adios!

Today is my last day in Bilbao and it looks like I'm going to be eating all day. Lunch is in a few hours and then the university is having a closing ceremony where there is bound to be food and wine and then we are having a huge goodbye dinner at home and then I'm leaving on a bus to Madrid. I finished my last finals yesterday and celebrated with a pastry that Renner and I call a chocolate butt...because it is literally the shape of a butt...gonna miss those things! Last night my host mom gave me a necklace as a goodbye gift and the charm on it is the sidewalk pattern in the city. She's the best. It's been a great semester here in Spain but I'm definitely ready to go back home to my family, friends, and pets too although I know I will miss it here. Again, I wish I could write something expressing my gratitude for my time here and everything but I really just don't know what to say...all I can say for now is adios España, gracias por todo, and I'll be back home so so soon! Oh and adios to my blog too!

one week

I told my host mom the first thing I want to eat when I go back to the states is buffalo wings...so what does she do?...goes out and buys wings for me to eat for lunch the next day. This woman is entirely too sweet.
Things are really winding down now, only one more week here! Ahh! Classes ended today and final exams are on Monday and Tuesday and thats basically it. It seems like I just got here!
I feel obligated to write an inspirational post about everything I've learned here buuuuutttt I really don't know what to say... that sounds really bad. I've learned so much about myself, about Spain, about people in general but I think I need to be away from it all to really put it in perspective and put it all into words. I've been told to prepare for an even bigger culture shock coming home. So I'm preparing. One suitcase packed! Hopefully all my stuff fits in the other one!
See you all in a week!

supermoon!

In accordance with my last post, my host mom fed me tripe. It was gross. Probably the only food I haven't liked since I've been here. And I've been here for four months. The countdown is really on now. Only twelve more days...11 sleeps though since I'm leaving at 1:30 am to get to Madrid for my 8 am flight. Its hard to believe its gone so fast and as happy as I am to be coming soon I know I'm going to miss this place.
We had our last ISA excursion to Burgos yesterday, a medieval city two hours southeast of Bilbao. We went to a museum of human evolution that is home to a bunch of bones found in caves in northern Spain that were occupied for thousands of years. Apparently they are the oldest European remains. The rest of the day was spent (in the rain ironically because it was sunny in Bilbao) touring the giant cathedral and sampling the cities delicacies such as morcilla (type of sausage) and chocolate.
Look for the moon tonight! It's gonna be the biggest moon of the year! Supermoon! And you have to do like the Bon does, open your wallet, hold it up to the moon and say, give me money give me money give me money! And some unexpected money will come your way!

...the things your host mom doesn't tell you

Well here I am sitting in my room on yet another misty rainy foggy miserable and gray Friday with nothing to do but wake up from a nap and blog about everyday life in Bilbao because I am too poor to travel anymore. Last night there was (apparently) a really important soccer game here against Portugal and when Bilbao won I could hear the sounds from the stadium all the way from my house! Mind you I live a good two miles away from the San Mames stadium. People here take soccer, or futbol as they say in español, so seriously. Everyone has Athletic (Bilbao's team) flags hanging in the balconies of their appartments and on a game day everyone, even the babies, have on an Athletic jersey. All of the kids here kick around soccer balls after school certain that they will become the next player on the team. One day I was walking in the city and saw a bridal shop and the featured wedding dress in the window had the trademark red and white Athletic stripes in honor of the team. That's just a bit too far.
As I was listening to last night's game on the radio with my host mom I was reading a magazine and was looking at a few recipes. I asked her what a word meant and the word was tripe which is like the stomach of a cow or sheep. She started going on telling me about all the weird food she likes such as tripe, feet, liver, and tongue. I told her I had never tried any of those before and she tells me oh yes you have. What? Oh yeah you've had tongue before, I've made it a few times but didn't tell you. When? What dish? She makes this dish, tongue apparently, with red peppers on top and it is DELICIOUS. Probably one of my favorite things that she makes. If she told me it was tongue before I ate it though I probably wouldn't have...
I've been reading a lot here but it has all be in English aside from books for class so I decided to buy a book in Spanish. I didn't want to read anymore classic Spanish literature about the Civil War so I bought Eat Pray Love...but in Spanish! Come Reza Ama. It takes a lot longer to read in Spanish but its definitely good pratice and I only need to look up a few words on each page.
My friend's host mom's daughter just had a baby and in celebration she (the host mom) made a ton of food and brought it to the ISA office for all of us to have a picnic! Turns out it was more of a feast than a picnic but everything was soo good. She made three different types of tortilla española, three different cakes one that was like a banana bread without the banana but made with strawberry yogurt which I really want to learn how to make, a cheese cake, sandwiches, and a ton of ham and cheese and bread for us to snack on. Yum! I am indeed going to miss the food here when I go home. Sure it'll be great to eat normal portions again and eat when I want to but the food is delicious and that is why I have been learning how to cook things with my host mom the past few weekends so I can make Spanish food for my family! Last week we made ham croquetas which are like little fritters, think of a mozarella stick, filled with ham and cheese. Next I told her I want to learn how to make these seafood stuffed red peppers so hopefully that's on the agenda for tomorrow! ...So these are the everyday things in Bilbao that have been too boring to write about compared with my travels. Twenty days till I'm America bound!

From the Sahara to the Alps

Two weeks of traveling and no internet makes for a very long blog post so get ready!

