Asturias, one month in
It is exactly one month since I arrived in Asturias! And I am in a good mood and enjoying some unseasonably good weather, so what better time to reflect on that month.
After my first bike ride in Spain
Teaching:
I am settling into teaching. Tuesday and Wednesday have early starts, I tend to come home and vegetate, and feel guilty about not doing something productive for my Spanish. But now I have realised I have a lot more energy and inclination for that on the weekend, so it's ok. I have done an intro class, and one on Australian history/migration. Next week will be food. :)
I definitely enjoy going to Barredos more than Laviana. The kids are about the same, but Laviana the care factor from the teachers (about me) is much lower. The head of the English department doesn't care much about me, I am probably just something else on his todo list. My timetable has changed basically every week since I have gone there. I have seen so many different classes, it's quite difficult to keep track of, let alone even remember what the kids look like and what their mood is like.
Most of the classes are fine. None of them have a great English level, although some classes will have one or two kids who are well ahead of everyone else. Probably the worst class is 1º Bachillerato (year 11) in Barredos. They are just really apathetic and don't want to care at all. I did a class about Australian history and they couldn't even tell me the dates of World War II correctly. I see them early in the week and it makes me worry that I have prepared way too advanced material (which I generally have, a little bit). But then later I will see a 1º or 2º ESO (Year 7 or 8) class that is way more engaged and participative and seemingly well informed, so...I'm starting to think it's just them.
Two of my favourite classes are 'administrativo' (vocational) classes. Only one student in those two classes has great English, but they are keen to listen and participate. It makes such a difference. They are older (up to 33!!!) and I guess there by choice, which must make the difference. In one, there is a woman who is 28, she owns a farm but is unemployed at the moment, I just have a nice rapport with her. I will talk away in English, and she responds completely in Spanish, she barely says a word of English, it's kind of funny. I did bingo with them last week, with simple sums. There was a lot of: "No, fiftEEEEENNNNN"
I have also helped out two times in a maths class! They are 2º ESO. I really liked that. They were doing fractions/decimals. Some of the things are quite different, like their notation for long-hand division. Even the division symbol, they normally use ":". The second time I went there, there was spontaneous applause for me being there, LOL. Very flattering but I'm sure it was mostly because they thought it would mean less maths!
Something that is interesting is the role of the teacher in my classes, and how different teachers choose to interact with their students in different ways. Some sit back and only intervene if the class gets very rowdy (which I prefer). Some intervene if students speak ANY Spanish, even the kind of murmured translation amongst themselves, which I think is dumb - I would rather they help each other, and I often don't have the skills to explain things appropriately - I don't know what they know, and sometimes it's just fairly esoteric (echidnas...). I would rather they speak in English than not speak at all. One teacher likes to spend the first ten minutes shouting at them in Spanish, then she winks at me before she hands them over. She thinks that is more effective than intervening later, but I'm not convinced. One reprimands them the second they chat to each other, which I also don't think is necessary. One teacher likes to chat to me a lot as I explain things to them, which I think is probably not helpful.
I am finding that I prefer the younger grades (1º or 2º ESO) or the vocational classes. I haven't had many 4º ESO (year 10) or 2ª Bachillerato (year 12) though.
At Barredos I seem to now have a regular "English chat" with Sonia and another of the teachers, who wants to improve his English. His wife had a baby a few weeks ago so we always talk about that. My Spanish chats with teachers who give me a lift home and still the best, too.
(Some pictures of my schools here and thoughts on the first few days, here.)
This is a five minute walk up a road behind my school in Laviana. Apple orchard.
Spain admin:
My Spain administrivia is almost complete, although it was slightly stressful until I got to that stage. I now have an empadronamiento, which certifies my address. That allowed me to apply for a NIE, which is a foreigner ID number, which I have. I was kind of terrified of applying for that, since it is like the police department and I'd read so much about all this different paperwork you need, but in the end they were friendly and only looked at like three of my seven documents. In six weeks I will be able to pick up the card, and then I can stop carrying around my passport. I have a bank account, I gave a form that confirms my bank account to the government department, so with any luck I will get paid at the start of October. We had a orientation meeting, maybe 40 auxiliares showed up, it was supposed to only be first-time-in-Asturias auxiliares. The people who ran it were lovely but it really should have been held before the start of October.
