Ongi Etorri a Bilbao!

Go to Africa: Check!

2010-04-20T16:54:00.002+01:00

A few friends and I made plans to travel to Tangier, Morocco right after spring break. I knew I had always wanted to go to Africa and I figured studying in Spain was the best time to do it. Tangier is at the very top of Africa right in the coast, so all we had to do was take a flight from Bilbao to Madrid and transfer from Madrid to Tangier. (Some people take a ferry over from the south of Spain, but this was less expensive.) Of course, nothing is ever that easy.

Right before we left, on Wednesday a volcano in Iceland emitted tons of volcanic ash throughout the skies of Northern and Easter Europe and it was slowly making its way down to Spain. I was worried our flight was going to be canceled, but we were in the clear. However, our flight left at 8:30am from Santander which is a town over, so we needed to get a bus to Santander and then a shuttle to the airport. What we didn't realize until last minute was that the only bus that would get us to our flight in time was at 1:45am that morning. We took it, but then got stranded at the Santander bus station at 3am because the shuttles don't start running again until 6:30. We were afraid we were going to get kicked out of the station at any time ebcause that's what happened to our friend Mike once, but we were able to stay inside the whole time. And we had free WiFi (but one computer).And no one could really sleep on the rock hard benches or in the freezing cold anyway. Well finally at 6:30 we got on the shuttle and to the airport and boarded our flight all in time. But then when we got to Madrid we had another four hour layover. Everyone slept but me and I have to pay 10euro for a sandwich and some fruit! You should have seen the lines due to flight cancellations though... It was crazy, news reporters and media everywhere.

Finally we got to Tangier around 2pm (time change knocked us back two hours) and met up with our tour guide Said in the airport. I found Said, like I said, online. Reviews and websites raved about him. He offered to pick us up from the airport and take us to our hotel for free. Then after we checked in we had one of his employees Mohammed show us around the city a bit and show us to a delicious Moroccan lunch. We had some bread with some kind of salsa (almost like the toppings for California Pizza Kitchen Greek pizza), soup or salad as the first course (I has soup), and then giants dishes of vegetables, chicken and couscous. It was all sooo good. And we got Moroccan Baklava and mint tea for dessert. They always drink tea at the end of their meals to help digestion. After that we headed back to the hotel to nap and realized we weren't really all that hungry for dinner, so we just stayed in the rest of the night to get a good night's sleep.

The nest day was our all day tour with Said. First, we had a Moroccan breakfast that was included with our hotel. There were these crepe-like pancakes that a Moroccan lady sat on the ground and made in front of you, and all kinds of pastries and things too. They had yogurt, but I think they like their ygurt warm in Morocco, so I skipped that. Said picked us up at 9:30 and first we headed toward the coast. We drove up a huge hill with all these million dollar houses that mainly belonged to the King or Morocco or some Saudi Arabian royalty and what not... He brought us to the point where there was a lighthouse and you could see where the Mediterranean and Atlantic met and you could see Spain in the distance too. After that he drove us over to go ride camels! We were all hoping to ride them on the beach, but it was more like we were taken in circles around a dirt parking lot above the beach. And there were only three so we had to take turns. But it was still fun! And we got to see a baby camel that was only two months old! I even tried kissing him!! After that we went to the Cave of hercules. We had a guide tell us about it, but we could hardly understand anything he was saying! Something about the cave being mapped out like the continent of Africa and the other surrounding continents and bodies of water...? There was this one cool part though that looked out into the ocean and if you looked at the outline of the opening and flipped it, it was in the shape of the African continent! There was also a little boy in the parking lot with a hat on a dragging around a baby donkey and when i took a picture of him he smiled... but I think he expected money... Nina and I realized he wasn't so cute as we were about to leave and saw him kicking a yelling at the poor little donkey!

Then we headed back to the city. Said led us to the Kasbah, the older part of the city. Where he explained how the poorer people live with no electricty and water... And it really made us realzie how underdeveloped this place was. We were led into a little room where two Moroccan men were playing instruments. Said offered us to smoke with them, but we declined. Now we were told we were going to be Rockin' the Kasbah with these guys. We were all handed funny hats (like Abu's in Aladdin) and different instruments and were told to play along with their songs. Thankfully I had the tambourine, so my job wasn't too hard. It was actually really funny. After that, right outside there were the snake charmers! We went up to them and one old guy started playing a drum while the other pulled three snakes out of this potato sack! Then before you knew it the snakes weren't even moving and he was able to put them around our necks, it was really strange, but really cool at the same time. Said told us sometimes they have a black cobra, but when they use him they can only put it around people's legs.. just in case... ah!!

After all this we split up with Said and folllowed Mohammed again to the Medina, the main part of the city. He led us throught the fish market (blehhhh, it smelled so bad!!) and the meat market (terrifying... we saw hanging bloody skins, and bloody cow heads!). We walked through some veggie markets too, but it was so crowded it was hard to get around. We were taken into this the huge cfat store. With wooden boxes, vases, jewlery, swords, anything you can think of really... But Mohammed told us to wait to buy anything because this place was rather expensive. We were taken to a herbal pharmacy where we were taight about all different kinds of herbs and spices. They use herbs for everything in Morocco. Whether it's a heachahe or keeping the mosquitoes away! Some of us even bought a few things.Then we went into a Berber rug store. At the top of the store (four floors up) there was an amazing view. That's when Mohammed told us he needed to go really quickly to pray at the mosque and that we would be drinking tea with the shop owner until he came back. This sounded fine, until while we were waiting the shopowner started pulling out rugs and blankets. They were beautiful and Kate and I thought about getting one until he told us one the size of a bathmat at 90euro. Now in Morocco you're supposed to barter. Even if it's a set price. But Kate and I just didn't want one anymore. Except he wouldn't let down! He kept going, "Well for example, what color would you like?" And even if I told him I couldn't afford and kept saying no he kept pushing it.... "What price? You tell me? For example??" So I just threw out 40euro as a price and he practially placed a folded up carpet in my lap! We were all so uncomfortable. And finally Mohammed came back and when he explained for us that we weren't interested the owner almost seemes pissed that he took out all the carperts in the first place, but hey never asked him to do that! Anyway so we ran out of there. I mean it's great we got the rug down from 90 to 30, but I still wasn't paying 30euro for a bathmat. I wonder what would have happened if I said 5euro??

We wandered around a bit more. Kate and I got wooden boxes and the girls and I got the Hand of Fatima charm for a necklace (it's supposed to bring good luck) and then we went to lunch. We got Moroccan shish kebabs, and once again I was entirely satisfied by my meal. Who knew I would love Moroccan food so much? By then, Mohammed had to go, so we made our own way to the beach. It looked pretty from afar, but once you got there it was not nice at all. There was trash everywhere. High-heeled shoes, a bra, plastic bags and bottles, wires, just everything. Nasty. There were little boys playing soccer on the beach too who kept coming up to us and saying, "Hey pretty girl, come give me a kiss!!" We just walked away and laughed. It was finally time for another nap before our dinner with Said that night. He was taking us to a legitimate Moroccan restaurant which we were very excited about. Mohammed picked us up at 9 and we headed to the restaurant, I later found out that after he didn't dine with us that was the last time we really got to see him and we never got a picture with him! How sad :( Dinner was good, but very expensive. And we were supposed to be eating with Said, but he was off making bussiness calls and whatnot so we never really got to see him and it all got us wondering what he really does... He seems much more well-off than a lot of the others in this city, but his tours aren't very expensive. He has given tours to celebrities like Sting and Bruce Springstein, but walking through the streets he practically knows everybody! We all came to the conclusion that he has to be in some kind of Moroccan mob or whatever. Before going to bed we talked with him about doing a day trip the next day. We decided to go to a beach town about and hour away called Asilah. His driver would take us there and we could explore for however long we wanted. And then we would see him on Monday when we needed to leave for the airport.

Asilah was an interesting town. A lot smaller than Tangier obviously and a lot more residencial too. We found our way to the coast though and got down to the beach. There were these realy cool pieces of beached tile everywhere so I took some of those. I waded into the water too, but the tide was coming in so we opted to go find something to eat. We did that just in time because it started to pour. I got a giant mound of couscous for lunch and by the time we were done with that it had stopped raining and after a little more exploring we decided it was time to go. When we got back to Tangier we wanted to do some last minute souvenier shopping. We got postcards and they don't really have shot glasses because drinking in public is somewhat looked down upon in Morocco so we got Moroccan tea glasses instead. We got a really good deal and they're really pretty. After a short nap, all our naps were disrupted by the local soccer games that went on outside on the court across the street from our hotel, we wandered off to go find a cheap dinner consisting of kebabs, french fries and a soda for 30durham (3euro!).

The next day we packed up and said our goodbyes to Said and Mohammed. Right before we left we found out that our second flight (the one from Madrid to Santander) was cancelled due to the volcanic ash from the volcano that erupted in Iceland on Thursday. Well our flight leaving Tangier was delayed, so we were better off with the cancellation because we probably would have missed the nest flight anyway. We found a bus to Bilbao instead and waited around for two hours to leave at 8. We took a five hour bus ride home where a lady behind me kept singing outloud to her iPod and made it home by 1am. I love travelling, but I feel like every time I get home I am kissing the ground I walk on. Home sweet Bilbao :)

A Much More Eventful Weekend!

2010-03-21T18:54:00.000Z

So after last weekend's lazy weekend I was determined to make this weekend more adventurous. Wednesday was St. Patrick's Day and I couldn't go out because I had a grammar test on Thursday, but Thursday night there was an Erasmus St. Patrick's Day themed party. A lot of people were wearing green and the Irish international students were loving it. One guy even had his entire face painted with the colors of the Irish flag. Kate, Nina and I tried to go look for some Irish accessories before the fiesta, but we failed in doing so and only walked away with green beaded necklaces that had tiny mugs hanging from them. The party was just like any other Erasmus party and nothing like an American Saint Patrick's Day party, but at least I got to celebrate!

In my Basque Culture class my professor told us about a festival for EL Dia de San Jose, Spain's father's day.The festival was in Bakio, a northern coastal town in Pais Vasco. The town is known for their txakoli (white wine) and basically the festival celebrated this. It sounded like a lot of fun so I convinced Kate and Nina to come with me and we took a bus early the next morning. There weren't too many people there when we first showed up, but there were dozens of cows and horses tied to posts that everyone was mingling around! We took the oppurtunity to get some pictures with these guys... Kate even pet one! And then we went to go find some food. I saw a stand making Talo (just like a Mexican tortilla but a bit thicker and made with corn flour and water). People were stadning around eating it with lomo (pork) and chorizo (smoked sausage). We decided to give it a try and got some glasses of txakoli as well.It defintiely hit the spot... The txakoli was a tad more sour than the one I tired on my pintxos trip though.

