El Ciclón

The weather this weekend has been terrible throughout northern Spain. It has been extremely windy with some gusts as high as 95 miles an hour. The news has been showing blown over trees and downed powerlines from Galicia to Catlonia. Some poeple have been killed by falling debris in Barcelona. fortunately I havent been too affected by the wind but it has made it difficult to sleep. A restaurant near my apartment had a second story balcony totally blown off. At the beach there have been massive waves and it has been so dangerous that the police closed all public beaches. The waves have also been so bad that the city's port has been closed.
At the university some information booths were blown over. However what was most surprising is that part of the roof over the library was blown in. The structure of the building is basically a hollow rectangle where the classrooms and bookshelves are on the exterior and there is an empty central area. It is this area where part of the roof collapsed and now they put sand down to absorb the water that pours in when the rain comes and clean constantly. The campus itself seems kinda old, Im thinking late 60's or 70´s. Most of the buildings are kinda boxy looking. Hopefully this will be repaired soon. Fortunately, the weather is supposed to be gone by thursday.
Last thursday was kinda funny as while out with all the USAC kids we went to a bar with a live band and while waiting in the alley to get in a large group of people passed us and to our surprise everyone was speaking english. It turns out they were American exchange students that go to the University of Deusto, a private school closer to Bilbao. There actually werent that many locals around and we americans kinda took over the area. It was cool to just hang out and talk to all the other Americans.
Last night (monday) I watched a very interestig tv show called Tengo una pregunta por usted (I have a question for you) in which José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the prime Minister of Spain was asked questions by a huge group of average Spaniards. The forum was pretty free and including both people who seemed to like him and those that didnt. Some people asked some pretty tough questions about the economic problems that have been affecting the world and especially spain. After the question time had ended the prime minister staid and milled around with the citizens. It was kind of remenisent of the town hall debates in the presidential race but this a year after the spanish election where the people can express themselves to someone still in power. I wish that we had this kind of officials-citizens type of program in the US. About Zapatero, while his actions and mannerisms were calm, he seemed wide eyed like he was surprised or worried throughout the whole program. I found this kinda eerie as his eyes never changed their expression.
Also involving TV, Password is a really really cool show that is really helpful for language. During the first part contestants try to get their partner to guess words with three clues inside a time limit. Then during the second part teams try to work together to go through lists of words. then at the end a contestant has to identify a certain word from each letter of the alphabet to win. Its really interesting to watch and I feel that it will help my vocab a lot.

La escuela, la televisión y la lluvia

Pués, school has started and it is just like back home. The only problem is that my earliest class starts at 8:45 Mondays through thursdays. This is pretty early in and of itself as I am used to having my earliest class start at 9:30 at the earliest. However this is compounded by the fact that I have to take the early bus to school in order to arrive on time. The bus comes every hour and hits our stop at about 7:40. Because of this I wake up around 6:20 in order to be ready and that is wayyyy early. No me gusta para nada. Its about a 25-30 minute ride to school depending on the traffic. So i get to school around 8:10ish and then have to wait around for class. I have time to get a coffee (café con leche) but its not very big and they dont have a starbucks nearby. Going to class isnt so bad though because we are on the top floor and because heat rises its really warm up there. I have substantial break in between classes which is nice becuase I can use the computers but I wish it was a bit more back to back. At least I´m done by 3:30 at the latest.
Watching television here is tough because there are a lot of american programs that are dubbed over and thus very difficult to understand. I like the familiarty though but some of the accents they give the poeple are wierd. For instance in Family Guy (Padre de la familia) Stewie has a deep old man accent rather than an efeminate British one, and Lois has a normal accent rather than an annoying nasaly one. On the Simpsons (Los Simpsons) Homer doesnt sound stupid like he is supposed to. Other good american shows they have here are Cold Case (Caso Abierto) and CSI. We get a lot of American shows on Fox! They also play a lot of American movies though so those are fun to watch. I hope in time that I can understand it better. My favorite new Spanish show is probable El intermedio. This is a politcal parody and humor show kind of like The Daily Show. They make fun of all kinds of politcal things and since I know who the politicians are, its funny.
The one other thing that is going to take some time to get adjusted too is the Rain. I´m from the dry desert where we get 300+ days of sun a year. Its been raining for like the past 3 days here and I have no idea when Its going to stop. Hopefully soon! Im glad I have a rain coat and there are a few umbrellas in my house.

