One of the best parts of my day here in the 'Bao is dinnertime, or "a cenar" as they like to yell at me from the kitchen. During this time, I usually eat with the kiddos (mostly because I still can't seem to wait to eat dinner as a Spaniard at 9 or 10pm like the rest of the country), and this can lead to some very interesting convos.
For instance, just today we had a 10-minute conversation about Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson, how famous they are/were in the US and ALL of the details surround their death. Adrian even has a theory that Jackson's doctor poisoned him because he wanted to be famous but Esti kindly told him the truth, that he was going to die soon anyways because his body was wacked out. This OF COURSE led to a full blown discussion on transgenders and how they change THEIR bodies, including some demonstrations on adding/subtracting key body parts. Now mind you, I hardly ever add to these convos because as much Spanish as I know, the last thing I want to do is conjugate something wrong and have the whole family thinking I'M a transgender or something. Pass.
Another light dinner topic was the entirety of how babies are made, also complete with some suggestive hand motions/demonstrations. Maybe I never had the talk with my parents, maybe I did and I just forget, or maybe I blocked it out completely because of how awkward it is to ask your parents about something so controversial, but I can't believe the Telmo, Sara, and Adrian asked so many frank questions about babies and the whole shindig, while of COURSE Esti was there to give simple, concise, and sometimes disturbing answers. Ah, Spain.
Sometimes at dinner we forgo the talking altogether and just sing a song together. NOT kidding. From the Macarena (which I proudly know all of the words to when they are rambling/singing in the refrain, finally ) to Elvis Presley, to some Spanish TV shows I don;t follow, they know all the words and if I'm lucky, the dances. Sometimes I think I'm living in some bizarro cross between Full House and a Ricky Martin music video to be honest. As crazy and loud as it all sounds, I still probs wouldn't change it for anything. I've learned more about cooking, families, housekeeping, city-living, siestas, and more, INCLUDING vocab for all of the above, with my measly little familia of 7, so why would I ever change that? Besides, then how would I know where babies come from?
miércoles, 12 de mayo de 2010
jueves, 6 de mayo de 2010
One week, give or take
Well my friends I feel like I have finally assimilated myself enough into this new Spanish/Basque culture that I apparently no longer feel the need to update mah blog regularly anymore. But, as the complaints about this have also stopped I feel like you all have accepted that I am Spanish now, too. So all is well in the world! Except that I only have 8 days left to be a Spaniard, when did that happen?
These past few weeks have been pretty relaxed, no major trips besides a day trip to Santander to visit the beach and explore another part of the Spain coastline. (side note: if you ever need to fly to/from Spain for rull cheap, fly RyanAir to Santander and take a bus to Bilbao, it's only 6 euros one way and about an hour and a half, super easy-peasy!) We also had another family linner this past weekend for Spanish Dia de los Madres (Mother's Day) which was once again a hugeeeee 5 course event, but this time I was prepared and balanced everything out pretty well. This actually means I skipped an entire course of squid/octopus/some type of cephalopod (yeah I looked that up) that was stewed in its own ink and chopped up into huge tentacle parts, yikes. It even tasted like ink, if that's possible. BUT this seafood experience was evenly matched with another new food I tried (course two) which was regular pulpo (octopus) cooked with potatoes and some kind of sassy red spice, yum! It's not my new favorite Spanish cuisine, chorizo will have that spot for all eternity, but it was definitely better than I expected and I hope I get to have it again soon when I get back to the states. The rest of that day was spent doing homework and hanging out with the kiddos, who have finally accepted me as an English tutor and ask me questions about translations all the time now, in exchange for my own Spanish questions. It's actually pretty awesome because unlike Spanish classes where you ask once and then forget it until the next time you need some rare word, with the kiddos we draw pictures and they describe to me IN FULL the capacities of every word. They're pretty smart kids, ya know.
As for this weekend, I plan on going to a special showing of "Fiebre del Sabado Noche" (Saturday Night Fever, sans Sr. Travolta, obvs) on Friday night and then spending the rest of the weekend both studying for finals and hanging out with CIDE peeps. We have finals next week on Wednesday/Thursday which isn't too bad but I have 5 in only 2 days so that might be bad. Luckily they are only an hour each and mainly consist of one shorter essay or info from the second half of the semester so I won't have to cram, I mean study too hard. It is weird to think it's my last weekend in Spain, minus the 5 hours I have on Saturday morning to get myself to the airport, so I'm hoping I can make the most of it without making a fool of myself or failing finals. Who knows, maybe I'll start packing just because I'm so flippin excited to see everyone from home, but I also don't want to think about leaving just quite yet. Ah the bittersweet "adios" that awaits me in 8 days is going to be pretty awful I think, I'll be a fruit salad of mixed emotions, ranging from Grape "get me the heck on that plane ASAP" to Banana "but I don't waaaaaaant to leaveeeeeeee". I guess we'll see, but it'll be messy fo sho.
These past few weeks have been pretty relaxed, no major trips besides a day trip to Santander to visit the beach and explore another part of the Spain coastline. (side note: if you ever need to fly to/from Spain for rull cheap, fly RyanAir to Santander and take a bus to Bilbao, it's only 6 euros one way and about an hour and a half, super easy-peasy!) We also had another family linner this past weekend for Spanish Dia de los Madres (Mother's Day) which was once again a hugeeeee 5 course event, but this time I was prepared and balanced everything out pretty well. This actually means I skipped an entire course of squid/octopus/some type of cephalopod (yeah I looked that up) that was stewed in its own ink and chopped up into huge tentacle parts, yikes. It even tasted like ink, if that's possible. BUT this seafood experience was evenly matched with another new food I tried (course two) which was regular pulpo (octopus) cooked with potatoes and some kind of sassy red spice, yum! It's not my new favorite Spanish cuisine, chorizo will have that spot for all eternity, but it was definitely better than I expected and I hope I get to have it again soon when I get back to the states. The rest of that day was spent doing homework and hanging out with the kiddos, who have finally accepted me as an English tutor and ask me questions about translations all the time now, in exchange for my own Spanish questions. It's actually pretty awesome because unlike Spanish classes where you ask once and then forget it until the next time you need some rare word, with the kiddos we draw pictures and they describe to me IN FULL the capacities of every word. They're pretty smart kids, ya know.
As for this weekend, I plan on going to a special showing of "Fiebre del Sabado Noche" (Saturday Night Fever, sans Sr. Travolta, obvs) on Friday night and then spending the rest of the weekend both studying for finals and hanging out with CIDE peeps. We have finals next week on Wednesday/Thursday which isn't too bad but I have 5 in only 2 days so that might be bad. Luckily they are only an hour each and mainly consist of one shorter essay or info from the second half of the semester so I won't have to cram, I mean study too hard. It is weird to think it's my last weekend in Spain, minus the 5 hours I have on Saturday morning to get myself to the airport, so I'm hoping I can make the most of it without making a fool of myself or failing finals. Who knows, maybe I'll start packing just because I'm so flippin excited to see everyone from home, but I also don't want to think about leaving just quite yet. Ah the bittersweet "adios" that awaits me in 8 days is going to be pretty awful I think, I'll be a fruit salad of mixed emotions, ranging from Grape "get me the heck on that plane ASAP" to Banana "but I don't waaaaaaant to leaveeeeeeee". I guess we'll see, but it'll be messy fo sho.
sábado, 24 de abril de 2010
Some Telmo-isms for your enjoyment
As most of you know, I live with six other people: Marta and Esti, my host parents, Ane the 12-y.o, Adrian the (now) 9-y.o, Sara/Meg the 7-y.o, and last and definitely not least, Telmo, the spicy little 5-y.o. Now I love everyone in this family because they are of course loving and welcoming, and not a day passes when something hilarious or ridiculous doesn't go down, but of all of these peeps the funniest and most outrageous is Telmo. He is only 5 yet he has more worldly knowledge than any child under the age of 10 I've ever met- even his siblings know he is the boss and makes the best jokes. So I thought it was only fair that you all got to hear some of his Telmo-isms and get in on the joke that is this little Spaniard's whole philosophy on life. (p.s. all of his sayings are translated into English so no worries, they're still hilarious.)
Airplanes: Poor Telmo is terrified of flying and because of this, his travel plans are pretty limited. For Easter they had to drive to Salamanca which is only about 4 hours away but with 5 people squished into a European baby-car with only one Nintendo DS, things probs got ugly about 2 hours in. That said, I asked him if he would ever want to visit me in the US when he got older, to come study and/or learn English. He said yes, probably, because he wants to see the United States and "Nueva York", but then quickly replied "but only by boat, planes are the worst, the worst because they hit trees and crash into the ground and everybody dies, so boats are better. Boats are the best." I couldn't really argue with this because I also hate the idea of plane crashes, but I did thank him for reminding me about the terrors of flying 3 weeks before my cross-Atlantic 12-hour flight. Jerk.
Novios: Novios in Spanish are boyfriends/girlfriends, and my new favorite hobby is telling Telmo we are novios when he asks me if I have one here or in the US. I tried explaining to him that I didn't have one and when he kept asking me about it I finally told him HE was my novio. Needless to say, he is 5 and the thought of novios only pleases him when he makes fun of Ane for her potential novios at school, but otherwise he is disgusted. So of course I told everyone in the family we are novios and he started screaming "No, no! No way!" and when I asked why, he simply said "because you are way older than me and will die way before me, it doesn't make sense." This kid is a genius! Those 16 years between us probs would mean I'll die at the super old age of 100 (fingers crossed) and he'll only be a springy 84-year old, right? Yeah, that's what I thought.
Death: All the talk about our future together and dying brought up some questions Telmo had about his death, or more specifically how he wants to die. Although I told him I was afraid of dying because I am only 21 and would rather live my life than think about how I'm going to die (morbid much?), Telmo assured me he isn't afraid to die, even now at his age. However, he quickly added a clarification, saying he was "terrified to die on a cross like Jesus. I hope I am never put on a cross, what do you call that kind of death?" Hahah so I told him it was crucifixion and he probably had nothing to worry about, considering they haven't really crucified anyone on the cross since about the 4th century. He wasn't convinced though, and asked why they crucified Jesus (kind of a loaded question there, I skipped it) and why they would do it to other people, himself included. The whole convo eventually ended with me assuring him that they only crucify people they don't like, and everyone likes Telmo so he has nothing to worry about, as long as he remained a good kid. Haha definitely one of the most interesting convos, how does this kid even know about crucifixion and why is he thinking about it so much?? Hopefully I helped him without scaring him into being a good kid (the cross is waiting for you Telmo, be good!)
FIFA: FIFA, for those who don't know it, is the Federacion Internacionale of Football Association, kind of an odd mix of languages there but we'll let it slide. Telmo is probs the biggest fan and has ranked all of the teams in his favorite order, their professional ranking, and a cross between the two, of his fav teams in order of their greatness. He also loves playing FIFA soccer with me on Playstation because he knows I can't figure it out and always loses, and the one time I did lose he quit the game and then promptly laughed in my face, punk. (He also makes me watch the replays of his goals about 20 times, in case I missed it when it happened to MY goalie.) Anyways, if you ever need advice on which team to have as your favorite and second favorite, have no fear because Telmo has it figured out: of course, Liverpool is and will always be THE BEST because they have Fernando Torres, a Spaniard who is pretty good, I guess. That said, the rest of the teams are all tied between Athletic Bilbao, Barcelona, and Athletic Madrid, which are in fact the best teams in Spain but I guess to Telmo the best in the world, as well. He hates it if you don't have your teams ranked and ready to explain at any moment, so if you ever meet him, have your lists ready and get ready to be fought to the death if you don't like Liverpool, or as he says it, "Liv-ver-poooooooooooool!" Oh, and don't even try to pick Liverpool as your team on FIFA Soccer, he has all the control and gets the biggest kick out of picking Liverpool first and then changing all the names of the other teams in the system to "Bhsdfhsuf-asdfs" and other jibberish. Again I say, punk.
Those are the major Telmo-isms that come to mind as the most fantastic, to finish here are just some fun facts about the kid:
-will eat ketchup on ANYTHING salty, fish and steak included. I think this kid single handedly keeps Heinz-Europe in business, sometimes I catch him licking the bottle (OMG gross, I stopped using ketchup about 3 months ago).
-will also eat sugar on ANYTHING relatively sweet, we're talking fruit, yogurt, cereal, ColaCao, etc. One time for breakfast on Sunday, which is usually a treat day, the kid ate toast with butter and SUGAR. Ewww.
-hates elevators because they are too small and have the potential to also hit trees and crash when everybody then dies. Maybe not the trees part, but the crashing/dying part, true.
-cries at the sight of blood, whether it's his or anybody's, and yells "Ahhh que asco!" (Ahh that's gross!) and the tears come. We all giggle at it.
Airplanes: Poor Telmo is terrified of flying and because of this, his travel plans are pretty limited. For Easter they had to drive to Salamanca which is only about 4 hours away but with 5 people squished into a European baby-car with only one Nintendo DS, things probs got ugly about 2 hours in. That said, I asked him if he would ever want to visit me in the US when he got older, to come study and/or learn English. He said yes, probably, because he wants to see the United States and "Nueva York", but then quickly replied "but only by boat, planes are the worst, the worst because they hit trees and crash into the ground and everybody dies, so boats are better. Boats are the best." I couldn't really argue with this because I also hate the idea of plane crashes, but I did thank him for reminding me about the terrors of flying 3 weeks before my cross-Atlantic 12-hour flight. Jerk.
Novios: Novios in Spanish are boyfriends/girlfriends, and my new favorite hobby is telling Telmo we are novios when he asks me if I have one here or in the US. I tried explaining to him that I didn't have one and when he kept asking me about it I finally told him HE was my novio. Needless to say, he is 5 and the thought of novios only pleases him when he makes fun of Ane for her potential novios at school, but otherwise he is disgusted. So of course I told everyone in the family we are novios and he started screaming "No, no! No way!" and when I asked why, he simply said "because you are way older than me and will die way before me, it doesn't make sense." This kid is a genius! Those 16 years between us probs would mean I'll die at the super old age of 100 (fingers crossed) and he'll only be a springy 84-year old, right? Yeah, that's what I thought.
Death: All the talk about our future together and dying brought up some questions Telmo had about his death, or more specifically how he wants to die. Although I told him I was afraid of dying because I am only 21 and would rather live my life than think about how I'm going to die (morbid much?), Telmo assured me he isn't afraid to die, even now at his age. However, he quickly added a clarification, saying he was "terrified to die on a cross like Jesus. I hope I am never put on a cross, what do you call that kind of death?" Hahah so I told him it was crucifixion and he probably had nothing to worry about, considering they haven't really crucified anyone on the cross since about the 4th century. He wasn't convinced though, and asked why they crucified Jesus (kind of a loaded question there, I skipped it) and why they would do it to other people, himself included. The whole convo eventually ended with me assuring him that they only crucify people they don't like, and everyone likes Telmo so he has nothing to worry about, as long as he remained a good kid. Haha definitely one of the most interesting convos, how does this kid even know about crucifixion and why is he thinking about it so much?? Hopefully I helped him without scaring him into being a good kid (the cross is waiting for you Telmo, be good!)
FIFA: FIFA, for those who don't know it, is the Federacion Internacionale of Football Association, kind of an odd mix of languages there but we'll let it slide. Telmo is probs the biggest fan and has ranked all of the teams in his favorite order, their professional ranking, and a cross between the two, of his fav teams in order of their greatness. He also loves playing FIFA soccer with me on Playstation because he knows I can't figure it out and always loses, and the one time I did lose he quit the game and then promptly laughed in my face, punk. (He also makes me watch the replays of his goals about 20 times, in case I missed it when it happened to MY goalie.) Anyways, if you ever need advice on which team to have as your favorite and second favorite, have no fear because Telmo has it figured out: of course, Liverpool is and will always be THE BEST because they have Fernando Torres, a Spaniard who is pretty good, I guess. That said, the rest of the teams are all tied between Athletic Bilbao, Barcelona, and Athletic Madrid, which are in fact the best teams in Spain but I guess to Telmo the best in the world, as well. He hates it if you don't have your teams ranked and ready to explain at any moment, so if you ever meet him, have your lists ready and get ready to be fought to the death if you don't like Liverpool, or as he says it, "Liv-ver-poooooooooooool!" Oh, and don't even try to pick Liverpool as your team on FIFA Soccer, he has all the control and gets the biggest kick out of picking Liverpool first and then changing all the names of the other teams in the system to "Bhsdfhsuf-asdfs" and other jibberish. Again I say, punk.
