg of my year abroad. It's been an amazing 8 months and I've met some wonderful people, had some brilliant experiences and hope my language has improved a little!

So I officially have 16 days left of my year abroad in which I will be spending 5 in the South of Spain visiting Olivia and hopefully finding some sun as Oviedo is living up to it's rainy reputation currently. The rest of which I will be enjoying the delights of Oviedo (read: eating out a lot) and trying to get all of my forms signed, it being Spain could well take me 16 days. 

Hopefully I'll manage to hop on a few buses and see a few more of Asturias' little towns before I leave.

So here goes, the final countdown.

Beaches, lakes, sun and dinosaurs

Ruby is so happy to be with us.

So on Monday once again we were trusted with a hire car. Ruby's amiga was here to visit for the week and Olivia was still here so this made for an exciting plan for a roadtrip. The weather in Asturias likes to let us down but we were not defeated and even in the fog and slight rain we drove to Ribadesella to look at the beach, take stereotypical photos of us jumping on said beach before hopping back in the car to avoid the rain. 

Our plan was to then drive to the lakes where we had been the previous week to watch the sun set. Two issues here; the sun wasn't visable, neither was the road we were going to drive on. Instead we stopped in Covadonga which has a beautiful church on the side of one of the mountains. All was not lost and photos were still taken. 

Ribadesella

The rest of the evening was mainly dedicated to cooking and eating. 

On Tuesday we got up early to take Olivia to the airport to catch her flight back to the sunny South of Spain. Emotions were high as we said farewells at the airport, the main emotion being tiredness, but yeah it was a little bit sad. Then I decided as I was up that I would have a productive day and go for a run before having a shower and going to uni, yeah I went back to bed. I went to uni for 2 hours and then wrote some more of my essay. Ruby then had to go to work, so myself and Frankie went swimming then rewarded ourselves for our hard work with wine in a cute little bar near the pool. 

My best mermaid impression Cangas de Onis.

Wednesday was another roadtrip day and Asturias treated us with a day of sunshine! We stopped off at Cangas de Onís and ate lunch by the river before heading to the Picos near Covadonga where we drove all the way to the top, it was so clear so the views were amazing and the lakes looked almost good enough to swim in. The 'almost' being the sign that said no swimming. The evening saw the return of Wednesday night tapas at Caja and it didn't disappoint as usual!

Thursday I went to a lecture on the Italian political system, I can only assume the lecturer was slightly merry as he slurred his way through the presentation making jokes and chuckling to himself. We then decided to go to the dinosaur museum which is about 50 minutes from our flat. This tale has a sad end, we got there and it was closed. We did however wander through all the giant dinosaurs outside and play a fun game of 'make Ruby impersonate the dinosaur' so all was not lost. We took a detour via 100 montaditos for some food before arriving back at the flat in time to start predrinks for my last night out in Oviedo before easter. The night was a fun filled blur of vodka and jagermeister, the best way for a night to be. 

The best 'Ruby does Dinosaur' of the day.

Today I flew very hungover back to England, took 2 annoyingly loud and full trains and ended up back in good ol' Yorkshire. Here starts Easter! 

NB: I took too many photos to possibly blog them all, see Facebook for more details. Terms and Conditions apply.

So it was my cumpleaños..

I haven't blogged in time because all the things ever happened and I've been busy turning 21. But here you are, the long awaited (I'm just guessing you've been anticipating it) blog of my birthday shenanigans. 

So side note, in the centre of Oviedo there is a big, let's for want of a better word call it a flower bed, in which the date is written in sliced up turf and stones, and it changes every day, nobody knows at what time or by who, well one would presume someone does but let's keep the air of mystery about it. So, the plan for my birthday eve was to go and sit and await the grand changing of the date. However this plan failed for two reasons, it was raining and I drunk a lot of 1 euro wine and fell asleep. 

