Day 11 - "If I Knew Picasso, I Would Buy Myself a Gray Guitar and Play"

Well, it seems I may have a wee bit of catching up to do! Hopefully I won’t bore you to tears, and if I do, you should probably stop reading J

Things have been crazy, as I knew they would be this week, but it has all be awesome, and it is so hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that my time in Oviedo is already half over.

I don’t want it to be half over!

It’s so hard for me to explain how much I love this place. Honestly, it’s really hard for me to miss the States when it is so beautiful here. And I get to speak my favorite language. What more could you ask for?

Went to school, as usual, and had our break at our favorite café. The café con leche (coffee with milk) is only 1.10 euro, so it’s pretty reasonable, but the atmosphere is the best part about it. We’ve all concurred that we’re absolutely in love with the man and woman that work there. They are the sweetest things ever, and when we leave, they always say, “See you tomorrow!”

I really love that we have a place like that here.

Host fam wasn’t home for lunch, so I just re-warmed some soup and watched some TV in the kitchen – of course, it was still all about the World Cup.

Can’t remember if I had a siesta or not…don’t think I did. My main goal was to find the dang internet USB since it had been more than 8 or 9 days since I had talked to Sean or the fam. The janky internet signals were slightly wearing on my nerves, if you weren’t aware. So I went out by myself to try and find The Phone House where I had originally planned to buy the thing. Well, I could only find one of the three locations they were supposed to have, so I just ended up going back to Salesas (the mall), and I went to the bottom floor where I had never been. Hipercor is their equivalent of Wal-Mart (more or less), and they had an area where they were selling cell phones, so I went to look and see if I would have any luck with them selling the internet thing there. Sure enough, it was a MIRACLE!!!

I can’t tell you how cool it was to be able to just go out in a foreign country on my own, talk to people in their own language, and legitimately tell them and have them help me figure out what the hell I needed. There were two ladies that were helping me, and I couldn’t tell them how much I appreciated their help. I don’t think the saleslady knew too much about the internet USBs, so she worked really hard to help me get it figured out, and it was just damn cool.

Steph was going to skip out on the Museo de las Bellas Artes, so Alee and I were just going to meet up there and check it out.

Until I got a phone call from Alee, and she said, “Amy, I’m locked in the bathroom at my house!!!”

I almost died laughing. Not quite sure why I thought it was so funny, but I was busting a gut.

Turns out, she never had actually pulled the bathroom door shut before, but that time she had. And the handle wasn’t connecting with the door latch, and she couldn’t card the door because the latch was facing the wrong way. Quite the ordeal.

Well, I had no way to get into her apartment from the outside, so I offered to be hella sketch and just stand outside the building until someone else went in, then I would just follow them in. That’s exactly what happened, but the man going in was a few steps ahead of me, so I basically sprinted so the door wouldn’t shut on me, and the lady walking next to me looked at me like I was nuts.

Maybe I was.

Anywho, I got into the building and into the courtyard that Alee’s bathroom window looked out on. She threw the keys down four stories, then I came up and saved her! She had no idea when her host mom was going to be home, so if I hadn’t had a cell phone, it may have been a disaster.

Headed to the museum after that and were a little less than thrilled at seeing a lot of really old artwork. Not that it wasn’t gorgeous or incredible, but when it’s all you see on three floors, it tends to get a little old.

Then we found the top floor.

And Dalí and Picasso.

It was absolutely sublime. I had never seen any of their artwork in person, and it’s something I just can’t describe. Honestly, theirs is my favorite type of art. I adore the fact that it’s so abstract that you can’t tell exactly what they’re trying to show you (as opposed to “literal” paintings). I love that you can find your own meaning in the work and your own truth. And I think it’s something different for everyone.

Hit up the heladería after that and had a waffle with ice cream and chocolate syrup on top. Dee-lish. Headed out for drinks after that, but I wasn’t feeling any, so I just sat and visited. Then we found some people from Mizzou and sat and visited some more.

What a day!