Salamanca

Thursday
-left after class and drove 3 hours to a little pueblo outside of Salamanca
-amaaaazing Spanish country house
-went into Salamanca to party
-came home and made pork hahah

Friday
-went into city and toured
-Cathedral
-Museum
-University
-House of Conchas
-Monastery
-went home and made fajitas
-back to Salamanca to party
-house party

Saturday
-day drinking in underground cave

Sunday
-lunch
-drive home

Salamanca was so pretty! And the town we stayed in was gorgeous as well. It was exactly what I imagined Spain would look like before I came here. I loved it, although I've loved everywhere I've been in Spain so this is not a surprise hahaha.

So I really don't want to go into detail about London and Paris, we just did sooo much. So all I'm going to say is that it was soo much fun! They were two gorgeous cities and it was so nice to see los padres again!!

Well I have about a month left :( therefore, I've been trying my best to be doing things all the time, there's still so much I want to do! So this weekend was a busy one. On Friday, I went to San Sebastian, which was absolutely gorgeous! It's a small beach town, so there wasn't much to do, but we walked along the beach all day and it really was so pretty! Even though there wasn't anything to do, I would go back. Especially since I heard they had a killer aquarium that we didn't have time to visit. Then, on Saturday, I had another near death experience. Which really was more of a near death experience than the last one. Bilbao is surrounded by mountains. And these Basques are crazy. A bunch of my friends had climbed a small mountain a few weeks ago but when they told one of our professors, he said that that was nothing, and told us to go climb Pagasarri. So we did. We literally climbed it. Instead of taking the trail that winds around the mountain, eventually taking you to the top, we thought it'd be better to climb straight up the mountain and find a trail later. The first leg wasn't bad bc it didn't take us too far up. But it was definitely too steep to go back down the way we came, so we went on the hunt for a trail. And we didn't find one. The only thing we could do was keep going up, which felt wrong and I was completely against. But everyone else wanted to keep going and I wasn't going to stay alone. As we climbed, it got scarier and scarier. I literally almost cried. I would get to a point and sit down to rest and the hill would be so steep that I wasn't able to see where I had started climbing...that was not a good feeling. It was also not good when we climbed in a straight line and someone slipped ahead of you and everyone thought they were going to go tumbling down the side of a mountain to their death haha. Anyways, we eventually made it to the very top of this very large mountain, where my friend thought she saw a trail. It turned out to be a fenced off area saying "Danger, do not pass" and that wasn't very comforting haha. So we just sat on top of the hill for a while and tried to calm ourselves and enjoy the amazing view. Unfortunately, we didn't get to be very calm because a few minutes later, one of the guys found a tick on his leg. Then he found another. Then one of the other guys found some on him and so we all started to completely freak out and realized we needed to find a trail and get out of there. Luckily the other side of the mountain was less steep and we only had to go down a short ways before we hit the road. Honestly, when I saw the road, I have never been so relieved as I was in that moment. Then we all rolled up our pant legs and shirt sleeves and started checking each other for ticks. One of the girls found one on her stomach, but other than that we were all clear. So...we took some deep breaths, realized that now that we were safe we had an awesome story to tell and started to walk towards the bottom of the mountain. I still freak out a little when I think about how it was literally rock climbing at times without a harness, but I do feel pretty badass haha. And I'm still extremely sore, so at least it was an awesome workout. AND, to top it all off, when we told one of our friends that we climbed Pagasarri, he said that was a small mountain and we had to climb the Pyrenees. I swear, the basques are too strong for me. You can never make them happy....haha.
Alright, that's all I've got. This weekend off to Salamanca to stay in the vacation house of one of my Spanish friends! I'm verrrry excited!
Love you all!

Near-death experience

Ok, I guess it wasn't a legitimate near-death experience, but it sure felt like it at the time.