Those are the major Telmo-isms that come to mind as the most fantastic, to finish here are just some fun facts about the kid:
-will eat ketchup on ANYTHING salty, fish and steak included. I think this kid single handedly keeps Heinz-Europe in business, sometimes I catch him licking the bottle (OMG gross, I stopped using ketchup about 3 months ago).
-will also eat sugar on ANYTHING relatively sweet, we're talking fruit, yogurt, cereal, ColaCao, etc. One time for breakfast on Sunday, which is usually a treat day, the kid ate toast with butter and SUGAR. Ewww.
-hates elevators because they are too small and have the potential to also hit trees and crash when everybody then dies. Maybe not the trees part, but the crashing/dying part, true.
-cries at the sight of blood, whether it's his or anybody's, and yells "Ahhh que asco!" (Ahh that's gross!) and the tears come. We all giggle at it.
lunes, 19 de abril de 2010
Finals, Fiestas, and Family Parties
Gah! It's been a week! Lo siento todos, but things are starting to get a bit more hectic yet comfortable here so I am finding myself busier and away from my computer more often, which is great for me but leaves you all in the dust! My apologies. That said, I probs won't have too many more posts (at least from Bilbao) because I only have 3.5 weeks left in the whole program! Can you believe that? I remember when I had 3.5 MONTHS, and now here I am, fluent (well, practically) and thinking about packing to leave. Oh. Em. Gee.
This past week went by pretty quickly, I had lots o' homework after my huge break and I didn't even really have classes until Tuesday so that helped the week fly by. This weekend was pretty packed, too, but with more exciting adventures than reading "El Sur" for my Cine class, blah. On Friday I went to the beach with some friends and although it took about 4 hours, the sun finally did come out fully and I got myself a nice little tan (tan here means pink tinge more than anything, I'm Irish, remember?). It was still nice to just fall asleep on the hot sand or read without having to take notes or do anything more- I hope all the weekends coming are like this so I can at least spend one day every weekend just soaking up some vitamin D and maybe getting some color before I return to colder spring weather again. After the beach we grabbed a glass of vino blanco in the Irish pub in Algorta, where Linden lives, and I met new new peeps who I had yet to talk to from the program, so that was nice. That night was uber exciting with my Cola-Cao (think Nesquik) and Seinfeld episodes all curled up in bed, but I was still a little tired from country-hopping so staying in and sleeping in was great. On Saturday I did some homework and not much else, as I've said before, weekends here can be pretty dull during the day because of the 48 hour siesta everyone seems to take on Sat./Sun. But Saturday night was great because I went to a birthday party for one of the girls in the program and most of the CIDE kids ended up going, so everyone who I never see on weekends because they live in the dorms was there and we got to catch up! It was pretty nutso though, with so many Americans in one little bar plus alcohol- let's just say there were many a hungover status updates on Facebook on Sunday.
Speaking of Sunday, after going for a run and accidentally running into a real race (oops), my family surprised me when they had about 13 people over for a linner event (lunch and dinner, it was at 4:30 when we finally ate "lunch", which lasted for 4 hours), with the g-parents, aunts/uncles, cousins, nephews- you name it, someone was probs there to fill the role. I was pretty happy because usually at these events, I can just sit and people watch/listen most of the time while the Spaniards go crazy and argue/yell/laugh/etc., so it's a pretty entertaining day to say the least. We had a 5-course meal, not including the sorbet-champagne drink we had between the fish and meat (yeah we had fish AND meat), and went through about 6 bottles of wine, so needless to say at around 8:30 I went to my room and passed out. Most of the family had left so it was fine, but Marta's cousin and his partner and son stayed forever and chatted loudly in the kitchen about who knows what. I would have stayed to listen but I had to get some tarea done and I also was just plain pooped from translating that much Spanish for so long. I finally feel pretty competent in my Spanish skillz but at times I just get really burnt out and the last thing I want to do is try and listen, translate, comprehend, translate, and speak Spanish with a native who obvs doesn't quite understand what I'm saying (stupid Pittsburgh accent strikes again). But, I do still enjoy being able to talk in Spanish at all, and my listening/reading skillz have increased incredibly since coming to Bilbao, so I can't complain.
Some fun facts about the linner party though: Telmo got his mouth rinsed out with soap for telling his uncle to eff off when he wouldn't let him play soccer the way he wanted to, first time I've even seen that outside of A Christmas Story; the entire Areizaga family now knows how to say several curse words in English, probs my fault; I now know how to completely tell someone off using only slang, an issue for me in Spanish and English. If you still can't imagine this family look to the show "Modern Family," which has all of the same characters, but Spanish (including the two dads, wayyy older spouse, and "cool" parent who knows all the words and dances to High School Musical (which was actually on during the party in Spanish, go figure). It's really a great family and I'll miss them all a ton, luckily I exchanged addresses with one of the aunts who has two boys learning English, so I can at least stay in touch with a few of them (they also offered me a place to stay whenever I visit again!). Otherwise I'm going to do my best to come back eventually to Bilbao (although hopefully much sooner), just so I can go to another linner party and watch how tipsy Spaniards really have family parties.
This past week went by pretty quickly, I had lots o' homework after my huge break and I didn't even really have classes until Tuesday so that helped the week fly by. This weekend was pretty packed, too, but with more exciting adventures than reading "El Sur" for my Cine class, blah. On Friday I went to the beach with some friends and although it took about 4 hours, the sun finally did come out fully and I got myself a nice little tan (tan here means pink tinge more than anything, I'm Irish, remember?). It was still nice to just fall asleep on the hot sand or read without having to take notes or do anything more- I hope all the weekends coming are like this so I can at least spend one day every weekend just soaking up some vitamin D and maybe getting some color before I return to colder spring weather again. After the beach we grabbed a glass of vino blanco in the Irish pub in Algorta, where Linden lives, and I met new new peeps who I had yet to talk to from the program, so that was nice. That night was uber exciting with my Cola-Cao (think Nesquik) and Seinfeld episodes all curled up in bed, but I was still a little tired from country-hopping so staying in and sleeping in was great. On Saturday I did some homework and not much else, as I've said before, weekends here can be pretty dull during the day because of the 48 hour siesta everyone seems to take on Sat./Sun. But Saturday night was great because I went to a birthday party for one of the girls in the program and most of the CIDE kids ended up going, so everyone who I never see on weekends because they live in the dorms was there and we got to catch up! It was pretty nutso though, with so many Americans in one little bar plus alcohol- let's just say there were many a hungover status updates on Facebook on Sunday.
Speaking of Sunday, after going for a run and accidentally running into a real race (oops), my family surprised me when they had about 13 people over for a linner event (lunch and dinner, it was at 4:30 when we finally ate "lunch", which lasted for 4 hours), with the g-parents, aunts/uncles, cousins, nephews- you name it, someone was probs there to fill the role. I was pretty happy because usually at these events, I can just sit and people watch/listen most of the time while the Spaniards go crazy and argue/yell/laugh/etc., so it's a pretty entertaining day to say the least. We had a 5-course meal, not including the sorbet-champagne drink we had between the fish and meat (yeah we had fish AND meat), and went through about 6 bottles of wine, so needless to say at around 8:30 I went to my room and passed out. Most of the family had left so it was fine, but Marta's cousin and his partner and son stayed forever and chatted loudly in the kitchen about who knows what. I would have stayed to listen but I had to get some tarea done and I also was just plain pooped from translating that much Spanish for so long. I finally feel pretty competent in my Spanish skillz but at times I just get really burnt out and the last thing I want to do is try and listen, translate, comprehend, translate, and speak Spanish with a native who obvs doesn't quite understand what I'm saying (stupid Pittsburgh accent strikes again). But, I do still enjoy being able to talk in Spanish at all, and my listening/reading skillz have increased incredibly since coming to Bilbao, so I can't complain.
Some fun facts about the linner party though: Telmo got his mouth rinsed out with soap for telling his uncle to eff off when he wouldn't let him play soccer the way he wanted to, first time I've even seen that outside of A Christmas Story; the entire Areizaga family now knows how to say several curse words in English, probs my fault; I now know how to completely tell someone off using only slang, an issue for me in Spanish and English. If you still can't imagine this family look to the show "Modern Family," which has all of the same characters, but Spanish (including the two dads, wayyy older spouse, and "cool" parent who knows all the words and dances to High School Musical (which was actually on during the party in Spanish, go figure). It's really a great family and I'll miss them all a ton, luckily I exchanged addresses with one of the aunts who has two boys learning English, so I can at least stay in touch with a few of them (they also offered me a place to stay whenever I visit again!). Otherwise I'm going to do my best to come back eventually to Bilbao (although hopefully much sooner), just so I can go to another linner party and watch how tipsy Spaniards really have family parties.
lunes, 12 de abril de 2010
Spring Break Mega-Monster-Ginormous-Herculean Entry! Oh boy.
Hello my loyal followers, hopefully not too many of you have forgotten about me across the pond as I have been AWOL for almost three weeks! So sorry, but as promised, here is a VERY abridged version of my Spring Break(SB) travels!
My break technically started on March 25th but as I had no real travel plans, I just stuck around the 'Bao going to the beach and out to little cities around Northern Spain until my family arrived on the 1st. It was so relaxing to just take my time doing what I wanted for a few days without classes and with plenty of sunshine, I hope all of you get the opportunity to travel to Spain even for a few days of tapas, siestas, and sunshine! When my fam did arrive, we immediately got all checked in and then hit up the Gugg and Casco Viejo for dinner, so I could show them the top spots of the city and then a little more on the walks to each place. I think they had a pretty good time, I'm sure we could have spent a week doing EVERYTHING here, but they got to see the major highlights, including the Funicular ride up one of the mountains surrounding downtown for a full view (just like the one in the 'Burgh!)
On Friday we left for Brussels where my pops and a rental car were waiting for us. Unfortunately, the weather was not as lovely in Belgium as most of the days we were there it was raining, cold, and wiiiiiiindy (cue wind sounds), but we made the best of it and saw everything major in the city like the medieval government buildings and churches. The best part, though, was getting to see my parents' wedding church and first few houses as a couple/newlywed in Europe. According to the rents, most of them seemed pretty unchanged, with the exception of the surrounding neighborhoods being much more populated or urbanized due to 23 years of change. I think my older bro got the biggest kick out of it as we got to see where he was born, his first house, and some of his old romping grounds (aka very small playgrounds or other people's houses). It definitely made my parents' dreams come true to have a family reunion back where it all started, the only problem is now all future family vacations will probably blow. (How can you top visiting the church where your parents got married over 25 years ago?? And the birth place of the eldest?)
During the Brussels spell we made a day trip to Bruges and Holland (so cool! clogs!) to see some more of the old hangouts of my parents and the famous sites of more medieval churches and government buildings. (*Warning, from here on out almost everything I talk about will not be mentioned specifically because it is either a) a medieval church, or b) super old government buildings in the medieval town square.) However, we did get to see the North Sea, some working windmills, and the beautiful streets/canals/buildings that apparently make it "Venice of the North". For such a small city (compared to my other SB trips), it was packed with tourists, probably out enjoying the small patches of sunshine we were lucky to get. For me, this city was also one of my favs because I got to drive there! That's right, I got to spend some quality time behind a manual minivan, driving my fam across borders at speeds up to 140km! (Only around 88mph, but Doc Brown and Marty McFly would have been proud.) Luckily I didn't have to drive on the left side of the road or anything, but it was nice to drive a car again since it's been almost 4 months and I feel like forgetting how to drive when I work at the Transportation Department might not look so great. It was a pretty easy trip, too, considering we made about 4 turns the entire trip since apparently all the roads in Belgium are stick straight and go on for literally MILES in a line (look it up on Google maps, you will fall asleep it is such a boring route). Can't complain though, the driving control-freak in me was satisfied for the whole semester. :)
After Brussels, Dad had to get back to work (someone has to pay for our trip), so he left Belgium while we went off to one of my favorite cities in the world, Paris!! I had already gone there on a school trip after graduating high school, but it was nice to go back and see some of the sights again and have some of my French come flying back to me just in time to order "Croque Madames et un coca, s'il vous plait". Ahh it was so wonderful! We were staying in the Latin Quarter which was only about a 5 minutes walk away from Notre Dame and the heart of the city (literally from where all the roads begin), so at night we were able to take walks to the Ile de la Cite and around some of the more eccentric parts of Paris.
We of course did some of the obvious touristy stuff, like a bus tour around the major sites and going up the Eiffel Tower, and it was so nice to do them with my family (Dad was there in spirit, of course). Some of the best parts of the trip were waiting in line for the more touristy attractions because I got to hang out with my bros and do crossword puzzles or chat with the Mom. It's those little things about traveling in Europe I think I like the best, when you are waiting around for something or even just taking a walk through the city and you suddenly remember where you are, like standing next to a church that's been around since 1160. It's surreal to think people were doing almost exactly that in the same spot so long ago and that everything is still there as a functioning civilization! Ah my history nerdiness is making me emotional, let's move on.
My family eventually had to leave me in Paris on Wednesday but luckily Linden met us on Tuesday night and the next day the two of us headed off to London for a 5-day UK extravaganza! We were mostly excited just to be speaking English again, even with the funny accents and lingo (e.g. crisps = chips and chips = fries, wtf??). For this entry, I should almost list the things we DIDN'T see because we traveled ALL OVER that city and even out to Windsor Castle where we got to be within the same walls as the Queen!
(We got to see Buckingham Palace [pic] but she was actually inside the Castle with us, somewhere!) We didn't see the London Eye, as in see it from inside (you could see it from all over the city, why spend 30 pounds going inside?), nor did we get to see Parliament or Westminster because we couldn't take pictures anywhere! For some odd reason those Brits liked to charged us for everything but then not allow any photography almost everywhere. They do like having video cameras, though, as nearly every square inch of the city is covered by CCTV, the Big Brother of the UK that has cameras EVERYWHERE. According to our tour guide, just during our little 2.5 hour tour we were probably filmed by over 300 cameras. Whaaaaaa??? I personally think it's uber creepy- why do they need that much coverage? Do crime rates actually go down because they have some Joe Schmo watching the whole world all the time? Weird. Ah well regardless of not seeing some sights and being filmed against my will and knowledge, I feel in love with London. I could really see myself living there if necessary, the public transportation system is practically perfect and the whole city just has a very welcoming feeling. Bilbao is just as nice of a city and sometimes has many more welcoming people, but at least in London it's not a daily struggle to understand them. Paris is still in the top three for Europe favs, but as of now London is a very close contender; they of course all fall under Bilbao first, just because it is my first overseas home and I feel like I have a real family here, who actually celebrated my return from SB with hugs and shouts (not really that special though, if you remember the Spaniards' volume issues).
Oh and I must mention that somehow along the way I found myself back on the Camino de Santiago not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES! In three separate cities! I knew it was a European phenomenon but couldn't believe that it still stretched all the way across Europe to Bruges, Brussels, and Paris! So cRaZy! (Also, sorry Thomas looks like a psycho here.)
All in all it was a pretty successful trip, and although it made me love traveling again (no more airport panic attacks as of yet!), it also made me ready to stop traveling for the rest of my semester until I make my final BIG trip back to the states- I do love Europe and especially Spain, but at this point I am about ready to go back to working, living, and playing in NYC with my friends and fam. Only 32 days left on my Spanish adventure, and with no real plans things could get interesting!
