Hi all! Well…that’s not entirely true. My trip to London will not be the only content in this post. I have been doing a lot since my last post, so… I have a lot to tell y’all about. But I am going to have to tell you kind of through pictures, because I have a lot! Pictures are better than my writing anyway : )

In this picture is Lindsay, Emily, Jenny, myself, and Lara. We were all going out for our first day of school, second session.

These pictures are from the Espicha. An “espicha” is a traditional Asturian fiesta, and at the beginning of both the July and August sessions we had an espicha. Basically all of the teachers and students get together for a fiesta and we eat traditional Asturian food (middle picture), drink Sidra (or sidra sangria is what I am pouring) and we just hang out and talk amongst the bag pipes and what not. It is always a good time!

Tuesdays are always a good time in Oviedo. We go to “trivia night” at the local pub “Asturianu” (pictured above). Its so much fun…but we never win. Don’t worry, I know what you’re thinking…but the questions are translated into English for us so we really have no excuse : )

Lindsay, Amanda, and I took it upon ourselves to create our own fun on one cloudy  afternoon in Oviedo. This, I am afraid, is the result. As I have mentioned before, there is a surplus of statues and cool buildings in Oviedo. So, we thought it would be nice to make some memories! We got some pretty weird looks. Apparently the local Spaniards don’t take pictures with the statues…weird.

The weather isn’t always bad though.  And when we get some good sun, we head to Salinas to tomar el sol! Salinas, as you might be able to tell, is a beautiful little beach town.  In fact, the quidditch world cup was almost held here based on the beautiful location. But alas, it was held in England instead, but this was the original quidditch pitch.

Often, however, we don’t have anything to occupy our time. So finally, Zack. Lindsay, Amanda, and I finally bit the bullet. We were going to hike to the monument of who we only assume is Jesus on top of a mountain.

As you can see, we all started out in high spirits. The whole thing took about 3 1/2 hours. It was actually horrible…but so miserable it was funny. I mean, I am glad I did it I suppose. The thing that was most upsetting i think was the massive blister I got from my 1985 Nikes that I picked up for 20 euro here in Oviedo. Hopefully you can adjust your computer screen to see it properly. Although, I just want to say that the picture does not do justice to the severity of the actually blister. When it popped, it wasn’t pretty.

Now, LONDON!  Literally, my most favorite city in the world. Most of you know that I have a weird obsession with English literature, and reading in general.  So when I can be in a place that was home to Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Woolf, and J.K. Rowling…does it even get any better?! I stayed with my friend Emily in Kensington. The first day we went on the tour of London.  We took the #9 bus past Kensington park, Hyde park, Harrod’s, a bunch of other famousness, and got out at Trafalgar Square. We walked over to The National Portrait Gallery and (because I’m a dork) went in and saw the exhibit of the Bloomsbury Group. Then we walked down toward St. Paul’s Cathedral but didn’t go in because London also happens to be the most expensive city I have ever been in. From there we walked over Millenium Bridge. From here you can see most of the Thames and Tower Bridge.

Once we got to the other side of the bridge we went to the Tate Modern (for free) because they were having a Dalí exhibition.  Emily (pictured above) and I learned about Dalí during our art history class in the July session. One of the highlights was going into Shakespeare’s Globe (exact reproduction). Emily and I also had some lunch and English beer at a pub right on the Thames. It was a beautiful day (which is apparently rare) and there was a beautiful view of the London skyline.

Then we walked along the river and saw some really cool statues like the one pictured above. This is one of like six statues in which water is pouring out of some orfice of a human body…odd and extremely humorous. Then we walked by the Millennium Wheel (London Eye), Big Ben, House of Parliament, Westminster Abbey…etc. The only thing we didn’t see was Buckingham Palace, which Emily said wasn’t that impressive. After our tour we went and had drinks in Covent Garden.

The next day we went to Portobello Market (where Knotting Hill was filmed)  and i bought some cool cosas (things) and ate the best cupcake of my life. We did want to go to a show that night, but the Cheapest was 40 pounds (80 dollars) which I can’t really afford. So, instead Emily, her mom Sharon, and I went to go see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (in English!) and then got some dinner after. The place we had dinner at was famous for music and hippies and such…so after Emily and I went to go watch the band that was playing that night - The Lightyears. They are, according to the London Times, the up and coming in Indie pop. They were really good and it was so much fun! All in all, I think I could have just stayed in London and been happy. I think I may actually have been born in the wrong country : ) That is just an exaggerated way to say that I loved it!

Then I got back on Sunday and we left to go see Cirque Du Soleil in Gijón. It was so much fun!  The contortionists were insane and was actually painful to watch. But it was really entertaining as so much fun!!

I have had a really good last couple of weeks in Europe. Next weekend I am headed to the south of France. Talk to you all soon, and let me know how y’all are doing!

Love Love Love!

