Runnin runnin

This post is coming almost a month and a half after my return from Spain. But there are so many things I didn't get a chance to blog about while I was in Spain that I feel the need to share with all of you so I am doing it after the fact! Our CIDE group went to Pamplona for las fiestas de Sanfermines, more commonly known as the running of the bulls. It was incredible. Its something I don't even think I can do justice explaining. I called a cab at 3:30am, got on the bus to Pamplona at 4 in the morning, slept until 7am when we arrived. Walked through the city to the bull arena and and took our seats. It pretty packed with people was so high energy and I felt so immersed in a cultural experience. It was like nothing I've ever been a part of before. All of the stores on the almost mile long path are closed and boarded up and people who live in apartments along the path are out on their balconies getting ready to watch. At 8am sharp the people who are to run with the bulls start to chant to the statue of San Fermin and when they are done someone shoots off a rocket and the bulls are let loose from the bull pin which is located behind all of the runners so they run THROUGH them on their way to the bull ring.  12 bulls in all, 6 domesticated bulls that are black and white and 6 black bulls that are wild (and very mean.) The people who actually run with the bulls are crazy. Now I understand saying that the people who participated in this tradition are crazy is not very culturally sensitive but the bulls are HUGE, and they run so fast. I was afraid just watching it from about 30 rows up.  Watch THIS! and maybe you'll understand a little better. After the run was complete all 12 bulls were taken out of the arena and the runners were given a few minuets to celebrate and catch their breath. Then one at a time smaller bulls were let into the arena and were basically taunted by the runners. Several people got hit by the bulls and one man was knocked unconscious. This was my least favorite part of the whole experience because the little bulls looked so confused and lost and I felt bad for them. It felt almost cruel to the bulls (not to mention that 6 bulls get killed a night for the 7 day fiesta.)  But its just a part of the culture and I am very glad to have been a part of it.  

I really enjoy blogging, and not walking to the metro in the rain...

Class for today just let out and it is RAINing outside so I have made the executive decision to sit and blog in the hopes that by the time I am done this the rain will have let up at least a little bit. 


There are so many things that I love about Spain but two are Rebajas and Fiestas. It being summer it is the time for both of these things. Rebajas are sales. ALL the stores have really good sales, just yesterday I bought a pair of sandals and a skirt for 8 euros which is really cheap. Rebajas are a very good thing for my wardrobe but not so much my wallet. I've had pretty good self control so far and not gone into any shoe stores because I'm afraid of the consequences if I enter a Spanish shoe store where everything is on sale. 


Fiestas are exactly that, parties except in the summer months all of the towns in Spain have a celebration where there is live music, dancing, food, fire works and TONS of people just in the streets. I've been to two; one in Santurtzi and another in Sopelana. Santurtzi had more people than Sopelana but Sopelana had fire works so I cant decide which was more fun! 

The Sopelana Fiesta

The fire works show lasted at least 15 mins...!

The concert in the plaza. I don't know who they were but the music was good!!

The Santurtzi Fiesta:

So.Many.People.

Some of us in front of the stage!

The rain has not let up so looks like my walk to the metro is going to be FUN!

More Pictures

I had some free time today between almuerzo and classes and I uploaded pictures to my computer. Here are a few of my favorites so far....

This is a plaza in Madrid. This is one of my favorite pictures I've taken so far, its so beautiful its hard for me to believe that I was actually there!  

This is the Aqueduct in in Segovia built 2000 years ago without any cement or anything. So impressive. There we also tons and tons of birds! 

This is in the town Plenzia, its at the end of the metro and has a beautiful beach.

Plentzia again! It was such a beautiful day when we went we stayed until after 7pm and the sun was still up. The water was freezing and VERY salty but very calm so swimming was fun.

This is a statue in Gexto, it is supposed to be Man fighting against Neptune. It is a very old light house (not the traditional sort of American light house but one none the less.)  

This is the flag of the Basque country, you see tons of them here because Bilbao is part of the Basque country. I took this picture in in Urdaibai, where the is a biosphereic reserve. 

This is a picture of the The University of Deusto from across La Ria

This is the Guggenheim from the University side of the La Ria. The clouds that day were incredible!

The Guggenheim, the spider sculpture called Mama, La Ria (called La in stead of  el rio because it expresses the strong pride the people here have in the river) and the INCREDIBLE clouds!!!

