Las rubias se lo pasan mejor? Esta es la cuestión. Para averiguar la verdad, me convertí en una rubia. Bueno, en realidad, no completamente rubia. La parte superior de mi pelo todavía es marrón, pero el resto es oro pálido. Ahora lo se que estas pensando “Pero Shannon acabas de cortar tu pelo, y ahora estas pintándolo? Porque tantos cambios? Bueno amigos, la verdad es que querría ser rubia por algún tiempo y ahora que estoy en España, porque no?
Desafortunadamente, yo escogí una semana muy complicada para averiguar la verdad sobre las rubias porque escogí la misma semana de las fiestas de San Mateo en Oviedo. Entonces es muy difícil saber si el cambio en el nivel de divertido es por ser rubia o por estar en San Mateo.
Me encanta San Mateo! Cada noche hay películas en el parque, conciertos en las plazas y comida y sidra en todos lados. He visto una banda se llama ‘La Oreja de Vangough” y me gusto mucho (pero son mejores en directo).
En Miercoles fui a los fuegos artificiales con Bea y los demás de Rollins. Fue muy divertido y después fuimos a bailar. La calle estaba tan lleno de gente que casi no podia moverme. Pero, cuando finalmente llegamos a un bar, bailaba hasta que me dolieran mis pies. Por la primera vez, yo estuve despierta hasta las 5 en la mañana. Casi soy una Española!
Para terminar, todavia no se si las rubias se lo pasan mejor. Creo que es una profecía autocumplida. Si crees que las rubias se lo pasan mejor, es la verdad. Eso es la verdad para muchas cosas, entonces ‘aparenta hasta que lo hagas’.
Do blondes have more fun? That’s the million dollar question. In order to ascertain the truth, I decided to become *gasp* a blonde! Well actually no, not really, I simply became blonder. The top of my hair is still pretty brown, but the bottom is now a very pale gold. Now, I know what you’re thinking, ‘Shannon didn’t you just cut your hair? What’s with rapid succession of hair changes?’ Well dear reader, The truth is that I have wanted to try blonde hair for awhile. I was actually planning on going full out blonde but highlights were cheaper and the nice hairstylist told me that it would look better if I left my ‘natural color’ on top (at least that’s what I think she said she was speaking very fast). So anyways, I am now a full fledged half blonde and on the path to discovery.
I will admit I picked a rather complicated first week to go blonde however. The festivities and concerts of San Mateo are so much fun, it makes it hard to figure out if the change in the level of fun has anything to do with the hair. Every night during San Mateo there are movies in the park, concerts in the cathedral plaza, and street vendors, music and food everywhere you look. Unfortunately for the first couple of days, it was rather rainy so most of my San Mateo experience consisted of listening to wonderful music beneath a sea of umbrellas. On Wednesday however, that all changed.
Wednesday night was the night of los fuegos artificiales and our hip, young Spanish teacher, Bea, was going to take all six of us to the fireworks. She told us to bring some snacks and plastic bags to sit on and she would bring us some bottles of sidra (hard, Asturian cider).
At around 7:00 Mary and I met at the Museum de Bellas Artes de Oviedo to complete our homework before the night’s festivities. The museum is absolutely darling (darling must be said in a deep southern accent–DARHling) and it’s entirely free, so I highly recommend it. There are beautiful paintings and sculptures (many by Asturian artists) hung in a very aesthetically pleasing manner all around the tiny, maze-like museum. After completing our homework, we headed out into the city to buy some snacks for the fireworks.
The city was jumping (yes, I’m bringing that phrase back). The weather was perfect, not a drop of rain in sight. Mary and I wondered around for a little while, ending up in the Parque de San Francisco (basically a minuscule version of Central Park). There we watched, what can only be described as one of the weirdest movies I’ve ever seen. It was like a Japanese cartoon with bright, almost neon colors but no dialogue, only music. The beginning must’ve explained everything because coming in during the middle made no sense whatsoever. Shortly thereafter, we decided to leave the bright cartoons behind and finally head over to Bea’s house. When we got to her street, I was almost knocked over by the sheer amount of young teenage hormones in the air. Bea’s street was packed full of 14-16 year olds. They were all standing in different groups and there were so many of them that it was like playing teenager obstacle course to get to Bea’s apartment. When we finally did, we met up with the rest of the Rollins crew and headed out to El Parque de Invierno.
Walking with our bags of snacks and cider, I felt like a fully fledged Oviedoin (or Ovetenses as it’s actually called). We found a spot on part of the sloping hill near the front of the park and arranged our plastic bags in a little group. We ate our snacks and learned how to properly pour la sidra (you must pour it from above your head and into the glass), while the park around us filled with people. Finally, the fireworks began. Out of all the firework shows I’ve seen in my life, this one made the top 5. It was pretty close to us and went on for close to half an hour! The only reason it isn’t higher on my list is because there was a tree obscuring part of my view. [After the magnificent fireworks were over, we packed up out stuff to head out. Unfortunately, Catey had to pee desperately and there were no bathrooms nearby. I volunteered to help her find a bathroom and thus we embarked on another Catey-Shannon adventure (this one shall be dubbed ‘Nature’s Calling’). Long story short- we began looking for an empty, out-of-view place for Catey to do her business, but when we finally found a darkish corner, I look back and see about a dozen girls following us. They finally catch up to us and ask where the bathroom is. I tell them that we couldn’t find one, and we were actually looking for a place to pee, you know, in private. Clearly not getting the hint, the girls (all of them) squat down right in front of me and start doing their business. I saw about seven fully nude butts that evening. I couldn’t stop laughing at the look of horror on Catey’s face as she realized she had to wait until all the girls were finished to finally get some privacy.
After Catey was finally able to attend to her business, we rejoined Bea and the rest and went dancing. We stopped first at El Parque de San Francisco, danced outside, and then headed over to the center of the festivities and the bars. Oh, my, God. The streets around the bars were packed! It seemed like the whole world had come out to dance. It was a little hard to move from one place to another but it was a lot of fun. That was the first night I managed to stay up until 5:00 in the morning (which I’m told is quite normal here). I’m finally becoming an Oviedoin! (Kind of).
So, to end this rather long post, I’m still not sure if blondes truly have more fun, but you will certainly have a blast if you’re ever lucky enough to attend even a part of San Mateo.