Catch-Up (aka the past eight months are a blur)

In the time since my last post, I've had some crazy adventures, and then settled down a bit. Spain adventures became a full-time affair, so I didn't get a chance to post more on what I was doing. Needless to say, it was amazing! Here are my good-bye photos to Spain, with my host family and El Cristo above the city:

Then, I came back to the states, and moved into this crazy house. I live in a community house, with 20 other wonderful, weird, lovely people. Here we are, at our finest:

 This became my biggest adventure of the year. These are the people who were there for me as I went through the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Class Winter Term, who held me as I tried to process it all, even after only knowing me for a few weeks.

Then came Spring Break. I chose to do an alternative break, and spent the week in Henderson, Nevada, working with the St. Therese Center, an AIDS resource center. One of the days we spent helping out with their Easter Basket distribution. That's me, in the ears:

Spring was a blur, I was suffering from what one of my friends called "Credititis" or an inflammation of the credits. Turns out that 17 credits, with 16 of them being 400 level is not the best idea. My crazy roommates and a lot of hard work got me through it though.

The whole while I was working one job and getting ready for another. My job giving campus tours was wonderful, and sometimes very, very wet. I also got hired to be a Peer Minister for the Newman Center for next year, which will be a completely different wonderful position for 2013-14!

This gets you pretty much caught up on my adventures, although now it is finally summer, so I'm preparing to have some more! Be on the lookout for family, quilting, Oregon, and my more of my marvelous roommates!

Osos y La Sella

This past weekend I soaked up the wonderful late-summer weather with a couple of wonderful adventures. On Saturday afternoon, my host mom and I drove a couple of towns over to see the bears (osos) of Asturias. The two girl bears were rescued after their mother died, and have lived on the reserve all their lives, and the male bear, Furaco, was a gift to Asturias in hopes that he and Tula or Paca might produce baby bears. No such luck yet, but all three live on the reserve, and a park has been built around it, with biking and walking trails to see the bears and the gorgeous surrounding countryside. 

Furaco about to take a swim

The beautiful Asturian countryside

On Sunday, I was lucky enough to have another awesome adventure. With a group of international students from the University of Oviedo I kayaked for the first time, down the River Sella. I didn't realize until later that there is an internationally famous kayak race that happens here every year, I just appreciated passing a wonderful day with my friends. It was warm enough to be able to swim, but not so warm that we were uncomfortable. Plus, the entire 16k route was gorgeous! 

We stopped at this really awesome footbridge over the river and went exploring! 

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My awesome partner gathering chi from the raging river!

The views were simply breathe-taking. For the whole six hours we kept saying "this is what it means to be alive. We are 20 years old, in Spain and living, this is so cool!"

Familia

Life is good here in Oviedo. It's hard to believe that I arrived just two weeks ago today, so much has happened in such a short amount of time. I'd like to introduce you all to mi familia, my family here in Oviedo. This is my host family, Eugenio, Olga, me, my host-sister Yumi, who is from Japan, and her friend, Natsuki.

I am so happy here, especially at home. I've been truly blessed with a wonderful, amazing host family, and they make the transition and accompanying culture shock so much easier! Life is good!

La Fin de Semana

So much has happened in the past couple of days that it seems unreal that it's only been a long weekend since I arrived. I had more flight trouble coming to Oviedo, and didn't get in until 1am on Thursday morning. Thankfully, I have a truly amazing host family, and my parents drove half an hour out to the airport to pick me up. Thursday was orientation, and then Friday and Saturday we went on an excursion to the western part of our state, Asturias. 

At the Basillica at the shrine of La Virgen de Covadonga, a super important site to Asturias. 

The locals and other volunteers shared some of their lunch with us, including Cabrales, the cheese you can see Luis getting. It is famous, and is from Asturias. The flavor is very strong, and it smells and tastes like goat. I liked it, but couldn't eat very much of it.

After doing a service project in the morning, my group went out and climbed on the rock on the left, and then went swimming in this bay of the Atlantic Ocean!

My group had decided to stay after the volunteer project, so instead of taking the bus we took the train across the state back to Oviedo! These are my friends, Anna and Rachel. We had so much fun, and it felt so much like this is what study abroad is supposed to be about, talk with the local, swim in the ocean, drink cafe con leche and ride the train through the countryside. So amazing! 

Today, Sunday my family went on our own mini excursion to the coast, which was a total blast! It has been an amazing, overwhelming, fantastic time in Spain so far! 

This is my family: Eugenio (my dad), Olga (my mom) Natski (my sister's best friend here), and Yumi (my sister).

This is the last of the coastal areas we went to before exploring a town and heading back to Oviedo. It was so cool because nowhere we went was super touristy, it was all local areas. As my mom put it, it wasn't a tourist route, it was 'the Olga y Eugenio ruta'. 

I love it here!

Get Set!!

Tonight, my lovely mother planned and bought supplies to have a going-away open house so friends and family could drop by and see me before I leave for Spain! Me being me, I decided to have some fun decorating, and this is what our entrance looked like: (I love sidewalk chalk!)

The whole evening was a blast, with family and friends coming and going. Here is one of the pics, me with some of my church ladies, Mary, Julie and Charlotte. 

It was so nice to get to chat and catch up with people that I hadn't seen in a while. It fills me up for tomorrow, which will be laundry and packing and last minute errands as I get ready for my big day of travel!

Oviedo

This is where I will be in just under 3 weeks!