Sundays are usually my set day to do homework both here and at home. I have even more motivation to save my homework for Sundays here because EVERYTHING is closed. Even though it was a beautiful day outside I forced myself to stay inside and be productive. I wasn't as productive as I wanted to be but I still got some homework and things done.
I ate a filling lunch of baked chicken and potatoes with my host mom and brother. I was super stuffed afterwards but instead of taking my siesta I just watched 2 episodes of Gran Hotel. Later in the day I Face Timed with my mom, Sitti, Georgette, Valerie, and Julian (all at different times). It was nice to catch up with everyone. My mom and I even got a work out session in! Other than that I didn't really do much else. I guess today wasn't as productive as I thought.
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I was pretty lazy today because I didn't change out of my pj's until 1:30pm. I spent my morning talking to Eli and Bubbles. I had the whole apartment to myself because my whole host family went out somewhere. My host mom told me to just make whatever I want for lunch. I was so excited! I made myself a burger topped with tons of spinach and green peppers. Since we didn't have french fries I cut up some carrots and had carrot sticks to keep it healthy. ;) Simply delicious. After lunch I decided to go shopping again and ventured out to buy my trench coat. Instead of going back home after I bought the coat I went shopping in Casco Viejo. I stumbled upon a random book fair and found 2 precious gems that I have been looking for since I came; authentic Spanish pastry cookbooks. As the sky got darker, the festivities started and everyone was dressed up. Most people don't realize that Halloween is actually a Christian holiday and is celebrated differently around the world. Here, kids don't really go trick or treating rather they all play in the plazas together while their parents are in bars. Everyone dresses up for halloween here and a lot of people were really creative with their costumes! Before I went out with my friends I chatted with my parents and made another delicious veggie meal, which consisted of salad, rice and stir fry veggies. I cleaned up my mess and headed out to Areeta to meet up the gang at a nice bar. We spent the night talking and waiting for special halloween drinks but they kept pushing back the time they were going to serve them. At 1 am they told us 2:30 am. I wasn't really interested in waiting that long so I decided to head home. All night I didn't feel tired but when I got on the metro it really hit me and I was glad I was heading home to sleep.
Today I went for a morning run...to the bus stop. I really have no idea where my time went but before I knew it, it was 8:35 while I was making my breakfast. That's when I started running. I thought I was going to be left behind but I arrive as soon as everyone was getting on the bus. The ride to France was nice, as usual the beautiful mountains of Bilbao did not disappoint. Our first stop in France was a little town called Saint Jean de Luz. It was enchanting, not even 5 mins in the town and I was in love. We saw the Saint Jean de Luz church, which was very beautiful. Then they let us have free time and conveniently dropped us off at a market. It had anything that you could imagine! I passed a woman who was selling different types of honey and bought a little package for my dad. :) Our teachers also told us that the chocolate is phenominal so I bought a variety box to try. I wonder if it will last 2 months until I go back home? I do have to mention though that I have not been more useless in a conversation. Everyone spoke French obviously but all I could say was "Bonjour" and "Merci." They could tell I was clueless when they spoke because I looked like a deer in headlights. Even still, I managed to navigate around the town and purchase things. I definitely want to brush up on my French before I go to Paris. I also really want to go to culinary school in France. Wouldn't that be awesome? The free samples today have confirmed my decision. At around 12:45 we met at the bus and headed to the restaurant for our 4 course lunch. When we arrived, we had our own room with the tables already set (bread included). Our 2 hour lunch consisted of a 4 course meal of pimientos rellenos de bacalao, ensiled iberica, duck confit and an apple tart tatin. Everything was delicious and I was surprised the peppers didn't taste like fish. Afterward, we headed to Biarittz, another beautiful town. I bought some macrons (the original uncolored ones) and gelato while walking on our tour. When we came up to the beach I was mesmerized by the waves. Unfortunately, we only had 30 mins of free time in the city and I wanted to buy postcards but couldn't. The bus ride home was okay, since it was dark out I just looked out the window and tried to take a nap. When we arrived in Bilbao, I walked home hoping that Zara would still be open to buy my trench coast. Unfortunately they weren't so I have to buy it tomorrow. When I got home I was excited to relax a little bit before going out again with my friends. All was fine and dandy until I realized that the housing officer talked to my host mom. I went to the kitchen to get water and it all got more interesting from there. They were upset at me for talking to the housing officer! My host mom freaked out and was like, "Listen, Begoña called me and said you don't like my food and that you want more veggies but you don't eat veggies." Long story short: I stood in the kitchen for 30 mins in a very awkward and uncomfortable situation getting scolded. We decided I will write them a list of my dinners for the week, then they'll buy what I need and I can make my dinners but they'll still make breakfast and lunch. I really don't understand why they were so mad. Don't they get that's why I was nervous to tell them? I mean, one of the first weeks I came here I told them honestly that I was complicated and it would be better if I cooked for myself to avoid any problems, did they listen? No.