My break technically started on March 25th but as I had no real travel plans, I just stuck around the 'Bao going to the beach and out to little cities around Northern Spain until my family arrived on the 1st. It was so relaxing to just take my time doing what I wanted for a few days without classes and with plenty of sunshine, I hope all of you get the opportunity to travel to Spain even for a few days of tapas, siestas, and sunshine! When my fam did arrive, we immediately got all checked in and then hit up the Gugg and Casco Viejo for dinner, so I could show them the top spots of the city and then a little more on the walks to each place. I think they had a pretty good time, I'm sure we could have spent a week doing EVERYTHING here, but they got to see the major highlights, including the Funicular ride up one of the mountains surrounding downtown for a full view (just like the one in the 'Burgh!)
On Friday we left for Brussels where my pops and a rental car were waiting for us. Unfortunately, the weather was not as lovely in Belgium as most of the days we were there it was raining, cold, and wiiiiiiindy (cue wind sounds), but we made the best of it and saw everything major in the city like the medieval government buildings and churches. The best part, though, was getting to see my parents' wedding church and first few houses as a couple/newlywed in Europe. According to the rents, most of them seemed pretty unchanged, with the exception of the surrounding neighborhoods being much more populated or urbanized due to 23 years of change. I think my older bro got the biggest kick out of it as we got to see where he was born, his first house, and some of his old romping grounds (aka very small playgrounds or other people's houses). It definitely made my parents' dreams come true to have a family reunion back where it all started, the only problem is now all future family vacations will probably blow. (How can you top visiting the church where your parents got married over 25 years ago?? And the birth place of the eldest?)
During the Brussels spell we made a day trip to Bruges and Holland (so cool! clogs!) to see some more of the old hangouts of my parents and the famous sites of more medieval churches and government buildings. (*Warning, from here on out almost everything I talk about will not be mentioned specifically because it is either a) a medieval church, or b) super old government buildings in the medieval town square.) However, we did get to see the North Sea, some working windmills, and the beautiful streets/canals/buildings that apparently make it "Venice of the North". For such a small city (compared to my other SB trips), it was packed with tourists, probably out enjoying the small patches of sunshine we were lucky to get. For me, this city was also one of my favs because I got to drive there! That's right, I got to spend some quality time behind a manual minivan, driving my fam across borders at speeds up to 140km! (Only around 88mph, but Doc Brown and Marty McFly would have been proud.) Luckily I didn't have to drive on the left side of the road or anything, but it was nice to drive a car again since it's been almost 4 months and I feel like forgetting how to drive when I work at the Transportation Department might not look so great. It was a pretty easy trip, too, considering we made about 4 turns the entire trip since apparently all the roads in Belgium are stick straight and go on for literally MILES in a line (look it up on Google maps, you will fall asleep it is such a boring route). Can't complain though, the driving control-freak in me was satisfied for the whole semester. :)
After Brussels, Dad had to get back to work (someone has to pay for our trip), so he left Belgium while we went off to one of my favorite cities in the world, Paris!! I had already gone there on a school trip after graduating high school, but it was nice to go back and see some of the sights again and have some of my French come flying back to me just in time to order "Croque Madames et un coca, s'il vous plait". Ahh it was so wonderful! We were staying in the Latin Quarter which was only about a 5 minutes walk away from Notre Dame and the heart of the city (literally from where all the roads begin), so at night we were able to take walks to the Ile de la Cite and around some of the more eccentric parts of Paris.
We of course did some of the obvious touristy stuff, like a bus tour around the major sites and going up the Eiffel Tower, and it was so nice to do them with my family (Dad was there in spirit, of course). Some of the best parts of the trip were waiting in line for the more touristy attractions because I got to hang out with my bros and do crossword puzzles or chat with the Mom. It's those little things about traveling in Europe I think I like the best, when you are waiting around for something or even just taking a walk through the city and you suddenly remember where you are, like standing next to a church that's been around since 1160. It's surreal to think people were doing almost exactly that in the same spot so long ago and that everything is still there as a functioning civilization! Ah my history nerdiness is making me emotional, let's move on.
My family eventually had to leave me in Paris on Wednesday but luckily Linden met us on Tuesday night and the next day the two of us headed off to London for a 5-day UK extravaganza! We were mostly excited just to be speaking English again, even with the funny accents and lingo (e.g. crisps = chips and chips = fries, wtf??). For this entry, I should almost list the things we DIDN'T see because we traveled ALL OVER that city and even out to Windsor Castle where we got to be within the same walls as the Queen!
(We got to see Buckingham Palace [pic] but she was actually inside the Castle with us, somewhere!) We didn't see the London Eye, as in see it from inside (you could see it from all over the city, why spend 30 pounds going inside?), nor did we get to see Parliament or Westminster because we couldn't take pictures anywhere! For some odd reason those Brits liked to charged us for everything but then not allow any photography almost everywhere. They do like having video cameras, though, as nearly every square inch of the city is covered by CCTV, the Big Brother of the UK that has cameras EVERYWHERE. According to our tour guide, just during our little 2.5 hour tour we were probably filmed by over 300 cameras. Whaaaaaa??? I personally think it's uber creepy- why do they need that much coverage? Do crime rates actually go down because they have some Joe Schmo watching the whole world all the time? Weird. Ah well regardless of not seeing some sights and being filmed against my will and knowledge, I feel in love with London. I could really see myself living there if necessary, the public transportation system is practically perfect and the whole city just has a very welcoming feeling. Bilbao is just as nice of a city and sometimes has many more welcoming people, but at least in London it's not a daily struggle to understand them. Paris is still in the top three for Europe favs, but as of now London is a very close contender; they of course all fall under Bilbao first, just because it is my first overseas home and I feel like I have a real family here, who actually celebrated my return from SB with hugs and shouts (not really that special though, if you remember the Spaniards' volume issues).
Oh and I must mention that somehow along the way I found myself back on the Camino de Santiago not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES! In three separate cities! I knew it was a European phenomenon but couldn't believe that it still stretched all the way across Europe to Bruges, Brussels, and Paris! So cRaZy! (Also, sorry Thomas looks like a psycho here.)
All in all it was a pretty successful trip, and although it made me love traveling again (no more airport panic attacks as of yet!), it also made me ready to stop traveling for the rest of my semester until I make my final BIG trip back to the states- I do love Europe and especially Spain, but at this point I am about ready to go back to working, living, and playing in NYC with my friends and fam. Only 32 days left on my Spanish adventure, and with no real plans things could get interesting!
martes, 30 de marzo de 2010
Update!
Just a quick update, there is currently no internet in our apartment (or cable, too bad it's a rainy day and both of these would be perfect because God knows I'm not hanging out outside), so I will not be updating before my big trip! I have little stories from this week and I will hopefully have more with the fam, but I will do a HUGEEEE MAJOR MONSTER update on the 13th when I am back in business in the 'bao. Have a great Easter everyone!
jueves, 25 de marzo de 2010
Spring Break!
Can you believe it is already Spring Break time?? I can't, that's for sure. After this little 3 week hiatus I will only have ONE MONTH left in Espana. (!!!!)
That said, I'm not actually doing anything official for the next week, mostly because I a) don't want to spend too much money, and b) wasn't sure where to go last minute. I'm excited to stick around Bilbao though because the last weekend I spent in Bilbao was in February! So i think it's about time I spend some time with the locals, especially now that the kiddos think I'm hilarious(ly bad at Spanish) and there will be Easter parades all week for Semana Santa- what better way to learn about a country than watch some religious celebrations with booze!
Speaking of the kids/family, things are going super well these days. Marta and Esti have always been sop friendly and helpful, and now they really treat me like a member of the family with extra sarcasm, etc., but the biggest change so far is the kids' acceptance of me in the fam. They've started hugging me and greeting-yelling at me when I come home from long trips/days, and Telmo (the 5-year old and my new bfffl) has even started remembering things I like, how old I am, and how high I can count (it's kind of a big deal to him, he can only count a bit past 100, whereas I can count to a million! Yeah not infinity, at least not in Spanish). It's a pretty good feeling when I realize they are finally relaxed around me and I get to see/hear/live Spanish jokes and stories through these little developing personalities, especially with the parental commentary (I've learned many a command and sarcastic comment that way). They definitely still give me odd looks sometimes when I struggle through pronunciations (I will EVENTUALLY learn to roll my r's), but that hasn't stopped them from trying out embarrassing jokes on me, usually involving a play on words where I say some sort of bathroom word yet don't realize it- kinda like Spanish-nino hazing. Ah well I will take all the embarrassment and silliness with this family because they have honestly helped me improve not only my Spanish, but my new-situation/family coping skills tenfold. It makes a bit sad, too, to think that chances of them coming to America for any reason are pretty slim so I might not see them again for a long time, if not forever, but I guess that's all the more reason to come back to Spain. :)
As for Spring Break plans, the fam (Mom, Dad, Will, Catie, and Teej) come next Thursday when we will spend a day in Bilbao then fly off to Brussels to see where the rents were married/lived, as well as where Will was born. I'm pretty excited to have the whole family back where it all started at my parents' practically-medieval-it's-so-old church, I'm sure the family photo will be a backup Christmas card for years to come because of the story behind it. After a few days in Belgium we'll drive down to Paris where Pops will depart (big AAA plans) and the rest of the fam will stick around until Wednesday and then fly back to the States (bummer). THEN Linden is meeting me on Wednesday in Paris for some quick extra sightseeing and on Thursday we'll be whisked off to London for 5 days filled with sights, (supposedly awful) British food, possibly a day trip to Dublin, and finally my two favorite parts of the trip: ENGLISH AND STONEHENGE! Bahhh remember how psyched I was about the Aqueduct? Yeah Stonehenge is like a million times older and cooler than that so as you can imagine I am UBER PUMPED to touch some prehistoric rocks and do touristy cartwheels on the grass in front of the main circle while taking sweet picssss. Yeah, that's happening. I'll update anything exciting this week but if not, I will have a mega entry in two weeks all about my travels through Europe! A luego!
That said, I'm not actually doing anything official for the next week, mostly because I a) don't want to spend too much money, and b) wasn't sure where to go last minute. I'm excited to stick around Bilbao though because the last weekend I spent in Bilbao was in February! So i think it's about time I spend some time with the locals, especially now that the kiddos think I'm hilarious(ly bad at Spanish) and there will be Easter parades all week for Semana Santa- what better way to learn about a country than watch some religious celebrations with booze!
Speaking of the kids/family, things are going super well these days. Marta and Esti have always been sop friendly and helpful, and now they really treat me like a member of the family with extra sarcasm, etc., but the biggest change so far is the kids' acceptance of me in the fam. They've started hugging me and greeting-yelling at me when I come home from long trips/days, and Telmo (the 5-year old and my new bfffl) has even started remembering things I like, how old I am, and how high I can count (it's kind of a big deal to him, he can only count a bit past 100, whereas I can count to a million! Yeah not infinity, at least not in Spanish). It's a pretty good feeling when I realize they are finally relaxed around me and I get to see/hear/live Spanish jokes and stories through these little developing personalities, especially with the parental commentary (I've learned many a command and sarcastic comment that way). They definitely still give me odd looks sometimes when I struggle through pronunciations (I will EVENTUALLY learn to roll my r's), but that hasn't stopped them from trying out embarrassing jokes on me, usually involving a play on words where I say some sort of bathroom word yet don't realize it- kinda like Spanish-nino hazing. Ah well I will take all the embarrassment and silliness with this family because they have honestly helped me improve not only my Spanish, but my new-situation/family coping skills tenfold. It makes a bit sad, too, to think that chances of them coming to America for any reason are pretty slim so I might not see them again for a long time, if not forever, but I guess that's all the more reason to come back to Spain. :)
As for Spring Break plans, the fam (Mom, Dad, Will, Catie, and Teej) come next Thursday when we will spend a day in Bilbao then fly off to Brussels to see where the rents were married/lived, as well as where Will was born. I'm pretty excited to have the whole family back where it all started at my parents' practically-medieval-it's-so-old church, I'm sure the family photo will be a backup Christmas card for years to come because of the story behind it. After a few days in Belgium we'll drive down to Paris where Pops will depart (big AAA plans) and the rest of the fam will stick around until Wednesday and then fly back to the States (bummer). THEN Linden is meeting me on Wednesday in Paris for some quick extra sightseeing and on Thursday we'll be whisked off to London for 5 days filled with sights, (supposedly awful) British food, possibly a day trip to Dublin, and finally my two favorite parts of the trip: ENGLISH AND STONEHENGE! Bahhh remember how psyched I was about the Aqueduct? Yeah Stonehenge is like a million times older and cooler than that so as you can imagine I am UBER PUMPED to touch some prehistoric rocks and do touristy cartwheels on the grass in front of the main circle while taking sweet picssss. Yeah, that's happening. I'll update anything exciting this week but if not, I will have a mega entry in two weeks all about my travels through Europe! A luego!
lunes, 22 de marzo de 2010
The Real Camino de Santiago this time
So this weekend was the official journey along the Camino de Santiago, and it was a whirlwind of emotion to say the least. I guess the roller coaster metaphor would be a bit better, especially since the physical journey itself was practically a roller coaster the way we were constantly walking up and down mountains and coastlines. We started out in Portugalete at 7am, the town outside of Bilbao along the Bay of Biscay- it was great because we got to see the sunrise for the first time while in Bilbao. From there we walked 12km to La Arena along a paved bike path which wasn't too bad at all, and we even got to meet other walkers/see a bike race (as we were actually walking through it). 
Then we walked along the beach and up into the mountains where we followed the coastline for the rest of the day, until the pueblo of "Onton" where we started walking on the highway "nacional" that was more like an actual highway with guardrails and no sidewalks rather than a medieval walking path, but we made it work and actually had a blast risking our lives dodging traffic!
After that experience we passed through the other small towns and finally made it to Castro-Urdiales (with so much pain in our feet, we were limping pretty badly), a small port town that had a special albergue (a hostel only for pilgrims, or peregrinos en epsanol) that we had just to ourselves- literally, there wasn't even a guide staying with us or anything, we had the keys to the building (a very small 3 room ranch) so we came and went as we pleased.
This really just meant leaving once for dinner and then coming back at 8pm to crash into bed and lock ourselves in for the night, we were pooped. In total we walked 27km on Friday from Portugalete to Castro, which is about 17 miles give or take.
The next day we knew would be rough because we were supposed to make it to Laredo, the next biggest town between Santander (the capital of Cantabria) and Bilbao (the capital of Vizcaya), but it was a whopping 36km away! Yikes! Luckily, we had plenty of time the night before to rest our feet and take cold showers (against our will actually, I guess the water heater was about the size of 2 gallons of milk, TINY) because the warm water is also not very good for your skin when walking as it makes you more susceptible to blisters (fun fact about hiking!). We left at 8am because we knew how long we had to walk and how rainy and warm it was supposed to get (all the way to 68 degrees!) but luckily it was cloudy and breezy the whole day except when the beautiful sun would come out!
We started in a few small towns but then switched over to my favorite part of the trip, walking along the cliffs of the Altantic Ocean/Cantabrian Sea, like literally through pastures and only about 150ft. from falling into the ocean. So cool! We followed that back onto nacional after about 11km, this time with a big enough shoulder and almost no cars that we felt pretty safe, it was just pretty painful to walk on concrete again for so long! From there we turned away from the highways and into the valleys, fields, and mountains between Islares (another pueblo) and Laredo, which was now only about 22km away- easy peasy, right? WRONG. It was beautiful, don't get me wrong, but O.M.G. it was so painful to constantly be walking up and down hills (more than mountains, we actually climbed almost 245m) on uneven concrete and then dirt paths, and eventually we turned out of civilization altogether and walked through a eucalyptus forest and then beautiful but deserted valley (think full of animals and pastures but lacking a single human being) for the next 12km or so.
