Semana Santa

I know I know. It's been more than a month since I've last blogged. But come on, did anyone that knows me really expect me to be everyday about this? After Barcelona I really hit a everyday kinda rhythm where nothing too exciting happened. I was getting in some good cycling, going to classes, and going out with friends when I had some spare time. That's my past month in a nut shell.

However, two weeks ago the family came to visit me for Semana Santa (Easter Break). They flew in the 7th ( my birthday - woo hoo) and hung out in Bilbao until the 9th when my classes let out. They quickly learned that Bilbao isn't much of a tourist city. It has the Guggenheim and that's about it. Don't get me wrong, I love Bilbao, but it's a good place to live more than a place to visit. I did take my family to the Murakami exhibit at the Guggenheim, which was eventful. My dad's face when he saw a life-size anime sculpture of a man masterbating was priceless. I tried to warn them that some of the exhibit was a bit offensive, but they wanted to see it anyways. Once I was done with classes, we left on Thursday for Barcelona.

This being the 3rd time I had been to Barcelona, it was less eventful, but I still love that city. It was also entertaining being the official tour guide for my family and being able to show off some of my spanish skills. Honestly I still think I'm aweful, but to my parents, who speak absolutely no spanish, I sounded pretty impressive. Pat, Bry, and I had some fun making fun of how my mom was pronouncing everything. "The rambles, the famiglia, tapas" - just kidding we love ya mom. We saw La Sagrada Familia, Parq Guell, and a walked around las ramblas and the old quarter a bunch. If you want to know what those are about look back at my Barcelona entry. The only new thing that I saw was the Olympic Stadium and the Olympic Museum, which were really cool. However, we spent about 2 hours walking around the park looking for the damn place. Then, when left the museum we saw that there was a metro stop that practically brings you to the museum. So we basically wasted about 2 hours walking around, but whatever. We had some really good Paella and wine at this restaurant close to our hotel. They also had these really good cod fritter tapas. I was excited to get to Valencia, though, because I couldn't handle the tourists in Barcelona anymore.

Our place in Valencia was this 5 star resort on the beach outside of Valencia. It was beautiful, but it really wasn´t us. You had to pay to use everything. The hot tub was something like €18/hour, WiFi was €15/day, the lunch buffet was €35/person, etc. So needless to say we didn´t buy anything at the hotel. It was just a bit ridiculous, considering how much that place cost per night, you would think some of the other stuff would included. There was definitely a bit of snobbery at this place. Some guy yelled at Pat during breakfast while he was telling a story. I guess he thought we were being too loud. Normally I try not to be the loud obnouxious American, but we weren´t being that loud and this guy was a real prick. Although, I suppose anything would seem rude to a man who expects complete silence and respect from his mail order bride and daughter. He wasn´t worth causing a scene, but he really pissed me off. Other than that, it was good just to hang out on the beach and relax for 2 days. Then we were off to Madrid, or so we thought.

I was sleeping in the car when I heard my mom say we´re here and I woke up to take a look. I was really confused because I had no idea where we were. I just said, "this isn´t Madrid." To give you an anology, our hotel was to Madrid as Newark is to New York City. We gave mom a hard time, but really I have no complaints because I didn´t have to plan anything and I don´t really like Madrid all that much anyways. That night the family experienced a true Spanish dinner. It started at about 9:30 and went past 11:00. I thought my dad was going to fall asleep in his food. Then Pat, Bry, and I hopped a metro into Madrid to meet up with Mel Riv, a friend of Bryan´s and mine from camp. We met up at this very American bar where they had the biggest beers I had ever seen, at least in Spain. They were also in plastic cups which is really weird for Spain. Mel told us that they give the Americans plastic cups after some dumb ass felt like breaking the glasses. I just thought, "Great, another idiot that proves everything that the rest of the world thinks about Americans." Anyway, we had a good time there, and particularly enjoyed watching a very portly, bearded, grizzly bear of a Spaniard grooving all by himself. Man he was having a party. The next day we went to Toledo, which was a great way to wrap up the trip. Saw all the usual stuff - catedral, sword shops, sweet architecture and narrow streets. We also tried some marzipan, which was really good and I had never had before. I forget exactly how they make it, other than it involves grinding up almonds with a lot of sugar. Either way it was delicious, and combined with the kebab we had a few hours early, I was feeling pretty satisfied.