Then it was officially my birthday I opened all my lovely cards and presents and ate a fried egg, bacon and baguette combo. I then spent the day watching a lot of films and exclaiming every now and then that it was my birthday before going out to a phenomenal Italian for tea and eating all the food in the world, followed by cake. Following the previous nights fail, we decided to walk to the centre so I could take my photo with my birthday date. It was pouring with rain and I got very wet but I think it was worth it. 

Me and my birthday.

Warning the next few paragraphs feature Olivia Mitchell. If you were hoping that you'd got rid of her when I left Paris I'm sorry to inform you all she's back.

So we spent Friday buying decorations and a garden gnome and decorating the flat before I went to collect the aforementioned Olivia Mitchell from the bus station. Many squeals of excitement later we were back at the flat in time to prepare for the grand soirée of my party. Whilst we were getting ready we heard a band playing and a kerfuffle on the street, so we went onto the balcony to investigate. It wasn't what I had first thought that Oviedo had put on a parade for my birthday, it was in fact the slightly more celebrated festival of Semana Santa, or Holy week/Easter.

Many people came, much alcohol was drunk, many games were played, much vodka jelly was smeared everywhere, more alcohol was drunk and then apparently we went out, so I'm told. I had a brilliant night with wonderful people and I'm sure I'll remember it for a long time to come, well apart from the parts that I have no recollection of, sadly they're gone forever. 

The next day was spent 99.9% in bed hungover eating and 0.01% moving (but only really to get more food).

View of Oviedo from el Cristo

On Sunday we went for Brunch (at 2pm) at 26 grados, which does the most wonderful of brunches consisting of a bagel as big as your head, 2 pastries of choice, fresh orange, coffee and then because it's Spain a random glass of Peach Bellini, just because why not? We then climbed up to the Cristo, which is the statue of Jesus on top of the mountain that overlooks Oviedo. When I say 'climbed' I really do mean it, one part is literally vertical. The views at the top are pretty amazing and it's well worth the sweaty climb up and it was such a sunny day!

And that was my birthday weekend. Mucho alcohol, mucho friends and mucho fun*.

*all 100% grammatically correct Spanish.

El Cristo himself

That time we were let loose with a car...

So this Monday and Tuesday the people of Europcar entrusted us with a hire car, and what fun we had! 

This is Ruby's happy face.

On Monday evening we drove (I say we, Ruby drove, we provided the musical accompaniment) to Cangas de Onís, which is famous for it's big Roman bridge. On arriving all of us managed to miss the bridge and drive completely past, on the third time past we spotted it and managed to park. It was pretty impressive, which I presume was what the man who came and spoke to us entirely in Asturian was saying. If this year abroad has improved anything to perfection it's my 'nod and smile'. 

The aforementioned bridge

After a quick helado break we continued towards Covadonga where we ended up however, was the top of a mountain and it was amazing. The views of the Picos de Europa and all the little surrounding villages were just fenomenal. Then it snowed, so we swiftly decided to head down the mountain and drive to Ribadesella for dinner. All of the above accompnied by the finest selection of hits from the 80's and 90's sung at full belt.

We came across this...

On Tuesday evening, we decided to drive up Naranco to El Cristo at the top of the mountain to see the views of Oviedo at night, those who read my Paris blog (Shout out Padres) will know how much of a fan of lit up cities at night I am. Little did we realise just how windy it was up there and it's a pretty good job I ate enough pasta to feed a third world country before going or I may not be here to tell the tale, as fascinating as it is. 

And there we have it, the car returned in one piece and plans for further road trips next week. 

Views of Oviedo from el Cristo

Very windswept selfie with the big JC

Views of Picos de Europa

Our trusty little car

Jamontecas, sexy patos and beaches.

Another week, another blog. The weather was grim to say the least last week and I didn't really leave the flat other than to go for a run until Thursday, where as usual I went to conversation tandem group. Now sad news this week, the people who own the bar and also run conversation group are having to close the bar, which means this week may have potentially been my last group unless they find somewhere else. 

