ALL about Santander!

I'm going to warn you now: this post is LONG, but it's mostly pictures, so don't be afraid :)

Last weekend, I went to Santander with my friends Rebecca. and Bionca. As you can see on the map below, Santander is west of Bilbao, my last little adventure, and pretty much due northwest of Logroño, in the region of Cantabria.

More importantly, it is ON THE COAST! Sea breezes, sand between the toes... one kind of heaven.

We arrived around 9 o'clock in the evening, in the dark, and without a hostel reservation (oops). As it turned out, this was rather fortunate, as it led us to seek out the Pensión Madrid, only a 5 minute walk from the bus station and a VERY good deal at only 15€ a night/person for one room for the three of us. And OH, was it comfortable (yay for memory foam mattress covers)! Of course, that last bit may have had something to do with the fact that we had just attempted sleeping in the not-so-comfortable bus seats. Anyway, after walking around a bit and eating at a diner-ish place (that reminded me of a Perkin's) where the food was okay but the company was excellent, we decided to heed the call of those lovely comfy-topped beds and get a good night of rest before a very unplanned tomorrow.

And then it was Saturday, where the word of the day was wandering. And in wandering, we stumbled upon so much!

A protest before breakfast: In what would you invest it? (300 million euros)

In search of breakfast, we passed this cleverly named bar :)

After breakfast, we went in search of the Tourism office for maps and advice. From this angle, I was very confused about which direction to go. It turned out the office was behind me :)

At the tourism office, we discovered that the only museum that any of us had

What next?

Today is a ponder-the-future day. Really I think every day is becoming that kind of day as I realize that I have no idea what I'm doing after Spain. I have ideas, of course, but they are ALL over the place. All are possibilities, and for that I should be grateful... and I am. But still, I can't help but wish that some heavenly light would shine down on one in particular... like, aHA! That's what I should do/where I should go/how I should proceed with my life.

I know, I know... this process is not that easy for anyone... even those people whom I (only kind of) envy that have always known what they wanted to be they grew up. Everyone has to find their way... but oh, how much easier it would be if I knew which way I was going.

Anyway, right now the ideas bouncing around inside my head are:

• teacher (always been on the radar... but is something I'd like to become once I retire from some other mystery job)
• economic development (MEDEG program I mentioned in a previous post)
• international spy á la Alias or Covert Affairs ... because that's realistic... but hey, I'd learn how to kick some butt, pick up some more languages, and travel the world... but then again, I want to "settle down" someday... hmm...
• artist... my job is to create!!! (in spurts anyway)
• professional student... of the world...

Yeah... like I said, working on it. :)

Post to come: my most recent weekend in Santander!

Bilbao and the Puente

Bilbao! Frank Gehry's architectural masterpiece, The Guggenheim Museum and El Puente de la Salve

I have decided to ride the wave of my freshly asserted motivation (see last entry) and tell you all about my trip to Bilbao over the puente two weeks ago. But first, let me answer the question that some of you may have: what in the world is a puente? Yes, I am a mind-reader ;) Actually... funny story...

A lovely girl named E.* who is also an auxiliar here as well as a palm-reading enthusiast told me that I have "the mystic's cross." In other words, I kind of am a mind-reader. Or at least, I'm intuitive enough to be... according to my right hand. But I digress...

This is puente in the traditional sense.

Puente means 'bridge.' This can be a literal bridge (as in build one and get over it :P), but it is also what Spaniards call a 4(or more)-day weekend. For example, the most recent puente was due to All Saints' Day (November 1st and a National Holiday in Spain). It fell on a Tuesday this year, so the schools and a lot of businesses go ahead and give everyone the Monday before off as well, thus they bridge the weekend to the holiday. Get it? This is a Spainism (yes, I made that up) that I wish the U.S. could adopt... but alas, they have manipulated our federal holidays (MLK, Memorial, Labor... do we get off for Columbus?) to all fall on Mondays.MLK's birthday's on the 15th? Let's put his day on the third Monday of the month. Columbus landed in America on the 12th of October? The second Monday of the month for him (regardless of the fact that the rest of the world celebrates it ON the day). Sheesh.

A resolution.

So it's a Monday, a day off and a day to get myself together before I have work again tomorrow. In an attempt to be "productive," I got on my computer to do "research." On what, you may ask? Oh, it could be anything, but usually it starts with Google and ends with me falling down a rabbit hole of web surfing and not really accomplishing much of anything.

I wonder if Alice was simply procrastinating? Source.

Today, I started with googling "getting a haircut in Spain" because goodness knows, I am very much in need of a haircut. I was soon directed to some girl's travel blog that was actually pretty helpful in that it included useful, haircut-specific phrases like "Quiero un recorte" (I want a trim) and "Me gustaría escalado" (I like it layered). Now I just have to look up how to say "Stop! Too short, TOO SHORT!" and I will be good to go.

Anyway, this travel blog in this instance could also be called the entrance into

Word of the Day... or the Early Morning

Hello world! 

Hopefully you've already read about this in my previous post, but for those of you just now visiting and not in the know, I am in Spain participating in a program put on by the Ministry of Education. I am a language assistant in a high school in Calahorra, and am living in Logroño, a good 45 minute bus-ride away. While I'm here to teach English, I'm finding (as expected) that I have quite a bit to learn...

What am I learning, you may ask? Well, I could write about everything, but honestly, I'd probably never finish (it is an ongoing process, you know) and even if I could, the post would be so long that no one would want or have the time to read it. Instead, I will write about the things I am learning little by little, one post at a time. That way, you can learn with me. Today, our lesson is a word: La madrugada.

And so it begins...

Exactly 4 weeks ago today, I left my friends, family and the comfort of 'home' to embark on this adventure in España. And now, here I sit in my very first "I'm a big girl and living on my own" apartment. It has been a whirlwind of a month, and since I haven't posted in, oh, a while (procrastination much?), I think it would be best to begin with a recap... with pictures...

First of all, within the week before I left, I received a very special visit from a very special someone. This was perhaps the most jam-packed, memorable 3 days I could ever have imagined. Tennis, soccer, coffee, movies, napping, risotto, picnicking, dinner with awesome people... basically in-person quality time.
The only downside was that it was also the shortest 3 days imaginable.

Sadness in the car at the airport when he had to leave.

Luckily, we have a long flight across the Atlantic to which to look forward. :)

A few days later, the parents and I headed to the airport for a second time, and this time, I was the one who'd be getting on the plane.

Madre y yo, before the send off.

And then, around 12:30, I was off. After a pitstop in Washington D.C. where I was

Not quite butterflies... but something similar

It's finally starting. My nerves/excitement/oh my god, I'm going to Spain in 12 days feelings are starting to become more pronounced. I've been excited, of course, (I mean, how could I not be), but in between reading some early blog entries of auxiliars who have already gone through what I am about to experience, looking around at the mess packing going on in my room, and realizing it's been a good year and a half since I've spoken some solid español... well, I'm just kind of freaking out.