This was definitely the hardest part of the trip because we literally couldn't stop anywhere for help/rest/a lift because there was no one around for MILES, but it was also my second favorite part because we were only a few km away from the nearest town and yet it felt like we were discovering a whole new part of Spain, completely alone on a small dirt path that was barely big enough for a small car (or passing tractor, it happened once). In that valley we had a little picnic lunch on a close field, and it was pretty surreal- eating a PB&J (the easiest thing to make/pack) and watching some Spanish livestock under the sunny Spanish sky, with absolutely no noise except for the occasional ringing of bells around the necks of nearby goats. We could have time traveled and I wouldn't have been surprised.
We FINALLY left that valley and ended up in Liendo, a valley town that separated us from the the second mountain range we had to climb, this one much shorter but equally as far- about 11km until Laredo! At this point we were all in serious pain, Linden's toenails were about to fall off, Sarah's hips were so displaced I'm surprised she could still move her legs, and I thought (still thinking it, actually) I had a stress fracture in my right foot that was screaming in pain in every step. Luckily, once we saw that we were in the home stretch and would make it to Laredo in about 2 hours (it was almost 3 at this point), we cranked into high gear and pushed through the last bit of the trip to finally crest a small hill in an even smaller pubelo (some of these "pueblos" were really just 3 houses and a street with a real name/sign) and see the ocean, the beach, and civilization!
I say civilization here because although we had been traveling through little towns all weekend, the only signs of life we saw were the hundreds of dogs the Spaniards have- where was everybody?? Each town was like a ghost town, it was so creepy. Anyways, we walked down into Laredo and into one of the main plazas where the yellow arrows of the Camino magically led us right to our albergue (a convent this time) and even more magically, to our bus station about 1000ft away! There we stayed in Laredo after a victory meal of bocadillas and fruit until Sunday morning when we hopped on the next bus back to Bilbao and made it back home in a VERY DEPRESSING 50 MINUTES. Two days of traveling and almost 66km and we made it home before 10am. GRRRR.
But this whole trip did point out some very cool realizations for me: for starters and the most obvious to me, I couldn't believe we were able to walk on nearly the same path as millions, maybe billions of peregrinos from as far back as 1300! Oh history you are so cool you never cease to amaze me! Another cool thing about the whole weekend was that we only had a guidebook from 2004 and a pamphlet stating some albergues across northern Spain, yet we managed to walk so far with only small yellow spray painted arrows to guide us. I know the original route was a religious pilgrimage to see the body of St. James in Santiago itself (on the western coast), but I never thought I would need my own dose of faith in order to believe that there would be another arrow guiding the way to the next town and not off the cliffs into the sea or lost in the woods. There are groups (like the amigos de Santiago) who make it their mission to promote and maintain the Camino but it still amazes me that it is still so well maintained even after 700 years, even the lesser used northern route (what we did). This is done by the people of Spain who (and this brings up my final realization) not only remember and know the Camino routes and directions, but make it their mission to welcome the pilgrims they see and give them any advice they have about their journey. This happened to us the entire weekend, no matter who we stopped to ask for a quick dose of Spanish directions, they always led us in the right direction and then offered a simple piece of advice to make the Camino a bit easier. This is one of those times where I fall in love with Spain and even more so the PEOPLE of Spain once again, because we were obviously gringo/greenhorn Americans who had no clue which way was up for most of the journey, but they still loved talking to us and helping the peregrinos of the Camino stay strong and on track. Now I only wish I could have done the whole thing or at least the last 100km to Santiago, but we've already made a pack to complete before we die. So watch out Spain- these americanas will be back for more Camino!
Then we walked along the beach and up into the mountains where we followed the coastline for the rest of the day, until the pueblo of "Onton" where we started walking on the highway "nacional" that was more like an actual highway with guardrails and no sidewalks rather than a medieval walking path, but we made it work and actually had a blast risking our lives dodging traffic!
After that experience we passed through the other small towns and finally made it to Castro-Urdiales (with so much pain in our feet, we were limping pretty badly), a small port town that had a special albergue (a hostel only for pilgrims, or peregrinos en epsanol) that we had just to ourselves- literally, there wasn't even a guide staying with us or anything, we had the keys to the building (a very small 3 room ranch) so we came and went as we pleased.
This really just meant leaving once for dinner and then coming back at 8pm to crash into bed and lock ourselves in for the night, we were pooped. In total we walked 27km on Friday from Portugalete to Castro, which is about 17 miles give or take.
The next day we knew would be rough because we were supposed to make it to Laredo, the next biggest town between Santander (the capital of Cantabria) and Bilbao (the capital of Vizcaya), but it was a whopping 36km away! Yikes! Luckily, we had plenty of time the night before to rest our feet and take cold showers (against our will actually, I guess the water heater was about the size of 2 gallons of milk, TINY) because the warm water is also not very good for your skin when walking as it makes you more susceptible to blisters (fun fact about hiking!). We left at 8am because we knew how long we had to walk and how rainy and warm it was supposed to get (all the way to 68 degrees!) but luckily it was cloudy and breezy the whole day except when the beautiful sun would come out!
We started in a few small towns but then switched over to my favorite part of the trip, walking along the cliffs of the Altantic Ocean/Cantabrian Sea, like literally through pastures and only about 150ft. from falling into the ocean. So cool! We followed that back onto nacional after about 11km, this time with a big enough shoulder and almost no cars that we felt pretty safe, it was just pretty painful to walk on concrete again for so long! From there we turned away from the highways and into the valleys, fields, and mountains between Islares (another pueblo) and Laredo, which was now only about 22km away- easy peasy, right? WRONG. It was beautiful, don't get me wrong, but O.M.G. it was so painful to constantly be walking up and down hills (more than mountains, we actually climbed almost 245m) on uneven concrete and then dirt paths, and eventually we turned out of civilization altogether and walked through a eucalyptus forest and then beautiful but deserted valley (think full of animals and pastures but lacking a single human being) for the next 12km or so.
This was definitely the hardest part of the trip because we literally couldn't stop anywhere for help/rest/a lift because there was no one around for MILES, but it was also my second favorite part because we were only a few km away from the nearest town and yet it felt like we were discovering a whole new part of Spain, completely alone on a small dirt path that was barely big enough for a small car (or passing tractor, it happened once). In that valley we had a little picnic lunch on a close field, and it was pretty surreal- eating a PB&J (the easiest thing to make/pack) and watching some Spanish livestock under the sunny Spanish sky, with absolutely no noise except for the occasional ringing of bells around the necks of nearby goats. We could have time traveled and I wouldn't have been surprised.
We FINALLY left that valley and ended up in Liendo, a valley town that separated us from the the second mountain range we had to climb, this one much shorter but equally as far- about 11km until Laredo! At this point we were all in serious pain, Linden's toenails were about to fall off, Sarah's hips were so displaced I'm surprised she could still move her legs, and I thought (still thinking it, actually) I had a stress fracture in my right foot that was screaming in pain in every step. Luckily, once we saw that we were in the home stretch and would make it to Laredo in about 2 hours (it was almost 3 at this point), we cranked into high gear and pushed through the last bit of the trip to finally crest a small hill in an even smaller pubelo (some of these "pueblos" were really just 3 houses and a street with a real name/sign) and see the ocean, the beach, and civilization!
I say civilization here because although we had been traveling through little towns all weekend, the only signs of life we saw were the hundreds of dogs the Spaniards have- where was everybody?? Each town was like a ghost town, it was so creepy. Anyways, we walked down into Laredo and into one of the main plazas where the yellow arrows of the Camino magically led us right to our albergue (a convent this time) and even more magically, to our bus station about 1000ft away! There we stayed in Laredo after a victory meal of bocadillas and fruit until Sunday morning when we hopped on the next bus back to Bilbao and made it back home in a VERY DEPRESSING 50 MINUTES. Two days of traveling and almost 66km and we made it home before 10am. GRRRR.
But this whole trip did point out some very cool realizations for me: for starters and the most obvious to me, I couldn't believe we were able to walk on nearly the same path as millions, maybe billions of peregrinos from as far back as 1300! Oh history you are so cool you never cease to amaze me! Another cool thing about the whole weekend was that we only had a guidebook from 2004 and a pamphlet stating some albergues across northern Spain, yet we managed to walk so far with only small yellow spray painted arrows to guide us. I know the original route was a religious pilgrimage to see the body of St. James in Santiago itself (on the western coast), but I never thought I would need my own dose of faith in order to believe that there would be another arrow guiding the way to the next town and not off the cliffs into the sea or lost in the woods. There are groups (like the amigos de Santiago) who make it their mission to promote and maintain the Camino but it still amazes me that it is still so well maintained even after 700 years, even the lesser used northern route (what we did). This is done by the people of Spain who (and this brings up my final realization) not only remember and know the Camino routes and directions, but make it their mission to welcome the pilgrims they see and give them any advice they have about their journey. This happened to us the entire weekend, no matter who we stopped to ask for a quick dose of Spanish directions, they always led us in the right direction and then offered a simple piece of advice to make the Camino a bit easier. This is one of those times where I fall in love with Spain and even more so the PEOPLE of Spain once again, because we were obviously gringo/greenhorn Americans who had no clue which way was up for most of the journey, but they still loved talking to us and helping the peregrinos of the Camino stay strong and on track. Now I only wish I could have done the whole thing or at least the last 100km to Santiago, but we've already made a pack to complete before we die. So watch out Spain- these americanas will be back for more Camino!
miércoles, 17 de marzo de 2010
Camino de Santiago
Hola mis companeros. I wish you all could visit me this week because so far the weather has been GORGEOUS! Sunny and mid-60s all week with only a slight breeze (as opposed to the usual 40 degrees, "ciclona" (cyclone!) winds and RAIN), so I've been spending most of my free time outdoors soaking it all up. I even got some freckles today! (Perfect to celebrate St. Patrick's Day through my Irish heritage of transparent skin, no?)
My real story today is the adventure I am starting that is the Camino de Santiago, the medieval pilgrimage route through Spain to Compostela de Santiago, where the body of St. James (Santiago en Espanol) lies in the cathedral of the city (you can probs guess its name). As much as I would love to do the entire route del norte along the northern coast of Spain, it would take me over a month and I only have 4 days. THAT SAID, this weekend we (me, Sarah, and Linden) are partaking in a small piece of the Camino puzzle from Portugalete, in the port of the river that flows to Bilbao, to Laredo, a town about 80km away. That means we'll be walking about 50 miles over the span of 3 days! It sounds tough to me but I'm excited for the challenge, especially for the parts of the camino that trace along the northern beaches!
Funny story about getting out "pasaportes de peregrino", or our Pilgrim Passports, which allow us to stay in particular albergues (hostels) for free/donations. It started when we found out there was a little bar that hosted a "Friends of the Camino" center inside, but only on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7-9pm. Kinda weird. Then we went to go find it, and of course it's in the shady neighborhood where, shall we say, "ladies of the night" enjoy spending their time. Awkward. Especially awkward because we couldn't actually find it at first until we asked someone for directions, and then they led us to a shady Elks-type bar literally filled with trophies, poker tables, and about 30 old men playing cards with a cigarette in one hand and a beer on the table. As it turns out, the "friends" of the Camino are really just 8 or so old men who volunteer their time explaining and guiding peregrinos about the Camino from the back room in their little bar. Surreal! So there we were, sitting at a poker player surrounded by old locals in a cloud of smoke and the guide was asking us about which routes we wanted, the albergues available, how long we were traveling, etc. It kind of felt like we were buying shady insurance under the table or something, like I said: surreal. We finally got our pasaportes and a guide book that actually describes the routes via a physical map (as opposed to the hand-drawn maps on the pasaportes or the generic "this is the Camino" map that shows the 10 or so different routes throughout all of Spain), so as of today I am finally not so worried about the route itself or finding places to sleep, but now it's the hiking that troubles me. I'm sure it will be tough at points (like the point in the route where we must climb 263m, one of the higher climbs along the entire Northern Camino), but the ocean views and great temps will probably sway any doubts I have about doing the Camino in general, and I can't wait to post some pictures of the true Spanish countryside! We've got our trail mix (haha it's actually relevant for our trail travels), our hiking shoes, our backpacks, I think we're prepared. Wish us luck!
My real story today is the adventure I am starting that is the Camino de Santiago, the medieval pilgrimage route through Spain to Compostela de Santiago, where the body of St. James (Santiago en Espanol) lies in the cathedral of the city (you can probs guess its name). As much as I would love to do the entire route del norte along the northern coast of Spain, it would take me over a month and I only have 4 days. THAT SAID, this weekend we (me, Sarah, and Linden) are partaking in a small piece of the Camino puzzle from Portugalete, in the port of the river that flows to Bilbao, to Laredo, a town about 80km away. That means we'll be walking about 50 miles over the span of 3 days! It sounds tough to me but I'm excited for the challenge, especially for the parts of the camino that trace along the northern beaches!
Funny story about getting out "pasaportes de peregrino", or our Pilgrim Passports, which allow us to stay in particular albergues (hostels) for free/donations. It started when we found out there was a little bar that hosted a "Friends of the Camino" center inside, but only on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7-9pm. Kinda weird. Then we went to go find it, and of course it's in the shady neighborhood where, shall we say, "ladies of the night" enjoy spending their time. Awkward. Especially awkward because we couldn't actually find it at first until we asked someone for directions, and then they led us to a shady Elks-type bar literally filled with trophies, poker tables, and about 30 old men playing cards with a cigarette in one hand and a beer on the table. As it turns out, the "friends" of the Camino are really just 8 or so old men who volunteer their time explaining and guiding peregrinos about the Camino from the back room in their little bar. Surreal! So there we were, sitting at a poker player surrounded by old locals in a cloud of smoke and the guide was asking us about which routes we wanted, the albergues available, how long we were traveling, etc. It kind of felt like we were buying shady insurance under the table or something, like I said: surreal. We finally got our pasaportes and a guide book that actually describes the routes via a physical map (as opposed to the hand-drawn maps on the pasaportes or the generic "this is the Camino" map that shows the 10 or so different routes throughout all of Spain), so as of today I am finally not so worried about the route itself or finding places to sleep, but now it's the hiking that troubles me. I'm sure it will be tough at points (like the point in the route where we must climb 263m, one of the higher climbs along the entire Northern Camino), but the ocean views and great temps will probably sway any doubts I have about doing the Camino in general, and I can't wait to post some pictures of the true Spanish countryside! We've got our trail mix (haha it's actually relevant for our trail travels), our hiking shoes, our backpacks, I think we're prepared. Wish us luck!
domingo, 14 de marzo de 2010
La Rioja and Vitoria, Spain
Gah! I will take it as a good sign that my weeks are catching up to me so fast that I can barely keep updating this lil' blog more than once a week! But lucky for you readers I have plenty of fun stories about my weekend.
A quick update on my regular life here in the 'bao, we just finished "midterms", if you can call the two one-page tests we had midterms. They still required studying and reviewing of course but they were not the psycho midterms I am used to back at FU, thankfully. The fam is pretty good, Marta had a little pneumonia spell two months ago that is coming back with the communal cold the family has been sharing for a week now, so she was stuck in bed this weekend but is currently in some passionate argument with her mother about something so I think she is feeling much better already. Also, weather has been awful lately, it seems when it is beautiful here it is crappy in the states and then vice versa, so my allergies are going CrAzY right now with all of the pressure and temp adjustments even just throughout the day! Ah well, when in Rome.
Now to the weekend! It started with a lunch date out to El Churro Loco, a Mexican restaurant near the Gugg that had a pretty inexpensive menu del dia for THE BEST vegetarian burrito I've had in a while. I only bought a vegetarian burrito because I knew I would be eating a massive plate of chocolate crepes and then wine later (on the wine tour, keep reading..) so maybe I should try and eat SOME veggies during the week, right? Eh, it may have been a lost cause since I also downed a plate of nachos covered in cheese to myself. Ah well. Back to the timeline, we then booked it over to San Mames bus station to catch the 3:15pm (15:15pm lols) bus to Haro, La Rioja, one of the autonomous communities of Spain (just think of them like the states, with "counties" in some and just cities in others, oh and some are violently terrorizing the capital cities in order to have establish their autonomy as its own country, no biggie).