Friday evening we decided to go out for dinner. It being Spain this meant leaving the flat at 10pm. We ate at Tierra Astur which is one of the most famous and most popular restaurants in Oviedo, mainly known for the sidra and tapas, which were both tasty. We then headed out to a few bars, had an argument with probably the oldest man in Oviedo and then drunk some more. Good night had by all.

Santillana del Mar

Now on Saturday I had signed up for a trip to Cantabria, Asturias' neighbouring region with AEGEE, essentially the international students association. This involved me waking up at 7, following the previous nights antics which was painful to say the least however, I made it to the bus in one piece. We visited Playa de Gulpiyuri first, which is a beach to you non hispanohablante folk, then onto Santillana del Mar, which I would describe as a Spanish version of York, which was very pretty and extremely Spanish. We then hopped back on the coach to visit the Altamira caves, or cuevas if you like, which is famous for it's cave paintings, we were given a tour of the cave and all the paintings in it, most of which were bison, following this I started seeing bison in the shapes of clouds and car windows. 

Playa de las conchas

We eventually arrived in Santander which I have promptly decided is my new favourite city in Spain. We arrived at the hostel and dumped our bags before going on a rather dark city tour. There was some form of truckers convention on that weekend and they were driving down the main street serenading the people of Santander with their tuneful horns (read- pissing everyone off). Then tapas. Now, I don't claim to be a tapas conossieur (or the spanish equivalent) but let's say I've had better tapas, and we're still waiting for our jamon iberico to arrive, 3 days later, which for a place which cannily named itself 'jamonteca' was a little ironic. What use is a Jamon-less, Jamonteca I ask? All washed down with a fair amount of alcohol and a man dressed up as a duck, all you could want from a night really. 

Awkward face.

On the Sunday following breakfast we took the coach to La playa de las conchas, or shell beach, which was so very pretty. I should point out at this point that when I went home 5 weeks ago, I left my camera and I am very much missing it, but did manage a few edgy photos with my phone so all was not lost! We walked from here to La Magdalena, which has amazing views of the coastline, lighthouse and a big palace. 

We visited another small coastal town on the way before getting to 'bufones del pría' which is on top of a cliff and is where caves have formed underneath and when water rushes into them, it forces the air out of the holes on top of the cliff and creates a dragon-esque rumble and occasionally sprays water, fun. Then arrived back, shattered in Oviedo.

Last group photo.

Good weekend, great company, beautiful photos.

Playa de las conchas

Bufones del Pría

Bufones del Pría

An OTTERLY fantastic blog post.

Oh hey.

This week Paddy's day celebrations meant lots of beer and lots of pizza followed by lots of judgement in my lecture the following day. Essay writing all week, then myself and Ruby decided to be very organised and proof read and submit our essays the night before the deadline, the long and short of the story is we accidentally submitted our essays on each others portal accounts. After panic emailing every member of staff at the university working in the language department and those with Spanish sounding names just for good measure it was sorted. However not after I expect the language department had a jolly old chortle at our general incompetence. 

Then we embarked on another night out where I made friends with Señor Jagermeister again, forgetting he is the kind of backstabbing friend that punishes you for the entire next day.

Jager face

Today is World Water Day, fun fact. We celebrated by walking to the bus station and getting soaked from head to toe in the pouring rain. We caught the bus to Gijon and visited the aquarium which was, I may add, fintastic*. We were probably more excitable than the majority of the children in there, because it was incredible. My personal highlight of the day was an otter. He was probably the happiest animal I have ever seen in my life and all he was doing was diving into the water and swimming. Let us learn from the otter: happiness is that simple. I did video the aforementioned otter, but fear I cannot show it to anyone as I don't wish to put you through the torture of hearing me repeat the phrase 'I wish I was an otter' 10 times, but you should know, I do. 

We're both over the age of 20.