For those of you that thought I was cooking for myself since my "Success" blog post: Right after I cooked that meal my host brother knocked on my door and brought me to the kitchen where my host mom was sitting. They wanted to make a list of all the veggies I liked so they know what to cook with. For more than an hour we sat and I explained every exception and particulars of veggies I like. Apparently, when I gave them the list of foods I didn't like they did not assume that I liked everything else. Example: green beans. My host mom saw me eating green beans that day and she was like you didn't tell me you liked green beans. *Sigh* Anyway, after we finished the list was tacked onto the fridge and they said they would cook from then on. So, I have only cooked once since I've been here. ANYWAY, it's all in the past now. When the uncomfortable situation was finally over, they left and I got to make my dinner with the veggies they had bought. I ate carrots with salad and sautéed eggplant, spinach and peppers. It was delicious. I didn't eat much because I was still full from the enormous lunch. I was glad to have an excuse to leave the house and meet up with my friends. We hung out in Getxo and I stargazed for the rest of the night. Thursday mornings 7 am alarm was not well received since I didn't go to sleep until 12:30. As usual, I got my things ready and packed my books into my already heavy backpack. Before I left I ended up taking out most of my books and just took what I thought was essential because my back was hurting. I was excited to go to my Organizational Behavior class because of my presentation on motivation. Specifically though I was excited about the cognitive dissonance part because it's probably one of my favorite theories. After class, I have my usual 2 hour break before Spanish and decided to catch up on my blogs and be productive. I was...kind of. Some of my friends were in the cafe that I hadn't seen in a while and decided to catch up with them. I checked my emailed and realized the housing officer asked if I had a chance to talk to my host mom about the food situation yesterday (since I had sent her a message that she didn't need to because I would). I mean I tried last night but I didn't know how to bring it up, much less say it. I decided to suck it up and went to her office to tell her I was too scared. I found her in the hallway on her way to class and she was nice enough to let me explain the situation there. She said she will call my host mom and talk to her tomorrow while were on our excursion to the South of France so it won't be awkward. Although, I know when I get back home it's going to be awkward anyway. Oh well, I did it. We'll see what happens. I went back to my usual day of classes. Except today I got to see my tandem partner again. We went to the mall to shop while we talked about our weekends. It was fun and she's really nice. She even offered to help with anything I needed. She is was Spaniards call Super Maja! She even lives in my neighborhood so we walked home together. When I got home, I had a snack, rested for a while watching half an episode of Gran Hotel and then headed back out to go shopping for coats with Matt. The weather was BEAUTIFUL yesterday. I was wearing a t-shirt and sandals at the end of October. WHAT IS MY LIFE?! We (and by we, I mean me) were a bit hungry and decided to stop by Las Fritas in Casco Viejo. Basically, a french fry stand. They give it to you in a cone and you can add different topping and sauces. It's totally greasy and you feel disgusting after you eat it. But I'm not going to say I didn't like it; I just completely regretted it afterward. Nonetheless, I found some great jackets that I love, one is gorgeous red jacket from Corte Ingles with some cute gloves and the other is a trench coat from Zara that I've been looking for ages. Unfortunately, by the time we got out of Corte Ingles Zara was closed. (I decided not to buy the trench coat first because I didn't want to carry it around while trying to shop for another jacket.) It's down the street from my house so I'll just get it tomorrow. I went home and was welcomed by a plate of sausages and a spinach salad on the side (with bread!) It was AWESOME! I watched more of Gran Hotel and then went on a long walk with Igancio and Willie (the dog) meeting Carlos on the way. It was nice to enjoy the weather on the walk. I got ready for bed to get enough rest for our last excursion with the program in the South of France. Yesterday was not a bad day. I procrastinated again not starting my second economics paper because I was watching Gran Hotel. While engrossed in the show, I noticed the outside of the Gran Hotel looked oddly familiar. I quickly ran to the kitchen to ask my host mom to confirm my speculation that the Gran Hotel was actually the palace I visited in Santander. She believed so but wasn't 100% sure. A quick google search let me to Wikipedia where I realized I was right. I was so excited and felt so cool. Too bad no one else would have known what I was talking about, except my dad who didn't answer my excited message. Oh well, you know now therefore I'm cool.
