Since yesterday was so busy, I came home exhausted and didn't get a chance to do any homework or even write my blog (as you probably noticed). I woke up at 6:40am today to meet my friend at a bank to buy my bus ticket to go to the festival on Sunday. When I stepped out of my apartment at 7:43 am, I was expecting the sun to shine brightly in the sky except it doesn't. Not because it's cloudy, not because it was rainy, but because the sun doesn't start to rise until like 8 AM. I AM NOT KIDDING. And what makes it worse is that all the mountains around block the sun when it starts to rise so there's that. God help us if it's a cloudy day or raining, we might not see sun at all! The worst part is when I woke up today at 6:40 am I feel like it's 3 am. It's definitely something I am not used to. Anyway back to the bus ticket story. The bank we went to to buy the bus ticket had no idea what we were talking about and told us which bank we had to go to. We spent a couple minutes finding the bank and it was closed. Not sure if I'm going to be able to go on Sunday unless I can get one of my friends to buy my ticket for me. :( I'm praying. Since today is another day that I can't come back home for lunch my host mom prepared me one. In it I found 4 sandwiches and 2 bananas!!! I eat one and I'm stuffed! I took a sandwich and a banana and let her know that one was plenty for me. Also, mentally preparing to tell her at dinner that I don't want to eat pizza and pasta every single day without sounding rude. Wish me luck! This morning I bought my bus ticket online through Alsa.es and it came out to about 15 Euro round trip. Our bus leaves at 7:30 am so we should get there around 8:30 or 9 am. Very excited! I still haven't packed my bag yet! We will be staying in a villa with enough beds for each of us and it cost about the same as a hostel. We used Airbnb to book it! I'll definitely let you know how it is. On my way to school today I happened upon two beautiful blue letters. Apparently UD's mascot is literally the letter U and D. They were so cute and the guys inside them sounded like teletubbies. They did not break character at all and we even got a snazzy picture with them! Very cute! After Organizational Behavior I used my 2 hour break to work on the homework that was due today and type up my blog for yesterday. I also had to officially register for my classes, which only took like 5 mins. Classes went well today, but I forgot to bring my International Business book so my professor was a little upset with the class for not reading the entire chapter when he said start reading it. But whatever. I had to print my bus ticket before one of my classes which was quite an experience. The way that you print at the University of Deusto is you have to go to the photocopy building (behind the school, don't worry it's not far) and either take a USB with your document on it or use the computer there to print from your email. Then there's this really long complicated process you have to go through and the instructions to your right are all in Spanish. Since I only had a few mins before class I wish they had one in English but that's what happens. Basically, you have to go into the print properties, change the document name to your username, accept and then it sends the job to the printer. Then you have to stand in line to tell someone behind the counter that you printed something and give them your user name. They release the job, print it, and you pay 10 cents per page. WOW. Very complicated. I had to figure that all out in Spanish! I feel like a freaking genius! (By the way, they won't print your job if you don't change the document name to your username). Now that I'm done with classes I definitely have a lot of homework to work on and have to get prepared for my trip! Wish me luck!
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Today was a great day! My walk to school was quite memorable. It was so windy that I was literally getting pushed by the wind! The only other time that I’ve felt that strong of a wind was walking in between UH at UIC. (Those who go to UIC understand the struggle of being thrown by the wind!) Here it was like that but a lot worse. For a second I thought I was going to do a Mary Poppins! In the morning I had Spanish class and then came back home for my 7 and a half hour break until my last class at 5:30 pm. I decided to soak up the sun and enjoy some time at the beach but since everyone else was in class, I ended up going by myself. When I was younger (and an introvert) I liked having a lot of time to myself but due to the demands of my business scholarship in college, I am now more extroverted and would rather be with my friends. I definitely talked to myself a lot, thought about random things, my family, Julian, Cilantro. I miss them all like crazy and wish they could be here with me. It’s funny how you don’t realize how involved people are in your life until they’re not. Like I mentioned before, it was insanely windy (insane wind + sand = sandstorm = ouch) and surprisingly there was no one swimming! The water was really choppy and wavy but I love waves so it was all good. Although I didn’t stay too long, I still managed to get sun burned but I collected some beautiful seashells and make some art in the sand. :) By the time I left I was starving so I made my way home