Octupus and a win!!

Well we won our first league game! The score was 48-37. Very low scoring! I guess last year they only scored 30 points in this gym, and it is very hard to win there. If you want to try to read about the game, in Spanish of course, there is a summary at this website, http://caubaloncesto.blogspot.com/ Throughout the year I believe that game summaries will be posted on this website, with links to the other teams pages as well.

Anyways, we had practice on Friday night, and afterwards we went out for a team dinner for some typical Asturian food(at around 1130pm). This included pulpo(octupus), mussels, and a famous dish with eggs, shrimp, and potatoes all mixed together. I had never tried octupus until Friday, and I was not a huge fan of it. Too chewy! I had never eaten mussels either, but I liked those more than the octupus. The dish with shrimp and eggs sounds pretty gross to me, but it actually tasted pretty good! You can see in the picture my whole team along with our coach and physical trainer. The yellow drink in all of our cups is also a typical Asturian drink which is a mix of sidra and sangria(white wine and fruit juices).

I thought it was odd that we didn't practice on the Saturday before our first game, but we didn't. We left that afternoon for Burgos, where we stayed in a hotel and played the next day at noon. On the drive there in the bus, we watched Finding Nemo in Spanish. We had a big debate about what the movie was called. I said it was called Finding Nemo(pronounced knee-mo), they were trying to convince me that it was just Nemo(pronounced nay-mo). The night before our game, Spain played the United States in the semifinals for the womens world basketball championships. It was fun to cheer against my whole team who were obviously going for Spain! The United States ended up winning by like twenty =)

Last week I also decided to stop into the local McDonalds for the first time! The place was packed!!!! It was more like a restaurant that a fast food place. You still went up to the counter to order, but then there were 3 floors of places to sit with booths, tables etc! McDonalds and Burger King are both extremely popular here in Oviedo. My team loves both places! The McDonalds is right near the Parque de San Fransisco, which is the largest park in Oviedo. This is a picture of the upper area of the park with the fountain and a bunch of benches.

I also came across this picture on one of my teammates pages that shows a better view of the Cathedral. During San Mateo I also got to see this band perform live, and it is one of my favorite songs here! If you paste the link in your browser it should open in youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdUzp8NY9Uc
This morning I had my exam to see where I would be placed for my Spanish class. I start classes tomorrow morning, one hour a day, four days a week. I am excited to start learning and practicing better grammar! Our next game is at home this weekend on Saturday evening, so I am excited for that!