Food:
The Spanish eating schedule is also screwing with me. They typically have a small breakfast in the morning, a "second breakfast" around 11, lunch (the main meal of the day) around 2, an afternoon snack around 5, and a smallish supper around 10. I think that's how it's supposed to work, anyway! School finishes at 2:30, but because the bus takes an hour, I often don't end up eating lunch until 4pm. I actually don't feel starving, if I was doing computer work I am sure I would be. On the bus back I often have a little nap anyway. But then after eating, I totally feel the need for a siesta, and next thing you know it is 7pm. Sometimes I don't eat any supper, sometimes I just have a bread roll or something like that. Tonight it was some yogurt and a glass of red wine. :) Anyway I think I can improve this if I start having a something at the school cafeteria during the break (around 11:30, only 20 minutes. I don't know how the kids concentrate all day!). They have some chocolate snacks, and also dinner rolls mostly with meat, but maybe there will be some with cheese, I have seen some with tortilla (because if there's one thing bread needs, it's potatoes!). So imma try that.
I don't eat out much. Partly because I don't know which places will cater to me well, and I don't want to spend 15€ finding out, especially when a slow meal is such a social thing here, and I am eating by myself. I figure I will save € now and get some cooking done, and later when summer rolls around I will have friends and can spend more cash eating out. :)
I have gone to Gijón the past two weekends, and will probably go this weekend too, and there is TWO vegetarian cafes there! So going to Gijón is a great excuse to eat out.
As for buying food. I am surprised that the produce is usually worse than what you get in Australia. It is cheaper, but what is the point of cheap apples if they are floury with rotten cores and multiple bruises? Now partly that makes me think, just where is that equivalent produce in Australia going, if all we see in shops is the really nice fruit? Maybe we ship it to Europe! Or maybe it gets tossed. So it's partly coming to grips with that. Stewed fruit makes a lot more sense when fruit is not quite nice enough to eat raw. The fruit here also really doesn't cope well with being stored at room temperature, I'm not sure why. The veges in the fridge last a bit longer. Also don't know why, but the zucchini here are GIANT. I miss my small probably-more-flavoursome zucchini.
Also, yogurt. It's quite hard to find larger pots of yogurt, and I haven't found anything equivalent to Jalna, like "pot set" I guess. Fresh (refrigerated) milk is also rare. Most milk is sold as UHT.
On the plus side, soy milk is quite easy to find (still figuring out the best brand), cheese is plentiful and cheap, every single supermarket has its own little bakery and they all sell wine (in some stores a 6€ bottle will have a security tag on it!), and Spain is rad at desserts. Also I found a grocer with a friendly chap in it, I will try to shop there (even though the apples I bought from him were shit, I am just going to accept that as a fact of Spain life).
I made stewed apples yesterday :)
Weather:
This weekend it is 25ºC and 0% chance of rain. It's amazing. The tree leaves just started changing colour, they must be extremely confused! It rained consistently for two or three days this week so it's a really nice change. I am glad, too. I think if I really went from one winter to another with no taste of summer I would probs be getting some seasonal depression, so this is a nice pretend summer. Who knows, maybe winter will be mild???!
Exercise:
Last weekend I bought a bike, and I have taken it out for three spins. My butt is really out of practice! The first time I just wandered around the local streets and tried to avoid roundabouts. The second time (Friday) I went to the library in the old town. The third time (today) I went to Parque de Oeste where the swimming pool is. (Some pictures here.) I got a bit of aggro in a roundabout but I wasn't quite sure what I was doing, so it was probably well placed. Aside from that drivers have been pretty respectful.
So something that is tricky is that it's not just riding on the right, it's all kind of things. Like putting your right foot down when stopped. Or even getting on your bike from the right side (so you're not starting standing in the middle of the lane). So hard!! I worked hard to train myself to put my left foot down! Sigh.
Future cycling plans:
· To Parque del Invierno (maybe 3km but through the city), which also has a dedicated offroad cycling path from there, to somewhere else (not sure where yet)
· To Lugones (about 8km), which has a Decathlon store (cheap bike parts and accessories)
· Around Gijón! I'm super excited about taking my bike on the train to Gijón, and then cycling around there. They have some dedicated bike lanes, and it seems like a city better suited to cycling than Oviedo.
I have been swimming a few times. It annoys me that they split the 50m pool in two as a habit, but there is no alternative, so - shrug.
I have also been running/walking a couple of times. There is a great track at the back of Oviedo, quite close to where I live, but getting there involves a rise of about 100m over 1km (10% gradient). So walking is pretty justified! I am taking it pretty easy, trying to enjoy the feeling of moving, and the wonderful views of this track. It's taken me a while to identify exactly how to get to it, as it's not amazingly well signed. I need to do it during the morning and take some great photos, I normally go during twilight.
