Thanksgiving and Segovia, One Week Recap

Dude, totally celebrated Accion de Gracias in Spain! We all gathered in my favorite cafe, KIN, and ate lots of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and drank SANGRIA! Carmen was all, it’s “nonalcoholic”, which I suppose was because she couldn’t technically give her 19-22 year old students alcohol for Thansgiving dinner. Ha! I love Spain. Carti, the camerero, was very confused about the nature of the food he was serving us–the stuffing really perplexed him. But I got to feed my face and hang with friends while chatting in espanol, so I’d call Spanish Thanksgiving a success.

Took a trip to Segovia this weekend, and promptly froze to death. Brrr, I dislike snow landing on my head. Anyhow, Segovia is a cute little town with a huge aqueduct and lots of old buildings–which I got to explore. Also saw St. Teresa’s 500 years old finger–eww. But onto the recap.

Got to Segovia Thursday and went out looking for fun, which was decidedly lacking for a bit. But we found a little bar (actually Mike ran into a promoter girl who dragged us there) and I got all-you-can-drink for 4 euros, which rocked! Even if it was just calimochos and San Miguel (beer). Compare that to Jesse’s tire wine or Mike and Sam’s 4 euro shitty whiskys, I think I scored.

Friday we saw cathedrals and a freaking castle! Climbed up to the roof and took pics. I also was testing the swords in the armory and making disparaging comments about their practicality. I wonder if not seeing the No Toca sign counts as innocence? Friday night was interesting, with us hanging in the hostel for a bit. Lindsay, Sarah, and I found these 3 Spanish soldiers, Alba, Luis, and I forget his name. They were chilling there on leave, and the guys were very keen on hooking up Alba and Mike, much to his embarassment/delight. (He had the fortune of seeing Alba walk out of the shower and he almost fainted, ha) We all met up at a disco, called Toys of all things. Jesse and I kicked ass on the dance floor, though the DJ should have shut his face. And then the underwear dancers came out, about 5 minutes after Sam and Mike bailed–they were cute, and proceeded to dance onstage, in their pink bras and the like. I was not impressed by the dancing moves, and was waiting for the big black bouncer to smash someone across the room.

Saturday was Avila day, aka I saw a ancient city wall, looks of old stuff, and made sarcastic comments all day because I had a headache (caffiene withdrawls and slight hangover don’t mix). But Saturday night rocked! Sadly our soldiers had moved on, but we compensated by playing Kings Cup! Hells yes, so much fun, especially when you have to snort every time you laugh, can’t touch your face, and I had a line of mates following my drinks, ha! And Keith “won” the right to drink flat beer mixed with coke and whiskey, ugh vomit. I happily drug many others out of the hostel, away from grumpy professors who would yell at their drunk asshole students. We went dancing, found the end of an indie rock concert, and I got to bed at 2 a.m.

Wake up was too early, but I made the bus, got back to Oviedo, and starting writing and homeworking. So much fun, and this fin I’m going to Italy!

Oh, my favorite part of the weekend: Prof. Nichole calling Alba a prostitute for wearing red heels and a tube dress. Dude, it’s Spain! People dress up. And if I had been wearing camo-pants for months straight, I sure as hell would dress up when I got the chance.

Dance all Night!

Muscles are sore. Muscles are very sore.

Saturday Jess y yo decided to hop a bus to Aviles to see what we could find. Of course, we got off the bus and promptly headed in the wrong direction—toward the slightly ghetto and boring part of town. Yet luck was with us after all. I saw cute little ducks! And a strange sort of swamp, with a huge pumpkin patch.

But the best part was the beach, which was the best one I’ve seen in all of Spain so far. Gorgeous and totally deserted, with the exception of some crazy surfers out in the agua and fishermen hanging off the rocks. There was this cool rock face jutting out into the bay, which we decided to explore and take pictures off of. I also saw a posidean-isque sculpture poking out of the rocks.

Now comes the whining. I walked for a good couple miles in Aviles, got home, walked home and to Isla de Cuba, and back home. Now this isn’t too bad for a day’s work, but I then decided that Saturday is not complete without a bunch of dancing. I was tired, so after dinner I took a nap (note, this nap encompassed more than 2 hours, from 10 till after midnight). Sadly my nap was rudely cut short by Jesse calling to wonder where the hell I was.

Dancing, dancing dancing, and la vida de la noche en Oviedo.

I saw some guy dancing around Plaza de Sol topless. And met many Spanish people, as well as “Doctor” Mateo, a guy with uber-dreadlocks who seems to know half the town, gee I wonder why? HA.

