People are very thirsty on thursdays here

So it's the weekend! The CIDE program doesn't even offer classes on Fridays so they encourage us to go out and have a good time! (Other Spanish students have classes....HAHA) The first week of classes went very well I think. Not too much homework yet and the profs are all very kind. I still can't get over how beautiful the school is. It's like a friggen museum!



So on Thursday we went to a small bar that had a live rock band. Everyone from our program was there and they organized for us to have some cheap drink specials. Lots of fun! The band was four Spanish guys playing rock music and covers. I thought it was funny that it was all in English and they were called "The Shaggin Wagon." They were really good! It's weird here that you can walk into the bar, get a drink and then leave and drink out on the street. I think I took a drink into a different bar in fact. It's not a big busy street like in the states - small and only for pedestrians with bars all over. The nightlife here goes into the wee hours: young adults (14-18) can go to the bars until about 10-11 and then the older crowd shows up and stays until 3-5 am. I don't know if I'll ever make it that late. Hopefully/probably not!

Important words for the bar: caña = on tap (the cheapest beer but still good beer) chupitos = shots!

The picture on the right is us (all the girls in my dorm & program) coming down the huuuuuge escalator to the metro. It's so big!

Today we went to the Guggenheim. Referred to as the Gug (pronounced "goog"). The building itself is a work of art. The man who designed it, Frank Gehry did the original sketch on the back of an envelope and never picked up the pen - it was all one long pen stroke. Very interesting. Unfortunately, we could not take photos in the museum (very strict!) so I just have a lot of the out side. The current featured exhibit was from an artist from China Cai Guo-Qiang. I Want To Believe I loved it all. (YouTube Video of the exhibit)

The best pictures I got were of the things outside. Jeff Koons is an American contemporary artist and sculptor who designed The Puppy and The Tulips in Bilbao. First the puppy, or "poopy" as the locals pronounce it. It's 12 meters high and made of flowers. He built it in 1992 and it was in front of some other museum for a while I think but it's permanently in Bilbao now. It's the guard dog of the museum. And the Tulips are a stainless steel sculpture also by Koons. They are very colorful and make me want jellybeans. And then....there was the spider. Kinda friggin creepy. I guess the artist was very close to her mother who was very fraile (like a spider I guess) and had some physical ailments. So she made the sculpture for her. I suppose that's sweet....

After that we went for lunch. Had pinchos (peen-chos). Like small appetizer type things. Usually some meat and veggies and other things on a piece of bread. Very cheap and DELICIOUS. Next time I have them I'll try to be more specific....Ate outside and felt very Spanish. Right now I feel very tired.

Hasta Luego (See you later)



P.S. --- I totally forgot: there is a video booth on the street outside the museum. It lets u take a short video message in front of the Gug and email it right there. I was the first one to do it and it was confusing so mine is kind of a hot mess!

VIDEO