Finally Finals

Thursday, July 28

The amount of work we’ve had here has not been overwhelming by any means (previous post excluded). We’ve had a little to do each day, but it was all very simple to get done and still have plenty of time to experience Oviedo and Spanish culture.

But nonetheless, coming out of finals and knowing all of the studying was over was such a releasing feeling.

It’s strange how sometimes you don’t even realize you’re worried about something until it’s over and the tension lifts from your shoulders, you crack the first smile of the day, and you just kind of feeling like running down the stairs and out the door.

My two finals for the day were not that bad, both were exactly as I’d predicted they’d be, which is comforting. And we’ll see grades tomorrow, so the quick turn-around will be great.

As an end-of-the-trip celebration, Professor Zemke took all of the Mizzou students out to lunch at a small restaurant up by the main shopping district. Not having really eaten out here, since eating dinner is so different, it was fun to sit through a Spanish lunch.

We got a choice of soup or salad and then of chicken or fish. My whole table chose both salad and chicken (so much for trying each others!) and the salads were deliciously colorful. It had everything from tomatoes and carrots that you’d expect, to radishes and tuna (I gave mine up) and an egg that are a little different, to the distinctly Spanish potato included on top.

The chicken was served family-style, fell straight off the bone, and was sensational. It came cooked together with potatoes and peppers, and the whole meal was just delicious.

Finally, we got our choice of chocolate cake of cheesecake for dessert. Since everyone else around my table chose chocolate, I went for the cheesecake, and got to share bites since everyone wanted to try mine. They were both delicious, though it was a little thin for cheesecake.

And apparently all of that extravagance is just a typical lunch!

Afterwards, Maddy and Craig and I walked around Oviedo on the South end, past the Cathedral. It’s an old and very beautiful part of town that none of us had yet explored. We ended up walking in a giant circle and found Campo San Francisco (the big park in town) in the end.

We, naturally, chose to go play on the playground equipment! In doing so, we discovered that there was a whole section of “exercise equipment” in the park. It was hilarious as we played around on these incredibly odd machines that didn’t feel like they did anything to work out your body.

The “abs machine” was a circle that you held onto while standing on a rotating disk and twisted back and forth. We all jumped on and spun around for a while and just laughed and had fun. That is, until some woman actually began using the other equipment and we felt like we should probably stop disturbing the peace.

We all headed home and got ready, and then went out for our last night in Oviedo, since people start leaving tomorrow. It was a happy, yet slightly bittersweet evening as we all made the most of our last evening together.