Carnavale

Hola!
This weekend was the celebration of Carnavale. To explain Carnavale it is like a weekend long halloween, without all the candy. Everyone dresses up and when I say everyone I mean kids, adults, babies.... Parents were literally matching their little kids, their spouses etc. Kids would go out in huge groups of the same costume. I'll explain day by day as I go.
We don't have class on fridays so everyone goes out to the bars and clubs thursday night. Being a student of the United States I am part of a group called Erasmus. Which basically sets a location for abroad students and local students to meet up and talk; It is ALWAYS at a bar or club.
So Thursday night we had an Erasmus event. We went to a club called "The Loft" Where we drank and talked. I think it is the best way to practice your Spanish and it is pretty fun because you speak your best Spanish and then the local students who usually don't speak good english speak back to you in their broken English. It works out great because everyone is practicing. So obviously we lose track of time and start heading home around 3 AM. We are in our costumes (un disfraz) Me and my buddy are bulls and the Metro is closed so we are on an adventure to find a taxi. Bilbao is extremely safe and its ok to walk around in the middle of the night. There is absolutely no one out on the street including cars. We finally find people and ask them for a taxi number to get home. This place was a police station (guardia civil). Their police stations here have cops standing outside with huge guns. This isn't a normal gun, it is about 4 feet long and they hold it with two hands. But with our liquid courage and need to get to bed we feel its totally fine to pester them about a number. They are extremely nice and they walk us in to their reception area (still holding guns). We get a number and an address of where we are and head out. We sit and talk to the cops for a few minutes until our cab comes. I get home at about 4 AM.
Friday- Is a beautiful day. I go for a run on the beach when I get up. Sunglasses finally come into use as the sun blares down on me. As I run I pass all the kids dressed up as animals, superheros, you name it I can't help but smile. After my run, I get a call from a Spanish student whom I had met the night before asking me if I wanted to meet up for a coffee and a chat. Since I am here to practice Spanish I take her up on it, get showered and dressed quickly and head to the Algorta plaza. I thought this was going to be awkward at first, but she turned out to be really cool and understanding of my broken Spanish. We sat there for about an hour and a half talking and watching as they set up for the festivities of the night. Families are out until at least midnight during these nights. It is pretty insane. So after my chat, I go home put on my costume and head out for the night. Another Erasmus party, a whole new club. I have to take the train by myself to meet up with my friends. Its about a 10 minute ride, but its embarassing being the only 20 year old in a one piece suit. I thought I got stared at because I was American. An American in a bull suit is even worse haha. People are laughing at me all over the place. Whatever I will never see them again. So I meet up my other bull and we head to the club. This was an amazing club. Every club here has go go dancers dancing on stages. So it is quite interesting because you never see that in the states. As well as having go go dancers, they had food on the bar for the taking. They had cookies and treats. It was amazing. Me and my buddy are talking to all these people when up comes another bull. A Spanish kid wearing the exact same costume as us. We immediately started jumping around with this kid who is EXTREMELY intoxicated and hilarious. We become the life of the party and there were people taking pictures of us left and right. So if you end up stumbling across me in a bull suit somewhere on the internet, don't be surprised. This turns into another late fun filled night. A tangent: Before I came abroad i heard from people and books that its normal to stay out all night, and grab breakfast with all your friends after you leave the club. I have yet to do the breakfast thing but it is not normal if I don't hear the birds chirping as I walk home.
Saturday: Another beautiful day in Spain. I was bored so I called a friend who lives in Algorta and we decided to walk around. I, obviously, wore my bull costume. We walk around for a few hours and Algorta suddenly becomes bustling at about 6 o'clock. There is a huge festival with a band. They are speaking Euskara so I don't really understand what is going on, but they do form a conga line type of thing and I really wanted to jump in, but it was either little kids or adults and I would have definitely been out of place so I was forced to just watch. They were also serving hot chocolate, that literally looked like steaming pudding, but the line was too long to grab some, I will probably try and get some of that today. So after that I head home to eat and head out for the night. We head to the center of Bilbao and immediately stumble upon a street festival. There are people playing music and others dancing. We then walk to a real Carnavale. This thing had kids rides as well as places selling wine for the parents. It was great. We just walked the streets and people watched. Took pictures with every awesome costume we saw. We did not end up going to a club but we just walked the streets until abour 4:30 AM. Once again the streets will still packed at 4:00 in the morning! We leave and get on the train to head home, and start talking to some Spaniards who were just heading to the club. Asked us to join, but we are not that hardcore.
Sidenotes: Carnavale was one of the greatest experiences I have ever had. Its something that you dream of experiencing in your life. "I was in Spain, for carnavale." Halloween has nothing to it, there is just that vibe and passion in the air that Halloween could never achieve.
