It is Christmas!

Man. Crazy how fast time goes by over here. It seems like just yesterday i was starting this blog and getting settled in. Now it's Christmas time. Thankfully (from what I remember) I've taken advantage of my time here. To start this one off I just want to wish everyone Happy Holidays and say that I miss you all.

So. This past Friday was the Christmas Festival at my school in Madrid. What this means is that the already adorable children dress up in even more adorable outfits and do adorable things in front of their parents all day. Then the teachers go out and have some drinks, eat lunch, and have some more drinks. Great time.

5 year olds (Natalia, Paula (so cute), and Irene)

I started the morning off bright and early with the Infantiles (age 3-5 years old) at 9 am, helping the teachers get the kids in costume and ready to go on stage at 9:15. It was the first time I had been with the 4 year olds which was a lot of fun. I instantly fell in love with a little girl named Denisa who wanted to hold my hand constantly and initiated the following conversation with me about 5 minutes after meeting me(in spanish though):
"How come you dont teach me?"
"Because I'm not allowed to!"
"Why arent you allowed to?"
"Because I have to teach the 5 year olds"
"Well I dont like the 5 year olds. You need to teach me!"
Denisa is the one on the right in this picture:


So the little kids did their thing and then it was time for the older kids and my third graders were getting ready to do this play about Rudolph. Its all in English and we had worked really hard to get everything right and they did REALLY well. A video excerpt from it is below:

(The video wouldn't upload. Its a damn shame. I'll try to upload it when we get back from our trip)

After that, all the stress was gone so we got to relax and hang out with the kids. It was and amazing day and a great way to end the semester because it reminds you of how rewarding it is to work with kids and how much fun they really are.
My 3rd Graders:

Alba and Georgina (adorable 3rd Graders):


In about an hour we are leaving for our week long trip to Turkey. So Happy Holidays everyone and hopefully talk to some of you over the vacation when I get back.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Life is finally slowing down in the big Spanish city. A few weeks ago we had a frisbee tournament in Girona (close to Barcelona on the east coast of Spain). The tournament was the Spanish Coed National Championship. A good time but definitely wore us out due to our absurd selection of travel times - a return flight at 6:30 am followed by working 9 am - 6 pm. Anyways, Los Quijotes (our team from Madrid) took third place which was ok but we were hoping for a little better. Third place sufficed because they gave us a trophy and free sweatshirts which was fun. Its really not a surprise that third place gets a trophy because in Spanish ultimate it is litterally like everybody is a winner. No player left behind. And all that jazz.

But, the main point of this post is to say that Christmas is coming and we are getting in the spirit. We have a Christmas tree and stockings and hearts full of joy, love, and Christmas spirit. In reality, we will be traveling throughout Turkey during the real Christmas holiday so we are getting ready early. This coming friday my school has its Christmas Festival and all of the classes are going to do plays, songs, or dances. The third grade class I teach is doing a play that I wrote about Rudolph and the 5 year olds are doing a dance in which I will hopefully participate.






My school is also having a Christmas Dinner tonight where a bunch of us are all meeting up at some restaurant. It's apparently a really popular thing to do in Spain. Everyone goes out to a dinner with their coworkers for Christmas celebrations before the holidays begin. Should cook up some good stories about inebriated primary school teachers. Stay tuned.

Little Kids and Littler Kids

A post solely dedicated to work...

For those of you that don't exactly know what I'm doing, (which is probably none of you because I think beyond my close circle of friends and my mom and dad, nobody reads this) I am working as an assistant to teachers in bilingual public primary schools in Madrid. I work in a school in the northeast of Madrid called Dionisio Ridruejo which is about a 35 minute commute from our apartment. The school has been bilingual for 2 years meaning that the 3rd graders are the oldest students in the bilingual program and that the 4th graders don't have bilingual classes. I work Monday-Thursday approximately 10 am to 4 pm (not bad eh?). The big role-players in my work-life are Carlos, the Bilingual Coordinator and 3rd grade teacher, Manuel, the physical education teacher, Laura, the infant education teacher, Mercedes and Inma, the 1st and 2nd grade teachers, and Susie and Andrew, the other two assistants in the school. I teach primarily with Carlos in 3rd grade and then 3 hours a week with Laura with the 5 year olds. I have the good fortune of having PE with the 3rd and 2nd graders as well.

In the Bilingual schools in Madrid, the kids have Science, English Language, Arts and Crafts, and Physical Education all taught in English. The rest of the subjects are taught in Spanish by different teachers.

