OK, well on to events. Wednesday after class Brittany and I went to the fine arts museum in Bilbao because it's FREE on Wednesdays! Whoo! It was really cool, not as eccentric as Guggenheim and the architecture definitely isn't as impressive but I really liked some of the artwork in there! It was nice out for about an hour so we headed to the beach afterwards even though it was already 7:30 PM so by the time we got there it was cloudy and cold but it was still pretty. Joe and Scott met up with us (we had also gone to the beach that previous Monday and got killed by waves) and after we left the beach we went to a local bar for an hour before I went home.
On Thursday night, our director Andrea took us 5 API kids out for pintxos. Pintxos are the tapas of Pais Vasco, which are kind of like appetizers sold by the piece and usually on a slice of french bread (they love their bread here...and ham, if I haven't said it already ham and cheese is the PB&J of Spain, in fact peanut butter is practically unknown, that's one thing I miss PEANUT BUTTER!). Anyways, we definitely should have gone out for pintxos at the beginning of the program, I've had a few here or there but it's great having a local (Andrea is from Bilbao) take us to the good places and eat fantastic food. Pais Vasco (northern Spain) is KNOWN for having the best food or one of the places with the best food in all of Europe, and yes it's delicious. I. love. food! After pintxos I stayed in Bilbao a little with Katelyn and other Rachel and we went back for one more pintxo as well as a pastry. When I got home my host family was cooking dinner and I was so full but I just love the food they cook and sitting and talking with them so I ate a miniscule amount.
Friday was really rainy in the morning, the weather has actually been iffy since we've been here. Apparently it's abnormally bad as in it rains all the time. Bilbao is used to rain but not this much, of course only when we're here haha, but I love it regardless. It's just such a beautiful place surrounded by mountains and forest it's just very picturesque, with beaches nearby that are beaches of the sea, not man-made beaches. But when we got out of class, ahhh it was beautiful and sunny out! We originally were going to go shopping but we HAD to take advantage of this sunny day. Therefore after we ate lunch we headed straight to a nearby town called Sopelana (10-15 minute ride on the metro) because it's supposed to have the best beach in the area and we hadn't been there yet! We took a bus from the metro to the beach, and god it is so gorgeous! There really isn't a strong enough word to describe it. I like the beach near our house but it's nothing like this, the sand is nice and fine and the water is clean with cliffs and nature surrounding it as well as parasailing to the left, you can't ask for much more. If I'm at the beach I have to go in the water so I went for it and at this beach, unlike the one near our house here, when the waves hit you, they're not waves of sand but just clean water so you don't get really dirty afterwards. It's really fun playing in the waves, but a bit dangerous sometimes. I'm not sure if I posted this already but the first time that Brittany and I went to the beach near our town when the flag was yellow (it goes green, yellow, red for the conditions of the water), we were in the waves and I had a charley horse and luckily I was fairly close to shore and hopped my way back. But I couldn't get rid of it and if I had been in the middle of the water with giant waves, it would've been rough.
Later that night we hopped on the metro and met up with our friends Joe and Scott to go to Goliz near the Plentzia metro stop (where we jumped off the bridge into the river) for a fiesta. However there was a live band and things going on in Plentzia where we knew where we were so we stayed and danced the night away there. We left at 3:30 AM but just missed the metro at 3:30 so since it was late we had to wait a half hour for the 4 AM metro. We also had to catch a 9 AM bus to Vitoria to visit our professor the next day so by the time I got home it was 4:30 AM and Brittany went out for a little bit after too so she got even less sleep. We had to wake up around 7:45 AM so that we could be at the bus station in Bilbao by 8:45 AM. We made it with time to spare but Joe, Scott, Brittany, Molly and I were all looking like zombies because we had been out the night before. Scott and Brittany got the least sleep so they were functioning on nothing, while I was OK because it was that state where I got just enough sleep that my body was OK, plus I couldn't wait to see our professor Carla! We took a bus that was indirect and took about a half hour more than it should have and the road was really windy so my stomach wasn't the happiest with me, but I ended up being fine--nothing compared to that little plane trip from Detroit to Toronto! When we got off the bus I used my Spanish and asked about 5 people where the cathedral where we were supposed to meet our professor was. We finally found her and ahhh I forgot how awesome she is! She was so welcoming and took all of us out, including Scott who wasn't even her student (he goes to GVSU) for pintxos and lunch and paid for all of us. We also met two other UM professors that were teaching with Carla in Salamanca (the Michigan summer Spanish program) but were visiting Pais Vasco with Carla. They were awesome and they are engaged and going to get married in the fall! I definitely want to take a class with Mar (the same name as my host mom!) who teaches 400 level Spanish classes. It also seems really