approximately 1 month later...

Hehehe, sorry I have been neglecting you guys lately. I would say classes picked up, but since I´m only taking 13 credit hours...I don´t think that counts as a valid excuse! hahaha

(Note: pictures taken after the Madrid trip will be uploaded later.)

I have, however, been doing lots of things...

Every weekend is 3 days long because we only have classes Monday through Thursday. In February the University took us (the Americans) by bus to Madrid for a weekend. We started around 8:30am on Friday, stopped along the way for a snack around noon, here:yes, that is snow you see on the roof.

We finally arrived at the hotel around 3, where we were immediately distributed our rooms and then ate lunch.

After lunch we went to see the Royal Palace before it closed, a cathedral, and the central plaza (Plaza Mayor). It was incredibly cold and windy, and growing dark. The adults that went with us are our tour guides most of the time, and they left us in the center of Madrid (after they told us how we can get back to the hotel etc.) to do whatever shopping or sightseeing that we wanted to do. There were people dressed up as statues EVERYWHERE, and as really random things.


(Plaza Mayor)


That Saturday we went to see Segovia. This time not only was it cold and windy, but snowy...but we´re all troopers here. The main thing we visited there was the Alcázar of Segovia, and the Roman Aqueduct (I haven´t uploaded these pictures yet, though). The Alcázar was amazing, inside and out. We had the option of climbing the watchtower stairs, which was a workout, and probably a little bit hazardous, but definitely worth it. The view was gorgeous, I will post pictures shortly. ^_^

The next day, Sunday, we went to the Prado Museum before heading back home. They pretty much just let us loose there for about 3 hours. I completely geeked out, because last summer I took a class on the Spanish Golden Age and the art of the period, and I think I saw every single painting that we talked about (and of course, about a million more). It was tricky trying to get out, though, I ended up walking through the same room of sculptures 2 times more than I intended, but eventually made it to the gift shop where I purchased an awesome bookmark that displays part of a painting (still life of flowers...also one of the paintings that I learned about!! ahaha) and a book...and a couple gifts for other people.

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We also went 2 weekends ago, on a Friday, to Gernika and a (gorgeous) small fishing town called Mundaka that has a great surfing area (they are Basque names). Gernika was bombed (and completely destroyed..but later rebuilt) by the Germans in WWII with Franco´s permission...there are several theories as to why this was allowed, part of one of the theories says that the Nazis had a new plane and they wanted a target to practice with. Others say that they were trying to bomb the bridge that was nearby, but the bridge was the only thing that was left completely untouched by bombs and fire. We visited the Gernika Peace Museum, which was very sombering, and on top of the WWII bit about Gernika, they have the basement of the museum completely devoted to Nuclear effects (war, power, etc.).
After the museum we ate lunch...the food was not only delicious, but they gave us dessert AND coffee! :D

After returning from the day-trip to Gernika and Mundaka, another friend and I decided to get our Carneval costumes. We should have gone sooner, because the festivities started that same night. I ended up being a sailor and he was a bull-fighter. I didn´t do anything that night, but on Saturday a bunch of us went to downtown Bilbao, where in Plaza Nueva they had a band playing music and lots of people dancing. It was lots of fun, especially to me because they were playing music like Cha-cha, a few waltzes and merengue...and of course Samba. There were so many pirates, so I got my picture with some random pirate with his sword at my throat (since I was a sailor "in the navy" hehehe), I though it was appropriate. ;-)

There were all types of costumes, which I haven´t uploaded those pictures yet either.

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Mostly in my free time I hang around the area where I live, go to the bay, walk around, drink coffee, and check out cool architecture with my host mom´s friends who have taken it upon themselves to show me a ton of things in and around our area, as well as Bilbao proper.



Sant Anton:








every saturday in Plaza Nueva there is a market where people sell anything and everything from old coins to birds.


There is also a flower market that gets set up by the river. (no pic, sorry!)



Every summer I´m told they hold dances with live music playing in the gazebo...but mostly old people go. frown.



Anyways, that´s what i´ve been up to, more or less. I´ll post more frequently...and upload pictures!

¡Hasta luego!