This week, I had two long train rides (to get from Madrid to Oviedo and back), so I listened to a lot of music. One of my favorite albums is "Melodrama" by Lorde, and I think it's the perfect moody album to listen to while looking out the window on a train. :)
This week, I took a day trip from Oviedo to Aviles, a nearby city, for their celebration of Carnaval. Carnaval is celebrated in the days before Lent and is a bunch of huge parties and cultural traditions. There are a ton of different celebrations throughout Carnaval, but the one I went to was a giant parade with super elaborate floats pulled by hand. The whole community participates, and people of all ages (including babies) stay out super late. Everyone dresses up for Carnaval and the costumes kind of look like what Americans would wear on Halloween (minus the scary costumes). During the parade, they fill the streets with giant soap bubbles that you have to walk through. My shoes & pants got completely SOAKED!
This week, I started a great book on the history of Eastern Europe. This summer after my grant ends, I'm hoping to take a few months to travel around the region, so I want to read up on its history before I go.
This week, I learned that Spain and America have different standardized decks of cards! I bought a deck of cards to play some games with friends and was VERY surprised to find that there were different suites, only 48 cards and that the cards went up to 12. So, now I'm going to learn some Spanish card games.
