Roma

I've been meaning to write a post about Rome, but I never got around to it until now. Let me summarize the trip in bullet point format:

Friday 12/12
- Yeah, the flight is only 2.5 hours, but Ryanair flies out of Santander (a 1.5 hour bus ride away) and into Ciampino (a 40 minute bus ride away from the center of Rome), so altogether, we spend about 8 hours in transit. Whew!
- We meet the hostel guy (Vinnie), who is Brazilian. He recommends places for dinner.
- We stuff our faces and it is DELICIOUS. I wanted some wine, but I was not about to pay 5 euros for a glass of it!

- We wander to see the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and some random piazzas.

- Vinnie takes us to some jazz place. Turns out smoking in bars is illegal in Italy, which is awesome. Let's hope that fabulous law spreads (to Spain).
- SO EXHAUSTED. Sleep time.
- The next day, the other girls tell me there's some guy in our room who makes the weirdest noise when he's sleeping. We dub him La Rana (the frog).

Saturday 13/12
- It's sunny!!
- We find a breakfast place and eat yumyum pastries arghwoeualg drool
- We walked to the Colosseum, where we were instantly attacked by people selling tours to unwitting Americans. We are persuaded by a girl named Becky, who I hated in my heart, but who let us haggle her down a few dollars on the tour price. We had a terrible first tour guide who was ancient and spent half the tour showing us pictures of the Colosseum in a book. I'm like, "IT'S RIGHT IN FRONT OF US LET'S JUST GO IN THERE" Ugh. Eventually we do, but then my camera dies WHYYY. I make a solemn vow to charge my camera every night on vacation. Lesson learned.

- The second tour guide took us around the Forum, Palatine Hill, etc. He was much younger, and from New Zealand, so I felt I got my money's worth after his portion of the tour.
- At lunch, we met a guy who used to teach at my high school and now lives in Tampa. El mundo es un panuelo, for real.
- Went shopping and I finally found boots that fit!!!
- Ate our first gelato. I know I keep saying this, but it was...so...delicious. No complaints about the food at all.
- A guy in our hostel who smoked too much invited himself to dinner with us. We loved the restaurant! It was family run--adorable. Antipasti! Lasagne! Wine! Almond cake! I ate myself into a new state of mind.
- We went to a bar where Dorothee thought the beer was too fruity (she's got the most credibility on beer, being German). We tasted grappa, which was too strong for us.
- On this night, La Rana moved beds and was sleeping directly under me. GRRR. He didn't keep me up for long, but I did hear the sound. It's indescribable. According to WebMD, weird frog-snoring is the first sign of AIDS.

Sunday 14/12 Last Day in Rome =(
- Milenka made us tea. Thanks!
- We went to a Sunday market which was neverending! There were deals, steals, and unreals, as a friend of mine used to say. I haggled the price of a dress down to my satisfaction. My haggling skills got a real workout on this trip.
- We lost Dorothee for 2 hours, but eventually find her munching an apple. Not having a cell phone makes coordination difficult.
- Saw Vatican City and San Pietro's basilica. Really cool. Unfortunately, we missed the Sistine because it was closed on Sunday. OH WELL we'll just have to go back, then.
- Roopa and I tried to find a museum, but ended up finding a lovers' lane and feeling awkward.
- Had my second gelato and Roopa's first. Three flavors for only 2 euros! I don't care how cold it is, I'm eating ice cream.
- Saw the Pantheon!
- Had dinner at a Brazilian restaurant that looked sketch from outside, but turned out to be delightful.
- We take a taxi back to the hostel as we are too bloated and tired to walk allll that way. The lesson here is: eat dinner near your lodging.

Monday 15/12
- All customer service people on this day are jerks to us. We're thinking they just had a case of the Mondays. We tried to find out where the bus we needed was, but the guy at the info booth wouldn't tell us unless we bought tickets from him. Wth?
- The Ryanair flight crew on the way back was really desperate to sell us useless crap. Yes, you get a cheap flight, but know that you pay in many ways. One of them is having to listen to a steward drone on and on in several different languages over the loudspeaker about special one-time only Ryanair deals on designer perfumes.
- Home!