In culture embracing fashion we went for lunch/dinner at an American diner. It being 5 o'clock which is an unheard of time in Spain to eat, the diner was dead, but we gorged on all the deep fried food in the world and generally loved life. Following the usual 'trying to catch the waiters attention to ask for the bill but being too British to be forward' debacle we were on our merry way back to Oviedo. 

Otterly Fantastic day**

*see what I did there? 
** I know, it's tough being this comically blessed

YELLYFISH. 

YELLYFISH

fish.

Brits abroad.

Madrid and other shennanigans

So apologies again avid blog readers but I have been busy procrastinating and eventually writing my essay.

I've been doing my usual shenanigans of uni, sunbathing, running and swimming and have now signed up to a 10k* so have even more motivation to keep the running going. The weather (I'm British and what) has been pretty good since I've got back, well except today where it has thrown it down for the whole day but well, can't win them all. 

World's smallest lift, worlds greatest faces.

Last weekend I made the not so long but long enough journey to Madrid to meet up with some fellow year-abroaders. Now at this point I'm going to briefly complain about the Spanish transport system. So I live in Oviedo which is 446km (where would we be without google maps?) from Madrid, this is roughly the same distance from Newcastle to London. However, to take the train this distance takes the same amount of time and is more expensive than taking the bus. The quickest route is to fly. This is the madness I deal with on a daily basis. So due to the lack of high speed trains to the capital I opted for the bus which took around 5 and half hours. But what a fancy bus it was, each passanger equipped with their own personal buspad** loaded with all the American films dubbed in Spanish that you could wish for and the journey was quite pretty driving through the mountains of Asturias. It was fairly uneventful except when it reached a service station and everyone got off, I however, didn't realise this was what was happening and stayed sat on the bus until the stare the driver was holding with me became uncomfortable and I decided to leave. Then the bus pulled away, with my bag on it. After a short panic that we might be changing buses and I'd end up in Madrid with not even a spare pair of pants the bus refuelled and returned and we carried on the journey. 

Myself and Olivia were eventually reunited in a metro station in the centre of Madrid and made our way to the hostel. When we got to the hostel all was quiet and the cupboard labelled 'reception' was shut. I panicked, Olivia took charge and pressed the intercom and a lovely Spanish lady came, chatted to us about her English speaking sons and showed us to our room. We headed to KFC, caught up on everything that had happened to us in the last 2 months and slept. Success. 

Alliterated breakfast

After churros, chocolate and coffee for an alliterated breakfast we headed to explore the rest of Madrid wandering round in the sunshine, seeing palaces and Morris dancers, eating wonderful salad, drinking wine, beer, speaking spanish and generally loving life. We also met up with one of my friends from school who is currently teaching in Madrid and shared some beverages, before meeting up with Sarah and Amy, two other year abroading language studying friends. We went to probably the greatest place in the world, I shall explain why. It's called '100 montaditos' and basically there's a list of 100 different fillings and you choose them and they put them in tiny baguettes. Sound too good to be true? Wait, it get's better. They do chocolate bread, with chocolate spread and M & Ms. So once I'd finally got over that dining experience and the fact that everyone in Spain seems to think my name is 'Paqui' we took the metro to Elle's flat. Note brief: 4 English girls speaking in a mixture of French and Spanish on the metro in Madrid causes a few select stares, but is such fun. We spent the night putting the world to rights before a scary and very early morning walk back to the hostel. By this point it was 5:30am and Olivia had to leave to the airport at 6am, sleep is for the weak. 

She left, I slept, then hopped back on my bus and slept some more. All in all a fantastic weekend, brilliant company and the weather wasn't too bad either!

This also marked the third leg of mine and Olivia's tour of the capital cities of Europe that we decided should probably happen, 3 down, 47 to go.

*have you stopped laughing yet?
**actual brand name

Reunited just means more selfies.

JARRAS.

JODER #beckyproblems

Chicas favoritas and also JARRAS.