So. My job is basically to support the teacher and help in whatever way I can. With Carlos, I do a lot because I know the kids and I know the topics that we are covering and I am in the class every day of the week. With Laura, I typically get to play with adorable little kids and tell them to keep coloring. Another big part of my job is giving oral exams to the kids because the vast majority of their education is oral up until grade 3 and 4 and the teachers cant just step outside and give a 1 on 1 oral exam to each child.

Anyways. My 3rd graders are absolutely brilliant and awesome. They are (typically) very well behaved and very motivated. They also only speak in English when in an English class which is extremely impressive. The big excitement of the month is the Winter Festival that we are having on December 19th. Each grade does a dance, song, or play related to Christmas and, for all of the bilingual kids (Ages 3 - 8), it has to be in English. The 3rd graders are doing a play about Rudolph-the-red-nosed-reindeer that I made up. Its pretty adorable.

The 5 year olds are also really smart. Some of them know all of the colors, all of the parts of the face and the body (arms, hands, fingers, legs, knees, feet, tummy, etc.), all of the school objects (scissors, book, school bag), family members, and rooms of a house. Phenomenal. Plus they are adorable and precious. See exhibit A (I'm in the middle of all of them)


I also give private English lessons to a very intelligent 13 year old girl named Andrea. She's super smart and speaks very well. We basically just read books and talk about them and about life since the class is supposed to be strictly conversation.

We get a few weeks off work starting December 20th and we are going on a week long trip to Turkey during the Christmas holiday and then returning to Madrid to spend Kings day with my Spanish family and my Mom and Dad who are coming over.

P.S. I think I'm going to be in the school newspaper pretty soon. I'll obviously keep you posted.

A M E R I C A

I havent posted in a while so there will be a flurry of posts this week. I wrote this last week but never got around to adding the pictures. But here it is, a bit late...

While I have very little attachment to my country of birth, I have recently been missing many of the people and the happenings of the good ol' United States. Joined in this longing for past times by Jessica, Chris, and many of the American frisbee players, we decided to host an "American Party" this weekend. While I realize that I only make posts about drinking extravaganzas, this will soon change with a post all about my job. But first, I give you "La Fiesta Americana", viewable in facebook.

The latter part of last week, Chris, Jessica and I slaved away to make the party happen as planned. We decked out our apartment with American pictures and American things and concocted ideas of stereotypical American foods that are also stereotypically delicious. This left us with an apartment ready and waiting to show Spain an American Party. The entryway was "Ellis Island" and had a sign in sheet for all foreigners to sign. The living room was decorated with a big "Welcome to America" banner (made by Jessica) and a bunch of pictures of American things - Barack Obama, Nascar, Landing on the moon. You get the point. An unfortunate twist of events led to the poor state of New Jersey being the bathroom. I would also like to note that the bathroom contained all of the beer in the bathtub - i.e. ok Jersey may smell but we at least hold down the party.


A big portion of the frisbee team attended so we had representatives from Mexico, Spain, Venezuela, Germany, and many others. Good times. We rocked beer pong, flip cup, a good list of american tunes, and a spanish game oddly similar to robo (I obviosuly dominated). All in all, a great success and a great time with new friends but also a great reminder of the good times had at home and of the people that we all miss.

On Sunday, Chris and I went and walked around this placed called "Lago" which, ironically, is a big lake on the outskirts of the city. It was really pretty and a great place to hang out.


A post about work to come later this week! Miss you guys! If you actually read my blog, send me an update or something!

The Beach in the Fall

Chris and I spent this weekend (friday to sunday night) in Punta Umbria, a beach town in the very southwest of Spain. We played in our second frisbee tournament with the Madrid team, Los Quijotes. It was pretty amazing. The weather was beautiful (21 C which is warm enough for no shirt and tanning the hams) and the company was even better. The tournament was the Spanish national championship for Open (men only ironically) and Women so our women's team was there too.

We drove down in a rental car driven by a German named Chris. German Chris is quite a character and a really jolly and fun individual. He does, however, drives like a bat out of hell. The upside to this was that we got there quickly. The downside was that I almost had to be asleep to prevent being extremely stressed out haha. Friday night was the birthday of one of our players, Juan, so we all helped him celebrate in great fashion - i.e. by playing a Venezuelan version of Thumper that involved drinking a nice helping of beer if you happened to lose. German Chris had been drinking for quite a while and was thus in even jollier spirits at this point in the night. When Britney Spears "Hit me baby one more time" came on, he just couldn't resist and he broke out in song. After these escapades, my brother says "Man is he wasted!". I quickly reply "No, he isnt that drunk at all...". As I finish the sentence, chris knocks a 40 off the table and the glass bottle shatters on the floor, making for great irony.