Renner and I flew into Sevilla on March 30th and spent the afternoon and night walking around the city which I really enjoyed. It was a bit rainy but the air smelled of orange blossoms which made it okay. We visited the Plaza de Espana which is almost like a tiny castle surrounded by a mote which we rowed around for a bit in cute little boats like in the Notebook. After walking around all night and a long Spanish style dinner of tapas, paella and wine we went to bed and got ready to wake up at 4 am to get on a bus to Morocco.

I don't know how many hours I spent on a bus during the six days I was in Morocco but it was a long long long time. We left at about 4 am and took a bus down to the southern tip of Spain where we waited about two hours in the port to board the ferry..another two hours on the ferry...and then another busride to Fes, a city in Morocco. We got to the hotel and a few of us decided to explore the city...we walked about 500 feet out of the hotel and turned right around after being stared at and realizing that this was not a city to be enjoyed during the night as an American tourist. The next morning we went to the Medina which is a marketplace with over 9,000 streets and 50,000 inhabitants. We had a guide who grew up in the marketplace and said he sometimes even gets lost...this being said it was very important to stick with the group...there were about 100 of us ISA students so that wasn't a problem. Our tour consisted of various visits to shops such as a carpet store, a ceramic place, and an apothecary. Everywher we went people tried to sell us stuff; walking around in the marketplace we were offered various wallets, jewelry, keychains...everything. Needless to say it got really annoying after a while. That night we all went to see a typical Moroccan show with belly dancers and all. Before going to Morocco I was warned about the food and water there and was told that everyone on this trip gets sick. As a precaution I took a probiotic the week before and the week during my trip but I was still paranoid and really did not want to get sick. So I lived off of bread and packaged foods for a week. Everyone must have thought the Bilbao students were ridiculous for not eating the food but our director really scared us about everything. And hey, none of us got sick!
The next day we got back onto the bus and headed for the Sahara. We passed through a miniature Grand Canyon and we stopped in the middle of nowhere for lunch where we saw various Moroccan kids begging for money and food. During the lunch we snatched a bunch of oranges to give to the kids and in return they gave us crafts woven out of palms, I got a bracelet but I lost it somehow. After countless hours of the bus we came to a stop in a parking lot and before I knew it I was out of the bus being wrapped in a turban by some Arab guy and getting herded into a jeep...this sounds like an abduction but it was really part of the plan. So there were six of us in a 4x4 with some Arab guy that doesn't speak English or Spanish so we pulled out a French dictionary and tried to communicate...he didn't speak that either. About an hour and a half later after jeeping through the desert in the rain...rain in the desert? yup... we came to a stop...a flat tire. We all got out and starting taking pictures and laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation while more jeeps pulled up and helped fixed the flat tire. Two other men came up on motorbikes..I'm not sure if that's what they're called but the boys started learning how to ride them and after the flat tire was fixed we all boarded our jeep except for Renner who rode on the motorbike with some nomad Arab guy to our camp in the desert.
Camping in the desert...an interesting experience indeed. We slept in tents made out of blankets, our camp looked like someone built a really intense fort. There was a big tent where we ate and a nasty desert cat kept accompanying us for our meals and people were feeding it and petting it and I love cats but that one was just disgusting and that really bothered me. We were woken up at about 5:30 in the morning by the Berbers (some nomadic desert tribe people) to see the sunrise. One of the nomads that was helping out with the camp walked with us across the dunes of the Sahara to get to a high point where we'd get the best view. The sunset was beautiful but afterwards the nomad insisted that he show us his work in return for taking us to see the sunset and out of his backpack came some fossils and sculptures of camels and things that he had made in the workshop. It was all cool stuff but I really didn't want any of it and he got annoyed with us for not wanting to buy his things. The next part of our day was a camel walk into a typical Moroccan desert town. Camels are gross and the ride was long and I swear my camel was trying to knock me off the whole time but it was really cool. They didn't tell us that we had to walk back though in the desert sun and heat so that was fun. The town was full of clay buildings and dirty children begging for money and I felt bad for them living like that. The one kid found a lizard in the ground and kept trying to give it to people to hold and another kid was holding what looked like an albino fox or something...strange things live in the desert. Both nights we slept in the desert it rained. What are the chances? And it was freezing at night. Before bedtime I could overhear people complaining of diarrhea and stomach pains and I was happy that I wasn't in their situation. Camping in the desert was rough enough I couldn't imagine being sick. There were only two rickshaw bathrooms for 100 kids and with about half of them sick it was better to just do your business in the sand dunes.
The second day in the desert we spent hanging out at the camp. I don't even really remember this day I think I took a long nap and then the next day we got back onto the jeeps, then the bus and up north to a city called Meknes. We didn't get to see the city because the next day we got back onto the bus and headed for Spain. We got into Sevilla around ten that night and had a flight to Milan the next morning.