The family left the next day, and I caught a bus back to Bilbao. All in all, it was a great trip, but I was actually looking forward to getting back to Bilbao. I was beginning to feel too much like a tourist. Granted, I have a similar feeling everyday, but I do think there is a difference between students and tourists. Anyways, I got a little more than a month to go, so i really got to buckle down on school work. I´m not going to lie, I haven´t been taking school all that seriously here, and I may pay for it now, but oh well. I´m also getting really anxious to race this summer, so I´ve been trying to train as much as possible. The cycling here really is fantastic, but I´ve learned that the whole traveling abroad hasn´t been as conducive to training as I thought it would. I´m always trying to do so much here, travel, learn the language, train, do school work, and try not to get sick. I´m back on schedule though and spending as much time on the bike as possible, so I´m hoping I´ll be in form by the time I get home. I´ll try to write at least one or two more entries before I leave. See you all soon. Hasta luego.

-Mike

Barcelona Trip

Hola,

So last Thursday we all went to Barcelona for the weekend.  It pretty incredible.  We got most of the Tourist stuff out of the way Thursday and Friday, and then we had Saturday to do whatever wanted.  I'll give a quick description of each day.

Thurday:

Got into Barcelona around 5:00.  After getting settled into the hotel, we went to see the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's unfinished Cathedral.  We also took a walk through Las Ramblas, a long road with a walkway down the center for pedestrians.  It's home to a lot of restaurants, bars, street venders, and a shitload of tourists.  At night, drug dealers line the streets selling red cans of shitty Spanish beer as a front to their operation.  For dinner, we went to this hole int the wall Kebab place, which was really good.  I've fallen in love with Kebab.

Friday:

Woke up and had a great breakfast at the hotel.  A lot of the stuff was pastry and dessert breakfast food, but it was the first time I had more options than toast and yogurt, so I went to town.  Then we went to see La Casa Batlló and La Pedrera, two other buildings designed by Gaudí.  The Pedrera is also an exhibit, showing some of his models, furniture, and some of the things he drew inspiration from.  You could also go up onto the roof and see some great views of the city.  That was the coolest part for me.  After that we went to Parq Guell, a really cool park up on a hill that overlooks the city.  There was more Gaudí architecture here.  We took a break for lunch after this.  We got Menú del Día at a restaurant in Las Ramblas and ate outside. Menú del Día is a great deal that most restaurants offer; it's a three course meal for about 9-12 euros.  I got a salad, spinach risotto, and tiramisu - YUM.  After lunch, we went to the Picasso Museum, which was kinda of disappointing actually.  It showcased a lot of his work from when he was a student and some of his earlier stuff, but didn't really show a lot of the work he's known for.  Dinner was sushi.

Saturday: 

Woke up and went to the aquarium down by the harbor.  It's the biggest aquarium in Europe, which actually wasn't all that big.  I figure that aquariums must not be a very big thing here.  It was still a lot of fun though.  I got hit on by very nice gay man who sold me my ticket.  He first asked me old I was, which I didn't really think much of.  Then he said I was "guapo" and asked if I was seeing anybody.  I said I had a girlfriend, and he said she was very lucky (you hear that Court?).  We also saw penguins mating, which was hilarious - there was a lot of flapping involved.  We had paella and sangria for lunch - delicious.  Then we went to the beach, along with 10,000 other people.  That number may be a bit of an exageration, but it was packed.  So I decided it would be a good idea to come back at night with some wine, when there weren't as many people.  So afer getting some Kebab for dinner - yes the second time 3 days - we got some wine and headed down to the beach.  The wine ended up being aweful - just this side of communal wine.  So we made some Kalimotxo to kill the taste.  Kalimotxo is a basque drink of equal parts of red wine and coke.  It sounds weird I know, but it's actually really good.  I enjoyed myself thoroughly, perhaps too thoroughly.  Let's just say I ended up doing an impersonation of the voodoo dance from Weekend at Bernie's II on the sidewalk. Pat and Bry know what I'm talking about.  For anyone who hasn't seen this before, there's a video that I'm sure will make it's way onto Facebook soon.  So it was a pretty damn good night.  Left at noon on Sunday.  All in all a pretty awesome way to spend a weekend.

Casa Batlló

Sweet sculpture of the roof of La Pedrera

Sam and Me ontop of La Pedrera

A view of the Barcelona from Parq Guell

The Dragon in Parq Guell.  I was expecting something a little Grander.

Some sweet sea creatures in the aquarium.  I forget their name.  They're the squid like things that shoot water out their mouths to propel themselves backward.  Court do you know? Post a comment if you do.

