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!)