Another day in the mountains and a bit of lounging.

Oh Spain. Some days I love it and some days I just don’t understand it (or what’s being said in it). Last Saturday, some people from our group went hiking in Teverdga with Luna and Paula (they are our advisors here). This is the same place we went hiking before although we did not hike the same peak. There are so many mountains in this part of the country. I love it. This hike was much more fun than the last one we went on because we took some harder routes and were able to find a few faces to climb. We peaked at one of the highest in the range and the view was fantastic. There was actually a bit of calima (fog or haze) lingering so it wasn’t perfectly clear but nonetheless enchanting. On the way down to this very small lake Luna and Paula kept talking about, my impulses got the best of me when I jumped down to surprise Sean while he was taking a picture of a flower. I rolled my ankle. So the rest of the hike was more of a hobble for me but it was still enjoyable. While hiking back we came to a snag in the trail or rather a cliff that would not allow us to take the short way back to the car. This meant we would have to hike all the way around and up and over a peak. This did not sound like an awesome idea for a weak ankle. So, Kevin and I found a place on the cliff where we would be able to shimmy down the side and take a v-line to the car. No one else thought it looked like a good/safe idea but it really wasn’t too bad…just a lot of thorns. It was a lot of fun hiking down with Kevin. I felt like I was actually on a hike because from then on we were more or less just making our own path thru woods, thorns, pastures, and rocks. We also only sort of knew where the cars were parked. Our directions were: Go over these mountains find the road and go up. Ha. Sounds like a plan. Kevin and I didn’t even bother finding the road. Our sense of direction proved to be phenomenal and after braving the thorns and cliffs we came over a hill straight in line with our cars. It was a fantastic feeling. We then sat, enjoyed a bocadillo (a delicious sandwich), listened to music, and waited the hour and a half that it took the other group to arrive. Our way was much better. That night we were planning to go to an Opera at Teatro de Campoamor, which is a large performance theatre in Oviedo. Unfortunately, we called and most of tickets were sold out and the only seats left were very bad. we decided to wait since we were all exhausted from the hike. Instead, I met up with Sean and Jon at Isla de Cuba, our favorite hangout, and just geeked out and played with my laptop. It was nice to just hangout, search the web, and drink some coffee while waiting for the ibuprofen to kick in. The next day was pretty low key as well. Slept in a bit, ate breakfast, then went to an auto show outside Catedral (huge cathedral in the downtown area). This was no auto show, by the way, it was a Volkswagen auto show – made my day! Even though the long walk wasn’t the best on my ankle, I really loved getting the chance to see how Spaniards do Volkswagens. There were some really nice buses and beetles there. No buses pre-1968 so they were all very similar to mine. It was a fun time. I took lots of pictures. The rest of my Sunday consisted of rest and a bit of studies. I did watch Terminator 3 with Manolo for a bit. He likes action movie; Rambo, Terminator, Walked Texas Ranger, you name it. Today, I went to the gym, forced myself to work out, then came back for lunch. Margarita and her son Gabriel were there (M is Doris’s daughter-in-law, and G is her grandson) and they were talking with Doris about some problems Gabriel was having at school. I think they were talking about how kids were teasing him about his weight. I felt bad about the situation. I guess those sort of issues happen everywhere in the world. I remember learning in one of my classes in the states about Spain and there openness in describing people. The lesson was that the it is acceptable to describe people as gordo (fat), but I guess it is not always the case. I wish I understood more of the conversation. Oh well. Right now it is just about 2:00. I have class from 4-7 tonight, exciting. Bueno, me piro a Isla de Cuba. Hasta Luego . Pasalo bien dia!