Hey!
Another 2 week long hiatus, but there hasn’t been much to report so I figured it didn’t matter. The past couple weeks have been pretty average and mellow. Last weekend we went on a day trip to A Coruña, where we saw the city and had a big lunch meal with the family of one of the teachers from the language school. They made a big lunch spread for us, complete with a variety of local seafood (barnacles too… yuck) and even a chocolate fountain for dessert. Afterwards we went ice skating! It was pretty great. When we were done we sat down for some churros y chocolate, which makes my mouth water just thinking about it.
 |
| The Tower of Hercules in A Coruna -- the oldest functional lighthouse in all of Europe |
 |
| Katharina and I posing at the ice-skating rink. We were the stars ;) |
 |
| Churros con chocolate! |
The weekend before that we adopted the Galician way of life and went to a little pub out in the middle of nowhere (apparently the town is called “Igrexafeita” which in Gallego translates to “made church”, though I didn’t actually see much of a town) where we met some of the nice Gallego people, ate delicious homemade chocolate cake, and learned a few more Gallego phrases. The next day we took an excursion to another little village for an annual celebration, complete with an auction, vermouth, and one of those bathrooms that consists of a hole in the ground accompanied on each side by two rectangles where you’re supposed to put your feet.
Oh yeah, that weekend we invited a few of our Spanish friends over to introduce them to some nice American culture. We made them some hearty Mac & cheese for supper – unfortunately not the boxed kind, but we improvised with some melted cheese over noodles. It turned out alright. After that, what better representation of American culture than a nice game of beer pong? Katharina also had a couple of her German friends staying at the house that weekend, so we had a little international night at the flat.
Aside from that, nothing too exciting has been going on. As I mentioned last time, we recently joined a gym and have been forcing ourselves to go during the week. I’ve never heard so many people (myself included) complain this much from being sore in my whole life. Unfortunately, after I publish this post I have to head to the gym… booooo!
February is probably going to be a pretty calm month, but I’ve been getting some new trips planned for the next few months, which is pretty exciting and gives me something to look forward to. March is going to be crazy, I have off the 4th through the 13th for Carnival, and I’ve got the whole week booked solid. Right now I’m planning on taking a trip along the northern coast, with stops in Oviedo, Gijon, Santander, Bilbao, San Sebastian, and Pamplona. The north is the last major region in Spain for me to visit, and it’s the one that I’ve been wanting to see the most for quite some time, so I’m incredibly excited for it. As of now I will be travelling by myself, which I’ve never really done before, but it sounds like Leslie and her friend from home are probably going to come join me for at least a portion of it. After that I fly down to Tenerife, a city in the Canary Islands, where I meet up with Sheena, Callie, and Laura. Tenerife is said to have the biggest Carnival celebration in all of Europe, so I don’t even know what to expect from that. So I get back home from Tenerife on the 13th, have class for two days, and then on Wednesday I’m off to Dublin for St. Patrick’s Day!! I can only imagine what that’s going to be like. Then April comes with Ma and Pa during Semana Santa! I think during March and April I will be spending more time traveling than actually here in Ferrol! I haven’t really made any definite plans for May yet (gotta get through March and April first I think), though I’m fairly certain I’ll be heading to Barcelona for the Primavera Sound Festival at the end of the month.
Welp, that’s it for this blog I think. I have updated the pictures to the right a little bit, so check them out if you're interested. I should also probably mention that while all you folks in Nebraska and South Dakota are up to your necks in snow and freezing your butts off, its 55 degrees and sunny here in Ferrol. :P With that, I leave you with this week’s soundtrack, which is dedicated to all my lovies back in Nebraska. :)
take it easy!!