interesting because she teaches Spanish gender studies. The first pintxo place we went to we had a small amount of txakoli (white wine of the Basque country or Pais Vasco) with our pintxo. Then we moved on to this other place and had this bocadilla (a sandwich on french bread so more like a sub) with a ham or bacon, and then we had a plate of fried baby squid. It was delicious but I definitely prefer the fried baby squid my dad makes or the ones that we get at good Chinese restaurants. Then we went back to Carla's house where her parents live and met them. Ahhh I thought no one could top our host family in Bilbao but Carla's family is also WONDERFUL! Seriously, more than half of the greatness I had in Vitoria was due to Carla and her family. I also felt like I learned so much in that one day, like Molly said (another girl in the Deusto program that goes to UM), because we used our Spanish all day and we were hanging out with locals. Lunch was so amazing, it was at this bingo place that they converted into a restaurant as well but it was so delicious. We had 3 courses and I chose the seafood stuffed red peppers with squid in its own ink, duck in a pineapple sauce, and cheesecake. The appetizers were so well presented I had to take pictures of all of them! Enjoy:
Then we went back to the park to have some coffee and tea. The shop is owned by an Olympic marathon runner or speed walker I can't quite remember. Very nice and tranquil though. Afterwards we went back to their house. Carla's brother's dog is beautiful and they named her "Golfa" which in Spanish means like a girl who's very popular with the guys, a "bad girl". And apparently Carla's mom was embarrassed of that name so she'd call her "Golfie". Brit and Scott took a siesta at Carla's house and the rest of us took another walk around Vitoria to the plaza de toros (bull ring) but we just saw the outside and then walked around more of Vitoria (the capital of the Basque country aka northern Spain). Carla told us all of the good stores to go to so I'm going to have to make use of this last week in Spain to go shopping a bit! We also stopped by this pastry/chocolate shop and I bought a box of chocolate and truffles for the girl we are staying with in Amsterdam and my family (my real family). These are supposed to be specific to Vitoria and the truffles were AWESOME, my love for food grows every day I am here and I already love love loved food before I came :P.
Side note: I found out through our lab manager at the Neurmotor control lab I work for at Michigan that two girls from Amsterdam worked in the lab a few years back and so she gave me their information. Anniek (one of the girls from Amsterdam) said that we could stay at her place and that she would give us a list of things to do and would take us out at night. Ah! She's amazing and I don't even know her yet, so I had to get her something.
Then we headed back to Carla's house again and just hung out for a bit and took a few group pictures before we headed back to the bus station to go back to Bilbao. What a FANTASTIC day though! I really hope I'll be able to go back and visit Carla's family again!
When we got back, Borja, our other host brother who just turned 14, was there because he just came back from vacationing in the U.S. He briefly met him before we went to our rooms and went straight to sleep after a long day. This morning we were able to talk to him a bit more, he's so little! When we were eating lunch he was saying how he finally got to eat healthy food because where he stayed the parents don't cook that much so he ate a lot of hamburgers haha soo stereotypical. He said his favorite city was New York, and of course I've been to Spain before New York. After doing some homework we headed to the Concurso de Paellas (an international paella--type of Spanish food--contest) but there's also drinks and dancing that goes on.
I loved it! It took place where we live so we walked there and didn't have to worry about catching a metro home or anything. The atmosphere was just so great! We ended up seeing a kid we met on the metro Friday night who had been studying in New York for the past 10 months--his English is REALLY good. Everyone had a tent where they made paella and basically a mini fiesta in each tent. We were able to talk to Spaniards in Spanish, yay! At this one tent they were so awesome because they gave us food, pastries, and sangria without us even asking--nothing roofied or poisoned, just delicious. I talked to 2 of them in Spanish and they were saying how they visited the U.S. when they were younger and was talking about the sitcom Nightrider and although it sounds vaguely familiar I don't know what it is, but apparently David Hasselhoff is in it. I asked if David Hasselhoff was their hero and he was like oh yeah. But they went everywhere, New York, Seattle, San Francisco(?), Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. They said I spoke Spanish well and I know definitely my understanding of it has really improved so that's great but I know I still have a long way to go...if only I could have stayed an entire semester! Tomorrow there's an agriculture fair in Goliz, the town near the Plentzia stop that we originally were going to go to on Thursday so I think that's my plan for tomorrow morning. Therefore, I should sleep. I have mud on my shoes from the slight rain and slippery hills today...perhaps bringing back some Spanish earth? This post will actually be posted tomorrow when I can add pictures so that's when you kids will see it :P. A day of rest and homework?
Love,
Me
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