Well this blog is coming pretty late. There is no internet at the dorms right now so I'm doing what I can...This past weekend was spectacular. I'm pretty sure I had a lot of homework, but I hadn't taken a single look or given it a second thought until Sunday night. These next few weeks i should be having midterms in all of my classes. I just finished one in my business spanish class in fact. In all of my classes there are just midterms and then a final. Oh, and two projects for some classes also. Homework here and there but not so much tests and pop quizzes. We asked about pop quizzes and the teachers made a face like it was the worst idea on the planet. They didn't even understand the concept. That is definitely something I wish I could bring back to the states. But gosh...midterms already!?!?! I guess this past Friday made one month in Spain. It doesn't feel that long for sure. People are saying that three months won't be enough and they they wish they could stay longer. I think I'll miss Spain, the culture, and all the great friends I've made. I would definitely learn more and become more integrated into the culture if I stayed longer, but when December 17 rolls around, I'll be ready to get home!
Thursday night was an Erasmus Party. Erasmus stands for European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students and we have a lot of kids in Bilbao that are studying through that program from all over Europe. Every Thursday they have a party at some bar that they organize for us to get into for free with drink specials. This week it was at the Loft. They played a lot of American music (including "Hit ME Baby, One More Time" by Britney Spears from like 1999) and it was really packed in there. It usually is - the bars here aren't huge to begin with and nobody really dances, so I guess the cool this to do is stand around. But to quote Blanche from Grease, "When I hear music I just can't make my feet behave!") As usual we had fun - the majority of the kids we have class with go out to these events every Thursday and it's a good chance to meet people from all over who are studying here in Bilbao.
Friday was pretty lazy. Usually is if we're no traveling since there are no classes. They ended up turning off our internet in the building (without telling us) and we found out the hard way that we have to fill out some form, turn it in, and wait for one of the four security/reception guys to hook it up room by room. Those of us who are addicted to watching bootleg movies on the Internet are having a difficult time coping, but a couple girls have DVD collections that we are quickly wearing out. I found a place to watch The Amazing Race and the new season of America's Next Top Model. Other than that, its kind of frustrating to find a movie to watch that has decent quality and I'm afraid that if i did find a good site, that I'd turn into a vegetable and never go outside. I may end up forking over some monies to buy the seasons on iTunes to make it easier.
That evening we got word of some activities downtown in La Ría (The estuary that runs through Bilbao and goes to the ocean.) Last week some girls had gone kayaking in La Ría and said that is was really fun. We found the place fairly easy and after overcoming some communication barriers, we were in our wetsuits and life jackets kayaking through the city. Yup, wetsuits. I guess it was optional but you would have gotten pretty we without them. I 
kept my scarf on for some added style points. There weren't any other kayakers but some of the local crew teams were practicing and we had to dodge them every once in a while. We decided to rent them for an hour, which ended up being a perfect amount of time. We were probably pretty loud with all of our singing and yelling at each other and got some strange looks from the people passing by. Of course by now I'm used to getting the strange looks. Our timing for the activity was great too because we got to watch the sunset through the hills in our kayaks.I slept pretty late Saturday with the help of the apocalypse shades that make it look like the middle of the night at 2 in the afternoon. A small group of us rode the metro for about 30 minutes to the town of Algorta where Danyel lives. She's a fellow GV Laker in the CIDE program and is doing a home stay out there. She led us to a "secret" underground market. Secret because only someone who has been there before could show you exactly where it is. Underground... not because it's sketchy or anything, but it's literally underground. It felt like on big garage sale in a huge basement: Lots of clothes, jewelry, shoes, blankets, and other artsy knick-knack stuff. The best booth by far had really nice and inexpensive scarves and genie pants. These are the MC Hammer/Harem type pants that have a super low crotch. The are all the rage here and have become my new obsession. It's like wearing a potato sack with legs cut out. I modeled them for the neighbors and was told that I sport them pretty well. (Stay tuned for pics) They are hella comfortable, and I plan on living in them when I get back to the States while I eat my weight in breakfast food. Right not I think we're going to watch more movies on laptops and have an easy afternoon. I'll probably hit the gym since I've been kinda lazy lately. Oh...and that homework that keeps looking at me should probably get some attention.
Some words to describe my Sunday: lazy, homework, movies, cashews, Spanish
Some notes after living in Spain for 1 month:
- Each part of Spain can be as different as the individual states in the US (weather, culture, ability/willingness to use English)
- I believe the lack of brothas and sistas in the area has a direct inverse relation to how difficult it is to find lotion in stores.
- Washing clothes in something that looks like a toilet/bidet is totally normal (IT HAS A STOPPER! Therefore, it was meant for washing clothes. I just hope my roommate hasn't used it for something else...)
- Dryers aren't so normal - the art of air drying is kind of a religion here. But it's royally screwing up my jeans
- Thing generally seem more expensive but this may just be the crappy exchange rate
- Spaniards only stare at women. None of the guys here have commented on the staring disease
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