General note:
- Rome is so touristy. I couldn't escape the American accents. I've never seen such crowds gathered at attractions, snapping photos. I enjoyed seeing the sights, eating the food, etc. myself, but if this is Rome off-season, it must be horrible during summer. The weather wasn't too bad, so I don't feel we missed out by going in winter. Maybe that's just relative, as I do live in Bilbao, literally where the sun don't shine.

What's up next:
- Today is supposed to be a big fiesta in Bilbao, so a bunch of us are going to that this afternoon.
- Tonight at 8, Katie, Jaron, Kyle, Olga, and I leave on our Holland/Belgium/Barcelona trip!

Mini-Break: Salamanca

I went to Salamanca with Dom on a bit of a whim this past weekend. Here's a picture of our first look at the city. It's the bus station, which was located in the HOOD.














Our gracious host, Sam, came and rescued us from the bus station, however, and took us to the nicer part of town, where he lives.














He made us some delicious pasta for dinner. I don't know what he put in the sauce, but it was magic. Here's Dom going at it.




























Yes, that's right. This is definitely a picture of two Englishmen making tea for me! I won't lie to you, that was probably the best cup of tea I've ever had. The English undoubtedly have a touch when it comes to tea.














We went out that night with some of Sam's Dutch friends, who were very sweet. I wore my precious cardigan that I had bought not a week before. You can't wear a sweater while you boogie, so I put it with all the other coats on this couch at the bar. At the end of the night, everyone else found their coats/sweaters, but mine was nowhere to be found. I even went back the next day, but the bartenders hadn't found any stray cardigans. Ugh. I'd like to think it wasn't stolen, since this country seems to be relatively free of crimes like that, but what am I to think? Who would steal a plain, black cardigan? I'm just mad because I had JUST bought it.

I think I'm in love with Salamanca. The people were good-looking and more open than up here in Bilbao. There are also more students and immigrants, which always gives a town more interest. There aren't any confusing Basque words on any of the signs. It just looked like how I imagined "Spain" would look. Here are some pics:
















































































The break was just what I needed. I'm having another mini-break this weekend, as I've already mentioned. I'm only posting this to procrastinate on packing, actually. We're leaving for Roma at 7:30 tomorrow morning, so I'd better get packing and get to bed. Goodnight!

A good day!

Today was a great day! Why, you ask? Well:

- The sun shone for a solid half an hour today, so that was a nice surprise. I'm getting so used to artificial light and heat that the other day when the sun came out, I thought, "WOW, it's like an outdoor radiator!" Warped. Seriously, if you're in Florida right now, I hate you.

- I ate a delicious pear. Pears are always a gamble. I can never really tell if they're ripe, but firm, or completely unripe. This one was my last one, and I was hoping it was good because it was all I had for lunch. It's the little things!

- I had a great class. It was composed of about 14 girls, who I hadn't met before, so they asked me questions about the US. What fun! I got to use the phrase, "(upside down exclamation point) Que puta!" ::translation: "What a slut!":: They love it when you curse.

In other news, I'm dying of excitement because the weekend after next, I'm going to Rome! I'm thinking it'll be a bit cold, but at least it shouldn't be thronged with tourists, and maybe I can actually enjoy the sights. Also, this coming weekend is four days long for some reason, so I'm looking forward to maxin' and relaxin' all cool (i.e. recovering from the week).

Favorite things...for now

I'm sure these lists will get longer, but here's what I have for now:

Things I miss about the US:
1) Civilized water fountains. These European water fountains are nothing but pipes in the ground. I don't want to have to bend my head and drink from beneath a pipe. I prefer my tap water hitting my lips at a sophisticated 45 degree angle.