Miel, Estoy en casa...

I'm going to start off by apologising for my lack of blogging, not that I expect it to have caused a huge void in your life, but just in case it has, I am sorry. 

The reason for this lack of blogging was that I was in England for a week and as much as I had a fun packed week full of all the England based fun ever, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want to read about me walking my dog 4000 times and visiting a fair selection of the wetherspoon's in the North of England. 

Pablo, Aisling and Jo enjoying
the delights of cider street

I arrived back to Oviedo on Sunday after a night with Lenny Henry in Stansted's finest premier inn and a relatively uneventful journey. Settling back into life here was difficult at first, I had got used to being really busy at home and going about my usual English business and forgotton what it was like to not really have anything to do and everyone being so laid back and relaxed so felt very homesick at first. I've realised in my time away that I overthink everything and especially when I'm feeling homesick I think how long I've got left and dwell on things instead of thinking how I can productively use the time I have left. So this week I decided to email a few English teaching schools in Oviedo to ask for work experience, giving me something to fill my time doing. Hopefully I should hear something back from them soon! 

Riding side saddle...

Thankfully getting back into my somewhat sparse uni routine and keeping myself busy with procrastinating from assignments that I really should start has made me feel much better. On Monday I finally managed to officially register at University and was given my Virtual Campus login which naturally didn't work. I then headed to Carrefour and bought enough food to feed a family for 3 weeks, or me for one week. Tuesday I went back to the office to complain about the aforementioned login that didn't work before going to my 2 hour lecture. The topics of this lecture varied from the downfall of Portugal's colonies to Portuguese football players. All in all a varied lecture. I then came back to eat lunch then clean the kitchen before our Pancake night feast which we had invited everyone round for. Many pancakes were made, many pancakes were eaten, success. We then headed to an ERASMUS tapas night and drunk some terrible tasting wine before wandering to McDonald's and I sat on a horse statue. The sign of a good night.

Oviedo in all its sunny glory.

Wednesday I decided to use my day off uni to visit the uni gym and go swimming. A simple sounding task yes? Well, this is me and nothing is ever simple! I managed to walk to the Gym, which is about 30 minutes from our flat, without getting lost. I then couldn't find the right entrance or any sign of a swimming pool so sheepishly walked through what looked like an entrance to be greeted by a friendly Spanish lady who directed me to the swimming pool and told me how to buy a ticket from the machine. I then merrily made my way, ticket in hand, to the pool. The woman on reception took my ticket and my student card and then asked me if I had a 'candado'. I may well have had one, I had no clue what it was! After some confused looks on both parts, she showed me a padlock and I confessed that no, no I didn't have a 'candado'. I was then lent a candado and off I went, got changed and entered the pool area. Where a lifeguard came over and asked me if I had a 'gorro'. Now this time, thanks to his fantastic mime and my observation that everyone in the pool except me appeared to be wearing a swimming cap, I figured out what he meant I confessed once again that, no, I didn't have one and was leant one. The rest of the escapade went swimmingly if you'll pardon the pun. 

Today I hand wrote 4 pages of work for uni, only to later discover it had to be electronically submitted, meaning I now have to type up all my work. This I hasten to add is one of the only things that Spain has ever decided to do electronically. 

This weekend is Carnaval so a fun weekend of fun ahead!

Well well wine...

So now I'm getting more into a routine of going to my lectures in between drinking wine and beer and eating tapas and the weeks are passing by really fast but I still manage to squeeze in a bit of culture.

Following our Sunday dinner extravaganza last Sunday I slept for quite a lot of Monday and revolted at the thought of having to clean up the aftermath of the great mashed potato and gravy based escapade, so we pretended it didn't exist and avoided the kitchen. Monday and Tuesday were mainly attending lectures, avoiding cleaning and basking in the sun on the roof terrace. I know what you're thinking, and yes, yes I did pick the right degree. 