We walked around some more, got some free stickers, balloons and sheep masks (all for little kids of course) and heard some traditional Basque music. Then i thought it would be a good idea to go find the beach. We finally got around to asking someone and found out it was only a ten minute walk. I'm really glad we made the walk because the beach was beautiful! It was just too bad that there wasn't any sun... The beach was known for its waves so there were tons of surfers out in the water. It was really low tide too so we walked around a little bit and I even found a ton of seaglass (all green, probably from all those wine bottles!) We started to wait for the bus after that and then realized it wouldn't be coming for another hour and half... So we went back to the festival and got some chocolate this time. I got white chocolate with pistachios... Sounds kind of iffy, but it was delcious!

The next day Kate decided to go meet up with her Tandem partner Olga in her hometwon Castro again, so I was roommate less for the day/night. Nina and I were still determined to go on another adventure so we decided to take a bus to the capital of the Basque Country, Vitoria. I had a friend who went a few weeks ago so she told me we could get a map at the bus station that would leade us to the Old Quarter and we could see all kinds of churches and monuments and what not. Nina and I accidentally got our tickets to leave Vitoria at 8:15pm so we got that time changed once we arrived and then we headed out! Vitoria was a lot bigger than I expected, but we didn't have much trouble finding the historical part of town. We headed to a church called La Catedral de Santa Maria first. It is a gothic church that is currently going under renovation. We opted to skip a Spanish speaking tour and just go check it out on our own for 2euro. The entrance fee didn't get us much of anywhere besides the main hall of the church that was covered in stone dust, but we did get to wear some pretty cool construction helmets!

After that church and some more walking around (Nina and I found postcards to add to our collection... made the trip worth while!) we found cheap place to eat lunch. With a Menu del Dia that consisted of Paella and Steak. We got nervous at first because we sat by a table with a bunch of crying babies, but the parents were sensible enough to take them outside. We were lucky though, we got the last able in the place and other had to wait for over an hour. After lunch Nina and I spotted a gelato store. If you have never tried gelato, do it! I can't wait to have it practically every day in Italy! I got Kinder flavored. Kinder is a delicious brand of chocolate over here, so obviously my ice cream was fantastic. Siesta kind of got in the way of things after lunch because the churches and places we wanted to get into were closed, but we just walked around and talked for a bit and it was good to just be out of the dorm. After wasting a little more time in some stores Nina, my aching feet and I were ready to go. That night we went out to some local Irish bars with our friends Tony and Matt and of course I added one (or two) more beer glasses to my collection!

A cathedral off in the distance in Vitoria

It was a quieter weekend with a lot of people off doing their own weekend trips, but I enjoyed my trips. And I got to spend Sunday catching up on homework and such (yes I have homework here!) Now I am in the beginning preparations for Spring Break!! We leave on Wednesday so I have plenty to do. So I guess that will be my next entry, but until then hasta luego!

Uneventful Weekend

2010-03-16T16:05:00.001Z

I am thinking to myself as a write this why I would write a post about an "uneventful weekend" and just because I don't have an exciting trip planned for every weekend doesn't necessarily make it "uneventful," but I'll just say that this wasn't one of my most memorable weekends here thus far. However, there were a few highlights.

Thursday night there was another Erasmus party. Those parties that are held in clubs throughout Bilbao for Spanish and international students alike. I had not been to one in a while and at first I was thinking about just having a night in, but some friends convinced me to come out and I am glad I did. We started out at the dorm called Blas de Otero. I had never been there before, but they are set up more like apartments than dorm rooms. So when we arrived in their common room downstairs it was like walking into a college house party... which I actually kind of miss! Unfortunately, we got the boot about an hour later because the new desk guard didn't like having so many people there that late so we headed to Erasmus instead.

I had more fun than I have at any of the other Erasmus parties, I didn't even mind the crowds. I met a student from Deusto, but he is originally from Mexico and he even went to high school for a few years in Mountain Lakes, NJ. Small world... It was just really fun to be around everyone else who was having a great time too. The next day I made plans to go biking around the city with Mike and Ashley. The tourism offices here allow you to rent bikes for free as long as your return them before 8pm. Sounded like a great idea, until we realized a lot of the city did not have bike paths and I was forced to ride down a busy city street with a dump truck roaring in the lane right next to me.

My friends and I had really hoped to get some day trips in the weekend to places like the Basque Country capital, Vitoria or a town Kate's friend told her about called Burgos, but the weather was not having it. It was gloomy and rainy almost all weekend. We attempted to go out to a new bar on Friday night... But it was nothing to out of the ordinary.

New bar we found called "The Crazy Horse"

Saturday we had planned to try and go to a different club, but on the way we found a carnival next to the Ria. With rides and all that jazz. A bunch of my friends went on the bumper cars and Kate and I went on this ride called the Ranita Loca (Crazy Frog). And it was not at all what I was expecting. Carnival rides in the US last for maybe a minute tops... well this thing kept going! And I couldn't breath I was laughing so hard! Every time we thought it was about to end, it started up again! I really wish there were more places like this. We never made it to the club and Sunday just ended up being a lazy day, but I guess I need to save up my energy for my two and half week long spring break!

On the Ranita Loca!

Futbol y Practicum

2010-03-16T15:34:00.002Z

I forgot to post about some stuff before I left for Madrid... So here's a quick update on a few things I left out.

On Tuesday a ton of people decided they wanted to go to an Exhibition game (or "friendly match") between Bilbao Athletic and Paraguay. The tickets were really cheap so we decided to join in. This time our seats were up higher, but it seemed like the stadium was a lot more packed. Maybe because they tickets were so cheap that everyone could afford to go. There were tons of die-hard Paraguay fans that used a red, white, and blue flag of Paraguay to cover a section of seats and they went absolutely crazy every time they scored. Which happened a lot since Bilbao was playing their second string team.

Paraguay celebrating another goal...

Now I obviously do not know a lot about soccer... So when some little girls game running up to these guys in front of us for pictures and autographs I assumed they were famous, but I had no idea who they might be. That's when we had our friend Michelle ask a fellow Athletic fan and he explained they were two of Bilbao's first string players, the goal keeper Gorka Iraizoz and the left defender Koikili Lertxundi. It was so strange to me! These guys were sitting right in front of us with their families and friends and not a guard in sight. And they weren't even really bothered a majority of the time. I can only imagine if a player sat amongst the fans in Giants stadium without any protection.

We really wanted to get a picture or have our tickets signed, but that's when the kids started flooding in. They were getting cell phone pictures, having their jerseys signed, just trying to say hi. We weren't so sure we would get our chance. At one point I just threw my camera at a kid and we practically jumped on the goal keeper to get a picture with him. Unfortunately Koikili isn't in it with us. But we were lucky because after that I think they had finally gotten fed up with the attention and they moved their seats to a different unknown section. Hey, at least I got my picture!

On Wednesday I went to my second cooking class. Amidst cooking another three dishes my professor commented on how I look like Nicole Kidman. I never really thought of that before, but I guess I can see some resemblance?? Just a random thought...Anyway, first we made Tomates Provenzales, then Paella de carne, and for dessert we made Torrijas. A very delicious meal that I would probably rank above the last one we made! The Tomates were a really easy recipe. You basically take your desired number of tomatoes and cut them in half. Then you pour some olive oil into a frying pan, let it heat, and then you cook the flat sides of the tomatoes for about a minute. When this is done you sprinkle some salt on the cooked tops and spread a mixture of garlic, oregano, olive oil, and parsley over that and bake them in the oven for about fifteen minutes. I'm not a fan of tomatoes, but these were really good!

They are more appetizing than they look... I swear!

I was really excited to make the paella. It is one of my favorite dishes over here in Spain (and that says a lot). Paella is a rice dish with meats and other chopped vegetables mixed in. It is also often made with seafood (including shrimp that have eyes!) Our dish was only being made with chicken, but we made the legitimate kind because sometimes people just cook the rice by adding water, but we made a colga. It is a broth made up from water, left over chicken parts, peppers, and onions. A lot of bars just offer it as a hot drink to sip in the colder weather. It made this dish taste fantastic! Javi also did not add saphron or yellow coloring which is usually a major characteristic of the dish, but it tasted just the same!

Looks more delicious when there's coloring... But it still hit the spot!

Then the dessert. I was really excited about Torrijas after our professor explained them to us. It is actually a really simple recipe and reminds me a lot of American french toast. First, you make a mixture with milk, sugar, cinnamon sticks, and a bit of lemon peel and heat it until warm. Then you take slices of stale bread and let it soak in the liquid. (I think Javi may have let it soak too long, because it seemed a bit soggy when we finally ate it.) After the bread is soaked, you dip it into beaten eggs and fry it in olive oil for a minute on each side. When this is done you roll the slices around in sugar and cinnamon. Sounds delicious right??? It was!! But I could barely take another bite after I was done... I was so full!

I really hope I can come home and make all of these dishes for everyone. And I am relieved we're cooking things I actually want to eat, rather than the greasy and mysterious food that is served in my dorm. I also forgot to mention that during the soccer game I got really excited at half time because I thought everyone was eating hot dogs (nothing like a ball game hot dog...) when they took out a foil wrapped snack, but then I realized everyone had brought bocadillos (sandwiches on a baguette). We can have these made for us if we do not make it to lunch on any given day in our dorm. But just goes to show that this country is all about their meal times!

My class at the Txoko

Last CIDE Excursion

2010-03-10T23:23:00.001Z

Last weekend was our last trip with my study abroad program here CIDE (Centro Internacional Deusto de Espanol). We took a five hour bus ride to the capital Madrid, Spain and we also had a day trip to the more ancient capital, Segovia. The final excursion was bittersweet... I probably won't see half of the kids in my program until our Goodbye Celebration at the end of the semester, but the trip itself was definitely not listed in my favorites. I guess I will start from the beginning....

Have I ever mentioned that our CIDE trips are cursed by the weather? Every time we plan to go somewhere Mother Nature decides to bring down her wrath. So obviously in Madrid, where it is usually supposed to be warmer in the later months, it was at freezing temperatures and there was constant torrential downpour of rain. Our hotel actually wasn't too shabby, my friends and I had hoped for triple rooms, but were assigned doubles, so Kate and I shared a room (and bed...) I just can't escape that girl!

Then we ate a free buffet lunch, but my meat wasn't fully cooked, so I just opted for some ice cream instead. And then we loaded onto the bus again to headed to the Palacio Real (the official residence of the King of Spain, but not it is really only used for state ceremonies). We also got a brief walk through the Catedral de la Almudena (the Catholic church of Spain that is dedicated to the Virgin of Almudena) which had a very different interior with bright colors and statues of contemporary artists. Our professors walked us through la Plaza de la Villa and la Plaza Mayor (which probably would have been a lot more lively if it weren't for the weather) and then we were given free time after arriving in the city center, la Puerta del Sol.

My friends Michelle and Santi are die-hard Real Madrid fans so we had to go take a look inside the Official Real Madrid store and Michelle even got a green-screened picture with her favorite player, Iker Casillas! We couldn't bear to walk around in the freezing cold and rain anymore so a few of us decided to head to the Museo Reina Sofia. It was a museum that wasn't on our itinerary, but it had the original painting of the Picasso's Guernica. The actual painting was huge! And just as I was thinking about where he could have possibly chosen a starting point, in the room nextdoor there were a few of his primary sketches. All very interesting... And it was time to head back for dinner soon enough. My friends and I had hoped to go out that night, but after walking around in more freezing cold rain we gave up and just had some fun hanging out in the hotel rooms instead.