as quick as possible, ate pasta, and showered. I had just enough time to start cleaning up my room a bit before I had to leave for class. After class my friends and I met up to plan some trips! Over the past few days we’ve been talking about all the different places we want to go: Greece, Amersterdam, Italy, London, Paris, San Sebastian, Granada, etc. A few days ago they planned a trip to Poland to visit Auschwitz. At first I declined because I didn’t feel like being depressed but yesterday I started thinking that I could be passing up a once in a lifetime opportunity and more importantly, another stamp on my passport. Study abroad is all about doing things out of your comfort zone, so I changed my mind and booked my flight and tour for November. In October we have a 4-day weekend, which we are using to go to LONDON! CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS? BECAUSE I REALLY CAN’T. I am so excited!!! :D
And tomorrow we are leaving to San Sebastian, a city about an hour away to spend the weekend and enjoy the beautiful weather! On Sunday, there is a festival in a small city that has a wine tasting, live music and dancing! So my weekend is going to be extremely busy! Tonight, is crunch time to finish all of my homework so that I can properly enjoy my weekend. Just a heads up, I won’t be taking my laptop with me so I might not get to posting anything until Sunday or Monday night. Today was a fun school day! My host mom prepared me a lunch because I don't have time to come back and when I opened it I was quite surprised. Inside was a yogurt, a banana, an orange and 3 different kinds of sandwiches (one with just salami, one with chicken and lettuce, and one with soft boiled eggs, turkey and cheese). The one with the boiled eggs was the best and I actually took a few slices of salami from the other sandwich and added them. Just that one sandwich filled me up! When I got home, for the sack of not wasting food, I ate the chicken and lettuce one but by that time the bread had gotten soggy from the lemon and oil she dresses the salad with. Still good though!
Aside about class: Today was the most interesting day of classes. In International Business we had a debate about the pros and cons of globalization. He split up the class in 2 and I was on the team that was for globalization. I think I did a great job of participating and know that I for sure pissed off some kids from the other team. I think I won, despite whether I truly am for globalization. (I don't know that much about it to make a personal decision.) This one guy in particular was giving me an evil eye. Then, in International Marketing class we were doing an exercise where we had to create a marketing plan for a business. Most people know I want to start a bakery so my group just went with a bakery that specializes in wedding cakes in Spain. The one guy in our group turned to me and asked me, "So are you going to not sell to certain religions?" I AM NOT KIDDING. I was like are you an idiot? That's discrimination. And stupid. I don't know whether to be insulted or laugh at how stupid he is. . Back to home: I then browsed the internet and watched plenty of Chef Ramsay's cooking videos. I guess I relaxed too much and ended up taking an hour and a half nap...waking up at 7:30pm. I actually fell asleep while watching the videos and had a dream that I was cooking with Chef Ramsay in his kitchen! AH a girl can dream. <3 Specifically, he was asking me to salt some steak. It was awesome. I worked on some Spanish homework and then ate some lasagna for dinner. It was good but not the lasagna I'm used to. I'm also going to be having pasta for lunch tomorrow. That's all folks :) These past couple days I've been too lazy to blog, so sorry. My weekend wasn't the best here to be honest. Though I did find a frozen yogurt place on Saturday night that was awesome! It's not like the frozen yogurt in the US. because they only have a plain yogurt flavor. It's set up like an ice cream store where you pay for your size and toppings instead of by the pound. It was really good! On Sunday, I went to a flea market in Casco Viejo because everything else is closed. They had a bit of everything; rocks, jewelry, books (LOTS OF BOOKS), records, cds, dvds, anything you could think of! THEY WERE EVEN SELLING BIRDS AND BUNNIES!!! This is a great spot to pick up unique souvenirs for half the price! There were tons of people who were drinking (yes at 1 pm.) and smoking. Yesterday, I went to Organizational Behavior and there were only 3 of us because one kid dropped. I was kind of sleepy after class and wanted to go to the wall to walk around hoping it would wake me up. I wandered around a bit in different stores and found myself in H & M. (Yes, I know H & M is in the U.S. but I never really bought anything from there before.) I found some great deals on 3 shirts and a beautiful rose patterned skirt! Note: Dressing rooms don't have doors with locks on them. Just a curtain. Also, the staff doesn't assume you are going to steal things if you take your backpack with you in the dressing room. Yay! Also, something that has been bugging me for a while now is the "fashion" in Spain. Before I came, I was curious as to what sort of "fashion" would make me stand out as an American so I can leave them behind. I stumbled upon a few blogs and found some tips