Frankenporn and Sunshine

This past week has flown by. Monday and Tuesday there was sun but also a lot of clouds. Today there was sun and no clouds in sight. I was able to wear shorts and a t-shirt to school, go to the beach, and get a sun burn on my face. This is the first time I have worn shorts since I have been here. Today also marks 2 months that I have been here. I thought the first 2 months flew by, but when I look at my calendar I realize that the next 2 will probably go by much faster. I go to Ireland March 31, then I am here for a while, but my dad comes to visit for a week and that will will make time fly. Then I have another week and then Spring break for 12 days. 2 weeks after Spring break my brother is coming, and that will go by pretty fast, and the week after that is my last week here. Where has all my time gone!

This last weekend we stayed around Bilbao mostly. Friday night we had the play Frankenstein. It was interesting to say the least. I knew that nudity wasn't a big deal in Europe, but there was a lot in this one. 4 of the 5 male actors were naked at some point in the play and one of the female actors was nude. The play was in Spanish and that made it kind of hard to follow. After Frankenstein a few of us went to Art After Dark. It was a nice change from the usual places that we go to. It was clean, classy, and let me get home early. San Sebastian was a really nice town and I want to go back when it isn't cloudy. We went to the aquarium while we were there and saw some cool fish. 

Rain, rain, rain.

Since Rome not a lot has happened in Bilbao. When we first got back the weather was great and we thought the rain was over. Our hopes were destroyed in about 6 hours when the following day it was cold and raining again. At home when it rains it's not a very big deal, unless it hasn't rained in 2 years, but that is because we all have cars and can drive to where we need to. Here we can't do that! Walking to the bus stop and waiting for 15 minutes while it is raining and the wind is blowing isn't my idea of fun. At school the buses have designated spaces where they drop us off and of course our is the furthest from the art building. there were a few days this past week where I was able to wear a t-shirt and no sweater or jacket. The best thing I brought to Bilbao was my Columbia rain jacket. Everyone here uses umbrellas, but it is so windy that they break a lot. My jacket has kept me dry and warm any time I wear it. Now that it has started to warm up I took the lining out and it's perfect.
Last weekend three of the girls and I took a trip to Salamanca to hang out with Jimmy and JP, two guys that live there. It was a nice change of pace from Bilbao. It is smaller, cleaner, and cheaper. They were able to convince their RD's in their dorms to let us stay there and it worked well. Jimmy lives downtown, 5 minutes from the main plaza. Salamanca has a different feel than Bilbao. It doesn't feel as urban even though it is a city. The people seemed more friendly to American students, but that is probably because there are a lot of them in Salamanca. We went out the first night we were there and all of the clubs are right next to each other which is very nice. Here in Bilbao there aren't a lot of clubs in general and the ones that we have are way out of the way. What we pay for one drink in Bilbao will get you 2 or 3 in Salamanca. I spent about 25 euro total in Salamanca for the weekend, and that includes meals.
I made some new friends in Bilbao recently as well. They aren't Spanish, but they are from Europe. Hannah and Steffi from Belgium and Luca from Germany. They are a lot of fun, and have great stereotypes of people from Texas. They honestly think we all carry guns and the only fact they know about TX is that more people are killed by lethal injection than anywhere else.
This weekend is pretty busy for us. Tonight we are going to see Frankenstein in Spanish and as soon as that is over a few of us are running over to the Guggenheim for Art After Dark. We have tickets this time, so I know I will get in. The ticket from AAD will also get you into Fever for free, but since I still don't feel great I am not going. I want to get some sleep. Tomorrow morning we are going to San Sebastian to hopefully sit on the beach and do nothing. I also have homework for this weekend. I have to work on my next silk screening project.

The Pope and His Hat.