Went to Funky Room for a long time, danced forever with all the people and then moved onto Studio18, where the music was all in Spanish and not very good. At this point, the group had dwindle to Brit, yo, and Jesse, with us heading off to Salsipuedes, a disco that’s the place to be once all the bars close down. Luckily we made it before the mad rush of closing time, and got to dance on the third floor (yep, it has three floors of dancing fun).

I got home a little after 6:00 a.m., which is a new Oviedo record for me, though not the best I’ve ever done (see Barcelona). Fun fun fun, now let the homework begin.

 

*Touch my Balls*

Wow, it’s been a bit. So all my adoring fans are doubtless horribly depressed that I haven’t been updating, right? Ha, like anyone even noticed.

Newsworthy events:

I got my charger! Ergo my computer works. Ergo I stopped using the computer lab that smells like stale cigarettes. Now to hope that this one doesn’t fry itself in the next few weeks.

Climbed the mountain the other day to see the giant Jesus statue. What a giant hike that was, 2+ miles uphill, with cars wizzing down the road around me, and the sky getting darker and darker. Of course, I missed the bus by 8 minutes, even though I literally sprinted down the last few minutes of trail. I had to freeze my ass off waiting at the bus stop for an hour. But my Camboyanas ran into a herd of cows. They were scared. Because the cows had horns. Oooh, scary.

Got free cider and roasted chestnuts last weekend. Also had loads of fun dancing and generally raising hell with mis amigos.

Rodrigo the Professor got sidetracked from explaining Spanish idioms, to complaining that his girlfriend of some 20 years refuses to marry him. Ha! He looked so annoyed, because she said no,  it wasn’t worth the trouble. Now he either refers to her as his companera or mujer (roommate and wife respectively) and doesn’t seem sure which label to use. Ha, so cute. Poor Rodrigo…

Last night went out to celebrate Jueves de Sed (damn, Thirsty Thursday doesn’t sound as good in espanol). Tochas and dancing, especially awesome. I met some cool Aussie chick and Logan decided that everyone had to try Tocame los Huevos* which were ubersweet but fun ’cause you top them with a lemon and slam the shot onto the bar to shake it up. In other news, the hot pink scarf of awesome dancing has reared its powers again. After making Jesse dance with it last week (soo maricon tio), which he enjoyed, I got Logan to do so as well. There is something profoundly awesome in getting straight guys to dance with a bright pink scarf in a club full of people. This scarf has some awesome powers, or perhaps it was the tequila shots? I also got to join in a Grease sing-a-long, which is awesome in Spain.

And now the weekend begins, let the chaos start!!

Time Is Perversely Speeding Up

FML, is all I have to say. So, after months of working properly, some dipwad in the banking business decided to screw me over. I went down to the ATM Wednesday morning and the machine decided it needed a snack, and ATE MY CARD! Bad enough, so I went to complain in spanish, determined that the fault lay with Bank of America, then called them up and was informed that, of course, it wasn´t their fault. Passing the buck, nice jerkwads but I want my money. Now, I gotta wait 2 weeks for a new card, which is slightly problematic as I have like 10€ cash right now…

Still I can have fun with no money, though I bought new shoes, hehehe, and they really hurt my feet (note, this occured before the vanishing card). Also, yesterday went on a wander with Lindsay through the sketchy part of Oviedo. I saw fields and horses! Seriously, only in Europe can the outskirts, aka redneckville, be so close to a functioning metropolis. We´re not talking a few minutes on the freeway; this was only like a 10 minute walk from city center. Wednesday night we hung at the snake bar and drank cider. Boys are funny, especially when they´re all planning how to pick up Spanish girls and asking the only female at the table (me) for assistance.

Thirsty Thursday takes on a whole new meaning in Spain, and we all met for salsa dancing about 11. That wasn´t happening, so we moved on to the next door bar and spend a couple hours chilling there. Dude Logan, getting cheek kisses from the bartender, and dancing with her is not as cool when she´s your mom´s age–though I suppose getting free drinks makes it worth while. Wandered to other places, including the infamous B12 and the plaza where we danced to bad guitar playing and homemade bongo drumming. Other highlights include Keith forgetting his jacket in the bar, and calling me 10 times to check if I had it, Suphorn buying her Co-ron-ee-ta while everyone else had twice as much cereza, me and Samantha doing backbends in the bar, and Logan getting picked up and slung over the shoulder of tall basketball player–tío don´t be pissed at me for not helping you out. It was funny.

Course, during all this, I knew that I had class at 10, wherein I had to give a presentation. Fun fun fun, at least it wasn´t a test. And my English major skills mean I can very easily BS whatever I need to say, even in Spanish.

Let the weekend begin! Let there be beer, vino, cider, and music! I will dance till dawn one of these days.

Bullets…

So, things of interest this week.

