León (La Ciudad)

Last weekend I went with the Umass group to León.  León, which means "lion" in English, is also a city an hour or so south of Oviedo in the province, Castilla-León (the home of real Spanish).  It was about the size of Oviedo, but we only really spent time in the old part of the city.  The unfortunate part about this is that we spent 2 nights and 2 days there, which was really unnecessary.  We could have gone in the morning and come back in the evening and would have seen as much as we saw in 2 days and 2 nights.  The bus tickets were cheap, too.  I think that our coordinator is just trying to think of ways to spend our money, such as buying really nice hotels.  I would have much rather have gone for a day to León on my own or with the group and gone to Salamanca or something for the whole weekend.  I might make my way down to Salamanca for a short time, if I can.

That being said, León was still really pretty.  We had faaaaabulous weather and I definitely got some sun :).

Un león welcoming us to León

La catedral

Ceiling and staindglass window of the cathedral

Plaza Mayor

Margaritas at a Mexican restaurant

Best Quesadilla ever :D

Courtesy of Nora :)

My travel plans for Semana Santa are pretty much finalized as of today.  We sorted out what we could with the flights last week and today I bought my bus ticket to the Oviedo airport.  Unfortunately, we just have to hope there is space on the bus when we go to the station, so I'm sure we'll be going early.  Mary emailed the hotel in Paris and they responded that they are expecting us, so it's all good :).  I think the most stressful part of this journey will be getting to, being in, and leaving Paris.  Once I'm in Lisbon, I think I'm going to have a lot more time to breathe and think. I think.  I need to print out all the flight information still, but it's only Wednesday and I leave on Sunday.  I was waiting because they kept on changing the flights...

We (Mary and I) also bought flights to Andalucia for the end of May!!!  My parents are flying over and meeting us in Granada and then we're doing a mini tour of the south of Spain.  I'm so excited.  We've also booked one of our hostels/hotels, thanks to my mommy.  We still have 2 more cities to book hostels for, Granada and Tarifa, but that's a lot easier to manage then 3.  After the trip my parents and I are taking a train or something to get to Madrid and take our planes home (I'm not sure if they'll be on my flight home) and Mary is going to fly back to Oviedo, because her flight home is out of Oviedo a few days later.

Like I said the other day to Stephen, "I'm so scared!!", but I'm sure everything will be fine, I just haven't gotten on a plane since I flew to Spain.  But it's all starting.  You should see my schedule.  I'm barely going to be in Oviedo on ANY weekend for the rest of my time here!  The weekends I'm here, we're doing day trips with the Umass group in Asturias.  They actually look like they'll be pretty cool, I just kind-of wish there was more time so I didn't feel like I was rushing a Salamanca trip, if I try to do that.  I have a couple weekends in mind, though, that might work.  Along with Salamanca, I still need to go to Gijón when it's not raining and I want to see Avilés (a city near Gijón).  I also want to go to Gijón for the beach :).

I guess I don't have TOO much to accomplish before I go home, but I want to make sure I don't regret NOT doing something.  I usually don't regret doing something, because even if the experience wasn't the best, I would have regretted not knowing that.  If that makes sense...

We've had absolutely fantastic weather (hotter than 20 degrees C, in the sun, in the middle of the day and 20 around 7:30pm).  And with the time change, there's light until about 9pm now.  The sun is just setting now and it's 8pm.  When I walk around at this time near my apartment, there are tons of families with kids playing and people walking around.  Earlier in the year there were people, but not like now.  It's as if the entire city has woken up and come out to play now that it's warmer.  I was telling my language partner, Adara, that it can get below freezing in Massachusetts and she was stunned.  When I told her it's possible to get below zero degrees Fahrenheit, she was shocked.  At its worst, all Oviedo could do to me was rain (which sucked), but it never got below 4 degrees C here.

On another note, there's a juelga general tomorrow (general strike).  So if you have travel plans in Spain, don't expect to go anywhere.  It's absolutely absurd.  There are people who have flights tomorrow and because they have to take the bus to the airport, they had to change their flights or had to leave today and stay overnight near the airport.  I'm not even sure if all flights are flying tomorrow.  I'm also assuming this is why my flights got changed.  I just don't really know what they're planning on accomplishing, especially if the government knows this is going on and no one is going to see the repercussions of not going to work.  If they know that the workers are going to go on strike, what's to say that ACTUALLY GOING on strike will make a difference?  That's just my opinion.  I saw a girl from my class in the bus station today when I got my bus ticket for Sunday.  She has a flight to France tomorrow, but she's trying to go to Santander today because there won't be buses tomorrow, and the airline didn't give her a straight answer on the phone as to whether or not there would be flights tomorrow at all.  Ridiculous. When something weird happens in Spain, the Spanish people say "Spain is different" (in English).  Spain is different.

I know I'm basically getting everything I've thought out of my head in one entry, but oh well!  Did you know that in Spain they wait for the cross signal to turn RED before walking?  Crazy, right?  Basically, they stand at the cross walk talking through the green light.  By the time they realize it's green, it's already turning red.  So they go.  To someone walking past it looks like they're waiting for it to not be green anymore before they walk.  Spain is different.

Did you know that in Spain, bread is a poor man's food?  La comida de los pobres?  My host mom told me that.  I just told her that I must be a poor man, then, since I'm not going to stop eating bread. Spain is different.

Well, I'm out of atrocities for now.  I'm sure I'll think of more later.  For now, ¡Hasta luego! I'm not sure if I'll have time again to write before I leave for Semana Santa.  Be prepared for thousands of posts in April!

*Besos*