This weekend in Rome was a blast! From the time we got there until the time we left I was having a blast. Right after we got there we started walking. We had no idea where we were going, but the girls were on a mission to see a fountain that was in some chick flick. Did we ever get there? No, I don't think so, but had fun looking for it.
Our first stop of Thursday was gelato. They didn't have the melon that I remembered from Florence, but it was still delicious. We then started out on our adventure. We walked in a huge circle looking for the river and finally found it. Our destinations were determined by what domes we could see. If the dome looked big we headed that way. That worked out pretty well. We came out of a little ally right next to a church. It was a nice church that was decorated like most others. Next we ended up at the Spanish Steps. We climbed the steps and were able to see out over the city. It had been raining, but was clearing up while the sun set. This is when the girls decided to look for the fountain from the movie, we didn't end up there, but we did end up at the Trevi Fountain. It was cool seeing it lit up at night. We did the whole throwing money over the opposite shoulder thing and took a lot of pictures. After that we went and had our first Italian dinner. I'm pretty sure we ended up at some sort of tourist trap, and got charged for everything we did, but it was good. Thursday night we were all tired and went to bed early.
The next day we had to be up early for a panoramic tour of Rome. The breakfast in the hotel was pretty good, not as good as Madrid, but it was free. The bus tour was kind of hard to follow just because we drove past some things really fast, and weren't able to see them well. It ended at the Colosseum. It is a lot bigger than I imagined and really cool. We never went inside of it, but I have to have things to do when I go back. After we walked around the Colosseum we got back on the bus and went to the Trevi Fountain again. This time we had a tour guide to explain everything about it to us. After our tour with API ended we had another tour set up. The dad of one of the girls here knows a tour guide in Rome and we were able to set up a private tour of the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peters that afternoon. It turned out that our tour guide for the afternoon was the same tour guide we had earlier that morning around Rome which was nice because he was fun and nice. The Vatican Museums were really cool. We only saw three of them, but he said that if we were to be actually be able to see everything it would take years. The three rooms that we did see had a lot of interesting things in them. The Sistine Chapel was amazing! It was also a lot bigger than I thought, but I'm glad it was because it was packed. They were really strict about talking and picture taking inside of it. Our guide told us all about the chapel and about every pope that helped build it. It was so much information to try and take it, but I enjoyed it. Next we went into St. Peters. It is the largest basilica in the world. They had markings on the ground that showed were others compared to it, no other even came close. We saw another famous Michelangelo sculpture inside, and a few mummified popes. When a pope is raised to saint hood his body is mummified and put in a tomb in St. Peters. They were working on that tomb that John Paul II will be put into in May. We weren't able to see very much of the basilica, but what we did see was amazing.
After we got back to our hotel we all went to took naps to get ready for the night. We didn't do anything fancy for dinner, just quick street pizza. One of the guys from Salamanca found this deal on-line where we could pay 20 euro to go to a pub with and open bar for an hour, then to two different clubs, and at the end of the night we would get pizza and a free t-shirt. Needless to say we did this. The pub was really small and overly full, but it was a nice little place to hang out. The first club was also nice. When we got there it was still early and people were eating dinner where the dance floor was, but leave it to the girls to make there own. The nice part about their makeshift dance floor was it was right around the couches so we were able to sit down when we were tired. The second club was packed. We had a lot of fun and danced a lot. We didn't drink anything at the clubs because the drinks were 10 euro each, and we thought Bilbao was bad.
Finding our way home was a different story. The metro closed pretty early for such a big city, but the buses run all night. We took a few wrong buses and went the wrong way, but we made it back to the hotel in time for breakfast. After being up all night people look at you funny in the hotel restaurant while eating breakfast, but we were just glad to be home.
We woke up at like 1:30 that afternoon and started out on our adventures again. We went to one of the other big monuments in Rome. I don't know what the real name of it is, but our tour guide kept referring to it as 'The Wedding Cake'. Apparently the Romans call it that, because it is big and white. It lets you have a nice view of downtown Rome, and also hold the WWI 'Tomb of the Unknown'. The rest of the day was spent just walking around and hanging out. Saturday night some of the people wanted to go out again. I did not. A few of us ate dinner around the hotel and then just hung out in my hotel room. Saturday ended pretty early for us.
Sunday we woke up kind of early to get breakfast and a few of us wanted to try and go to St. Peters for mass. For some reason we thought we could get there at 10:15 and still get in. We hung out in the Vatican Square until 12 when the Pope speaks from his window. He gives a quick sermon in Italian and then a prayer in different languages. He spoke in Italian, Spanish, German, English, and Portuguese. After that we headed back to the hotel and left for the airport. The flight back wasn't bad, but our flight from Madrid to Bilbao was delayed and we didn't get back until 10.
It was nice to get away for a weekend. It was also nice to be around other guys for a weekend, the girls are fun, but they get old sometimes. Some of us are thinking about going to to Salamanca this weekend to hang out with them again. I want to go, but don't want to spend the money. Decisions, decisions.

