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.