Mucho lluvia

Today was quite the aventura.

The plan was to go to San Sebastian with the YSA's. Apparently San Sebastain is among the most beautiful places in Spain. And it's only an hour away.

So I pack up my money, camera, notebook and pen, Hemingway and some food for the day. I meet Richard at the church at 10 and we walk to the bus station, arriving there around 1030 to meet Noemi. We are getting ready to buy tickets and notice it's 20e. After much debating between the two, which I could somewhat follow, being about the price, Noemi tells me she doesn't think she wants to pay that much to go an hour away where it is raining. Richard decides not as well. Willie arrives and he is told the bad news. Finally, we all decide not to go. But we already woke up early that we decided to take an adventure anyway.

I think I've been in a subway/metro station like once in my life. It's really quite neat. They help me purchase a pass. I slip my pass through the machine and feel so cool. We take 2 metro trains and 20 minutes later (more or less) we finally arrive in Plencia, a small village off the coast. It is raining. But that is to be expected. It is a beautiful little village. There are no tall buildings like Bilbao so you can see the beautiful rolling vivid green hills wonderfully. We crossed the bridge and began our walk down the streets. First stop, food. I get a giant loaf of bread because...well, because I want one. And it's normal to do here. I also get some oreo yogurt and a coke. The total was 2.50. We walk to the coast along the pier. It is beautiful! Yes, it was rainy, but that added a sense of mystery and amazement to this new place. The beach was large and just waiting for the people to come out and enjoy it. The hills rolled right into the ocean. Agh! I can't wait to go back when its sunny.

We are walking, by this time my right foot is wet. Turns out the only boots I brought to Spain have a hole in the bottom. Convenient, right? I push through.

We want to go to the faro. Lighthouse. We take this path that suddenly turns into a misty jungle. Still raining, by the way. A small sense of eeriness but overpowered by beauty. After what seems like forever we see a brown house-looking thing up ahead. Well we're tired so we stop. There's a roof over the balcony! We can be dry! I'm starved so I dig into my loaf of bread. They find that hilarious. (American). Then for the next few hours we lunch, talk -well I try, listen to music from a phone, laugh about how miserably wet it is-it's still raining, see some cows, take off our wet shoes to "dry" (done in vain), and enjoy the beauty of peacefulness of this place. Truly something else. I can't explain enough how beautiful of a site it is to see such lush green hills in all directions, with a soft mist blanketing them.

Finally we decide it's time to leave. Never mind that we never actually made it to the lighthouse. Our trip was successful without it. Oh by the way, it's still raining. After just a few minutes of walking back my right foot is soaked again. A helpless feeling. We find a bus to take us back to the metro. Yes! The metro ride home I was falling in and out of sleep. Egh, miserable. At the start of the train we were going to see the Avengers. By the end we decided, well Noemi and I, that we were much too tired and cold.

We get off, it's still raining. I walk home for what seems like forever, anxiously awaiting comfort of being dry. I get in, throw off my wet things. I'm freezing. My toes are freezing. I then take the best, longest, and hottest shower ever which pretty much consisted of me sitting there listening to Balmorhea for 30 minutes. The best. I put on my warm things. I jump in bed. Never mind that it's 6pm. It's still raining.



These pictures hardly do the place justice in the least (point&shoot) Hopefully my film pics will do better. (coming soon...)

And then 'Suavemente' came on.

Today was a good day. I'm really taking advantage of this siesta thing. More then the actual people here I fear.

 Well every Friday evenings the YSA's (Young Single Adults) in the church get together for a lesson/activity. I arrived late and we were discussing a few bible stories. Then afterwards we sang to our friend Rúben because his birthday is this Monday. And then out of no where the kitched section opened and they proceeded to bring out delicious food! Including pizza, almost American-like, tapas, cheetos and candy. Then they turned on the music. Bump the tunes. People start dancing, Latin-spanish-like of course. I moved my hips a bit, but was shy.

And then Suavemente came on.