2) Efficiency

3) The concept of "customer service"

4) Being able to do anything productive at any time. They say it stresses you out less to have everything closed at the times when it would make the most sense for them to be open (e.g. weekends, 4PM), but it stresses me out MORE. You see, my mind is like a huge desk covered with post-its that tell me the next thing that has to get done, e.g. "go to the grocery store," or "go to Vodafone for (literally) the tenth time to resolve the same issue." If I can't get things done in a timely, regular way, they just build up and it stresses me out to think of the piles of things yet to be taken care of!
4) Speaking the same language as those around me. I know this one is a no-brainer, but there it is. Everywhere I go, I have to try to map out my side of any likely interaction and also brainstorm any likely snags or questions that might be thrown at me. Tiring, to say the least.

Things I'll miss about Pais Vasco:
1) Kind of goes without saying, but the FOOD and the DRINKS. Mosto, pika, setas, pimientos, tortilla, pastelitas, OH MY GOD YES.

2) The landscape. I adore the mountains! I hate the rain, but it makes the grass and the trees that cover the mountains look really verdant and alive, which is a nice side effect. I still have a hard time believing they're real, having lived in Florida for so long. It's started getting cold enough that you can see snow on the tops of the highest mountains in Amorebieta, which makes me more than a little giddy for some reason.

3) The 80s music on the radio. I've heard Roxette, Madonna, The Police, The Bangles ("Walk Like an Egyptian" and "Eternal Flame"), Whitney Houston, and much more. I could do without the bad 90s music, though. I'd rather not visit the dark place where the greatest hits of Vanilla Ice and Shania Twain went to die.

Hi!

The following update will consist of me putting captions on the most interesting pictures I found on my camera from the last week or so. I'm too tired to try to be funny, so get ready to be bored. I'm just keeping it real.

1) Dom and I walked down the river since I'd never done it before. I hadn't explored where I lived! La Ria Bilbao is like 10 steps from my door, and it stretches for a good distance in both directions.


























2) Katie graced us with her presence this past weekend! We went to Art After Dark, which is a party in the Guggenheim, and then to Fever.



























3) The next morning, Katie had the brilliant idea to go to Burger King. We met up with Ryan, Dom and some other Brits and went to BK while they got some kebab. I spent 7 euro on this hamburger (ridiculous, I know), but it was worth every penny. Here's a picture of the boys huffing kebab:



























I think it's hilarious that they have the nerve to call these things "tapas." It gives BK a touch of class, don't you think? I felt excellently disgusting after eating it, but Katie was altogether pleased.













4) To help burn off some of that awful meal, we took a walk to Casco Viejo, the old part of Bilbao. It was lovely!













We passed by a fish market, where we spotted this disturbing dead fish. Just look at that eye bulge. ::shudder::














5) At some point before that weekend, Kyle and I bumped into Hannah and Leslie (both English teachers here) on their way to pintxos, and they invited us along. I tasted pika, which is lemonade and beer, for the first time, and I think I'm in love. It was so refreshing! This place also had tasty and cheap pintxos. I went there again today, actually.



























6) I saw this stack of jam in the grocery store the other day. That brand name has GOT to be a joke.


In other news: I got the internet!!!! Oh...MY...GOD. It's amazing. It's everything I thought it could be and more. I'm Skyping my life away. In a way, I feel like it's probably unhealthy to love the internet this much...but in another way I don't care! I have internet!!

The "real" update

What have I been up to? Let’s see if I can remember. Well, work, work, and more work. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are crazy days for me. The rest of the week is usually pretty chill and I get Fridays off, so that’s cool. I’m getting next Monday off, so I’ll have a four-day weekend and I’m still thinking about what to do with it.

Last weekend, Kyle, Jaron, Dom, and I went to visit Katie in Irun. Irun is a little city on the border with France. It was so cute and the weather was beautiful. We walked around and found some kebab (ohhhh yes). I met Katie’s super nice roommates and enjoyed the comforts of her uber modern apartment. The kitchen was amazing! All the appliances are cleverly hidden and the cupboards have Lamborghini doors. Saturday, we went to St. Jean-de-Luz, a little beach town in France. That’s right, France. It took 20 minutes to get there and I got to practice my French phrases such as “cinq billets, s’il vous plait.” Unfortunately, my camera died on the first night of the trip, so I don’t have many pictures. I say unfortunately because the beach was too stunning. I wish I could have pictures to remember it by. We also ate some tasty, but expensive, crepes at a creperie by the sea.