(Illegal sneak pic of the Guernica)

The next day was an early wake-up call for our day trip to Segovia. I absolutely loved Segovia. I was a bit nervous at first after waking up to a winter wonderland outside the bus, but it cleared up in no time and we actually had amazing weather the rest of the day (take that mother nature!) Obviously we all headed straight for the Roman Aqueduct. An aqueduct that is still standing two thousand years later! With not a drop of mortar used throughout any of the architecture, amazing.

After losing the group and getting lost for a bit, we got a tour of the Alcázar of Segovia (literally translated, the Castle of Segovia). It was originally built as a fortress but has served as a royal palace, a state prison, a Royal Artillery College and a military academy since then. It was obviously not as impressive as the Palacio Real inside and I could hardly understand our super-speedy Spanish guide, but I caught on to a few things about each of the rooms. One room with two thrones called the "Pinecone Room" (for the golden pinecones on the ceiling. There was a lot of gold on the ceilings of all the rooms..) was where Christopher Columbus came to ask King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella for the funding of his trip to the New World. There was one room with a painting of the people of Segovia, but for some reasons the artist chose not to add any of the people's eyes. Kind of creepy... I also read somewhere that the castle is also featured in the video game Resident Evil 4 and it is said to be influence for many of the castles produced by Walt Disney.

We got to climb to the top of the tower (my legs actually hurt the next day... pathetic) and see a gorgeous view of the city and then we did some souvenir shopping, ate our lunch and headed back to Madrid. We had more free time in Madrid... but this time we were tired so we got some Starbucks and bit of walking around and then just decided to head back for a nap before dinner. Everyone was planning on going to a seven story club called Capital at night, but I was just not up for something like that. Especially if it meant not getting back to the hotel until 5:00am. A few of us opted for bars instead, but we could not find one! You would think that in a major city like this it would not be very difficult to find a bar to go to at 1:30 at night, but we were turned away everywhere we tried to get in... We finally gave up, got a taxi home, and just decided to take advantage of the fact that we were going to be getting a lot more sleep than the rest of the CIDE students.

The next morning was rough for a lot of us. I really only got a solid three hours of sleep until the wake-up call came around... but others got a lot less. We had our scheduled visit to the Museo del Prado on this day and not many of us were looking forward to walking around a museum with less than a solid eight hours of sleep. However, the museum proved to be very impressive. There were several painting I actually recognized from old textbooks and classes. Paintings by Goyas and Velázquez. I really liked see Las Meninas (Spanish for "The Maids of Honor") since I remembered learning so much about it. Our guide spoke English, but we couldn't suppress our laughter when she would say, "dee mader welding" (the other building) or "look at dee perpetive and do you see dee apotles?" (look at the perspective... do you see the apostles?)

After the tour was over a few friends and I took advantage of the last bit of free time we had to go explore the Parque del Retiro (literally meaning "Park of the Pleasant Retreat"). It was a beautiful park, I only wish we had more time there because apparently, it being Madrid's largest park, there was so much more to see. After eating another big lunch in preparation for the long bus ride home, we shipped out. I'm realizing after writing this post that the city probably doesn't seem all that bad... Maybe it was the weather that put a damper on things (literally)... But I have been to a lot of big cities and Madrid just wasn't all that great. Oh well... Still glad I got to go! Next on the list of trips: Spring Break!! (Italy, Granada, Seville, Barcelona), Tangier (in Morocco!!), and Dublin!!

As my mom says... I am becoming "quite the world traveler!"

I think I can...

2010-03-02T19:04:00.001Z

Saturday was more of a low-key day... There were hurricane strength winds blowing through the city at 95 mph so after Nina, Kate and I almost got blown away buying groceries down the street, we opted to have a movie day. We watched Grizzly Man. I had already seen it and had warned them that the guy in the documentary was a nut-job, but we watched it anyway... Our lights were flickering throughout the night because of the wind, but the next day the winds had died down and it was just as gorgeous as Friday. The perfect day for a hike. A few of my friends went the day before and promised to lead the way once again on Sunday... Let's just say I did not know what I was in for.

The guys had found some hill off the map that started up from a construction site. They had planned to find a better way up today with us girls trailing behind them. After scurrying up an irrigation tube, I started to realize this wasn't going to be any ordinary hike. We were making our way along trails made by donkeys. At one point we came across a barbed wire fence and one kid in our group thought that if he hopped it he could find a better route. Well that was a good idea, until he almost pulled down a powerline and took out half the city's electricity and almost got attacked by a very territorial donkey. The guys then decided it would be a better idea to climb up the practically 90º hill we were standing at the bottom of. That was all good and fine until I had to start clawing at tufts of grass to keep going up. All of us finally made it up... barely. But that wasn't even the top, we had more to go.

Clawing up the last bit of "Donkey Hill"

We finally found our way to a recreational area that definitely had a normal trail leading up to it from another direction, but the view was breathtaking. Definitely made the huffing and puffing worth it in the end. Santi had packed some snacks, so we took a little breather and just when we thought we were going to head back down we found a trail that took us even higher. Then we were really at the top. You could see everything. Even the ocean. It was amazing. I have no idea how we even came across it, heck I don't even know the name of the mountain I was on top of, but the view was not something you get to see everyday. Heading back down was a lot easier and Nina, Kate and I agreed we would do another hike, but we are going to look for trails next time.

Beach Day!

2010-03-02T18:40:00.004Z

Friday was a gorgeous day with nothing but clears skies. There was no way I wanted to stay inside, so after going to watch some of our friends play soccer Kate, Nina and I decided to go check out Plentzia beach, the last stop on the metro, right on the ocean. After a very long 30-minute metro ride we arrived in Plentzia. And what do you think happened next? Nothing. We were lost ha. Story of my life.

Well after wandering around for quite some time (of course we arrived during siesta again and civilization was no where to be found) we finally found our way to the beach. Someone had said that Algorta was supposed to be much prettier than Plentzia, but I beg to differ. Rather than having cranes and industrial work as a backdrop the beach was carved out between giant cliffs. There were tons of surfers to watch, but the water was too cold to even stick our feet in. So we just laid out our towels and relaxed. I wish it would have been real beach weather! But I'll take what I can get... Lizzie and Michelle showed up a little later, but the sun was going behind the cliffs and we had plans to meet up with Dr. Sainz that night so we headed back to the metro.

Dr. Sainz, for those of you who don't know, is a Spanish professor back at UMW. He studied for his undergrad at Deusto and is the head of the Bilbao study abroad program back at school. He grew up in the Bilbao and spends his summers here, so when he came over last week during UMW's spring break he offered to meet up and hang out for a bit. He showed us around to a few new places we had not been to yet, including a favorite local spot where you can get pintxos morunos (moorish tapas or seasoned skewers of pork). The skewers were grilled right in front of us and were served with hot bread. SO good! Santi and I shared a second! Definitely going back soon. It was really good to catch up with him, but I think everyone was so exhausted from the night before that we all just called it a night when we got home.

True Life: I Partied in my Residencia

2010-03-02T18:23:00.002Z

First of all I must make it known that the students here don't just like to dress up, they love it. And when I say dress up I mean they go all out with their costumes. I wrote about Carnaval a while ago, but I feel like Carnaval has been going on for three weeks now! I am so done with costumes!

All the Americans in Undamuno

Anyway, there was a party in the basement of our dorm yesterday. Not just some people hanging out and drinking in a room, there was a giant dance party in the basement with a fully stocked bar. It was perfect: free, no need to worry about getting anywhere on time, and right downstairs!

Just an example of how far some people go for their costumes! A brush!

Remember Javi, the chef for my cooking class? He was Minnie too...

Well none of my friends really felt like dressing up for another costume party, but when we went downstairs to dinner I was eating with Superman, a Dinosaur, the Hulk, and a bunch of grapes! Thankfully, I pulled together a last minute costume as Minnie Mouse with help of a cheap China store across the street, but that is the last costume I am putting on until Halloween!

It was a good night overall... and kind of fun to hang out with the people we eat our meals with everyday at least... I wouldn't mind doing it again, but let's nix the costumes for that one.

Mi Primer Partido de Fútbol

2010-02-23T16:11:00.002Z

Party in the Guggenheim: check
Wine tasting: check
Professional soccer game: check!

I finally got to go to a professional soccer game last Sunday. Michelle and Nina bought Kate and I tickets on Saturday for 35€ to see Bilbao Athletic play Tenerife (which from what I hear is the team of the Canary Islands?) As you can see I am not a die hard soccer fan, but I had to go to a game while I was in Spain. The game was at 5:00 so Lizzie, Michelle, Nina, Kate and I went out around 2:30 to some streets near the stadium and sat around in some bars until the game started.

I finally got to wear my Bilbao Athletic scarf, but Kate was too lame to wear hers so Nina did instead. Then Michelle went and bought herself one and right away I took advantage of my newly learned coloquial Spanish and called her a chaquetera (fair-weather fan)! Michelle is normally a die hard Real Madrid fan, so when she bought that scarf i had so give her some flack about it :)

¡Chaquetera!

When we got into the stadium we had no idea where out seats were and after asking at least five people some others just pointed us to some empty seats... that were fourth row! Pretty sweet deal if you ask me. We got to see all of the first half's goals because we were on the north side of the field and when Athletic scores all these giant flags go flying up in the crowds. At one point one fan had his shirt off (not a sight for sore eyes) and was getting the crowd to chant the Bilbao Athletic fight song.

(The shirtless fan...)

Athletic won 4-1, but the ending wasn't as exciting as I had hoped... Maybe it was because it was on a Sunday or because it was an expected win, but I had my fair share of fun! I don't think I'll be splurging the money to go to another game, but it was a good opportunity to show off my newfound Bilbao pride! ¡Vaya Atlétic!

La Rioja y las Bodegas

2010-02-23T15:30:00.001Z

On Saturday Kate and I were invited to go wine tasting with Ashley and some of her friends in La Rioja. It is a region of northern Spain in Navarra that is considered to have the best wine in the country. We would be going to one particular town in particular called Haro where we had reservations to see a bodega (wine cellar) called Bilbaina Bodega and try some of the wines they made there. The plan was to leave for Haro at 10:45 that morning, but by that time Kate and I had only gotten four hours of sleep after leaving Fever earlier that morning. We opted to take the later bus and meet everyone there in the afternoon since our bodega reservations weren't til 5:00 in the afternoon.

(La Rioja... Ashley took this picture earlier in the day)

(The seal of Bilbainas Bodegas)

Have I mentioned that Kate and I fail at planning any sort of adventure or trip? Well Kate and I got to our bus and arrived in Haro as scheduled. What we didn't realize was that we were completely under dressed to be walking around a town surrounded by mountains, we had no idea where we were and no map to navigate us, and to top it all off I didn't have my phone and Kate's ran out of minutes! We were able to talk to Ashley briefly so she could give us some type of direction, but it wasn't much help to two girls who were stranded in the middle of ghost town. Maybe it was because of siesta, but there was no one in this town and everything was closed! When we did see someone in the distance we had to practically chase after them to ask what direction the river was in.