which included wearing a jean jacket. My wonderful boyfriend had just bought me a jean jacket right before I went and I was planning on taking it with me anyway. I haven't been one to follow fashion too much and figured if I walked around confident enough then maybe I'll start a new trend! That's what fashion is anyway? Anyway, ever since I've landed I've seen nothing but jean jackets and typical "western fashion" (like the stuff thats makes you look like a cowboy). So future advice to study abroad students: Don't worry too much about fitting in fashion wise. End of rant. One thing I love about the mall here is the escalators save power when not in use by going as SLOW as possible. Once you step onto it the escalator senses you (either with the bars you go through or your weight) and it speeds up. Not both, but only the one you are using. GENIUS! This is what happens when you don't want to be wasting money on expensive electricity; people get creative. I also found a party store that carries Wilton supplies. Ah <3 cake decorating! After the mall I went home to rest and work on some homework before I went to class. Economics was SUPER SUPER SUPER SUPER BORING. UGH. But I got through it. Even after climbing 5 flights of stairs to get to class, I went to a store called Decathlon (a little farther than my house) and found some amazing deals! In order to join hiking club I have to have hiking boots and a water bottle (which I forgot at home). I found hiking boots for 15 Euro, a small backpack for 2 Euro and a water bottle for 2 Euro. When I got home I showed my host brother and he said the hiking boots were one of the best brands. He almost fainted when I told him how much I paid. Unfortunately I had pizza for dinner again...MOM COME HERE WITH YOUR DELICIOUS FOOD! :'( Me: I have to write my blog. Eli trying to be me: Today was fun. I woke up and chatted with Eli. We talked and watched videos and had so much fun! We ate breakfast together and made everyone who wasn't there jealous. Yay for friends! Shout out to Eli :D Today I woke up with a terrible headache and decided to just relax. So that's exactly what I did. I watched a few episodes of Hell's Kitchen and spent most of my day video chatting with Eli (who is an amazing friend for pulling an all nighter to talk to me. The love is real.) In a few hours I'm going to go to MoviStar with Carlos to finally buy my SIM card. I found out if he buys it for me it's only 12 euros! I can't say no to saving 18 euros! Do you know how many desserts that is from the bakery on Tuesdays? Like 28 different desserts. OMG. Just thinking about it makes me hungry. Anyway I forgot to mention something yesterday. Remember that creepy hole in the wall with the spiral staircase? I went to show Matt and Joe while we were waiting for Kelsey and they went all the way up. Turns out it just leads to the roof and another room but I also got to snag some pictures. It's the only one of its kind that I've found so far. Also, this morning while looking for a bagel I found the most amazing package of bread. Crustless, sliced bread. Why isn't this sold in the US? Why don't Spanish kids have to suffer through the peril of pulling their crust off every sandwich and trying not to get caught? I'm telling you. It is too perfect here. Today I also finally was able to go to get a SIM card! Hooray! I went with Carlos and he suggested that we go to a phone store called Phone House because they have all the companies SIM cards and offers. Long story short, I got my SIM card for 10 euros and my plan is 10 euros a month for 1 gb of data and 20 minutes with a company called Yoigo. Also, I had dinner early today! At 8:20 pm! It was pizza. Microwave pizza. Again. Sigh. AND THEY CUT IT WITH SCISSORS... I really want to just go to the supermarket and cook my own food. :( I guess I'd rather have pizza than sandwiches like my friends are getting for dinner. Overall, today was an amazing relaxing day! Today was really fun! We went to the Guggenheim Museum with the whole CIDE group (although some kids showed up late because they partied way too hard the night before). We all met outside by the giant flowery puppy, which is supposed to resemble life and death (because the flowers die and new ones grow). In the summer there a wider variety of flowers because of the gorgeous weather but in the winter they plant pansies because they survive. It also has it's own irrigation system because imagine the horror it would be trying to use a hose to water the flowers everyday! Now about the actual museum! The Guggenheim has a pretty interesting story because until 1997 there used to be shipping containers where the museum was. (Remember Bilbao used to be big on industry and ships.) While the Basque country was looking for something to bring in tourists, the Guggenheim foundation was looking for another location. It was a match made in heaven. Architecture firms entered a competition to see whose design would win and Frank O. Gehry took the prize! The museum was designed to resemble giant ships and the titanium scaling represents fish. (Fun fact, the titanium changes color with the weather from silver to gold-ish.) A lot of people ask about the Guggenheim name. Solomon Guggenheim was an affluent Swiss art collector that was encouraged by his niece Peggy to start a foundation and museum that