La Sidreria

So last night I went out to the sidreria, it wasn't so simple however. I figured I could remember the name of the place and that it didn't matter if I got lost because I had my map and knew the general location of it on the map at least. Wrong. Apparently going out knowing just the name of the restaraunt and not having a map would have gotten me farther. I wandered in loops for about an hour and thought I was going to lose it before I gave up trying to find it myself and called my apartment and asked Helen to get the name for me from the sheet I left behind. After that I found it and fortunately everyone was still there and in true Spanish style hadn't actually started on time at all and were in the middle of dinner instead of finished when I arrived an hour late.


This is where we ate in the back private room of the sidreria with the rest of the other UMASS kids and some members of their host families.





This is how you are supposed to pour the sidra, or cider. The waiter, el camerero, always has to pour it out like this according to their custom. He then serves you the glass which only has a little sidra in it, they don't fill the glass. Then you take the glass and have to drink it all in one movement and not leave any behind. Then he takes the glass from you and you resume eating and drink the water or wine that you have in front of you.

This is some of the food, they serve multiple courses of small portions that they put out on the table and you all share it with the people around you. You don't ask for anything they just bring it out and you try it. There was a wide variety of food types that basically cover all kinds of meat, seafood, and vegetables.

After we ate, which was a long, social process, all of us students along with the program directors left as a group and went to a nearby bar. The music was a mix of bad american pop and other songs from around here that people dance to that we don't even know. It was funny watching Spanish guys dancing enthusiastically to "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" and not knowing that if this was the U.S. they wouldn't be thinking they looked so cool after someone said something. It was still a fun time and we ended up leaving around 4ish because us Americans were tired. All the other locals were still going at it without a sign of stopping anytime soon. While walking home late at night you get to see the street cleaners hosing the streets down and sweeping. I can see why Oviedo won a prize for cleanest city.

Classes started yesterday but I haven't had all of them so far yet. I'll try to post some pictures of the campus, etc tomorrow. For now, here is a video clip I took of the street right in front of my apartment ground level entrance.