Oviedo, Asturias

Hello again...

So today is the last day of my long break. I had Friday through Tuesday off and then Thursday through today. I went away last weekend, but I had to return to go to work on Wednesday.

So last week after I paid my rent, I had no money. Well, I only had bus money and a little extra. I thought that I wouldn't be able to travel for the long break. I came to Spain so that I can travel around to all the autonomous communities and to some neighboring countries. I was a little bummed until someone invited me on a trip to Oviedo, Asturias. Oviedo is the capital of the province of Asturias. Asturias is also the name of the autonomous community. It's like my region. The community of La Rioja only has one province: La Rioja. Some of the larger communities have more than one province.

The Asturiana that invited me was visiting home so it wouldn't be a problem for me to ride along. After thinking about it for a little while, I decided to go. I waited to give her my answer so that I wouldn't seem so anxious. I packed my bag and my whole 15 euros and left Logroño behind for 5 days. I was eager to see something different.

Oviedo is my new favorite city in the north of Spain. I could notice the difference of the soil. Due to the large amounts of rain, everything in Asturias is very green.

During the day, we just walked around so that I could learn the streets and some important sites to visit. At night, I had dinner with the Asturiana and her 13 friends. All her friends were older than me but they were very friendly and open to speaking to a foreigner with broken spanish. :) Some of her friends even taught me some insults. Everyone thought it was funny when I took out paper to write them all down.

After dinner, we went to a discotheque and danced for a long time. I kicked myself of course for forgetting my ear plugs. I may look like a loser with them in, but at least my hearing won't decline rapidly. Once the ear's cilia are gone, they're gone. I'm sure my friends who read this will call me a dork. Either way, I had fun.

Downtown Oviedo

La sidra is cider. A traditional drink of Asturias.

The next day, we had lunch in a tiny village outside of Oviedo called Quintaniella. The landscape reminded me of Costa Rica, because of the houses and random sheep and cows scattered along the mountains. In La Rioja, you can drive for long periods of time without seeing anything but fields.

Used to walk on the farm

A typical Asturian storage house. It's design keeps the mice out.

I spent the next couple of days wandering around Oviedo and window shopping. I will be window shopping for a long time. Sigh. Well, at least I'm in Spain.

A nifty invention for clothes created to defeat the rain of Asturias

Against cutback of public services
An old government building now used for cultural activities

I also met with some English assistants who are teaching in secondary schools. Thanks to Laura from contacting them for me. One is from Germany (Sara) and the other is from Texas (Ryan). We exchanged some idiosyncrasies of the English language. Ryan and I shared our loathe for combination of "have-got". If I don't have to use "get", I don't. I've noticed that I use it a lot more, because my younger students use it a lot. It's ok, because it's informal English and we are mostly in informal situations. It just irks me. But anyway...

Sara pointed out that the problem of asking native speakers questions, because they will give you several answers. There is more than one way to construct a sentence and language learners just want a definite answer. It's the same for any language.

After leaving them, I walked some more. I was not able to go to all the places that I wanted to visit. I'm not very disappointed, because I will have another chance to go when the Asturiana returns. Next time, I'll hit every important place, travel to Gijón, and go rafting.

Chau!