I am just winding down from my first weekend here. The last few days have been a roller coaster but we have been having a lot of fun.... I have a lot to catch you up on!Well, my roommate Chelsea and I are getting a long really really well (That's her on the right). She's from Reno, played club and high school volleyball, is a Spanish minor, and has a thing for baseball players. hahahaha I died when she told me that. Grocery shopping was the easiest thing in the world! We both love a lot of fresh veggies and consider chocolate to be a main food group. It's really weird how similar we are. Our other roommate goes home during the weekend so we haven't seen her much yet.
Classes....
My largest class has about 10 people in it so it's been nice getting to know a lot of the students on the program. Right now I am taking, "Teaching Spanish as a Second Language", "Spanish Culture and Civilization", "Spanish Conversation", "Panorama of European Cinema", and 'Basque Language and Culture". They are all taught in Spanish, except for the Basque class is half Spanish and half English (depending on the context of our conversation). I only need 8 units to fulfill my Spanish minor this semester so I might drop one class and only take 12 units. I haven't decided which class yet. I would rather focus on adapting to the culture and doing well in the classes I have, instead of overloading myself with units I don't necessarily need. Anyway, all of my professors are very nice and have worked with the program for a long time. They use a lot of hand motions and gestures (unlike most Spaniards) when they talk so we are better able to follow along. We will not have a lot of outside homework, which is very nice! There are a lot of interactive discussions in the classroom instead. Their main priority is attendance. That's easy enough :-) I was actually surprised with how much I am able to understand. I knew exactly what my professors were saying the majority of the time, if not, I had a really good idea. However, outside of the classroom, it's a little bit different. haha
My largest class has about 10 people in it so it's been nice getting to know a lot of the students on the program. Right now I am taking, "Teaching Spanish as a Second Language", "Spanish Culture and Civilization", "Spanish Conversation", "Panorama of European Cinema", and 'Basque Language and Culture". They are all taught in Spanish, except for the Basque class is half Spanish and half English (depending on the context of our conversation). I only need 8 units to fulfill my Spanish minor this semester so I might drop one class and only take 12 units. I haven't decided which class yet. I would rather focus on adapting to the culture and doing well in the classes I have, instead of overloading myself with units I don't necessarily need. Anyway, all of my professors are very nice and have worked with the program for a long time. They use a lot of hand motions and gestures (unlike most Spaniards) when they talk so we are better able to follow along. We will not have a lot of outside homework, which is very nice! There are a lot of interactive discussions in the classroom instead. Their main priority is attendance. That's easy enough :-) I was actually surprised with how much I am able to understand. I knew exactly what my professors were saying the majority of the time, if not, I had a really good idea. However, outside of the classroom, it's a little bit different. haha
This weekend...
Three of my friends from Westmont (Fabrice, Danny and Evan) are studying with the same program in Bilbao, which is a city about an 1 1/2 hours away. They came to visit this weekend for La Fiesta de San Sebastian that takes place on January 20th. I've heard 3 conflicting stories on the
background of la fiesta.... I don't think most people cared why they were celebrating, they just knew they could celebrate haha. To give you an idea of this fiesta, at midnight on Saturday night, parades started in the 4 neighborhoods in town. The parades consisted of people dressed as the French Military and others as chefs. Everyone was banging drums, playing horns, singing, dancing... I could tell you a million stories about the night, but to sum it up, it was CHAOS. It is 12:15 on Sunday night and I STILL hear a procession. They've come by about every 45 minutes for the last 24 hours! There are well over 20 band playing around town. The town has less than 200,000 people, it's not a large city. I 
don't even really know how to describe it. It was unlike anything I had every experienced in my life. Before the festivities, a big group of us got together for dinner. Chelsea and I brought our famous (or at least we think it's famous) ultra veggie salad with the homemade Dijon dressing. Muy delicioso! haha The picture on the right is of all of the girls at the dinner party. I'm in the back, next to Chelsea. The guy's picture was slightly less organized (shocking, really) and didn't turn out.
Three of my friends from Westmont (Fabrice, Danny and Evan) are studying with the same program in Bilbao, which is a city about an 1 1/2 hours away. They came to visit this weekend for La Fiesta de San Sebastian that takes place on January 20th. I've heard 3 conflicting stories on the
background of la fiesta.... I don't think most people cared why they were celebrating, they just knew they could celebrate haha. To give you an idea of this fiesta, at midnight on Saturday night, parades started in the 4 neighborhoods in town. The parades consisted of people dressed as the French Military and others as chefs. Everyone was banging drums, playing horns, singing, dancing... I could tell you a million stories about the night, but to sum it up, it was CHAOS. It is 12:15 on Sunday night and I STILL hear a procession. They've come by about every 45 minutes for the last 24 hours! There are well over 20 band playing around town. The town has less than 200,000 people, it's not a large city. I 
don't even really know how to describe it. It was unlike anything I had every experienced in my life. Before the festivities, a big group of us got together for dinner. Chelsea and I brought our famous (or at least we think it's famous) ultra veggie salad with the homemade Dijon dressing. Muy delicioso! haha The picture on the right is of all of the girls at the dinner party. I'm in the back, next to Chelsea. The guy's picture was slightly less organized (shocking, really) and didn't turn out.Que mas??
I used our clothes line for the first time tonight. Outside of our kitchen window is a clothes line with a bunch of pins. If you look up, you can see all of my neighbors laundry drying. haha I'll have to take a picture when it's light outside. Everyone's kitchen window faces each other so we have a little courtyard of clothes, 6 stories high, that's covered. I think I'm overly amused by it.
Today I went for a walk on the beach and took a few pictures of the city. This weekend was sunny and beautiful. When I walk out of my building, I make two quick rights, walk 4 blocks and see this... La Playa Zurriola (Zurriola Beach) The picture
on the left is the same area, the beach is on 
the left.
on the left is the same area, the beach is on 
the left. Annddd... one more. It's at the other beach, La Concha (It's shaped like a shell). The city is in the background.
Look at the sky!!! Maravilloso!
Look at the sky!!! Maravilloso!Well I think I covered it all. You are now in the loop :-) Preguntas? (that means Questions for you none Spanish speakers out there)
(Sorry, it's 1 in the morning... I'm getting a little feisty and need to go to bed)
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