Last week Sunday, I was on the metro with three friends coming home from the Athletic Bilbao soccer game (we won!) when all of the sudden we started smelling what seemed like chemical gas. We commented on it, but didn't really think much of it until some Spaniards started freaking out. A few just got up and ran through the metro, others were coughing as smoke started coming from who knows where and some people were pressing emergency buttons. Ben just told us to keep walking to the front of the metro (we were originally in the very last car) and thank god that all of the cars are connected....if not, I don't know what would have happened. I was coughing from the smoke and honestly thought that I was either going to pass out or that a bomb was going to go off any second. Luckily, neither of those things happened. The front of the metro was smoke-free and we soon came to the next stop. We ran off, security ran on and the conductor walked back there as well. Eventually they must have fixed it because the metro took off again, but we figured we'd just wait for the next one. Now it feels like a dream or something that didn't really happen, but it was so scary at the time! 

Alright, I know I still have to blog about my trip to London and Paris, and I will soon!

Madrid, Toledo and Last Weekend...finally

So about two weeks ago I went on a weekend trip to Madrid and Toledo and just haven't gotten around to writing about it. Now that I'm sitting in my hotel in London, I suppose I'll catch up a little haha.

On Sept. 24th we left Bilbao by bus at 8 in the morning, suffered through a 5 hour bus ride, and finally arrived in Madrid. This was a trip through my program, so all the students went, chaperoned by two professors (one being Francisco, who's amazing). When we got to Madrid our first stop was Palacio Real. I was gorgeous and had way too many rooms. The royal family no longer lives there because the King said that when he ordered hot soup, it was never hot by the time it finally got to him. From the Palace we went to the Royal Armory. I can see how it would be cool for someone who's interested in that sort of thing, but I'm sorry, I don't care about guns, swords and armor. So we walked through, but didn't stay. And finally, we made our way to the Madrid Cathedral. It was pretty, but I honestly think Barcelona's Cathedral was much prettier.

From here we made our way to Plaza Mayor and on to Puerta del Sol. Both were very cool, but I don't really have much to say about them....After this, my friend Molly and I went off to do some shopping and we found some awesome deals! I bought a pair of shoes for 3 euros that turned out to be the most comfortable shoes ever.

That night, a big group of us went to Kapital, a seven story nightclub in downtown Madrid. We read in an old guidebook that it was free before a certain time so we rushed to get there before that time....but it was an OLD guidebook and we had to pay 18 euros to get in (which included one drink). It was so worth it. Each floor was different, decorated differently, played different music...it was awesome. We danced until 3:30 when we decided to go get McDonalds, but once we got there, it was closed. So depressing. So we just took a cab back to the hotel, where the cabdriver took off with my friends 50 euros. Also very depressing. But still a good night haha.

The next morning we woke up early and took the bus to Toledo. It was a gorgeous city! Definitely not someplace I would ever want to live, and maybe not even visit again, but I'm so glad I saw it at least once. It was absolutely beautiful. We had a guided tour throughout the city and throughout the Toledo Cathedral, but the tour guide was awful. She went 2 hours over our allotted time and we were all bored out of our minds. I would have enjoyed everything a lot more if I would have been able to go at my own pace. I really hate guided tours. Later we ate lunch and went back to Madrid, where we siesta-ed and got ready to go out again. Unfortunately, I got really sick after dinner and tried to go out, but had to turn around and go back to the hotel to try to sleep it off. Bad night.

Then, Sunday morning, I was feeling better so we went to Museo del Prado and took another guided tour. This one was much better, but I still dislike them. After a few hours at the museum, we ate a quick lunch and headed back to Bilbao. I started to feel sick again after lunch and suffered through the 5 hour bus ride, but I survived. Luckily we watched "El Bosque", which was really The Village and that took my mind off the fact that I wasn't feeling well.

It was a really fun weekend, but it wasn't nearly as busy as our weekend in Barcelona. And although Kapital definitely won over the clubs we visited in Barcelona, I think I prefer Barcelona.

Then, for another quick update, last weekend was quite eventful as well.