Flew into Milan, got our luggage, go to the car rental desk to pick up our car that we had already booked...and the woman behind the counter tells us...we haven't got your car. I'm sorry? You don't have the car we booked two months ago. No. Sorry. You can wait until 6 tonight and we might have a car for you (its 10 am) No that's not an option. Do you have another car we can rent? Sorry no. And so the conversation went. Sort of. The company didn't even have the car we rented in their fleet of cars and there was nothing similar and there are restrictions of the cars that people ages 19-21 can drive. We were fuming. And the lady was too. So we went around asking every single car rental company in the Milan airport if they had an available car. Finally we found one and we didn't have to deal with that terrible company, Maggiore, for the record: never rent a car from them. So we drove to our hotel in Milan got there around 3...passed out at 4 and woke up at 8 the next morning. Oops! Africa really tired us out.
That morning, Easter morning, we drove into Austria. By far my favorite part of the trip. We spent the day driving through the alps and when we got far enough into the mountains it started snowing! So pretty. The town we stayed in looked like something out of a fairy tale and there was a beautiful lake set between two mountains and the whole time spen there was just wonderful. We went to the church in the town for Easter but there were no services at the time. We ate at one of the few open restaurants in the town and I had the most delicious meal: a pork chop covered in bacon with a layer of cheese on top. It sounds like a heart attack but it was sooo good. And a huge mound of potatoes with it. Yum!
The next day we drove into Liechtenstein because we were close and it'd be cool to say we went there...and it was really cool! I think we drove through the whole country because it's so tiny. We visited the capital where the prince's castle is and we went to the postage stamp museum! Which is probably the country's biggest tourist attraction...I really liked it there though. We drove to the Rhine River and took some souvenir stones and walked across a bridge that is the Liechteinstein and Swiss border. We got lost for a few hours driving to our next hotel in the Austrian alps. The place was really nice and we had an amazing breakfast in the morning and set out for Munich.
Before getting to the city we drove to the Neuschwanstein castle which was the inspiration for Cinderella's castle in Disney World! It was really touristy but the forest and the mountains surrounding the castle were so pretty I felt like I just plopped into a fairytale. We got lost a few times getting there and then by the time we got to Munich we had such little time there that we didn't see the whole city but we saw the main square and the marketplace and got pickles which were gross and some delicious chocolate ball things and walked around a bit. In the main square we found a cafe called cafe Renner! Obviously we had to go in and had coffee and chocolate cake yum! At night we went to the most famous biergarten and had  yummy beers and then went to a restaurante where we had more yummy beer and bratwurst and other wursts and pork and sauerkraut and potatoes and it was all so good and I love German food and German beer and being German!
In the morning we went to the BMW plant which was kind of disappoiting because we couldn't tour the plant because there were no available tours and poor Renner couldn't rent a BMW to drive for an hour because you have to be 21. But we walked around the sat in the nice cars and went into the shop. Then we drove to Stuttgart to see the Mercedes museum! Clearly all these car museums were not my choice but the Mercedes museum was actually a really cool place. The building is like a cylinder and on each floor is a different point in history with the main events of the time and the cars that were made then. We spent a good chunk of the day there and then had dinner at some random cozy restaurant where no one spoke English and where we had more good German food.
The next day we drove to Zurich but we took a route off of the main highway so we could drive through the Black Forest. We stopped at a random store on the road that had all sorts of Black Forest souvenirs and German things and we stopped at a cafe where we tried Black Forest cake...not the tastiest thing I had in Germany and the amount of alcohol in that one piece of cake left us almost drunk. I got a recipe for it though! Then we stopped to see the Triberger waterfall and the little town around it reminded me of a storybook.
We got to Zurich in the afternoon and driving in the city was almost impossible with all the buses and trams and people and bikes going every which way on one way streets. We went to a restaurant that the hostess at the hotel suggested and had another delicious dinner; cordon bleu! sooo good! And beer too! The next day we spent walking around the city and going in stores and eatin delicious swiss chocolate truffles before we drove to Geneva. We didn't see the city and stayed in France actually just outside of it.
The next day we drove down throught the Alps again through a huge tunnel through Mont Blanc, the tallest point in the Alps, until we got to Milan. We returned our car and spent the last two days of our trip in the city. Well one day of sleep just like our first night and the last day in the city. We were lucky enough to see an orchestra at the famous Opera house, La Scala, for 5 euros! I ate pizza for lunch and dinner every day and it was great.
And as a great end to the trip I left my purse on the bus back to Bilbao from the airport but thank god the bus driver brough it back to the bus station just as I started freaking out searching for it. I better count my blessings I don't know if I lose anything else that it'll come back!
It felt good coming back to Spain but I'm definitely missing home and getting ready to leave here. I had a great past two weeks of travel and now I only have a month left here which is blowing my mind right now but it'll feel great to go back home after being away for so long.

spring break in less than 24 hours!

In fifteen hours I'll be on a plane to Sevilla, Spain where I will begin my journey to Morocco! Then off to Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and France for a euro-road-trip! I come home April 16th so if you don't hear from me before then don't panic!
By the looks of it my host mom thinks that I'm going to starve these nexts to weeks..I mean I am going to Africa but I'm going to get fed...on the table ready to be packed in my suitcase is: two boxes of granola bars, six chocolate bars (no joke), two packages of babybell cheese, a tupperware container of cheese, another of chorizo, five or six packages of sliced pork products (ham, chorizo, salchicon, lomo) and then she asked me if that was enough. Oh and she's packing a sandwich with a tortilla espanola in it....which will be put on an entire baguette and weighs about 5 pounds. We'll see if they let me through airport security...I might end up wearing lunchmeat for two weeks because I won't have any room to bring real clothes. At least I won't be hungry!
Anyway, I'm super excited for this trip I've been waiting all semester for spring break and I can't believe its here and then only one more month until I come home! Woah!
Bye for two weeks!

sharks

Since I've been in Spain I've tried every single dish put in front of me and have been eating things I never used to like. Red peppers, potatoes, red meat, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, squid...the list goes on. Today I ate shark. Well probably a shark. An entire shark. My host mom doesn't understand the concept of normal portion sizes and even when I say "bastante" (enough) she continues to fill my dish. So I ate a shark. And it was delicious, even my vegetarian roommate tried some. I tried to explain to my host mom and her daughter the concept of Discovery Channel's Shark Week series but they didn't really get it...things I miss about the US. Poor shark. That's all!

helllloooo

I haven't really had too much to say on here. Not much happens in Bilbao. Well it turns out I quit my internship...a while ago. Forget to mention that haha. I loved the kids but the program was just not what I wanted and the schedule was very incondusive to traveling...so thats that. 

