Peñafiel and Valladolid

Valladolid
View from the castle

Chencho, Me, David and JoDan in Peñafiel

On Monday morning I went to Peñafiel with Chencho, David and JoDan. Region Castilla León is known of wine production and religious people. For example in the town of Peñafiel where is about five thousand habitants are four big churches and the Eastern ceremony in the town is televised to the whole Spain. We took a obligatory guided tour with three euros entrance to the castle in Peñafiel. Castle has a interesting form of a ship.

On Tuesday cousins of David showed us the city center of Valladolid and of course the football stadium. We took a look to a dead little town where you could see the ruins of old houses. In the evening we saw the first Eastern procession and more are coming up later on also in Alcalá.

Easter holiday

Sunny plaza Cervantes

Easter holiday started and it means that the whole next week is holiday. When there is a long holiday it means that many Erasmus students go to travel or visit their families. I am going to take just a few day trip to one town and city nearby Madrid. One thing why I do not like holiday is that it means break from playing floorball or from other nice things what you might have normally.

Spanish Facebook

In Spain Facebook is not the number one social website. Spanish have their own Facebook called Tuenti. I have not created own Tuenti account. Many Spanish Have both accounts and they say that Tuenti is better.

I found one new course for this semester which will be in English. It is intensive course which takes just two weeks but there are are lessons everyday 3.5 hours. Course is called decision support system for management control.

Asturias

North coast of Spain

Oviedo

This weekend we had match on Sunday in Gijon but we left from Madrid already on Friday to take a look of Oviedo and Gijon. Area is called Asturias and it is know of cider production. In Madrid pubs are called Cervería but in Asturias pubs are called sidrería. Cerveza means beer in Spanish and sidra means cider. Natural cider should be poured to the glass with high pressure therefore you take the bottle as far away as possible from the glass when you pour the cider. You should also always pour just the amount of the cider what you are able to drink with one gulp. I noticed that the nature is much more greener than in the central Spain. We won the match 2-15 and eight goals in the last period left good feeling from the match.

Spring

It feels like spring have finally arrived. Last few days have been quite warm and I have spotted few people walking outside with a t-shirt. Spanish people have said that the past winter was the coldest winter for a long time.

In the center is market which is the nearest place for me to do food shopping. I have bought something from there but there is one fact that I do not like. Dealers touch the food with their hands and handle the money with the same hands without washing them. So far this have not made me ill but maybe I should ask them to put gloves on when they cut ham and meat for me.

Spanish house

Bidet

In Spain people wear shoes inside the house and do not take them off right after coming inside like in Finland. Usually people change shoes for more comfortable sandals when they are at home. My current flat in Spain is heated with air conditioner and it did not heat up very well when it was very cold outside. Landlord said that the heater was not able to heat up very well because it was so cold. When you really needed the warm air the heater was not working properly. I hope that when the weather gets very hot it is able to cool down the air and it is not too hot for cooling down the air. Another difference you can see in the bathroom. In Spain bidet is a standard feature in bathroom but I have never seen a bidet in a Finnish bathroom. Instead of the bidet there is a bidet shower in Finnish bathrooms.

Tie

I am number 35

Today our winning strike ended with 3-3 tie against Fenix San Lorenzo. We were leading three times but they were always able to tie the game. I was sitting in the penalty box because of touching the ball accidentally with my hand when they tied the match by kicking the ball back to the net in front of the referees eyes in the last minute. Goals made by foot intentionally are not allowed in floorball. That was my first penalty in Spain in a really bad moment. Fenix San Lorenzo have been really hard opponent for us this season. We have played five times and they have won three times, we won once and tied today. Despite the tie second place in the league is still in our own hands.

Beach volley

Beach volley fields

After six month brake I got finally change to play volleyball. Internal competition was cancelled because only two teams signed in but luckily polytechnic students organized a sports event with various sports. We participated to beach volley which was played four against four. We got through from the group phase but in the quarter finals we were eliminated. In the picture you can see people with shorts and t-shirts but the weather is not very warm. Wind is very cold but sun heats up the weather a bit. I still wear jacket and scarf outside.

Finnish dinner

Also this weekend we had floorball match. Match was against the weakest team Gijon of the league and we won them 13-0. I was not very happy how we played because everyone tend to shoot too quickly in my opinion. It would be so much nicer to make more passes.

On Sunday I invited some friends for a dinner. I prepared egg butter, meat and macaroni in the oven, carrot salad and fruit salad. I showed videos of the crazy Finnish competitions: wife carrying, swamp soccer and sitting in sauna. I would like to prepare also pea soup but it have been impossible to find dried peas.

Free drinks

I mentioned in the beginning of my exchange year that bars offer here beer and sangria for free. These free drinks are mixed with water so it is not very quality stuff. Also some nightclubs have people on the street inviting people to get free shots but also these shots are false. I think it is stupid to offer these free drinks which are false for people. It gives only bad image of the bar when they offer drinks which are not what people are expecting. If they offer something for free they should offer real stuff.

English

In general Spanish people do not speak English very well and pronunciation is not good because all the programs are dubbed but studying English seems quite popular here. There is one TV-channel dedicated just for learning English. Many Children go twice a week for extra English lessons. Some of my Spanish friends are teaching English for children in the language school. All children do not carry their books in the back bags, there are many who use cabin bag for carrying their stuff. I do not know the reason for this.