(Town of Haro... Photo credit to Ashley again)

(Vineyard... probably prettier in the summer)

When we finally did find the "river" we were no where closer to finding where we needed to be. Finally the Guardia Civil (police) drove up and asked us if we needed directions. The next thing I know we are in their patrol car on our way to the bodega. As if it wasn't embarrassing enough that we were late, we pulled up to the place in a patrol car and a group of about 20 strangers (who were waiting for us!) burst into laughter! Just a tad mortifying...

(Giant barrels of wine!)

(Fermentation Tanks)

(Storage barrels)

We finally caught up with our friends and just in time for the tour. I did not realize that our tour group would consist of more than the nine of us and for that same reason I was about shocked that I could hardly understand our tour guide. Since he was speaking to a group of about thirty and they were all native Spanish speakers he had no time to slow down for us. That made the tour a bit less intriguing... Then we also discovered half the tour was outside or in cold cellars, so once again our lack of layers came back to slap us in the face. We made the best of it though and it was interesting to see all of the different rooms the processing of wine goes through. At the end we got to sip some red wine, but once again, not by choice. It was a cheaper bottle and one of them had a licorice flavor... He showed us how to hold the wine against the light to look at the color and how to decipher the scent though so that was educating. We made it back for our 8:30 bus and all in all it was a nice day. I think a summer tour would have been the better choice, but I don't have that option, so this was just one more thing I can say I did in Spain!

(Really old, moldy barrels)

(The group at the tasting... our guide gave me the bottle to hold)

Art After Dark and Fever

2010-02-22T23:04:00.000Z

Last month I posted about a party at the Guggenheim Museum called Art After Dark. A lot of us didn't get to go because it was sold out, well I made a point of going this month. We took a little siesta after our field trip and then got ready to party in style. My group and I didn't make it til pretty late, but it was okay because there actually wasn't much to do. There were lights and a DJ making for some sort of mingling and "dancing" if you can call it that. We went around taking pictures with the different art exhibits in the museum instead, like the LED lights below, they turned out really cool :)

Then we went upstairs and watched the party from above and met a few other international students. One guy was French and ended up being pretty friendly going against normal French stereotypes. It may have been his choice of drinks that night as well... While talking to us he mentioned this "serpiente" that he was told about by another Spanish man. All I could think of was the steel artwork downstairs called "Time and Matter" where there was a big curvy part in the middle. No idea how I thought of it, but we brought our new friend down there and he was very pleased ha.

I assumed the "Serpiente" was that curved piece in the middle

And then the museum fiesta came to a close. It wasn't as classy as I expected, but hey, now I get to say I partied in the Guggenheim. With our admission to Art After Dark we also got free cover into a nightclub called Fever. Of course, with the nightlife of Spainards the club didn't open until 2am, but we decided to go check it out. On the way we hoped to find Telepizza, some other international guys thought it was Mexican when we asked them? But it closed twenty minutes before we got there... so we trekked on to the club.

Ladies at the Guggenheim

The metro took us to a pretty shady looking factory town, but there were hoards of people heading there too so I wasn't too worried. The club was in an actual renovated factory building and had about three different rooms going on all at once, each with different music and a different bar. But talj about sausage fest... pardon my language... but it was all guys! And they weren't even attractive guys... I'll just say that the fun and techno music only lasted so long until I was ready to go. We called a taxi that took forever to show up and when it did I had to fend some girls off so that I could get home before 5am! Overall I can say I had a really fun night, don't think I'll need to do Art After Dark or Fever again, I'll just check them off my list of experiences.

Excursión a Urdaibai

2010-02-22T19:22:00.003Z

This past Friday we had another schedule CIDE trip. This time we were going to Urdaibai which is part of the Basque Country's Biosphere Reserve. I was under the impression that we were going to a big national park of some sort, but the Reserve is actually a teritory with about 50,000 inhabitants spread throughout 22 different cities. We would be visiting two of the more important cities: Gernika and Mundaka.

(Picasso's "Gernika")

Gernika is considered the historic capital of the Basque Country. We got to visit several places here including the infamous Assembly House and Tree of Gernika and the Museo de la Paz (Peace Museum). The Assembly House wasn't too impressive. There was a chamber where old and current goverment meetings still take place, paintings of old leaders, and a giant chandelier with trees on its detailing. Outside the House is the Tree of Gernika. This tree is considered the most universal symbol for the Basque people and many of the past General Assemblies were held under its branches. However, the yard is now home to several different generations of the tree and therefore making the scenery a bit less exciting.

(The Assembly Room)

The current "tree" was planted in 2005 and is smaller than a lot of trees around Summit. New Jersey. And being only February, it looked weak and measely without any leaves. There is an "Old Tree" (or trunk) that is housed by stone columns that is over 300 years old as well. This tree isn't even the first of all the Trees of Gernika, but is the oldest conserved tree. It is considered the grandparent to the tree that lasted from 1860-2004 before the new one was planted in 2005. For such a huge symbol though, I was not that impressed.

(CIDE group outside the current "tree"... yeah that leafless thing in the back)

The "Old Tree"

There was also the Stained-Glass Window room which was actually very intriguing. (A particular stained-glass maker I know would find it very impressive!) The room which was originally designed as a courtyard was transformed into a museum in 1964 and the roof acts as a huge statined-glass window. The window is said to represent the symbolism of the tree as a meeting point for the different people and municipalties of Biscay. The center is obviosuly the tree and around the border there are different monuments of different places in Biscay.

(Stained-glass roof)

Gernika is also commonly known for the tragic bombing that took place on April 26, 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. The current dictator (Franciso) of that time allowed Germans to test their bombs by dropping them on this town and the results were catastrophic. We visited el Museo de la Paz to learn more about this.Pablo Picasso even painted a painting called "Genika" to represent the tragedy of these bombings and the museum also had displays on the culture of peace and different aspects of peace all around the world. One room had a whole display of pictures, videos and clutter left over from the bombings. While you walked around there was rubble under the floor where you saw old letters, dolls, utensils, and books burned and charred among the shattered rock and cement. The museum was small, but I enjoyed it.

(Bombing rubble under the floors.. book and spoon)

After having a seafood themed lunch we got back on the buses to head to Mundaka. A town known for its surfing. It is part of the Mundaka Estuary and is clearly still a small fishing town. There were the typical old town homes and we got to walk out onto a pier to look out into the Cantabric Sea, but of course it started to pour, so the view was not so spectacular. We headed over to a church that was closed, and got to see more of the coast. I realized some people were climbing down some stairs to get closer down to the water and just as I was about to join them one of the teachers scolded everyone to come back up. We got to walk around a little more, but the rain kind of put a damper on things, so we got back onto the buses and headed home for the day. It wasn't one of our best trips so far, but I love when I get the chance to travel anywhere. And it will be cool to see Picasso's original painting of "Gernika" when we got to the museums in Madrid.

Txoko y Pintxos con Vino!

2010-02-22T18:21:00.002Z

So far I have really been liking my classes here in Spain. Nothing is too hard and all my teachers are really down-to-earth. One class in particular though is something I would never get to experience in the States. I mentioned earlier that I am enrolled in a Practicum:Spain in Context class. It's one half theater and one half cuisine. I am having a hard time enjoying the theater part because comical improv excercises and charades are not really my thing. But my doubts about that class are completely washed out with the other half. My spanish cuisine class has definitely been one of my favorite parts about my schooling here. During our lecture classes we get to learn about the typical food of Spain's Basque region and we learn different recipes that we actually get to cook in what they call a txoko (cho-ko), which is basically a kitchen.

(Javi, our cook)

Last week we got to walk to the txoko about twenty minutes away from campus where we met the cook who was going to be helping us. His name was Javi... Turns out to be the same guy who cooks the food in our Residencia Comedor. That made me a little nervous. There were three courses on the menu for the day: Acelgas con Pencas Rebozadas, Tortilla de Patata, and Arroz con Leche. Javi had almost everything set up for us and then put us to work on cutting up potatoes or preparing the Acelgas. Acelgas con Pencas Rebozadas was a new dish for me. You take acelgas (chard?) and place cheese and ham in between, like a sandwich. Then you roll the "sandwich" around in some flour and dip it into a bowl of beaten eggs. And then they are fried in oil and ready to eat. (Note: they never use butter to cook here, they always use olive oil.)

(Acelgas con Pencas Rebozadas... not the actual ones we made though)

Tortilla de patatas is a dish I have here way too often, so I wasn't too stoked about cooking it. The tortilla is not what a tortilla is in the US, this dish is actually almost like an egg omelet with potatoes mixed in. As simple as it sounds, my group had some difficulty completing this task. After one side of the tortilla is cooked in the pan, you need to cover the pan with a lid and flip the pan so that the tortilla then lies on the lid (cooked side down) and you can slide it back into the pan for cooking. Well after Javi's impressive show the first time, a girl in my class gave it a try, but didn't have the ability to fully rotate the pan and the entire thing slipped right out onto the floor. I guess the skill takes some getting used to...

(Torilla de Patata)

And finally the dessert. Arroz con leche. (Translated: Rice with milk, sounds appetizing huh?) This was served at our dining hall once and Kate and I almost spit it in eachother's faces after trying it so I was not looking forward to eating it today, let alone cooking it. According to the the recipe you are supposed to boil a large pot of milk, then add the rice and let it cook along with sugar and some sticks of cinnamon. It didn't even look appetizing.

(Our actual arroz con leche)

After all was said and done, we sat down to eat our freshly cooked Spanish meal. The Acelgas, which I was unsure about, were delicious! I was actually disappointed we made so few. And the tortilla was spectacular as well, it even tasted better than the ones I had been eating almost every day. And the arroz con leche... so good! Who knew that I would devour every bit of this meal. I think the secret has to be that when foods are cooked in large quantities at our Comedor they do not turn out the right way... But for our little group of ten, everything turned out perfectly. I cannot wait until Menu Dos!

(Saw this shirt in a store and thought it was comical)

So not only do we get to cook our own food, but we get to go on field trips too! Last Wednesday a group of us went to Santurizzi with our teacher Ana and my favorite teacher in CIDE, Francisco, accompanied us as well. We went to a Pintxo Bar called El Parque for a degustacion de pintxos y cata de vino (a tasting of pintxos and wine). They had a table in the back set up for us where we were going to learn about the wines of the Basque region and try a few of the Basque's well-known pintxos.

(The group at El Parque)

We got to try the Vino Blanco (white wine) first. It is called Txakoli (cha-ko-lee) here. I would definitely reccomend it mom! A man who worked at the bar, never caught his name, explained to us with drawings how white wine is made in Spain. With the different types of fruits and grapes and how long it must ferment, etc.