promotes and encourages new artists. (Random fact: Peggy's dad died in the Titanic.) Hence, the Guggenheim name. The inside atrium is really beautiful and has a part where you can go outside and observe different pieces and little known gems. There's a little "lake" in the back of the museum that has squares in the middle. These are FIRE FOUNTAINS. Who would have thought. It can't wait to see that at night. Also there is a timed fog that covers the lake every once in while, which was created by Fujiko Nakaya (a Japanese artist) in honor of Frank O. Gehry (the architect). If you don't get it don't worry! Joe and Kelsey had to explain it to me. FOG is his initials! :) There's your aha moment! Behind the "lake" you see Maman, the spider sculpture created by Louise Bourgeois as a tribute to her mother. The spider is known for using it's web to protect its eggs and catch food. Bourgeois uses it to represent the duality of motherhood because a mother must protect her children fiercly and provide for her children. I don't like spiders myself but I really like the thought behind it! The architecture was really nice and although we didn't get a chance to see the entire museum, a group of us upgraded our tickets to memberships for 10 euros extra. That way we can come any time we want for free and get discounts on tickets for friends and family (Just for you Tia Georgette ;) ) Well today was about 85 degrees and probably one of our last chances to go swimming at the beach with hot weather. We went to the beach in Plenthia and my lord it was amazing. I LOVE swimming. I love the beach and waves. Oh my gosh it was just perfect. <3 I swam all the way out to the buoy it was really deep! We figured at least 20 feet. It was an awesome way to end the day. Although I was not a fan of smelling like a fish. BLAH. Amazing day nonetheless! After a well rested night I got ready for school as usual. While doing my hair, I did a time check and realized that I should have been leaving! I had accidentally set my alarm clock 30 mins later than I was supposed to, which made me grab some bread and my things and run out the door. Yay to me for always being in a rush to everything! I made it to my Organizational Behavior class 5 mins before it was suppose to start and the teacher even showed up a few minutes late! Interesting note: I'm the only girl in the class and there are only 3 other guys in the class...So, we have 4 people total. I don't think I've ever been in a class that small!!! (Mostly because they usually cancel them but thankfully they didn't cancel this class because I'm really excited for it!) ALSO, HOLD THE PHONE. I JUST REMEMBERED HE SAID THERE ARE NO EXAMS!!! Just presentations, boom. Easy A. He let us out early and I sat in the cafe for a hour or so until we had a sports briefing session. I'm really excited to get involved with extracurriculars here! So far I'm interested in the Mountain Hiking Club, Archery Club, Basque Dance Group and an Equestrian Club. Obviously I can't do that all but I sure can try! ;) After the sports session my friend Lauren and I went exploring around the school and found a mini doorway in the wall that had a spiral staircase. We decided to go up and finally got to the top where there were doors but we heard someone so we carefully ran back down! At around noon I had Spanish Grammar followed by International Business and then International Marketing. In international business we played a geography game where I learned that I am absolutely terrible at geography. Even the game was making fun of me with it's sarcastic "Wow!" Also, yes they do have an ñ on their keyboard! After class I came back home and was starving because I hadn't eaten since the morning. Luckily, my host mom was home and made me the biggest meal I've eaten in my life. Not the best. Definitely miss Moms cooking! While I was eating I decided to flip through the channels (because they always have the news on) and I stumbled upon the Big Bang Theory! Actually a Spanish dub of the Big Bang Thoery. As much as I hate dubs I watched so that I can see how much I understood. Not so great. BUT then the real gem came with the commercials. You know how we complian about the 1 min or 1 min 30 second commercial breaks in the U.S.? Here they're 3 - 4 mins! Absolutely ridiculous! I thought I was gonna die watching all those commercials! Definitely not cute! Now I am taking my siesta and I'm going to get ready to go out later tonight to a party for all the international students! So this post is late because last night I wanted to get to bed early and I did exactly that! At night I was having a panic attack because the gastronomy class I wanted to take was full and I needed to take another class but my advisor at my home university wasn't responding to my emails. (This is what happens when it's Labor Day Weekend in the US and you forget about the time difference. In reality I was just freaking out over nothing.) It's all figured out now and I will be taking International Marketing instead of gastronomy. BUT, this does kind of ruin my schedule. Now on Mondays I have class at 8:35 am. and at 5:30 pm. Yay for huge gaps! On Tuesdays I have class from 11:10 am. - 4pm. Wednesday is similar to Monday except my morning class is at 10 am. Finally, Thursdays I have class at 8:30 am., 12:10pm.