Francia

This weekend was pretty fun as I went to Biarritz, France. It was kinda a spur of the moment kind of thing as well. Wednesday and Thursday John, Riley, Adam, and I were talking about going somewhere and we decided hey why not go to France its close by bus. The next day we woke up and went down to the bus station and 30 minutes later we were on our way. The bus goes through San Sebastian and other places before ending up in Biarritz. The only problem with our plan was that there was no bus service home on Sunday and we couldnt miss monday so we decided to just come back on Saturday. The bus was totally full on the way to San Sebastian which took about an hour but once we got there just about everyone left. A few girls from the USAC program in S.S. got on the bus also going to Biarriatz so we talked to them for a bit. This time the bus was much emptier and we had the back to ourselves.
Something that surprised me about the trip is that there is no border control to get into France. I understand that they are all shengen countries and thus you dont need a visa, but I was never asked for my passport even when I bought my ticket. It was as easy as going across state lines in the US. I was very impressed. The only way I could tell that we had crossed to France was that all of the buildings and signs all of the sudden switched to French in stead of Spanish. It´s so interesting being able to cross a border and all of the sudden the language is totally different. The porousness of the border made me wonder how it worked historrically, especially during the intense isolation of the Franco era. I mean you could swim to France easily, so how did they keep people locked in Spain. Very Interesting. Anyways we got to Biarritz and it was a NICE day. for the first time in almost two weeks it was sunny and warm! The town is fairly small and we found our hotel quite quickly. It was nice and we got a great deal. The shower was great because not only could you accuratley control the temperature, it had a lot of pressure which I have been missing.
After putting our stuff down, we went around to explore and check out the city. The city is fairly compact and easy to get around in. We walked along the beach and around up to a point that overlooked the entire southern coast all the way to Spain. There were some serious waves crashing on the shore and there were a bunch of surfers. I got some good pictures too! We just milled around and then Riley and Adam went to the casino. riley ended up winning 180€ at roulette. That was pretty cool. We walked up to the light house and then around just stopping periodically. It was pretty relaxing.
The next day we went to a museum of the ocean and which was cool but all of the displays were in French so we couldnt really read anything. Then we went to a big market that had all kinds of french foods and wines. It was a lot of meat, bread, and cheese lol. They had a lot of foire gras which i guess is duck fat and we tried some spread over some bread. It was interesting. I didnt particuallary love the taste but I didnt hate it either, I suppose I could get used to eating it. Then we went and had lunch as this swiss like restaurant. John and I split a dish called roclette. Basically they bring you a heater It looks kinda like a lamp with sides where the heaters were. They attach on the top in the middle and can be angled. then the waiter wedged a huge block of cheese in the middle and we pushed the heaters down to melt it. We were given a wooden paddle shaped thing to scoop the cheese as it melted onto a plate. Then we combined the melted cheese with baked potatoes, meats, and bread. It was really cool and totally different. I have had fondue before but this was way different. We had some basque cider with it which was all right but less fruity then other ciders I´ve had. eventually I will go to a cider house in san sebastian and compare flavors. Later we headed home and that was a nice bus ride. We got back to Bilbao saturday night and headed out.
Sunday afternoon I got a new roomate. He is about 23 or so and just graduated from UMass Dartmouth. I dont remember his name but he seemed like a nice guy. He is here with a buddy to basically surf while teaching english to pay for it. I haven´t seen Aitor my other roomate in a week cause hes off working for his job. Later that afternoon I checked my e-mail and learned I got an intercambio. His name is Imran and I e-mailed him. Unfortuantely he has finals until friday so it is unlikely we´ll meet until next week. So far the weather has been better today hopefully it lasts!