Photopalooza

Artsy angle of the front of the cathedral

I do believe that up until this point of my blog, I have shared only 1 photo that I’ve taken while here in Ourense. Oopsie. So I am dedicating this post to the pictures I have, and the short stories behind them.

The second Friday we were here, October 5^th, was the date for our Auxilar de Conversacion orientation, which took place in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. The orientation itself wasn’t too helpful, but it was nice to hear stories from people who had done the program the year before. Ooh, but I did learn some fun facts during the orientation: 

1. There are over 400 Auxilares (Language Assistants) this year in Galicia. That number is astounding, seeing as we were originally told that there would only be 2,000 people admitted into Spain as a whole. I’m thinking that they must have admitted more people, because Galicia is too small of a province to account for 1/5 of Spain’s auxilares!
2. Given the 400+ auxilares, there will be over 57,000 students in Galicia who will be positively impacted by our services!
3. Cíes islands, off the coast of Vigo, have previously been voted the best beach in the world! Definitely gonna make a point to go visit them at some point.
4. Galicia is known for its wines, particularly albarino and ribeiro. Let’s just say, I am doing well in my progress of tasting and appreciating said wines.

The front of the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela

Anyway, after orientation Anna and I walked through Santiago’s downtown area, which was super cute but also way touristy. We also got to visit the cathedral, which was beautiful as you can see from the pictures here!

 

 

The inside of the cathedral. Super pretty and intricate.

 And now for an array of photos I have taken in Ourense

Here we have a mural painting that overlooks one of the plazas right by my apartment. It's quite impressive! Apparently this plaza used to be used as an area to botellon but nowadays it's a popular spot for old people to gossip on the benches and for younger kids to kick a ball around.

This is a gazebo in a plaza area called the Alameda. Nowadays, this plaza is where all the younger people go to botellon at night on the weekends.

Dinner with some friends

Ahhh my plant. One day after work I decided to spoil myself with something other than pastries. This quaint, lopsided-yet-charming tree was my prize of choice. I hope to keep track of this little guy's growth! Hey maybe he'll stay alive the whole 8 months I'm here?!

Me trying pulpo a feira (to a non-Galician it's just known as pulpo a la gallega) for the first time! It was actually really good. I washed it down with some orange Fanta. Perfect Sunday lunch!

Close up of pulpo, octopus

So the main beer manufacturer of Galicia is called "Estrella Galicia". This beer, "1906" is also made by them. It was love at first sip; I am not too picky with my beer, but I truly believe that this beer tastes like a light version of Guinness.

One of several "mobile discos" that have taken place just outside our apartment. It was cute, they played popular latino music and I'm pretty sure I heard some Selena in there! What wasn't so great was the fact that one weekend they played every. night. Thursday. Friday. Saturday. Sunday. Not starting until 11pm. Ending at 1am. At the earliest. I value my sleep.

Casa do Pulpo! This is the first place we ate out with our CouchSurfing Host. This is where we first tried octopus, squid, and this awesome chorizo-type sausage called zorza. UGH the food is so good! Also, I'd forgotten how delicious potatoes in Spain are...

Our first view of the Roman Bridge. Man, we got so lucky with the weather the first couple weeks in Ourense! Galicia is supposed to be a rainy province in general, but we hadn't experienced rain until about the 3rd week here.

Millenium Bridge; You can actually walk on the arc thing that goes around it! This bridge greets me as I come back from my longer runs.

 

Yay for Ourense!