I had a gigantic lunch of pasta, croquettas, and steak. It was good but I was missing my veggies. After my very filling lunch, I finished watching the episode of Gran Hotel and then started my economics paper. I almost finished writing the first draft but then realized I had to run to class. Sunday we change the clock back 1 hour, which means that the sun rises earlier than 8:30 am (like 7 am). However, that also means the sun sets at 6pm. By the time I got out of class at 7:20pm, it was pitch black. Though, the lights are beautiful around the city and think that makes my walk home 100,00 times prettier. Instead of going out I decided to stay in and relax. During dinner my host brother Ignacio expressed his concern about whether he should take an internship in India or not. We spent the rest of the night talking about the same issue talking about the same issue everyone has in their life at one point. What should I do or what do I want to do with my life? Also, dinner was awesome! I had a salad with chicken breast! I asked my host brother if I could eat salad everyday and he said not every day but we'll have it more often. Before I knew it bed time came around. Day 53 - Monday started off as usual with my Organizational Behavior class. After, Kelly and I spent a few hours planning out the logistics for our December trip to the South of Spain. I'm so excited! Other than that, I spent the majority of my day freaking out about finalizing and perfecting my economics paper that was due at 5:30pm. Alas, right before class (4:45pm) everyone was done working on the paper and I emailed it. Mind you, I was also trying to cram for my international business midterm on Tuesday hence why there was no blog update. I had a pretty depressing dinner, I think the worst I've had since I've been here. My host mom bought a frozen precooked hamburger, which was supposed to be my dinner Sunday but since I wasn't hungry she wrapped them up and put them in the fridge for my dinner on Monday. I microwaved it, as she instructed me to do but after I took a couple bites I couldn't continue. The top bun was so hard I tried to smash it with all the force in my hand and I couldn't. I wanted to throw it out but they were standing in the kitchen and wanted to avoid the awkward situation. When they finally left, I rummaged in the fridge for something edible and found green beans and peppers. I warmed up enough to have something to eat but left behind enough so they wouldn't know I ate it. Luckily, dinner is not supposed to be the heaviest meal so I was fine for the night. But that doesn't mean I was upset, I finally had the courage to email the housing officer, explain the situation, and ask for help before I went to bed. Day 54 - I woke up early to study for my exam and received an reply back to my email. Basically, she offered to talk to my host mom but I had to tell her exactly what I wanted. I asked if I could meet with her before my class and went to school early. Two unfortunately things happened. First, it was POURING all morning and when I saw pouring I mean monsooning! I strapped on my hiking boots (which I cleverly figured out could substitute well for rain boots), took my umbrella and headed to school. Too bad less than halfway through my 20 min walk my hiking boots started letting water in and needless to say by the time I arrived at school I was soaking wet. Sock, boots, pants, everything. Also, Tuesdays are one of my longest school days and I wouldn't be able to go back home until 4:30pm. Walking around with wet socks and pants all day was not fun. Also, when I got to school, the housing officer wasn't there so I showed up early for nothing. Oh well, at least I could study for my exam. When my exam time came, I was super anxious because of the SAT-like grading system he has. Essentially, you get penalized for getting the wrong answer. Instead of getting -1, you get -1.33 but if you get an answer right you only get 1 point. So, it is possible to get a negative grade on the test. But don't worry because he said if I get a negative grade he'll change it so it's a 0. It's not like it's 30% of my grade or anything...ANYWAY, I prayed so hopefully I did well. I ended up getting out of marketing class early and as soon as I got home I changed out of my wet clothes. Later that night, Matt and I went for a walk for no reason. I stopped at Starbucks for the Apple Cider Chai Tea, because it was a little chilly out. We ended up wandering around Corte Ingles and stopping at a bar for pinchos. It was fun but I wanted to make sure I was on time for dinner. I was welcomed home by an empty house and a store bought tortilla de patata on the table. Blah. I only ate a little and went to my room to do homework. I wanted to talk to them about the food but I just couldn't find the right time and I was too nervous. Other than the fact that I have racked up about 30 hours of sleep for the entire weekend, I feel pretty accomplished. I managed to finish most of my homework on Friday but started studying and finalizing my economics essay