After that we were given a taste of Rioja or Vino Tinto (you guessed it, red wine). I am not really a fan of red wine, but it was nice to try it. While we were given the much more detailed explanation of the red wine our pintxos were passed out. There were four to try from. Rabas (squid or calamari), Brocheta de Rape, Lagostinos y Calabacin (a skewer with fish, shrimp, and zucchini), Laminado de Bacalao al Pil-Pil (a piece of baguette with fish, red and green peppers, onion, and a salsa of garlic and olive oil), and Cucuruchos de Hojaldre con Ensaladilla (a cone pastry stuffed with crab meat, shrimp, egg, mayonnaise, and gulas-small eels!) As you can see, a lot of seafood over here in Spain. My favorite.....

I tried them all though. The Rabas tasted just like fried calamari, the Brocheta with fish and shrimp was good, but really salty, and the Cucurucho was disgusting. The mayonnaise seafood mixture inside was hardly edible and the tiny eels were just too much. My favorite ended up being the Laminado de Bacalao. Bacalao (cod) is the most common fish eaten here, but I could hardly taste it with all the vegetables and pil-pil. I really liked getting to go to a place and learn about what I was eating rather than just guessing. It's too bad we didn't get more wine! (wink-wink) We have another trip planned to a different place later on in the semester so look forward to that post and more recipes from meals I learn to cook!

¡Carnaval!

2010-02-15T18:24:00.002Z

"Carnival, that explosion of color, music and celebration which takes place just before Lent..." has been one of the craziest weekends here by far.Carnaval is a week-long tradition here in Spain. We learned about the history of it in my Basque Culture class. Some of its origins are traced back to the pagan festivals which were held by the Romans to celebrate the end of the harsh winter and welcome in the Spring, but now the celebrations have been incorporated into the calendar of the Catholic Church as a festivity before Lent begins, so generally the celebrations take place in the week before Ash Wednesday. We were also told that the Carnaval celebrations in Spain were prohibited during the forty years of the Franco era (Francisco Franco was the head of the Spanish dictatorship for over 35 years) and were not restored until after the General’s death in 1975. Just in case anyone was wondering! ;)

Last Thursday the celebrations began. Unfortunately, as a close-minded American, I did not know Thursday and Friday were not the nights to dress up. My friends and I went out Thursday night in full costume: Kate and I were a Cowgirl and Indian and Kelly and Nina were an Angel and Devil. We met up with our other friends Michelle and Lizzie who dressed up like cats and we made our way to an Erasmus Party, these parties for international students all over Spain. There were not as many costumes as we expected, but I did find some fellow Indians and got a picture! We did some dancing and mingling, Lizzie lost her camera at one point so I really need to be careful with my things when I go out.... And Night #1 of Carnaval came to an end.

During the day on Friday a group of us went into Casco Viejo to eat some pintxos (tiny sandwiches that are in all the bars around here) and came across a small carnaval celebration with some rides and food stands. A few of us got giant cotton candy on a stick and some churros. So delicious. Friday night was a bit more interesting… Kate and I switched costumes with Nina and Kelly so now I was the angel (obviously). We had planned to go to another Erasmus Party called the “French Kiss” party (I think it had that name because of Valentine’s Day…) but somehow we got the location wrong. We showed up at a club that was closed and found out the actual location was all the way on the other side of the city. Instead of going back to find the other party my friends and I waited around to go into the club we showed up at originally. Bad idea. After opening at midnight my friends and I were there with a total of ten other people. I’m all for non-crowded hang outs… but dancing around in an empty club is just awkward. And the others weren’t dressed up! So another night of useless costumes came to an end.

Saturday finally rolled around… And my friends and I had plans to go to the city parade later that day. Kate had other plans though. She joined a conversation exchange group called “Tandem” where she gets assigned a Spanish buddy. She was put with a younger girl named Olga who also attends the University of Deusto. They only really got to exchange contact info, but when the weekend rolled around Olga invited Kate to come out to her town and celebrate Carnaval with her and her friends! Definitely out of any of our comfort zones, but she agreed and headed out around the same time we went to the parade. The parade was really fun and interesting. Unfortunately it was sleeting and so cold I couldn’t feel my feet, but there were all kinds of fun floats and traditional dancers. Groups of costumes like PacMan or Zombies who danced to “Thriller” would walk by and throw candy to the little kids and everyone was dressed up for this event (but not us... of course). A lot of the floats were very strange and we couldn’t always decipher them since the announcer was speaking Euskarra. One had a vagina on a throne, and another was depicting what I think was a brothel, and another was poking fun at the Armed Forces so instead of it saying “Fuerzas Armadas” it said “Fuerzas Mamadas” which Santi explained meant, “Strong Blowjobs” uh…. They had floats to poke fun at places they didn’t like too. Spain, France, United States for examples. But we had the ideal spot at the parade because we were at the very end, where each group performed and the judges would tally up to choose the winners for the best costumes, dancers, musicians and singing groups. We liked the Bolivian Dancers, traditional drummers, and Thriller performance the best.

Since we had seen so many ridiculous costumes at parade earlier… Star Wars and Viking families, a group of ducks, a guy dressed as a fat cheerleader, Avatar, a girl actually wheeling an entire bed around with her… We knew we wouldn’t stick out like sore thumbs this night! But we were out of costumes… We could have repeated like Kelly and her cowgirl costume, but Nina and I went and bought masquerade masks and boas last minute. We headed to Casco Viejo where we heard a lot of the action was taking place and found tons of other people. The streets and metros were packed with costumes. I took a picture with a cow for Libby, there were a group of Tetris blocks, a mariachi band, a pregnant man, butterflies, clowns, and painters, anything you can think of. We came across an outdoor concert too, but we had no idea who was playing so we all headed to a club we were pretty familiar with called DaVinci. Once again the place was too packed to move, so I opted to head home with a few friends, but Saturday was the most fun of all the nights by far.

Kate made it back in one piece the next day. She actually had a lot of fun, but said she had to speak Spanish almost the entire time! She said Olga and her friends hand-made their clown costumes and it was awkward at first, but they all ended up getting along really well. What an experience… I don’t know if I could do something like that…

It’s only Monday, but I think I am done with my Carnaval experience. It really ends with the Entierro de la Sardina (the Burial of the Sardine) on Ash Wednesday, which signals the end of Carnaval all over Spain. A gigantic fake sardine is paraded through the streets, usually followed by a funeral procession of mourners dressed up as priests or nuns. I don't think my friends and I will be going to this, mainly because we don't know where it is... But it just goes to show there are still some pretty weird traditions around here.

Crossing the border to... Francia

2010-02-12T12:01:00.001Z

Last Friday (not yesterday) CIDE planned a group trip to the south of France and another Basque city in Spain called Hondarribia. It was a very early morning starting at 7am... And I hear it was a very scenic bus ride, but I slept through the whole thing. We arrived in a small French town called Bayona (Bayonne) that was one of those classic picturesque cities right on a river. We had a brief tour of the main landmarks like Castillo Viejo and La Catedral de Santa Maria, but then we we mostly on our own for the rest of our stay.

We were told Bayona was known for the chocolate so we were determined to find a yummy chocolate shop. We stopped into a pastry shop first and I swear some of the things in those cases looked fake. Kate is obessed with fruit tarts so she died and went to heaven. We both treated ourselves with a little snack... but still wanted to try some chcoolate. We back-tracked to a little Chocolaterie and decided to try out their "Le Special de la Maison." I knew what "maison" was! We each recieved a frothy cup of hot chocolate with heavy cream to spoon in. I have never had a better cup of hot chocolate in my life. It was like a was drinking a chocolate bar. Unfortunately my group and I didn't purchase any other chocolate or think to buy any fresh french bread, but I was still satisfied with my choice. We explored a little more and then loaded back on to the buses and back across the Spanish border. We were fed another humongous three course lunch, where in one of the courses I am not sure what kind of meat I ate... But it was all filling nonetheless.

We headed to Hondarribia next. Another quaint little town on the water, but this time we had the option of doing everything on our own. The old part of the town is entirely surrounded by a medieval stone wall and there were different Puertas that made for entrances into different parts of the town. We walked around and saw the old Castillo of Carlos V... not much of anything. And then we found the Iglesia de Santa Maria, but it was under construction and we couldn't go in. So mainly my friends and I spent our time just walking around and taking pictures. It's amazing that little towns like this still actually exist.

London coming to a stressful end...

2010-02-01T11:35:00.012Z

Saturday January 30th-Monday February 1st

The rest of our stay in London continued to be amazing. Kate really wanted to see a castle while we were in England, so we all decided to make the trip to the Royal Family's vacation home, Windsor Castle in Berkshire. The castle is considered the largest inhabited castle in the world dating back to the 11th century! We decided to get an early start this morning so that we could beat the weekend crowds and hopefully head back to the city in the afternoon to do some more sightseeing.

(The group oustide the Windsor Castle)

The castle was huge! But the day was by far the coldest one since being there so we were glad we purchased audio tours to spend most of our time inside. One of the first rooms we got to see was the Queen's Dollhouse. Her niece decided to give it to her as a gift because the Queen liked to collect small things. The dollhouse is a replica of the Buckingham Palace with working electricity and plumbing! And the dining room plates are made of actual silver, I'm so upset we weren't allowed to take pictures. We also got to see a drawing gallery filled with paintings and drawings collected by the royal families over the years and the State Apartments which included the King and Queen's chambers, the Grand Vestibule, the Waterloo Chamber, the Crimson Drawing Room, and plenty of others. With help from our audio guides we learned there was a huge fire at the castle in 1992 that destroyed countless rooms and artifacts, but almost everything was restored. After all of this we stopped over to walk through St. George's Chapel (which is also located in the castle) where many royal weddings took place and where many of England's Kings and Queens are also buried. Thank goodness we came early because as we were leaving in the early afternoon we could see the crowds piling in by the dozens. We caught a train to head home, but at our transfer station we discovered that our longer train to Paddington would be delayed due to a person being hit by a train at a nearby station! Very unfortunate, but we didn't have to wait long and we got to Paddington soon after.

From Paddington Station (we couldn't find the bear statue) we took a "tube" to King's Cross station for Kelly's most anticipated part of the trip. We set out to find Harry Potter's Platform 9¾. We forced Kelly to go over and ask a station worker and before she even asked the question he said, "Photo-op over to the left." Well we found it, a small imitation "platform" in a corner of the station titled Platform 9¾ with half a luggage cart coming out of the wall. We all got pictures with it of course and then ran off to avoid any further embarrassment. Photo-op number one: check.

(Off to Hogwarts!)

After our Harry Potter extravaganza we were determined to find Abbey Road, where the Beatles' "Abbey Road" cover was photographed. We actually had no idea where it was, so when we were told to get off at the wrong Underground station and we didn't realize how much walking we had ahead of us. We finally found a Beatles Coffee Shop that told us exactly where to go and we were there within minutes. The crosswalk is still in use today and there were hoards of people holding up traffic just to get that one picture snapped. Some even had their shoes off in the freezing cold to mimic McCartney's album cover trend. Kelly, Nina, Kate and I were determined to have Ashley get a shot of us and our first attempt was a failure due to some screaming teenage girls running across the sidewalk at the same time as us. But the next attempt was a success and we did it just in time. The sun was ready to go down. We got some pictures in front of Abbey Road Studio where over 200 of the Beatles' songs were recorded and read some of the quotes and autographs written on the wall out front. Then it was time to head back for a much needed siesta (yes, we still need our siestas in London) because we had more plans for later that night.