There is a couple of large sports centres in the city, now I have a bike I should check out how to get to them. They run a bunch of classes/circuits. There are also 9 "polideportivos", which are smaller centres, maybe have a couple of courts and only run classes on bodybuilding, aerobics, gym "maintenance" and gym for seniors. There is one of those about 100m away!! Usually you enrol for those on a monthly or trimester basis. I will consider enrolling in one of those classes in November, I think having something regular to do during rainy winter months will be a necessity!
My bike!
House:
(Some pictures here.) Well, in the middle of the week I was feeling bad about the situation, following an ambush meeting in the kitchen re: rubbish that I didn't entirely understand. But I feel much better today, since Victoria told me to expressly NOT DO THE CLEANING until Cristina has, AND we also made small talk about things that are not the rubbish.
Spanish language:
(Previously, here.) This past week I have met two people for language intercambios (we talk half the time in English, half in Spanish). Funnily enough one was a 19 year old guy who grew up in Colombia, and the other is a 30-something guy who grew up in Cuba! Just a coincidence. The 19 year old has quite good English, better than my Spanish. But hopefully it was mutually beneficial. The 30-something guy I met last night, he had just finished working at the gym (he is an instructor) and invited me over. We had wine and chocolate and sat on the balcony. His English is worse than my Spanish. (Which I feel bad about, but that made me feel more comfortable.) He was nice, he's friends with someone who works at a bar and is vegetarian, maybe we will go out and meet his friend one night. :)
I thought a fair bit this week about how my ability to express myself with words is tied to my self-identity and especially to my idea of "being smart". It is confronting (and humbling, again) to have that challenged. Am I an idiot if I can't have a simple conversation about the rubbish? Or do I need to rethink my idea of intelligence?
So my speaking practice has been intercambios and some time with teachers. I do my listening practice mostly on the bus. I listen to podcasts, SBS Spanish, and I recently found out about one called Radio Ambulante, which is supposed to be the Spanish equivalent of "This American Life". I also put together this playlist of Spanish language women musicians based on one from a website called Autostraddle, and from that I discovered Ana Tijoux! She is a Chilean rapper and I loooove how she raps. I bought her 2014 album "Vengo", and I will probably go back and buy her previous ones too.
Reading practice: I bought a women's magazine called "Mia" which I carry around to school and when I have a spare period I read it and look up new words. I have been thinking about how when I was a kid, I was a voracious reader, and how much that helped me be a better writer. Being exposed to new phrases, vocab. I think being exposed to vocab, is a big thing. There is a lot of vocab I need to pick up and solidify, I need it available to me instantly. Nouns, verbs, adjectives. Yes you need to conjugate the verbs correctly to speak correctly. But having the concepts available to communicate at all is the first step. You can communicate a fair bit without conjugating verbs (correctly, or at all) it turns out!
Anyway I am not very inspired by "Mia". I went to the library hoping to find a good reference grammar. I didn't really find one I liked, but I picked up an intermediate workbook called "ESPAÑOL 2000". (As the title suggests it was first published in the 1980s. LOL) It should all be pretty familiar but going through it will give me some confidence as well as just remind me, push those things to the front of my brain. I also picked up a novel called "Para Ana (de tu muerto)" which I think is probably young-adult fiction. I don't know why it caught my eye, but I read the first chapter today and I didn't need to look up that much! \o/
Writing practice: Week before last I wrote something in Lang-8. I will try and write one thing a week, I think that's ok.
BOM work:
With any luck I will be starting that next week. There was a bunch of things that needed to be resolved, that I didn't realise needed to be resolved before I left. So that was a pain. But it should be good to go now. I bought a keyboard and mouse, my desk is an ok height for extended use, although the seat is super cheat and not real comfy. I sit on a cushion which helps a bit. If I get in the "zone" I don't notice too much, and I guess reminders to stand up regularly are not so bad!
Travel:
Gijón is a little bit bigger than Oviedo and only 25 minutes away by bus or train. It's nice, as I mentioned they have two vegetarian cafes, and lots of live music venues. When I go there I tend to feel like "Aw, I should have moved here". And maybe I should have, but my commute would have been longer, and I think it rains even more there than Oviedo. And it doesn't have my wonderful running track right on my back door step, or Oviedo's convenient compactness, so.