today. BLAH. I woke up this morning and decided to talk to my brother and our friends for a while until they all went to sleep. Besides the fact that studying sucks, I was pretty hungry and couldn't wait until lunch. My oldest host brother Javier and his American girlfriend Courtney were joining us so we ended up eating at 3 pm; much later than my stomach was used to. Because I was so hungry, I ate soooooooooooooooooooo much food (yes, all of those o's were necessary). When I got back to my room I was so stuffed that I started to fall asleep while studying. "Ah, I'll just take a quick siesta to get energized and then I can study better," or so I thought. TWO AND A HALF HOURS LATER....I woke up to my pitch black room, fumbling for my phone to check the time. It read 7:30pm. Nice one Patricia! My stomach felt less full but I still wasn't feeling 100 percent. A quick call to my brother for a favor and 10 mins later I was set up to do some Zumba with my mom. Back home, we always used to work out together but obviously we can't anymore and I miss it a lot. Let's put aside the fact that I NEED to start exercising because this Spanish diet of bread with a side of bread and a deep fried bacon bread sandwich does not sit well with the scale. It was a little hard to be completely engaged in the workout because the spacing in my room is awkward and the camera on Bobby's laptop didn't pick up the colors on the TV perfectly but nonetheless it was worth it. Side note: at around 8:15pm, aka in the middle of La Vida es un Carnival dance, my host mom knocked on my door to let me know dinner was ready. I managed to politely decline because I was still stuffed from lunch. After our workout, we chatted about different things before my dad joined in the conversation. I indulged in the hilarity of showing google + effects to my parents, my mom being the victim. The result? A masterpiece! Even though my mom decided to ditch us to make empanadas, my dad and I continued to chat until midnight. Despite the fact that I was constantly working on my economics paper, I still haven't finished. I mean, who can blame me? I really only talk to my parents once in a while because of work schedules and the time difference. Seeing them and talking was a great reminder of home and made me even more motivated to enjoy my time here in these last 2 months.
Goodnight everyone! After sleeping for about 10 hours, I was fully rested to finish all of my homework for the weekend and start some of my final projects. I was actually pretty productive and finished everything except for my economics paper and studying for my International Business exam on Tuesday. I decided to give myself a break and go out for a walk around since I hadn't done much movement all day. (To give you an idea of how little I moved my Fitbit said I only had 626 steps when I walked out my door.) I went to Corte Ingles to see if I could find a heavier jacket for when I go to Poland in November and also see if I could find some baking ingredients. I couldn't find any powdered sugar even though multiple people said I would be able to. I even went around the entire store to see what else they had. I found an aisle that slightly resembled an international food aisle but it only had Japanese and Mexican foods. (I don't think one bottle of Harissa is enough to include Moroccan too.) I also happened to find a pretty dark red colored jacket but wanted to look around more before I bought it. I stopped by the other part of Corte Ingles to look at the available cook books. While there, I noticed that the Starbucks was packed and when I say packed, I mean it! This picture doesn't even include the other side of the store! I noticed on my walk that there were an unusual amount of people on the streets and I passed up some guys setting up a concert stage on Gran Via. When I got back to my house I watched another intense episode of Gran Hotel. I definintely suggest watching it. Ten minutes before the episode was over Ignacio called me into the kitchen. I thought he was calling me for dinner because I heard him cooking but also it was around dinner time. We talked for a little bit about how our days were and he explained that he wasn't actually cooking dinner because he and his friends were going to climb a mountain and eat up there. I thought it was a little weird but I figured they were going up the mountain that has the funicular where you can see all of Bilbao. He even invited me to go with him and I agreed. Then he said, "Well go get ready then." I was a little confused but I went with it. When we were leaving I noticed he wasn't carrying a bag or anything with him, which I thought was weird but again, didn't question it. We ended up walking towards Indautxu (the neighborhood next to mine) and met a couple of his friends at a bar. We ended up just sitting there and talking for a couple hours. It was nice but also a little awkward because they were talking about serious issues with their jobs and health. At one point, they were full on arguing with each other while I was just sitting there.
