Playing Catch Up

Thursday, July 14

Despite my original resolution to write a minimum of one blog entry per day while in Spain, I have fallen ever so slightly by the wayside. As such, this entry is going to serve as a catch-all for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

I’m not sure exactly what has made me so busy and tired in the last handful of days. School has progressed quickly through our second week, bringing new homework and more poetry analysis for my Hispanic Lit class, and an upcoming test tomorrow. 

And then we’ve also done a lot outside of school. We went out to a bar for free tapas on Tuesday, which was great. I can’t remember if I’ve explained this, but tapas are basically just appetizers. I did learn a cool fact - tapas got their name because the Spanish would originally put a slice of bread over their wine so the flies couldn’t get in and ruin it. The “topped” their wine, calling it “tapas” and then eventually it became a thing of it’s own.

Then Maddy, Matlida, and I went shopping on Wednesday. In Oviedo, there’s one main shopping district down a street, Calle Uria. We made our way down through the shops, each trying on some ridiculous and some serious things, and the only purchase I made was a nice khaki coat that was on sale. It’s been colder here than my wardrobe was prepared for, so the purchase was well warranted.

July and August in Spain are “rebajas” which literally translates to rebates, but really means fantastic SALES! Every store, in the entire country, lowers their prices by 20% or 30%, some even put up racks of great clothes and bags and shoes for more than 50 or 75% off. Travel tip - if you’re a shopper and you want to come to Spain - do it in July!

And then today I spent some much needed time with internet. My breaks between internet are getting longer, which is great because it means I’m filling my time with more Oviedo and less America, but it also isn’t always fun to miss out. I haven’t talked to many friends, have yet to skype my family, and have been abusively neglecting my blog (as discussed!).

But half of the reason the internet situation was getting desperate is because I’ve also been doing a lot of working getting ready for school in the fall. My flight home is on August 3, and I don’t get back until almost midnight, so I literally have just Thursday and Friday of that week at home before I have to go back to school.

Hopefully I’ll be able to use that time to see family and friends, and maybe even make my parents an Asturian meal (I’m thinking chorizo pasta and tortilla españa for sure). And while it’ll be nice to have a few days home, it leaves me little to no time to prepare for school and my jobs there. But hopefully I’ve caught myself up a bit and can get back into Oviedo and all of the great things to do here!