Throughout the tournament, we played 6 games, winning 5 of them. We played pretty well overall and ended up finishing in 3rd place. Our women's team finished in 2nd which was also pretty baller. One thing to note about the tournament was the selection of food given to us. For those of you uncultured swine, at American ultimate tournaments, the gold standard for food is bagels and peanut butter. Here in Spain, apparently, they put a Spanish twist to the tourney food. Rather than bagels, you get baguettes, and rather than peanut butter, you get assorted spanish meats and some cheese and tomatoes. I thought it was priceless.

Overall, a fantastic weekend away from the cold weather of Madrid and a great tournament. The results bode well for the Mixed (guys+girls playing together) tournament that is in 3 weeks.

H A L L O W E E N

So. We had originally planned to be ninja turtles for Halloween but this plan fell through the cracks when we realized that none of us wanted to go to a club wearing a cardboard jankity-ass shell on our backs (since we obviously arent going to spend money on a costume). This plan quickly degraded into apathy and as Halloween neared,we still didnt have costumes. Jessica and I decided to salvage the night by buying vampire teeth, dressing up in black clothes, and drinking orange colored drinks (Tang, Vodka, and Fanta). Good Stuff.

We headed out to a local bar right next to our apartment to listen to some live Funk music and wait for the much anticipated arrival of Namita and Joe. The two guests came around 1 am so we left the club and met them at the nearby Burger King - the logical predetermined meeting spot. After meeting up, we decided to head out for a bit to a nearby dance club called Fog. It was extremely packed and we danced to such all star jams as Sean Paul - Give me the light. Or maybe it was some other Sean Paul song but, lets be honest, nobody knows the difference. Surrounded by some crazy spanish Halloween costumes, we enjoyed ourselves until around 4 am and headed home.

The next day passed uneventfully. This was necessary, however, in order to allow for such an eventful night. We started with a good home cooked meal made by Joe and Namita, accompanied by beer and wine. We continued to drink and decided to make it interesting by taking shots through straws. We ended up having so much fun that we didnt leave the apartment until 2 AM. We started walking to a district called Huertas about 20 minutes south of our place. On the way we encountered a very angry man involved in a heated domestic dispute. In the middle of a blocked off construction-site-type-thing this guy was yelling at these two girls and chasing after them and kind of hitting them, though not really. Out of nowhere he picked up a large brick and started chasing one of the women down the street. Absolutely insane. After buying beers from shady street vendors (selling them out of backpacks), losing Joe and Jessica once, we found our way to the club and enjoyed ourselves until 4:30ish. After drinking quite a bit we were all dancing like absolute lunatics. It came to the point where some random guy told Joe to "tranquilo" aka "chill the f out". A pretty phenomenal night in summary.

The remainder of the weekend Joe and Namita attempted to sell the bikes they had bought in Barcelona and prepared to head off to Cairo. It was great to see some familiar faces and have a taste of the good old princeton life. Made me a bit nostalgic for the last four years but also excited for the next 5 (or 6)...

Work and Coworkers

Two weeks have gone by since I posted about that crazy guy who was dancing at that club (see video below). The previous two weekends have escalated in such a way that suggests to me that I may have become that guy this past Saturday. Unfortunately I will write about this past weekend in the next post.

So the story begins...
Last Saturday, Jessica and I made plans to go out with some of my coworkers. In my school there are a handful of younger teachers that are all good friends. These include Carlos (teaches 3rd grade with me), Manuel (teaches P.E. with me and other things) and Laura (teaches the 5 year olds with me). In my work schedule I have 15 classes split among these 3 people and 1 class with someone else. So I spend a lot of time with them.

Jess and I had dinner with some other friends at a delishious mexican restaurant which ended with a round of tequila shots which killed my stomach. In the picture is our friend Nicole, a girl from the states who is over here doing a masters in Spanish. She is one of the many people we have befriended through frisbee.