It was a quick ride, only about an hour or so, and the views were increibles! Once we came around the final mountain passes in La Rioja, the bodegas (vineyards) opened up and and spread across these valley/plains with the huge Pyrenees behind them- so awesome! We made it to Haro and after only a couple wrong turns found ourselves on Bodega Boulevard where there were quite a number of old and new bodegas, all with their own vineyards and brands. Our bodega was called Roda and was relatively new, but it was pretty cool because it mixed the super old school technique of oak barrels (French style, apparently) with these high-tech mashing and fermenting systems. We got to try one of the reserves, and it was decent but the best part was trying some olive oil from Mallorca, an island in Balearic Islands. It tasted like kiwi to me (other peeps said bananas), but not in a gross way, in a very light and fresh way- a bought a bottle for the rents to try with their little dipping bowls so I can't wait to give them that present!
After our tour was over we went back to the city to catch the bus back and grab a drink. I wanted to be fun and daring so I tried an "Irish coffee", and go figure it isn't made with those little "Irish Coffee" creamers or even Baileys for that matter: it was straight up espresso, cream, and Jameson ewwwww. I could barely drink half of it, but at least I can say I tried it? Ugh maybe I'll just stick with "vino tinto, por favor" from now on.
The town was so adorable, it was super tiny and had all these crazy huge egret-type birds swooping about, and making these ginormous nests on every building. It was kind of like Jurassic Park, actually, so that was neat. And then the bus back to Bilbao was nearly empty so I got to sit right behind the driver (almost creepily, at one point I was hovering directly over his left shoulder...) and watch him drive through the crazy mountain passes and European traffic. Did you know those Greyhound buses have 8 gears? 8! And they also go up to 160km an hour, which is really only like 90 mph but that's still bookin it for a bus.
After passing out early on Friday night, I woke up Saturday and went to Vitoria with Linden for a capital-city adventure. In case you didn't know, which I'm sure most of you don't because even I didn't know Euskadi (Pais Vasco) even existed before coming to Europe, Vitoria is the capital of Euskadi, which is made up of three provinces (one being Vizcaya and it's capital, Bilbao). So we thought it was necessary to see where all these Pais Vasco and ETA (nationalist party) rantings go down. It turns out Vitoria is as small, if not smaller than Bilbao, so we navigated the entire city, including a sit-down meal, in about 3.5 hours.
It was still pretty fun though, so far all of the towns we've visited are either super old in its entirety or else have a Casco Viejo (old quarter, remember?) that has buildings over 150 years old, AT LEAST. So we found that area first and checked out the famous church (under construction, kind of boring), the four towers of that church and the other three churches a few blocks away, and the medieval wall! Too bad the medieval wall is such a tourism fail because the map we had marked it down in the middle of nowhere, except possibly on top of a cat refugee camp thing. Super weird, it just had all the stray cats of Casco Viejo living in an open pit (full of medieval walls, LAME) with cat toys, little houses, etc. No comprendo.
BUT, it was still a great weekend, I've really come to enjoy taking day trips to little cities and pueblos around Bilbao instead of those big (and expensive, ka-CHING) Euro-trips to other major cities and countries. The history buff in me is loving the small towns in Northern Spain almost more than the bigger ones mostly because of the people there. Both times, in Haro and Vitoria, we got lost and needed to ask for directions (the grid pattern wasn't too big in medieval times, I guess), and BOTH TIMES a very friendly Spaniard came up to us and asked what it was we needed to know, and then actually led us in the right direction! They of course spoke no English so the entire conversation in itself was a mini-victory for my Spanish speaking skills, but it goes to show you that the people in these towns are the same people from this place, minus 300 years. They all know each other and go to the local pub to play cards or watch each other's kids, and even the stores themselves have a longer history than my own immediate family. It's great that they all seem so eager to help the blatant tourists find their way around their small towns, and it just makes me love Spain that much more. Of course, this means getting lost in NYC will be a nasty shock when I go to ask someone directions and they spit on my shoes or try and sell me a fake ID or something, but I think I'll just try to enjoy this welcoming atmosphere here as long as possible.
A quick update on my regular life here in the 'bao, we just finished "midterms", if you can call the two one-page tests we had midterms. They still required studying and reviewing of course but they were not the psycho midterms I am used to back at FU, thankfully. The fam is pretty good, Marta had a little pneumonia spell two months ago that is coming back with the communal cold the family has been sharing for a week now, so she was stuck in bed this weekend but is currently in some passionate argument with her mother about something so I think she is feeling much better already. Also, weather has been awful lately, it seems when it is beautiful here it is crappy in the states and then vice versa, so my allergies are going CrAzY right now with all of the pressure and temp adjustments even just throughout the day! Ah well, when in Rome.
Now to the weekend! It started with a lunch date out to El Churro Loco, a Mexican restaurant near the Gugg that had a pretty inexpensive menu del dia for THE BEST vegetarian burrito I've had in a while. I only bought a vegetarian burrito because I knew I would be eating a massive plate of chocolate crepes and then wine later (on the wine tour, keep reading..) so maybe I should try and eat SOME veggies during the week, right? Eh, it may have been a lost cause since I also downed a plate of nachos covered in cheese to myself. Ah well. Back to the timeline, we then booked it over to San Mames bus station to catch the 3:15pm (15:15pm lols) bus to Haro, La Rioja, one of the autonomous communities of Spain (just think of them like the states, with "counties" in some and just cities in others, oh and some are violently terrorizing the capital cities in order to have establish their autonomy as its own country, no biggie).
It was a quick ride, only about an hour or so, and the views were increibles! Once we came around the final mountain passes in La Rioja, the bodegas (vineyards) opened up and and spread across these valley/plains with the huge Pyrenees behind them- so awesome! We made it to Haro and after only a couple wrong turns found ourselves on Bodega Boulevard where there were quite a number of old and new bodegas, all with their own vineyards and brands. Our bodega was called Roda and was relatively new, but it was pretty cool because it mixed the super old school technique of oak barrels (French style, apparently) with these high-tech mashing and fermenting systems. We got to try one of the reserves, and it was decent but the best part was trying some olive oil from Mallorca, an island in Balearic Islands. It tasted like kiwi to me (other peeps said bananas), but not in a gross way, in a very light and fresh way- a bought a bottle for the rents to try with their little dipping bowls so I can't wait to give them that present!
After our tour was over we went back to the city to catch the bus back and grab a drink. I wanted to be fun and daring so I tried an "Irish coffee", and go figure it isn't made with those little "Irish Coffee" creamers or even Baileys for that matter: it was straight up espresso, cream, and Jameson ewwwww. I could barely drink half of it, but at least I can say I tried it? Ugh maybe I'll just stick with "vino tinto, por favor" from now on.
The town was so adorable, it was super tiny and had all these crazy huge egret-type birds swooping about, and making these ginormous nests on every building. It was kind of like Jurassic Park, actually, so that was neat. And then the bus back to Bilbao was nearly empty so I got to sit right behind the driver (almost creepily, at one point I was hovering directly over his left shoulder...) and watch him drive through the crazy mountain passes and European traffic. Did you know those Greyhound buses have 8 gears? 8! And they also go up to 160km an hour, which is really only like 90 mph but that's still bookin it for a bus.
After passing out early on Friday night, I woke up Saturday and went to Vitoria with Linden for a capital-city adventure. In case you didn't know, which I'm sure most of you don't because even I didn't know Euskadi (Pais Vasco) even existed before coming to Europe, Vitoria is the capital of Euskadi, which is made up of three provinces (one being Vizcaya and it's capital, Bilbao). So we thought it was necessary to see where all these Pais Vasco and ETA (nationalist party) rantings go down. It turns out Vitoria is as small, if not smaller than Bilbao, so we navigated the entire city, including a sit-down meal, in about 3.5 hours.
It was still pretty fun though, so far all of the towns we've visited are either super old in its entirety or else have a Casco Viejo (old quarter, remember?) that has buildings over 150 years old, AT LEAST. So we found that area first and checked out the famous church (under construction, kind of boring), the four towers of that church and the other three churches a few blocks away, and the medieval wall! Too bad the medieval wall is such a tourism fail because the map we had marked it down in the middle of nowhere, except possibly on top of a cat refugee camp thing. Super weird, it just had all the stray cats of Casco Viejo living in an open pit (full of medieval walls, LAME) with cat toys, little houses, etc. No comprendo.
BUT, it was still a great weekend, I've really come to enjoy taking day trips to little cities and pueblos around Bilbao instead of those big (and expensive, ka-CHING) Euro-trips to other major cities and countries. The history buff in me is loving the small towns in Northern Spain almost more than the bigger ones mostly because of the people there. Both times, in Haro and Vitoria, we got lost and needed to ask for directions (the grid pattern wasn't too big in medieval times, I guess), and BOTH TIMES a very friendly Spaniard came up to us and asked what it was we needed to know, and then actually led us in the right direction! They of course spoke no English so the entire conversation in itself was a mini-victory for my Spanish speaking skills, but it goes to show you that the people in these towns are the same people from this place, minus 300 years. They all know each other and go to the local pub to play cards or watch each other's kids, and even the stores themselves have a longer history than my own immediate family. It's great that they all seem so eager to help the blatant tourists find their way around their small towns, and it just makes me love Spain that much more. Of course, this means getting lost in NYC will be a nasty shock when I go to ask someone directions and they spit on my shoes or try and sell me a fake ID or something, but I think I'll just try to enjoy this welcoming atmosphere here as long as possible.
lunes, 8 de marzo de 2010
Weekend travels in Madrid and Segovia
Well this past weekend was the last CIDE excursion for the semester (and my life in Spain!) and we traveled by bus to Madrid and Segovia from Friday to Sunday. It was a pretty crazy trip, action-packed with history, culture, stories, new people- it was amazing! We did hit quite a few bumps along the way, but all in all it was definitely worth going and seeing the third biggest city in Europe, awesome.
Things started out rough when we were supposed to meet at the bus station at 8am and when I arrived at 7:55, I realized I didn't have my passport or even my passport copy, thus making me unable to go! Bah! Luckily, I only live about 5 blocks away from the station so I was allowed to literally sprint back to the apartment and fetch my passport (and later my camera, which I also forgot- I am the worst tourist ever). I barely made it back to the bus by 8:17, only 5 minutes or so after the departure time, with only some trouble breathing and an embarrassing walk of shame down the bus aisle upon my return. (It actually worked out in our favor because some poor kid didn't set his alarm and barely made it sprinting to the bus at a stop light to hop on, so if I wasn't an idiot he would never have been able to go! Ah fate.) The bus ride was fine, about 5 hours with a short stop somewhere along the way, I honestly had no idea where, and then we arrived to a very rainy and kind of gross Madrid! It was HUGE but still had all the old skool charm of European cities so I was instantly happy to be there. Immediately we checked into the hotels, had lunch, then were whisked away for a bus tour of the major city sights like the government buildings, Palacio Real, Plaza Mayor, etc. That afternoon we had some free time so we decided to visit the Reina Sofia and see some modern art and the Guernica mural by Picasso because we had seen it in the actual city of Guernica so it only made sense. It was alright, not my favorite but the Dalis were pretty wicked.
The next day, Saturday, we got up early and departed around 10 for Segovia, a little city about an hour outside of Madrid. It was so beautiful just driving there because we went though snowy mountains, grassy plains, sunny deserts- it was like watching Planet Earth from inside the bus!
Once we got there we started walking around the city until we came upon my new favorite sightseeing place in the world, THE AQUEDUCT. It was so much bigger than I expected and at the same time, so much smaller and more accessible to the people of the city. It didn't look a day over 2000 years old and when I finally ran up to it and hugged it/held back my tears of shear excitement, joy, and awe, I realized that it epitomized why I love history so much, and now Spain just as much.
It all got better when we went to a real castle (Alcazar) that connected to the aqueduct system and I got to stand on the top tower and see literally all of Spain at my feet. Ah I love Spain and history and the combo of them both was just overwhelming! If chorizo had been present I would have died on the spot, like my camera did from sheer beauty-overload. And a dead battery.
When we returned to Madrid for the afternoon Linden and I visited an Egyptian temple that was donated by Egypt to Spain for its help in moving the pyramids and temples away from the Nile after building a new dam. It was funny because it looked so familiar and then I realized I had seen one of its two brothers in the Met in NYC several times already! What a small world. :) Then the epic night of Madrid-outings began. It started with getting locked out of our room because somehow the lock jammed and permanently locked our door from the inside so we had to get the manager every time we wanted to go into our room, bah what a pain. Then, we decided late to go out and about and literally ending up running to the metro before it closed at 1:30am to catch the last train, only to have two girls force their way into our swipes and almost get Linden sent to jail by security. Oh boy we barely talked/paid our way out of that one, only to then get caught in one of the busiest metros I've ever seen! The entire car (and every car) was so packed they had to stop the train and force people out because it was too heavy. Then, when we suddenly realized it was our stop, we struggled to push ourselves through the crowds to exit the car when the doors squished me like a bug and did NOT budge. Between sounds of gasps and "Oh Dios mio" from the rest of the passengers, I was finally PULLED out but poor Linden was stuck on board, so she had to get off later and take a cab to our stop! Ridiculous, and we haven't even GONE out yet. To top it all off, the bars all closed at 2 (it was 2:15 at this point) so we were without bars to bar-hop to, and when we finally found a bar/discoteca that would take us, we got kicked out because those SAME GIRLS brought in outside booze and got the whole party ejected. MADRID PARTY FAIL. Needless to say, we attempted to look for another bar fruitlessly (although we did find the gay-hangout of Madrid and one girl in our party saw her first transvestite, not a complete fail!) so we headed home around 3am.
Our wake-up call was at 7:45am so that was unfortunate, especially given the exciting night before, but it was fine because everyone else seemed to have equally awesome/late nights (some went to Capital, the 7-story discoteca, and returned at 7AM!!) so we were all in the same boat. We left for the Museo del Prado and it was probs my second favorite part of Madrid- I had no idea how many famous paintings were there! What a great surprise for me! It was beautiful and tiring but we finally made it to a quick lunch at the hotel and then the 5-hour bus ride back to Bilbao, where everyone slept peacefully on the bus.
Things started out rough when we were supposed to meet at the bus station at 8am and when I arrived at 7:55, I realized I didn't have my passport or even my passport copy, thus making me unable to go! Bah! Luckily, I only live about 5 blocks away from the station so I was allowed to literally sprint back to the apartment and fetch my passport (and later my camera, which I also forgot- I am the worst tourist ever). I barely made it back to the bus by 8:17, only 5 minutes or so after the departure time, with only some trouble breathing and an embarrassing walk of shame down the bus aisle upon my return. (It actually worked out in our favor because some poor kid didn't set his alarm and barely made it sprinting to the bus at a stop light to hop on, so if I wasn't an idiot he would never have been able to go! Ah fate.) The bus ride was fine, about 5 hours with a short stop somewhere along the way, I honestly had no idea where, and then we arrived to a very rainy and kind of gross Madrid! It was HUGE but still had all the old skool charm of European cities so I was instantly happy to be there. Immediately we checked into the hotels, had lunch, then were whisked away for a bus tour of the major city sights like the government buildings, Palacio Real, Plaza Mayor, etc. That afternoon we had some free time so we decided to visit the Reina Sofia and see some modern art and the Guernica mural by Picasso because we had seen it in the actual city of Guernica so it only made sense. It was alright, not my favorite but the Dalis were pretty wicked.
The next day, Saturday, we got up early and departed around 10 for Segovia, a little city about an hour outside of Madrid. It was so beautiful just driving there because we went though snowy mountains, grassy plains, sunny deserts- it was like watching Planet Earth from inside the bus!
Once we got there we started walking around the city until we came upon my new favorite sightseeing place in the world, THE AQUEDUCT. It was so much bigger than I expected and at the same time, so much smaller and more accessible to the people of the city. It didn't look a day over 2000 years old and when I finally ran up to it and hugged it/held back my tears of shear excitement, joy, and awe, I realized that it epitomized why I love history so much, and now Spain just as much.
