Iglesia.

Mom, you know I can't resist your sweet smile that you always use when you ask me to post . . . so I'll tell you a quick little story before I go to bed.  As you know, I went to church yesterday [here is our little group]:

 

Tonight as I finishing dinner, Guillermina was telling me that she only wants to have girl exchange students stay at her house.  Before me, she had 3 exchange students that were all boys and I guess the experiences weren't so great.  She said that they treated her house like a hotel and never helped and just ate and ate and ate.  But then she said something that brought a huge smile to my face: "I also like that you are Mormon because you have been taught good values and you know who you are."  [She obviously said that in English, but I figured I wouldn't make you try to translate it.]  She said she likes the Mormon church.  And I said, "Me gusta tambien," while smiling and nodding my head a lot.

I'm just happy to know that she's happy to have me.  Or at least I'm guessing that her saying all of that meant she's happy.  And she was sweet enough to let me use her "Bus Plus" card so that we don't have to pay transaction fees when buying our tickets for San Sebastian!  Yay for nice people.

And yay for pretty hikes.

Weekend Escapades

I often find myself in awe that I am actually living in Spain [even though it's just for five weeks].  The fact kind of hits me like an epiphany, as if it were my first time noticing that I'm in a completely different world.  I had that kind of moment a few times today, and it just put the biggest smile on my face.  Truth is, I am in love with Spain.  

Here is why:

sun + mountains + beach + cool old buildings = happy me.

I'm actually really lucky that I made it to our little day trip today.  I woke up at 9:47 . . . we were supposed to meet at 9:45.  I shot out of bed and ran into the kitchen in a panic.  Sweet Guillermina let me use her phone to call one of my professors while she whipped up breakfast and lunch and then she called a taxi [which she paid for] and sent me off with a "buenas suerte."  I was just praying the whole taxi ride that I would make it in time.  And good thing I did because we had a lot of fun.

[My wedding present for Trent and Meg.]

After we got home from our little escapade, I ate some dinner [some of the shrimp in my soup still had their eyes--I put those ones back into the pot] and talked to Amanda . . . and then met up with Meg at the perk.  We went down to a bar close to the school where everyone was watching the Barcelona-Manchester game and then went with some friends afterward on a search for chocolate con churros.  Amazingly enough we found it after walking past tons of discotecas and sidras.

Yesterday was a lot of fun as well.  First, Meg and I went to a place that has nine different types of chocolate to have chocolate con churros [of course].

We then went with our group to some place for Espiche.  To be honest, I'm not sure if Espiche is the name of what we were celebrating or it described how we were celebrating the special day . . . but basically it's an excuse for the Spaniards to drink even more sidra than they already do.  Anyway, it was a lot of fun because there was tons of great food and cultural dancers and people enjoying their sidra [while we enjoyed our water].

My grammar/vocabulary teacher came up to me and was making sure that I didn't eat anything with nuts and showed me which things had nuts.  I thought that was really sweet!

After that little escapade, we went with our group to and talked and went dancing at a discoteca [yes, I actually danced . . . but it was basically just with Megen haha] and other such things.  My two awesome friends Dave and Chase helped walk girls home and we took a little breather at the end of our dropping-off route and just enjoyed the street and the graffiti.

[Chase isn't in the picture because he's taking it.]

I'm just loving life here, as you can probably see.  Who knows if I'll actually make it back home--if anything, it'll be because I miss cereal and crisp apples too much.  [And I guess because I miss you too mom.]

 O.x.  [Big hug, leeetle kiss] 

Me Encanta.

As much as I love all of the food that my Spain mother makes for me, I am in love with churros and ice cream . . . actually, mainly ice cream.  Megen and I get it every single day.  And yesterday, I found KIT KAT flavor!!!  It was awesome.

Okay anyway, this will be short, but I was commanded by Audrey to update more--so after tonight (we're going to a big fiesta) I will post more.  [And hopefully have more pictures of Megen for Sara, Roger, and Trent to see.]

Until then, hasta luego!

A walk in the park.

Literally, yes.  Figuratively?  No.  Learning Spanish is definitely difficult . . . but then again I've only had one day of class so I'm hoping that improves.  But like I said earlier, that little hurdle seems like nothing when I just spend the afternoon walking around Oviedo.

My new neighbors:

There are also a lot of cute old people here:

Megen was very excited to find out that there is a ping pong table right on campus.  It may have some graffiti here and there . . . and it may be a tad different from the tables in America, but we called it good enough to play a few games of Around the World.

Oh, and I took the typical "first day of class" picture just for you mom.

Love and miss you much.

A stroke of luck, karma, blessings, etc.