We decided to go out to a club called Chango. We met up at our apartment at midnight since the club was very close to our place. A bottle of rum later we left for the club. By this time it was 2:45ish. Needless to say, the night was a long one. Filled with techno music, techno music, and techno music. Both Jess and I had a great time with my coworkers and I'm really looking forward to going out with them again. We ended up staying out until 5:30 AM which is our new Spain record for latest night out. Good stuff.

The week passed relatively uneventfully. A huge cold front came in and brought a lot of rainy weather with it which was no fun. So lots of time inside. Being a teacher has been really rewarding/fun lately. I've been giving a lot of oral exams to the students to test their knowledge orally because most of them understand things better orally than written. The third graders did really well on this last exam. I even gave an "exam" to the 5 year olds and a few of the students knew all of the colors, circle, square, big, small, the numbers 1-6, boy, girl, teacher, and the parts of the body (eyes, mouth, nose, ears, hair, tummy, shoulders, arms, hands, fingers, legs, knees, and feet). Pretty impressive.

Namita Bisaria and Joe Rokicki came to visit this weekend as a stop on their world tour. Great times were had by all. Check the next post for the low down on the shenanigans.

Becoming Madrileños

This post is from last weekend but I couldn't get the video to upload at first so i postponed posting until the video was ready. Enjoy.

The past few days have been awesome. I'm really not sure where to start so I guess I'll just pretend to remember when the weekend began. It began on Thursday because that's how we roll - not to be confused with how we ride (Dirty). It was Jessica's birthday so we went out to a nice dinner and then passed out like old people. When Friday rolled around, we were ready to party, after a fair amount of pregaming, Chris, Jessica, and I went out to explore our district of the city. The funny thing about our district of the city is that it melds with the gay district (Chueca) which is a place with tons of bars and places to go. We made our first stop at a new bar/club called Mint. Here we found overpriced drinks and a group of guys jamming out to every tune that was played. We eventually tired of the people watching and set out to find free drinks at other bars. While walking, it is very common to be handed a voucher for a free drink at a random place. So this is what we did for the remainder of the night...not bad.

Saturday was a whole new ballgame. We made plans to go out on the town with our cousins Ana and Almudena. We met up and walked around for a bit, stopping every now and then to grab a beer and chat. Our final stop was a club called Morocco which turned out to be a jammin nightclub with a bit of a twist. The twist came in the form of one of the craziest dancers i have ever encountered. This guy was nutso-city. Words cannot describe him. Fortunately, they dont have to because I have ample video footage of his shenanigans:



This went on for multiple hours. Between dancing, watching this guy, and havin a good time, we stayed at Morocco until around 4 AM. We are getting closer and closer to becoming real Spaniards who stay out past 6 AM and act like thats totally normal. On the walk back from the club, I found a seemingly decent pot on the side of the rode in a pile of trash. My first, and logically correct, instinct was to pick it up and take it home. I proceeded to carry this pot all the way home through crowds of people making comments such as "look at this guy walking home with tomorrow's lunch". To this I responded by inviting them to come back and eat. The pot is actually awesome and inebriated Ryan wins again.

Last Weekend

I'll humor myself for a second and pretend that people are actually still reading this by apologizing for not posting anything last weekend. It was busy...

Last weekend my Dad came to Madrid to visit us, visit his family, and bring 2 suitcases full of goodies for our apartment. The goodies included such things as clothes hangers (which cost a small fortune in Spain - 3 euros for 4 hangers) and Ranch Dressing. With our Dad here, we spent the whole weekend with family doing family things. The big trip was an excursion to a vineyard owned by my aunt Marta and uncle Titin to a town called Penafiel, a small town well known for its vineyards. All of the grapes produced in this region, La Ribera del Duero, produce a wine with the same name. Almost the entire extended family met at the vineyard - my grandmother, her 8 children, their spouses, and their kids, along with some of my grandmothers sisters. All in all, we were missing my Mom and one cousin. We sat around and talked for quite a while before lunch. Included in this discussion was an argument about how American beer is way better than Spanish beer. Spanish beer pretty much sucks. No dark beers, no beers with flavors. Nothing too exciting, just good old fashioned family time. It was really interesting to have all 8 of my grandmother's children present because I dont think this has happened for many years. Good times all around.

This past week was also Jessica's birthday so we had oodles of fun with that. On Wednesday we went to an orchestra concert of the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra. A good friend/townie from Princeton plays in the orchestra which was on an interational tour. The concert was absolutely amazing. While I am no musical conoseiur, the members of the orchestra (All under 30) were some of the most talented musicians I've ever had the pleasure of watching. Absolutely amazing.