(Reenacting the Beatles' Abbey Road album cover)

After our nap and getting a pizza with everything on it (we only ordered pepperoni) we had plans to meet up with Elizabeth again. We went to this club/bar called "Electric Showroom" on Old Street which is a big nightlife area in London. I got to meet some of E's friends and everyone had a really great time. A few of us even "grabbed" some Guinness glasses from the bar as souvenirs! Finding our way back to the hostel was a bit more stressful than expected (story of our lives). Nightlife comes to a close pretty early in London and even the Tube stops running after midnight. We knew that we needed to take a bus back, but had no idea where to get on and what transfers we needed to make. We ended up having to walk around a lot and finally found a bus that got us to our hostel around 3:30am. It was a tiring night, but we all needed to get some rest for our long day of travelling ahead.

(Electricity Showroom with Elizabeth and company)

Sunday was our planned day of departure. Our flight wasn't until 4:50 that afternoon, so we figured we would get in some souvenir shopping and last minute exploring before we left. Elizabeth told us about this market called the Camden Stables Market. It is a mixture of indoor and outdoor stalls for vending anything from vintage clothes and jewelry to dead fish and foul. The place was packed, and a lot more touristy than expected. Somehow Kate, Ashley and I lost Kelly and Nina in the chaos, but we figured we all had to head back to the hostel to get our luggage so we could just meet then. We ended up running into the girls before we got onto the Tube so everything worked out in the end. The plan was to get our luggage, make our way over to the bus stop and catch the bus (that was supposed to be running every half hour) to the Stansted Airport and make our flight into Santander. Well our 2:00 bus didn't arrive until 3:00 and we didn't arrive at the airport until 4:30. Our gate had already closed, but we made a made rush for security to try and get through at the last minute. Well no one can get past the lines there, so our rushing was useless. We missed the flight. Now we either had to pay RyanAir a 100£ booking fee or figure out another way to get back to school as soon as possible. EasyJet had flights to Bilbao, but not until 5:45 the next night and RyanAir was giving us the same results. All of us had to end up booking new tickets for a RyanAir flight for Monday at 4:50pm which still cost us around 100£ and we would be missing Monday classes. And on top of all this? Spending over 24 hours in the airport. Security wouldn't let us come through before the next morning so we were stuck in the main lobby of the airport overnight on cramped chairs, overpriced food, and no heat to speak of. It was a very rough night.

(Unhappy campers in the Stansted Airport)

Ashley got sick at the beginning of our trip and still doesn't have her voice fully back... And even though I was just getting over my illness before we left for London, we are all coming down with what she has. It's coming on almost 21 hours in the airport... We have finally made it through security where there is a whole new world of shops and food options. But now that I'm finishing this post I don't know what to do seeing as I chose a horrible book to read from the bookstore. Maybe I'll will myself to go spend money on another. My spring break fund is slowly draining... Who knew a long weekend could be so fun yet so disastrous at the same time? I guess we all live and learn.

(We did find five photobooths together!)

London Twenty Ten! (Part 1)

2010-02-01T02:19:00.006Z

Wednesday January 27th-Friday January 29th....

This past weekend was lengthier for Spain. Thursday January 28th was St. Thomas's Day so our school week ended on Wednesday. Everyone was making plans to go somewhere fun. A lot of the CIDE students were booking trips to Barcelona, but I want to go there when it is warmer. My friends and I did some research and found a flight to London for Wednesday night. London was definitely on the top of my places to go so I was really excited. Unfortunately, it was all a bit last minute so the hostel booking was a ad more expensive than we would have liked, but I was please nonetheless. I also decided it would be a good idea for all of us to book a bus tour so that we could see more of the city. We found an awesome company that gave us tickets for two days, including a free river cruise, and hop-on/hop-off services. Wednesday rolled around and my infamous line began, "Hey guys guess what? We're going to London!"

(London Eye and the Aquarium)

Traveling was a it more complicated than planned. We had to take a bus out of Bilbao to get to a city over called Santander and when we arrived at that bus stop we had to take another bus to get to the actual airport in Santander. We made it in the nick of time to the world's smallest airport. (Not literally, but the place had five gates and one place to eat.) We were all nervous about over carry-on baggage being too big or too heavy and it turns out they never even weighed it! Ashley's bag almost got stuck in the measurement compartment, but everything worked out in the end. I forgot to mention I had woken up that morning feeling less than spectacular. I ended up getting sick during my morning classes and let's just just RyanAir didn't make me feel much better. Well we finally landed in the Stansted Airport of London. More more planning on our part because we didn't realize how complicated it would be just to get into the city of London. We ended up taking another hour long bus and when we got dropped off had absolutely no idea where we were. We wandered the streets for a bit until a few nice passerbyers helped us out and we eventually found our hostel. Everyone in London was turning out to be so nice!

(Big Bus tour)

The hostel was tinyyyy, with three sets of bunkbeds lining a 10x10 room. But what else could I expect? We booked a six bed mixed room... but with five of us we never got another roommate. We all passed out when we got into our "beds" (if you actually want to call them that). The next day we slept in a bit and didn't get going until 11:00. Which was fine because we hopped on our Big Bus tour and that began our day! The bus idea was perfect because it took us all over the city with a running commentary of all the sites we were seeing. The plan was to ride the bus the whole way through and maybe get off at the end or go back and see things we wanted to go back and get better pictures of or something.

(Sprawled out on the floor of our hostel...not very big)

But after riding through Trafalgar Square and arriving at the London Eye and Big Ben we decided to get off and go back to see some things. Big Ben was not as big as I expected, but cool to see regardless. And we headed back to go see the Parliament and Westminister Abbey. We couldn't get in the Abbey, but went into a smaller church that was just as pretty. We headed back to Trafalgar Square where Kate and I wanted a picture with these huge bronze lions... We had a very interesting time getting up there... And then we headed over to the Calvary museum to get these pictures with guards on horses where on of the horses almost bit my head off! Next, we decided to head over to Buckingham Palace. My one goal of this trip was to get a picture with one of those guards with the fuzzy hats. When we got to the Palace though, the guards were behind fences and I couldn't get near them! Very disappointing. We headed to a little restaurant for lunch after, with REAL food. Pasta and turkey paninis. I was overjoyed.

Then we wanted to go head through St. Jame's Park, but did not realize kamikaze pigeons resided there and we needed to book it out asap for Kelly's sake. We decided to get back on the bus and take advantage of our free river cruise, so we made it down to the end of the city where the Tower of London and London Bridge are located and hopped onto the boat, nothing too extravagant, but it was nice that it was free! We ended up at the London Eye right around dusk. Which is a giant ferris wheel located right on the river across the street from Big Ben that was only supposed to be a temporary construction for two years and has been there for the last ten! We had to try it out. After our intro 4-D show, the five of us loaded into a giant glass bubble that you could walk around of sit in and get a 360° view of the city. So glad we decided to do it at night! After that the Big Bus had stopped running so we made it over by foot to the Hard Rock Cafe for a nice big American hamburger! Who knew London was the original restaurant??

(View from the London Eye!)

(At the Hard Rock)

I know that London is known for it's rain, but we actually lucked out with weather for most of the day. I even had my sunglasses on at one point! But of course when it was time to walk back to the hostel that night it was pouring, so we figured out how to get a bus back. Another long day resulted in an early turn in. We had one more day of Big Bus, but we knew rain was in the forecast, so we were planning to see a lot of the museums. Our hostel was located right near Hyde Park which contain an infamous Peter Pan statue and the Princess Diana Memorial fountain, both of which we wanted to see. So we made it through the park and after seeing everything we came out the other side to the Natural History Museum. History museums are my favorite kind of museum, there were dinosaur and mammal displays and lots of information on the earth and natural disasters like volcanic eruptions. All very interesting... We were also near Harrod's department store which was a definite must see for me. It is London's largest department store where you can find anything from Krispy Kreme's to designer dresses and shoes. I can only wish to be able to shop in a store like that one day...

We waited for the Big Bus for a while and realized our day was running short since the bus stopped running at 4:30... Kate, Ashley and I got to see the National Gallery while Nina and Kelly shopped instead. The Gallery was amazing.... Got to see works by Van Gogh and Monet and even experienced a walk through and film viewing of an interesting display called "Hoerengracht." Which was a life size mode of Amsterdam's red-light district in the 1980's. Like I said it was very... interesting. Afterward we went to go to one of my most anticipated locations in London, the Absolut Icebar! The bar is made entirely out of ice and groups can only go in for forty minute increments. You get a parka and gloves when you go i, plus one free drink in a glass made out of ice! Next time you go to London anybody, definitely try this place out!

After the Icebar we made plans for dinner with my friend Elizabeth from back home. She is studying in London for a few months and I thought it would be fun to meet up and have dinner with her. She took us to this local restaurant for some real British food and I actually had Shepard's Pie! Wouldn't have been my first choice on every menu, but it was really good. We had some hard cider at a pub nearby (where they play live rugby Jay!) and called it a night. I was loving that we were getting to see so much in such a short amount of time, but all this constant activity was wearing me out! (Picture of Ashley and I at the IceBar above.)

(Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery at night.. Full moon!)

Saturday and Sunday will be in the post to come!

San Sebastian

2010-01-25T16:49:00.005Z

Earlier in the week Ashley had mentioned a festival in a town called San Sebastian that her host-mom Carmen said we should check out on Saturday. Unfortunately the festival was on Wednesday, not Saturday, but we decided to get bus tickets and spend the day exploring anyway. Well when Saturday finally rolled around practically half the CIDE students were doing the same thing!

We took an 11:30 bus that got us into San Sebastian in a little over an hour. We has researched some things to do, but didn't really know where to begin... We decided we were all starved (story of our lives) and wanted to find lunch. After wandering around El Parte Viejo (literally translated, The Old Part) we finally found a small and inexpensive place to eat. San Sebastian is known for their pintxos (also commonly known as tapas). Which are tiny sandwiches with fish or meat or some kind of topping on top of bread or a little baguette. We were told to go "tapas bar hopping." (When I first heard this I thought I was hearing "topless bar hopping".. ha!) But we decided to have a big lunch and do that a little later. We got an awesome meal for under seven euro that included steak, salad, and french fries so I was very pleased.

(In front of San Sebastian Town Hall)

After that we wandered some more to the Plaza de la Constitucion and we saw the town hall that was right on the edge of the water. The beach was even more gorgeous than Algorta. La Playa de la Concha wrapped around the coast of the city and from behind town hall you could see Monte Urgull, a ruined 16th century fortress of Santa Cruz de la Mota. And at the top of the fortress there was a statue of Christ, also known as the Sacrado Corazon (Sacred Heart). We wanted to find our way up to the ruins to get an even better view of the city.

(The castle we climbed to the top of)

We found some stairs that we though would take us up to the top of the "mountain," but we did not realize how many stairs we would actually end up walking up! But it was well worth it, the view was absolutely breath-taking. We could see the blue water crashing up on the coast and there was a perfect bird's eye view of the whole city. The fortress was really amazing too. There were old cannons and stonework that was unbelievable and the statue of Christ was even bigger than I imagined. I was a little frustrated that it was so beautiful the day before in Algorta and so rainy the day we were at a prettier location, but I still enjoyed everything I saw.

