¨Hold on, lemme grab a soda¨

Peculiar title? This is Brock´s mantra. I hear these sacred words At Least 3 times a day, yet I still roll my eyes each time. Today marks the first time I didn´t give him a hard time about his soda intake. Not that hard-time-giving does a lick of good, but I felt I had to try. I hope there are no dire consequences to my lack of vigilance. If Brock becomes diabetic in the next 2 weeks, I will take full responsibility.

By the way, I wrote another entry earlier today. Maybe you read it? Scroll down and take a look-see, because this next paragraph depends on it.

Done? Okay. Profound Realization Number Two: French girls are hot! Actually a lot of them are way too skinny and they all wear just about the same trendy outfit. Usually I´m down on trendiness, but the trends are different here so I´m not used to em. Also they sound awesome when they speak French (the girls, not the trends (trends can´t speak (duh))). Probably if I spent more time there and learned French, the effect would wear off, but for now: French girls are hot!

Next topic: After Rex Pelayo defeated the Moors in Asturias, they got scared or something and went back to Morocco and now Spain is full of Spanish people. The End. But so, Asturias is fiercely traditional and prideful. A lot of kids here are named Pelayo or Pelayon or something. And they have a hundred and ten traditional activities here, most of which involve food or drinking. As with all the places I have been, I was keen on participating in traditional activities, but here, there are just too many.

The best one by far is drinking Sidras (alcoholic, uncarbonated apple cider) that the waiters ¨carbonate¨ by pouring from a very high height. Then you must drink it very fast before the bubbles go away. It´s only about 6% alcohol, but a 70 cL (about 24 oz) bottle costs just 2€. You have to buy a lot, because the waiters only pour your first glass, and when you pour it, it gets all over your pants and the floor and old Spanish guys with their fancy hats and canes have a good guffaw. But then they get up and tell you how to do it right and you get a little bit better at it, holding your pinky just so, and keeping your eyes on the glass, not on the bottle.

Still you spill a lot, but the three of you end up well buzzed for under 15€. The three of you? Yes, Brock, Katy, and you (me). Brock´s girlfriend Katy, who you may remember from Seattle, now lives here in Oviedo. We´ve been staying here with her for the last full week because we like it here so much. And because it´s free and I get my own bed and I don´t have to listen to Brock snore (this is a big deal). AND because when we lugged all our things across town to the train station 4 hours ago and found out we needed reservations and could buy them just around the corner, IF the people who sold them weren´t on strike! But we´re not upset. I mean now. Brock was pissed. He bought a soda.

No! He bought candy! I can´t believe I didn´t mention the candy. It´s not as frequent as the soda, but that guy eats a lot of candy. In Oviedo the frequency has increased to about one new bag a day. It´s hardly his fault though. He has a weakness for gummies, and there are stores Everywhere with gummies of all colors and shapes and sizes literally stacked from floor to ceiling. The man is a sugar fiend. My earlier statement about taking responsibility for his future diabetes? I take that back. It´s way beyond my control.

I´ve gotten off track. We were trying to go to Madrid today but we couldn´t. Supposedly, the workers are not striking tomorrow, so we´ll be leaving in the morning, and without Katy as translator, I´ll be using my rudimentary Spanish to get us food and shelter. Did I mention I lost my phrasebook back in Luxembourg? That thing was awesome. It had all the major languages of Western Europe and how to say things like ¨Hi¨ and ¨How much does that banana cost¨ and ¨I´d like to rent a bicycle¨ and ¨Don´t touch my face¨ in all those languages. But I lost it! So I bought a phrasebook for Spanish people who need to know English here in Oviedo. It works well enough, except that the table of contents and all the explanations of stuff are in Spanish, and the book itself is not sufficient to translate them. Buying it was fun. I went into the bookstore and said ¨No hablo Español. Libro para Ingles ... Español. Por favor.¨ He wasn´t getting it so I just kept going ¨Ingles ... Español,¨ gesturing with my left hand for Ingles, and my right for Español. Eventually we did business and had a good laugh.

That´s enough for now, but here´s a tantalizing tidbit: we fed peacocks today. At a zoo? No. Then how? Maybe one day I´ll tell you the whole story but here´s one hint: it was awesome.

Au revoir!