Living in another country?

I need to stop pretending that I know what's going on.  In a perfect world, I wouldn't speak English here and I wouldn't be on the computer.  But, it's going to take longer to adjust than I thought.  I do plan on Monday (Monday Musings? I think that's copyrighted) being my English sabbath when I get to that point.  My madre was right the first night I stayed here (and the last time I posted) I DID need rest and continued to recover all this week.  I've only been here about 10 days! Here is what I DO know after my 10 days:

Oviedo is known to have the cleanest streets in all of Spain, maybe even all of Europe? My professor told us this before and students told us that they never felt alone walking home at night because the cleaners were out.  They spray down the streets everyday.  This means that the ground is ALWAYS wet, being from cleaning or from the constant drizzle.  I'm sure during some part of his life, Edward Cullen lived in Oviedo.  But... by noon the streets are dirty with cigarettes and dog poop.  So the cleaning is understandable, but seemingly a waste of water... Now, for the dog poop.  I blame the owners, I've seen ONE person with a poop bag in all of Oviedo.  The dogs just do their business because they can, but these dogs are phenomenal dogs.  I've been wondering if Cesar Milan is secretly the mayor of Oviedo because these dogs are just incredible.  Few people use leashes, their dogs just stay with them.  One day a guy was whistling for his dog so I tried whistling for him too, and the dog only responded to its owner's whistle! And I've seen more than one dog sitting in the lobby of a restaurant or a shop, not begging, not trying to get in, but waiting for their owner- without a leash!

Eh hem, anyways, this brings me to my first day of school.  On the first day we were supposed to arrive at our building at 9 am.  I left my house after accidently saying I didn't want breakfast (I did) at 8:30.  I had google mapped previously and read that it should take 18 minutes, but I left room in case I got lost.  Not enough room.  I was wandering the street until the point that I could see the snowy mountains south (north? I do not know directions here) of Oviedo.  They are beautiful... but also a scary indication that I had no idea where I was going.  Now, when you have no idea where you are going, you often look up for street signs (rare in Oviedo) or when you are in a hurry (I was power walking into the unknown) you look straight ahead.  For these reasons, when you are lost, and most likely then in a hurry, it is probable that you will step in dog poop.  Yep.  I Asked multiple people where to go and they all told me the same place, but I knew it wasn't my building! Finally, one lady just led me to the bus stop and two others shoved me on the bus.  This was at 9:30.  They told me to get off at the 5th stop.  So I sat on the bus for a couple of stops and at one, one of the ladies popped up behind me and said, "Get out, get out quick!".  It was the 5th stop and I hadn't been paying attention.  In the end I made it to the school and found out that I'm in Intermediate 3 and that my classes didn't even start until 11 that day!

I'm really excited for all of my classes, I'm taking translation, phonetics, grammar, art, and hispanoamerica.  I'm also excited in a nerdy-school sense because I found the Oviedo library!  Even if you don't love libraries like I do- I suggest a visit, the temperature of the building is ten degrees warmer than any other building.  Everyone (me included) is adjusting right now, so no one really has a routine.  For the most part I've woken up, gone to my classes, come home for lunch and then maybe had something going on?  I don't really know, the week has been a blur.  My head doesn't hurt so much from the Spanish anymore though.

I've been writing things down that I wish I'd known for future students.  Two being that you should start walking on incline machines in a gym about 3 miles a day for maybe 2 weeks before you come, and that you should practice eating at Spanish times.  I have been a tired woman after walking up and down all of the hills of Oviedo, and I've spent money I shouldn't have because I was too hungry to wait until my family ate to eat! I go to class from around 10-2 and my family often isn't up when I leave, they don't have lunch until 3, and dinner until about 9:30! My first couple of days I couldn't even stay up that late after my mind running and my feet walking!

Another thing is to know you're way around Oviedo FROM the cathedral.  After my disastrous first walk to school my madre told me that the last student she had would always walk through the cathedral.  You can see it from almost everywhere and I feel like less of an idiot asking people where the cathedral is than asking, "Can you tell me where I live?".  There are too many parks and fountains to be sure that the person you are asking knows what you are talking about, but everyone knows the cathedral.  Oh! and someone asked me for directions one day! and since I was by the cathedral I was able to tell her! That was so cool! But between students we just reference statues.   Mainly, "books and hat", "La Gorda (Fat Lady)", and "The butt".  Pictures will be coming soon.

Yesterday, we got a group together to play some ultimate frisbee and that was pretty fun.  TODAY we were going to Covadonga, which is the most beautiful place in Austurias (my providence).  My family was so excited for me and my mom packed my lunch.  We stopped at this church on a cliff, with a chapel made out of a cave on the side of another cliff on the way there.  It was so cool! One of my Luther friends said, "It's things like these that make me wish I was Catholic".  Woo! Two points for Catholicism!  But we were told we couldn't see Covadonga, with its lakes and mountains, because there were patches of ice on the roads ahead.  Instead we stopped at two small towns on the return ride to Oviedo.  I got a dozen churros for 2 euro with my friends in the first town and then fell in love with the second.  My friend Deanna put it perfectly, "This place has everything that humans find beautiful- the ocean, mountains, and green land".

We walked to a look out point on top of a cliff, which also had a small chapel and just sat and had a picnic lunch for an hour, while watching surfers.  After that we walked into the town, which proved that this place is truly utopia.  They had a few outdoor cafes and a panderia that we stopped at twice.  We tried to go to a candy store that was just called, "Chocolate" but it was closed because today is a Sunday.  We walked to the beach and collected rocks, shells, and ocean softened glass.  After playing my usual, "Run towards the waves... run away from the waves!" game a wave crashed on me and my legs were wet up to my thighs... woops.  But the water wasn't even cold, we are definitely going back to that place. Again, pictures will be coming soon.

I still feel like I'm just at camp, like I haven't been gone that long.  I hope it stays that way because I don't want to slow down enough to think about how much I miss people.  I should probably blog more often so they're not all this long, but again I can't say anything for sure here.  Until I blog again- hasta luego!