The simple life.

Life here is way more simple than my life back home, it's great. You eat whenever you're hungry, not at a set schedule. You take an umbrella with you if it's raining. You take a nap if you're tired. You buy good shoes so your feet don't hurt. You take time to enjoy the shops and scenery on your way to wherever. If you're late because you were enjoying life, it's perfectly fine. People also don't worry as much-it is normal to see kids alone late at night on the playground, and walking home alone at 3 in the morning as a girl is totally fine. In fact, we walk alone most of the time we go anywhere. My host mom never asks where I am or when I'm gonna be home, so unless I tell her she has no idea. If I do let her know, she usually just replies with something along the lines of "Have fun and do whatever you want. You can come home when you want to!" Even though I am in college and am used to doing what I want, it is weird to have a mom who doesn't even want to know where I'm going, who I'm hanging out with, or what I'm doing-not a bad thing, just different haha.

Unless they have to go to work, people here sleep in til 10, or whenever they wake up. I am so used to feeling like I have to get up by 9 and be productive that this lifestyle is so refreshing. There is no pressure to be productive. Yes, you should be doing something with your life, but every minute is not viewed as an opportunity to get stuff done. Today I woke up at 3pm because I was out til 4 and am probably still a little jet lagged. No one said anything. In fact, Lucia asked if I wanted to sleep more after we ate haha. The rest of the day I didn't leave the house and we watched 3 movies. The only productive thing the 3 of us did was Marisa walking to the grocery store to go shopping. Also, 4am is early to come home in this world. I felt bad staying out so late until Lucia said that she was out with her friends until 5-6ish haha! They also thought it was weird I didn't want to go out last night, cause Saturday is when EVERYONE goes out. But tomorrow we are going to Covadona, so I needed my rest! 

Here are some pictures I took from the floor my classes are on. Since we're foreigners, they put all of us in the same classes, which are all in the same building. It's nice cause I don't get lost haha. There are like 6 levels: 2 advanced, 3 intermediate, and 1 beginners. I am in one of the advanced levels, and most of my classes are with the same 50 kids, mostly Americans but there are people from other countries as well. They are all taught in Spanish, and most of the teachers speak very fast, minus one who speaks dreadfully slow haha. Since I'm in advanced, most of the kids make an effort to speak in only Spanish also, so the majority of what I hear everyday is Spanish-it really is an immersion program! There are very few people in the city of Oviedo who speak English in general since it isn't a tourist city at all. If you were a foreigner who didn't know any Spanish, you would have one hell of a time trying to figure everything out.