Thursday night we went to our first Erasmus party, which are parties in different clubs around Bilbao every Thursday for all the international students from all over the world. It was so much fun. Unfortunately, I wore a skirt so I gave my keys to my guy friend to put in his pockets. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I should've known this was a stupid idea. And of course, he decided to leave before I did and took my keys with him. Luckily I got a ride home from my friend and called my host mom to let me in. I was a littler nervous about how she'd react, but she couldn't have cared less hahaha. The next day I met up with my friend and got my keys back and everything was fine :)

Friday night we went out with Jon Franco to a bar in a bad part of town. So, we all took a taxi together, which Jon paid for. Awesome. Then, at the bar, Jon bought us drinks. Awesome. Then some friends and I moved on to a park to just chill and Jon Franco and company caught up to us later. It was so much fun. And because I made friends with some Bilbao natives, they were able to drive me home again that night so I didn't have to take a cab.

Saturday during the day, I went to the beach with Selma, Ben, Holly, Austin, Jake and Murphy. It was such a good time. On October 2nd I was laying out on the beach in the sun in Spain. I love my life :)

Saturday night we just went to Casco Viejo to celebrate two of my friends' birthdays. We hung out in the plaza until around 2 when they decided to go to a club and I decided to go home.

It was the most exhausting weekend so far in Spain. Thursday and Friday night combined I got a total of 8 hours of sleep and Saturday I got a good 10, but it still wasn't enough. On Sunday, I didn't leave my room except to eat. I just napped and did homework and facebooked all day. Although it was the most exhausting, it was also one of the best. I absolutely love Bilbao. And the more I get to know the people, get to know my way around, etc, the more I feel truly at home. I honestly never want to leave. And...maybe I won't ;)

Alright, off to do some homework so I can enjoy another day in London tomorrow. I'll update soon about this trip!

Love <3

I actually like dogs here. They are so well trained, it's ridiculous.

They don't even put their dogs on leashes. In America, we put our kids on leashes.

Moros y cristianos

I'm still not used to the lack of "politically correct" language here. Everyone, including my family and professors, has told me that certain gestures or words aren't considered racist here, just descriptive. For example, when talking about an asian person, it is common to pull on the corners of your eyes to get the point across. A common saying is "enganar como un chino" which means to trick someone like a chinese person. I don't think people even know the meaning of homosexual because they just say gays. Also, the n-word is acceptable and used often...not something I'm particularly comfortable with, but I guess it's just cultural differences.
So on Thursday, Carmen (my host mom) made this awesome lunch with black beans and white rice. As we were eating she told me that this dish was called "moros y cristianos" which, if its not already obvious, means moors and christians in english. Then she went on to say that the reason its called this is because the black beans refer to the moors and the white rice refers to the good christians. I laughed so hard I almost died.
The weird thing is that this isn't an issue here. There's little to no problem with discrimination and what I've described and we would consider racist language isn't considered racist at all. And i'm still not at all used to it hahaha.

Barcelona!

Last weekend we took a spur of the moment trip to Barcelona. On Wednesday we decided to go, made the reservations in between classes and left on Thursday. There were two groups from our program that went and we all took the same bus straight from Bilbao to Barcelona overnight on Thursday. We arrived at 6 am in the dark and the rain, terrified that we were going to get robbed because we had heard so many horror stories about Barcelona. We took the metro together as one big group but eventually had to split up because we were staying at different hostels. Our group (me, selma, molly, garrit and ben) made it to our metro stop and decided to go to a cafe to try to wait out the rain. We got some coffee and directions from a local and we were off to find our hostel (unfortunately, still in the rain). We found it really with no problem other than we overpacked and were lugging around enormous backpacks. Luckily, there was no one in the room so they let us check in early. We dried off, locked up our stuff and immediately went to the Sagrada Familia which was only about a 15 minute walk from the hostel. We stopped at a little pastry shop and had a real breakfast and talked to the elderly couple who owed it. They were so nice and so excited that we were studying spanish. When we made it to La Sagrada Familia, it was breathtaking. It is the most intricate building I've ever seen, no wonder it's not done after 100 years!

