so thursday we went to the eramus party at the loft. it was fun but crowded!

i managed to only get out of bed twice the entire day on friday. once was to get a package that came for me from Brent! and the other was to eat lunch. i spent

the day napping and catching up on some shows. it was nice ;)

we decided to go for Chinese food on friday night at this place we always pass on the way to school. it was a nice break from the dorm food (which I decided to photograph so you can see what we have to eat). after rachel and i went to see Michael Jackson's "This Is It." All i have to say is that i thought it was incredible.

halloween was fun. lets just say they arent as enthusiastic about halloween here in spain. once again i spent the whole day being lazy. we all got sort-of-dressed up and hung out in the dorm before briefly going out to casco viejo. needless to say there were many stares in our direction when people saw our makeshift costumes. i took a pumpkin my mom sent me and attached it to a headband! it was nice to eat candy and try and make the holiday feel as homey as possible. i was pretty proud of our decorations though!

cosas

i am on the mend! i feel so much better than i did a few days ago! im still really tired and have a cough but other than that i cant complain. the rest of my weekend was low key. saturday i went to a market in Algorta with Amanda, Astrid, and Rachel. It was underground and full of vendors who sold everything from clothes to rugs! i was pretty beat from our excursion so i napped for a while! astrid and i went to church on sunday and then i spent the rest of the day doing laundry and homework. amanda and i made a candy run (those are necessary sometimes).

this is kind of a busy week. i have two tests on thursday and a big group project/paper due next week which our group hasnt really started ha. im pretty excited about halloween this weekend even though i dont know what im going to be yet or what the plans are but after being bed-ridden last weekend, im determined to have a good time!

also, WHO DAT the Saints are 6-0!

being sick is no fun

so i went to the doctor on thursday and was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection. all i know is i feel awful - achy, bad cough, can't sleep and when i do finally sleep i wake up in a cold sweat. last night my feet and hands felt like they were on fire. i was afraid anything i touched would go up in flames. ok so i know yall dont want to know all of the details. i am now equipped with cough syrup, nyquil, and ibuprofen. ive pretty much been in bed all day today and yesterday. i start to feel better but when my meds start to wear off im back to square one. blah its not fun. my friends are taking good care of me though, especially my roommate Amanda. Shes a trooper for putting up with me. once again, God sent me an angel in the form of the same cook from the other night. she asked if i was feeling better and i told her no but i had medicine. she then made me a glass of hot milk with honey. she said to drink it and it would help me fall asleep. she is the sweetest! she also re-stocked my supply of tea bags! hopefully ill feel better soon because we are supposed to go to a market tomorrow!

another week has flown by

yet another week has passed in bilbao! its weird how time flies. im loving the city, my school, and my friends more and more every day. this week was a pretty low key week. it rained yesterday so i stayed inside most of the day and watched gossip girl! today was actually a fun/random day. in one of my classes we are doing a group project on contemporary basque art so we went to the bilbao art museum. first we had to wait for everyone in our group to finish class etc. so Emily and went to the library to get some books and then went to two really cool souvenir shops by the Guggenheim! i will definitely be hitting those places up before I leave! the museum was neat first of all because its free on wednesdays (youve got to love free on a college students study abroad budget)! im not going to lie, contemporary art really isn't my thing but i enjoyed seeing what the museum had and even found a few favorites!

aslo, one of our cooks is my hero. i have been feeling under the weather today. it came on quick, and i feel really achy and have a sore throat/cough. anyways when i went down to dinner i asked if i could have some tea. she then proceeded to give the rest of a box along with a jar of sugar to i could make some in room. she also made sure i had a glass in my room. a few minutes later she walked up to me and handed me a whole lemon. she said it would help my throat. words cannot express how thankful i was for her. her willingness to help and her concern warmed my heart. when i went to put my tray in the drop-off area i hugged her. i dont think shell every know how much her kindness meant. i want to find some way to thank her.