-I hate midterms, specifically in medieval Spanish classes

-Who woulda thought that I´d get to read about witch trials in Spain? Wow, so totally surprising…NOT

-María thinks I´m a total airhead for continously misplacing my stuff. To date in Spain I´ve lost my water bottle, sunglasses, conditioner and soap, and sadness, the gray jacket that I have lived in for the past two years. Oh well, excuse to buy a new one, haha.

-Nanoing without an active laptop is hard. I´m like really behind, but I am determined to hit 50.000 words by the end of November. Lauren, prepare to lose!

-I finally finished Lord of the Rings, coolness. Now my fantasy nerdishness is complete.

-My boots leak, my shoes leak, my feet are constantly wet. Crap! Must find a practical sol´n cause I´m tired of having soggy toes.

Bullets now ended. This weekend was very fun. Friday we went out en masse and ended up drinking lots of cider, hanging at parks, and dancing like crazy. I seriously love the schedule of nightlife here: we got to the cider bar at 11, went to the park for a bit, hit up the clubs at 2ish, and danced till about 4:30. Then I ran into some chicas de japón, Akiko you are a fabulous dancer! And we had fun times at Babia, which has a basement for dancing. No, Jorge, I was not chugging a mysterious clear drink. That was water. I was thirsty. Also, adored watching the Zaragoze chica beat the shit out of her buddies with a light up mariposa wand. Yeay, violencia de chicas!

Saturday was marvelous as well, with us meeting up some other Spanish chicas, Bea y company. Also added the Cambodian chicitinas to the mix–so cute and tiny About 2ish all the americans save myself and Jess went home, but we stuck it out till 530! Must have gone to 4 different discos, not counting the places we invaded to use the bathrooms. And those crazy chicas were still going strong, finding more and more discos to dance at! Dang, I need to keep up. Oh well, Jess got a good birthday celebracion.

Mi español is vastly improving, mostly due to my spending most of the weekend speaking it with my buddies.

Lluvia

Weekend recap: 5 hours of boredem on the bus, we arrived in Galicia and invaded the poor lil hostal…Dang I feel for the guys working there; 25 college students in one weekend, will they ever recover? Poor Lindsay, her old conversation partner somehow ingratiated himself to the chaperons and tagged along. We all promptly spent the weekend ignoring him.

Anyhow, Friday night was fun, or so people tell me…Joking, joking. I perfectly remember beating the crap out of Jesse for his sqeaky Jorge voice that nearly gave me a heart attack (see previous comment about old spanish dude). On Saturday, people were dragged out of their hangovers onto the bus to go up into the hills of La Coruna to see a maze (it did not rival the corn maze, though apparently bees are scary Jess, ha!) and the Torre de Hercules…So much coolness. We then proceeded to raise hell on Halloween night, checking out all the bars all decked out with decorations and ending the night with a swim in the ocean. Okay, not techically a swim, more along the common lines of sneaky waves drenching my clothes so why not?

Sunday was the day the weather finally sucked. Rain, rain and more effing rain. We of course went to Santiago to see a big-ass church where mascochists have hiked for the past 500 years: dude if I wanna go on a 40 day hike, it will not be to Santiago, more like somewhere with SUNNY beaches and loads of relaxing. I admired the beauty of the ancient structure, sat through a Spanish mass wherein I understood very little cause I’ve never been to Mass in English, and then discovered my friends had all vanished and were not answering their phones. I elected to go drink coffee and avoid the rain while writing in my notebook for the next 2 hours (gotta prep for Nano). We then played in the rainy streets (my friends had been on the roof of the cathedral, fuckers…no not drunken stupidity, a tour that I’d missed, Mierda!) before getting on the bus. I wonder when my boots will dry out…

Sunday night was awesomeness; got dinner at a Spanish restaurante, got sugary goodies and tochas* later, and I went to bed at midnight, apparently missing out on…Nothing! Yay weekend.

Am now back in Oviedo, plotting more adventures and trying to figure out how the hell I’m gonna NaNo without a stable power source. Joder, I may have to break down and buy that stupid universal adaptor that doesn’t charge my laptop.

*tochas son cervezas de 1 litre, y cuesta aprox 2 euros/$3

5 Hours of Sleep and Here Begins the Weekend!

I love Spain, just saying. Today I went to Grammar class and we promptly spent the entire class talking about politics, social issues, and everything else we could think of–in Spanish! Plus, I didn’t have to turn in the homework that I didn’t do, hehehe.

Week has been relax-ly and fun. Yesterday there was a giant gathering of Spanish kids on the campus, drinking cider, beer, and everything else (I saw some mixing a 5 gallon bucket full of calimocha) Of course, this was between noon and 5 pm, a bit early by Spanish standards.