Unfortunately the line to go inside was hours long so we decided not to do it, but if I ever go back I definitely will. Gaudi is buried inside and once the church is finished, it should be so beautiful. From there, we took the metro to a stop near Las Ramblas. We passed some Roman remains on the way to the Barcelona Cathedral. The Cathedral was also beautiful and the line was short, so we went inside and I'm so glad we did. I took way too many pictures but it was just too pretty! After the cathedral, Selma, Garrit and Ben went back to the hostel to siesta and Molly, Murphy (a girl who took the sixth bed in our room) and I stayed to explore some more. We walked through the market, ate lunch and made our way to the Basilica de Santa Maria del Mar. I've seen pictures of the inside of this church that are gorgeous, but unfortunately it was closed to the public and the outside wasn't nearly as impressive. Still, we bought some ice cream and sat on the steps for a while before heading back. We took a quick nap, showered and met up with the other group for an overpriced dinner. From there, we went to Villa Olimpica (basically just where the olympic athletes were housed in 1992) which was rumored to have amazing nightlife. Too bad we're still not quite used to the Spanish schedule and when we got there at 11, absolutely nothing was open. We walked along the shore of the Mediterannean Sea for a while until 1 when things finally started opening. We ended up getting into a club for free, danced and took a cab home way too late because Saturday morning we woke up at 9 for continental breakfast. Then, with every intention of going right out and exploring....we fell back asleep until 12:30. Finally, we went to Las Ramblas, where we stopped for paella and sangria. Again we were overcharged but it was so delicious we didn't mind much. We then shopped, watched the street performers, took lots of pictures and saw the world's largest farmers market. We were too scared of getting robbed to go inside, but it was cool to see, even from afar. We spent all day (or what was left of it) on Las Ramblas and then went to a supermarket and bought baguettes, turkey and cheese and made our own sandwiches. We met some guys from Seville who were in the room next to us and hung out with them for a while before heading over to the other groups hostel. Their hostel was so much fun! They had invited pretty much everyone into their room, so we had an international party! There were people from France, Italy, Germany, Australia, etc and it was awesome. I had a conversation with this Italian guy, with him speaking Italian and me speaking Spanish we were able to communicate pretty well. It was a really, really cool experience. Then one of the hostel employees was also a promoter for the same club we had gone to the night before, so she could get us in for free again. Therefore, later that night we all went together and had so much fun!
Sunday morning we woke up early again for breakfast and to check out of the hostel. Luckily, they allowed us to lock up our stuff in the office so we could go out all day without having to lug our backpacks around. We left around 10 for Park Guell, one of Gaudi's masterpieces and my new favorite place on earth. Granted, I haven't been a lot of places, but so far, it really is my absolute favorite. We spent about 3 and a half hours there. We explored the houses that look like they're straight out of a Dr. Seuss book and the mosaic tiles everywhere....from the top of the park you could see the whole city and the Mediterranean Sea glistening. It was beautiful.

 We met a Colombian man making jewelry to fund his trip across Europe. His stuff was awesome so we all bought bracelets and he made the clasps right in front of us using scrap metal and pliers. He was so talented and so nice! We then went on some trails through the park and listening to the many people singing, playing the guitar, etc. The guys got their picture taken with a belly dancer haha. I would go back in an instant and if anyone goes to Barcelona, I highly, highly, highly recommend visiting it. Once we left, we went straight for some more paella before heading to the beach. We got to the beach around 3 and stayed until 9. We layed out, got mojitos, played volleyball, ate sandwiches, and watched the sunset.

Two of the french guys we met the night before came with us as well, and we met some other people from Australia, Canada and Denmark. Hanging out with so many different people was amazing, but unfortunately we didn't speak Spanish pretty much all weekend. Part of the reason is that in Barcelona the primary language is Catalan and we speak Castilian, so besides asking for directions and ordering food, we mainly spoke english. Anyways, around 9 we went back to the hostel to grab our bags before going to the bus station. Our bus came at 11:30 and I got a horrible night's sleep before arriving back in Bilbao at 7. I ran home to quick shower and lay down for a minute before my class at 9 and ended up waking up in time for my class at 11. Oops! Haha
Anyways, I saw a lot this weekend and it was all beautiful. But, I realized that traveling with friends is a lot different than traveling with your family. Not everyone is as accommodating and I was one of the lucky ones in the group who got to see everything on my list. There was some drama here and there, but I learned a lot about how to handle those kinds of situations and it was worth it. I have 250 pictures, but even without them, I know this was a weekend I'll never forget.
<3


ps. i know this sounds strange, but while in barcelona, there were times when i got really homesick for bilbao. now i'm nervous that when the program is over and i'm back in the US i'll be homesick for somewhere that isn't really my home. it's weird...

