Mi vida en España

So I decided to take a long weekend guided tour with classmates this last week. The tour was put together by my school, so there was about 75-80 students, 90% chinese, that all went on a double decker bus throughout the province of Asturias in the northeast of Spain. My crew consisted of Kristen (Amberican), Marlene (German) and Kooroush (Persian). We were an odd group but we complimented each other I think.

Asturias looks more like it should belong in Scotland or some other northern continent, not Spain. It is completely green with mountains and lakes...I loved it! Obviously it rained while we were there, hence why all is so green!

We started out in Oviedo, saw the cathedral and ate lunch there. It is a pretty peaceful city, the capital of Asturias in fact. But we went a little outside of Oviedo to a pre-romantic building. I guess it super unique since its one of the only pre-roman buildings in Spain, or Europe or something that is still intact. In fact they are in the process of restoring it still. We then headed to our base village of Candás where we stayed in cabins! SO COOL. The pueblo is super small and there is no one outside after 10pm which is super strange for Spain...but anyway they had cider! haha...btw, natural cider (without gas) is the "shit" here. Its a big thing for this area of Spain. Its pretty good, you have to pour only a little bit into your glass, but from super high above the glass to create bubbles (carbonation) and then you pound it like a shot. Interesting none the less.

The next day we went to Gijón. The largest city in Asturias, it has a great rivalry with Oviedo. On the outskirts of the city we went to a heritage site that shows the remains and a museum of the first Asturianos. Pretty neat. A bit odd though since the site is surrounded by an industrial mining zone ad the city's port. Other than that it was pretty cool. We then took off to the city where we had 6 hours to be tourists. Its a beautiful city. We hiked up to a park that overlooks the city. The sun came out for a few hours so we stayed up there lying on the grass, making flower necklaces and drying our wet socks from the rain..hah. On our way down we saw a wedding, they play bagpipes in Irish get-up when the couple exits the church! Celtic culture is so engrained in this area of Spain. We then had traditional Asturian 'fabada' which is a bean stew with sausages. HOLY MOLY, it was great! But UBER filling. We were miserable after...but we were entertained be a crazy guitar player and an old man who had a thing for Kristen.

After Gijón we took of to the self-proclaimed "most beautiful pueblo in all of Asturias called Cudillero. Its a super little town with not a whole lot to see. But the view is quite incredible. We were actually more fascinated by the snails..but yeah, it was cute.

The next morning we set off to Parque Nacional: Picos de Europa where we drove up to the top of the park to see 2 lakes. The view was incredible, but again I was more fascinated by the cows..haha. Oh How I miss happy Californian cows At one point I became one with the herd. The town at the bottom of the mounains is called Covadonga. It was pretty sweet. The cathedral was awesome looking and they have a chapel built INTO the cliff! Hard to explain, check out the video below with the pics. After we left Covadonga we had a super long bus ride back, almost 7 hours, whew!

But all in all, I met knew friends, spoke a lot of Spanish and got to know a little more of Spain! <3

music by Juan Quesada "Asturias"

So the man and I took a half day trip to this medieval city just an hour outside of Madrid. Its beautiful!!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE the wall surrounding the city, the narrow and winding allies and the archaic architecture. We had some pretty decent paella when we first arrived then made our way into the city. Between all the trinkets and tourist traps there is genuine spanish authenticity. We stopped by the museum attributed to El Greco, that was cool. But the art shown was basically his old stuff, not the art I learned in Uni...but sill nice none the less. I actually enjoyed the space and gardens of the museum more than the art! haha. The day was so hot is was just nice to stop and sit on a bench in the semi-shade, listen to the birds chirp and feel the cool breeze....of course the man became quickly bored but amused my whim, que caballero!