It all got better when we went to a real castle (Alcazar) that connected to the aqueduct system and I got to stand on the top tower and see literally all of Spain at my feet. Ah I love Spain and history and the combo of them both was just overwhelming! If chorizo had been present I would have died on the spot, like my camera did from sheer beauty-overload. And a dead battery.
When we returned to Madrid for the afternoon Linden and I visited an Egyptian temple that was donated by Egypt to Spain for its help in moving the pyramids and temples away from the Nile after building a new dam. It was funny because it looked so familiar and then I realized I had seen one of its two brothers in the Met in NYC several times already! What a small world. :) Then the epic night of Madrid-outings began. It started with getting locked out of our room because somehow the lock jammed and permanently locked our door from the inside so we had to get the manager every time we wanted to go into our room, bah what a pain. Then, we decided late to go out and about and literally ending up running to the metro before it closed at 1:30am to catch the last train, only to have two girls force their way into our swipes and almost get Linden sent to jail by security. Oh boy we barely talked/paid our way out of that one, only to then get caught in one of the busiest metros I've ever seen! The entire car (and every car) was so packed they had to stop the train and force people out because it was too heavy. Then, when we suddenly realized it was our stop, we struggled to push ourselves through the crowds to exit the car when the doors squished me like a bug and did NOT budge. Between sounds of gasps and "Oh Dios mio" from the rest of the passengers, I was finally PULLED out but poor Linden was stuck on board, so she had to get off later and take a cab to our stop! Ridiculous, and we haven't even GONE out yet. To top it all off, the bars all closed at 2 (it was 2:15 at this point) so we were without bars to bar-hop to, and when we finally found a bar/discoteca that would take us, we got kicked out because those SAME GIRLS brought in outside booze and got the whole party ejected. MADRID PARTY FAIL. Needless to say, we attempted to look for another bar fruitlessly (although we did find the gay-hangout of Madrid and one girl in our party saw her first transvestite, not a complete fail!) so we headed home around 3am.
Our wake-up call was at 7:45am so that was unfortunate, especially given the exciting night before, but it was fine because everyone else seemed to have equally awesome/late nights (some went to Capital, the 7-story discoteca, and returned at 7AM!!) so we were all in the same boat. We left for the Museo del Prado and it was probs my second favorite part of Madrid- I had no idea how many famous paintings were there! What a great surprise for me! It was beautiful and tiring but we finally made it to a quick lunch at the hotel and then the 5-hour bus ride back to Bilbao, where everyone slept peacefully on the bus.
lunes, 1 de marzo de 2010
I'm a Spanish BAMF
So today I had to buy a new nose ring because the one I had in was not the best quality and the little diamond fell out, and of course I never thought to bring replacements. So I went to this tough-looking tattoo parlor near the school and ask for a new "aro de la nariz" (nose ring) and we had this 5-minute convo about rings and studs and colors and blah it was so tough! They definitely don't teach you how to say those words in Spanish classes, so it was a great feeling to walk out of there having actually shopped around/ask for advice about different nose-jewelry and not just buying whichever one I found first. I ended up getting a new sterling silver legit one so it should last a while. HOWEVER, this good feeling quickly dissolved when I got home and realized the nose ring itself was almost twice as thick as my old one, making me gauge my own nose in order to fit it- maybe this is TMI, but now I REALLY feel like a BAMF because I pretty much had to re-pierce my nose and it hurrtttttt. Oh boy at least I feel edgy or something.
Just to go over the weekend I had, Saturday was spent indoors fighting off the "code rojo" windstorm that was supposed to produce 150 km.hr winds but actually it only turned out to be around 80, which is still rough but not too bad. It was a pain though because my host family thought it'd be best to stay inside all day so I didn't get to do anything all day! But I made up for it on Sunday because the whole family went for a nice walk to Deusto where the rest of the family lives (they all live within walking distance of each other, with the exception of my family's father who lives about 20 min. away driving). There we had some pintxos, cervezas, and then a huge family lunch/dinner at 3:30 where Marta and her sister-in-law had a very heated discussion about schools and kids or something. They talk fast enough everyday anyways, so I could barely hear their arguments during that luncheon to explain what the eff was going on. These peeps are pretty passionate people (even their initial greeting goes straight to kissing on the cheek!) so their little lunch time discussions usually turn into screaming matches where everyone talks at once. Needless to say I went home early with a headache from trying to translate and comprehend 4 different Spaniards at once for 2.5 hours. At least it's been sunny and warm all week so I got to walk home the long way and enjoy some of the sights in the sun! This week is pretty exciting, too, because not only will the weather stay relatively calm, but we are going to Madrid on Friday for the weekend! I'll definitely be posting pictures and info after the trip, so look forward to it!
Just to go over the weekend I had, Saturday was spent indoors fighting off the "code rojo" windstorm that was supposed to produce 150 km.hr winds but actually it only turned out to be around 80, which is still rough but not too bad. It was a pain though because my host family thought it'd be best to stay inside all day so I didn't get to do anything all day! But I made up for it on Sunday because the whole family went for a nice walk to Deusto where the rest of the family lives (they all live within walking distance of each other, with the exception of my family's father who lives about 20 min. away driving). There we had some pintxos, cervezas, and then a huge family lunch/dinner at 3:30 where Marta and her sister-in-law had a very heated discussion about schools and kids or something. They talk fast enough everyday anyways, so I could barely hear their arguments during that luncheon to explain what the eff was going on. These peeps are pretty passionate people (even their initial greeting goes straight to kissing on the cheek!) so their little lunch time discussions usually turn into screaming matches where everyone talks at once. Needless to say I went home early with a headache from trying to translate and comprehend 4 different Spaniards at once for 2.5 hours. At least it's been sunny and warm all week so I got to walk home the long way and enjoy some of the sights in the sun! This week is pretty exciting, too, because not only will the weather stay relatively calm, but we are going to Madrid on Friday for the weekend! I'll definitely be posting pictures and info after the trip, so look forward to it!
viernes, 26 de febrero de 2010
Bicicletas y el restaurante chino
Well today was another FABULOUS Friday, I spent the day all over Bilbao and spent hardly any money enjoying the beautiful day! It began with the surprise breakfast for Marta which was pretty early but pretty delicious, with tortilla (the first time I've had eggs for breakfast since arriving here) and croissants and hot coffeeeeee yum! Then, I met up with Linden for some more coffee (the american sized huge coffee cups) and shopping, and actually bought a little Basque pendant for my necklace so I can remember this trip! In case I won't remember that I lived here for 4 months and practically mastered Spanish here, I'll have a little silver charm!
After the coffee break we kept walking around, buying souvenirs and getting some touristy shopping done so we could stay out in the nice weather (it was 65 and sunny all day!). Afterwards we returned to my casa for lunch with Marta and Esti around 3 and had a pretty great 2 hour discussion about Americans and Spanish/traveling/culture, it was so fun! We felt pretty fluent, especially after Esti insulted Americans and we were semi-able to dissuade her. Finally, we went back to Casco Viejo around 5 to partake in my new FAVORITE activity, biking around the city for FREE! It was so great, we rented two bikes, rode all the way through Bilbao and up to Sarriko where there is an architectural metro station or something, and then back down to the city, all during a beautiful sunset and perfect temps. Oh boy, I think I'm in love.
To top it all off, we returned to the casa where Linden left and the family and I went out to dinner for Marta's birthday to a Chinese-Spanish restaurant. Weird combo, I know, and actually awful. Hahah the experience was pretty great in itself because it was my first dinner outing with the whole family, but the food was terrible! God I miss New York Chinese take-out, the won ton soup here was like lettuce floating in water-diluted soy sauce, the noodles were bland, and the chicken fried rice was just lacking. HOWEVER, they did have this amazing "chinese bread" that is pretty much FRIED bread, like a funnel cake. The best part of the meal was watching my own family's social skills sort of break down in public- for example, Telmo, the 5-year old cutie patootey, had a pretty bad cold so he was drugged up on cough meds and kept falling asleep on benches. Pobre chico. Then, after a round of cokes for the kiddos, he was back on top of his game so much though that after a verse or four of "We Are the Champions", he slammed his glass down and it broke in his hand, forcing a small "Uh oh" from his little mouth. Still adorable. And he was fine, just chuckled it off. THEN, he decided to become a drummer with his chopsticks and after a few songs he jammed a little too hard and one half of the chopsticks flew across the table, hitting my own glass and landing in my lap. Needless to say, he was probably feeling better but has not eaten outside of the house much. Sara also tends to have chair problems, in the sense that she can't sit properly on a chair to say her life. Thus, many dinners are spent laughing at her as she falls completely off the chair, usually taking it down with her with a terrified look on her face. Hahah oh it makes me smile just thinking about it now, poor Meg.
Anywho, the whole day was a blast and I plan on spending most of my Fridays like this if possible. Between the FREE bikes and the beautiful weather, Bilbao is very quickly becoming one of my favorite places in Europe, although I haven't really visited many other countries so that's not really saying much. :)
After the coffee break we kept walking around, buying souvenirs and getting some touristy shopping done so we could stay out in the nice weather (it was 65 and sunny all day!). Afterwards we returned to my casa for lunch with Marta and Esti around 3 and had a pretty great 2 hour discussion about Americans and Spanish/traveling/culture, it was so fun! We felt pretty fluent, especially after Esti insulted Americans and we were semi-able to dissuade her. Finally, we went back to Casco Viejo around 5 to partake in my new FAVORITE activity, biking around the city for FREE! It was so great, we rented two bikes, rode all the way through Bilbao and up to Sarriko where there is an architectural metro station or something, and then back down to the city, all during a beautiful sunset and perfect temps. Oh boy, I think I'm in love.
To top it all off, we returned to the casa where Linden left and the family and I went out to dinner for Marta's birthday to a Chinese-Spanish restaurant. Weird combo, I know, and actually awful. Hahah the experience was pretty great in itself because it was my first dinner outing with the whole family, but the food was terrible! God I miss New York Chinese take-out, the won ton soup here was like lettuce floating in water-diluted soy sauce, the noodles were bland, and the chicken fried rice was just lacking. HOWEVER, they did have this amazing "chinese bread" that is pretty much FRIED bread, like a funnel cake. The best part of the meal was watching my own family's social skills sort of break down in public- for example, Telmo, the 5-year old cutie patootey, had a pretty bad cold so he was drugged up on cough meds and kept falling asleep on benches. Pobre chico. Then, after a round of cokes for the kiddos, he was back on top of his game so much though that after a verse or four of "We Are the Champions", he slammed his glass down and it broke in his hand, forcing a small "Uh oh" from his little mouth. Still adorable. And he was fine, just chuckled it off. THEN, he decided to become a drummer with his chopsticks and after a few songs he jammed a little too hard and one half of the chopsticks flew across the table, hitting my own glass and landing in my lap. Needless to say, he was probably feeling better but has not eaten outside of the house much. Sara also tends to have chair problems, in the sense that she can't sit properly on a chair to say her life. Thus, many dinners are spent laughing at her as she falls completely off the chair, usually taking it down with her with a terrified look on her face. Hahah oh it makes me smile just thinking about it now, poor Meg.
Anywho, the whole day was a blast and I plan on spending most of my Fridays like this if possible. Between the FREE bikes and the beautiful weather, Bilbao is very quickly becoming one of my favorite places in Europe, although I haven't really visited many other countries so that's not really saying much. :)
jueves, 25 de febrero de 2010
El tiempo
Oy vey I apologize for the spans of time without posts recently- the weather has suddenly turned and spring is here! All week we've had weather in the upper teens (in celsius, so think 50s-60s), so everyone's been out and about doing everything they can out of the casa. Mostly that means walking the dog more often and watching the kids scooter in the streets (causing me a heart attack but no biggie for anyone else, no comprendo). Today I was able to sit outside of the Guggenheim on some benches and do some tarea before my next classes, it was the quintessential study-abroad-in-Bilbao moment, too bad I didn't have my camera!
HOWEVER, this doesn't mean Bilbao has lost it's bipolar-tiempo ways, as most mornings it will either be sunny and gorgeous or rainy and dreary (but still warm) and by 2pm the weather is the exact opposite! It's very strange, maybe it's the crazy winds that just push all weather through the city much more quickly, or else it's the Basque peeps trying to reinforce what a powerful autonomy they are so they are constantly keeping you on your toes with weather patterns. That's the most likely explanation.
School is still great, not much homework and I've only had one test (they focus more on midterms and finals than periodic testing, I think), so I really can't complain about anything there. The fam is doing well, it's Marta's b-day tomorrow so the kiddos, Esti and I are making her a surprise "desayuno en la cama" (b-fast in bed). That should be pretty fun because I haven't been able to cook anything yet so maybe I will learn some Spanish tricks to bring home (besides frying everything in egg to make it taste better, I have definitely gotten used to that treat). Then I'm going out to wander the streets of the city until I find Coffee Break, the godsend coffee shop that is my new weekend activity. That way I can soak up some sun, drink some cafe americano, enjoy some people watching- another great weekend!
Oh I almost forgot to mention before, but my Basque Language and Culture class is apparently exactly that- not so much the history of culture/language or the economic/political views on Basque country, but we are literally celebrating the cultural events of the Basques and then learning to speak a little Euskera. HOLY COW! I've only learned some numbers, colors, and phrases right now but the goal by the end of the semester is to present a small paragraph/conversation about myself, IN EUSKERA. Yikesssss I'm excited in the sense that I get to learn part of a language that is virtually unique in its existence, but I'm also worried that I'm using some of my class credits on a language that is virtually unique in its existence. How would I ever use Euskera to make a business transaction on Fordham Road? Or in the Southside?? Most Americans, sadly, probably couldn't even point out Spain on a map let alone discuss the incredibly ancient and independent autonomous community that is Vizcaya. I sound angry about it, I'm not, it's just comical that I signed up for such a.....unique? narrow? useless? class. Ah well, when in Rome. Or Bilbao. Same country, right? (american intelligence joke)
HOWEVER, this doesn't mean Bilbao has lost it's bipolar-tiempo ways, as most mornings it will either be sunny and gorgeous or rainy and dreary (but still warm) and by 2pm the weather is the exact opposite! It's very strange, maybe it's the crazy winds that just push all weather through the city much more quickly, or else it's the Basque peeps trying to reinforce what a powerful autonomy they are so they are constantly keeping you on your toes with weather patterns. That's the most likely explanation.
School is still great, not much homework and I've only had one test (they focus more on midterms and finals than periodic testing, I think), so I really can't complain about anything there. The fam is doing well, it's Marta's b-day tomorrow so the kiddos, Esti and I are making her a surprise "desayuno en la cama" (b-fast in bed). That should be pretty fun because I haven't been able to cook anything yet so maybe I will learn some Spanish tricks to bring home (besides frying everything in egg to make it taste better, I have definitely gotten used to that treat). Then I'm going out to wander the streets of the city until I find Coffee Break, the godsend coffee shop that is my new weekend activity. That way I can soak up some sun, drink some cafe americano, enjoy some people watching- another great weekend!
Oh I almost forgot to mention before, but my Basque Language and Culture class is apparently exactly that- not so much the history of culture/language or the economic/political views on Basque country, but we are literally celebrating the cultural events of the Basques and then learning to speak a little Euskera. HOLY COW! I've only learned some numbers, colors, and phrases right now but the goal by the end of the semester is to present a small paragraph/conversation about myself, IN EUSKERA. Yikesssss I'm excited in the sense that I get to learn part of a language that is virtually unique in its existence, but I'm also worried that I'm using some of my class credits on a language that is virtually unique in its existence. How would I ever use Euskera to make a business transaction on Fordham Road? Or in the Southside?? Most Americans, sadly, probably couldn't even point out Spain on a map let alone discuss the incredibly ancient and independent autonomous community that is Vizcaya. I sound angry about it, I'm not, it's just comical that I signed up for such a.....unique? narrow? useless? class. Ah well, when in Rome. Or Bilbao. Same country, right? (american intelligence joke)
domingo, 21 de febrero de 2010
Poor Meg
I know I already posted something earlier today but I just had to write this somewhere. Tonight at dinner I realized I am living in an episode of Family Guy where poor 7-year old middle-child Sara is the Meg of the family. No jokes, everyone blames her for everything that goes wrong at mealtimes, she whines for help and they tell her "Sara, ya vale, por favor, ack ahhh! (Sara enough already, pleaseeee ack ahhhhh!)", and then to top it off all the other kids set her up to get in trouble (think blowing bubbles in the milk when Mom's not looking then telling Mom it was Sara, Sara gets yelled out and no dessert). Hahaha it's so mean to laugh but it's seriously ridiculous how big of a scapegoat this poor little Spaniard is in her family, but she doesn't seem to mind too much. Poor Meg, I mean Sara.