Today started off right by meeting my professor and two other classmates in my organizational behavior class at Starbucks for class. He all offered to take us out for coffee one day and kept his word! Since I don't like coffee I instead order a Chai Tea but the lady told me I should try the new apple flavor so I did. It was great, I'm 90% sure it was apple cider. He also offered to buy us pastries for breakfast if we wanted but I had brought mine with me; a bagel slathered with the organic chunky peanut butter that Tia Georgette gave me. I was in heaven. After our "class" was over, they walked to Deusto while I got to go home for the next few hours until my class at 12. I wrote my blog and chatted with Eli before I went to class. Since I only had 3 classes in a row, the day went by much faster and I felt like I got back home really quick. When I got home I decided to finish making housing arrangements for my trip to Paris and luckily found an Airbnb that covers the 4 nights for 100 euro each. I think I did pretty well! We're close to the center of the city and have access to a kitchen because the Lord knows that paying for food at restaurants for 5 days straight is not my cup of tea. While debating whether I should start my homework or not, I decided that today would be my off day and tomorrow I would do all of my homework for the weekend. I started thinking of things I could do to relax and right away thought of an idea. I had heard a rumor that Netflix had come to Spain and wanted to check for myself. I searched the website and bam! My account came up! I was so happy!!! But I told myself that if I am going to watch Netflix I'm only going to watch things in Spanish. To my luck they had some Spanish shows and I found a show called Gran Hotel. It's kind of like a mystery drama. After one episode I was hooked but decided not to binge watch. While watching the show though I realized that I understood almost everything they were saying. I also turned on Spanish subtitles to help me understand if the actors were speaking to fast. I'm so proud of myself! When it was time for dinner, my host mom and I watched the news while talking about more U.S. politics. After I finished, I went to my room and face timed with Dom (my bestest friend!) for the first time since I've been here. I didn't realize how much I missed him until i was walking home from school today and I randomly remembered all of the fun times in high school. We talked for a while, even after he said he had to go but it was as if we've never been apart. I also spoke with Tia Georgette, Tia Valerie and Robert because they are in Barcelona. As soon as I turned off the lights and closed my eyes to sleep, I got a face time call from Sitti (my grandma). I answered and we talked for a little before I went to sleep. Yesterday, after I wrote my blog I decided to stay up to watch the democratic presidential debate on youtube with Bobby and Eli. It was my first time watching an entire debate and actually listening to what the candidates were saying. Before I came to Spain I really didn't care for paying attention to the news or politics because I would have rather used my time for binge watching Netflix. (Always a good idea.) I especially had no interest in politics because I figured they're all corrupt anyway in some aspects and I didn't think that my vote would matter that much. Basically, the same idea that every other millennial has; my vote doesn't matter. So what made me change my mind? Well, first of all, this decision wasn't something I was actively thinking about when I first arrived in Spain; it developed over time. Every single day at every single meal my host family watched the news. Nothing else. I didn't really think much of it at first but most of our lunch or dinner conversations revolved around something more complicated than, "How are you?" and "How was school?" Nigh, we were talking about politics, government, corruption, which for the first few days was really difficult because my level of Spanish vocabulary when trying to explain U.S. government was slim to none. What was more interesting though was as I was trying to explain U.S. government and what's going on in our country, I found myself forgetting a lot and that they even knew more about my country than I did. I was a little ashamed. Sure, I had learned these things in grammar school and even high school but with every ending of the school year, I dumped what I deemed useless information to make space for subjects I was actually interested in. But now, I was sitting at my kitchen table trying to explain something I couldn't remember. To say the least, I was embarrassed. But my second reason to vote this upcoming election is because I can! And, I at least want to make an "educated" decision (aka find the politician that lies less than the others because you don't really know what a politician will do until they actually do it). After we watched the debate, I went to sleep and woke up a little late so I had to rush to get my things together for school. I still managed to get to my Spanish class on time! About 20 mins in, on of my missing classmates ran in out of breath. Naturally, we were all concerned and asked him what had happened. Long story short, apparently he had been on the metro and didn't have any money on his card. The police approached him asking him for money to pay but he didn't have any money either. He also tried to be a genius by telling them, "Yo no hablo Español." (Of course, in Spanish.) They proceeded to ask him for his identification, which of course he didn't have with him. Genius! Then, they asked, "Well, where are you from?" His reply? "Mexico." (Just so you know, he really is from the U.S.) So he clearly wasn't thinking logically because he had just told the police he was from a Spanish speaking country but didn't speak Spanish. Surprisingly, they didn't arrest him or even fine him! He said it was because he was acting so dramatic. A+ job! After Spanish class, I came back home to work on some of my homework before I went to have my last lunch with my family before they left. Lunch was great, as always and they even gave me a ton of food to take home. I happily received roasted veggies, cake, yellow rice, and PEANUT BUTTER! They brought peanut butter from back home!! I almost cried when I saw it. (For those of you that don't know, it's close to impossible to find peanut butter in Spain.)
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