Well, i got my cartilage pierced today! Kinda spur of the moment, but I'm happy with it. Brittany went with me to the place near the metra at school. The lady who did it was super chill and everything was all sterilized and stuff, don't worry. And it didn't hurt at all! Now though it's a little sore... I emailed my mom about it yesterday asking her about what she would do if I got it pierced and she hasn't responded, so I hope they won't disown me or anything! But here is a pic of me with the lady who pierced it!
and i just got back from the best walk EVER! (sunset i witnessed is to the left) 1.5 hours along the ocean, doesn't get much better. Then grabbed a beer with alyssa. I just realized when I was with her that I have been here for a MONTH. whatttt? holy moly time has flown!
Also, first exam tomorrow in Gramatica. I'm not too worried about it, but def need to do some studying tonight! Then it's the WEEKEND! Plan on doing some serious exploring of Bilbao, so I am very excited!
Agur! (that's euskera, the basque language, for goodbye!)
First weekend traveling just happened! First stop - Madrid
Madrid was a huge city, clearly very different from Bilbao. After the 5 hour bus ride Friday, we went to our hotel, relaxed for an hour, then ate lunch. After lunch, we started our tours. The first place we went to was the Palacial Real, or royal palace. This was a HUGE building with an incredible courtyard and fabulous views. We hung out in the courtyard for a bit and took lots of pics, and then we got a tour of some of the most important rooms in the building (in total there are about 5,000!). The tour was alright, but honestly i had more fun with Brittany. We hung out towards the back of our group and with every new room we entered we made up what it was used for (since the real uses were things like the smoking room, tea room, etc.) haha. people probably thought we had problems, but we laughed a lot. Then we went to a cathedral and looked around, and finally wound up at Plaza Mayor, an awesome plaza with restaurants, shops, and all sorts of touristy things to buy. Then we headed back to the hotel, get ready, and went out. A bunch of us went to a bar in downtown madrid. It was fun, but I ended up getting home by around 2 because I knew we had a big day in front of us.
Next stop - Toledo!
I absolutely LOVED Toledo! probably the most beautiful city I have ever seen. We started off stopping at a place where me got a panoramic view of the city - breathtaking. Then we walked a bunch, seeing a cathedral and some really cool architecture. The city just has so much history and culture in it that it made you have chills almost just walking around. We also went to a place where they made swords. The swords are inlaid with real gold, and we even saw a guy making the designs that will soon be put on the swords! they had all sorts of jewelry and such that you could buy there that were just like the designs they put on the swords, so i bought a pendant for my mom and bracelet for my grandma. I definitely preferred Toledo to Madrid, and so I was sad when we had to head back.
Then we came back to Madrid for the night, ate dinner, got ready, and then the fun began! We went to this huge club called Teatro Kapital - it had 7 floors! We all had a blast, and it definitely showed the next morning. We went to Museo del Prado, an art museum, and were all a tad hungover for it... And as painful as it was, we saw some really cool pieces of art by Goya and Velazquez. After the museum, we headed back to the hotel for lunch, and then we made our way home.
Overall it was an incredible weekend! We saw so many cool things, and the city of Toledo was just incredible. I will say though, that I was very happy to retun to Bilbao. Being in such a huge city like Madrid made me appreciate how lucky I am. I always feel completely comfortable and safe and Bilbao, and that is definitely a nice way to feel about your home town!
Booked my trip to Paris today, and that's my next trip! it isn't this coming weekend, but the next. Super excited!!!
That's the song of the day, pretty sure I listened to it about 10 times... And while there are absolutely NO cute boys here to be had, I have definitely fallen in love!
haha as cheesy as that is, it is so true. Spain is honestly the most amazing place I have ever been. Today was just a normal day, and had it happened in the states I wouldn't think anything of it. But everything is just so much better here! Yesterday Alyssa and I intended on renting bikes and tooling around the neighborhood, but they were all closed so we just took a nice hour long walk instead along the river and beach -- so beautiful.
Today, in contrast to the dismal rain we have been having, it was in the 70s and sunny all day. Went to classes per usual, which were boring per usual. Went with Grace while she got her hair cut. Home and ate lunch with my host mom around 2:30. We had a meal I liked - rice with a fried egg on top, and then some sort of tomato sauce on top (no, not ketchup). Interesting combo, but very tasty. Then of course fruit for dessert.
