Viva La Rioja! Viva Logroño! Viva San Mateo!

This past week was San Mateo here in Logrono, the city's biggest festival. Seeing as I am a smart traveler, I planned my return here to coincide with the start of the festival (see my life isn't all made up of blonde moments!) San Mateo is a week long festival celebrating wine and the vendimia (the picking of the grapes). The harvest officially starts after this festival and grapes and wine are offered up to the Virgen de Valvanera (who is the patron saint of La Rioja). The week long celebration is full of parades, eating, drinking, and just an overall sense of partying! It was definitely the right time to come back to Spain and, although it wasn't as crazy as I had expected, it was still a great time with fireworks every night, nightly concerts from some big name bands, great food, great wine (as always), and lots of fun! And if the Spaniards know how to do anything great, it's throw a party! Here is a video of one of the parades that passed right by our place!

My New Home

Yes ladies and gentlemen, this year I have a new piso. And not just a new piso, but a livable, real person piso. Let me just say that compared to my place last year, it's like I'm living in a mansion. Cait and I arrived last Sunday and it was a great feeling to already have a place to stay. And the best part of it was that I had left a bunch of stuff at our place over the summer, so was able to mostly unpack right away (that is after a 4 hour nap, 24 hours of traveling kinda make me out of it haha). But we arrived safe and sound, and I have now settled into my piso. We had some friends stay with us last week and have more friends staying with us this week, but it's great to be "home" again.

My room 

Actual wardrobe!

View from my back balcony

Mold-free walls!

Kitchen (with an oven!)

Bathroom 

Living room

More living room

Countdown Time!

       So I have to apologize for slacking on the blog posting this summer. But in my defense, my blog is supposed to be about my time in Spain, not my time at home. However, being home this summer has been wonderful and I have some done amazing things such as visit Dan for 2 weeks in Miami, go to San Fran for a long weekend with friends, celebrate my grandma's 88th birthday, relax and catch up with friends, and spend some time on a lake in Ohio. So much for my 3 month 'break' of doing nothing.
      It's getting to be countdown time again to head back to Spain: 10 days, but who's really counting?! I am definitely getting very excited to head back, but I will certainly miss being at home! It's much nicer going back this year knowing what I am getting myself into, having a piso, having friends already there, knowing what to pack, etc. The stress of moving abroad for a year is not the same as it was last year, and for that I am thankful. I certainly will miss things about being at home in the States, but I am very excited to get back to Logroño and to my life there!