Down at the Marina

Giant Glass of Sangria

Another shot down by the Marina

"Barcelona is on my yacht" (You had to be there)

La Playa

Skiing in France

¨Hey guys remember when we took that high school field trip to France?¨ That ended up being the quote of the weekend, seeing as how the travel agency partnered us up with a bus that was comprised primarily of highschool students on a weekend field trip. As you might have guessed this made things a bit awkward. There was definitely a sense of being unwelcomed guests, but whatever. Most the students kept to themselves and didn´t bother us. The only negative interaction we had all weekend was with this one woman who must of been at least in her 40s or 50s, although she acted like she was 5. All right so here´s the story:

It was after our first day of skiing on Saturday. We were all pretty tired and ready to get back to our condo, which is only about a 20 minute bus ride down the mountain. We´re just sitting there when this woman gets on the bus and says something in Spanish, which I didn´t catch completely, but it something to the degree that we were sitting in her seat. I didn´t say anything at first because I was still trying to process what she said, and I was a little confused in general about why she was under the assumption that there were assigned seats on the tour bus. I mean how old are we honestly? Anyways she kept on moving and found a seat towards the back, so I didn´t think it was a big deal. But then we here this woman freaking out and talking to the tour guide. So then the tour guide comes up to us and speaks to us in english. She says that she really doesn´t care, but we have to sit in the same seats we came there in, because those women want to sit up here with their friends. I was like, ¨seriously?¨Then we here her going on and on about ¨stupid english immigrants,¨¨get back to England,¨so apparently she thought we were english. I just found that funny because we were in France at the time and she´s spanish, so she´s as much of an immigrant as we were. Secondly, if you have such a problem with foreigners coming into y0ur country, why don´t you stop listening to all American music and watching all American movies and tv. Honestly, I hear it everywhere I go, and all of their movies are dubbed American ones. Give me a break.

Other than that, the weekend was a blast. The skiing was pretty good, although the conditions could have been a bit better on Sunday. I wasn´t overly impressed, but I think I had built it up a little too much because it was in France. Either way it sure beat the hell out of the skiing I normally get to do at lovely Bristol Mountain.

Trip Highlights:

1. We found this amazing view at the top of the mountain where you could looked over our town and had a great place to sit down and take in the mountains. The back side of the peak didn´t have any snow on it, and it looked liked a spot where you expect to see a billy goat come around the corner. Tana ended up hanging out there for about 30-40 minutes-no joke. It was towards the end of the day and I think both of us were done skiing at that point.

2. The dinner on Saturday night was amazing. It was a really nice three course meal in a this great little restaurant for only 12 euros. It started with an appetizer platter of cabbage, salted cucumber slice, cous cous, and salami. Kind of a weird combination I know, but it was good. Then most of us had chicken our fish, with surprisingly flavorful coeur flower and french fries. Then you had a choice between caramel flan or chocolate mousse, I went with the chocolate mousse.

3. Our breakfast sunday morning was stellar. We had gone shopping the night before, I got waffles and nutella, a deadly combination. we also had a loaf of really good bread, some yogurt, fruit, and coffee. It was great condsidering the day before I had a tangerine and a some stale bread for breakfast.

4. The crazy woman on the bus. Although she pissed us off at first, at least she gave us a story.

I put up some pictures of the trip below. I´ll write again soon. We´re going to Barcelona next weekend so that should give me stuff to right about. Until Next time.

-Mike

Picture Perfect Mountains

The 4 skiiers at lunch

We felt like giants ontop of a mountain in this picture. This is the spot Tana and I found that we ended up sitting down and hanging out for about a half an hour.

Same Spot

Same Spot

Some delicious looking flan at the french restaurant we went to that night

My chocolate Mousse

All of us after dinner

Turn Ons: Churros con Chocolate
Turn Offs: Really bad 80s mullets, especially on spanish girls. I swear I´ve uncle Jesse and Ralph Machio on the metro.

Carnaval

Dancing with some random people in the club.  I forget where they're from, but the sombrero is killer huh?

Some of the other students from the states

As if we're not playing the parts of the obnoxious Americans well enough, we have to get on stage for the citizens of Bilbao. 

Group Pic in the metro station

A Few Pics From a Ride

Hey People.  I took my camera on a ride a few days ago.  It was so sunny and beautiful, for once.  Unfortunately I forgot to charge my battery before hand and only managed a few pictures.  Anyways, enjoy.

I don't know what to say about this face.

