My Final Post

With Day 3 nearly finished, I am typing my last and final blog from the country of Spain. We spent the day driving along the coast, stopping to take pictures in tiny villages where some of our family was born and/or raised. Tomorrow morning will be spent packing our clothes into our suitcases and leaving San Sebastian in a bus, headed for Madrid. Our last full day will be spend in Madrid with mom and Dale, where we plan to sight see a little more and where Jen and I will mentally prepare ourselves for the 23 hour trip home. Bright and early Thursday morning (Wednesday night at home) we board the plane to Italy with mom and Dale. From Italy we part ways: Mom and Dale are continuing on through Italy for a few days and Jen and I fly to Georgia after spending the last 9 and 1/2 weeks in Spain. We will be arriving in good ol' Reno, Nevada at 8:30pm Thursday night. It's sad to know we are leaving, although in the same sense I am ready. It's been an experience I will never forget. Adios Espana. Hello Home!

4 Days

We had a busy day today and another busy one tomorrow! Must go to bed!

5 Days

5 Days to go. Mom and Dale made it to San Sebastian today. It was great to see them. Jen and I went dancing last night. It was a long night! I'll post pictures tomorrow!

6 Days

Today was our last day of school! It was really sad! The kids all drew me pictures to take home with me. And, the sun was sort of out today. It was pretty foggy but we did see the sun a little so it was a nice to see something other than rain. Mom and Uncle Dale get to San Sebastian tomorrow!

She made it!

I just got a phone call from my mom! Her and Uncle Dale made it to Spain!

7 Days

Today, we took a class field trip to a big park outside of San Sebastian. It was very fun but very exhausting! Luckily, the sun was out. I haven't heard from my mom and Uncle Dale yet, so hopefully they made it to Spain!! 7 Days to go!

8 Days

Only 8 days left. It rained this morning, but then the sun came out later this afternoon! It was fabulous! I had forgotten how great the sun is! We actually got to go to the beach after school today and I wore my brand new beach hat! The weather is supposed to be nice the next few days (showers in the morning, sun in the afternoon). So, at the closing of our trip, we’ll actually see the sun. My mom and Uncle Dale are on an airplane on their way here to visit us as I am typing this! I’m so excited to see them!

School Lunches

9 days left. Jen and I have, against our will, turned into vegetarians. In 8 weeks, we have eaten red meat 3 times in the form of hamburgers and that is it! And we've eaten chicken fewer times than you can count on two hands. Curious what they serve for school lunches to the children? It's odd... really odd. My niece would starve to death!

A typical week of lunches
*Fried Veal Chops, Lentil Soup, Salad with oil and vinegar, Fruit
*Fried Fish Fillets, White rice with Tomato Sauce, Lemon, Fruit
*Fried Calamari rings, White beans with green sauce, Lemon, Fruit
*Chicken Fried Veal Chops, Cream of Vegetable Soup, Salad with oil and vinegar, Yogurt
*Fried Ham Chops, White Rice with Scallops and Unpeeled Shrimp, Salad with oil and vinegar, Yogurt

And the strangest lunch meal we have seen...
*Chicken Sausages in Tomato Sauce served with White Rice topped with a Fried Egg...

Let the Countdown Begin

10 Days left...

Traditional Basque Dancing

Yesterday at school, the children put on a show of traditional Basque Dances. It's an annual event and the children are allowed to start participating once they reach first grade.

Dog Attacks and Electrical Shocks

Jen and I may not have the best luck...

Today Jen and I were walking home from school. We had just arrived at our building and were getting ready to go in. There was a lady walking her dog near us and I felt something hit me in the leg. I looked down to realize that the dog was BITING my leg! I screamed and the dog let go and we stood there in absolute shock as the lady beat her dog! I have nice little teeth holes in my pants and my sock but he only skimmed my leg. It scared me half to death.

Just the other morning, Jen got shocked by an electrical outlet in the apartment and blew all the lights in the house! We had to find the breaker panel to flip the switch back!

We are quite the pair!

The Mutt Dog

This is a little dog that lives in our Plaza that I have fondly named "The Mutt Dog." I'm not sure who he belongs to, but every morning he is let outside, where he sits in the Plaza and watches the people leave in the mornings. I think he might just be the strangest looking animal I have ever seen! He recently got a hair cut!

The Monsoon

I´m not entirely sure what constitutes as a monsoon but I´m pretty sure that we had one here yesterday! The rain was not falling in drops but more in a sheet of rain! The pictures don´t even do the storm justice. We have a balcony off of our classroom and the children were contemplating going swimming in the pool that had developed. UGH! No more rain! I think we might develop Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and need light therapy if this continues on!

Rain Rain Go Away

Out of the 43 days we have been in Spain, Jen and I have seen the sun 5 of those days! And the weather forecast for the next week... 100% chance of rain...everyday.

Bonjour!