Hola todos…¿qué tal? Well, I got back from 4 days in Barcelona on Wednesday. The train was miserable. 14 hours stuffed in a car with 7 other people. Not fun, pero está bien.

When we arrived in Barcelona we (myself and my two friends Zack and Lindsay) set off to find our hostel. We kind of booked it late so we got stuck in a 400 bed hostel…once again, not fun. To add to the discomfort of a large hostel it was also about 4000 degrees in Barcelona (and that’s in Celsius!) and our room was even hotter. Pictures provided below.

So, not knowing where to begin in this great city, we just decided to start walking. We headed toward “calle de las ramblas” which is the most popular street.  

So we are headed down las ramblas taking in the sights when suddenly a man gets hit by a car…which we see. Kind of put a damper on things, so we don’t really feel up for much of anything after that. That first day we just sat on patios and tried to relax.

The only good part about hostels, I’ve decided, is meeting people you would never have normally met. Somehow we always meet English speaking people. So in Barcelona we spent some time with friends from Australia and London. I like people from the UK. I think it must be my Scottish blood.

Because of the heat, we thought it would be a good idea to go to the beach. I think I have made it a goal of mine to touch my feet in every warm body of water around the world. So far, I really like the Mediterranean…

After the beach, that night our London friends took us to this really cool jazz club in the old part of Barcelona. It was probably the coolest club I have ever been to.

Our last day we did the tourist thing…mucho Guadí y Picasso. We were so tired and hot, but it was still amazing. Pictures provided below… : )

Well, this is La Sagrada Família. Gaudí’s most ambitious work. The giant cathedral has been under construction for well over 100 years and the estimated completion date is 2020! Its a pretty big deal… like massive. We waited in line for an hour and a half to go up one of the towers to see the view from the top.

Such a cool view of the entire city! It was really amazing. We also had a Gaudí creation right close to our hostel.

His buildings just kind of sit between other more normal ones. Its so cool! We also went to the Picasso museum which was really cool as well. Me encanta Picasso.

All in all it was a pretty cool trip to Barcelona, but I have officially decided that I don’t like hot, ginormous cities… I am definitely an Oregon person : ) But once again, Barcelona like all other cities in Spain has a lot of statues and street performers.

But definitely the best statue, the one that I am bringing you for this blog is a really cool live statue. Those of you who know me well will know why I got so excited over this!

Well, that is Barcelona! But much more importantly, my brother and sister-in-law had a new little baby yesterday, August 2. He was 8 pounds and his name is Kyler James Robertson. ¡Muchos Besos! I miss you all very much…

Well…I’m 22. Weird. It was fun to have a birthday in Spain, but I missed my family and especially Joey who always makes me feel so special on my birthdays, but it was fun. I want to apologize for taking so long to update, but I have been preoccupied since the seventh and last Harry Potter book came out. Those of you who know about my sad little obsession understand why I have been out of touch. But alas, it was the final story and so has brought my obsession so an emotional end. Those of you have read it will understand what I mean.

Now that that is out of the way, I wanted to talk a bit about what else I have been doing in the past week or so. This last weekend I visited my most favorite place by far. San Sebastian! A small little beach town at the very top of Spain, ridiculously close to France. It is an amazing place. beautiful, fun, relaxing. I had a really good time. There were about 9 of us who went. But before San Sebastian 3 of us skipped school on Friday (we can miss one day) and went to Bilbao and saw the Guggenheim Bilbao. AMAZING!! It is by far the coolest piece of architecture I have ever seen and it is amazing. The artist that they were featuring was really cool too - Anselm Kiefer. Really amazing stuff. Obviously we couldn’t take pictures inside the museum so I don’t have any examples, but I am sure if you googled him you could see what I mean. Plus, my camera ran out of battery while taking pictures of the outside of the Guggenheim so it wouldn’t have mattered much : ( Below are pictures of the one pic I got of the Guggenheim, my first hostel, churros and coffee for breakfast, and the giant flower scottie dog in front of the Guggenheim. Basically Bilbao in 4 photos!

We took a bus from Bilbao to San Sebastian and met the rest of the crew. We spent two nights there in this hostel that had just recently become a hostel so it was really clean and nice. But the people at the hostel actually lived there and tried to sleep there which is a big mistake. Because all 15 people in the hostel weren’t going to come home at a decent sleeping hour, so we would get this man coming out of his bedroom at all hours of the night telling us to be quiet. But it was fun! Pictures provided below.