Silk Screening

After a few weeks of silk screening I have decided that it is my favorite class. It is a lot of work, but it is very fun. I can't believe this week is almost over. Rome is going to be exciting. The dad of one of the girls here has a friend that gives tours in Rome in English. We are setting up a private tour of the Vatican and Sistine Chapel for about 35 euro a person.
It has been raining all this week, and I can't wait for the sun to come back out. I want to go to the beach more, but it is hard when it is raining and 45 outside.

Conejo

Today for lunch we had rabbit. I have never eaten rabbit, but it was good. It was cooked in a pressure cooker so it was really tinder. We had it with the same type of saffron rice as you would eat with paella. I didn't know that it was rabbit at first I thought it was chicken or something. I thought the bones looked a little bit different.
This weekend has been pretty quiet. Friday night we didn't do very much. I went salsa dance with a few of the girls. There is a club that has free salsa dance classes on Friday nights so we went. I was able to pick it up pretty well but there were a lot of people there, so it was hard to see the teacher.
Last night we didn't do much either. One of the Deusto girls is friends with a guy from Portugal that has an apartment. We went over there and hung out for a few hours. There were people from everywhere there. I few guys from Portugal, a few from Brazil, a German girl, some girls from Poland, an English girl and us. There was also a kid from Arizona and another one from Mexico. The one from Mexico has lived in TX for the past 8 years and actually goes to UTSA. It was nice to be able to hang out at someones apartment instead of a club.
I have been working on my illustration project a lot this weekend. I just need to figure out where I can get my images printed.

Un Mes

It's hard to believe that I have been in Spain for one month. The time has flown by. When I was in Italy it seemed like that month took forever. I am kind of sad that my time is going by so fast already, and once i start getting more major project I feel like it will fly by.
We are just starting to figure out the city and make friends around here. Next week we take our trip to Rome. I am excited to see it. They have tours and adventures planned out for us and told us how to get to the Sistine Chapel for tours. On that Sunday we get to the hear the Pope speak which is pretty cool.
We are also stating to plan our own side trips. We want to go to Ireland at the end of March, and I am hoping for Spring Break I can go to Barcelona, Paris, Germany, Norway and maybe London.
I have to work on a project now. It shouldn't be that hard, but might be time consuming.

Hecho en Tajas

This past weekend has been good. Thursday night we would usually go out the the Erasmus Party, but this weekend we didn't. We were going to, but we didn't want to pay the 10 euro cover since we got there after 11:30. We ended up walking around Bilbao and made some new friends. We were walking and a girl asked us if we had a lighter and when we responded they knew we were American.
You alway here stories about people speaking English in a foreign  country and getting mugged or beat up, but my experience here has been that they want to practice their english and don't want you to speak Spanish with them.
This group of kids, all around our age and students at Deusto, told us they were going to a club and told us we could go with them. We got a nice night tour of Bilbao. This club was smaller and more Spanish. It wasn't full of people or smoke like the Erasmus Parties are. We hung out with them for a few hours and then decided to just walk home instead of taking a taxi.
Friday during the day we went to eat Mexican food downtown. I didn't have hight hopes for the food, but was pleasantly surprised. The salsa actually had some spice to it, the margaritas were just like at home, and the nachos were made with Mexican cheese. They didn't call them nachos, but that's what they were. It was tortilla chips with a chicken mole and grilled onions topped with melted cheese. The enchiladas weren't the typical Tex-Mex enchiladas. It was a corn tortilla that was filled with the same chicken mole and onion mixture and then folded over and baked. They were topped with a green pepper sauce and peanuts. The enchiladas were people one of the most authentic items on the menu. They had turkey or beef fajitas, which no one got. Everybody else got the burrito. It was a typical burrito and looked good.
Friday night we were going to go to 'Art After Dark' at the Guggenheim. We were all excited and met up early to hang out before, but soon found out that it was sold out. We didn't know that you had to buy tickets in advance for it. We even get a discount since we are 'Friends of the Guggenheim' Another reason we were excited is because it comes with free ticket to Fever. We ended up going to Fever, but had to pay the cover. The same band that was playing at Art After Dark was also playing at Fever, so we got the same music. The band was Dorian. They are a Spanish Pop band from Madrid. I was looking them up on the internet and saw that they have actually been to Austin for SXSW. Some how in the middle of the concert we ended up up front so after the concert the drummer gave me a stick. He uses ProMark sticks.
While at Fever I met a Spanish guy wearing a 'Keep Austin Weird' shirt. He said that he had never been to Austin, but that his girlfriends sister lived there and gave it to him. He was excited that I was from Austin. Most of the Spaniards get excited when I tell them I am from Texas.
Last night we went to Casco Viejo. It is the old part of town and is really nice. There are a lot of shops there during the day and a lot of bars at night. We met some Spaniards there and they took us to their favorite bars. It's nice to go to the places that we usually wouldn't. These bars also have some of the best pintxos, or tapas, in Bilbao.
Today we aren't doing much. I think we are just going to hang out and watch the Bilbao vs. Barcelona soccer game.