Work last week was also pretty baller. We had a new assistant come to our school which meant that we had to change schedules to accomodate the new guy. This gave me the choice of which class I wanted to work with and I chose to work primarily with the 3rd years - a class full of really intelligent kids who can speak an impressive amount of English at the ripe age of 8. So now I have classes with the 3rd years and the infantiles (5 years old). Great stuff because both of the teachers for these classes are awesome, fun, young, and legit.

A Big Weekend

Not really.

This weekend was very low key. We had lunch with a bunch of my Spanish family on Saturday but I was too beat after Friday night's festivities to hit the calle again. So Saturday passed uneventfully.

Unfortunately for us, Sunday was not so uneventful. We kicked off the morning with a trip to El Rastro, a huge open air flea market. Jessica haggled with some antique dealer for a while in order to buy some semi-useless trinkets and a set of tea cups. I bought a pair of sunglasses that will undoubtedly be broken by the time you read this. In El Rastro are a bunch of crazy goods. Anything from thongs to irons, one of the thousands of stands probably sells it. To make everything even better, we encountered this crazy gypsy looking lady who was sitting in the middle of the way turning a hand crank on this gypsy-cart looking thing that made music with the turning of the crank. Chris described her as "looking like she should have a monkey on her shoulder". I belive you will agree given the picture. However, after El Rastro, it was all downhill.


The afternoon plan was to go to Ikea. BIG DAY. We were planning on going to Bed Bath and Beyond if we had time...but we didnt. Ikea is a good 50 minute metro ride and then a 15 minute walk. We spent a long time in Ikea buying cheap odds and ends for our apartment and then decided to buy desks and desk chairs. Our landlord was going to reimburse us for the desks and chairs since the apartment was supposed to be "furnished". Long story short, we get to the cashier and they tell us it will be 50 Euros to have the desks etc delivered. Well...we were scared that we wouldnt get reimbursed to we opted to carry everything all the way home. I wish we had brought the camera because it was ridiculous. I cant even begin to describe how long it took or how uncomfortable it was to lug the boxed up furniture and goodies back to the metro, through multiple metro stations, and then back to our apartment. Needless to say, no time for Bed Bath and Beyond...

Workin' It Out

Work started this past Wednesday. The first day was uneventful and short but the second day was a full day of classes and adorable little kids. For the most part, I will be helping to teach two age groups - Second Years (6 or 7 years old) and Third Years (7 or 8 years old). The teacher of the second years is named Inma and the teacher for the third years is named Carlos. Basically, my job is to help run activities and answer questions and play with the adorable little kids. Later on I will probably make lesson plans and stuff but for now I just do whatever the F I want. One awesome thing about my schedule is that I get Fridays off. We have to spend 14 hours per week in the classroom and another 2 hours per week teaching english to the teachers.

The bilingual program in Spain is extremely impressive. Many of the primary schools have become bilingual which means that nearly half of the classes are taught strictly in english. They have science, physical education, art, and english language all taught in english starting at the age of 4 or 5. By age 7 or 8, the kids know a LOT of english. They can read english, write english, understand a lot, and speak quite a bit too. To top it all off, these kids are taught to write in cursive before grade 2. That is just mind boggling to me. Thus far I have been extremely impressed with the school system in Madrid.

But enough about work for now. Jessica and I went out on the town last night to check out some local night clubs in our area. We pregamed pretty hard by ourselves in our living room which led to some good times...After quite a few shots we headed out on the 5 minute walk to the club (so close!). On our way we got solicited by some dude to go to his bar and have a free drink. So we drank a little (read, a lot) more there and then went to Pachá. After paying a small fortune to get in, we discovered that the club was totally empty because, apparently, 1:30 AM is too early for Spaniards. The thing to do is to go to bars for cheaper drinks until they close at 3 pm and then go to the club until like 6 am. Pretty intense. Long story short, we were the first on the dance floor and stayed there for quite a while. Good times in one of Madrid's swankiest clubs. You should take note of the unbuttoned shirt I wore attempting to fit in with the Spaniards. It worked.

More updates about work to come soon. Maybe I can take some pictures of the little kiddies without seeming like a total creep.

The last free week

This past week has been my last free week before work starts. I have to be at my school at 9 am on Wednesday to check in and figure out what im going to be doing this year and what classes im going to be working with.

Rewind.

