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!