U2 360 Tour Concert!

On Sunday I was able to go to a U2 concert in San Sebastian. This was one of their last stops on their 360 tour. I didn't realize that U2 was from Ireland, and just how popular they were in Europe until I went to this concert! San Sebastian is a big city right on the border of Spain and France. The concert was held in the futbol stadium of Real Sociedad. Real Sociedad is in the highest league of futbol in Spain so they play against teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona etc. Their stadium, Anoeta,  holds about 32,000 people for a soccer game, and a lot more when there are people on where the field would be. As you can see in the picture there were a lot of people! U2 performed really well live! They sang, and spoke in English the whole concert. When they would talk in between songs there would be a translation on the huge screen above them.

The next day I took a bus back to Oviedo which was a pretty long ride, considering buses stop in many cities along the way. There were some pretty parts of the drive though, along the coast and through mountains as well. The picture on the left are of mountains that were closer to Oviedo. Upon returning to Oviedo, I had a good practice with my little girls. I had some new ones joing the team so I am up to 12 girls! There is one girl, Sara, who always gets her self all prepared to say "See you tomorrow" in English after practice. It is so cute!! Sometimes she will say "See you on Monday." I always ask her what she learned in English during school that day, but she rarely wants to tell me about it. My impression is that all my girls have to take an English class each day at their day school. I try to get them to practice with me, but they are stubborn!

I found a nice little bakery yesterday where you can get like five things for 2 Euros. The other day when some of my teammates went with me to sign up for my Spanish class, her car got towed! We were only parked for about 15 minutes. They have these little miniture tow trucks that just speed around and snatch cars, even from parallel parking spots! I don't understand how they could have even towed her car because she was in a tight spot!

Last night some of my team went to this Plaza where they had live music and a fiesta for these races. We missed the race, but there are these big set of stairs in the Plaza, and I guess people put on these huge clown-like shoes and have to sprint up the stairs and then back down. Sounds unsafe to me....I was trying to explain to my team that in general, it is not normal for people to drink on the streets in the U.S. They thought that was so weird, because every single night there are big fiestas on the streets, and everyone just buys alcohol, drinks on the street, leaves the trash there, and then make their way to the clubs and bars after. Once everyone goes into the bars, then the street cleaners come around, so by the time you come out, it looks like a brand new city! The picture above is in Plaza San Miguel with some of my teammates!

We have three more days of practices, and then we have our first League game right near Burgos, which is Southeast of us. Today is a nice sunny day, so I am going to go read in the park for a while!

4-0 Undefeated Preseason!

Yesterday was our fourth and last preseason game in Valladolid. Valladolid is about a 3 hour drive southeast of Oviedo. The map to the left gives you an idea where I am living. The drive to Valladolid was very pretty. For the first hour we drove through a lot of mountains, and the last couple hours the landscape resembeled that of Nebraska! Very flat, with a lot of farmland. The team we played last night beat my team last year in the League championship game by 3 points. Since they won the league last year, they moved up to a higher league, Feminia Liga 2. We ended up winning by 25 points, so I think that is a good indicator that we will pretty good this year! On Thursday we played a team in a lower league than us in Aviles which is 30 minutes north of Oviedo. We did not keep track of the score in this game, but if we did, we would have won by a lot. We will now start our league play (1st Division Nacional) on October 3rd. From here on out we will only play one game per week, on either Saturdays or Sundays. This will be different for me because for the last four years in college I am used to playing 2 or 3 games per week. Here in Spain there will be a lot more practices, and a longer season.

A few days ago I was able to see the a parade in the city for the Dia de Americano en Asturias. I am not quite sure what this day signified, but there were thousands of people along Uria. Uria is one of the famous roads in Oviedo known for shopping. It is a long stretch of straight road lined with clothing stores and cute boutiques that leads to the Train Station. The night before the city workers set up thousands and thousands of little wood chairs and set up a bleacher section as well as you can see in the picture.

Earlier this week I was able to sign up for my Spanish course. I will start on October 5th, having class a total of about four hours per week. This should help me improve my grammar a lot. I also was able to watch a soccer game right across from where I live. Our club, the Universidad de Oviedo has men's/women's basketball, men's soccer, and a track and field team. There could be more teams but if there is I don't know about them. Our men's soccer team lost on a penalty kick with 30 seconds left so that was disappointing! When I look out of my window I can see both the track and the soccer field across the road. This is a picture of the game I watched on a sunny day!