(Statue of Christ)

After heading back down we were all craving something sweet. We found a little cafe where I finally got to try churros con chocolate! I had tried churros in the states, but these were freshly made with real sugar on them and you get to dip them into this hot chocolate-like drink, but the chocolate is almost too thick and rich to drink by itself. Muy delicioso! We walked around some more.... But it was raining harder. I went into a few shops and Kate and I found Bilbao Athletic Club (Bilbao's futbol team) scarves to wear to the next game we go see and we attempted to find the aquarium. But when my group found out it was eight euros no one wanted to go in anymore!

We met up with a few more people and headed back to the Town Hall and by now it was dark out. We all decided to ride the carousel (I'll always be a child at heart) and Kate and I rode the dolphins! We still had not gotten any pintxos, but because of the churros a little earlier I wasn't hungry and didn't get one with everyone else. I definitely regretted that later on, first because I needed to eat before we left, and second because I missed out on the best pintxos in Spain! I ended up getting a Turkish gyro from a place near the bus station and actually wasn't disappointed. People make fun of me here because I call them "jai-rohs," when they're actually supposed to be called "gee-rohs." Oh well, it was still delicious and I will just get a pintxo the next time we go back to San Sebastian because we are definitely coming back when it's beach weather!!

After getting home, none of us were actually too tired, so we decided to go to a discoteca called "DaVinci." It was really fun and they played both American and Spanish music. Ashley and I met an aupair from England who approached us when she heard us speaking English and we chatted with some Spanish girls while waiting in line at the bathroom. They wanted to practice their English, but we wanted to practice our Spanish! Kate and I took a breather outside where we got to practice our Spanish with some locals though, so that was actually pretty funny. I haven't mentioned this yet, but the most popular hairstyle for men around here is hideous. It's a mullet with the long hair in the back turned into dreads. I have never seen anything so unattractive in my life... But I brought this up because one of the locals we talked to was rocking this haircut! We ended up losing track of time and didn't get back to our dorm until 5:30 am! I had been up for almost 24 hours so it's no wonder I am getting sick. I took all of Sunday to rest... But if this cold doesn't get better anytime soon I think I'm headed to the clinic for some antibiotics.

And I think I'm pretty caught up by now...

Zear Bide pt. II y Algorta

2010-01-25T16:29:00.005Z

So I mentioned last week a Bienvenidos Fiesta for all of the CIDE students at this bar. Well there was another one this week. I guess they're kind of a regular thing and they are planning on having a Superbowl Party too. It's a really fun place with lots of people and fun music to dance to, but the one issue is the distance. We can take the metro there, but the metro closes early on weekdays so we have to get a taxi back. And the taxi cost over 20 euro to get back to our dorm!!

(Everyone at the second Zear Bide Bar party)

It was a fun night though... Remember the post about the dogs not really liking people? Well there was this puppy and his owner outside that all of us fell in love with! His name was Simba and he was a little grey and white pitbull. He was so lovable and kept licking our faces. Someone actually got a picture of him licking my face and teased me about getting "my first kiss in Spain" from a dog. The rest of the night was really fun too. We all danced to more American music and I got to meet a ton of new people again. It's starting to get really hard to keep names straight anymore, and I used to consider myself good at that!

The next day a bunch of us decided to take the metro into Algorta. It's a beachtown a little ways away from the city. Our friend Ashley is doing a family stay with this single 60 year old woman named Carman. Ashley had told us so much about her that we insisted we should come meet her. We arrived around 2:00 that day and go to see Ashley's temporary home. For living alone Carman sure has a lot of stuff! There were pictures and antiques everywhere. She didn't speak much English so we all just introduced ourselves and decided to go have lunch. I was starved. It was taking us forever to find a place though, so we gave up and went to this fastfood pizza place called Telepizza. I actually got a hamburger, but I wouldn't go back for another. I miss American burgers!! We should have walked a little further because a few blocks ahead there were restaurants everywhere! Next time I guess...

(All the girls at the beach in Algorta)

We decided to go find the beach, because Algorta is one of the towns known for its beaches and when we found our way down we were a little disappointed by the view. it was a very pretty beach and it was a gorgeous day, but off in the distance we could see a bunch of cranes and industrial work. I don't think I will be swimming in that water any time soon. Kate and I walked onto the beach and I picked up a few rocks and an oyster shell... I dipped my toes into the surf too, but it was way too cold! We decided to go to this bar/restaurant across the water (should have had lunch there) and a few girls and I got a glass of wine. I felt like I could actually taste the grapes it was made from! After talking for a bit the clouds rolled in so we all decided to head back to the metro and part ways. I think we will definitely be travelling back to Algorta soon, obviously in warmer weather to lay on the beach, but we hope to have a meal and movie night with Carman sometime soon!

(Kate and I on the beach at Algorta)

First Week of Classes!

2010-01-25T15:59:00.004Z

So Monday the 18th was my first day of classes at the Universidad de Deusto. We arrived that morning at 9 to find out what level of Spanish we were placed into and that would tell us which classes we were placed into as well. I was placed into Spanish 300 (as expected), but my schedule was a little off... A lot of us were pre-registered for classes we weren't sure we wanted to take or weren't registered for the ones we were interested in. So on my first day my schedule had me going to five different classes starting at 11:00 am and ending my day at 4:00 pm with no break! Turns out I wasn't interested in a few of those classes so now my schedule is as follows:

Mondays: Spanish Conversation, Basque Culture and Language, and Spanish in Context: Theater
Tuesdays: Spanish Conversation. Spanish Grammar, and Culture, Politics and Economy in Contemporary Spanish Society
Wednesday: Spanish Grammar, Basque Culture and Language, and Spanish in Context: Cuisine
Thursdays: Spanish Conversation and Grammar, and Culture, Politics and Economy in Contemporary Spanish Society
Fridays: No class!!

I really like the way my schedule turned out. My earliest class is at 9, but that's only on Thursdays and I'm done no later than 2:25 every day! All the professors are really cool too and want us to call them by their first names... My Spanish professor, Francisco, is quite a character. So even on the days when I have three hours of solid Spanish, I am constantly entertained. All of my classes are taught in Spanish too, but I haven't had any issues so far.

Zubiarte, a big shopping mall, is close to our campus so one day a few friends and I went to grab lunch there and do a little shopping. I can't make that an every week tradition though! But I did get a really cute coat for a good price. And the new library that was just built over on the other side of the Ria has an awesome cafeteria where you can get a huge lunch for a great price so I have done that a bunch of times too. I definitely need to start going back to my dorm to eat lunch though, because these "cheap" meals are definitely going to add up. Our classes are only for the people in the CIDE program so we are not integrated with the the other University students like I thought we would be, but it has given me a really good opportunity to meet other American students who aren't from Mary Wash!

Mi primer fin de semana

2010-01-25T15:44:00.005Z

Okay so I just got internet back in my room... I struggled for almost a week without it when I first got here and suddenly last week I lost it again. That's why I have been slacking on the posts. I left off more than a week ago so these next few posts are going to be brief so I can play catch up... That's if I can even remember what I've done in this whirlwind of a time here!

My first weekend in Bilbao was actually a little more low key than the earlier hustle and bustle of orientation week. We finally had some downtime to ourselves which was really nice. On Saturday my friend Megan and I decided to do some exploring down on the opposite side of town that we had been spending most of our time in... We found a bunch of parks that will be perfect for studying later on in the semester and we even came across some old castle ruins! (Only in Europe...) While we were walking, and during all my other explorations around here I have noticed a few things that you don't often see in America. First off, all of the dogs walk around here without leashes. They're not strays either. They just walk close enough to their owner so that there's no problem, but if the do wander off to sniff something they come right back. None of the dogs are eager to be pet or sniff people either, which I find kind of upsetting since I love dogs! This is probably not too strange... But I have noticed that all of the babies and children here in strollers are wrapped up in these sleeping bag like sacks so their arms and legs are not seen. Sometimes I don't even know if there actually is a baby in the stroller! They all seem okay with it though... I can only imagine what some American babies would do if they were shoved into one of these...

(All the ladies out to watch the futbol game)

Anyway, later on we met up with everyone at a bar a few metro stops away to watch the futbol (soccer) game. We had hoped to get tickets to go see it at the stadium, but the intense rivalry between the competing teams, Bilbao Athletic Club and Real Madrid made it impossible to wait in line that long. The street we were on was packed with people pouring out of bars and when we got there I could hardly see the screen. After some time passed Bilbao actually ended up winning and the streets went insane!! Everyone was chanting and cheering... I can't even imagine what it was like inside the stadium. We all definitely plan to go to at least one game during our stay in the city.

(Castle ruins that Megan and I found while exploring!)

On Sunday, my roommate and I met up with a few more friends to do a little more exploring. We had hoped to go to this open air market in Casco Viejo but we woke up just a little too late for that. (I really need to get on this Spaniard time schedule...) The five of us found our way to a big park we saw on our map where there was a big duck pond. Some little girls were feeding the ducks when a peacock flew in out of no where! I swear the thing almost bit her finger off while she was feeding it... After some cafes con leche (coffee with milk) we headed back to the dorm and spent the rest of the night just hanging out with the others in our dorm and getting ready for bed earlier than normal to prepare for our start of classes the next day!

(What a tourist...)

The Gugg

2010-01-20T20:45:00.004Z

So Friday was the first day I got to sleep in... We had a planned visit to the Guggenheim Museum. It's a really beautiful museum that we can see from our school, located right on the Ria. I had to be there by 11:30 and Kate didn't need to be there until 12:30. Unfortunately our Friday morning slumber was disturbed around 10 when the residence hall cleaning service came into our room... I was so confused, but I guess we were supposed to be out and about by that time. I headed over to the museum with my friend Megan and took the Metro, we were pretty lost when we got back above ground. We had to find the giant puppy made of flowers. It took a while, but we spotted the canine and made it to our group meeting in time...

(Puppy made of flowers)

I was extremely tired from the night before so I wasn't really up for a day of museum touring, but thankfully we were given audio tours and allowed to do what we wanted with the day. My friend Lizzie and I walked around a bit. Saw some crazy exhibits including these floor to ceiling LED lights telling a story and some giant steel sculptures presenting a theory of "time and matter." The entire second floor was dedicated to the architecht Frank Lloyd Wright. It had a bunch of his blueprints and models of his houses. It was all really interesting, but I can only take so much of one person. So we went upstairs where there were a bunch of paintings from the Guggenheim Collection from artists like Picaso, Van Gogh, Kandisnky, Dali, and so on.... It was a pretty barren museum compared to the ones I've been to in New York and France, but it was cool to be able to go for free.

