2/9/10

Check out some photos at Snapfish:

http://www5.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1039336026/a=2125709026_2125709026/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

So, as you readers probably have figured out, my life is busier than I thought it would be.  And so, because of this complication, I have resigned to write a blog only about once a week unless something amazing comes up.  This Friday Joelle, Abigail, and I will be cooking an American dish to take to the girls-only youth group hosted at the church Joelle and I enjoy attending.  It is going to be a kind of huge buffet and each girl is supposed to bring a dish from her own country of origin.  We decided that we were going to all make one dish since we're all from the U.S.

This Saturday is the first of three Carnaval celebrations in Aviles, Gijon, and Oviedo.  They are the biggest celebrations in all of Asturias (or at least the most famous).  Abigail, Joelle, and I are going to make a day trip out of Aviles (the first celebration).  Then on Tuesday there is another celebration.  I still don't know, though, whether it's Oviedo's celebration, since we don't have school, or if it's Gijon's celebration, and classes are just cancelled because Gijon is only about half an hour away from here.  The last celebration will be on the following Saturday.

Last weekend, Joelle, Abigail, and I hiked up to the Jesus statue.  It was exhausting, to say the least!  Round trip it took us six hours from the time we left to the time I remember getting back to my casa.  We met up at the building where our classes are held at 11 AM but we didn't leave until nearly 11:30.

The way we went was entirely highway, and all uphill.  There were about 15 or so of us in the group.  It consisted of not just we three from UNI, but also a lot of kids from U Mass and a girl from Ireland and another chica from New Zealand.

Because there were so many photo ops on the way up to the statue, it took us about 3 hours to get to the statue.  I didn't even care, because each time we stopped gave us a chance to get used to the change in altitude, however minute.  Once we actually got to the statue, we only spent about 15 minutes taking photos and marveling at the statue because it was so windy and cold up at the top of the mountain.  No snow, though, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

After taking photos, we all went to a park-ish area to eat lunch and rest our legs.  Most of our host padres gave us bocadillos (literally snack, but also refers to sandwiches) and fruit to eat for lunch.  Abigail's madre made a tuna kind of sandwich, so I offered her my second of two bocadillos.  Sam, the girl from Ireland, and I played a bit on a swingset near where the group was eating.  After this, we were soon again on our way back down.

On the way down, the group broke into two definite groups: the group in front, with about 8 people who just kept plowing downhill, and my group, which had about 6 others who lagged behind.  Once back at city level, the first group went one direction, and my group went another, back toward the school.  Once I was in an area I knew well, it was nearly 5:30 and all I wanted to do was sleep/eat carbohydrates/drink water/watch a movie.  So I did all of the above in my casa.

Because my body still needed time to recuperate, I elected to not do anything else last weekend, even though the Super Bowl was broadcasted at a bar near the school from around midnight Sunday night/Monday morning to about 3 AM.  I was in favor of sleep and homework.  Sadly, I heard the game was an intense one, so I wish I could have watched it, had it been at an earlier time.