We are home from Paris! It was absolutely wonderful and we had a fabulous time. On Friday, we took an overnight train to Paris. That had to be the worst experience ever. Sleeping sitting straight up with your knees bent at a perfect 90 degree angle with blaring neon lights is not comfortable at all! We arrived in Paris at 6:00am on Saturday. We had some time to kill before we could check into our hotel, so we wandered around the streets for a while. Later that afternoon, we climbed the Eiffel Tower (we were climbing at the same time we would have been at graduation at home!) and visited the Arc de Triomphe and ate crepes. On Sunday, we ate more crepes, visited the Louve Museum (where we saw the Mona Lisa), stopped by the Norte Dame, and spent the evening at a show at the Moulin Rouge! We returned home Monday. It was a fabulous way to spend our graduation from college.

Me in front of the Eiffel Tower. On the second level. We walked the stairs to this level (701 stairs all together), and then you have to take a scary little elevator to the very top!
Jen and I at the top! I read that the very top is equal to 81 stories. WOW!

A picture from the top overlooking a part of Paris. Paris is HUGE!

Looking straight down from the top.

Me in front of the Arc.

Norte Dame

The inside of Norte Dame (the ceiling). A mass was going on when we were there.

The Pyramids at the Louve

The Louve was absoltely huge. Here are a few of my favorites. You weren't aloud to take pictures of the Mona Lisa. It is quite small in real life though!

The night at the Moulin Rouge! The show was awesome!

Congrats to the Graduates

To celebrate our graduation from college (it´s tomorrow!) Jen and I are headed to Paris for the weekend!! We´re taking an overnight train there and will be there until Monday evening. Check back Tuesday to see how the trip went!

Home Sweet Home

Here's where we live!!

Our bedroom- mine is the blue bed.

Here is the living room/dining room. The kitchen and laundry room.

Photos from the Weekend

Pictures from around San Sebastian
Yes, that's me... sleeping on the beach.... with my mouth open
Jen and I at a club (I know it's dark in there)


Heaven on Earth: the Pastry Shop

Riots and Stealing Accusations

Friday, the 5-year-olds in my class started a riot. Background info: the children here are just naturally wilder and louder. It’s just a cultural thing. To add to that, the teacher I work with Marissa has the tightest control on these kids. She is very authoritarian and controls them with yelling and public embarrassment, two things I am not capable of doing with a 5-year-old. She expects them to be able to sit for two hours and listen. When she leaves the classroom, they turn into monsters. Back to the story: Marissa had to leave the room to go set up the video. She asked me if I could sing a song with the children. I had recently taught them a song that they really liked. I told them we would sing it, a few children protested but I ignored it. We sang the song, then when Marissa had still not returned, I had two groups of children come up and sing the song in front of the class. After the second time the children began to get a little loud. One child requested we sing another song I had taught them. Then, the children began to argue loudly in Spanish, seeing as only half of the class wanted to sing the other song. I yelled that we would not be singing any more songs. When half the class erupted into cheers, the children in opposition began shouting “NO” at the cheerers. Then the cheerers began shouting “YES”. In a deafening roar of rioting, I could NOT quite the children. I tried yelling, I tried whispering, I tried singing, I tried stomping my foot. After a panicked minute of not being able to control the children, I ran out of the classroom to get Marissa in the other room. And what happens…. She walks into the classroom and immediately the rioting children all quite, like nothing ever happened!! It was horrible!!

Then on Saturday, Jen and I were accused of stealing Sunscreen from the grocery store!! Weeks ago we had bought a bottle of sunscreen from the Super Amara. Yesterday, before heading to the beach, we decided to stop at the store to get some snacks. We walked in with our beach bag, through the stealing alarm detectors, and got our groceries and then headed to the line. While we were getting ready to pay, the alarm detector next to me kept going off. OF COURSE, the checker said something to me in Spanish that I couldn’t understand. I gave her our bag and she began to dig through it. With a triumphant “I caught the stealers” look, she pulls out the bottle of sunscreen. Stammering in Spanish, Jen and I attempted to explain we had paid for it days before. She asked us if we had a receipt! I don’t know about you but I do not save receipts from the grocery store that I visit every few days and pay cash at. When we told her no, she said we had to pay for the 8 Euros bottle of sunscreen… again!!! We paid and she pulled off this paper thin foil alarm patch off the bottle and we left completely embarrassed! Who steals sunscreen… come on!

La Celebración del Sol (The Celebration of the Sun)

The sun came out today and there were no clouds! It was fabulous! After our Spanish class today (our last one) we went and sat on the beach for an hour and then went and ate ice cream. The ice cream here is absolutely amazing and nothing even close to what we have at home!! Jen and I plan to make more trips to the ice cream shop! The beach is on our agenda for tomorrow after school as well!