I had heard from many people that when I came here I would either start to smoke cigarettes or drink coffee! Well, I have started to drink coffee. Unfortunately, most of my team smokes cigarettes, although a few are trying to quit as of recently. It is legal to smoke in all restaurants and bars, so after going out, my clothes always smell like smoke which I really dislike! There are even designating smoking areas inside the airport terminals. The coffee here is really good and I usually have a cup in morning. It is normal here for the whole team, coach included, to go out for a drink after practice. We do that pretty often at two little cafeterias/bars right down the street. A famous local drink here is Calimocho, which is red wine and coke mixed together. They serve it in huge cups and then everyone shares it. In the picture you can see a big glass of this in the center of the table. This is most of my team after practice at Heiman, a little bar right down the road.

Week 3 -- Time is flying!!

Hola from Oviedo!

I figured I would start up a blog here for the people who are interested in my life over here. Now that I am getting settled in I will have more time to update this with pictures, etc. Today marks my third full week here in Oviedo! Everyone has been very welcoming including the team and coaches. My team consists of 10 women from Spain, 1 from Germany, and me, the only American! The women range from age 21-34. I am the youngest and only one that is 21. Only one of the women from Spain speaks English, and then the woman from Germany speaks pretty good English as well. My head coach speaks no English.

The first week of practices were pretty interesting. They were, and have been completely in Spanish. I had practice directly off the plane, and I had no idea what he was saying. I just sort of followed the lead. By now, I understand most everything that is being said during practice. Speaking the language is a little harder, but I have been practicing with my teammates and others that I meet. We have had two preseason games, at a tournament in Getxo, about 3 hours east of Oviedo. We won both of our games and the tournament as you can see in the picture. We play this coming Saturday in Valladolid, about 3 hours south of Oviedo. Our league play starts on October 3rd.


As far as the city goes, Oviedo is beautiful! On my days off I have had a chance to go to Gijon, which is a city right on the water about 20 minutes away. I do love the beach! To the right is a picture of the beach at Gijon during high tide. Each and every single night the streets are hosed down by big power washers, and trash is taken out each day as well. This is the cleanist city I have ever been in, and is the capital of the providence Asturias. Oviedo is a pretty big city with a population of about 225,000, but small enough that I am within walking distance of everything. I live directly next to the gym which is nice, and across the road from a track and soccer or should I say fútbol field. I am a 3 minute walk from my teammates apartments, and about a 10 minute walk from the center of the city. I am about 20 minutes away from the other side of the city with the train and bus station.


On that side of town I am also coaching a little girls basketball team. There are 10 girls ranging from ages 9-11 years old. Again, all of them speak Spanish! The first day of practice my teammate came with me to help me, but since then I have been coaching them on my own, 3 days a week. I tell them, you teach me Spanish, and I will teach you basketball! The first day of practice  I had to meet with all of the parents and introduce myself, and we have coaches meetings every once in a while. It has been interesting with the language barrier, but I am getting the hang of it! There are about 20 different teams with boys and girls ranging from 8-18 all under Oviedo Club Baloncesto. Under this club there is a Men´s team, Feve Oviedo, which is in the Silver league(3rd) of Spain. I had a chance to meet the three American´s on that team who are all very nice as well. 

For preseason we have had double sessions a few times a week, but now we are just having practice and conditioning during one time slot in the evening. They sure do know how to have fun here! The culture is a little different in that the big meal of the day is eaten at 3:00 in the afternoon and all of the shops close down from 2-5ish. Dinner is eaten around 10:00 at night. As far as the nightlife goes, people begin their evenings around 11 o´clock in the evening and many people stay out until 7 o´lock in the morning! I was lucky to be here for San Mateo which is a big fiesta for the city of Oviedo. It is a 11 day period with lots of vendors on the streets and concerts each night in the center of the city right next the big Cathedral. In the picture to the left you can see the Cathedral in the background and the plaza filled with people!

Again my team is very welcoming, and we all do a lot together! I believe I will be taking a Spanish course at the University which should start in early October. So far I have really enjoyed it here, and I assume it will only get better, especially once the games start up! For now, I am off to a quick siesta(nap) and then practice!