I've booked travel and accomm for November 7-9 in Zaragoza, I'm going to the second annual PyCon ES :D
Gijón
I took this photo on a bus trip from Villaviciosa to Oviedo <3 just incredible
After my first bike ride in Spain
Teaching:
I am settling into teaching. Tuesday and Wednesday have early starts, I tend to come home and vegetate, and feel guilty about not doing something productive for my Spanish. But now I have realised I have a lot more energy and inclination for that on the weekend, so it's ok. I have done an intro class, and one on Australian history/migration. Next week will be food. :)
I definitely enjoy going to Barredos more than Laviana. The kids are about the same, but Laviana the care factor from the teachers (about me) is much lower. The head of the English department doesn't care much about me, I am probably just something else on his todo list. My timetable has changed basically every week since I have gone there. I have seen so many different classes, it's quite difficult to keep track of, let alone even remember what the kids look like and what their mood is like.
Most of the classes are fine. None of them have a great English level, although some classes will have one or two kids who are well ahead of everyone else. Probably the worst class is 1º Bachillerato (year 11) in Barredos. They are just really apathetic and don't want to care at all. I did a class about Australian history and they couldn't even tell me the dates of World War II correctly. I see them early in the week and it makes me worry that I have prepared way too advanced material (which I generally have, a little bit). But then later I will see a 1º or 2º ESO (Year 7 or 8) class that is way more engaged and participative and seemingly well informed, so...I'm starting to think it's just them.
Two of my favourite classes are 'administrativo' (vocational) classes. Only one student in those two classes has great English, but they are keen to listen and participate. It makes such a difference. They are older (up to 33!!!) and I guess there by choice, which must make the difference. In one, there is a woman who is 28, she owns a farm but is unemployed at the moment, I just have a nice rapport with her. I will talk away in English, and she responds completely in Spanish, she barely says a word of English, it's kind of funny. I did bingo with them last week, with simple sums. There was a lot of: "No, fiftEEEEENNNNN"
I have also helped out two times in a maths class! They are 2º ESO. I really liked that. They were doing fractions/decimals. Some of the things are quite different, like their notation for long-hand division. Even the division symbol, they normally use ":". The second time I went there, there was spontaneous applause for me being there, LOL. Very flattering but I'm sure it was mostly because they thought it would mean less maths!
Something that is interesting is the role of the teacher in my classes, and how different teachers choose to interact with their students in different ways. Some sit back and only intervene if the class gets very rowdy (which I prefer). Some intervene if students speak ANY Spanish, even the kind of murmured translation amongst themselves, which I think is dumb - I would rather they help each other, and I often don't have the skills to explain things appropriately - I don't know what they know, and sometimes it's just fairly esoteric (echidnas...). I would rather they speak in English than not speak at all. One teacher likes to spend the first ten minutes shouting at them in Spanish, then she winks at me before she hands them over. She thinks that is more effective than intervening later, but I'm not convinced. One reprimands them the second they chat to each other, which I also don't think is necessary. One teacher likes to chat to me a lot as I explain things to them, which I think is probably not helpful.
I am finding that I prefer the younger grades (1º or 2º ESO) or the vocational classes. I haven't had many 4º ESO (year 10) or 2ª Bachillerato (year 12) though.
At Barredos I seem to now have a regular "English chat" with Sonia and another of the teachers, who wants to improve his English. His wife had a baby a few weeks ago so we always talk about that. My Spanish chats with teachers who give me a lift home and still the best, too.
(Some pictures of my schools here and thoughts on the first few days, here.)
This is a five minute walk up a road behind my school in Laviana. Apple orchard.
Spain admin:
My Spain administrivia is almost complete, although it was slightly stressful until I got to that stage. I now have an empadronamiento, which certifies my address. That allowed me to apply for a NIE, which is a foreigner ID number, which I have. I was kind of terrified of applying for that, since it is like the police department and I'd read so much about all this different paperwork you need, but in the end they were friendly and only looked at like three of my seven documents. In six weeks I will be able to pick up the card, and then I can stop carrying around my passport. I have a bank account, I gave a form that confirms my bank account to the government department, so with any luck I will get paid at the start of October. We had a orientation meeting, maybe 40 auxiliares showed up, it was supposed to only be first-time-in-Asturias auxiliares. The people who ran it were lovely but it really should have been held before the start of October.
