I love the color green.

I never really realized how much I loved the color green until now.  I have gone a full month without seeing green grass, so when I had the chance to travel to Asturias, a northern region of Spain, I just knew I was in for a treat.  Northern Spain is full of green mountains and grassy parks, and I was truly in heaven as my bare feet touched the blades of grass.  This feeling is one of my childhood, running around barefoot in my backyard and smelling that sweet scent of freshly cut grass.

Kaitlyn and I traveled to Oviedo where a professor of mine lives during the summer, and this city was filled with gorgeous European architecture and churches dating back to the 9th century.  Each building was different with every shape and color imaginable lining the streets.

Just a little glimpse at what these streets look like!

We met my professor in one of the town squares and she took us on a tour of the town.  One of my absolute favorite sites in Oviedo was the cathedral.  It looked just like the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Oxford only about five times bigger! Let me show you what I mean:

This is the cathedral in Oviedo... 

...and this is St. Mary's in Oxford

Interesting resemblance I think! This cathedral inside was just spectacular with the most beautiful golden and porcelain alter.  We went to a mass here on Sunday morning, my first Spanish mass in Spain, and the songs moved me to tears.  So beautiful!  

After our tour we got to experience some major food culture!  Asturias is famous for their cider, made of green apples and extremely tart yet refreshing.  The bartender takes the cup in his right hand and puts it down by his knee and then takes the bottle with his left hand and reaches to the sky in order to pour the drink from above.  What seems to be theatrics is actually a necessary pouring technique in order for the cider to properly oxidize!  We then met my professor's family and had a typical Spanish lunch that lasted about three hours and we had chorizo soaked in cider, roasted peppers fried and salted, fried garlic chicken, and an entire platter of Asturian pastries! 

With happy tummies, my professor's family drove us to the top of the mountains, what I had been waiting for, and my heart began to sing.

"What are men compared to rocks and mountains?" my favorite author muses in Pride and Prejudice.  Even though I went to the Peak District in England, this is the highest I have ever stood on land, and the breathtaking glory of God's creation stood before me in all its splendor.  I look so small in that photo with the statue of Christ, and finally I feel the deep truth of Austen's words.  What a miracle to behold such beauty!

I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of my time in Oviedo and Gijon (a beach town just 30 minutes away), but alas I had to go back to Madrid and to my job.  This is okay though because I have a new and exciting project!  My thesis is researching how publishing companies are handling the move from producing print to digital texts, and so I started to research the competition of the company I am working for.  When the Global New Media Manager heard I was doing this, she requested that I make an actual document of all my findings so that she can use them to develop the company's digital strategy!! It is so thrilling to think that I will help the company make that move to digital texts in some way.  And my research is utterly fascinating - I am looking at six different companies and seeing how they are digitally innovative.  I have had 4 interviews so far and will have another four interviews this week!

I have a little less than four more weeks here.  I love what I have learned so far and appreciate the struggles that have made me stronger and even more empathetic.  Seeing the silver lining in absolutely everything is the only way to live in my opinion, and I will keep on seeing the beauty in everything I encounter throughout the rest of my stay here.  

Then, it will be time to go home, my beautiful home, where, I now realize, my heart truly resides. <3