On Wednesday we finally decided to take on Mount Potato and armed with Senor Muscle* and sponges we cleaned the kitchen spotless. Then went to our usual Wednesday night spot at Caja Negra for our weekly dose of tapas, beer, wine and puppies. 

Thursday was lecture filled, well I had an hour lecture. Then we went to the conversation exchange at Lord Maguz. The group of Spanish people that go every week are really lovely, patient with our Spanish and always help and correct which is helpful. This week ended is a rather Scouting and Guiding Jamboree-esque way in that we all had a bit of a sing-song. From blink182 to Greenday and Jason Myraz, the Spanish lost it around this point and a wonderful rendition of American Pie spelt the end of another Spanish evening.

On Friday evening after a day of lectures/ doing work, yurp I did some work. Myself, Ruby and Jo had tickets to see 'Sonrisas y Lagrimas' which is The Sound of Music in Spanish. The whole musical was in Spanish which was good for practicing, even if some of the song translations left a little to be desired. A musical is obviously a very hard thing to translate, for the songs still to rhyme but to also keep the same general message and no song more difficult than 'Do Re Mi'. Because 'doe' isn't a female dear in Spanish. Obviously by the time the translator got to 'Fa' it was all becoming too much and we ended up being delivered one of my favourite lines of the whole show. Fa- es lejo en inglés. Fa- is far in English. It was a great production and I really enjoyed it!

Avilés

Awkward stance.

On Saturday we had a plan to go to Léon which is around an hour and a half away from Oviedo by bus. We met at the bus station in the morning but the bus to Léon was already full. So instead of wasting the day we took the bus to Avilés to explore, which is another one of the big towns in Asturias, about half an hour from Oviedo. The weather was beautiful and Avilés was really pretty. We walked around, I unsuprisingly took a lot of photos and then we ate our lunch by the marina before hopping on another bus to Gijón as to not waste the rest of this sunny day. Gijón is the nearest 'seaside' to Oviedo, is really pretty and has a tree built entirely of cider bottles. We couldn't go on the beach as the tide was in and the waves were pretty huge but we did enjoy a walk along the sea front and a coffee in a café. 

Sunday is a day of rest so we rested. That was my 6th day of rest this week.

Today we did exciting things like go to look for another toilet seat. We've managed to break 2 since being here. I had a lecture on the history of Portugal taught by a suspected 15 year old boy and managed to correctly describe my injured foot to the Spanish pharmacist and got myself some ibuprofen gel.** All in all a successful day, well except we never did find a toilet seat.

*sorry to dissapoint this doesn't actually exist
**lesson learnt children, don't run on an injured foot.

The tree made of cider bottles which 'resembles the circle of life' OH SPAIN.

A bad day.

Today was a bad day. We all have them wherever we are in life and they're over as quick as they've begun. 

Nothing particularly bad happened today, just things that would have usually passed me by without notice were noticed and I missed things I didn't have more. I think being abroad makes a bad day slightly harder to deal with because usually at home you'd know how to deal with this sort of mood, for example I'd usually take my dog for a walk or head to wetherspoons to laugh the day off. However, neither my dog nor wetherspoons are readily available in Spain. 

Bad days are important, as not only do they let you let out all the sadness, the homesickness and the general annoyance of Spain being so laid back when all you really want is someone to sign a piece of paper, but they also as cliché as it sounds force you to look for the good things, the little things that cheer you up, like Yorkshire puddings. 

Today was a bad day, but tomorrow is a new day and I've told myself it will be better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LMVJ2xd1g8&feature=kp

NB: Normal blogging cheeriness will recommence tomorrow.

Things Spain has got right Vs Things Spain need to work on.

So I've been here 3 weeks now and I feel like I should in someway grade Spain's efforts on life so I've created a list of things I think Spain have got spot on, and things they could do to work on. I hope other Year Abroaders in Spain will agree...