mexican food and french excursions

friday we wandered around zubiarte (a mall near us) which is kind of becoming a normal thing. it was chilly so i didnt mind a day of window shopping! last night we ate dinner at a mexican restaurant!! it was SO good and definitely kind of like comfort food haha. we had guacamole and chicken fajitas!

today we had our CIDE excursion to the south of France. Our first stop was St. Jean

de Luz (pictures above), a small town right across the border. We got there right as the city was really waking up. We saw the church where Louis XIV got married! after, we had a little free time so we strolled around some shops then went to a cafe and had cafe au lait! after i made a pit stop in a famous macaroon shop, macaroons adam, and bought a little box. they were maybe the best macaroons ive ever had!

our next stop was Biarritz (pictures above)! the only word i can think of to describe the city is idyllic. it was beautiful. situated right on the coast, it has a georgoues beach and lots of pretty architecture. we also went an awesome food market. it was in a large tent/warehouse and had tons of vendors. they had anything and everything! i so w ish we had more places like that in the states. people go and buy fresh fruits, vegetables, bread, meat etc. I love how here its more to buy a loaf of freshly baked bread than a loaf of iron kids from the grocery! we went to a beautiful lookout over the ocean and just enjoyed the view. of course we had to stop by a well known chocolate shop and buy some goodies as well! i really have developed a fondness for France. everytime i have been i have loved it!

we crossed back into spain and stopped in a small town for lunch and then headed to Loyola

(Azpeitia), better known as the birthplace of St. Ignatius of Loyola (he founded the Jesuit society). We saw the basilica and the house where St. Ignatius was born! Growing up near New Orleans I have always been aware of Loyola University and Jesuit high school, so it was neat to see the birthplace of their namesake and learn about his life!

today i had a moment of clarity where i realized how much i love it here and how amazing the things i have gotten to do are. im not sure if its get much better than this!

this and that

so tomorrow i have my first test in my Basque culture class. im feeling pretty good about it. today after i was finished with class i went to this coffee shop in casco viejo (the old town) and studied for a few hours. it was good to get out of the dorm because then i wouldnt be distracted with things like my computer ha.

yesterday my little brother (ok so hes not little anymore since he is taller than me, but he will always be my little brother) signed with the Marines. When i first found out i was speechless and kind of scared but i am so proud of him and will stand behind him and support him forever. i love you john neal!

barcelona

this weekend i went to Barcelona with Amanda, Astrid, Rachel, Kristen and Javier. I took the train early friday morning and everyone else flew. i wanted to use up the last two days on my eurail pass since its expires this week anyway! i had a first time train experience (which is odd, since i traveled by train all of august). as we boarded, they made everyone put their bags through an x-ray machine. ive never had to do that at any other station. the train ride was about 7 hours. it wasnt that bad though. i slept on and off and read. they also played "boy in the stripped pajamas" so i watched a little bit of that, but its an extremely sad movie, so i tuned out at the end. when iarrived everyone was already settled. i got unpacked and then we headed to parc guell (gaudis park). it was pretty incredible. the tile work was exquisite! also, the major highlight was that it was the location of one of the finales of America's Next Top Model, so of course we had to walk what was the runway! also at the park, i tripped and fell in front of a bunch of people. as embarrassing as it is to admit, it makes for a good story. i think i was just really tired. needless to say, i went to bed early that night!

saturday we went to casa battlo and casa mila. i didnt go inside but just the outsides were astounding. once again i couldnt get over the tile work. it made me want to tile my entire (future) house. ok, not the entire thing, but i for sure want to do some cool tile work! that night we attempted to see a foun

tain/light show near plaza de espana, but missed it by ten minutes. it was a bummer. we met up with greg (another student in

bilbao) and his friend studying in barcelona and got sangria.