Jamón (ham) in Spain is the most popular thing ever. It's hilarious.
My profa said today that there are two things she loves most in this world: chocolate and ham.
Also, you know how in the US the tradition is to give your teacher an apple as a gift or to suck up? Here in Spain, you give your teacher a ham. A leg, an entire ham, it doesn't matter. That's their custom. And I find it sooo funny I had to write about it.
:)

Time for an Update

Sorry I haven't updated in forever, but I've been ridiculously busy. Basically, I love Spain. I had my first week of classes and they seem like they'll be good. I'm taking a conversation class, a grammar class, a basque culture class and a spanish lit class. 13 credits total, so it shouldn't be too much work, which will hopefully leave me plenty of time to continue enjoying spain :) Also, all of my professors seem really cool. I especially love the program director, Jon Franco...he is hilarious.
So I had a pretty average week full of classes and shopping and spanish television. Then on Thursday our program had a welcome party in Las Arenas, a few metro stops from my apartment. Jon Franco is the manager of a band, Midnight Road, which played at the party and they were really good. It was a lot of fun. Then Friday morning we went to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. It was cool, but I guess not as cool as I expected it to be. And we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the museum, which I thought was a little strange. Friday night there were fiestas in Urduliz. Every weekend there are fiestas in one part of Getxo. Last weekend they were in Plentzia, but we didn't go and heard that it was a lot of fun, so we made sure to go to Urduliz. When we got off the metro, we walked forever and there was nothing going on. We were starting to doubt that anything was happening when all of the sudden, we walked into a plaza completely full of people. The bars were blasting music and the streets were packed. When we walked a little further, there was a stage set up and bands were playing....it was so much fun. We left around 4 am and everyone else was still going strong. No wonder Spaniards need their siesta....I just can't keep up. On Saturday there was a soccer game between Athletic Bilbao and Real Madrid so a bunch of us went to a bar in Bilbao to watch it. Although we lost, it was a good game and I met a lot of people, spoke a lot of Spanish and learned a lot. For example, a lot of the expressions that we were taught at Kenowa and at Grand Valley are mexican/latin american sayings, so everyone was trying to teach us the Spanish way to talk. It was a really fun night. Then Sunday I just laid around all day and read and played sudoku. Then around 7 some people from the program met Jon Franco (the program director) in Las Arenas to watch American football and play a trivia game.  It was probably one of the best weekends I've had in.....a really long time. I love Spain and I love the people I've met. I feel like I'm learning so much about pretty much everything everyday.
Today during our break between classes Molly and I started planning what we were going to do during our long vacation at the beginning of December. We decided we wanted to go to Italy and actually found round trip flights direct to Rome for a little over 50 euros, so we're going to meet up tomorrow and hopefully book that. I'm so excited to start traveling, but at the same time I absolutely love it here and would be content to spend my entire trip in Bilbao and Getxo. We're sticking around here this weekend, but next weekend we're off to Madrid and Toledo. Then possibly Barcelona the following weekend. And then (I think) it'll be time to meet the parents in London and Paris :)
Although I can't wait to see you all again, I'm having the time of my life! I can't believe I've only been here about a week and a half and I hope that time doesn't speed up haha.
That's all for now I think, but I'll try to update again soon.