Food:
The Spanish eating schedule is also screwing with me. They typically have a small breakfast in the morning, a "second breakfast" around 11, lunch (the main meal of the day) around 2, an afternoon snack around 5, and a smallish supper around 10. I think that's how it's supposed to work, anyway! School finishes at 2:30, but because the bus takes an hour, I often don't end up eating lunch until 4pm. I actually don't feel starving, if I was doing computer work I am sure I would be. On the bus back I often have a little nap anyway. But then after eating, I totally feel the need for a siesta, and next thing you know it is 7pm. Sometimes I don't eat any supper, sometimes I just have a bread roll or something like that. Tonight it was some yogurt and a glass of red wine. :) Anyway I think I can improve this if I start having a something at the school cafeteria during the break (around 11:30, only 20 minutes. I don't know how the kids concentrate all day!). They have some chocolate snacks, and also dinner rolls mostly with meat, but maybe there will be some with cheese, I have seen some with tortilla (because if there's one thing bread needs, it's potatoes!). So imma try that.
I don't eat out much. Partly because I don't know which places will cater to me well, and I don't want to spend 15€ finding out, especially when a slow meal is such a social thing here, and I am eating by myself. I figure I will save € now and get some cooking done, and later when summer rolls around I will have friends and can spend more cash eating out. :)
I have gone to Gijón the past two weekends, and will probably go this weekend too, and there is TWO vegetarian cafes there! So going to Gijón is a great excuse to eat out.
As for buying food. I am surprised that the produce is usually worse than what you get in Australia. It is cheaper, but what is the point of cheap apples if they are floury with rotten cores and multiple bruises? Now partly that makes me think, just where is that equivalent produce in Australia going, if all we see in shops is the really nice fruit? Maybe we ship it to Europe! Or maybe it gets tossed. So it's partly coming to grips with that. Stewed fruit makes a lot more sense when fruit is not quite nice enough to eat raw. The fruit here also really doesn't cope well with being stored at room temperature, I'm not sure why. The veges in the fridge last a bit longer. Also don't know why, but the zucchini here are GIANT. I miss my small probably-more-flavoursome zucchini.
Also, yogurt. It's quite hard to find larger pots of yogurt, and I haven't found anything equivalent to Jalna, like "pot set" I guess. Fresh (refrigerated) milk is also rare. Most milk is sold as UHT.
On the plus side, soy milk is quite easy to find (still figuring out the best brand), cheese is plentiful and cheap, every single supermarket has its own little bakery and they all sell wine (in some stores a 6€ bottle will have a security tag on it!), and Spain is rad at desserts. Also I found a grocer with a friendly chap in it, I will try to shop there (even though the apples I bought from him were shit, I am just going to accept that as a fact of Spain life).
I made stewed apples yesterday :)
Weather:
This weekend it is 25ºC and 0% chance of rain. It's amazing. The tree leaves just started changing colour, they must be extremely confused! It rained consistently for two or three days this week so it's a really nice change. I am glad, too. I think if I really went from one winter to another with no taste of summer I would probs be getting some seasonal depression, so this is a nice pretend summer. Who knows, maybe winter will be mild???!
Exercise:
Last weekend I bought a bike, and I have taken it out for three spins. My butt is really out of practice! The first time I just wandered around the local streets and tried to avoid roundabouts. The second time (Friday) I went to the library in the old town. The third time (today) I went to Parque de Oeste where the swimming pool is. (Some pictures here.) I got a bit of aggro in a roundabout but I wasn't quite sure what I was doing, so it was probably well placed. Aside from that drivers have been pretty respectful.
So something that is tricky is that it's not just riding on the right, it's all kind of things. Like putting your right foot down when stopped. Or even getting on your bike from the right side (so you're not starting standing in the middle of the lane). So hard!! I worked hard to train myself to put my left foot down! Sigh.
Future cycling plans:
· To Parque del Invierno (maybe 3km but through the city), which also has a dedicated offroad cycling path from there, to somewhere else (not sure where yet)
· To Lugones (about 8km), which has a Decathlon store (cheap bike parts and accessories)
· Around Gijón! I'm super excited about taking my bike on the train to Gijón, and then cycling around there. They have some dedicated bike lanes, and it seems like a city better suited to cycling than Oviedo.
I have been swimming a few times. It annoys me that they split the 50m pool in two as a habit, but there is no alternative, so - shrug.
I have also been running/walking a couple of times. There is a great track at the back of Oviedo, quite close to where I live, but getting there involves a rise of about 100m over 1km (10% gradient). So walking is pretty justified! I am taking it pretty easy, trying to enjoy the feeling of moving, and the wonderful views of this track. It's taken me a while to identify exactly how to get to it, as it's not amazingly well signed. I need to do it during the morning and take some great photos, I normally go during twilight.