I also managed to take some pictures of the city around my second school. It's called Igorre. It's lovely and quaint and nestled in a valley.

Oh, and if you thought they weren't serious about this whole Basque language thing, check out a picture of the sign-on screen for the computer. The whole computer is in Basque. My Basque lexicon is up to about 12 words now, which is 12 times what I knew when I moved here, so I think I'm doing pretty well.

On another note, where are all the people our age around here? It seems like everywhere we go, it’s either filled with teenagers or viejos. I’m confused. Maybe I just have old people habits or something?

Delays

Seriously, this not having internet thing is a real pain. It should be coming shortly. The annoying thing is that we have the router all set up, blinking patiently in our living room, but it´s up to someone at Telefonica (phone company) to flip a switch to give us the internets, so you know that means a huge delay. Anyway, I´ve written an update, but it´s on my laptop, which I can´t use because I can´t find a Wi-Fi (say wee-fee) connection right now. GRRR. I´ll post that real update soon.

In the meantime, I´ll just say that the Spanish proved to me they could get it together by making it very easy for me to get my lost umbrella back. Like an idiot, I left it on the metro two days after buying it (I upgraded to a more expensive one because my cheap one broke soooo hard). All I had to do was make a quick call and take a 5 minute metro trip to pick it up at their lost and found! I was amazed at how easy it was. They did grill the crap out of me, though, asking me what the brand/color/pattern/size were, as well as making me produce my passport, but at least I got it back. That´s one efficiency point for Spain.

So it's been a crazy week!

I've been super busy this week! Last weekend was fun-filled. Katie came to visit us from Irun (yay!), so we went to a very popular nightclub called Fever. It has maybe five rooms with different music, including a reggae/hip-hop room called "Black Fever." Yes, you read that right.




















































I think we went to the beach the next day:














It was MUCH prettier than before.

Monday, I started work at one of my schools. It's called Urritxe, but as you can see, some of the letters on the building are missing.














I love the kids. They treat me like a celebrity! Apparently, I'm the first person in my program to ever go to this school. A group of them followed me to the bus stop:














There are a few off to the side who didn't want to be in the picture. One of them was smoking (gasp), so I think that had to do with it. The smoking one was 15 and asked me what I thought about George Bush. The questions the students had were crazy. Examples: What is prom? What is punch? Do you see Hollywood films being made in the streets? What celebrities have you met? Do you know Kobe Bryant? Do you like Bruce Springsteen/Bon Jovi/U2/Linkin Park, etc.? Do you have a gun? Are drugs illegal in the US? Are the boys in Florida beautiful? Wow. I felt like I had to dispel SO many myths! They base a lot of their ideas about Americans on the movies, unfortunately, and few of them have ever met a real live one.

The commute out there is about 1 hour from door to door, and I work about 3 hours a day, four days a week. I also started tutoring a little bit this week out in Galdakao, which is about a 25 minute commute from here. Getting it together at the school basically took up my whole week. Next week, I have to do it all over again, since I'm starting at another school.

Last night, we went out for Indian food, and my GOD. It put me into the biggest food coma of my life. It did a number on the boys, too. I fell asleep at the table! We'd had nan (bread), bhaji (little deep fried things), lamb, chicken, basmati rice, and various desserts, not to mention a bottle or two of very tasty wine. No wonder we were immediately stricken with "the itis." I slept for about 11 hours last night, whew.














That brings us up to the present, so...bye. =)

Why are groceries so wonderfully cheap?

Monday, we had another orientation day in Vitoria, which is the capital of the neighboring province. I got to meet three teachers from my schools, which was absolutely great! They were so incredibly nice. I start work on Monday, and one of the teachers is picking me up near my apartment. Yay! I'm supposed to work with students age 12-18, which frightens me, but I always get three day weekends, which delights me.

So, some pictures!