El fin de semana

On friday, USAC took us on a nice walk on the coast. It was right along the bluffs to the ocean and various beaches and I took a lot of pictures. The coast here is very pretty and it reminds me a lot of Northern California. The walk was fairly short but then they let us do what we wanted and Brett from UMass Ahmherst and Raquel from Hunter College and I decided to keep walking. Eventually we got to the beach and milled around there for a while. It was a sandy beach and there were several surf schools there. They are closed now but they open later in the year. It was a nice sunny day and It was perfect for walking around the area. We stopped at a hotel which had some tables out in the grass and overlooked the ocean and had a beer before trying to find our way back to the metro. We walked through sopelana and found the metro station. Sopelana is a few stations up from Algorta where I live, but it´s nice. A lot smaller though.
When I got back to my apartment my roomate was home which was cool because I hadnt seem him for a few days. He was visiting his mother in Vitoria which is an hour inland and is the politcal capital of the basque country. He´s a pretty cool guy hes 24 and works for a gas company. We hung out and I tried my best to communicate and It wasnt so bad, i was able to muddle through. He of course speaks very fast and is difficult to hear the other words he uses. I can understand the verbs but some of the vocab is still beyond me. I fell that living with him and trying to talk to him will definitely help my spanish a lot. We watched family guy on tv in spanish and that was cool because i already know whats going on so i can follow it in spanish easier. The accents of the characters are a lot different though. Later that night I met up with people in Las arenas and we hung out and then went out for a bit which was fun. Its true though that some places dont even get going until 3:30 in the morning.
Today I walked around Bilbao with Kyle from CSU chico and Tony from UNR technically but hes old and pretty much lives in europe. We went to the big mall call Zibiarte and checked it out. Its jsut like any other mall really. Then we went and got tickets for the soccer game tormorrow! its AC Biblao vs Valencia and its sunday night and I can wait to see my first soccer game in person. Im really looking forward to that!

¡Tyler El maestro de inglés que puede cocinar la comida mexicana!

Well yesterday we got to campus and I got my placement test score and I am in Track IV so that means I get credit for 410 and 411 which is just what I needed for my minor requirement so that was very exciting. Then we went on a walking tour of Bilbao, but It was raining pretty hard so that was less than spectacular. I´m going to go back and walk past the guggenhiem and stuff and take pictures when Its sunny and nice. A lot of the architecture in downtown Bilbao is nice too I like it a lot. The guggenhiem though is definitely a unique structure, and I look forward to going inside!
The night before I had made plans with a person who has been here for a whole year to go the english academy she works at and I did that and within an hour I was teaching a group of about 8 12 year olds english. They have a spot for me on Tuesdays and Thursday from 5-6 which is perfect because My evenings are free as my latest class ends at 3:30. Hopefully I can get more hours there or find another place that needs us. Apparently the pay is about 11€ an hour and so that would be a good source of extra income for the weekends and stuff.
Then I went to Corte inglés which is like an everything store kinda of a macy´s and a wal mart but classier and pricier. Its seven stories high though and has a market and a cafeteria. Walked around and went to the market and I FOUND THE MEXICAN AISLE(sp?) ! They had mexian valentina extra hot sauce! and taco mix and regular tortilla chips. the mix eas expensive by my wal-mart standards but tacos are pretty much a staple of my diet so this is pretty sick! Although they dont eat spciy foods in restaurants I have managed to find tabasco, valentina, and siracha sauce which is sooooo cool!

Vodaphone

Well it was an interesting day here again in Bilbao. The shower has hot water which is nice, but no water pressure which is sucky but my roomate says the other shower is better so I might just use it. We went to the unversity today and We were orientated. At lot of the stuff was general usac stuff and sheduling stuff kinda boring. There is a lot to do here though and they will be emailing us with all kinds of stuff including free stuff going on in the city. Then we took our language placement test which was kinda hard and I really really hope i make it into track IV. The converstation test wasnt to bad it was hard to hear Roxanna. I confused beber with vivir which was funny but they might as well not have the letter v cause its just the letter b.
We had a big lunch in the cafeterria and then walkedto find cell phones. That was a trip. If you can imagine how difficult it is to understand cell phone plans in america try doing it in a foreign language. We got through it after an hour and now a bunch of us have phones to call on. Then I went and bought food. Not to hard just not a lot of sauces and stuff that I saw so my food might be bland but I found tabasco sacue and my roomate has SIRACHA SAUCE I am really excited for that! Still looking for a power convertir but I think i found one in the hard ware store its closed though. Everything closes in the early afternoon then at like 5 the streets are packed. Its very different.