Gettin' rich like Andy Warhol or goin' broke like MC Hammer?

I had my first Silk Screening class today. So far it is my favorite class. The teacher gave us a syllabus, but told us to read it later and started showing us how to print right away. She showed us almost everything that we need to know today in 3 hours. Will we remember everything tomorrow? Probably not, but it was still fun to learn. It will be a messy class and I will need to find a second hand store where I can get some crappy jeans and a few t-shirts.
Weathermen here are wrong just like the ones at home. It was supposed to rain and be colder Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, but so far it has only rained at night and was sunny and 55 today.
I have realized that so far I have spent most of my money and transportation. I have had to buy metro and bus passes, and they aren't cheap. I spend almost 3 euro a day going to school, and if we go out after class I will spend another 1.50 on the metro. I have probably spent 30-40 on the bus/metro so far.

Santander

This weekend we went to Santander. It is a little beach town to the west of Bilbao. It took about an hour and half to get there by bus. On the way we went though the little town of Laredo. I have never been to Laredo in TX, so now I can say I have been. Santander was really nice. It was supposed to rain all day, but it never really did. We took a little tour around a park and then went to little zoo area. There were penguins and seals. The waves were pretty big on this beach and were crashing on to the rocks. The beach we were at was called Camel Beach because there is a rock out in the water that looks like a camel.
I have noticed that my spanish is getting better, but there is still a lot to learn. There have been a few miscommunications, but nothing major. I just didn't take my sheets off of my bed the other morning. this week we are going "Pintxo Hopping" or Tapas Hopping around town.
We wanted to go to Amsterdam next month, but I don't think that is going to happen. We haven't been able to find tickets to the concert. Something about not having an European credit card is stopping us. We are also supposed to be going to San Sebastian that Saturday, and I don't want to miss a free trip.

Una semana

The first week of class was good. Kind of confusing, but good. When we got there Monday afternoon the Silk Screening class had been moved to Wednesday Thursday, so I thought I wasn't going to be able to take the Systems of Signage class. When we got to Silk Screening on Wednesday the teacher had moved it back to Monday Tuesday, we just didn't have class this week.
Since I thought I was going to to have to find a new class I went to another Graphic Design class this morning. The teacher doesn't speak any English, but was really nice. She showed us some examples of what we would be doing, and it looked interesting. Now I just have to decide between Systems of Signage and this new one.
My Illustration class is really cool also. We work on one project all semester. We have to make some sort of book that includes illustrations. After class we went and talked to the teacher and he said that a lot of his past American students used his class to make memory books for the trip.
The weekend the weather is supposed to get bad again, which is no good.

Fiesta!

