UNIVERSIDAD de OVIEDO

Week #1 (4/4/08-4/8/08)

After an amazing time traveling with Brittany the past two weeks, it is once again time to start studying. I do not feel very apprehensive towards starting school here in Spain due to the fact that I have looked forward to this moment for the past four-to-five months. My speaking ability slowly left me while studying in Alemania, but I have no reservations that I will be able to get it back and also improve upon it.

On Monday all of us new students walked with Reme, one of the coordinators for the AHA International Study Abroad program, to the Universidad de Oviedo so that we could take our placement test and begin our orientation. Upon arriving to the campus I felt very relieved that I was finally here! We walked into the auditorium where the other new students were sitting and the Universidad language staff was waiting to start the orientation program.

Almost immediately, the director of the foreign language program started speaking in Spanish to all of us, not slowing down for anything. I will give the credit for being very articulate and speaking well! Soon after he was done talking we started our placement test. Just sitting in our seats trying to remember everything we could. I found myself quite pleased with how well I did. It was a test that had some very advanced material on it and I felt as though I got some of that stuff right rather than a lot of the easier material!!!

After being placed within our respective courses, we all left with our professors to meet them and go over what we will be covering in class throughout the month. To give you a brief background about my professor, his name is Victor. He is married and has one newborn son. At this point, I feel very thankful to have him as a professor. Not only have I heard great things about him, I have got to experience some of his humor already. He loves to use Santa Clause as an example when explaining certain things to us!

Throughout this week in class I felt very welcomed. All of the professors, including Victor are very nice and are willing to help you in any way possible. Other than the other American students that are in my class, there are also some students from Alemania. There are a few others from Austria, France, and some other neighboring European countries. I feel as though it is a very good mix of students.

Our first official weekend as students of the Universidad de Oviedo, we went on an excursion that the Universidad had planned for us. Throughout the term we have three such excursions, all taking place on Saturday of each week. The school rents a couple buses for all of us students that are attending the language courses during the summer so that we can make our way to some very neat places within Asturias. This week our excursion took us to the towns/cities of Coaña and Luarca. They are both beautiful beach towns with amazing views of the Atlantic Ocean. One of the neat things about these excursions is that a couple of our professors join us for the day. They will give us some history about the city we are visiting and tell us some cool places to see/visit and then let us do as we please! And if you think any English is being spoken, you’re wrong! Nothing but Spanish from the professors!

We arrived back in Oviedo around 7:00pm and had to immediately get ready for the ESPICHA! The Espicha is the welcoming party that the Universidad throws for all the foreign language students. They rented out one of the popular sidrarias here in Oviedo to host our party. The Espicha included all the students from my program in Oregon, the German students, and the other various groups of students from the neighboring countries. This event was something that all of us looked forward to throughout the whole first week….we all had great anticipation! There was live Celtic music, all the tapas you could eat and all the wine/sidra/sangria that you could drink! On top of that, all of our professors were there to witness us students take advantage of free food and drinks….catastrophe waiting to happen! It ended up being a very fun night in which a lot of us got to know our professors, the other students, and the city quite a bit better!