Parades and Zoe!

We left off before the second round of Carnaval.  Went to Gijon and it was NOT as cool as Aviles.  There was a parade, but parades are different here- no candy, less floats. Meh.  There was one stage for music and we danced for a little while but didn't know the songs.  The most exciting event that night was the mob on the bus.  There were hundreds of people in line at the bus station to go back to Oviedo.  We were probably behind 50 people.  So one bus loaded and left.  The second bus pulled up to the front of the line and started loading the next in line.  Well, the third bus driver just started letting people nearest to his door in line in.  That help me and my friends board then.  But when both buses finished loading at the same time the people at the front of the line who missed the second bus freaked out.  People were hitting the bus and standing in front of it-madness! But we all got out of it alive.

I only went to school Wednesday and Thursday.  I got the results for my fonetica and gramatica tests.  I did great on my gramatica and not so great in fonetica.  Everyone in the class failed except for one girl who got a perfect.  The teacher and I joke around a lot and I asked how we did on the test and he said horrible and I laughed.  Then he said, 'No, really.  Horrible'.  :/  It's just frustrating because I did fine in class! There'll be more tests though.

Friday I took a bus to Santander to fly from there.  I took the first class bus because that worked with timing- it was awesome.  First class seats, I watched Definitely, Maybe in Spanish, and free snacks!  I came into Milan around 7pm and found out that the Metro wasn't working because of a strike and that I would have to pay to go to the bathroom at the train station.  So I fidgeted in a line for a taxi for 20 minutes.  Two people asked me questions as if I knew anything.  I came to Neil and Francesca's (Chris' friends) house and met up with everyone (great people!), started dinner, and saw Chris, Paige and Zoe!  Ahh!

Zoe is such a giggly baby now.  She wakes up with a smile and laughs with her big open mouth.  Ah I love her so much.  Saturday we went to the Duomo and the Galleria, and figured out that it was Carnaval in Milan that weekend.  Aviles fills the streets with foam, but Milan fills the streets with confetti- only don't say that in Italian because confetti is like sweets and that will get peoples' hopes up.  I got attacked with foam and confetti by some teenage boys and an old lady.  The parade here was actually very fun to watch so we did that for a while.  There were dancers and some throwing of things to the crowd.  Sunday we went to the castillo, but the majority of our trip was spent eating and talking-which are two of my favorite things!  But my favorite memories of the trip were waking up from a nap and seeing Zoe next to me.  She's so great.

I came home Monday.  The Milan airport made me laugh-to get to your gate they have arrows pointing this way and that way.  I followed and it took me through the airport mall- if I had been there before I would have known that I would only have to take my first left and avoid the mall.  Today I caught up with everyone at school and tried to buy my tickets to Valencia this weekend.  I know that people told me that life would be less stressful here- but I think it's a different kind of stress.  Booking flights and hostels etc. is stressful stuff.  Anyways... hopefully I will be able to tell you next time that Valencia was great and I made it into the school Salamanca trip!