Our Trip to See Jesus

On Sunday, Jen and I went to see Jesus. San Sebastian is situated around a bay. At one end of the bay is a small mountain called Monte Urgull; at the very top are an old military fort and a large statue of Jesus that over looks the town of San Sebastian. On Sunday, Jen and I took went on a hike up the mountain to the top. It was a nice day (the rain had finally stopped) and we thoroughly enjoyed the view from the mountain. The fort at the top was also very neat.

Here is a picture of Monte Urgull. That thing at the top is the Statue and where the fort is.

Here are pictures from the fort and the statue of Jesus. I made the fort pictures black and white because it adds to the feel of the pictures.

Here are some photos from the top of the mountain looking out into the Bay of Biscay.

Mmmmm good....

This is the best thing I have ever eaten in my life. It is a croissant filled with two kinds of chocolate and topped with chocolate sprinkles! MUY BIEN!

Do you see this map??

Do you see this map? This is a map of San Sebastian. Yesterday, Jen and I had our first private Spanish lesson in a part of town we aren´t too familiar with. We thought we had the buses all figured out. We made it there fine, went to our class, and decided to get something to eat before we headed home. Seeing as we haven´t had red meat since we arrived, we have been craving a good burger. The good news is we found a burger joint called "La Vaca" and indulged on hamburgers, french fries and beer. After paying our bill, we realized it had gotten late. We went back to the bus stop and figured we could catch the last bus on the 24 line to get home. No problem. We had to all figured out. After riding on the bus for almost an hour, we soon realized we were the ONLY ones on the bus. Suddenly, the bus driver stopped and asked us where we were going. We told him and he explained to us his bus was not going there because it was the last bus and he was done with his route. We got off the bus farther away from where we started only to have to get on 2 more buses before getting home after 2 hours of riding on buses! It had taken us only 10 minutes to get there from our house! It was ABSOLUTELY ridiculous! Click on the map to get a full closeup view. The good thing about this: although I´m sure everyone we encounter in Spain thinks we are complete idiots, we cannot understand the things they are saying about us in Spanish!

Oh dear...

This is an advertisement Jen and I saw yesterday while waiting for the bus. The picture isn't too great because of the glare but you get the gist of it. In case you can't figure it out, it is a picture of an older man and woman, both naked, sitting on the coach watching tv while knitting. It's an advertisement for a company called Euskaltel that sells Cable and Internet service. Loosely Translated: The man says, "The people in Apartment 3A don't have Euskaltel in their house..." She says, "Those people are very rare/odd!" At the bottom it says: "Euskaltel. It's a rare/odd thing not to have it." The people of Spain have a strange sense of humor!

Bilbao

Jen and I traveled to Bilbao yesterday. We had a four day weekend because it's some Spanish holiday. Sadly enough, we haven't been enjoying it to it's fullest potential because it has been RAINING! We took a bus to Bilbao, which was a hour and twenty minute ride through the greenest mountains I have ever seen!! Bilbao is much larger than San Sebastian and has some what of the big city feel about it. We went to the Guggenheim Museum which was bizarre but very neat. In the front of the museum is a giant Puppy made out of flowers! The museum features 3 dimensional art work. In one part of the building is these giant spirals made from metal that you can walk in and out of! After the museum, we walked around the city in the rain. We did a little shopping along the way and stopped at The Corte Ingles, a store with 10 floors of shopping! Bilbao is funny: there is all of these giant metal numbers and words all over the city. I'm not sure what we'll do today. It's raining again and cold!

"I do not speak French!"

It was raining yesterday. It didn't stop us from venturing out though. We went for a walk. The tide was coming in and the beach was slowly disappearing. We finally went clothes shopping! We found a store called Bershka (check out www.bershka.com), which was cheap! I have figured out why Jen and I get so many strange looks: we do not dress ANYTHING like the people of Spain do! After shopping, we went out to a few bars and ate some unidentified pintxos, then stumbled across a bar where there were two Bachelor Parties going on. Obviously in Europe, the Bachelor Party is taken very seriously! A large group of men get together and wear matching shirts that have been specially made for the event and the groom-to-be wears a distinctly different colored shirt to make him stand out. We actually saw three different groups of guys wandering around the streets celebrating upcoming weddings. Ann told us that usually on the weekends people come over from France. Sure enough, we met a lot of French people last night. One of the groups of guys for a Bachelor Party were from France. It was interesting the brand new language barrier. Neither Jen nor I speak French. They spoke okay English and only a couple of them spoke Spanish. When Jen and I couldn’t get our message across in English, we’d speak in Spanish to the guys who knew Spanish and French and then they would relay it in French to the other guys. It was the most bizarre thing ever! Jen and I found out that we speak a lot better Spanish than we thought we did! We found ourselves being translators when speaking to local people in Spanish and then translating it into English for the French guys. I am proud to say though that my Spanish is improving! And by the way... not only does my name not translate well in Spanish, it doesn't in French either. I have gotten used to being called "Ereen." Here's two pictures from the night: The guy in the red with the pained look on his face was the Bachelor. I told him not to worry: marriage is great. I think he always looks like that.