Llanes y Covadonga
Let´s see. Friday I was supposed to go to a movie after school with a friend of mine, but the clock in my room was off and I ended up not making it in time. Instead, I sat around reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown. awesome book by the way, especially if you liked Da Vinci Code. I´m addicted and could hardly pay attention in class because all i wanted to do was read read read. ¨:) It´s so nice to actually have time to read my own books!!
And it´s not that i just sit around reading all day in night, I only read at nights before I go to bed, when there is nothing to do, or when they are all watching weird tv shows that I´m not interested in. Jerry Springer type stuff but all spanish. If I didn´t like it in english, there´s no way i´m gonna like it in spanish.
Saturday we woke early and headed out to llanes. I thought they had said we were going to a festival, but um..it wasn´t until sunday. but i did walk to the beach with my host sister Juana and her boyfriend Andres. It was such a beautiful day that i forgot it is fall here. It must have been 75, blue sky, cool breeze. and the beach was...well i love beaches over all, but man it was blue and clear and a wonder of nature. The beaches out by llanes, as you may have seen in the pictures, are interspersed between large cliffs and rocks, so you practically have your own private beaches.
afterwards we drove to a look out point where i could see the famous Picos de Europa. They were pretty far off, so the pictures didn´t turn out, but they were still a site to see. hopefully i´ll get a chance to get a closer look before i leave here.
The next day we woke REALLY early because Juana had to work the morning at this ´festival´that wasn´t really a festival. so i hung out with her boyfriend and practiced my spanish for a few hours while she cut up famous cheese and tested it (she´s some sort of biologist of food quality...i´m not sure). The festival consisted of a large covered basketball court type area, with booths lining all sides and the center, selling cheese, a little honey, and a few handicrafts. I tried as many samples as my stomach could bare and then gave up. The cheese was wayyyy too strong for me. I´ll stick to manchega.
There was also a asurian dance group there performing, which was fun to watch, with bagpipes and costumes of tradicional asturias. but people are so rude in crowds and just jam in front of you, crowd you out, and then start smoking, so my enjoyment lasted about as long as i could stand the second hand smoke. blah.
I think my host mom was disapointed by the whole thing too cuz she told pepe we should go somewhere else. so we drove to a place called Covadonga where there is this huge palace-like church on a hill, surrounded by mountains, and a cave where they have a HUGE shrine to the Virgin of Covadonga.
the stones that the church are made of have a pink hue to them, so it was quit breathtaking, inside and out. Turns out that this was where my host parents got married 30 years ago! It was something out of a movie.
We took the journey through the caves to pay homage to the great Virgin of Covadonga ( i gave her 40 centimos for health and safety) and then my most mom and sister led me to this natural spring coming out of the side of the mountain. They have constructed a fountain underneath it with 7 spouts. According to legand, if you drink from each spout one right after another, you will marry promptly and have a wonderful marriage.
so i did, just cuz i thought it was new and unusual, and then asked her if she had dranken from the fountain ¨oh, yes many times¨ she said. ¨oh, so how old were you when you got married?¨ ¨30 ¨she said laughing. looks like the holy love potion isn´t all it´s cracked up to be. But when we met up with everyone again, she told everyone that next time they hear from me I´ll be getting married. haha.
so that was my weekend. back to a grueling week of school, with the best part being that there is no class wednesday! woot! hopefully i can go do something fun. if the weather holds out, I´d like to go on a hike.
And it´s not that i just sit around reading all day in night, I only read at nights before I go to bed, when there is nothing to do, or when they are all watching weird tv shows that I´m not interested in. Jerry Springer type stuff but all spanish. If I didn´t like it in english, there´s no way i´m gonna like it in spanish.
Saturday we woke early and headed out to llanes. I thought they had said we were going to a festival, but um..it wasn´t until sunday. but i did walk to the beach with my host sister Juana and her boyfriend Andres. It was such a beautiful day that i forgot it is fall here. It must have been 75, blue sky, cool breeze. and the beach was...well i love beaches over all, but man it was blue and clear and a wonder of nature. The beaches out by llanes, as you may have seen in the pictures, are interspersed between large cliffs and rocks, so you practically have your own private beaches.
afterwards we drove to a look out point where i could see the famous Picos de Europa. They were pretty far off, so the pictures didn´t turn out, but they were still a site to see. hopefully i´ll get a chance to get a closer look before i leave here.
The next day we woke REALLY early because Juana had to work the morning at this ´festival´that wasn´t really a festival. so i hung out with her boyfriend and practiced my spanish for a few hours while she cut up famous cheese and tested it (she´s some sort of biologist of food quality...i´m not sure). The festival consisted of a large covered basketball court type area, with booths lining all sides and the center, selling cheese, a little honey, and a few handicrafts. I tried as many samples as my stomach could bare and then gave up. The cheese was wayyyy too strong for me. I´ll stick to manchega.
There was also a asurian dance group there performing, which was fun to watch, with bagpipes and costumes of tradicional asturias. but people are so rude in crowds and just jam in front of you, crowd you out, and then start smoking, so my enjoyment lasted about as long as i could stand the second hand smoke. blah.
I think my host mom was disapointed by the whole thing too cuz she told pepe we should go somewhere else. so we drove to a place called Covadonga where there is this huge palace-like church on a hill, surrounded by mountains, and a cave where they have a HUGE shrine to the Virgin of Covadonga.
the stones that the church are made of have a pink hue to them, so it was quit breathtaking, inside and out. Turns out that this was where my host parents got married 30 years ago! It was something out of a movie.
We took the journey through the caves to pay homage to the great Virgin of Covadonga ( i gave her 40 centimos for health and safety) and then my most mom and sister led me to this natural spring coming out of the side of the mountain. They have constructed a fountain underneath it with 7 spouts. According to legand, if you drink from each spout one right after another, you will marry promptly and have a wonderful marriage.
so i did, just cuz i thought it was new and unusual, and then asked her if she had dranken from the fountain ¨oh, yes many times¨ she said. ¨oh, so how old were you when you got married?¨ ¨30 ¨she said laughing. looks like the holy love potion isn´t all it´s cracked up to be. But when we met up with everyone again, she told everyone that next time they hear from me I´ll be getting married. haha.
so that was my weekend. back to a grueling week of school, with the best part being that there is no class wednesday! woot! hopefully i can go do something fun. if the weather holds out, I´d like to go on a hike.