One more thing: This was probably the most annoying weekend because with a one piece suit comes the problem of no pockets, what do you do when u have to pee, phone rings etc. So I had to unzip and rezip myself probably 200 times. I didn't know the word for zipper, or "to zip" for that matter so I really couldn't ask any Spaniards for help either without sounding like an idiot.
The first picture I posted is of Casco Viejo at about 2:00 in the morning, completely packed.
Second is of us in our costumes I thought I had more pictures of me in my costume, guess I was wrong....
The third one is in Gran Vila, this is the street carnaval going on
Enjjoy!!!

Sorry the pictures didn't work. The first picture is of the market. The second is in the Gaudi Park. My diary of the trip is right below this with the title "Barcelona"

Barcelona!!!

So Barcelona was this weekend.
We left right after school on Thursday; I literally didn't bring any books to class because I only had room for the things I needed for the weekend. We took the tram to the bus station and a bus to the airport. Very Easy. Our Bilbao airport has a total of 10 gates, it was the easiest place I have ever navigated. We then flew out on Clickair. We didn't check our bags, so we carried them on. The problem with that brilliant idea was that everyone else had the same idea. There was no space above our heads, and barely enough space for our feet below. So the lovely Clickair stewardess put our bags in a lavatory and locked the door; talk about ghetto. We got into Barcelona at about 8:30 and took a bus to the city center. We walked along the street where I saw things I have never seen before. The street was called Las Ramblas, and I will explain more about it later in my story. We then went to a bar to have a drink and figure out where we were staying for the night because as world travelers and students we do not have funds to purchase a hostel. I called one of my friends who said he had a couch open for me and my friend. We walked the streets, eventually found his place and went in. That night we went to a club right on the beach. We were out dancing and meeting people all over the world until about 4:30 AM.
Friday, we woke up at 10:00 and headed out to meet up with one of my friend's friends who lives in barcelona to get a tour of the town. (Once again, we don't spend money on tourist attractions). We met up in a plaza in the center of the city on a beautiful sunny day. It was extremely crowded. As well, even after being to Chicago, I have never seen so many pidgeons in my life. People were getting swarmed by them. We then went and stopped for a tapa and a wine (traditional spanish lunch). Which are pretty expensive in Barcelona, but if you find the right places its cheap. I had some Monkfish which was delicious. We then continued on our journey of the city. The problem with not paying for a tour is that you don't get all the details, but its sweet that we saw the whole city in one day. We walked by many old churches (but since it was friday they all charged to go in), walked through the gothic area, and up to the pier. There we stopped for a little rest because this was about 6 miles later and our dogs were killing us. We layed in the sun and listened to the sounds of the city while talking about what to do next. We then went back to my friends apartment to pick up our stuff because he was leaving for a snowboard trip for the weekend. We then had another struggle about where to sleep. We started walking at about 8:30 looking for a place to sleep. We called some friends, with no luck. We were at the point of settling for a Hostel, Hotel, or a street somewhere when we received a call telling us that we could stay at a friends, friends place; this was two hours later and we are all now dead tired. These people we did not know, but hey a free floor is better then a costly bed. We walked into an area that was pretty shady. When I say shady I mean there are numerous Pakistani stores, sex shops, and later we were told that the apartment building down the street was the one that was housing the Iraqis who were making fake passports. (I am sure you heard about this in the states). So we get to their apartment and it is now 3 of us in need of a floor. These guys are extremely nice guys; three went to Penn State and another to U of I. We go out with them to a club called Opium. This was probably my favorite night in all of my Spain staying. I knew I was sleep deprived and had another LONNG day ahead of me so I was the babysitter for the night. The one to make sure the group stays together and everything goes as planned. Every group needs it. If everyone is drinking things or people get forgotten and theres a chance that all hell can break loose. Since we are American, and some go to school in Barcelona we get in for free. This club is huge with an amazing dance floor playing crazy techno music. Outside was seating right on the Mediterranean Sea. When I say right on the Mediterannean Sea I mean they had a door to go out on the beach right out of the club. We stay at the club again until 4:00 in the morning and decide its a great idea to walk back to the apartment. It was a beautiful night right along the Sea. We walk and talk and experience the city that is still alive as we approach 5 AM. We realize that the train system has now opened again and grab a train to get into bed at 5:30 in the morning.
