Hey everyone! So I have now been in Spain for 1 week...

A lot has happened since then. For one thing I finally got 1 of my suitcases yesterday afternoon and will hopefully be picking up the other one tomorrow. I finally broke down and bought some more clothes the day before I got my suitcase because the airport should be reimbursing me. So Oviedo has a population of 200,000 people and here this is what they call a small city. Ha! Right. Well my host mom told me only after a couple of days I would be getting around this "small city" in no time. I thought, "You've got to be kidding?!?" She was so right. In a matter of 2-3 days I have been to the north, south, east, and west sides of the city. My legs and feet are so sore because I have averaged at least 6 miles of walking everyday.

Some funny things I have learned or seen while here. I have seen escalators outside. I absolutely love lemon flavored Fanta which is unique to Europe. People here care about saving energy with electricity and water but smoke a lot of the time and don't mind littering. I'm still trying to figure that one out. I have been into a McDonald's but didn't order anything apart from my Fanta. The fruit juice here is way better because it's all fresh. Oh in the airport in Madrid they had this announcement that kept reminding everyone how you couldn't smoke in the airport yet they had designated smoking areas where you could smoke. When I see stores or advertisements that have an English word in them. I often hear music that is in English wherever I go. I'm adjusting to the 24 hour clocks. I've started figuring out the difference for temperature. For those of you in Iowa, the coldest temperature I've had has been 42 degrees with average around 61 during the day. Feel free to come visit! ;-)

Since my post is focused on giving you some insight or a view of my life I thought it would be best to describe what this part of Spain looks like. So on the bus ride here I saw the beautiful ocean. Oviedo reminds me of a combination of California and Colorado. We have palm trees and lots of beautiful mountains. In fact, the view behind my apartment here is nothing short of breath taking. I will hopefully be able to include some pictures later on. Words cannot describe how beautiful it is here. The European Peaks which I flew over are amazing too.

The reason I'm here: to learn Spanish and to dive into this culture. God is always providing for me in abundance. So in my first 3 days of traveling I had 8 hours of sleep but God provided me with patience and a hopeful spirit. There is no way I should have survived that but God can do anything. My host family consists of Albi (mom), Miguel (dad), and Albi's dad, David. They are so kind and are learning patience as well when talking with me. It took them a while to realize that I understand the majority of what they are saying, I just have trouble speaking well back. I believe there is already improvement. I am studying at the University of Oviedo and am taking vocabulary, translation, grammar, literature, and Hispanic literature. With little sleep I didn't have to worry about jet lag. I didn't experience it! As far as eating goes, wow, I love the food and eating later hasn't really affected me too much. Breakfast: between 10-12 Lunch: (the biggest meal) 2:30, 5-6 snack time, Dinner: between 9:30-10pm.

Tomorrow some friends and I might go hiking! Oh something I've learned is that Europeans are so friendly and caring even to complete strangers. I can ask anyone for directions and they will help me. I even had one person walk with me for a while. Something else I experienced while traveling and having massive delays was meeting angels. I met so many kind people who spoke Spanish and helped interpret for me when I had questions about my ticket. I also got to meet people from English and hear people from Australia! I enjoyed traveling by myself especially since I knew that God was with me and taking care of me. I made many friends in my travels. I look forward to making more while I'm here with 20 other students from UNI. I'm looking forward to being a witness to my classmates while I'm here. Please keep us in your prayers!

Hasta Luego! Until next time...