St. Patty's day in Spain is nothing spectacular if anyone was planning on celebrating here one day...go to Ireland. They do have Irish bars here surprisingly, quite a few of them. But they are completely unauthentic. Spanish people work there and they don't play Irish music. The only authentic thing is the beer!

Yesterday we all went to Santander, a coastal city an hour and a half west of Bilbao. The only thing I knew about Santander was that that's where the airport is that I use to travel but it turns out theres more than that there. I wasn't too impressed by the city, just your everyday city, kind of a small version of Bilbao. But the coast was beautiful and there was so much green grass and prettiness and they had a seal/sea lion habitat and penguins too!

I leave for spring break in exactly a week! Off to Morocco for a week then to Milan, Austria, Munich, Stuttgart, Zurich, and Geneva! So excited! I'll be in the Austrian mountains for Easter, I hope the Easter bunny remembers to bring my Easter basket there! So since Spain is in a complete economic crisis and since the change of government a few months ago and all the labor reforms there is going to be a general strike on the 29th...essentially the entire country is not going to work. Horray! Its really unfortunate for some people though because since its the start of break, people scheduled flights for that night and they are only going to have about 1/3 of transportation available in the country. Good thing my flight is 2 days later! 

After break I'm only here for one more month! Time is flyin'! By then I'll definitely be ready to go home and live life like a normal person again. Until then though, carpe diem! 

Agur!

Happy St. Patty's day from Bilbao!

Santander lighthouse

Sailboats for the Ron

A seal friend

Santander

How to see Paris in 42 hours

Weekend trips are great, but limiting and when you have less than two days in a gigantic city your only thought is to see as much as you possibly can. So if you ever go to Paris and you only have 42 hours to spend there, here's what you do:

Arrive at nine at night. Pick a direction to walk and hope that its the way to the hotel. Walk. Peek down a street, see the Arc de triomphe, walk that way. Marvel at it and take pictures. Keep walking. The Eiffel Tower comes into view. Take a hundred pictures. Watch it sparkle. Walk. Make it to the hotel somehow without a map, basing your directions off of your boyfriend's account of a video game set in Paris. Sleep.

Wake up early. Get breakfast (at Starbucks, guiltily, because you miss their coffee). Get bread to pack sandwiches and bottles of water. Walk back to the Eiffel Tower. Take more pictures. Think about going to the top but reject the thought out of not wanting to wait in line. Go to gift shops instead. Buy souvenirs for friends and family. Cross the bridge over the river to get a better view, and picture. Get annoyed at all the men walking around jingling a ring of miniature Eiffel Tower figuirines trying to sell them to you for a euro. Walk down the river towards the Louvre. Stop in the park in front and watch a bunch of adorable pups play. Pick out the one you want and tell your boyfriend to get it for you some day. Decide to see Notre Dame before the museum. Walk more. Cross the bridge. Take pictures of the cathedral. Go inside. Say a prayer. Admire the gothic architecture. More souvenirs. Walk back over to the Louvre and have lunch sitting at a table looking at the huge glass pyramid. Realize you want something sweet. Go to a small cafe and order creme brulee and a crepe. Gorge yourself. Realize you love French culture. Walk back to the museum. Hesitate to buy tickets because its 4 and the museum closes at 5:30. Buy them. Get lost trying to find the Mona Lisa because the museum is massive. Push past the crowds to see the tiny painting. Walk around and look at the Italian art because the museum is about to close. Go to the gift shop. Figure out how to use the metro to get to the Sacred Heart Cathedral because you're too exhausted to walk. Arrive just in time for sunset. Walk into the cathedral while a bunch of nuns are singing. Watch the sunset and enjoy the beautiful views of the city. Walk around near the church and do some shopping. Eat at a small restaurant. Buy a bottle of champagne. Walk to the Moulin Rouge because you're obsessed with Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor. Head back to the hotel. Sleep.

Wake up semi-early, already exhausted. Go to a little bakery and make some grunting noises and point to the things you want because you can't speak French. Eat the delicious treats and drink coffee. Make sandwiches at the hotel and pack up. Walk to the Museum d'Orsay. Look at the pretty art for a few hours and take frequent breaks because your feet hurt. Go into the gift shop. Eat lunch. Go into a bookstore. Do more shopping. Take the metro towards the bus station. Go into the mall across the street and gawk at the expensive jewelry and watches. Hop on the bus to the airport. Fly back.

And that's how we did it. We conquered Paris in 42 hours and had a great time. I wish we had more time there but I didn't think I would ever see Paris so I am more than a happy camper right now. Even better, there is going to be sunshine and upper 60 degree temperatures all week in Bilbao. Que suerte!

Hasta luego

Notre Dame

Wouldn't be France without crepes

Creme brulee

Louvre

What the Mona Lisa is all about.

Sacred Heart

ahhh!!!! Moulin Rouge!