Then I went and had to buy myself some more allergy medicine, which was pretty difficult but I think I got the right stuff, bought some other things I need, and then met up with Alyssa to do some shopping. We went in to this jewelry shop that is right near my place that is INCREDIBLE! Funky and cute stuff for super cheap! and it's definitely decent quality. I bought myself a pair of earrings, but I def plan on going back. Then we went into a couple other stores where I bought myself a couple scarves that I love.
Heading to Madrid and Toledo this weekend with the program! very much looking forward to my first weekend vacation. Then Karen and I are possibly going to do a spur of the moment weekend to London next week! Ah I can't wait!
I'll post again after the weekend to let you all know how it went!
So I have almost been here for 3 weeks. It has absolutely FLOWN by! but since being here, i have obviously noticed soooo many differences, both good and bad, about being in spain. here are some things i have discovered:
EVERYONE smokes here! young, old, inside, outside, IN SCHOOL. definitely taking some getting used to
topless beaches
the schedule. eating lunch at 2:30/3 and then dinner at 9/9:30. loco
also with schedule, if you go to a disco at 1, you're the only person there, and if you leave at 4, you're the first person to go
ham, ham, ham. i miss chicken!
i still don't like fish and seafood
everyone hangs out in the street! kids, teens, adults, and old peeps. my favorite are the group of grandpas that sit on a bench near my place and are always talking and laughing :-)
the dress - i miss sweatpants! everyone looks so nice when they go to class!
the music. at the bars it's ALL american music. and at the disco on saturday they played the YMCA followed by I will Survive -- whaaaa?
i absolutely love having no walmarts and walgreens. i love the bread shops, pastry shops, candy shops, meat shops, fruit shops, vegetable stands, etc. yes they have supermarkets, but their small business situation here is so fun! i think it makes the place so much more personable and welcoming
they have the most delicious pastry here in the world! it's a croissant with chocolate in the middle, but the chocolate is different than at home and is incredible! i seriously am going to have to limit myself to like 1 a week, because i am sure they are absolutely awful for you
love that the bars are open all the time, and at any given point there are always people drinking and eating tapas, just passing through but stop to say hello or to catch the score of the soccer game
in america, it seems like everyone is always in a hurry. here they seem to appreciate life more!
milk here - sickkkk. it sits on a shelf in a box until you open it, and then you put it in the fridge. gross!!!
all the food is super fresh, and the fruit here is AMAZING
they eat bread with every single meal
they also eat lots and lots of potatoes. or at least my host mom does!
swearing isn't nearly as big of a deal. kids say the equivalent of 'fuck' in front of their parents all the time and it's not an issue
everyone is so damn skinny! seriously!
where are all the boys? like for real? i see thousandsssss of gorgeous women around all the time, but no cute men!! i have probably seen more guys with mullets than actual attractive men. haha
the showers dont drain well here, and me having the hair that i do doesn't help it any
nothing is open on sunday's. so i have learned to make sure everything i could possibly need is in my hand by saturday.
finally, everything is closed from roughly 2-5pm for the lunch/siesta break. and i don't know if the spanish people take naps, but i love having a designated time for them!!
And for things from America that I miss:
goldfish, macaroni and cheese, CHICKEN, turkey sandwiches, hershey kisses, string cheese, mexican food! some of those are random, but i have been having a serious craving for them!
ziplock bags? apparently they dont use them here, because i get all my to-go meals wrapped in tin foil
ICE CUBES. warm water is getting veryyyyy old
drinking games! i havent played anything but the card games since i have been here, and i miss the other ones!
clothes dryers! i will never take for granted having a dryer again
rap. where's the TI and lil wayne in the clubs???
but all that being said, i absolutely LOVE being here. this is definitely the greatest experience of my life thus far. I am learning so much about myself, others, and the world. Being completely immersed in a life that's very different from the one i am used to is completely refreshing. And I am already realizing how little time I have here. I want to see as much of europe as possible, so i am planning all these incredible trips for the weekends! but now that most everything is booked, i am realizing how almost every weekend until i leave is taken! bilbao is such an incredible city, and so i really need to start using my time in the afternoons to explore and find out everything that it has to offer.
wow long post! i'm finding it's actually pretty nice to write in this. it will be something great to print out when all is done so I can remember everything I did, but it is also a great place for me to think about what an amazing experience i am having here!