Now, normally I don’t like scenery pictures, but isn’t it beautiful?!?! This is me on Shell Beach (Playa de la concha…or something like that, the little bit of fat on my tummy is what happens when all you can eat are pinchos : )) and a picture of the other beach in San Sebastian. We named it Playa de los jovenes…kind of reminds you of San Diego, huh Joey? (La Jolla on a Saturday in July perhaps…) But it was fun! There is also a pic of our new/clean hostel and as I promised, another statue. This one however is alive (we discovered that they are big on live statues in San Sebastian.) Also provided is a man riding a unicycle and blowing a whistle in sharp short spurts. Very amusing : )

Once we returned from our weekend it was my birthday and our last week of school for the July session. It went by pretty fast. (I kind of wish I was able to just travel over the next month instead of being in Oviedo, but it will be fine.) For my birthday some of us went out to the only sushi restaurant in the city. It was fun. I also bought myself Harry Potter and just finished it yesterday. All in all it was a good birthday and it has been a good week in Spain.

This weekend I am off to Barcelona for our short break between sessions. School starts again next Thursday… I will be sure to give a thorough update upon my return. I love you all! Hope all your summer’s are good. I hear its hot back in Eugene! A far cry from Oviedo! I miss everyone. Let me know how y’all are doing!

So I have been here for almost two and a half weeks now and it feels like home. Its weird to think that the first day I was here I got so lost in this city for about 2 hours, while now I know this place as well as Eugene. Its kind of nice and kind of eerie. Sometimes I forget that I am even in Europe.

Except when I see statues like this and realize that America would never have this cool of a statue. Oviedo and Asturias in general is pretty big on statues and sculptures and art around the city. Hopefully I can feature one a week. Oviedo also features huge pigeons.

This ones stomach was basically dragging on the ground and it had some major trouble getting lift off…but they are well fed here so that is good.

Some other sites I wanted to show y’all were my school, the building I go into, and the marble stairs I walk up everyday. I get a pretty wicked leg work out each day because we walk everywhere. Which I don’t mind much because I love to walk.

School is good and I am learning a lot, but you know, its school and I would rather be doing more traveling. So I decided to make the most of my time. Last Tuesday a bunch of us went to Gijón which is like 20 minutes from Oviedo. It was beautiful.

This past week in Gijón was Semana Negra (the ferris wheel). It is some big celebration over some saint (still am not fluent in Spanish). Some of us went back Saturday night for the last of of the celebration and it was basically the worst time I have had yet. Those of you who know me know that I hate fairs…it was basically a huge dirty, smelly fair with tons of people and it was like 3:00 am because that is when things get started here in Spain so I ended up going home earlier than some, but that is okay…it was an experience.

One of the best things I did this last week was go see Harry Potter! Sure it was dubbed over in Spanish but those of you who have seen know what I am talking about when I say that it was an emotional experience. It was in 3-D imax and there was no way I was missing that.

So one is pre-Potter and the other is in the theater right before the movie started and hopefully you can tell that we are wearing our glasses. Because we don’t speak fluent Spanish we made the mistake of wearing the 3-D glasses for the duration of the film while the only 3-D part was at the very end of the movie. But we are all super cool people so it didn’t matter much. It was definitely amazing and I plan to go to London soon to see the English speaking version.

Well, this weekend I am headed to Bilbao and San Sebastian which I am so excited about I can hardly express. It will be a good pre-birthday weekend. (My birthday is on Monday the 23rd.)

Hope all is well back in the states and comment and let me know how y’all are doing. ¡Vale!

Besos

Estoy en Oviedo a hora. After the longest flight ever I am here. Well, actually I can’t complain about my trip at all. Everything was on time for the most part and everything was safe. Compared to other peoples travel problems, mine was a breeze.

I have gotten all settled in my dorm now and it still hasn’t really sunk in yet that I am going to be living here for the next 2 months.

We went to our first day of school, well it was more like orientation and it was interesting. It was definately beneficial for me to see just how bad I am at Spanish. No one here speaks english and it is definately going to be challenging.

The schedule here is also going to be hard to get used too. We have school from 9-2 in the morning, then we get lunch, then hopefully take a siesta, then we hang out for the afternoon, then we eat dinner around like 10 pm and don’t go to bed until very late. It doesn’t even get dark here until like 10:30 pm. It is very different.

School is good. I don’t think it is going to be as difficult as I expected because I am taking intermediate classes, and I pretty much have learned most of it. But I am definately learning. Already I feel like I have gotten so much better at understanding people.

We took a walking tour of Oviedo and saw this amazing cathedral. It is so amazingly beautiful, the detail is breathtaking. It was a really cool experience. I learned that all of the center of Oviedo is in Gothic architecture from the 14th century. Its so old and so amazing.

The first night here we went out to dinner and got some good spanish palleya. (I’m not sure how to spell that.) We also had some sangria and it was a good time.

We also got some sidra, which is a traditional Austurian apple cider that is disgusting and tastes like green olive juice…but the guys pour it really cool so its fun.

Well, that’s all for now. I hope you all are doing well and I miss y’all a lot. Its fun here but it would definately be more fun with a familiar face or two. : ) Update me on your lives’. ¡Vale! Se quidados…Habláis pronto!