Finally in Bilbao

Well our tour of Madrid is over which is unfortunate and exciting at the same time. All the kids from the program site were together in Madrid and we all had a good time. Today we said goodbye to the Alicante kids as we boarded the bus to leave. As we left the city we headed North to the mountains and we saw the valley of the fallen on the side of the highway but we didnt stop. Later we went to Segovia to see the castle and the cathedral and the aquaduct. I took A LOT of pictures but havent found a computer I can upload them on.
After a long bus ride we arrived in Bilbao and then wen to my apartment in Algorta, a suburb. was met buy a guy who showed me how to get there. Once inside my landlord showed my around the apartment and then around the area. Its a nice neighborhood and Im super close to the metro and bus stations as well as markets and shops. Tomorrow we have our formal orientation and since Im running out of time at this internet cafe Ill blog more later.

Madrid Days 1 and 2

Yesterday we went to the Royal Palace of the Bourbon Kings (dynasty began in eary 1700's and continues today) and it was pretty cool. The palace was very big but not overwhelming. They had a huge square in front of it that was probably for military parades or festivals or something. They had a a huge church across the square from the palace too which was cool. We were split into tour groups because our program has english speaking guides to show us all the places were visting which is really nice. We walked through the palace but we couldnt take pictures inside which kinda sucked.
We saw the huge coat of arms of the current king which was pretty big. Although in every room the ceilings are decorated with frescos and then the walls around them have figurines and designs and sculptures and its all just really opulent. What surprised me about the frescos is that most of the themes were Greek/Roman mythology and I was expecting it to be all Jesused out because Spain is so Catholic. We saw the throne room of the king which is still used for official functions but interesting the king does not sit in the throne as his authority is not absolute but constituionally limited. The old kings living aparments were color themed from red velvet to blue to yellow and then interesting there was an Asian themed room with asian people painted into the walls and stuff. That was interesting to me because I dont associated Spain with interests in East Asia. There was also a room that was decorated with only porcelain. the King had established a porcelain factory in Spain and totally decked out the room with its stuff. Every room had fancy chandeliers that were all different designs by room. My favorite was one that looked like a crown. Then we saw the official banquet room which is stull used by the king for official dinners. That was also pretty cool. The Palace was really cool jst really elaborate but we didnt see a lot of it. Then we saw the Plaza Mayor which is just a huge swquare plaza that was the heart of Madrid for a long long time and was where executions and all that jazz took place. the buidling that was the King's apartments though was really interesting in that there were naked people painted on it a la Greek/Roman mythology. I wondered how much of an outcry there would be in america if someone tried to do the same thing. Probably huge
Then we went to the Prado museum and had a whirlwind tour of the famous works. There was a lot of Goya and Velasquez which seemed to run together but also it was more royalty than Jesus which also kinda surprised me. My favorite painting was probably a very elegant picture of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V which was extremely detailed. You could see the texture of the velvet and the reflectiveness of the metal armor. We also the famous velasquez painting of the innocents being shot by the French troops during the Napoleanic wars. It was cool to see that picture because Ive seen it before in books and stuff as its the ubiquitos (sp) representation of that conflict. The oddest picture was one of what appears to be a man breastfeeding a baby. Apparently it was a woman who had a baby at 50 which is rare even today so then it was odd. But then due to what was probably a hormonal imbalance she began to develop masculine features. apparently she was kind of like an attraction for people to come see it to believe it and this picture was painted so the King of Spain could see her. Nice museum kind of a whirlwind tour so I want to go back in my free time. Itll be different without the guides. Then a group of us went to have lunch and tested out our spanish ordering skills which wasnt to bad. The have an awesome lunch deal called menu del dia you get an appatizer usually a salad and a maincourse in this case a pizza which was big and a cup of wine, beer, soda, or water. You also get bread at the start of your meal. All of this for 12 euros. One girl with us just had a pizza and a soda and ended up paying more than the menu del dia for way less stuff. They have these deals at all restaurants for like 9-15 Euros.
Then we went to a big plaza called the puerta del sol and went into a MASSIVE like 7 story department store/ Walmart/ Supermarket. Seriously everything you need in clothes and what not. some people needed various things so we shopped around and hung out basically. We went back to the hotel and then we had meetings with our Resident directors to get housing info. After that we chilled and napped for a bit then a group of us all went out together. We hit a place called tapasbar expecting tapas but it wasnt really tapas casue i didnt get anything with my drink. Other people ate dinner though. Then we went out and found a bar with latin music and basically just bar hopped checking things out. Since we were a big group people wanted us to come into there bars by offering us a free first drink. As poor college students anything that inolves the word free was just awesome. We stayed out hella late but its true that the bars dont get going til rediculously late. then we came back the hotel and crashed it was a good day.