This weekend was the first frisbee tournament with the team I'm playing for here in Madrid, Los Quijotes. It was a small tournament so the squad (Co-Ed) split into two teams. My team was balling out of control all weekend and we ended up winning all of our games and winning the gold. Not that huge of an accomplishment but definitely better than not winning. It felt great to play ultimate again but ultimate in Europe is totally different from ultimate in the states. After every game, rather than just shaking hands in a line, you have to get in a circle with the other team and the captains talk about the game and about the strengths of the other team. Then you play a game with the other team (like in womens ultimate!). plus you have to shake all the dudes hands and give all the chicks two cheek kisses and they are all sweaty and shit (sometimes this happens twice which is the worst). In the states, ultimate is way more intense and way more about winning. It will definitely take some time for me to adjust to that. The Spanish national frisbee championship is in November so get ready for me to win that too.

We finally signed the leased on our apartment. The new furniture is almost all moved in, all except for Chris' bed which makes sleeping there a problem. However, we did start moving our stuff from my grandmother's apartment because we will be sleeping in the new apartment for the first time tomorrow night. Exciting, I know. I'll take pictures once we get everything moved in.

Another update for sure once i start work.

City Life

For the past week we have been in Madrid exploring the city and trying to get settled. We have so far managed to setup bank accounts, get telephones, and find an apartment (in theory). We haven't quite signed the lease yet but it is ours for the taking.

The apartment is in the center of Madrid in an awesome district. Tons of nightlife and tons of stuff to do. There is a jazz nightclub on our block and a bar called The Speakeasy just down the street. Get psyched.

So our biggest adventure thus far has been getting cell phones. We started our search for the best plan/provider at this store call El Corte Ingles. This store is has everything you could ever need. From books, to camping equipment, to perfume, to cell phone providers. So we spent about an hour and a half talking to some lady from this company Vodafone. After deciding on a plan we tried to buy the phones we want but they didnt have any more of those models. So we went down the street to another Vodaphone store where the workers told us a totally different story about the plans. Regardless, they didnt have the phones either. So we went to another store, got the real deal scoop from some chica and got our phones. I can receive all calls for free aparently so feel free to call away. I think to call me you dial 011 (international access code) then 34 (Spain's code) then 666107297. Yes, my phone number starts with the devil's number.

We've been bumming around Madrid for the past week while staying in my Abuela's (grandmother's) apartment. Good food, not too teribly much to do, but its still nice to spend time with the family. We move into the new apartment this weekend.


We managed to get out of the house this past weekend and go out for a few drinks. Of course we managed to stumble a little to close to the district of gay bars in the area. Chris got hit on by some guy who touched his burly beard without asking. The one fun thing about going out here is that people just walk around with drinks in their hand. On the metro, out on the side walk. No big deal. So pregaming is way more fun. If that isnt reason enough to visit, I dont know what is. Also of note, I wore a hat out and I was the only person in the entire city of madrid wearing a hat. Really bizare. Nobody goes out to bars wearing a hat. Its like dinner at Ivy...

Chris and I have started "playing" for the local frisbee team but it doesnt seem that intense. There is actually a co-ed tournament this weekend outside of Madrid that we are going to. Should be good times.

Peaks and Valleys

Unfortunately, this phrase barely applied to our trip. At least it didn't seem like it while we were out there. More like peaks and more peaks. Perhaps thats why they call it the Picos de Europa. Anyways, quick recap - Chris, Jessica, and I went on a 6 day backpacking trip in the Parque Nacional de los Picos de Europa.

First and foremost, the best pictures from the trip can be found on facebook here:
Days 1-3
Days 4-6

The trip started with an early bus ride from Panes to Cangas de Onis. From there we took a series of transportation options to get to the lakes of Covadonga. From the lakes we hiked in for about 4 or 5 hours to a peak known as Vega de Ario. Directly translated, this means the Fertile Plains of the Aryans. This it was not my friends. There was a group of germans, dont get me wrong, but i wouldn't call it a fertile plain. We set up camp and started to cook a nice warm dinner of garbanzo beans (chick peas). The rain clouds rolled in and we retreated to the shelter of my newly purchased tent, Terrance (the Tent). The rain came down all night, lightning, thunder, the whole works. Despite a torrential downpour for most of the night, we all remained totally dry. We set out for day 2 with new found trust in Terrance the Tent and a naive confidence about the journey ahead.