Arc de triomphe

San Sebastian and Biarritz

I have to say I like San Sebastian a lot more than Bilbao. This city is great too but something about the small oceanfront Donostia (as they call San Sebastian in Basque) with old buildings and the scent of the salty sea filling the air just seems so much more inviting than Bilbao...perhaps I'm just longing for summer and warm beachy air but this weekend was a small dose of that. 

This being my third time in San Sebastian I wasn't very excited to tour the city I've already seen twice but the sun was out and it was almost 70 degrees so I had no complaints! We started the tour walking through a park where there were tons of peacocks and we made our way up to the old part of the city which lies right at the coast and the bay called La Concha because its shaped like a shell. We stopped for a pintxo (Basque tapa pronounced pincho...tapa=appetizer) and had lunch and a bit of free time to walk around. Then we walked the whole way from the start of the beach following the shell shaped coast up to Monte Igeldo, a mountain on the coast. We took the funicular (cable car thing) up to the top where surprisingly sits a small park with a few rides and carnival games. After this we went back to the hotel to rest before crossing the border to France the next day.

Since Renner and I are going to Paris this Wednesday it was nice to get a taste of French culture (literally; the chocolate is amazing), even if it was just barely across the border to the small city of Biarritz. Similarly to San Sebastian, Biarritz sits on the coast and is a summer home for many. We started the day at a chocolate museum where we learned about the process of making chocolate and got to sample some and obviously I bought a big dark chocolate bar. Next we headed towards the city and walked along the coast. After lunch we walked around the small city streets and went into a few stores. I'm so used to being able to communicate with everyone around me either in Spanish or English but when first being spoken to in French I felt so confused and lost that I for once didn't have the words to reply. Better study up on some phrases before Paris! Luckily the woman that worked at the waffle stand spoke Spanish and English and Renner and I could tell her we wanted the waffle with chocolate, ice cream and whipped cream which was absolutely amazing. The city was beautiful too and the sunshine made it even more enjoyable but all good things come to an end and we headed back to Bilbao at around 4:30 after stopping at the lighthouse for a few pictures. So here it is a rainy Sunday in Bilbao, good for blogging and reading though!

Peacocks!

Harbor in San Sebastian

San Sebastian from the top of the mountain...in a cloud

Biarritz

Lighthouse in Biarritz

Waffle! Sooo good!

Biarritz

Au revoir! 

adventures!

Well I wrote a really long post about this weekend on Sunday but I accidentally closed the page before I posted it so instead of writing it again I got mad and refused to write again hoping that it would magically just come back...well it didn't, so now I forgave myself and now here I am!

Since I got to Bilbao I've been telling myself I'm going to run here and that didn't happen until today. My first run in Bilbao! Sure it was only about a mile long and the thick city air filled with smoke because everyone has a nicotine problem here made it difficult to run but I feel accomplished.

Speaking of accomplishments...

I biked up a mountain!...well sort of.

Renner and I rented bikes on Friday and went for a LONG LONG LONG bikeride.  We took our bikes on the metro to a little beach town called Plentzia and from there we rode up and down mountains until we got to Bakio, 17 miles later. Well considering I am a lazy sloth here this was probably the most physically challenging thing I have ever done. It started out fine, the roads in Plentzia are long and flat but then we came to the first incline and I have never felt such burn and pain in my thighs. I attempted to bike up but my legs felt like they were going to give out at any moment and I knew the journey that lay ahead of me was quite long and I didn't want to tire myself out immediately...so I walked. I walked and every few minutes I would try to pedal again  but my body just would not allow it. When we reached the first downhill stretch I hopped back on my bike and rode (while clutching the brake because I was scared of going so fast) down the hill admiring the beautiful countryside and all the happy farm animals. And thats how we went. Walk our bikes uphill, ride downhill. We stopped in Bakio to eat the lunch that our host parents so kindly provided yet again and took a nap on the beach. After refueling we headed up another mountain towards our destination, San Juan de Gaztelugatxe. I tried to pedal but it was no use, my legs were burning so we walked.
When we were getting close to the top and I was about ready to give up after such a long, painful, and tiring journey an old man carrying foot-long clippers approached us. Needless to say I was terrified, I don't like strangers especially when they're carrying large pointy metal objects. Turns out he was really friendly. 25 years old? he asked, no we're younger, he was 75. And you're walking? ...yes. Well he lectured us and said with our age we should be able to ride up these mountains with no problem. I essentially got forced back onto my bike and honestly if it weren't for that old man I would have turned around and I'm happy I didn't because minutes later and only a bit more uphill San Juan de Gaztelugatxe was within sight.
We chained up our bikes and continued on the dirt road downhill towards the sea. The sun was setting and we were worried about getting back to Bilbao...biking in the dark, not good..bikes needed to be returned by eight. It was about 5:30. There was no hope we'd get back in time before dark and to return the bikes and there was no way I could even physically bike back to Plentzia but we continued on anyway, we weren't going to stop when we were so close.
The island of San Juan looks like someone took the Great Wall of China and inserted it into the Caribbean yet it is in Spain. We neared the steps and began to climb..I don't know how my legs were still working. We got to the top after about 300 steps and admired the views and the small church that sits on the rocky island. It was closed and the holy water was all dried up but we still got to ring the bell. We did it. And it was well worth it.
After making our way back down the long staircase and climbing back up the dirt path we got to our bikes, got on and went up to the top of the hill where we rode down all the way back to Bakio, still worried about getting back to Bilbao. Well we saw a bus parked just a little farther down the road and we sped up to see if it was going to Bilbao...somehow it was. We threw our bikes in the bottom compartment, paid the four euro fare, and sat down just in time...and made it back to Bilbao just in time to return our bikes. Somehow everything works out.
Saturday we went to the Cuban ballet and Sunday we spent the day walking around up by Renner's house, it felt good to get out of the city and be active for once, a good weekend indeed.