Saturday is more of the same. We spend a lot of time on Las Ramblas which has a market open. This is the coolest market I have ever seen. They have fresh fish of every kind including whole eel, octopus and things I could not even recognize. Fruit stands, bread stands, meat stands. Everything. We decide to grab lunch which consisted of a huge roll of bread, fresh cut meat, cheese, and fruit. 4 euros all together split between 3 of us. It was a VERY cheap lunch. We go to sit on Las Ramblas and watch the world pass us by. There are thousands of people walking this street, street performers every 50 feet, and just copious signs of a city that is alive and wild. We sit there when a Spanish guy comes up to us and pulls out a sandwich. We initially thought he was coming just to eat with us. He talks to us, and we start noticing something about this guy. He starts to get really close with my friend Adam. He blows him a kiss. 5 minutes later he gets the idea we don't swing that way and in broken english says "I tink I Lub you!!" to Adam. Me and my other friend Alec start laughing so hard as this guy blushes and walks away. Never saw that happen in my life and it was amazing. After eating our lunch we head to the Gaudi Park. This park was amazing, but not fully open due to the storms we had last weekend knocking down trees and making it unsafe to walk through. This park was like being in a Dr. Seuss world. The architecture was amazing. Since it was atop a hill it also had a view of all of Barcelona. After going to the Gaudi Park we headed back to the apartment to take what we thought was going to be a nap. We ended up getting stuck in an elevator about half the size of my closet. This elevator is once that u open the door for. So we get in and press 7 and start heading up. Next thing you know the elevator comes to a stop in between floors 4 and 5. We start laughing at this and we are literally crying of laughter. People hear us, speak to us in Spanish. We ask them for help, but they walk away. We finally find a way to open the door and climb out. That was quite the bonding experience considering we barely had room to breathe. After, my friend decided he was going to try and go see Kings of Leon which were playing at a club but tickets were sold out. Poor guy found out when he got there that the concert was cancelled and he couldn't even try to scalp tickets. So we went out again for the night. We went to dinner and ate Paella. Our dinner ended a little after midnight and we went out for a few beverages. We decided to go to a club around 3:00, but that was too late. Most people in Spain go out at 2:00-3:00 for the club. Midnight is considered extremely early here. By the time we got to the club there was a huge line and no way possible to get in, even pulling our American cards. So we walked around the bustling streets and headed back to the apartment to sleep on the floor. Once again we get home around 4:30. We wake up at 10 and decided to grab a bite to eat and head back to our plane. Once again we take multiple trains to get to the airport. I swear I am getting amazing at using public transportation and other ways to save as much money as I can. We get to the airport and I have a test the next day. There are like 5 other kids in my class, but no one seems to have remembered to study. I pull out a book from the class and begin to study. There is a group of 5 spanish girls sitting around me and I realize they are looking at me. I turn down my music and realize they are talking about me. I then turn off my ipod and start to talk to them. It turns out they went to the same school as I go to and we start talking about Bilbao. Mind you this is all in Spanish. We ended up talking for awhile and I get absolutely no studying done. Again a painless plane ride home. I get back to Bilbao, eat, and pass out. I plan on waking up early to study, but somehow that doesn't happen and I go to class today. We take our test and I notice the last 5 people taking the test are all the ones that were in Barcelona, each with a different crazy story about the town (we didn't see each other all weekend really because we were all staying at different places). We finish the test, laugh it off and here I am. Alive after a weekend filled with absolutely no sleep and miles and miles of walking.
Conclusion: Barcelona is an amazing city. It is so historical yet so filled with things to do at night. It is extremely dangerous. To the point where I would not bring out my wallet. We were told that people get robbed all the time and they are very tricky. The people are so skilled that they can kick the wallet out of your front pocket even. Two girls from my program were robbed while in Barcelona. One deserved it because she was flaunting the fact that she was not from the town. The other had her purse cut off of her shoulder and didn't realize it was gone until her friend started screaming for help. As long as you are a smart traveler you will have no problems. I am really mad because we did not get to see Sagrada Familia which is a HUGE church that is still being built. It has been under construction for almost 100 years. This church is apparently the most amazing thing ever. I would love to go back to Barcelona if I could fit it in my schedule, but there are also so many other places to see in Spain. I have only scratched the surface of my spanish life.

Hola,
This is going to be a really long post because I haven't updated in over a week and there is so much to talk about. So I will just go in time order.
To start off, I didn't have much to do last week; we didn't have much homework, and I am here to adventure. I got on the metro and got off at a random stop. I walked around, got lost, found my way back, and went a different direction. As I was walking down a street I came across a kid from my program. He had a surf board and explained to me that a beautiful surf beach was right down the street. I walked there and immediately fell in love with it. I am going to take up surfing somehow....
Ok now to start with my Madrid trip. Prenote: Madrid was influenced by the Muslims, Catholics, and Jewish religions. The word Madrid is actually Muslim meaning running waters.