For anyone that wants to hear, this is the song: Suavemente-Elvis Crespo

And I got up and started dancing in the middle of the room because...how can I not? I LOVE THIS SONG. It's kind of a family theme song and I don't hear it out very often. It was so great. From about 1030-midnight we were all eating, dancing and socializing. This also included an "Erica's music" section where I showed them a little taste of what I like (and I mean a little, my ipod is so outdated). This consisted of some Gramatik and then-judging on their need to dance- I put on some oldschool Outkast and JT. I can't wait till I somehow get Cat Daddy/Dougie/Daftpunk/Discovery on my ipod and can show them realll dance moves. ;)

Afterwards, they asked me if I wanted to go to a discoteca. Well yes of course. So we went to a barro/discoteca for the next two and a half hours and I got to get all this Latin dancing out of my system! For real...I love dancing, and I love Latin dancing. It was so great! I danced with some chicos y chicas in our group and then one stranger. Wooh! My first club in Spain! Its kind of funny that I've only been to clubs outside the US, right? (Guatemala '07). Anyway, it was really great.

Boys...Whaaa?

Today was a good day. I know what your thinking, with a title like that this MUST be a good story. Well, sure.

First, on Monday my host-father told me his cousin would be staying with us for a few days while he studied at a university. Okay...cool. His cousin, he told me was mid twenties, and a boy. Hm. Well sure, it's not a big deal...but kid of an odd surprise, right? So he comes and is very nice, the kids love him, and we exchange a few words. Well today I am in the living room working on my art assignment and he comes through and sits next to me. He begins asking questions. His English is broken but still much better then my Spanish. We talk about the normal things like where we are from, what kinds of things we like, our families, studies, etc... It was really cool to talk to someone my age for a time. Despite our language difference (we may have used the online translator once or twice) and the struggle for conversation sometimes (no doubt there were awkward pauses) it was a really nice change to my day. He lives about and hour away in Leketio, where Joseba is from / where we'll be living in the summer. I guess he will be staying here every week or so for a few days, and he said he'll be back on Monday. It kinda feels nice to have a "almost" friend, knowing that I'll someone somewhat often. Does that make sense? I'm not meaning to sounds serendipitous, it was just a random but cool experience.

Second, (and this is the juicy one), the past few days the kids and I have been taking a new route home from school, "exploring" as they like to call it. We went through this hotel area both times, and both times we passed this guy, decent looking, mid-20's, with a bike. Yesterday while the kids were dropping hairbands from the top floor he said something to me. I really hope it was Basque because I didn't understand it at all. A few words of confusion were said, and that was that. Well today we went through the same area, passing the pyramid looking monument again. But this time the kids decided they wanted to climb it and didn't care what I had to say. Sometimes they pretend not to understand me...  AGH, NO! Boy was that the worst 20 minutes of my life, but that is a whole other story. So I just called their mom to let her know they weren't listening/"in danger." I'm yelling at the kids to come down and that same guy I've seen comes strolling over on his bike. I was slightly embarrassed for the situation, but he came by me and gave me a piece of paper. He says something. Really? Basque or Spanish, I don't know. I look at the paper and it has his name, email and number on it. I guess the way I was yelling at the kids to come down from the hotel monument in broken Spanish was really attractive. Eventually he slows down and I understand him asking me where I'm from. I tell him. We exchange a few short words then he proceeds to get out his phone. Well I don't know my number so I can't do anything. Then my host-mother comes over. She is in heels and can't get the little one who is now stuck at the top crying for her life. So the boy offers to get her. (Embaaaarrraasssing.) He comes down, everyone is grateful. We are finally ready to leave. The boy mumbles something else and proceeds to act as if he's sending a message. Ohh. Okay, I get it now. He shrugs, smiles with a subtle wink and rides off.

So now...I think the real question here is, judging on how well we've communicated thus far, if I do call or text this boy...what do I say...