Anyhoo...I think the pictures can explain better than I...mira:

So, by far my favorite dish here in Madrid isnt Spanish at all. I am in LOVE with Korean food. I don't know why, specifically, I prefer the Korean food to Spanish but I do have some speculations:

> There is more variety in Korean food than in Spanish. Spanish food is amazing, don't get me wrong. But there is seriously the same 5 main ingredients in all the dishes. Jamón, Jamón Jamón Jamón Jamón!! Just kidding...but not really. haha....I would say the main ingredients used in Spanish dishes are carne/Jamón(meat/ham), patatas(potatoes), huevos(eggs), ajo(garlic) and pan(bread)or some kind of carb. obviously there are more ingredients in their cuisine but in reality you will NOT find ONE dish missing one of these ingredients. here are some pics that my wonderful soon-to-be mother-in-law has made or purchased during my stay so far:

> Korean food has A LOT of vegetables. And boy am I a big fan of vegetables. Spanish food has vegetables too. But almost ALWAYS they are cooked, steamed, pickled, or in some form OTHER THAN fresh. The only fresh veggies I have encountered are in their salads. And the salads are....ok. Its just iceberg with a little tomato, maybe some shredded carrot with oil vinegar and salt. It's good, but Im not a big fan of vinegar which leads me to not like a lot of their veggies, haah! I should add vinegar and olive oil to the list of items used in the Spanish cuisine. But korean food is almost ALL veggies! The kimchi is yummy....the "namul" cucumber stuff and the seafood pancake OMG!!! Just talking about it makes me want to eat it agaiiiiiin!!!

> Korean food can be SPICY! I LOVE Spicy. Spanish people don't do a whole lot of spicy anything. There are dishes that are spicy, but my mouth is used to Mexican spicy and when I want my mouth to burn Spanish food just doesn't cut it. haha. If I am in the mood for comfort food...then THATS when Spanish food is bomb-diggity! The soups have so much GOODNESS inside. Each bite is like a piece of heaven.

So, my friendsies and the man OFTEN go to our fav Korean restaurant called "Palillos del Cardinal" near the Bilbao metro. Its freaking amazing. We went tonight and it was sooooo tasty. Here are some of the things we ate. ñom ñom ñom ñom.....

ANyways, this is NOT a post bashing Spanish food. Because I LOVE spanish food (except Jamón Iberico. I know that it is a sin to say that outloud but its true...I DONT LIKE IT!) This is merely a post to state that I am in a relationship with korean food. Step aside Alvaro...you have competition <3 Besito para mi amor.

Its nice to have girlies again.
Love you Xiao Jing de China, Joomin de Corea, and Rachel de EEUU (now back in States...boo)

OK. So......It is an obvious concept that when you live in a different country, with different culture, that you will be exposed to new a different things, right? Sure. But some things just make you say..."What the hell!?"

Now don't get me wrong, I heart Spain. But WHY, W-H-Y do the men pee in public? Seriously. Every day I take Tara (family dog) for a walk to do her business in the little "park", more like a skinny patch of grass with some trees, near our complex. And EVERY DAY there is an old man chillin' on one of the benches with nothing to do but read the paper and watch the people. And EVERY DAY he pees on the same tree at the SAME time that I am walking the dog. Not even trying to hide, I mean, I DONT WANT to see an old man's wang!!!

And today when I was walking Tara, there was a "limpieza" (street cleaner guy) cleaning the sidewalks and emptying the "park" trashes, and he just walked over to a tree and did his business. I understand if you have to go, then you have to go. But it's not a random thing, its a widely accepted thing, its an EPIDEMIC!

Its not like we are camping. It's in the middle of a residential area. Maybe its just me but I find it a bit peculiar. Its just as easy to walk to a nearby store as it is to cross the street to the "park". Sheesh.

I can only think of a few reasons why they do it...
> There are not a plentiful amount of public restrooms available, like in the states...ok.
> Maybe the nearby stores don't allow you to use their restrooms without purchasing? But the Limpieza guy? Im sure they'd let him use them....?
> Lazy?
> Accustomed?
> Is there no law against it?
> ...um......no sé....

Anyhoo, just my rant for the day. Kinda random I know. But hey, welcome to Spain, it's a little bit like Land of the Random....