It's hard to see, but yes that's the ocean.  It kinda blends with the sky, but yes, it's there.

My new steed: Orbea Onix Carbon; 105 Grupo; Shimano rs10 wheels

Other than the wheels I love this bike

Past Two Weeks

Greetings,

       Since I didn't set this blog up right when I got here, I'm afraid this first post may be a bit lengthy.  I got into Madrid on the 2nd.  The group and I spent a few days in the city, but nothing of consequence really happened, so let's skip forward a few days.

       Got into Bilbao on the fifth and met my family.  I'm living with a woman named Mar, her husband, Carlos, and their 11 year old son, Borja.  They have a condo about 30-40 minutes by train to the north of Bilbao.  It's really close to the beach, and there are some mountainous areas not too far from me (YES). 

       Classes started on the 16th.  I'm taking an illustration class, an oil painting class, a water color class (eek), and spanish class.  I didn't know the water color class was a water class until I went the first day.  I'm still not sure how I feel about it, since I have practically zero experience with water color.  Only the oil color class is in english, so by the end of the day my brain is bleeding.  I never realized how exhausting it is to be extremely focused for 5-7 hours in a day.  I think my language is definitely improving bit by bit.  I'll be honest, at first it was not going so well.  I could hardly understand anything my family was saying.  It seems like the Spanish dialect and accent are very different from South American dialects that I've gotten used to in my classes at school.  They say most of the "S" "C" and "Z" with a bit of a lisp, so at first nothing sounded right.  It goes the other way too.  Sometimes I'll order a drink or talk to my family, and I'll be thinking wow I said that perfectly.  Then they look at me and reply, "¿Qué?"  I guess they're just not used to my highly distinguished white boy accent.  Still have some bad days, but it's coming along.  I'm just trying to be pacient.

       I just acquired my bike a few days ago, last years Orbea Onix at a fairly decent price.  I was planning on going for something a litte cheaper, but it was one of the few I could find in my size and the best deal.  If I'm able to sell it for even half of what it cost it'll still have been cheaper than shipping costs and a hell of lot more convenient than taking a bike box on 4 different forms of public transportation trying to get from Madrid to Bilbao.  I'll post a picture later.  I took it out yesterday and today, and I gotta say it's beautiful out here.  You can't beat climbing great hills while looking out at the ocean.  I've been playing a game I'm calling "stalk other cyclists" in order to find good places to ride.  It's not that hard; they're everywhere, especially on a sunny saturday afternoon.  I'm loving how it's finally culturally cool to be a cyclist.  You get way more respect here than in the states.  

       Food's been pretty good for the most part.  I've been eating a lot of good sea food, soups, purées, and lot of ham.  Damn do they love their ham here.  There's an entire leg in my kitchen that they'll just take a lot of fine slices of and serve it as a side at dinner.  It freaked me out at first, but it's really good.  Unfortunately breakfast isn't a big thing here.  It's usually toast with olive oil and coffee.  Sometimes I have cereal or yogurt, but it's pretty basic.  Lunch can be as simple as a bocadillo (sandwhich on a baguet) with fruit, or an entire three course meal-usually on the weekends.  Dinner is less formal than lunch.  A lot of times it's left overs or something quick and easy.  There have been a few meals that were a bit odd, and not all that appetizing. One night I had a plate of white rice with marinara sauce, a fried egg on top, and 4 hotdogs on the side.  Last night there was a giant bocadillo with 5 hotdogs on it.  I think I'll need a long break from hotdogs when I get back.  Honestly I never would have thought they would eat them that much here.  

       I was lucky enough to experience Carnaval, a giant costume party in the city that goes on for days.  Seriously, this kicks Halloweens ass.  Went out to a club last night and consumed my fair share or alcohol, and like any great CAF party, danced like an idiot.  I even got to do a little MJ.  I am disappointed at how much American music they listen to here, a lot of which is not very good.  I was hoping to hear all this new Spanish music, only to be disappointed when I hear Womanizer for the 50th time.  

       Well that pretty much brings us up to date.  I'll try to be more regular with my posts in the future so as to avoid such a lengthy entry.

Turn-ons: The coffee here is Fantastic.

Turn-offs: Smoking here is WAY too accepted for my liking.  I think all my clothes will have to be discarded when I get home.  They even smoke in my school.  The hallways are so damn hazey it's unbelievable.

Hasta Luego,

Mike

Santander Day Trip

Boat tour

Feeding time for the penguins at the mini zoo