Improv Bedtime Story

Tonight's bedtime story was somewhat of an adventure. I only have 5 minutes and the nearest book is a fairy barbie story in Spanish. Well I don't want to read in Spanish tonight, its no fun for me. So I decide to improv the entire book. This included some ('deep love' related) opera singing and a very secret 'Grease' hand-jive dance move - which OF COURSE was the only way to defeat the demon fairy.

And even in a language they didn't understand, I had those kids on the edge of their beds the whole time.

Success!

El Viaje a Madrid Templo

So like I said, there was a Temple trip to Madrid planned. Well that was yesterday. It was crazy [no sleep] but so great. Sat morning at approx 00:30,  [a lot of] the ward left Bilbao on a big bus. We arrived at 6amish, got dressed, had breakfast (everyone drinks cola cao (chocolate milk) and cookies/biscuits [they are like graham crackers] for breakfast, its great) then went to the 8am session. What a beautiful Temple! It was so neat to be there. I met a Russian girl there who came to Spain primarily to visit the Temple. She was 19. She spoke fluent English and so it was nice to finally be able to have a conversation that no one else could understand (muah muah muah). There was also a french man there who just smiled at everyone as they spoke to him in Spanish.We then had a break and explored the neighboring (like 25ft away) church where there just happened to be a baptism happening with the missionaries. They invited us to watch and it was really cool. We then had lunch and visited the Temple again. Beautiful! I was SO pooped by the end. I fell asleep in the lunch room on someones bag of something squishy. On the way back it was a lot of fun because it was day time. There are probably 3 fluent English speakers there so I was able to communicate with everyone through them, and practice my Spanish of course. It was really fun. The YSA's are so great! The YSA's (Young Single Adults) had a fun little activity on Friday before our bus went out so I got to meet a lot more, dance a bit, and then they told me this Saturday they are going to San Sebastian! Which apparently is the beesssst more beautiful place in Spain and only an hour away. Yay! And I was so worried I wouldn't have any friends.

Museo

Today, I went to the Museo de Bellas Artes. By meeself. I had 2 ½ hours to spare and I used it all. It was incredible! But just as well, so draining. Really people, museums are drowningggg. I hate to say it but for the last like 1/3 of it was too anxious to read any of the descriptions. After all I had been on my feet being very emotional and contemplative for 2 hours… And it may have been for the fact that at the end was the much anticipated exhibition: “The Mexican Suitcase”…and this isn’t because I’m Mexican. It was based on over 400 rediscovered rolls of film by (my idol) Robert Capa, Gerda Taro and Chim. I just found out last night that that was the exhibit and I felt like a little a giddy little girl on Christmas morning. How lucky am I? I saw a Dorthea Lange print on Sunday and now I’m seeing tons of photos from Capa. They are my favorite inspirational documentary/photojournalist photographers. I didn’t think that within the first week of being in Spain this would happen… It really was something else being able to see enlarged contacts sheets. Along side the prints were old and new prints of all sizes covering over 15 very large museum walls. With actual newspapers and magazines in which their photos were printed. I learned a lot today. It really is a shame that the exhibit was at the end. I felt pooped. But lucky for me every Wednesday is free day, the exhibit will be here till June, and it’s about a 15 min walk. Love life.

Speaking of which, I do plan on returning to visit the other works I had little time for today. They really have some incredible masterpieces. I love the beginnings of museum trips. You are excited and ready to take anything in. The first piece I looked at almost took my breath away. More than the piece of art itself, the fact that it has been around for ages, you can easily see all sides and rough edges of the wood it is painted on. It is incredible to know that such beauty could be acquired and shared so long ago, and can manage to continue today. To make a long story short(er), the museum was incredible. I saw some breathtaking paintings, sculptures and photographs. I feel so blessed to be able to have something so precious and beautiful at such a convenience (while I’m on the topic I must mention the annoying high school students on the field trip that clearly didn’t care to be there…I guess that’s the beauty-or not beauty…of coming on free day. Meh, I can get over it)

Some Things, Real Quick...

