Last Monday: Completely just does not exist to me. I got on the plane Friday evening and arrived here on Monday evening, with about a 6 hour layover in Frankfurt because we missed the plane. So Monday night consisted of meeting my host family, unpacking, and going to bed at 9pm.
Last Tuesday: We had orientation at the university, ate an all-expenses paid lunch that included pasta with either beef sauce or lots of vegetables in tomato sauce as the first dish, and for the second dish was a hefty piece of chicken and french fries; then came desert, which was some chocolat thing with a tangy sauce on the side. Afterwards we toured some of the town and bought umbrellas (you laugh, but they mean business she wasn´t kidding when the tour guide said we would need them. Too bad they don´t make windshields for people too.). After that I can´t remember. The tour ended by a metro stop downtown and a girl in my group and I walked around a bit before heading to our respective homes.
Spanish reality tv is funny. I get annoyed with American reality shows (mentally sending frowns to Flava Flave and his harem of idiots), so I never really watch them...but my host family is hooked to one called Gran Hermano, so I watch it.
I saw Anime in spanish yesterday; I was home alone and got bored so I turned on the tv that has a bazillion channels (because they have 2 tvs, one that is old and small, but in a more comfortable room, and a flatscreen that is nice and big, but in a more formal room. The latter gets satellite or something. wheee.), and on the cartoon channel they were showing some random anime I´d never heard of before. It was pretty amazing. I think it was called "Pretty Cure" and that got me curious. hahaha, it´s about 3 girls who have some super power and they fight in pretty dresses with shiny weapons. The monster they fought yesterday was in a baseball stadium which by the end of the episode did not exist...at all..but will undoubtably be in the next episode. But the monster...was made of baseball equipment! XD
Wednesday: nothing really, we had another orientation thing in the morning which was pretty boring but they handed out important info, and the afternoon was free. I walked around admiring architecture and windowshopping while trying not to look too much like a tourist...
Bilbao has a river (which in spanish is called La Ria de Bilbao) that is not freshwater. It is a saltwater river, and that´s why it´s called a "ria" instead of "rio" which is the word for river.
Thursday we went to a small village somewhere far away in the hills. We saw a Romanesque bridge (I will post pictures later) and of course the entire town was picturesque. We passed a castle/family home of someone who came to the "New World" back in the 1600s, made a fortune, and returned to the Basque country and built a castle. Here, in the North, it is more common to see the courtyards surrounding the house rather than inside and surrounded by 4 walls which provide shade and cooler temperatures, because here, the weather is already cool most of the time. When it isn´t cold, that is. Like right now.
Afterwards we went to another small town that had a bar/restaurant that the people responsible for so many college students had called ahead and told them we were coming, there were x amount of people, and we were hungry. Boy did we have a lot of food. They make potatos with everything, and so many kinds of sauce. And sausage and potatoes. There are also a million varieties (respectively) of vegetable stew. The first dish was a sausage and potato stew and a vegetable one. I had both, and they were delicious. Then the main dish was either beef or cod fish in white wine sauce. I picked fish and it was also delicious, and like soooo many other times I of course ate too much, but this was a whole new level of being full that even I had never experienced. I (tragically) couldn´t even eat half of my fish! Instead of dessert I asked for tea. I´m talking beyond food-baby full.
Friday: visit to the Guggenheim. It was ok, as far as the art is concerned...I´m not really into the whole white background with paint splatters and drips and stuff, and some people get suuuuuper emotional about this. I´m sorry, if anyone who reads this likes that style, if you do, skip this paragraph, because I don´t and i am going to complain a little about it. This one guy who had several rooms had 1 wall that had 4 paintings of "The 4 Seasons" That´s not what it was titled...I don´t remember what it was titled. But each one "represented" a "season." I identified one because he had written (in pencil, i think, probably No.2) "Autum" in the handwritting that would do a firstgrader proud.
The architecture was amazing, though. I was glad to be inside the museum and look around. I think the museum itself is the best sculpture of all the ones inside it. At least the building looks like a ship from the side and a flower from the top (awesome). Some of the sculptures... ...I just don´t know.
The person who did the Thinking Man sculpure (I´m getting tired, and restless, so I´m not going to look up his name. hahaha :P ) did a ton of other paintings, and they are all downtown outside. I was told about this by one of my host mom´s friends, and then she and I went and saw them the next day. He made the hands and feet super large, so they are out of proportion, in order to be able to see them, and the gestures they make from far away (at least that is what I was told).
Now that it isn´t raining I am going to walk around and maybe shop some. Find a necklace to go with the awesome earings I bought. ^_^
ps. have I mentioned that the food here is amazing? I am going to have look for a cookbook. AND! ANDANDAND: I just finished this bookd called "Sabor a chocolate" or "Chocolate Flavor" that was published in 2006. It is a life and love story, and much of it takes place during WWII. Anyone who likes old movies or love stories I think would like it. It is a quick read and I think I might have to buy it and read it again (I borrowed my host mom´s copy.).
ok. enough for now!
haha
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