Last night was salsa night at B12–I think I’m finally not completely sucking at it, though I definitely need much more practice. An added bonus was the Halloween special: buy three drinks and get a free masks. I didn’t actually spend any money, so I got no mask, sad day. However, Sarah and I rocked the dance floor with our salsa moves. And Jesse even got in on the fun–yay for American guys who try to learn more dances beyond the grind n grope…Joking joking.

Heading out to Galicia (think north of Portugal) today. Five hours on a bus, fine. Five hours on a bus on a friday afternoon, fml.

Rainy Weekend

Recap of the weekend:

Thursday night I met up with people in the park and drank what I have dubbed a White Calimocha. Basically was shit white wine with Coke added to disguise the shitty taste; it was an epic fail! After we went to the salsa bar and attempt to dance. I had fun, looked dumb, but at least I wasn´t Kate (5 feet tall) dancing with Ryan (6+ feet tall). Later I lost my Oregon peeps and hung with the Iowaians…played foosball and chatted with the bartender til 2 a.m.

Friday night we all met up under the giant Umbrella and proceeded to hunt down beers and kebabs. Yum yummy, but so greasy. Marina explained about her hometown where the school in unofficially known as the University of Casual Sex and Beer. Just another reason to mock California…

Saturday was mucho fun, though. I woke up at 11 to Lindsay infoming me that I had a few minutes to haul my butt down to the bus station or they were going to Gijon without me…I ran. Gijon was amazing, and we decided to go swimming in the freezing cold ocean, in the RAIN. Yeah, insanity. I´m from Oregon, I should know better.  But it was so cool. My body got numb, and then really warm, which is scarily in line with the symptoms of frostbite. All the guys were whining and wimping, and Lindsay and I were the tough ones. HA! Though perhaps Jesse should have worn trunks and not his boxers.

Changing was difficult, considering no one had a towel. It involved us banishing the boys to the opposite end of the beach for a bit…Then we got coffee cause my body temp. had dropped about 20 degrees. And I ate octopus bits for a snack, so tasty!

Saturday night we went to the Snake Bar and then wandered, barhopping and meeting up with Spanish peeps.  I learned that scarfs are fine on guys in Spain, unless they´re bright pink, which is apparently very gay (sorry I made you wear my scarf Keith). Jesse and yo drank way too much cider, and we had to wander home by 3 (way too early on a Saturday night).

Sunday was very lazy, with my primary act being going to the market and looking for more clothes.  Maria made me paella, which was tasty, though not amazingly better than what I buy in restaurantes.

PS; I found a flowery umbrella in the bathroom in Gijon! Yeah free stuff

The Question isn’t, Will I do NaNo; The Question Is: Will I Write It in Spanish?

So I got a new charger for my stupid PoS PC, but I’m not sure about it—see the purpose of a charger is to charge my computer, which this is refusing to do. It’s getting power into the machine, but refusing to actually charge the battery, because the voltage is like 0.5 volts off. Must return to PC Box and try to communicate this trouble to the chica there.

In other news, I went running for the first time today—heck yes, right after I started, so did the rain! I got soaked, but made it all the way uphill to the park and back—I’m guessing 1.5 miles, not bad for the first time in like 2 months. Dodging all these Spanish people with their umbrellas, who probably think I’m totally insane.

Today is Jueves, which means I am going salsa dancing tonight! So much fun, provided I don’t kill anyone in my pathetic attempts to learn how to move.

And I have nutella, I have nutella! Yay chocolately goodness. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about but heard the word chocolate, Nutella is chocolate hazelnut butter, and totally amazing on toast/bread/by the spoonful. I am storing it in my room; hopefully the bugs won’t get wise.

Last night I was serenaded as I did homework. Congrats Eugene, I have found a place with more annoying bums. Oh no, it’s not enough that Chris and I got harassed by a man and an old lady (worst fake sobs of pain I’ve ever heard) Nope,  on my street there dwells a guy who likes to camp out in front of the grocery store. He sits there, eats there, pees there (I was not happy to witness this BTW). And last night he decided to sing, loudly, to people and the world at large. I could hear him from my room. My host mom asked if I liked the concert.

Now comes the hard choice-making time for me: shall I do homework or read?

Computer Issues

I am royally pissed off at my computer. Why, oh WHY did the rotten converter have to wait till I was in the middle of freaking Europe to fry itself?! Now I have to use crappy locutorios and the like till I can get a replacement…which is looking to take a while. Hmm, maybe I’ll use Amazon.

Stupid Packing Choice #2: Not bringing my skinny jeans. Seriously, they’re everywhere over here and I totally feel out of place with pants that don’t hug my ass, my thighs, my calves, ankles…Must go to HM and hit up a sale.

In other news, I am tired, I want coffee!!