Okay

1. My Internet seems to be working now. Yay!

2. I will never sleep. I happen to be at the end of the apartment and the walls are preettty thin. And the neighbors are either always angry or always excited...at night. And I can't even decipher it because they're speaking Basque. (Or maybe I really am that bad with Spanish)

3. On Sunday I saw an original Dorthea Lange print with her own writing on it.

4. Tomorrow I am going to the Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao (free day!) where I will see beautiful classical paintings annnnnndddd the Exhibition just happens to be a ROBERT CAPA (with David Seymour and Gerda taro) series called, "The Mexican Suitcase". These photos are a documentation of Mexico City that until 1955 where *rediscovered rolls of film. Apparently there were 3 boxes that were made up of 165 rolls of film, nearly 4,500 camera snapshots. Ah! I love the idea of [somewhat] newly discovered old film and I love that I'm seeing it tomorrow.

A Quick Summary.

Because I am not sure of my internet situation (my computer isn't really working in the house....) I'm going to write a quick description of my life so far here in Bilbao, Spain. For those who have asked me about it personally, you've heard most of this.

I arrived on last Thursday. I think Ive finally gotten over the jet lag/ this isn't real / what have I gotten myself into stage. I´m excited to get going. 

The family I am with is great. The parents are very very kind and eager to help me. The kidos, 5 yr old girl twins and 6yr old boy, are crazy, but so sweet. I'll tell you it is very difficult to try to get a hold of kids when you're speaking two different languages. But we are slowly helping each other out.

This place is like a story book. Everything is very old and beautiful. Incredible architecture. Castle-like buildings everywhere like its no big deal. We live in the city, which makes things double weird because Ive never lived in a city before. Everyone walks everywhere, busy busy. I don't feel nervous as I thought I might walking around here by myself anymore. I look like everyone else (which is a little disheartening, everyone is brown hair brown eyes and beautiful). Oh and everyone is super stylish as well. Like it's normal to dress in tights, boots and sweet leather jackets all the time for no specific reason. So maybe I do stick out because of my lack of style...

The weather is not as great as I would've hoped. Rainy and cold. Its too bad that half my closet is jackets/boots/ scarves and I didn't bring any of it here (I could have been sooo stylish). But apparently this weather isn't normal, so maybe it'll get better soon...?

I was able to go to an LDS church on Sunday. Joseba helped me find one. It's about a 15min walk, not bad. (except I literally was soaked when I got there). Its a small ward, but very nice. There are about 10 other young single adults. Three of the girls were very eager to talk and help me, they know English fairly well. So I already have friends! Yay! And numbers in my phone! Worst phone ever, by the way. It weighs nothing. It's amazing so much noise can come from it. You would think it would have a less then blow your eardrums out loud sound option. Not to mention the 3 ringtone options which are terrible. Anyways, church. Made friends. Talked to the American Missionaries, they were super cool. It was weird to have a normal English conversation again. And! Listen to this, the ward is taking a temple trip to Madrid this weekend! What are the odds.  Leaving late Friday, like midnight, and coming back Saturday evening. I asked Iciar and Joseba if I can go and they said yes! I'm excited.
 

I really am looking forward to my stay here (as opposed to before when I may have been slightly terrified-don't tell anyone). I'm excited to get going. School has started back up for the kids so I'm gonna have some time for myself to walk around and get to know the place. I just need to order some film and buy a lens for my camera (I know, embarrassing I don't have one here. ) And I'll also be working on Art 117 online - should be interesting. Eventually when my internet is fixed ill be able to Skype and work on this soon-to-be great blog. I will write things about my experience and show great pictures that I plan on taking.

 Los niños y yo 

(boy did they like photobooth. I'd put up the video but the very end shows a kid butt)

A Peculiar Thing

I´ve been here only 4 days and I´m already thinking in Spanish. Which is an issue because I don´t really know Spanish. And when I´m not thinking in Spanish I´m thinking in slow English with a very thick Spanish accent. It´s a peculiar thing.