There is a couple of large sports centres in the city, now I have a bike I should check out how to get to them. They run a bunch of classes/circuits. There are also 9 "polideportivos", which are smaller centres, maybe have a couple of courts and only run classes on bodybuilding, aerobics, gym "maintenance" and gym for seniors. There is one of those about 100m away!! Usually you enrol for those on a monthly or trimester basis. I will consider enrolling in one of those classes in November, I think having something regular to do during rainy winter months will be a necessity!
My bike!
House:
(Some pictures here.) Well, in the middle of the week I was feeling bad about the situation, following an ambush meeting in the kitchen re: rubbish that I didn't entirely understand. But I feel much better today, since Victoria told me to expressly NOT DO THE CLEANING until Cristina has, AND we also made small talk about things that are not the rubbish.
Spanish language:
(Previously, here.) This past week I have met two people for language intercambios (we talk half the time in English, half in Spanish). Funnily enough one was a 19 year old guy who grew up in Colombia, and the other is a 30-something guy who grew up in Cuba! Just a coincidence. The 19 year old has quite good English, better than my Spanish. But hopefully it was mutually beneficial. The 30-something guy I met last night, he had just finished working at the gym (he is an instructor) and invited me over. We had wine and chocolate and sat on the balcony. His English is worse than my Spanish. (Which I feel bad about, but that made me feel more comfortable.) He was nice, he's friends with someone who works at a bar and is vegetarian, maybe we will go out and meet his friend one night. :)
I thought a fair bit this week about how my ability to express myself with words is tied to my self-identity and especially to my idea of "being smart". It is confronting (and humbling, again) to have that challenged. Am I an idiot if I can't have a simple conversation about the rubbish? Or do I need to rethink my idea of intelligence?
So my speaking practice has been intercambios and some time with teachers. I do my listening practice mostly on the bus. I listen to podcasts, SBS Spanish, and I recently found out about one called Radio Ambulante, which is supposed to be the Spanish equivalent of "This American Life". I also put together this playlist of Spanish language women musicians based on one from a website called Autostraddle, and from that I discovered Ana Tijoux! She is a Chilean rapper and I loooove how she raps. I bought her 2014 album "Vengo", and I will probably go back and buy her previous ones too.
Reading practice: I bought a women's magazine called "Mia" which I carry around to school and when I have a spare period I read it and look up new words. I have been thinking about how when I was a kid, I was a voracious reader, and how much that helped me be a better writer. Being exposed to new phrases, vocab. I think being exposed to vocab, is a big thing. There is a lot of vocab I need to pick up and solidify, I need it available to me instantly. Nouns, verbs, adjectives. Yes you need to conjugate the verbs correctly to speak correctly. But having the concepts available to communicate at all is the first step. You can communicate a fair bit without conjugating verbs (correctly, or at all) it turns out!
Anyway I am not very inspired by "Mia". I went to the library hoping to find a good reference grammar. I didn't really find one I liked, but I picked up an intermediate workbook called "ESPAÑOL 2000". (As the title suggests it was first published in the 1980s. LOL) It should all be pretty familiar but going through it will give me some confidence as well as just remind me, push those things to the front of my brain. I also picked up a novel called "Para Ana (de tu muerto)" which I think is probably young-adult fiction. I don't know why it caught my eye, but I read the first chapter today and I didn't need to look up that much! \o/
Writing practice: Week before last I wrote something in Lang-8. I will try and write one thing a week, I think that's ok.
BOM work:
With any luck I will be starting that next week. There was a bunch of things that needed to be resolved, that I didn't realise needed to be resolved before I left. So that was a pain. But it should be good to go now. I bought a keyboard and mouse, my desk is an ok height for extended use, although the seat is super cheat and not real comfy. I sit on a cushion which helps a bit. If I get in the "zone" I don't notice too much, and I guess reminders to stand up regularly are not so bad!
Travel:
Gijón is a little bit bigger than Oviedo and only 25 minutes away by bus or train. It's nice, as I mentioned they have two vegetarian cafes, and lots of live music venues. When I go there I tend to feel like "Aw, I should have moved here". And maybe I should have, but my commute would have been longer, and I think it rains even more there than Oviedo. And it doesn't have my wonderful running track right on my back door step, or Oviedo's convenient compactness, so.
I've booked travel and accomm for November 7-9 in Zaragoza, I'm going to the second annual PyCon ES :D
Gijón
I took this photo on a bus trip from Villaviciosa to Oviedo <3 just incredible