Day 2

We woke up and got ready to go. San Sebastian and Bilbao groups went to Toledo and Alicante went to Segovia. Everyone met and ate breakfast and traded stories about last night it seems like everyone had fun but not too much fun. The breakfast at the hotel is pretty good. The coffee and orange juice are good and we get good pastries and meats and cheeses. Its good for a day of touring. Then we met downstairs and realized it was snowing hardcore in Madrid which is cool just like home lol. We boarded the bus for the hour drive out to Toledo. I slept most of the way.
When we got close to the city we could see it was up on a hill and definitely old. We stopped for pictures real quick. Then we got there and walked to the Cathedral. we got in and for the next hour and half my mind was blown. The vaulted cielings o the gothic architecture were amazing! Then we went into a room where there this massive solid gold tower thing that was like 6 feet tall, and next to it was the crown of Isabella of Castille. That was beautiful full of jewels and pearls and gold i couldnt believe that people could concetrate that many precious metals and stones in one place. Then we saw the alter and the choirs settings. It was a mixture of Baroque and renaissance sculpture and I could see the difference. There were two organs that were HUGE and they could be played at the same time, I would love to hear that one day. The altar itself was also massive and decorated with scenes of Jesus life. Very elaborate fancy artwork. Then we saw the place where the priest stays and there was a lot of important artwork in there including portraits of all the cardinals of the church's history. Then we saw a dome they made way u in the roof to make a window that was painted elaborately. The back side of the altar was also splendid in that it was all well sculpted and the facades were splendid. The whole church was just so elaborate and fancy and all those words. I cant believe how powerful and rich the church was to afford all that. I was humled by the sheer majesty of the place and how fancy it was. It was simply amazing!
Then We went to a building and saw a masterpiece by Goya that was an old count being taken to heaven during his death. Very fancy just amazing. Aparently it is the number 2 painting in spain! Then we saw an old sinogauge that was built by Arab laborers so it looked like a mosque. Then we had free time walk around and eat. The city is quite easy to get lost in as the streets are tiny and shoot off in all directions. There ist a clear plan for the development of the city and it shows. It was totally medieval and really interesting. It felt like a stereotypical ancient european city. We had lunch menu del dia again awesome! Then just walked around looking in shops. There was a lot of really cool souvenier stuff like daggers and swords and suits of armor. Anything under the sun you could want. then we left and came back to the hotel where I've just been chilling waiting to go out later. Its still snowing so its going to be really really cold tonight. Oh well. As I type this my friend Josh and I are watching Password in Spanish trying to improve our vocabulary. Tomorrow is El Escorial and I CANT WAIT TO SEE IT!

Madrid!

Well after a long wait, here I am in Spain it has finally happened. Traveling over here wasnt to bad the night flight was good and I had a good time asking the British flight attendants about the UK. Despite being really tired I stayed awake to meet all the USAC kids on the tour and there are a lot of us.
We are at the Hotel Regina in Madrid which is pretty nice and the street is pretty posh. It is cold here like really cold but mangeable. We had a nice dinner of a like spinich enchilada chicken and potatoes and a kiwi for desert. We had all the informationabout Madrid explained to us and it looks like it will be a fun fun trip. It is a mixture of guided tours and free time so its really a good set up for college age kids. Tomorrow were going to see the Royal Palace and Prado museum. I cant wait to actually go inside and investigate an actual european fancy palace. Im sure the opulence will be extremely humbling. Then the prado is basically the best art musuem after the Louvre so I think it will be really culturally enlightening to check out. I hope by tomorrow Im rested enough to check out Madrid's famous night life!

Ready to Leave

Here is the blog to record my trip abroad to study in Bilbao, Spain. I'm leaving tomorrow morning bright and early taking the first flight to San Francisco. Unfortunately my flight out of America doesnt leave until 4 in the afternoon, but the flight to SFO I found was $100 cheaper than the later flights and every penny counts. Then I take a night flight to London where I connect to Madrid. I will be in Madrid for 5 days for the field tour and then its off to Biblao to start school!

As I sit here writing, I can't believe this day has finally come. I have been planning on studying abroad in Spain since high school and now years later it is finally here. It's finally starting to sink in that I will be leaving and I am starting to get really really nervous. I hope I have everything I need to go because I dont want to have to buy hella things when I get there. I'm so excited to finally be leaving though, Europe will be simply amazing I'm sure and the fact that I get to live there for a long time rather than just a cursory visit is awesome. I hope that everything goes well; knock on wood.