I have officially been in Spain for 15 days, which coincidentally enough is the same amount of time that my host mom said it would take me to understand her completely. While I don’t think I’m exactly there yet, I feel like I’m getting better everyday and I understand almost everything she says now.
Last Sunday I convinced my friends to go on a pre-birthday hike. Birthday week, am I right? We set our sites on Monte Naranco, a little over 2000 ft elevation. Toward the end of the hike we were all struggling but once we reached the top, the view was absolutely incredible. Since it was a clear, sunny day you could see all the way to the ocean town of Gijon, 30 minutes away by bus.
The following day was my actual birthday. Yay! My host mom surprised me with hot chocolate in the morning and a few presents. She took so many pictures of me I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning. After lunch with the host family, I took a trip with my friends to Las Caldas to swim in the river and enjoy the sunny day. After a few too many bottles of sidra and a few too many rounds of cards we nearly missed the last bus back to Oviedo! Luckily we ran it down and had dinner downtown before calling it a night.
Friday began the festivities of San Mateo, a ten day event only celebrated in Asturias. The streets were decorated with lights, people were setting up stages all over town for concerts, and vendors were getting ready for the celebration. There were thousands of people in the streets Friday and Saturday night. It was overwhelming, but an experience I will never forget. Oh, and I made some new Irish and English friends!
Since the events of San Mateo were mainly at night, during the day on Saturday I went with two other friends to Salinas, a beach town about 30 minutes away. While it was a little too cold to swim, we walked the beach and visited the Museo de Las Anclas. So far I don’t think I have seen an ugly view in Spain.
I sat on the top of one of the cliffs listening to the waves crash against the rock and get pulled back out to sea thinking how perfect of a place this was to be.
Today was another casual day as I decided to take a walk to El Parque de Invierno carrying a book and a bocadillo (sandwich) from my host mom in my backpack. I had a nice afternoon laying in the grass, dozing off every now and then as I watched the mountains in the background.
Tomorrow starts my third week in Oviedo and then next weekend I am off to Barcelona!