I don't even know where to begin.  I am here, in Spain, and my hands are shaking because I am so nervous about trying to speak Spanish.  I just finished unpacking at my new home--my "mom" is very, very nice and patient with my Spanish.  She gave me a ton of pamphlets of things to do in Oviedo, and she has two teenage sons [ yep, you guessed it would happen to me mom, but don't worry, they're Stephen's and Michael's age ] and lives in the most beautiful area. 

I can already tell I will absolutely love it here.  When we were flying over Asturias, it was just green hill/mountains filled with trees and cute little villages.  And as we were riding on the bus there were blue houses splashed here and there--my kind of place.  And I live in the most beautiful part of town and there are peacocks in the park!  It's awesome.  And it is what will keep me hanging on until my Spanish improves.  I am just so blessed to be able to be having this experience, sometimes I feel a little guilty about it [ especially after how amazing London was ].

At first I thought I was doing okay.  I asked a man in Spanish where to get bus tickets, whether I paid with cash or card, and how much they were.  But then I went to go brush my teeth and accidentally went into the men's bathroom.  Worst part is, I finished brushing my teeth before I noticed that I was in the wrong room . . . I was looking for paper towels and instead found urinals and thought, "Hmm, that's not right."  Good to know I can sort of speak a new language but can't read pictures.

Anyway, the people in our group all seem really nice and I'm sure that once I get a hang of things it will be just splendid.

To be honest, I'm still giddy from what happened to us last night [ yes, even after sleeping in the airport like a hobo].  After meeting with Alexa for dinner at Kensington Creperie,

Megen and I decided to just go and see if there happened to be cheap tickets to Wicked.  [ We had helped a girl from Jordan find the right tube stop earlier on our way to the Portobello Market, so we were kinda banking on good karma to kick in. ]  With the encouragement from Alexa and Allison, we hustled over to the theater crossing our fingers that somehow, someway, something would work.

. . . I am so glad we helped that girl.

First section, great seats, student discount.  On a Saturday night!!  This is how we felt:

pure joy, disbelief, shock, excitement, etc.

It was amazing.  And Meg had never seen the play before so I was especially excited for her.

The rest of our day was good too.  Our kind friend Tony [ from the front desk of our hotel ] offered to give us cheap rooms when he heard we were sleeping at the airport . . . we would have done it but the only way to get out for our flight on time would have been a taxi so we said no.  After checking out, we just hit up the Portobello Market, got some great Indian food, and did a bit of shopping.  [ And don't worry, we were especially careful at the Indian restaurant so as not to repeat last year's Bombay House fiasco.  We asked them about 6 times if the food had nuts, they probably thought we were really annoying/stupid, but w. ]

Yay for nut-free naan and curry.

life at mowbray court

We love our hotel.  The beds are comfy, the shower has GREAT water pressure, they bring you your own pot of hot chocolate right to your table at breakfast, and we are best friends with the man that works at the front desk.  [ When we were signing up for our day tours he started laughing at Megen's name.  He asked her, "Where did you get a name like that?"  He called the tour agency to give them our information and when he got to hers he just started laughing and said, "I'm not going to even try to say this one."  Who knew McConkie was so difficult for Brits to say. ]

And,  we also have a personal radio.  Whoever is in the room next to us loves to sing.  Melody-less tunes, naturally.  But still, it's very entertaining.

That is all.

loads of fun = loads of pictures

We've done too much to properly cover in words . . . or even in pictures, but here's an attempt.  A glimpse, one might say, into the adventure we've been having in the Queen's land.

My dream job [ at Borough Market ]:

 

St. Paul's Cathedral.  We went in for a choir service and I got what Professor Gaskill calls

"Holy Envy"

Fish and chips for dinner.

SOOOOOO  good, awful seats:

On to today:

James' professors were so nice to let us join there tour--it was so much fun!  Everyone in the group was very friendly and kind . . . and I think Megen was able to handle being with BYU students.  It was a great day and James made us laugh a lot. [ Dad: imagine me saying "clever boy." ]

Our tour guide [ I have at least 11 other pictures of him . . . and a video ]: 

Windsor Castle

[Mom, in case you're wondering, Windsor Castle smells like cinnamon donuts.]

<-- New friends -->

Nap time on the bus.

Bath

I don't know why, I just thought this was really funny [at the Roman Baths]

 

. . .  and this too:

This is where I'm going to have my wedding:

Stonehenge!!

Just riding the escalator to the tube.

Our day was really fun, we loved getting to relax on the bus but also see the countryside and various sites in England.  [James, Megen, and I all loved Bath.]  Tonight was a lot of fun too though.  We went and got kebabs at some run-down place and then just wandered over to Big Ben/Parliament/Westminster/Buckingham . . . you know, the must-see tourist sites.  And we also got some McFlurries too.  I'm pretty sure Megen and I have had ice cream at least once every day.