This weekend was a lot of fun. Friday after I got back from Gernika I took a nap. I was pretty tired after the Erasmus Party, and that night I didn't do anything. It was pretty nice. Saturday some of the girls and I went downtown. They wanted to get shoes or something, and I figured I might as well go out. Well I was the only person that got anything. Later that night we went to another club in Bilbao called Fever. I had more fun there. They have 4 rooms that each play different music, so it was easy to find something I liked. I don't know if there were fewer people or if it's because the club is that much bigger, but it was a lot easier to move around than in VIP. The night also went by a lot faster, so I was able to go until six that morning. Sunday afternoon I went to Getxo again and hung out at the beach for a while. Last night for the Super Bowl we went to a party at a bar. It was kind of an illegal party, because bars aren't supposed to be open past two on Sundays, but that didn't stop them. The Director of American Exchange at the University of Deusto was there, John Franco. He is a really funny guy and love hanging out with the kids. He said he knew of a good Mexican Restaurant in Bilbao and wants to take us there. I'm excited.
My class schedule got a little screwed up today and I'm having to drop one class and look into another one. I'm excited about my Silk Screening class that was moved to Wednesday.

La playa y mas

Yesterday was a good day. We registered for classes, went to the beach, and went to the Erasmus Party. My class schedule is very nice. I have class from 1:30-6:30 on Mondays, 11-6:30 on Tuesdays and 9-7:30 on Wednesdays. I am taking four classes, but that is 18 hours back home. I am taking an Illustration class, a Silk Screening class, a Typography class and my Spanish class.
The weather has been really nice today and yesterday. The nicest since we've been here. I''m glad I'm here where it's 65 and sunny instead of at home where it's 25 and snowing. The beach we went to yesterday was in Getxo. The 'tx' makes a 'ch' sound. It was really nice, the water was way to cold to get in, but it was nice to sit in the sand and hang out for a while.
Last night we went to the Erasmus Party. It is a party that happens every Thursday night at a club in town. It is for all of the non-Spainards going to school here. It was alright. The music wasn't very good, there were way too many people for my liking, and everything was way over priced. It was fun to get to hang out with new people, and males for once. The only problems is that the metro stops running at 11, and the party is over at 4. You either have to walk home, take a cab, or wait around for another 2 hours for the metro to open up. I wasn't about to wait for 2 hours and I have no idea how to get back, so I took a cab.
Today we went to Gernika. It is a small village outside of Bilbao. It is that place that inspired Picasso to make his piece 'Gernika'. The town was bombed during the Spanish civil war, and has a lot of meaning in the Basque region. There is Museo d la Paz de Gernika, or the Peace Museum, and The Assembly House, where the Basque government meets. There is an old oak tree that they used to meet around, but now they have a nice new building to meet in.

Voso..Who?

I had my first day of class yesterday. It was my Spanish class. The class started with a quick review of the basics, which was very easy. So far the whole class has been easy. The only thing I don't understand is the Vosotros form. I have never learned it and when I get home will never use it. It's kind of like when you're in math class and you're and English major. Who cares what the imaginary number "i" can do.
Most of the people in my class have never spoken Spanish befor and the teacher told me that after next week if I wanted to move to the more advanced class I could. I don't know if I will, but would probably learn more from it.
Yesterday we went to the Guggenheim Museum. It is more of a modern art museum and has some strange things in it. I liked a lot of it, but there were some things that didn't interest me at all. They have some really cool programs there that we are going to go to. One of them is Art After Dark. You pay 5 euro, get into the Guggenheim, get free drinks, and get a ticket to a club in town that cost 7 euro to get into.
Today we went to the Fine Arts Museum. It had some really cool paintings in it. More of them interested me, than didn't. There were a few really cool local artist that I really liked.
Tomorrow we register for classes. I think I will actually have to take my first 8 am class this semester. Oh well I'm in Spain.
We are trying to plan a trip to Amsterdam for a Black Keys concert, but it has been kind of difficult figuring out how to buy plane tickets and concert tickets.