- 4pm. ANYWAY, back to my day. So after my 8 am class I walked back home but since I had so much time I decided to check out the park. It's actually quite nice and has a lot of fountains and bench so it's a great spot to sit and read. Definitely got to keep that park on my mind! Instead of going the usual way home, I went the long way to explore a different neighborhood called Indautxu where I finally found a place to buy some hair product at a store called CosmeticLand. I then went to relax at home for a bit before I went to explore and go shopping. I found this store in Casco Viejo called Tiger and it's basically like a cute inexpensive store that has a bit of everything. I headed back home to relax a bit before I went to class, which not surprisingly was boring. After, most people were at the beach and it started to look like it was going to rain so I went home and just decided to unwind by watching Hell's Kitchen until dinner at 9 pm. After dinner, I went with Ignacio and Carlos to walk Hiru and Willie. While on the walk I noticed some mannequins in the window who were totally copying my hair! FYI, my hair is considered high fashion!Then came back to shower and head to bed! As you can see I was really proud that I walked more than 18,000 steps. Instead of waking up at 7:30 am as planned, I again over slept but this time I didn't miss anything because I start class at 11:10 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I definitely need to work on fixing my sleeping schedule! When I got out of the shower an intense comforting smell of freshly cooked bacon was filling my lungs. I RAN into the kitchen looking for bacon yet. There was nothing to be found. My heart broke. Into millions of pieces. As I sat down with my cereal for breakfast all I could feel was disappointment. OK. It's not that serious but I REALLY wanted bacon. Today I had Spanish Grammar class and International Business, which were not so exciting. But! I did get to go to the beach today! It was absolutely gorgeous! Getting to the beach from my apartment is easy and takes about 35 mins. All I have to do is take the metro from Moyua to Areeta, walk about 10 mins and BOOM there it is. (The smaller one anyway.) The water was chilly but not too bad; it actually felt really nice on my sore shins. (Who gets sore shins?!) It wasn't that hot outside so I just went in up to my knees and we all stood there talking. It was actually a really nice time! There were plenty of people topless and definitely a handful of people completely naked (even kids!!). Also, 98% of women on the beach were wearing bikinis, this includes a range of people in age and size. I wish I had that kind of confidence!
I am very grateful to have a wonderful host family. My host mother is Begoña who is a high school history teacher. She is divorced and has 3 sons; Javier, Ignacio, and Carlos. Javier is the oldest (32) and is currently in the US visiting his girlfriend who will eventually move to Bilbao. Ignacio is the middle brother (26) who teaches English. Carlos (20) is the youngest brother and it turns out that our birthdays are actually 5 days apart! He was the one that picked me up from the airport, brought me home and showed me the way to school. My family also has a long haired dachshund named Willie. He is adorable and reminds me of Cilantro. :) You can see him cuddled up in the corner in the entry way picture of the apartment. Also, the other day when I came home another dog greeted me at the door named Hiru who is just the most energetic dog ever. (Hiru apparently means three in Basque). Willie can sense me coming in as soon as I get off the elevator and he runs to the door and starts barking like crazy. Hiru takes the more friendly approach and begs to be petted. :) I live in an apartment on the 4th floor about a 20 min. walk from my school. It's a great morning work out without thinking about it. The door to get in my apartment is absolutely awesome but even better yet is the door to get into my building. It's so beautiful as you can see. After I enter this door, there is a glass door I have to open with the same key to get into the stairwell and elevator. You use the button outside the door to call the elevator and then wait for it to arrive on your floor. Only then can you open the door to go inside. A fun fact about Spain is that they call the 1st floor the 0 floor! Many people get very confused by this. Also, the elevators have like 2 doors and they are very tiny. The max you could fit in there is about 3 or 4 people.
I love the view from the office and living room balconies. AH. Simply. Beautiful.
While here I've made some interesting observations about living in Spain. The first one was in the bathroom. The glass shower door in my bathroom isn't really a door, or a curtain. It's like half a glass, which makes it harder to avoid splashing water all over the floor. I honestly have no idea why it's like that and also don't really want to ask. Also, the are no garbage cans in the bathroom... In the kitchen picture, you can see there is a washer under the counter, which you never see in the US. But that's the way they do it here. There's also a dryer to the right of the pet food bowls. A lot of the lights are off because electricity is very expensive here. In all, I love my host family and my new home! |
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