The actually horizontal distance of our second day was minimal. What I failed to fully comprehend was the extensiveness of our descent in the afternoon. At some point in time, the trail blazes stopped and a huge descent began. After about 100 meters i realized the blazes had stopped so I doubled back to check if we missed the trail somewhere. Trail here is a loose term. After searching for any possible trail, we decided to forge on, descending constantly. Over the course of a few hours and a horizontal distance of maybe 2 kilometers we descended over 1200 meters. Needless to say, it was rough on the joints and the feet with heavy packs. We eventually arrived in the town of Cain and cooked a nice meal of Fabada, a regional dish of Asturias.

Day 3 started with rain. Thankfully the morning hike was relatively flat in comparison to the rest of the trip. The rain continued until the end of lunch as we hiked through the Garganta de Cares, a trail along a gorge the goes from the town of Cain to the town of Poncebos. I would say that day 3 was pretty uneventful aside from one really sad donkey and one sweet looking salamander. Pictures on facebook.

Day 4 was the day we had all been waiting for...the day for which we had all been waiting? Anyways, the ascent from Bulnes La Villa to El Naranjo, a huge rock face (500 meters tall) at an altitude of 2100 meters. El Naranjo is a mecca for rock climbers, serving as the poster child for Spanish mountaineering for 50 years. The ascent is 1200 meters over the course of 3 hours. The climax of the day was free climbing a vertical rock face about 12 or so feet high during a storm of rain/freezing rain with a fully loaded pack. The base of El Naranjo and a Refuge that provides shelter to climbers and hikers alike were just around the corner but the weather had turned so foul that we decided to stay the rest of the day and the night in the Refuge.

We woke up on day 5 to very nice weather. Well nice for an altitude of 2100 meters. However, the first snow of the year had come over night and had coated some of the terrain in a slippery dangerous mix of snow and ice. After climbing one snow covered mountain with the help of a system of cables, we came to an outpost known as Cabana Veronica. Here, a very seasoned looking man told us that the route that we planned on taking was very dangerous. After what we had been through, we didnt think to much of it until he started telling us that neither the Guardia Civil (Spanish police) nor the park workers could rescue us from that route if we got hurt or got stuck. With this knowledge, we turned south and to lower altitudes, changing out trip plan. We ended up camping in a grazing field on the flattest ground we could find. This, however, was not flat at all and we spent the whole night at the bottom of the tent or feebly attempting to crawl back to the top. To add to the discomfort, a few packs of wolves were in the vicinity howling all night. There was one lone wolf within 100 meters of the tent for the whole night but Terrance kept us safe yet again.

Day 6 was perfect weather down at the lower altitude. We hiked the most leisurely hike of the trip along a ridge to the town of Posada de Valdeon. We also played the most frustrating game of Botticelli in which Jessica's person was Clark Kent and the information we acquired was that he was not en entertainer but was in movies and that he wasnt a human being. Priceless. From Posada de Valdeon we took various modes of transportation back to Panes where we stayed with family for the night.

The Beginning

So we left the stateside soil on September 3rd. Flying through Frankfurt, we arrived in Madrid in the middle of the afternoon the next day. The flight was relatively uneventful aside from a few honorable mentions. We all popped some Dramamine to help us sleep on the plane (works wonders, highly recommended). Jessica, however, was not a veteran abuser and made the foolish mistake of taking a second Dramamine a few hours later. Needless to say, she was out cold for the rest of the trip and could barely wake up. We eventually just left her sleeping on a bench in the Frankfurt airport while we sought out food like hunter-gatherers.

After a quick 24 hours in Madrid, we jumped in a car and headed to the north of Spain to a province called Asturias. Asturias is the region of Spain where my father was born and raised and the extended family always gathers there for vacations. There is a big house that was bought by my grandmother's brothers that is now basically a private resort for anyone in the family.

So, in Asturias we went to the wedding of one of my dad's cousins. It was pretty baller. We danced to classics such as Achey-Breaky-Heart and La Macarena. After the wedding there was a big festival in the tiny town that our family's house is in. The town is named Cimiano and the festival is called "Nuestra Senora". Some crazy outfits, dances, and traditions are involved. All of these adorable kids are dressed in the typical Asturian garb. Luckies!

After the wedding Chris, Jessica, and I embarked on a week-long journey in the Picos de Europa, a huge mountain range in northern Spain. But that is the subject of another post entirely. For the time being, I posted pictures from this part of the Inquisition on Facebook in an album entitled Asturias Patria Querida.