(Photo courtesy of Kate: The Guggenheim Museum)

I joined a bunch of girls for lunch further into town in this little restaurant that offered a three course meal for twelve euros. Not bad. Then I headed back for a much needed siesta. I don't know if I have mentioned anything about siesta here in Spain, but it's taken pretty seriously. Right around 2:00 everything closes for "siesta" where everyone either leaves work to take a nap or eat a huge meal. Going on a metro around 2:00 in the afternoon would make you think it was rushhour or something... And all the windows even have these metal screens to pull down that block out any light to come into the room. Kate and I tried pulling ours down one night and couldn't even wake up in the morning because it was so dark in our room we just wanted to keep sleeping.

Later on, a few of my friends and I went to Corte Ingles, that giant department store I mentioned earlier. I wanted to get a hair dryer and see if I could find rain boots. I got a hairdryer... but no rain boots. They had every other kind of boot, except for the ones I needed. You'd think they would have a whole section dedicated to rain boots for all the precipitation they get here. Oh well, the search continues....

(Better view of the Guggenheim on the Ria)

After my nap Kate told me she and the people she went around the museum with bought tickets for this event called Art After Dark, a party that was going to be held that night in the Guggenheim. I was bummed my group didn't think to get tickets earlier. Well we decided to get ready anyway and our friend Ashley who is staying in a family stay further away came and met us at our dorm. We wanted to get to the museum right around 10 to try and get tickets before they sold out. It took everybody a bit longer than we expected to get their act together so when we got there all the tickets were sold out! I was so disappointed! Kate and some others got to go in because they had tickets, but we had nothing left to do but go back to the dorm. Everyone wanted to go find somewhere else to go, but by this point in the night I wasn't actually feeling up for doing anything anymore, so i stayed in.

Kate didn't come back to the room until 6:00 am the next morning! When I woke up Kate explained that after the Guggenheim Party a bunch of them went to this discoteca (nightclub) called Fever. She had a lot of fun, but everyone wanted to stay really late and when they tried to get home they had to wait for the Metro to get up and running again at 6. I definitely would not have been up for that. The Art After Dark thing happens every month, so I will definitely make sure to get tickets for next month's event. It wasn't one of the best nights of my stay here so far, but one night off never hurt anyone!

(Strange exhibit in the Museum)

Balmaseda y Portugalete

2010-01-18T21:28:00.001Z

Thursday was a long day. We started off with an academic orientation on what the classes we would be taking consisted of and what was expected of us in each class. In Spain it is considered rude to eat or drink in class (even coffee!) and if we show up any where after five minutes late we are marked absent! All of the professors seem very excited about the start of classes though, so that makes everything a bit less intimidating.
The rest of the day was planned around an excursion to the historic towns in Biscay. Balmaseda, where we drove to first, is the oldest villa in the province of Biscay, founded in 1199. Unfortunately it was raining gatos y perros when we got there so we only got out of the bus briefly. We walked over a medieval bridge built by the Romans known as El Puente Viejo or El Punete de La Muza. And we also got to see a beautiful old church known as La Iglesia de San Serverino.

Around 1:00 it was lunch time and we headed to a restaurant called La Capitana for another giant meal that was much more traditonal this time. There was chorizo for the first course which is a common Spanish dish with sausage, vegetables, and potatoes. And cochilla for the main course, which is basically just ribs. And some kind of banana chocolate cake for dessert. Yum. These meals always have giant baskets of bread for the table too. Our comedor (dining hall) in the dorm offers bread as well. And we hardly ever drink anything besides water with meals, which is probably a good thing because I drink too much soda anyway.

Thankfully the rain and wind died down so when we arrived in Portugalete we were able to do a little more exploring. This village was founded in the Middle Ages and is located right on the Ria of the Nervion River. It is also home to the Puente Bizkaia, built in 1893, one of the most important transporter bridges in the world and was designed by the disciple of the man who designed the Eifel Tower. We also got to see the Basilica de Santa Maria, constructed in 1492, which is considered a major work of art for the Basque Country.

I think I probably took over 100 pictures on that trip, but it was well worth it. The transporter bridge had a car that hung from wires on the bridge that took people and cars from one side of the Ria to the other. We all boarded this to head back home and rest up because later in the night we all attended a Bienvenidos Fiesta for all the CIDE students at a local bar in town. When my group of friends and I arrived the place was packed! There was an open mic and more American music being sung, songs like Brown Eyed Girl are always a hit. The one thing I hate about Spain is the smoking. Every night I come home reeking of cigarettes and I hate it... Laundry is going to be a common occurence here. Everyone had a really great time at the fiesta, but all the dancing and singing took it out of me and I needed a good nights rest for our next scheduled trip to the Guggenheim Museum on Friday!

Martes y Miercoles

2010-01-18T20:31:00.008Z

Tuesday and Wednesday... These days were the first of our Orientation. Tuesday we were scheduled for our first orientation session on Bilbao and the University of Deusto and a tour of the city to help us find our way around. This day also included a huge lunch with all of the other CIDE (Centro Internacional Deusto de Espanol) students. Wednesday was the day we took our spanish language placement tests and took a tour of the University.

(My school)

Tuesday we all met downstairs with an orientation leader. She helped us find our way to campus by the way of a city bus, called the Bilbobus. We all purchsed these cards called Creditrans that are sort of like MetroCards for the buses and metros around here. We arrived on a beautiful campus with courtyards and palm trees... Lots of Jesus and relgious emblems too (Jesuits school). We had a two hour lecture on what to expect while living in Bilbao and attending the University and then we got to walk to a hotel for almuerzo (lunch).

Lunch is their largest meal of the day usually consisting of three courses. This meal began with pasta and meatsauce, followed by chicken and french fries, and ending with some kind of tirimisu? So much for Spanish cuisine! I was stuffed after the pasta! A girl named Maite then took us around the city where we got to see the Old Quarter and Casco Viejo which are the more historic parts of the city with narrow cobblestone roads and tiny shops and cafes para pinchos (tiny sandwiches) y cervezas. We walked along the Ria (estuary) that lines our city and saw other sights like the Teatro Arriaga and the Congress and Music Halls. El Called Bidebarrieta brought us upon la Catedral de Santiago, a gorgeous cathedral in the middle of the city, and we finished in a more urban part of the city with larger chain stores like Zara and Benneton at la Plaza Circular. We also passed a giant Spanish department store called Corte Ingles. The place is more intimidating than a New York City Century 21 around Christmastime, seven floors with anything you can think of. January and February are also the months for major Rebajas (sales) in this country so I plan to do some light shopping soon!

(Casco Viejo)

Tuesday we made it on our own to campus with help of the Bilbobus again. (We saw some Bilboats on the Ria the other day, I want to try those out too!) I think once classes start most of us will start walking the 25 minutes just because we hear that's what most people do, and the excersice can't hurt either! When we arrived we all piled into a room for a language placement test that consisted of 100 multiple choice questions in 45 minutes and a compostion piece in 15. There were mixed feelings about the whole thing because none of us knew what to expect, but it went well overall. After that we split into small groups for a tour of the campus. The school was founded in the 1800's and is a private Jesuit university. We got to see a lot of secret rooms like an old library and a private church, but I was disappointed that they did not point out many of the basic landmarks of the campus that I was hoping to learn more about.

After the tour I walked around Casco Viejo with a few friends. We wanted to try these pinchos (also known as tapas in other parts of Spain) that everyone had been raving about. There was this one cafe in particular that we all wanted to find in Plaza Nueva. Well we saw it on the map and could have sworn we were right on top of it, but the place was no where to be found. Turns out we walked around it about sixteen times, and the pinchos were no where near filling enough after all that walking around! Another little adventure followed later on in the day when two other girls in my dorm and I attempted to get back to the other side of the city where our residence hall is located. We assumed a station that looked like the Metro Station would get us back like we were told, but we ended up getting on a EuraTren and after two stops realized we had no idea where Maliko was located in the city! Safe to say we made it back in one piece... But next time I'll pay attention to the type of transportation I board before taking off!

I feel like this post is getting really long, but to finish up I arrived back at the dorm to find that I still had no luggage to speak of and my "necessities" were wearing thin... But I joined a bunch of Americans from my hall (the locals don't seem to like us very much right now... Hopefully that will change as time passes) went out to find a bar. We ended up at one tiny place to avoid the rain at first and watched the sad, sad news of the Haitian Earthquake and later we moved on to a more comforting location known as the Beer House. Sarriko (the area my residence hall is in) does not have much to offer for nightlife, but this place had lots of space compared to the other holes in the wall we were seeing and they played American music! Overall good first two days, even without luggage! Definitely a good omen for the rest of my stay.

(Everyone at the Beer House)

Mis primeros días

2010-01-18T18:49:00.003Z

Hola! Ongi Ettori (in the title of my blog) means "Welcome" in Euskara which is a language commonly used throughout the Basque Region of Spain. I'm in the north Basque region of Spain for those of you who don't know and the area is very different from other parts of Spain.... I'm taking a course on the Culture and Language of the Basque Region so hopefully I can learn a lot more about those differences...

I have been in Bilbao, Spain for over a week now... But I figured my family and friends would want to be kept updated on what I have been up to while I've been here so I'm going to try keeping up with this blog! So far I am loving it here and I can tell this is going to be an experience of a lifetime...

Let me start with the travelling experience... I have travelled alone before, but this was going to be my first international flight flying solo. Using frequent flyer miles gave me a wierd itinerary where I flew from Newark, NJ to Miami, FL and then from Miami to Madrid, and then I had to swtich yet again,to a different airline this time (Iberia), and take an hour long flight to Bilbao. Everything went pretty smoothly in the beginning... Except for the fact that I starved on my flight to Miami (didn't think to bring plane snacks) and hardly had any time to grab food when I got to Madrid. When I finally arrived in Spain I was able to find my bag and recheck it and so I ventured to find my way to the gate. Turns out there were a bunch of other UMW students waiting there too. Well we waited and waited, and waited some more.... And eventually found out our flight would be delayed due to snow that morning. Around 3:00 (I arrived at 8 that morning) we discovered our flight was cancelled. Along with countless other flights throughout the airport. Our group of ten plus about fifteen others from the University of Illinois proceeded to joined hundreds in multiple hour long lines to get some kind of answers.

Later on I just so happened to glance at a departure screen while refilling my water bottle and realized all the Bilbao flights were being packed onto one jet boarding "last call" across the terminal! I broke the news and we sprinted across the terminal and took the last seats throughout the cabin. Good lord. We arrived in Bilbao around 7:00 pm (supposed to arrive at 12:30 pm) which meant we had to find our own transportation to the campus. Let's just say our arrival and experiences in baggage claim were no less stressful then any other part of the day.

(Photo of my dorm building)

No one left with their luggage that night. Thankfully mom advised me to pack a carry-on with the necessities! People's bags slowly leaked in throughout the week, mine didn't show up until Thursday! I discovered five of my airport companions were living in my dorm with me and when I was given key 611-A another girl with me was given 611-B, we're roommates! Even though I thought I was getting a Spanish speaking student as a roommate, Kate is from Mary Washington, we knew of each other before we came here, but that was it. We get along really well now... Even if she does mess up my bed when I'm gone or uses her ninja moves to steal my things... I joke. But with all my roommate drama in the past, this situation is working out great!

(Photo of my room)