Things Spain is doing right*:


1. Sangria
They invented it, it's tasty and it's really cheap. Kudos Spain, Sangria is a keeper.


2. Tortilla
Now Spain does food pretty well in general, but I'd like to draw specific attention and applause to the humble tortilla. This is not the tortilla wraps that some of you are thinking of but kind of an omlette with potato and onion. It is fantastic, goes with anything and given away at tapas nights like it's going out of fashion. Tortilla, excellent, 10 points for Griffindor.

3. Canas
These are small draft measures of beer that usually cost 1/2 euros. Which means you can go out with 10 euros and happily come back with change!

4. Free alcohol
They just love giving away alcohol. On numerous occasions I have ordered a drink then had my money refused. I'm not complaining, you carry on Spain!

5. Free food and cheap food
If the food in supermarkets here isn't cheap enough there's at least 1 tapas night every night where you can go and have free tapas made up of traditional Spanish and regional dishes (including the best of tortillas). England needs more free food.

6. Sleep and being generally relaxed
I like sleep. I quite enjoy ambling everywhere and never rushing. The world should take a leaf out of Spain's pretty relaxed book. 

7. Cider
Asturian cider is pretty unusual and unique. The waiters pour it in a very specific way this is known as 'escanciar' and it involves pouring the cider from above head height behind you into the glass which you hold just below waist height. The majority of the cider goes on the floor, but the bit that ends up in the glass is 'mixed' well and you're supposed to drink the cider in one or the rest get's unmixed and tastes bad. There is a street here solely dedicated to Sidrarías, that's cider bars. Fantastic. Although I'm not sure doing the same with a can of cider on a street corner in England would raise the same amount of positive attention. 

8. Cheap rent
My rent is currently around 140 euros a month. Even compared to Hull that would rival the smallest of houses on Orchard Park, and it's a lot nicer.

9. Street cleaners
Oviedo is the cleanest city in Europe, I know, we should mention that more. This is due to the jetwashing of the pavements and emptying of bins at 3 in the morning, Spain never sleeps but we do have lovely clean pavements. 

10. Old people
It's not unusual at all for me to be wandering back from a night out at 5 in the morning to pass groups of old ladies who've been out with their friends and are on the way home. I want to live here when I'm old with all my old friends. 

11. Shutters
The ability to shut out daylight until the afternoon is welcomed with open arms.

*Many of these are food and alcohol based

Now we must sadly dwell on some of the confusing things that Spain just really haven't got the hang of yet;

1. Opening hours
Don't get me wrong, I like sleep as much as the next person and can see the need for siestas in the heat of summer. But shops close between 3 and 5 everyday and sometimes you just need food in between those times. Uni offices also close after 2, which means I'm yet to see my supervisor. As for Sundays, when you've not prepared for a hangover the day before and have no food in, it's like apocalypse now and you'll find yourself scraping change together to go to a vending machine to get chocolate and crisps. 

2. Bed sheets
Why so many? On my bed I currently have, a sheet, another slightly different sheet, a blanket, another sheet, and a weird thicker not blanket but not duvet thing. This makes getting into bed, out of bed and making the bed quite some feat and usually after getting out of bed and making it I'm ready to get back into it. And as for the long pillows...well.

3. Really tiny tins of tuna.
As an avid tuna fan I fail to understand the reason behind these really tiny tins of tuna. They don't contain enough tuna for anything productive. This may seem trivial but it is awfully odd. 

4. Weird bin times.
You can only put your bins out between 9pm and 11pm. Spain you're odd. 

5. Ham is not a vegetable
Despite not being a vegetarian the majority of Spaniards still think ham is a vegetable, like asking for something vegetarian and been given a sausage. Does this soup have meat in it? No. It's a pork broth. Spain, pigs are animals. 

6. Bells
Bells ring every quarter of an hour. When I'm tired I worry I resemble Quasimodo. 


I think for now that concludes my list, it shall however be updated...