Kalimotxo

Last night I went out with a few of the girls. Some of the ones that were here took us to a little bar in Casco Viejo. The bar was little but the crowd was not. Everyone here goes out on the weekends. The metro was full, the streets were full and the bars were full. Apparently here it is okay to drink in the street. After you get your drink in the bar you go outside to drink it and when you're done you just leave your glass and they pick it up later. A lot of people bring liter size coke bottles and drink those in the street instead of buying drinks.
We had a Spanish drink called Kalimotxo. It is half red wine and half coke. I didn't think I would like it, but it wasn't that bad. It was kind of sweet, but didn't have much of a flavor. I don't know what kind of wine they use to make it. I don't think they would use a good wine to make this, but I wasn't able to tell. They had it on tap!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalimotxo

Bilbao

So after 2 night in Bilbao I like it a lot. This is probably my favorite European city that I have visited. My apartment is very nice and I like Maika a lot. The language barrier has been difficult, but we have our dictionaries out and are trying to communicate as best as we can. Yesterday we took a walking tour of the city and found some really nice parks and places to hang out.
Today we went on the Bilboats for a tour of the city along the river. It started out cold and raining, but on the way back it got sunny. The city is very nice and doesn't seem as big as it really is.

Mi casa para cuatro meses

I just got to my house for the next 4 months. It is very small, but very nice. Maika is very nice as well. She doesn't speak any english which will be a challenge, but I think that I will know Spanish by the time I leave. She has some funny rules that I should be able to follow pretty easily.
1. Use door handles to open and close doors
2. Keep bathroom clean
3. Turn of lights and don't use a lot of water.

Tomorrow we get to take a tour of the city and see where the school is. My house is very close to the music conservatory. I wonder if I can go in and play the drums? I just have to remember how to get back to the metro station tomorrow morning.

Hola

It's been a while since I've posted anything. We have been pretty busy. On Monday we went to the Prado Museum and say many paintings from Goya, El Greco, and Velasquez. We also went to the Royal Palace and saw where the king and queen used to live. It was a really big palace and we had to rush though it. I would have liked to spend more time there, but we had to be back at out hotel for a meeting.
Yesterday we went to the monastery outside of Madrid. It was also very nice. It used to be the summer home the king. It is also the royal "cemetery". Everyone is in a tomb in a really cool crypt underneath the cathedral.
Today we went to Toledo for a quick tour. It was my favorite city so far. We were only there for a few hours and spent most of that on a tour. The old part of town was very small and was nice to walk around in.
I will post some pictures on Facebook once I get to my house tonight or tomorrow.
I like everyone that is in my group so far, and I think I'll like all of my classes, once I figure out what I'm taking. Right now I'm on the bus to Bilbao and there is snow all over the ground and it is foggy so I can't see the surroundings.
I am kind of nervous about meeting Maika tonight, but my RD says she is very nice.

Hello Sun

Seeing the sun rise from a plane at 37000 feet is a different type of experience. It feels like it's 12:45 to me, which means I would probably be awake for another hour at home. The problem is that when we land i should be going to bed. This is not going to be good. I'm starting to get tired and kind of wish they didn't have so many movies on here. Every time I try to fall asleep and can't I start watching a movie.
Why would they show the movie 'Taken' on an international flight?!?
I'm still trying to figure out this whole metric system thing. Right now I'm listening to Jack Ingram 'Big Dreams & High Hopes. I think it's a fitting song to come on right now. Without dreams or hopes I wouldn't be here right now. Another great Texas musician just came on for me. A little Lyle Lovett 'South Texas Girl'.
This flight was nice, it wasn't full so it was only me and another girl in the row. I like this flight across the Atlantic more than the first one I took. The people on Air France were not very nice and we were all packed into that plane. The Spanish people also seem nicer than the French.
I was afraid that my phone would die before I got to Spain, but thankfully they have outlets in between each seat.
Well I'm gonna watch another movie. I think I have enough time for one more before we land.

Guacamole

While eating, what will probably be, my last Mexican dinner before I leave for Spain I wondered to myself, "Do they eat guacamole and queso there?" I eat those things at least once a week and I'm not sure how I feel about not eating them for four months!

¡Listos!

I am ready to go to Spain. I have my bag packed, my cameras charged, and even thought to bring more than one change of cloths. But I feel like I'm forgetting something. Oh that's right, my Spanish is mediocre to say the least. You would think that after three years in high school and three semesters in college I would be pretty good, but when you've learned the same things in all those classes (most of which is useless vocabulary) you don't really improve, you just get better at the the few words you do know. I'm hoping that by being in Spain I will improve my conversation skills and become more fluent.