Friday, September 3, 2010

Off to the Next Adventure

Well, today is my last day in the Basque Country.  It’s been a blast and I’ve learned a lot in two and a half weeks.  Arantza and Maren have been very kind, helpful and knowledgeable, not to mention extremely fun to be around.  If I get a host mom that’s as good as Arantza, I will be very happy.  I’m going to miss them and if I ever when I get the chance to come back to Spain I will definitely be making a stop their way.

Now, I’m off to Barcelona, my home for the next 3 and a half months.

Tomorrow, I’m taking a bus from Bilbao to Madrid to meet up with my program.  We’re doing a two-day tour of Madrid (the capital of Spain) and a day tour of Toledo (the religious capital of Spain).  I have been to both cities before and they are both absolutely amazing.  The view of Toledo from the hills is breathtaking and Madrid is just so full of culture and history that two days there will barely scratch the surface. 

Tuesday, my ISA compañeros and I move into our housing in Barcelona.  I can’t wait to finally meet my host mom and to see Barcelona with my own eyes.  I’ve been waiting for this moment for a good 2 years now and now it’s finally here!

As a result of all the tourist shenanigans for the next three days, I will probably be without Internet.  If I get the time, I will try to upload the pictures from the two cities and post links on the sidebar, but I will not be blogging.  I will try to blog about Madrid/Toledo on Wednesday and my first thoughts about Barcelona on Thursday/Friday.  Also, I’ll try to upload my first three YouTube videos of Getxo/Bilbao, Plentzia and the fireworks show when I get to the hotel in Madrid (internet connection pending).  I tried to upload them from the apartment but my laptop told me it would take 6 hours to upload them to YouTube, hence why they’re not there yet.

My first two photos albums, Getxo/Bilbao and Plentzia, should both now be complete.  If you would like to see them in their entirety, just click on the links.

On another note, I added a new sidebar that lists the different topics of this blog.  For example, if you’re only interesting in learning more about the culture of Spain, click on the “culture” button and it will take you to the posts that I have label as a culture-related post (e.g. this post is labeled “housekeeping”)

One last thing: If you have a g-mail, yahoo, AIM or twitter account you can become a follower of this blog.  This will allow you to post comments on individual blog posts; I really value your opinion and I would like to know your thoughts about what I post.  To do this, scroll down and click the “follow” button at the very bottom of the sidebar.

Until I post again, ¡hasta luego!

P.S. On a funny note, I was walking through the old part of Bilbao, Casco Viejo, on Thursday and I got stopped two times: one time to answer a survey (“vives en Vizcaya, ¿verdad?”) and another time to give directions. My answers to both requests: “no soy de aquí.” 

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