Sunday we went to the Sagrada Familia. this might have been my favorite thing. it was incredible. its huge! and its still under construction (they began in the late 1880's)!

a lot of it is blocked off because of all the equipment but what you can see is amazing. the stories portrayed on the outside alone are magnificent. one side has the passion of Christ, the other has the nativity, and the third is the Glory. pictures dont do it justice because it is so detailed. i had some beautiful stained glass too. it was more modern stained glass that what

you usually see. there werent images depicted, rather it was shades of a color pieced together. it was an amazing church. we all decided that we should have a reunion in barcelona when construction is complete! after that, we went to las ramblas (a pedestrian street with vendors and artists etc). i got some cool street art. it kind of

like blown plastic on canvas, hard to explain. astrid, kristen and i hung out at the port for a while. it kind of reminded me of new orleans because a man was playing louie armstrong, i saw a horse-and-buggy, and the breeze from the water felt like i was on the riverfront. we were sitting on a dock and there were tons of fish. astrid had extra bread from her hot-dog bun so we started throwing it to the fish. it was so funny because where every you threw the piece, the fish would sort of make a dog-pile trying to vie for it. it amused us for a good while. all the while i had developed a headache of all headaches and had to go back to the hostel and lie down. i napped but was woken up with an even worse headache. my friends were great enough to get me loaf of bread so i wouldnt have to take medicine on an empty stomach. they took great care of me. i went back to sleep and after a while was better! we ended up packing and staying in since we had early departures. i took the train back, and the ride was surprisingly quick.

i enjoyed the long weekend, but yet again got a giddy feeling when i got off the metro and walked towards the residence hall. i was so happy to be back in "my little part of spain".

dinner with the oda's

So tomorrow we leave for Barcelona! I'm excited, but don't really know what to expect. I've heard good things about the city, but I do know you have to be very careful. Taylor's (a friend down the hall) parents are in town for a week! They were beyond kind and took us out to dinner at the restaurant inside the Guggenheim! It was one of the nicest dinners I've every had. It was served in three courses and each plate was decorated with simple and elegant touches. The waiters changed your silver-ware in between each course and even pulled your chair out for you when you came back from the bathroom. Whenever they touched your plates they wore leather gloves! We even tried lamb brain! on the menu, it was called "thoughts of lamb" which we all thought was a very creative way to get people to eat the brain of a lamb. I didn't care for it at all. The texture did not sit will with me, but I figured why not! I would rather try it in a nice restaurant since I would probably never order it again. it was so nice to meet Taylor's parents. just seeing someone's family made it feel more like home here, kind of like we aren't that far apart after all! They are great people!

procrastination

not much going on here this week. i have two paper-like assignments due tomorrow. of course i procrastinated and am doing them both tonight.....ugh. i took a nice nap today because i was feeling kind of under the weather. i am going to barcelona this weekend with some friends so i went and reserved my train tickets today during my break between classes. i also got my first test back and did pretty well so thats good i guess. its almost dinner time here, can't wait to see what they concoct and call food tonight!

paris!!

This is bound to be a lengthy post since our internet just started working and I have to write all about Paris! (just a fair warning)

Before I could actually leave for Paris, I had my first test in Spain. It actually wasn’t that bad considering how much procrastinating I did before the test. Once it was over, it was Paris time! Kimberly’s host mom was nice enough to take us to the airport and she even made us a Bobadilla (sandwhich) for dinner! We had to fly to Madrid and then onto Paris. It wasn’t that bad expect Iberia plays the worst music on their flights. Kimberly put it well when she said “It’s like being trapped in the back of a bad department store.” We were kept entertained by a man who decided that even though we were on a plane, and it was pitch black outside, he wanted to wear his ray-bans the ENTIRE flight. We landed in Paris. I have to admit I let out a giddy laugh when I saw the Eiffel tower from the plane. It was so real! It sounds weird but its true. I knew it existed but its totally different when you see it in person. It took us about an hour and half to get to the hostel but we finally made it! Jessica-Phillips and Lee weren’t in the room when we arrived but luckily they came back right before Kimberly sent out a search party. We talked for a bit but everyone was pretty tired so we fell asleep, excitedly awaiting the weekend ahead of us!