Hola peeps! alright another update on my life. Yesterday was INCREDIBLE! i was being lazy all day waiting for alyssa to call me to go shopping, and instead i get a call from her saying "come over right now. like RIGHT NOW. we're going to san sebastian!" San sebastian is a BEAUTIFUL beach town about an hour away from Bilbao and is sooooo amazing. Alyssa's host brother and friend were going, so they brought us along and another girl from our program, paige. When i get there we are all cracking up because this is so unbelievably random and slightly awkward because we barely knew the boys, but it turned out to be a blast!
the boys showed us around to all the beaches and around the cool streets. and there is a film festival going on there right now (that brad pitt was at the day before!), so there was a red carpet and crowds of people waiting to see if someone famous was going to leave their hotel or head into the theater. The beaches there are unreal, probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. And while they were giving us the tour, we would stop occasionally into a bar where we drank cervesas and ate some pintxos (tapas). we also met a guy from australia who seemed super cool! but since we had to go back to bilbao we obviously couldnt hang out any longer... here is a pic of the girls with our native tour guides.
we headed home around 9:30, but then rather going straight back home, we stopped in a town near where I live and went to a house party with the brother and his friend. It was pretty awk, but also really cool. everyone was hanging out watching soccer and drinking. Just a chill night it seemed. but after a while we left, and then finally around 1:30 or so we made it to the disco like we had originally planned! there we met up with other people from our program, danced our hearts away, and then made it home by 4am. overall an amazing day!
today just relaxing and finishing up my homework, and then american football games (including the bears!) are being shown at a bar near my apt, so i'm going to go watch with a couple friends. looking forward to it!
Happy new year! I did research attempting to find a synagogue in Bilbao with no such luck, damn. It would have been really interesting to go to one in Spain.
Last night was super fun! Jenny, a girl on the program, told everyone of this new bar that happens to be in my town that was having drink specials in an attempt to attract a younger crowd, and it worked! The whole bar was people our age, finally saw some spanish men! haha! and cute ones! not the creepy older ones. Everyone was super friendly there and willing to socialize. Definitely plan on going back there to hopefully talk more with the locals and meet new people. Oh and they had an awesome DJ that took requests! We had him play toxic by britney and of course i gotta feeling by the bep. And the BEP song came on after midnight, so of course i was very excited for the Mazel Tov part! hahahaha here to the right is a pic of me and alyssa super excited about that song!
After a while, we left the bar and headed to a different one that more people from our program were at. They had a live band and i had so much fun dancing and singing with everyone. Below is a pic of all the ladies. Finally headed home around 3 or so, attempted to talk with Becky and all the TADC peeps, but of course my video sucks at life and doesnt work... Hopefully today we will finalize all our travels. Not sure what is in store for tonight, but I think tomorrow I am going to venture into the wine country for the day! probably going to be rainy and gross, but very much looking forward to doing some exploring! I'll write again soon :-)
so another week of classes has gone by - pretty uneventful. but so glad it's finally the weekend! there's a party in my town tonight at a bar called La Tortuga that has 1 euro beers, which will be very nice! tomorrow relaxing and hopefully figuring out some more travels, then saturday i think i'm going to the wine country with some peeps to do some wine tasting!
i'm starting to get nervous though. everyone including myself is planning trips everywhere and i'm getting worried i'm not going to make it to barcelona! one weekend that people are planning on going, i am planning on going to paris. and another group is planning on going when my parents are in town. if i don't make it there i will seriously be SO bummed!!!! and i also really want to go to london, but that is proving to be difficult too. ughhh i just hope everything works out!
Here's another update on my lifeeee. I think like 2 people read this, but I hope you enjoy! haha
After my whole sick situation, things have started looking up! Saturday I got together with Molly, Alyssa and Ron to start planning trips and holy crap I'm excited! If everything goes to plan, while in Europe I will see the south of France, Barcelona, Madrid/Toledo, London, Munich, Amsterdam, and Morocco - AHHHHH! seriously SO EXCITED! Not to mention at the end I will head to Dublin and then probably Italy for a week. I mean yea, I'm going to be broke as shit come the end, but I know I will have some of the greatest memories of my life!
So after planning those trips, I headed home, relaxed for a bit, then went out with a bunch of people to Tony and Kyle's apt. They are super cool guys who aren't on our program, but they are Americans that are living here. We were hanging out for a while, but me and Brittany weren't feeling like drinking and everyone else was wasted, so we decided to go on our own little adventure. We headed towards the beach, but got lost and wandered around a bit instead. We found these awesome tree branches that we played with for a bit, haha, and probably looked like complete freaks but whatever, we had fun!