San Juan de Gaztelugatxe

At the Cuban ballet

Barcelona

La Sagrada Familia

Inside

Park Guell 

La Boqueria- Barcelona marketplace

Barcelona harbor

Finaly! Canary Island pictures!

Rental car!

El Teide

Climbing to the top

Made it!

Sunset in Tenerife

updates!

As usual, I'm gonna apologize for being lazy and not updating this but I've been super busy this past week! Lets rewind and start with last weekend:

Friday: We went to Pamplona and toured the city famous for hosting the Running of the Bulls, or El Encierro, during the festival of San Fermin during July. It was way too cold for walking around windy narrow streets but the city is nice. Poor Renner got sick that night and I took care of him in the hotel for the rest of the night after adventuring to the pharmacy to get him some Spanish mystery drugs. Well they worked! He was better the next morning!

Saturday: After Pamplona we drove into Logrono, a city in La Rioja- Spain's famous wine region. We toured one of Spain's biggest wineries and learned all about the process and types of wines. We finished the day with a wine tasting accompanied by delicious bread, cheese, and chorizo! Yum! I even bought some wine to bring home! I'm definitely going to need to buy another suitcase here... Next we stopped outside of two more modern wineries; one designed by Frank Gehry, architect of the Guggenheim, and the other by another architect who built a very unique bridge in Bilbao close to my homestay here.

.....weekdays are boring- I go to class, eat, and sleep.

This past weekend! Ms. Trapani came to visit and we went to Barcelona! As it was her first time in Bilbao I was excited to show her around the city but I got sick, similar to what Renner had last weekend, and she had to tour Bilbao all alone but luckily I was a healthy pup just in time to hop on the six hour train to Barcelona Saturday morning!

Saturday: We checked into the hotel after arriving around 2:00 in the afternoon. Lunchtime! I had my first "fideua"- a tipcal Catalonian dish similar to paella but with noodles instead of rice and slightly different spices. So good! Next we went to La Sagrada Familia- a basilica dedicated to the Holy family designed primarily by Gaudi, but the line was so long so we went into the giftshop where I bought a book about the basilica (to put on my future-teacher bookshelf) and I was able to study up before returning the next day! Well I read the whole thing and the stories behind La Sagrada Familia are incredible. So much thought went into designing that church, every little detail on it entails some sort of symbolism from the facades depicting the birth and death of Christ down to the snails and lizards climbing down the bell towers. The thing is, its been in construction since 1882 and still isn't finished! We then walked around the gothic quarter of the city and went to mass in the gothic cathedral. It was really interesting going to a Spanish mass: virtually everything was the same except for the language. I'm seeing more and more that although cultures, languages, geographic borders and ideas separate people, we all have more in common than we think: people are people no matter what. We ended the night with a dinner consisting of churros and chocolate at a small Basque restaurant where Ms. Trapani told me about her adventures during El Camino de Santiago.

Sunday: We woke up entirely too early to ensure that we could get back to La Sagrada Familia and not wait in the mile-long line. No lie. Its the most visited place in Barcelona! I was glad I read my book the night before because I understood and appreciated the design and meaning of the basilica much more than before. We went inside and then went down to the crypt which houses the tomb of Gaudi along with many altars to other saints. After our long visit to La Sagrada Familia we headed to Park Guell, another one of Gaudi's masterpieces. Although it is overrun with tourists, the park is beautiful, especially the mosaics. Gaudi's house lies within the park and after his death it was converted into a museum, so we went there too! After walking around the museum and the park for a bit we hopped on one of those double-decker super touristy busses but according to Ms. Trapani that was the best way to see a gigantic city like Barcelona. And she was right, of course. The bus took us all throughout the city and we saw the houses that Gaudi designed along with the Olympic stadium from the 1992 Olympics, the FC Barcelona soccer stadium and many other points of interest in Barcelona. We met up with a friend of Ms. Trapani's and had coffee and tea and then headed back to the hotel to get a full night's rest. This morning I got on the train at 7:30 and was back in Bilbao before 2:00 just in time for lunch! And class. So here it is, the week...boring...Saturday though, Renner and I are going to the Cuban ballet, I love having things to look forward to!

volcanoes and bocadillos

I'm back and sunburnt! And it snowed today. I can't believe just yesterday I was on the beach in a bathing suit that I bought for 9 euros at a Chinese superstore and today there's snow all around me. I can't deny that I'd much rather be in Tenerife than in Bilbao, the trip was an adventure indeed. To keep up with my excellent travel habits (losing my passport, forgetting my most important things at home, etc..) I ripped my boarding pass in half in the airport in Santander on the way to the Canary islands. Oops! But no pasa nada, all was well and they still let me on the plane. Renner and I landed on the islands around midnight and made our way through the airport to the car rental desks to pick up our little baby blue Fiat 500 (his choice). Little did we know that automatic transmitions are very rare on the island, and Europe in general, and our car that we were so excited to rent was not an automatic at all. So what did we do having never driven stick before? We, well Renner, tried. Thank god it was 1 am and no one was in the airport parking lot where we stalled out a few hundred times and if it wasn't for a smelly French neighbor passing by we wouldn't have been able to put the car in reverse. After about two hours of learning to drive after a three hour flight after an hour and a half bus ride after a rushed morning we finally decided to hit the road and make our way to the hotel. Naturally we got lost and had to ask some local police in very poor Spanish where our hotel was, they didn't really know, but we found it, parked the car somehow and checked into our Paloma Beach Apartment fully equiped with a kitchenette, living room and our own patio!