Friday we began our Persian adventure! Emilie arrived at the hostel and Ann met us there too! Then reunion was underway! We walked through the Latin Quarter. It was neat, we walked through a cool little market. We would our way to the Pantheon (the second one ive seen in Europe!) and then went to a bookstore called Shakespeare & Co. It was probably the coolest the bookstore I’ve ever been to. It was crammed with books from floor to ceiling. There was not an inch of free space. It was the kind of place you could get in lost in for hours just looking around at all of the works they have there. We grabbed lunch at a traditional French restaurant that does the three courses. I had real French onion soup…delicious! After lunch we walked to Notre Dame and strolled along the river. We saw the hotel that Big comes to find Carrie in Sex and City! Cool in know…We took the metro to the Eiffel tower and bought our tickets to climb it! We climbed as far as you could before you had to pay to take the elevator, so we hung out on the middle level for a while and saw the entire city! We hurried back to the hostel to freshen up and then we met up with Tyler, Susan and Courtney for dinner at Chartier. Tyler and Susan just got engaged so we surprised them and got two bottles of champagne. It was so fun to eat good food with friends (southerners at that!).

Saturday was JP’s birthday!!!!!! Ann Kirk arrived from Metz and completed our group for the weekend. We met Ann at her apartment (which is in an awesome part of town). We grabbed a coffee and then set out to go shopping and get JP her birthday present! We all decided to chip in and get her a purse shes been eyeing. We made her close her eyes until we had her in front of the display! I thought it was fun! We had lunch on the roof of Printemps (a department store). It had an incredible view as well. After we strolled around for a bit. I saw the opera house and kind of freaked out because there is where Phantom of the Opera is set (its my favorite musical). For JP’s birthday dinner we ate at Le Café Marley, the café at the Louvre. It was pretty incredible. Our table overlooked the glass pyramids. The food was great and we had a good time each toasting Jessica-Phillips for her birthday. After, we made our way to Sacre Coure - the basilica on the top of hill that overlooks the entire city (in case you havent caught on, Paris has many panoramic viewing sites). Before we made it to the basilica, we walked and saw Moulin Rouge. Definitely cool to see an iconic landmark. Not my favorite part of town because there are some sketchy characters but its all good. We made the uphill hike to the basilica. The view was incredible. I think my favorite thing was seeing the Eiffel Tower light up on the hour. It kind of spazzes out and the lights blink off and on for ten minutes. Hard to describe but cool to watch.

Sunday was bittersweet. People began to leave and return to their respective cities. Ann Kirk and Emilie had trains to catch around noon. We said goodbye to them at the hostel. Lee slept in because she was going to meet up with Ann later that day for the equivalent of the Kentucky derby in Paris. JP, kimbo and I went to the Muse d’Orsay. We saw works by Van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Cezanne and many others. There is just something about seeing art in person after you’ve learned about it your whole life. I know I keep saying it, but it was incredible. Time kind of flew by and before we knew it we were looking for a place to eat before JP’s train left. We ended up eating at a café by our hostel. We got amazing crepes, one with nutella and banana and another with tomato, mozzarella and egg. JP had a good omelet too! It was hard to say goodbye to Jessica-Phillips. Being in paris was almost like we were traveling around in August again. I was so happy that I got to celebrate her birthday with her! Kimberly and I had some time to kill so we caught the metro to the stop where the airport bus left from. When we got there we bought some candy from a street vendor and then walked to a cemetery. It sounds creepy but it was actually kind of cool. I guess being from a city near new Orleans, im used to cemeteries and people touring them etc. we walked around and then found a bench and ate our candy. It was oddly calming and very tranquil. But the time came to leave for the airport and make our way back to Bilbao. We got off at the wrong stop at the airport and had to take the tram to the opposite side but luckily we were early enough that it didn’t matter. Once again we had to go through Madrid. Once again the music was terrible, but I was kind of excited to get back and see what everyone here had done and tell my roommate about my weekend and see what she did. I missed her and everyone in the dorm and in Bilbao! We finally made it to Bilbao around 11:30. We caught a bus into the city but got off in kind of a deserted location. Eventually we found a cab. I had a headache at that point so I was just ready to get to the dorm and into my bed. And that’s exactly what I did (after I chatted with Amanda for a bit)!