{(M)6 +1+1}/4T = L

Where: M=moving
             T=months
             L= my life

I'll solve the equation for you because I'm really good at math obviously: I've moved 6 times in the past three months... [and two more to come next month]

A little ridiculous, but welcome to my life. First, I moved out of my apartment at the end of April after spring semester back home. I packed our SUV so full there was only room enough for me to sit in the drivers seat and drive home, whoops! Secondly I moved from home BACK to school for first session of summer classes at UMW. Then after two weeks the lease on that house ended so I had to move a third time to a new house, because there was no water in the house I was actually subletting in.  After a few days in the house of my third move house number four was habitable so I lived there for the remainder of summer session. So, if you are keeping track our tally is up to four moves. Well summer session ended after what felt like an eternity in chemistry111 hell and I moved back to my home home. I had 10 days to relax and pack and then I set out for Spain. I moved in with my host family(move number 5), Magdelena and her two kids Paula and Rodrigo. They were great and the kids were really fun...

...but unfortunately they unexpectedly have to go visit a sick relative and I would be alone for upwards of a week if I stayed there SO move number six was to a new host family. I am now in Bilbao instead of Getxo. I am further away from the beach and have a less astetically pleasing view from my window but my morning commute to the university is much shorter; 3 metro stops instead of 9. I am now living with a married couple, Elisa and Alfredo. They are SO nice, and have been cooking some really awesome food, so all in all I'd say move number 6 was a good one! Move number 7 and 8 come when I move back home and then about a month later BACK to school. No complaints on my end though, its all well worth it.

PERROS

As you all may know, saying that I'm a dog person would be the understatement of the century. So, this post is going to be all about doggiess! Lots of people here in Bilbao have dogs and I see them out being walked all the time. They are mostly little dogs and no one really uses leashes! I feel like if that were the case in America chaos would ensue. But the perritos here in Bilbao are all really well behaved. Even so I resist the urge to ask to pet EVERY SINGLE one, mostly because I don't know the verb for 'to pet.' But three days ago we went to Gernika to see the Peace museum and to Urbaibai which is a biospheric reserve and basically beautiful and this man had a collie dog. As our group was walking by on our way to the beach he yelled something at the dog and she went right away and did this.... 

I almost died. There is also a dog in Bilbao I love. His name is Puppy and he is a work of art out in front of the Guggenheim. The locals joke sometimes that the museum is his dog house! The spanish accent also sometimes makes it sound like they are saying 'poopy.' It makes me laugh. He is made of flowers and I dont know the intricacies of it but his internal watering system that keeps the flowers alive drips from his mouth so he even drools just like a real dog! Sorry if you've spent your time reading this post entirely about dogs and you are a cat person. The only cats I've seen were in Plentzia, a beautiful town with a beach and there was a house that I can only assume a crazy cat lady lives in because there were about 10 cats in the front yard!

 

Si...Ok...Vale...Si?

The three chillins to my left are Spanish kids whose parents made them come to the University to participate in an activity where the Americans spoke in spanish and they got an opportunity to speak in English. It was fun, they told me I spoke well! 

I have found myself saying si, si, okay, okay a lot when people are speaking to me wether or not i understand them. I asked my host mom if there is another word for okay because I felt weird saying it. 'Vale' is apparently the same thing as Okay and now that I know that I hear it EVERYWHERE! Anyways, today was the first day it rained here in spain but I had classes so it wasn't a problem! 

Fernando's Paella

On Saturday my host family took me to an 8th birthday party for one of their family friends. It was in the country so we drove about 30 mins from Bilbao. I was introduced as 'Anne, our american student' and everyone was so nice and accommodating. The language barrier was very apparent because they all spoke minimal English and I had to continually say 'mas despacio por favor' slower please, but I've gotten over the embarrassment of not being a native speaker. We had appetizers while Fernanodo was cooking the Paella. They eat lots of ham in Spain. One dish that i particularly liked was bread with tomatoe, olive oil and ham on it, interesting but yummy. Fernano, the brother of Jose [whose house we were at] told me he had won the world championships for Paella five times... I watched as he heated up the oil in the calderna (a very large, shallow dish) cooked the chicken, added the shrimp that had been cooked earlier, the vegetables, and then the rice. It took a very long time to cook and while it was being made the grandpa of the house was talking to  me and kept being like 'here try this food, its good. Now this, do you like it?' It was cute! Needless to say we sat down for Paella and it was delicious. Fernando asked how I liked it and he told me every time I hear Lady Gaga sing about Fernando and Alejandro [he had a 1 year old son named Alejandro] that I have to think about his Paella, he also asked me to talk about him in the States, so here you go Fernando! 

This picture was emailed to me by my first host mom. Its Paula (my host sister) Fernando holding his son Alejandro and me! In the bottom left of the picture you can see the Calderna with the paella in it!!!