Waking up and realizing you're surrounded by volcanoes and the Atlantic ocean is an exhuberating feeling and after such a long night it felt so surreal to be there. We walked over to the Superdino supermarket and did our grocery shopping: cereal, fruit, soap, paper towels, milk, water, and a baguette to make our bocadillos (sandwiches) with the chorizo, ham and cheese our host families so kindly donated to our budget. The island seems to be very confused: it is ownded by Spain but technically closer to Africa but it is inhabited by mainly English and German tourists, a very strange place indeed. Our hotel was filled with old British people and we were definitely the youngest people within 10 mile radius and definitely the only Americans. After packing up lunch we got back in the little blue car and drove around the island. Getting gas was difficult but the nice man running the place could tell that we clearly had no idea how to do it and he helped us out. We drove to the Teide National Park to make sure we knew where it was before heading there the next day to climb the mountain. We drove up the winding roads through the spacelike scenery and up towards the giant volcano where we stopped and ate our bocadillos. After admiring the astonishing views we drove towards the north of the island and looped around along the eastern coast back to our hotel. After a very American meal of hot dogs, green beans, and croquettas fried in butter we got a few drinks and relaxed. All we wanted to do was swim in the heated pool but unfortunately it closed at six.

Monday morning we accidentaly woke up at 6:30 instead of 7:30 because of the hour time difference but the extra time lent us a relaxing morning before heading back up to Teide. It took about an hour to get to the base of the mountain where we bought our cable car tickets and enjoyed some coffee before making the ascent. The cable car takes you up 9/10 of the 12,000 feet and from the drop off point we could see in the distance the silhouette of Gran Canaria, another canary island. UNESCO is trying to preserve Teide because it is a World Heritage Site and because of this they limit the number of visitors that can make their way to the top. Well Renner and I sort of got the required permits but we didn't really follow up on it to secure them. So instead of showing some man our permits that we didn't have we climbed over to the trail that goes up to the top. The thinner air and the high altitude made it quite difficult to breathe and we almost instantly stopped to eat our bocadillos that we packed. Such a great idea. After refueling we started to climb to the top. The wind picked up and I could feel my hands and face burning, I didn't anticipate the cold weather and wind and was very very unprepared but we made it to the top! The view was spectacular and as a nice British man was taking our picture I thought for a second we were going to get blown right off the top of that mountain from the harsh winds but we caught our balance. I wish we could have stayed up there longer but it was just too cold and windy to bare but at least I snatched a rock from the top! We made our way down the mountain and back to the cable car that took us to the base where we bought some souvenirs. Repeating the same route as the day before, we drove to the north where we stopped at Loro Parque, Tenerife's biggest tourist attraction. Its essentially a zoo and an aquarium in the city of Puerto de la Cruz but as soon as we entered it felt like we stepped into the jungle, it was pretty nice. We spent a few hours walking around and admirning and feeling sorry for the animals and then headed home. Across from our hotel there was a mountain that overlooked the ocean and we climbed up to the top for sunset, making sure not to step on any cactuses to any snake houses. Another amazing view. We quickly climbed down to avoid having to navigate the rocky slopes in the dark and we walked back to our little supermarket to get dinner supplies and play house again. We cooked up dinner had some wine and then made milkshakes with the tiramisu ice cream we got, yum!

Tuesday we woke later than we expected and had to pack up our stuff super fast to check out on time. Well we were late but thats okay because we went to the beach! We drove around for a half hour looking for parking and ended up at the beach closest to our hotel which was annoying but it was so nice and relaxing and it felt so good to be in the sun and not bundled up fighting the cold and rain. Well since my body hasn't seen the sunlight in months, my skin burned and it hurts but the tweety bird islands, as my dad called them, were excellent and I definitely would like to go back someday. We left around 2:30 and got to the airport with enough time for one last bocadillo before getting on our plane. We missed the last bus back to Bilbao and had to take a taxi into the city away from the airport to catch a different bus but somehow we made it and everything worked out!

We got back into Bilbao around midnight and Rosa had a full dinner waiting for us when we arrived. That woman is too sweet. I had a full day of class today but tomorrow is my last day of class for the week! Then on Friday we're off to Pamplona and Rioja!

Don't worry pictures will come soon!

Off to the Canary Islands!

Quick updates! I'm awake and my roommate and Renner are not...he stayed the night in the guest bedroom because the metro doesn't run late on Friday nights and we went out last night (plus I think Rosa likes the male company) but I'm bored and hungry but wanna wait for them to eat and Chris told me that Mom thought I'd update this blog everyday so this one's for you Bon!

It has been snowing in Bilbao the past few days which is crazy, it never snows here! My professor told me she has lived here all her life and has seen snow four times.Unimaginable. The mountains are covered in snow and the city looks super pretty although it isn't sticking to the ground. Hopefully this weather doesn't interfere with my flight today! Oh Renner and I are going to the Canary Islands to escape the cold! So we're off to Tenerife today, the largest of the islands which is home to El Teide, Spain's highest point! Hard to believe with the Pyrenees right here. Its also an innactive volcano and since it is an UNESCO World Heritage Site, there are many efforts to preserve it...this makes climbing it difficult. Renner and I had to apply for permits to access the peak of the mountain/volcano because the national park is trying to limit the amount of visitors. So this makes us really special. We'll be back on Tuesday! Canary Islands > Classes.