It's the bessssttt daaaaayy evvvverrrr! (Spongebob song, look it up- totally applicable)
Well yesterday was exactly that: probably the best day I've had in Spain so far, and that's including trips to other cites AND my birthday. For starters, it was GORGEOUS. Here in Bil-bow everyone knows that not only winter is bleak, but the whole freaking year isn't too great (47 in./year, about 15 inches MORE than Pittsburgh and even Seattle!), so when a nice day comes along regardless of temperature, EVERYONE goes out and about to enjoy it. People walk their dogs, their kids, their parents, everyone is just outside, basque-ing (haha, small joke) in the sunshine. So that's what I did, I called up my friend Linden, we went to downtown Bilbao and just walked around, window-shopping and chit-chatting. We eventually made our way to Casco Viejo which was BUMPIN for such an old part of the city- there were families everywhere and everyone was celebrating the big basketball tournament that's going on in the city this weekend. There we went to the Plaza Nueva, which ironically is one of the oldest parts of Bilbao (aka NOT nueva), and there part two of the best day ever began: we found huge coffees! I'm talking venti-sized, to-go, mocha/frappe/whatever type coffees that are nearly nonexistent in Europe, let alone Spain. We did a little victory dance right in the store, bought some muffins (another luxury), and sat outside in the sun for about an hour. We were blatantly being touristy with huge to-go cups of coffee and no jackets on (everyone else was bundled up like it was blizzarding outside, wtf?) but it was sunny! I think some freckles may have peeked out already, too, so I cannot wait until Spring actually starts and I can go outside once again to enjoy sunny weather like yesterday. :)
After that, it was lunch/siesta time (at 3pm, weekends are uber late) so we parted ways to enjoy the rest of the afternoon eating/napping/hanging with the fam, and then the best-day-ever continued with a trip to Algorta for Carnivale. Now technically Carnivale ended on Tuesday when Mardi Gras ended and Ash Wednesday started up the Lenten train on Wednesday, but I guess in Spain it's pretty much a 10-day thing. So we walked around the beach town at sunset (remember, we could see the sun this time!), had a few drinks and people watched the locals who ALL dress up like it's Halloween. I have to give the Spaniards props, though, because their costumes put American Halloween costumes TO SHAME. They are creative, homemade, all-or-nothing and just all-around great costumes. And the one thing they love more than dressing in costume (or drag, as many of the men here dress like women for Carnivale?? No comprendo...), is drinking kalimotxos and dancing! Kalimotxos are those wine and coke combo mixed drinks that are pretty cheap and easy to make (buy: 1 liter of Coke, 1 liter of wine, mix in coke bottle then drink in public), and the music they love is all American old skool rap, hip-hop, 80s- it's all over the place, but all classics! Needless to say, between people watching the youts acting like fools while dressed like Mario and Luigi or cowboys (not sure how they actually interpret the concept of cowboys here), and enjoying the ocean breeze and view, it was the perfect end to a pretty perfect day.
After that, it was lunch/siesta time (at 3pm, weekends are uber late) so we parted ways to enjoy the rest of the afternoon eating/napping/hanging with the fam, and then the best-day-ever continued with a trip to Algorta for Carnivale. Now technically Carnivale ended on Tuesday when Mardi Gras ended and Ash Wednesday started up the Lenten train on Wednesday, but I guess in Spain it's pretty much a 10-day thing. So we walked around the beach town at sunset (remember, we could see the sun this time!), had a few drinks and people watched the locals who ALL dress up like it's Halloween. I have to give the Spaniards props, though, because their costumes put American Halloween costumes TO SHAME. They are creative, homemade, all-or-nothing and just all-around great costumes. And the one thing they love more than dressing in costume (or drag, as many of the men here dress like women for Carnivale?? No comprendo...), is drinking kalimotxos and dancing! Kalimotxos are those wine and coke combo mixed drinks that are pretty cheap and easy to make (buy: 1 liter of Coke, 1 liter of wine, mix in coke bottle then drink in public), and the music they love is all American old skool rap, hip-hop, 80s- it's all over the place, but all classics! Needless to say, between people watching the youts acting like fools while dressed like Mario and Luigi or cowboys (not sure how they actually interpret the concept of cowboys here), and enjoying the ocean breeze and view, it was the perfect end to a pretty perfect day.
martes, 16 de febrero de 2010
Birthdays and Munich and Carnivale, oh my!
Oh boy I am behind on my updates! Although I must say first that I hope everything is going well in the states with all this snow! Holy cow it's starting to sound ridiculous.
Anyways, things for me are going very well! I celebrated my 21st birthday (what whattttt!) last Friday so that was just nutso because I decided to go to a discoteca for Carnivale (in costume) and then fly off to Germany to celebrate for the weekend! CrAzY! The discoteca was interesting, it was a pretty cool dance-club-bar type thing early on and they played old and new skool American music (think hip-hop and R&B), but then as the night continued the music changed to this monotonous dance "beat" that didn't really vary at all. THEN, the fun discotec-ers who arrived early and in fun costumes started to leave and creepy groups of Spanish men in masks ("costumes", I guess) starting to fill up the place and surround us hahah. So we decided that dancing in a tight little safety-circle just wasn't cutting it anymore and we peaced. Still a great night because I got to see a lot of the students I don't normally get to talk at Deusto going out and about in the night life, so that was a blast.
21st birthday shenanigans!
Then it was Friday and I flew off to Munich, Germany! (in case you weren't sure where it was) There I spent the weekend visiting Alexander Crist, a friend from high school who is studying there for the entire year (whoa!). We went to Marienplatz, Schloss Nymphenburg, some Bavarian restaurants with German names so of course I don't remember them, and then the best part..... the BMW Factory and Corporate headquarters!! Sounds nerdy, I know, but we got to sit it/touch these B-E-A-UTIFUL factory-floor cars, all brandy new and shiny!
Oh boy it was lovely. It was also cool because they had some of the "motorbikes" there and we could sit on them and make vrooooom noises and pretend to be racing- not touristy at all, they practically thought we worked there. Needless to say, although those beamers cost more than my college experience I think, I will always remember that real cream-colored leather interior against the cool navy blue paint color on the brand-new 5-series Gran Turismo when I daydream about driving in Europe. We'll always have Munich. <3
Por fin, this whole week/weekend was Carnivale, which I sort of mentioned before I believe but is really just a huge celebration of Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday (but really Fat last-Monday-to-this-Tuesday) where people dress up in masks or full costumes for the whole week. It's pretty entertaining for me to see demons shopping for shampoo or Superman being walked to school by his mom, I did NOT dress up but only because I'm too cheap to buy a costume and I stick out as an American in an orange coat enough already. However, it was fun to see all the other costumes and little parades of children throughout Bilbao for each grade school, and I'm glad I got to see an original Carnivale Mardi Gras treats-and-sweets legit Spanish/European Bilabo bash! (That name is probably why they only call it Carnivale.)
Anyways, things for me are going very well! I celebrated my 21st birthday (what whattttt!) last Friday so that was just nutso because I decided to go to a discoteca for Carnivale (in costume) and then fly off to Germany to celebrate for the weekend! CrAzY! The discoteca was interesting, it was a pretty cool dance-club-bar type thing early on and they played old and new skool American music (think hip-hop and R&B), but then as the night continued the music changed to this monotonous dance "beat" that didn't really vary at all. THEN, the fun discotec-ers who arrived early and in fun costumes started to leave and creepy groups of Spanish men in masks ("costumes", I guess) starting to fill up the place and surround us hahah. So we decided that dancing in a tight little safety-circle just wasn't cutting it anymore and we peaced. Still a great night because I got to see a lot of the students I don't normally get to talk at Deusto going out and about in the night life, so that was a blast.
21st birthday shenanigans!
Then it was Friday and I flew off to Munich, Germany! (in case you weren't sure where it was) There I spent the weekend visiting Alexander Crist, a friend from high school who is studying there for the entire year (whoa!). We went to Marienplatz, Schloss Nymphenburg, some Bavarian restaurants with German names so of course I don't remember them, and then the best part..... the BMW Factory and Corporate headquarters!! Sounds nerdy, I know, but we got to sit it/touch these B-E-A-UTIFUL factory-floor cars, all brandy new and shiny!
Oh boy it was lovely. It was also cool because they had some of the "motorbikes" there and we could sit on them and make vrooooom noises and pretend to be racing- not touristy at all, they practically thought we worked there. Needless to say, although those beamers cost more than my college experience I think, I will always remember that real cream-colored leather interior against the cool navy blue paint color on the brand-new 5-series Gran Turismo when I daydream about driving in Europe. We'll always have Munich. <3
Por fin, this whole week/weekend was Carnivale, which I sort of mentioned before I believe but is really just a huge celebration of Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday (but really Fat last-Monday-to-this-Tuesday) where people dress up in masks or full costumes for the whole week. It's pretty entertaining for me to see demons shopping for shampoo or Superman being walked to school by his mom, I did NOT dress up but only because I'm too cheap to buy a costume and I stick out as an American in an orange coat enough already. However, it was fun to see all the other costumes and little parades of children throughout Bilbao for each grade school, and I'm glad I got to see an original Carnivale Mardi Gras treats-and-sweets legit Spanish/European Bilabo bash! (That name is probably why they only call it Carnivale.)
miércoles, 10 de febrero de 2010
Feliz cumpleanos!
Well I think I officially have the best family in Bilbao. This week was a rough one because I was feeling pretty sick and had mucha tarea so I couldn't really interact with the fam too much, but they still invited me to this little family party they were having for a nephew's 11th b-day today. So I decided to suck up my bad attitude about school work and take some cold meds and hit it up after class ended at 7. I arrived around 7:15 and immediately was given a plate of food, a drink, and multiple people to talk to, including a French teacher/family member who obv speaks perfect Spanish but talked with me the whole night and corrected me when needed so I could learn simple conversation tactics better. So that was a great surprise because here I was expecting this little formal family gathering around a table with lots of weird fish or Spanish cuisine with a group of people who notoriously talk too fast and informally, and instead I got A BIRTHDAY CAKE! It was obviously the 11-year old (Alex)'s birthday so he got presents and party favors/balloons/the works, but they bought me a raspberry torta with 21 candles and sang to me in Spanish! It was a pretty great surprise considering I really didn't expect them to do anything because I'm going to Germany on my actual birthday to visit Mr. Alexander Crist, let alone I am only here for a few months and am no way a real part of the family. But alas, they all really welcomed me to the party and to Spain in general, into their family, culture, and traditions, so I am feeling pretty content about my situation in Espana now (a nice change from the panic attacks I had upon my arrival that the family would quickly realize how incompetent I am at Spanish and throw me to the metaphorical dogs). Also, a quick note about birthday and regular "tortas" here: in the US it is customary to have a big spongey cake with a much thinner layer of icing in any variety of flavors, but HERE they must love their desserts because my cake was an ICING CAKE. It was literally a very tiny (think 1/4 of an inch) layer of sponge cake on the bottom and top, and then a solid 2 INCHES of icing in between!! Needless to say, I had pieces of both cakes but could barely even eat half of either one. It definitely added to the wonderful spectacle that was my unofficial Spanish birthday party.
The other great part of this fiesta today that gave me an "aha!" moment was speaking with Lucia, the Spanish French-professor (hahah confusing!) who seemed to really enjoy not only asking me about home, my hobbies, Deusto, etc., but correcting me as I spoke on grammatical errors, verb-noun and gender agreement, and idiomatic expressions. It was great! It was like having my own personal tutor, and maybe it was the 3 San Miguel cervezas Esti keep handing me but by the end of the party I felt truly fluent! This was a drastic change to merely 2 hours before in my linguistics class when I spent a good 7-8 minutes trying to explain/understand a linguistic tree diagram about subject/verb/adjective/prepositional phrasing in order to understand Hispanic syntax (WTF) and barely getting my point across without yelling it out in English (I won't deny that I didn't ask the other students pleadingly if they knew what the heck I was talking about, in English of course). So although the day started rough with 9am classes and a remaining head cold, it quickly pulled a 180 and possibly became the day I finally felt fluent at Spanish. Who knows, maybe I am!
Just a quick note before I end this epiphanic entry (I miss my crosswords), like I said I'll be going to Munich, Germany this weekend so I probs won't be able to send any updates until Monday morning when I'll have time to load pictures and give you all the juicy details of my extravagant and momentous 21st b-day bash celebration of going to the BMW museum and sitting in the Englischer Garten. wHoOoOo watch out Munchkins! (I should probably refrain from calling the residents of Munich "munchkins", although I can't promise I won't after I have a few leiderhosen and schnitzel in me! Those are the only German words I kind of know. Should be an interesting weekend...)
The other great part of this fiesta today that gave me an "aha!" moment was speaking with Lucia, the Spanish French-professor (hahah confusing!) who seemed to really enjoy not only asking me about home, my hobbies, Deusto, etc., but correcting me as I spoke on grammatical errors, verb-noun and gender agreement, and idiomatic expressions. It was great! It was like having my own personal tutor, and maybe it was the 3 San Miguel cervezas Esti keep handing me but by the end of the party I felt truly fluent! This was a drastic change to merely 2 hours before in my linguistics class when I spent a good 7-8 minutes trying to explain/understand a linguistic tree diagram about subject/verb/adjective/prepositional phrasing in order to understand Hispanic syntax (WTF) and barely getting my point across without yelling it out in English (I won't deny that I didn't ask the other students pleadingly if they knew what the heck I was talking about, in English of course). So although the day started rough with 9am classes and a remaining head cold, it quickly pulled a 180 and possibly became the day I finally felt fluent at Spanish. Who knows, maybe I am!
Just a quick note before I end this epiphanic entry (I miss my crosswords), like I said I'll be going to Munich, Germany this weekend so I probs won't be able to send any updates until Monday morning when I'll have time to load pictures and give you all the juicy details of my extravagant and momentous 21st b-day bash celebration of going to the BMW museum and sitting in the Englischer Garten. wHoOoOo watch out Munchkins! (I should probably refrain from calling the residents of Munich "munchkins", although I can't promise I won't after I have a few leiderhosen and schnitzel in me! Those are the only German words I kind of know. Should be an interesting weekend...)
domingo, 7 de febrero de 2010
Basque business
Hello my friends, sorry for such a long lapse between posts- things are really starting to pick up! For starters, now that our classes are legit los profes have decided to give out enough homework to make up for the first 2 weeks of experimental/optional classes, gracias profes. Then, this past weekend was a big festival for Santa Ageda, a Basque feast day where all the kids dress up in traditional Basque clothing and parade through the streets singing songs to promote springtime and fertile soils or something. I'm not quite sure how the female martyr Ageda was related to agriculture but I'm going with it- it was great to see/hear some traditional Basque cultural activities!
Speaking of Basques...
On Friday we had one of our university-sponsored excursions and this time it was to Bayonne, France and Hondarribia, Spain, two cities that reside in two of the Basque provinces. It was interesting especially because in Spain, especially Bilbao, Euskera (the Basque language) is one of the four official languages of Spain: Castellano (what I speak, Spanish), Euskera, Catalan, and Galego (from Galicia). This mean students in each region can go to specific schools taught in Castellan or another offical language, like the kids in my family who take classes in both Castellan and Euskera. But in France, even though they have the same Basque "autonomous community" status, French is the only official language so almost nobody knows Euskera, let alone Spanish or other languages, (This posed an extra-tricky problem for us when we had free time during the trip everyone spoke Spanish or English in our group, but everyone else only spoke French. Even taking 3 years of French in high school did nothing to help me communicate with the French, although I think it's safe to say I'm a master of pantomimes now.)