Then today I woke up, ate lunch, then headed to the beach where i relaxed and did some homework. Alyssa then met up with me and we just hung out and laughed a lot, per usual. And we found the PRETTIEST shells! There is this one that I found that I am obsessed with and am def going to make a necklace out of. I love love love it!
back to classes again tomorrow. Think I'm going to do a little shopping as well :-)
Well, the past few days have been nothing too spectacular. went to the beach for a couple hours yesterday which is always nice! and then last night was the big fiesta with the group. we pregamed at blake's place and i was doing fine, but on my walk to the bar i was feeling pretty crappy. i only actually stayed at the bar for a little bit because i felt like shit, and then went home and proceeded to stay up all night. i would say the only good thing that came out of last night was that i probably lost like 10 pounds. hahahaha. i don't know if it was too much vino or what, but my stomach was notttt happy
i'm missing the guggenheim as we speak. i still kinda feel like crap so i figured it would be better to stay home. i'll go when my parents come to visit. then later i am supposed to be getting together with people to plan trips, but i dont know if i will make it. ughhh being sick in spain blows, you miss so much! i better be better by tomorrow!
First day of classes today - seem okay so far. Just had a spanish writing and speaking class. Tomorrow is the grammar, basque culture and language, and then this class called Europe in the World which I am considering dropping. It's late in the afternoon on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I heard it's hard, and people travel on thursday nights and i dont want that to limit me... haha plus i'm lazy and want to enjoy Espana! Hey, at least I'm being honest.
Went to the beach again this afternoon after my classes. amazinggggg. Seriously. And tomorrow is supposed to be in the 90s and sunny, looks like I'll be hitting it up again! Also, Alyssa and I plan on hanging out in Las Arenas tomorrow night before dinner. Whenever I walk outside there are always tons of kids playing and adults talking and drinking, so it's time to experience the local life.
And I forgot you can put pictures on here! so here is my first one. This is from the first time I went to the beach - a beautiful sunset. See why I love this place??
right now just relaxing in my room after a long and fun weekend!
friday night we all pregamed together. like 20 of us, it was sweet. then we ended up splitting up into two groups, and the people i were with were super cool. we went to a bar in casco viejo to start off the night and got some pretty cheap drinks, then headed to a house party which was just okay. super crowded but def a cool experience. ended up staying out until like 3 in the morning
saturday i slept in til 2:00, ate lunch with Carmen, then went wandering in Las Arenas with Alyssa. We explored her neighborhood and ours, and then decided to buy some super cheap wine and hang out on the beach for the sunset. INCREDIBLE! I still can't believe that I'm in Spain, 5 min from the ocean, experiencing a whole new culture. it's amazing.
Sat night we all went to pregame in a girl on our program's apt. played drinking games and such with about 12 or so people, then headed out to Casco Viego to hit up a discoteque. we were originally planning on going to Fever, but that had expensive cover so we found this other one that was free and we danced for hoursssss. Then me and a few others wandered around for what seemed like forever to another bar. Finally got back to my apt at 5am! woo it was nuts.
today, slept til 2 again, then went to the beach to meet up with some peeps. was there all day, it was beautiful out! classes start tomorrow though, ughhhh...
The first couple days have been great! we had orientation yesterday and today, along with tours of Bilbao and the beach towns. It's so beautiful here! All the people on my group seem super fun and nice and I think we will all get along. Going out for the first time tonight! Everyone is meeting at the dorms and then we're heading over to one girl's apartment to pregame. Then we're off to Casco Viejo (the old town) to hit up the bars and explore! So pumped! Although I hope I can last as long as the Spaniards do....
Been talking with a bunch of people about travel and such. Ahhh there are so many places I want to go and just not enough weekends! Working on narrowing down the cities and then it's time to start booking!
Tomorrow I'll probably sleep and explore Las Arenas (my town). Then on Sunday it's supposed to be sunny and hot so we're hitting up the beach!
WOO! So I finally got to Spain today! My first flight was just alright. It was 8 hours long overnight, and I probably slept for max 2 hours. Then I had a SIX hour layover in Germany which suckeddd. I don't speak German, and was too afraid I would sleep through my flight if I fell asleep, so I just sat and listened to music the entire time. Then my final flight wasn't too bad. Just 2 hours long and slept for most of it.
Spain is so beautiful! I couldn't believe this is where I am staying when I was looking out the plane window. Carmen (my host mom) picked me up at the airport. She is super nice and patient with me. I'm super tired/jet lagged today plus all the thinking in Spanish that I literally have a headache. It feels good though to be speaking all in Spanish, even if I suck at it.
Tomorrow is the first day of orientation. Looking forward to meeting everyone and seeing the campus.