More updates to come after this little trip! So excited!

Hasta luego!

rain rain go away

I've never been much of a city person by any means but the one thing I am really enjoying about city life in Bilbao is the amount of time I get to spend outside walking here and there and everywhere. Oh wait, just kidding its been raining for the past two weeks which is really beginning to put a damper on things. The rain hasn't been much of an issue until Friday, when I started teaching English at a school nearby. And when I say nearby I mean a bus ride and a walk away. So about not being used to the city....it was my first time taking the bus...I got off on the wrong stop...It started raining...I forgot my umbrella. So this is where the rain became an issue. Oh and I got lost walking to the school. Oops. Luckily I left with more than ample time to allow for such inconvenciences and I made it to La Salle (pronounced la sigh-yay), with ten minutes to spare. 

My first class was a rowdy group of 13-14 year olds with a very false notion of America...Do you watch wrestling? Do you eat at McDonalds? Do you have a gun in your house? where only a few of the ridiculous stereotypes I had to dispell. Aside from that, the students were great. They were excited about everything and were receptive to everything I had to say and do. The only bad part was I had no idea what to say and do. I was just kind of thrown into the classroom with no direction from the teacher or my professor and was simply told to "talk about the United States" uhhhhh....seems easy...its not. The whole organization of the program is practically nonexistent and if it weren't for the kids and the great opportunity for them to have a native speaker in the classroom to help them learn, I'd quit. Perhaps I just need to prepare more for my next sections. I found it incredible that they take four languages at the school: Spanish, Basque, English and either French or German. And they are very proficient in all of them. My linguistics professor told my class to do our children a favor in the future: speak to them in both English and Spanish when they are young so that they learn both naturally. Sounds good!

While I was at school everyone else from ISA went to El Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao which I was kind of upset I missed, but Renner brought me back a cool colored pencil so that made it better. The museum is free on Wednesdays so I'm sure I'll make my way over there. 

Last Friday we went to Gernika, the city that inspired Picasso's famous piece, El Guernica...if you don't know what that is, look it up! We walked around the small city and went to two museums, The Peace Museum and a museum about Basque culture. There was a quiz for the day that asked questions about the museums and things around the city, probably a tool to keep us interested because it was rather boring, but Renner and I worked together and we won! Two tickets to the Cuban ballet in February, we make a good team :) Afterwards we all went to the Biodiversity Center about ten minutes out of the city. The building was an old tower but they converted it into a mueseum to keep tourists coming. 

Here are some pictures from the last week or so!

Plaza in San Sebastian

La Tamborrada

Stained Glass ceiling in Gernika

The tree of Gernika, a symbol of Basque culture
...very anti-climactic

Biodiversity center

View from the top of the tower

hi i'm still here, don't worry!

Let me start by apologizing for abandonning my blog for a week. I'm safe and sound no worries! I was waiting for my first week of classes to be over to write so I would have something to write about instead of just rambling. So classes! I'm taking four: Advanced Spanish Conversation, Hispanic Linguistics, Spanish Culture Politics and Economics, and Spanish Cinema and Literature. Tons of Spanish! Which is great! I like all my classes and they seem pretty easy too. My first assignment for my cinema and literature class is to read a play that I read last semester...starting things off easy!

I'm also doing an internship-like thing where I go observe English classes here at a Spanish high school and I get to teach English too! I start next week so hopefully that goes well. I met all of the teachers at the school and the whole program seems rather unorganized but its a learning experience, right? We'll see how it goes...

This week I have just been adjusting to having a schedule again in my life which feels nice after winter break and traveling around for the last week-ish. All of my classes are in the afternoon though so I need to find something to do during the mornings. Hopefully I'll start running here soon because I am going to be a complete chunker when I come home if I don't and I really don't want to buy two seats on the flight back!

Yesterday a few of us spontaneously decided to go to San Sebastian, a costal city about an hour away by bus, for the most important day of the year in the city, La Tamborrada de San Sebastian! Which is essentially a huge festival with tons of drums and people dress up like chefs and soldiers, I really don't understand why but it was a lot of fun. Except for all of the rain...so much rain. Annoying rain too because it is light and misty and lasts forever and the wind makes it ten times worse but it was worth it to go. Everyone in the group left around five in the morning but Renner and I stayed and attempted to explore the city this morning...we didn't realize that today is a holiday there and absolutely everything except cafes and bars and Chinese-owned stores were closed. So to stay dry and warm we drank lots of tea and coffee and sandwiches and pastries to kill time until our 5:00 bus. We even stopped in the "Juegeria" a tiny casino-like arcade where we played the Bingo pinball machine for about an hour. Good new is we won 5 euros! And then spent it to play more games...like mother like daughter! Just kidding...

Well the forecast is predicting rain and high 50s in Bilbao for the next forever so I might need to invest in a larger umbrella and/or rain coat. Off to Gernika tomorrow for the day to learn some World War II history!

Agur! (fancy new Basque word for goodbye)

Fotos!

First meal: chorizo (Spanish sausage)

Calamares

El palacio de cristal, El retiro

Walking to El retiro

Monument in El retiro, huge beautiful lake behind this

Toledo

Guggenheim Museum

The view from my bedroom window

First night out

Beach in Getxo