I stayed in Thursday night, which is really out of the ordinary here in Spain. Some people went out, but they paid for it by missing the bus in the morning and having to pay to get a bus to Madrid. We got to Madrid and immediately went touring. We went to this Castle that used to be home to the king, called Palacio Real, but has been turned into a place to hold important social gatherings and for touring. I wish I had pictures, but they wouldn't let you take them. I could not believe that people actually lived in that place; there was at least one chandelier in each room and the walls were sewn in cloth. To explain how big this place was, my teacher said that the King, who lived there at one point, said he was the only guy in Madrid that couldn't get a warm soup, because once the soup arrived to him it was already cold. After that, we went to their Casco Viejo or old town. On a sidenote, I will be going on many tangents of why I enjoy Bilbao better then Madrid. Here is the first one, this Casco Viejo was extremely touristy, with many shops that were more like the others, selling products that a standard American would buy. After this, we navigated our way back to our hotel on the train, which we somehow accomplished. To explain this train system, it was 6 different lines all with town names we didn't understand. (Still don't know how we did it) On this train ride we got asked about 3 times by homeless people for money. Tangent 2: Yes, we have homeless people in Bilbao, but they keep to themselves for the most part. These homeless people would ask me for money in Spanish, and normally if I don't want to talk to people I just say in english "I don't speak spanish." But like everyone else I talked to in Madrid, they spoke english as well. We got back to the hotel, ate there and headed out. We went out on the metro which was filled with shady characters. Once again homeless people asking for money and then kids our age which treated the train like their own personal party. They were smoking cigarettes on the train and drinking god knows what out of plastic cups. Tangent #3: Bilbao's metro system is heavily watched over. There is atleast one security guard on each train, and it is extremely clean. You try to open a pop on our metro and a security guard is right behind you asking in Spanish whats going on. (Ok maybe that wasn't exactly true, but it was used for emphasis). We get to a club at about midnight, and realise they are charging 60 euro cover....haha I am not made of money. We decide to walk the town instead. We find a Burger King, and I order a Whopper. Ofcourse, the guy answers me in English, I get angry and answer him in Spanish, and he in turn answers me in English. Oh what a struggle we had Madrid. I get back to my room after a lovely cab ride at about 4 in the morning only to get a wake up call at 8:30.
We head out to Segovia which is a beautiful town with a lot of Roman influence. It is home to an aquaduct that dates to the first century. This aquaduct is put together using only stone; no adhesive whatsoever. It amazes me that this thing is still standing. We then walked to a REAL castle called "Alcazar De Segovia" This thing had a moat and bridge and all! It was amazing. We got a tour in Spanish, but this guy didn't understand that we were American students and he needed to talk slow. So I lost attention and that is all about I can tell you about it. After visiting the church we headed back to the hotel. We ate and went out again.
This time we actually made it into a club paying 20 euros to get in. Drinks costed 12 euros so I stayed away from them. Once again Madrid, I am not made of money.... To explain this club we went to it was 7 floors, with different music on each floor. There were thousands of people in this club. Being social and using my broken Spanish, I met people from Spain, France, Germany, Ireland, and ofcourse more Americans. It was unbelievable that there were so many different nationalities in this club. I was getting tired so we headed back to the hotel and I went to bed again at 4 in the morning. My roommate didn't get back until 630; we had to get up at 8 hahaha sucks for him, he had a rough sunday to say the least.
Sunday we went to el Museo Del Prado. I am a big fan of Goya and they had a huge selection of his artwork. The museum is huge, but it could be bigger with the amount of art they have. I got tired of the museum and all the hungover people were dragging, so I decided to head out on my own. It was a beautiful day so I headed to el parque de retrido which (if i spelled it correctly) means the park of the retired. This park used to be the Kings private park, but once again they have opened it up to the public. It was a HUGE park with a lot of people and things going on. I enjoyed it immensely. I walked around thinking in Spanish, and listening to the city for about 2 hours. Slept in the grass for about 15 minutes and then headed back to the Museum to meet up with everyone. Tangent #4: Madrid was very dirty. They had graffiti and garbage everywhere. Bilbao has graffiti, but it is either extremely artsy or stateing a political statement so it adds to the character of the town, and there are always street cleaners in Bilbao. A long bus ride home, 10 hours of sleep, and a day of school later I am here telling my story.
I have come to the conclusion that I would not be content going to school in Madrid. For all the previously stated reasons, and the fact that it is not close to water. The only benefit of Madrid for schooling is the fact that it has a huge airport to get to other places cheaply; Bilbao is expensive to travel. That is all for now sorry for all the random tangents, jumbled thoughts, and grammatical errors. There is just too much to say. If you need any further elaboration email me. Here are some pictures of my life. Sopelana is the beach aka the previously stated surf beach.