Sorry I haven't updated in two whole days (mother) but i finally got a chance to sit down, so here goes.
FRIDAY:
I woke up friday not feeling well. I'm not sure if it was tiredness or homesickness or something i ate, but I was so nauseous. And unfortunately in Spain, food is constantly being shoved down your throat. So after a while I was able to get away without eating, but I had some coffee...which was dumb haha. But I didnt have much time to think about it as Carmen and I rushed to the metro so I could go to my first orientation at school. We stopped about halfway to Deusto to meet up with Carmens nephew and his host "brother" and another of Carmen's friends and her host son. All of the host families have been doing this for so long, they are all good friends. So I made two new friends, Andres y Ben. Ben actually goes to Grand Valley so we talked about that on the ride to school. The metro stopped and we walked about 5 minutes to campus and the parents left and orientation started. We began with a spanish placement test, which was harder than I expected and worse because of my tiredness/nauseousness. But, we'll see how I did on Monday. Then we had the Bilbao orientation. We were given a lot of practical information but it was so hard not to sleep through the entire thing. Finally it was over at around 12 (it had started at 9) and we walked a ways through Bilbao to the restaurant where we were going to have lunch. Luckily I was feeling better and luckily there was already coke on the table. But, like I said...there is so much food here. We were served pasta with spaghetti sauce for the first course. It was more than I would be able to eat normally and it was only the first course. Then we got three little fillets of chicken and french fries for the second course. And then, dessert. Which was delicious. It was tiramisu-ish with a creme brulee like top. It was lovely :) Then, at around 2 we went on a tour of Bilbao. Bilbao is such a gorgeous city, I'm in love. We walked through El Casco Viejo (the old quarter) and it was beautiful. Old churches and government buildings and tall apartments on narrow streets...i loved it. Then we went into other parts of Bilbao and saw la plaza and some of the bars and shops, like El Cortes Ingles, a seven story department store that I can't wait to visit. Finally the tour was over and Selma and I took the metro back to Algorta. Once we got off the metro I knew where I was going, but when I went that way, it didn't lead to my apartment. Now I know that there are two metro stops in Algorta and on the way back we got off at a different one that I had gotten onto that morning, so my directions didnt work haha. But I got extremely lost and tried calling my host mother, which didnt work. So then I called my dad and sobbed to him on the phone as everyone stared hahaha. He told me to write down my address and ask someone where it was, so I did and it worked. I asked an older man and he showed me right up to my door. My building ended up being the building I thought was mine all along. But when I tried the key earlier, it wouldnt work. Apparently, turning keys is a more complicated process in Spain. But I survived, although a little traumatized. Once I got in, I took a nap since I wasnt feeling well again and Carmen made me some lighter food for dinner. I went to the supermarket to buy sunscreen and made it back without getting lost haha. And then I went to meet up with some friends at the metro station. We didn't specify which one so when I arrived, there was no one there. I went home and started skyping with the parents, when Selma called my house and said they were at the other station. So Carmen and Ricardo walked me there :)  Then a group of about six of us walked around until we found a bar we liked. We planned on bar hopping, but ended up staying there until around one when we just went home. It was so fun, and I met some Spaniards and learned some new slang haha. Besides the sickness and getting lost, it was a very good day!
TODAY:
Today I woke up around nine and got ready to go to the beach with Carmen, Ricardo, Carmens sister and her husband and their host son (who I met yesterday), Carmen's friends and her host son (Andres who I met yesterday as well) and a few other of their friends. We drove probably close to an hour to go to a gorgeous beach, but when we got there it wasnt very sunny. So, we walked around and took some pictures of the ocean and then while the parents went to sit at the beach, Andres, Ben and I went up to the bar nearby. We stayed there and talked for a while, Andres is 25 and verrry good at Spanish so he's very helpful to talk to.   Then we went back to the beach and ate a huge lunch that I of course couldn't finish. After lunch we went swimming, because in Spain they think its better to swim after a mean, instead of before like we think in the US. The water was freezing, but I sucked it up and went in anyways. When we got back out of the water, everyone was eating again hahaha. Andres said "Oi que los espanoles comen tres veces cada dia pero parece mas" which means that he heard Spaniards eat three times a day, but it appears to be much more. Ben's host father, Javi, who is hilarious, agreed saying that two things Spaniards do all day is eat and drink. From what I've seen, this is very true. So, we just sat around in a circle and talked for a few hours. I didn't say hardly anything, but it was good. I needed a day to just sit and listen and process and begin to understand the speed and the accent.  Today was very relaxing and very fun. I'm not sure if I'll do anything tonight, but I'll let you know later :)
Hasta luego,
Melissa

Bienvenidos a Espana

Hola a todos,

This is overwhelming already. Luckily, I think this will be the worst part.  And I haven’t slept in…25 hours? and counting haha. So I know that tomorrow will be better after I’ve slept all night.