After seeing how little the Basque presence in France seems to impact its outward culture, I think I can now honestly say I love Spain more than I used to love France. Don't get me wrong, my favorite movie is still Amelie (French), and I will ALWAYS choose French baguettes and crepes over any other version, but Spain just seems so much more accepting of other cultures. Just look at Bilbao: nearly the entire city is full-blooded Spanish with most Basque families living in the suburbs, yet the favorite sport and team is the Basque-only soccer team "Athletic Club" which has been historically closed-off to everyone else since its start in the 1800s. This amazes me, supporting a team that prides itself on not being one of you! You can even look at what I said before about Spain's four official languages: four! I'm still learning everything I can about Spain's history and the Basque provinces' histories, so hopefully I can give more insights on how culture here in Bilbao at least shows how awesome Spain really is, especially through the aspects that aren't even Spanish. :)
I can't believe I'm missing the Superbowl tonight, even missing the past few weeks of american football in general has been pretty hard. BUT, I will hopefully get to watch some of the highlights online tomorrow, and then maybe write a little entry about sports in Spain! (Some of the Basque sports = wAcKy, trust me) Enjoy the game, try not to get lost in all that snow, New England, and "Ariatsaldeon!" (Good afternoon in Euskera, a relevant language in America. NOT.)
Speaking of Basques...
On Friday we had one of our university-sponsored excursions and this time it was to Bayonne, France and Hondarribia, Spain, two cities that reside in two of the Basque provinces. It was interesting especially because in Spain, especially Bilbao, Euskera (the Basque language) is one of the four official languages of Spain: Castellano (what I speak, Spanish), Euskera, Catalan, and Galego (from Galicia). This mean students in each region can go to specific schools taught in Castellan or another offical language, like the kids in my family who take classes in both Castellan and Euskera. But in France, even though they have the same Basque "autonomous community" status, French is the only official language so almost nobody knows Euskera, let alone Spanish or other languages, (This posed an extra-tricky problem for us when we had free time during the trip everyone spoke Spanish or English in our group, but everyone else only spoke French. Even taking 3 years of French in high school did nothing to help me communicate with the French, although I think it's safe to say I'm a master of pantomimes now.)
After seeing how little the Basque presence in France seems to impact its outward culture, I think I can now honestly say I love Spain more than I used to love France. Don't get me wrong, my favorite movie is still Amelie (French), and I will ALWAYS choose French baguettes and crepes over any other version, but Spain just seems so much more accepting of other cultures. Just look at Bilbao: nearly the entire city is full-blooded Spanish with most Basque families living in the suburbs, yet the favorite sport and team is the Basque-only soccer team "Athletic Club" which has been historically closed-off to everyone else since its start in the 1800s. This amazes me, supporting a team that prides itself on not being one of you! You can even look at what I said before about Spain's four official languages: four! I'm still learning everything I can about Spain's history and the Basque provinces' histories, so hopefully I can give more insights on how culture here in Bilbao at least shows how awesome Spain really is, especially through the aspects that aren't even Spanish. :)
I can't believe I'm missing the Superbowl tonight, even missing the past few weeks of american football in general has been pretty hard. BUT, I will hopefully get to watch some of the highlights online tomorrow, and then maybe write a little entry about sports in Spain! (Some of the Basque sports = wAcKy, trust me) Enjoy the game, try not to get lost in all that snow, New England, and "Ariatsaldeon!" (Good afternoon in Euskera, a relevant language in America. NOT.)
lunes, 1 de febrero de 2010
Barcelona y Febrero!
It is February! Which means a) this semester is starting to move much more quickly than I anticipated, and b) my birthday is coming up! All in all, I'm pretty excited because it's finally starting to warm up a bit here and we are starting our university-sponsored excursions this Friday. We are heading to "the south of France", which isn't very specific at all but I'm not picky because I love France! I'm getting my hands on a fresh baguette if it kills me.
Anywho, this past weekend was spent in the beautiful yet quirky city of Barcelona! I say quirky because it had all the charms of a historical Spanish city like architecture and sightseeing, but it also had all the weirdo street-performers/prostitutes/pick-pocketers that you could find on St. Mark's Place in Manhattan. However, it was sunny every day and not too chilly so we walked everywhere and really got to know the heart of the city. We saw pretty much everything there is to see, minus the Tibidabo, the old monastery-turned-amusement park that sits on top of the highest mountain in the city and overlooks the ocean (pretty magical, if you ask me). La Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, La Pedrera, Las Ramblas, Estadi Olimpic, MNAC- we saw it all! I have pictures uploaded to Facebook that are available for anyone to see so check them out! (I took almost 200 pictures, yikes, but it definitely gives you an idea of the city!)
It was an odd feeling to come "home" after that trip, though. Although I've mentioned before how much I really do love it here and how at-home I am beginning to feel in my casa with the fam, it was still weird to come back to someone else's apartment and unpack, etc. This is technically my home for the next few months but it still feels like a vacation of sorts, and I didn't really come "home" from Barcelona, I just came back from a mini-vacation to my extended one. I guess I'm still in the first month of living/studying/just being here, so I'd be surprised/worried if I didn't feel a little homesick for the US after my weekend trips around Spain.
On a happier note, we officially registered for our classes today! So as of today I am a registered student at Deusto and now I can get credits for my classes/hopefully fufill my double-major-credit-fulfillment-business. Technically today (Feb. 1st) is the first day of the Spring semester for the real Deusto kids so the hallways were bustling and lively throughout the day. It was a nice change from the quiet and cold hallways we've been having classes in up until now, and who knows, maybe I'll get to meet some legit Spaniards outside of my family! The classes are starting to get a little harder, but mostly because of all the readings we are assigned. I thought doing all the assigned readings/books at FU was tricky enough (Dad's always saying college is a breeze if you can just keep up with that outside reading!), but this is wayyyy harder because I end up reading half of the assignment and then half of my pocket translation dictionary, so everything takes twice as long. Soon I think some of the new words will start to sink in, though, and then the readings won't be quite so tricky to manage on top of speaking a second language.
My spanish is definitely improving, thanks to those classes/readings, but mostly because of my host family. The best part of living with them is just sitting and listening/watching them interact because then it's much easier to learn the lingo/idiomatic expressions. Let me tell you, these Spaniards like to yell ALOT so half the time if you aren't watching them and are just listening to the convos, you can't tell if they are screaming words of enthusiasm and excitement, or horrible, terrifying anger. (The kids especially are fond of yelling out random words and emotions when they play, but when I am in my room they end up sounding more like angry shouts of frustration and insolence- multiply that times 4 kids = yikes.) Needless to say, I'm getting a hang of conjugating verbs faster in my head and using idiomatic expressions correctly, as well as learning some new ways to scream about how much fun I am having with the kiddos. Yay immersion!
Anywho, this past weekend was spent in the beautiful yet quirky city of Barcelona! I say quirky because it had all the charms of a historical Spanish city like architecture and sightseeing, but it also had all the weirdo street-performers/prostitutes/pick-pocketers that you could find on St. Mark's Place in Manhattan. However, it was sunny every day and not too chilly so we walked everywhere and really got to know the heart of the city. We saw pretty much everything there is to see, minus the Tibidabo, the old monastery-turned-amusement park that sits on top of the highest mountain in the city and overlooks the ocean (pretty magical, if you ask me). La Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, La Pedrera, Las Ramblas, Estadi Olimpic, MNAC- we saw it all! I have pictures uploaded to Facebook that are available for anyone to see so check them out! (I took almost 200 pictures, yikes, but it definitely gives you an idea of the city!)
It was an odd feeling to come "home" after that trip, though. Although I've mentioned before how much I really do love it here and how at-home I am beginning to feel in my casa with the fam, it was still weird to come back to someone else's apartment and unpack, etc. This is technically my home for the next few months but it still feels like a vacation of sorts, and I didn't really come "home" from Barcelona, I just came back from a mini-vacation to my extended one. I guess I'm still in the first month of living/studying/just being here, so I'd be surprised/worried if I didn't feel a little homesick for the US after my weekend trips around Spain.
On a happier note, we officially registered for our classes today! So as of today I am a registered student at Deusto and now I can get credits for my classes/hopefully fufill my double-major-credit-fulfillment-business. Technically today (Feb. 1st) is the first day of the Spring semester for the real Deusto kids so the hallways were bustling and lively throughout the day. It was a nice change from the quiet and cold hallways we've been having classes in up until now, and who knows, maybe I'll get to meet some legit Spaniards outside of my family! The classes are starting to get a little harder, but mostly because of all the readings we are assigned. I thought doing all the assigned readings/books at FU was tricky enough (Dad's always saying college is a breeze if you can just keep up with that outside reading!), but this is wayyyy harder because I end up reading half of the assignment and then half of my pocket translation dictionary, so everything takes twice as long. Soon I think some of the new words will start to sink in, though, and then the readings won't be quite so tricky to manage on top of speaking a second language.
My spanish is definitely improving, thanks to those classes/readings, but mostly because of my host family. The best part of living with them is just sitting and listening/watching them interact because then it's much easier to learn the lingo/idiomatic expressions. Let me tell you, these Spaniards like to yell ALOT so half the time if you aren't watching them and are just listening to the convos, you can't tell if they are screaming words of enthusiasm and excitement, or horrible, terrifying anger. (The kids especially are fond of yelling out random words and emotions when they play, but when I am in my room they end up sounding more like angry shouts of frustration and insolence- multiply that times 4 kids = yikes.) Needless to say, I'm getting a hang of conjugating verbs faster in my head and using idiomatic expressions correctly, as well as learning some new ways to scream about how much fun I am having with the kiddos. Yay immersion!
lunes, 25 de enero de 2010
The Youts
Well, another weekend successfully passed me by and was spent sleeping, eating, drinking, and exploring in Bilbao, although I mostly just explored the same areas I've been to before- I'm just getting familiar with the local people and customs. These weeks are starting to fly by though, I'd better get some traveling in soon!
One of the groups of people I'm very slowly meeting and even more slowly understanding are the young peeps here in Bilbao. Now, they are very similar to the college-age kids around cities in the US, because there are couple-y ones, athletic ones, studious ones, short ones, tall ones, red ones, blue ones, you get the idea.
HOWEVER, at the same time they are completely different in how they like to actively live and be in the world, in 3 simple ways:
HAIR: These peeps have little to no fashion sense when it comes to hair. So far I've seen more mullets than Pittsburgh, mohawks, shags, weird short bangs, rat-tails, dreadlocks, dreadlock mullets (god-awful, trust me), but the worst of all has to be the mullet-mohawk combo. Mostly guys have this look although I've seen some ladies with questionable taste in hairstyles. I just don't understand it, because in most senses the Europeans are ahead of Americans in fashion and tend to wear styles that come into play much later in the US. But this hairstyle had better not ever EVER come to the US, it's dirty, messy, I don't get it. No comprendo.
PDA: Last week, my friends and I tried to hit up the "Casco Viejo" section of Bilbao, which is the old quarter and supposedly pretty bumpin' come Friday/Saturday night. because of tapas bars (called pintxos here, like pintchos). Alas, there is really only one or two blocks that are bumpin' because the rest of it is full of young Spaniards who are EXTREMELY in love. We're talking full-blown make-out sessions in and sometimes literally on top of the streets, as well as small groups of who knows how many people all doing something weird. Idk, they really have no qualms about PDA here, hand-holding is something even just-friends do, so use your imagination as to what else these crazy youts do on the streets, especially on Friday/Saturday nights in the dark twisted streets of Casco Viejo (OH EM GEE talk about culture shock).
SMOKING: HO-LY COW. These peeps like to smoke, a lot! Unlike the bars of the US, there is smoking permitted almost everywhere except some hotel lobbies, the library, and the computer lab at school. That's about it though, and it's not even the youths to blame. The weekends out with my family have shown me how parents relax after grade school sports- go to the closest bar, drink hard-core mixed drinks (think on-the-rocks type drinks, very little fluff), and smoke a pack or two of cigarettes EACH. It's no wonder the kids here all have lung-cancer! Ok, so maybe they don't have lung cancer, but it is ironic because the youths here do spend about 85% of their time outside, either smoking or just hanging out in the nice temps, so chances are they are actually semi-healthier than the youth in the US regardless of how much smoke they directly inhale into their little Spanish lungs. Again, no comprendo. I will probs never take up smoking and being surrounded by clouds of smoke everywhere I go won't help that; but smoking is such a social event in Spain that cigarette breaks are like recess and you get funny looks from the students when you don't join in between classes. Oh well, call me a noob cause I ain't playing that recess game, NO GRACIAS.
Well that's all the news I have from Espana, this upcoming weekend I am going to Barcelona with the chicas so the next entry will be packed full of pics and comments from my mini-adventure in southern Spain. Get excited! (I know I am!)
One of the groups of people I'm very slowly meeting and even more slowly understanding are the young peeps here in Bilbao. Now, they are very similar to the college-age kids around cities in the US, because there are couple-y ones, athletic ones, studious ones, short ones, tall ones, red ones, blue ones, you get the idea.
HOWEVER, at the same time they are completely different in how they like to actively live and be in the world, in 3 simple ways:HAIR: These peeps have little to no fashion sense when it comes to hair. So far I've seen more mullets than Pittsburgh, mohawks, shags, weird short bangs, rat-tails, dreadlocks, dreadlock mullets (god-awful, trust me), but the worst of all has to be the mullet-mohawk combo. Mostly guys have this look although I've seen some ladies with questionable taste in hairstyles. I just don't understand it, because in most senses the Europeans are ahead of Americans in fashion and tend to wear styles that come into play much later in the US. But this hairstyle had better not ever EVER come to the US, it's dirty, messy, I don't get it. No comprendo.
PDA: Last week, my friends and I tried to hit up the "Casco Viejo" section of Bilbao, which is the old quarter and supposedly pretty bumpin' come Friday/Saturday night. because of tapas bars (called pintxos here, like pintchos). Alas, there is really only one or two blocks that are bumpin' because the rest of it is full of young Spaniards who are EXTREMELY in love. We're talking full-blown make-out sessions in and sometimes literally on top of the streets, as well as small groups of who knows how many people all doing something weird. Idk, they really have no qualms about PDA here, hand-holding is something even just-friends do, so use your imagination as to what else these crazy youts do on the streets, especially on Friday/Saturday nights in the dark twisted streets of Casco Viejo (OH EM GEE talk about culture shock).
SMOKING: HO-LY COW. These peeps like to smoke, a lot! Unlike the bars of the US, there is smoking permitted almost everywhere except some hotel lobbies, the library, and the computer lab at school. That's about it though, and it's not even the youths to blame. The weekends out with my family have shown me how parents relax after grade school sports- go to the closest bar, drink hard-core mixed drinks (think on-the-rocks type drinks, very little fluff), and smoke a pack or two of cigarettes EACH. It's no wonder the kids here all have lung-cancer! Ok, so maybe they don't have lung cancer, but it is ironic because the youths here do spend about 85% of their time outside, either smoking or just hanging out in the nice temps, so chances are they are actually semi-healthier than the youth in the US regardless of how much smoke they directly inhale into their little Spanish lungs. Again, no comprendo. I will probs never take up smoking and being surrounded by clouds of smoke everywhere I go won't help that; but smoking is such a social event in Spain that cigarette breaks are like recess and you get funny looks from the students when you don't join in between classes. Oh well, call me a noob cause I ain't playing that recess game, NO GRACIAS.
Well that's all the news I have from Espana, this upcoming weekend I am going to Barcelona with the chicas so the next entry will be packed full of pics and comments from my mini-adventure in southern Spain. Get excited! (I know I am!)
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