I've met some very nice people:













That's Ryan, Kyle, and Dom. Ryan and Dom are English, and so we shared our culture with them by teaching them how to properly use the word "douchebag." It was one of the highlights of my day.














This is Jaron eating a raw carrot, something he does on a disturbingly regular basis. He's like Bugs Bunny.

Today was a beautiful day! I washed my clothes a few days ago and hung them outside to dry. Of course, it rained cats and dogs for two days, so I took them in last night. Apparently, the niceness of the weather is in an inverse relationship with the amount of underwear I have hanging outside my window. This is some of my neighborhood:


























In other news, all the libraries have free wi-fi, and there just happens to be one across the street from my house! I'm here at the library right now, paying a whopping zero euro to internet my heart out. Thanks to Roopa for the tip.

I went to the grocery store today, as well, and I bought water, bread, milk, eggs, wine, beer, and cake, and it all came up to 11 euro. Amazing! The alcohol is SO cheap. The wine cost me 1 euro. How is that allowed?! I'll never be able to buy a crappy $7 bottle of wine in the US again without feeling cheated. I also bought some gum:














I'm going to an intercambio tonight at an Irish pub with a few other people in the program. I can't wait to finally get some real Spanish practice in. Wish me luck!

This one´s for Ari

Hey! Ari requested an update, so here it is. I´ve been meaning to, but I don´t have internet at my apartment yet (I´m going through some terrible withdrawal over this...I haven´t used Wikipedia in WEEKS). It also seems as though posts with pictures are far more entertaining, and I so rarely get the chance to upload those. My favorite internet cafe tends to be randomly closed, so coming here is always a roll of the dice. Much stands in the way of me updating this blog as often as I would like =/.

Anyway, I went to my program's orientation in Madrid last Monday. There were three sessions, two of which were in Spanish. I was called out in one of them for not knowing enough Spanish to understand perfectly, which ticked me off. I'm sure she wasn't being mean, but it's a little frustrating that everyone expects you to just be fluent in TWO weeks when you haven't studied Spanish for FOUR years. I'd rather not be lectured about having a more open attitude toward learning the language. I'm trying here, people!

Anyway, the bus trip was nice. I like traveling by bus and train here. There's so much to look at outside the window. This looks kind of boring, but it's much more awe-inspiring in person.














While in Madrid, I managed to snap a picture of the elusive "mullock." It's an AWFUL hairstyle that is insanely popular here. It's a mullet made of locks. Why? Just why?














I went shopping at Zara finally, which made me feel like a real-life European! Everybody here has a Zara bag, not just for Zara merchandise, but for various documents, electronics, whatever you have lying around that you need to transport.














So, at the orientation, I met other people in Pais Vasco. My roommate was Katie, and we got along great, but unfortunately, she's living in Irun, not Bilbao. There's another orientation in Vitoria on Monday, however, so we'll see each other again. I also met two guys from Idaho who will be working in Bilbao. They were a fun bunch!



























That night, I finally stepped in one of the HUNDREDS of piles of dog poop that litter the ground here. I knew it would happen eventually, and I'm sure it will happen again. There's just too much poop.

When we got back, my roommates and I went to a store that I guess is the equivalent of a dollar store. They had a little of everything, including souvenirs you would never want to receive, such as "La Bruja WC":




















http://es.noticias.yahoo.com/vocento/20080930/video/ven-la-bruja-wc-es-designada-como-el-sou-fdadd33.html

Click that link if you're interested in hearing the sound effects that really make this souvenir unforgettable.

I went to the beach with the Idahoans yesterday, but it was terrible weather!



























Yeah, just a smidge depressing.

Today was so beautiful, though!
































These days are going to occur less and less frequently in the next few months, so I've been out and about enjoying it today. I took a walk! At first, I was all worked up about these lazy Spanish weekends, but I think I'm learning to enjoy it. They really FORCE you to take the weekend off here because everything is shut down for most of Saturday and all of Sunday. They also force you to drink all the time because the alcohol is cheaper than the water (if you go to a cafe or something). I hate being so unproductive when there's so much to be done! I can't complain when the weather is this fine, though. I suppose that's all for now.