Alright, so from the beginning:

I was sitting in the Chicago airport, waiting, bored, when an Iberia employee said something over the loudspeaker and the girl behind me, Selma, asked if I understood him. I didn’t. But, either way we realized that we were both going to the la Universidad de Deusto and that we were both living with families in Algorta, so we were on the same flights all the way to Bilbao. Selma even ended up sitting right behind me on the flight to Madrid, which was very long and boring. The food was disgusting and the movie was played at like 3 am (Spanish time) so thank god I brought my own entertainment. We arrived at the airport an hour late, but I had a four hour layover anyway so it was fine. We had to go through immigration there , which consisted of me showing them my passport and leaving haha. It sounded much scarier than it was.  Then we went to buy food but I wasn’t feeling well from the lack of sleep so I just bought a coke and sat with Selma, which was nice. We get along great and we started talking about traveling together and are planning to go shopping and to the beach Sunday since we leave very close.  Anyway, when we were done with breakfast we went to find our gate. Our boarding pass said gate HJK, so we followed the signs to HJK through the entire airport. We literally went through the entire Madrid-Barajas airport, we took a train, took elevators, went up and down escalators and then through security again, which I was not expecting. Apparently since our first flight was international and the second was domestic, we needed to go through Spanish security as well. Then we continued to follow the signs to HJK, only to find that H was pointed to the left, J to the right and K down. So finally we asked an airport employee and she explained that gates aren’t assigned until 30 mins before boarding time, so H, J, and K were our options. So we sat and relaxed for 2 hours before finding out our real gate. Then we finally boarded our flight to Bilbao, which was pretty much take off and descent and then we were there! Selma and I were both really nervous about going through customs and meeting our families and leaving each other, since we’d been helping each other the whole way so far. But customs was probably the easiest thing I’ve ever done. I got my bag, walked up to a man who asked me where I was from, I told him the United States and he said “Ok, enjoy Bilbao.” Then I walked up to a man holding a Deusto sign and he checked me and the other three students in and then went to get our families. It reminded me of Matt and Jessy’s New York Reception. All of the sudden there were a bunch of older men and women rushing at us with their arms out, yelling our names.  I met Carmen and her husband(???) Ricardo and kissed them on the cheeks. There is sooo much kissing in Spain! They are such nice people, and when we got back to their apartment I met their daughter Paola, and their grandson Iker who visits everyday. I think Paola is 26 but she looks much younger and Iker is 3 and absolutely adorable.  Right when I got there, Carmen made us lunch. She made some sort of soup with beans and sausage that I can’t remember the same of.  Then she made fish, which I know she didn’t tell me the name of, but it was caught fresh from the Bay of Biscay and is only available from July-September, so they pickle it for the rest of the year. It was really good, but I was still nervous so I couldn’t eat much. Now, after playing with Iker for a while, I’m just trying to settle in. I need to go out and buy things (like the lotion that airport security confiscated) but I’m content to just sit here for now. Anyways, I have orientation at Deusto tomorrow at 9, and it will be comforting to speak English again. I know that I said I want to only speak Spanish while I’m here…but I think maybe I’ll start that next week lol. It’s all just a little overwhelming right now.  Love you all and I’ll update soon :)

...and it says i wrote this at 8 something am, but its 5:35 pm right now haha

T minus 8 days

Just testing this thing out...
Only 8 more days and still so much to do.  I can't wait for all this planning and preparing to be over. At this point, I just want to be in Spain!!
Alright, I'll update this again when I'm finally there.