A week of firsts

Although the actual school week has just begun, I have attended one session of each of the classes I will be taking during my time here, and have decided on a schedule which I think will, straight from In Bruges(one of the best movies of 2008), "strike a balance between culture and fun". I have 8 books to read, a paper to write on each, a small handful of mid-terms, and 5 finals to take. All my classes are small, the largest I believe has 26 people in it, and I anticipate getting to know my classmates fairly well, if for no other reason than necessity.
In the mornings I have my funner classes, Spanish Grammar and Spanish Conversation. I think these will tend to resemble high school spanish more than anything, even these first days there was a lot of group activities whose sole purpose was to facilitate discussion in spanish. My new friend Brady is fortunately in both, everyone else who walked in seemed to know someone else from their home university and these pairs immediately sequestered themselves. After lunch and a little siesta, I come back for Spanish Linguistics, Analysis of Spanish Literature, and Spanish Literature and Cinema, which will probably be the most challenging Spanish courses I've ever taken. Here are the papers, the presentations, the books to be read. In these classes, being able to understand and produce Spanish is just the beginning, now we take those language skills and apply them to a subject besides the actual language. It's like taking and American literature class, except in another language and about literature I've never even heard of. It's less about understanding each word that comes out of the professor's mouth and more about understanding the concept that he's talking about.
After walking to the bank 3 times, on Monday I finally got around to changing a few of my dollars into Euros. The previous times I discovered you need a passport to make the switch, and that the bank has different hours than what you would expect. With this cash burning a hole in my pocket, I went today to the Zubiarta, a large mall right across the river from the aparment, and bought myself a body sponge. Apparently, washcloths aren't customary, it was either a sponge or a lufa, and having tried neither before, I went with the manlier of the two(time will tell if this was a wise choice, as I took it out of its packaging, the sponge bore a rougher texture than I imagined). Tomorrow or the next day I'm going back to buy some floss, another toiletry item I neglected to bring along.

After a week, I find myself missing some things that are expected, and some that surprised me:

1. Of course, friends and family, Ann most of all.
2. Pumpkin Pie. On the first dinner back in the states, that's what I'm going to ask for as a dessert.
3. Koin. It's been an interesting transition from living in complete community to being extremely isolated, especially the first few days.
4. Campus Rec. It's not even that I miss the physical place, but having a job in general. Beyond the financial reasons, I miss spending time I know I'm getting payed for.
5. Going to church. On Sunday I listened to Dr. Boltinghouse's sermon from the previous week, and had my own little worship service in my room, but I genuinely missed worshipping around other believers. Even if I don't have a clue what they're saying, I'm going to a Cathedral next week just for that reason.
6. Peanut Butter. You have no idea.
7. Animal Crackers. These have been the first times I've watched Gossip Girl without a tub of Animal Crackers beside me, and it honestly just isn't the same. Obviously the lack of Jer and Miller's presence throws me out of my element anyway, but no animal crackers was the straw that broke the camel's back.
8. Singing along with Jordan Meiss as he plays the guitar. Our favorite is a folk-esque version of "Hey Ya" by Outkast, and I miss making my way down to the Icebox(his room at Koin), already hearing him pluck away at the guitar, then sitting down on the couch and getting started with "My baby don't mess around..."

Tomorrow, and on all Wednesdays, I don't have class until 4, which probably means a run, doing some of my first homework assignments(just some reading for now), and taking it easy for most of the day. I'll get some of the books I'm supposed to read throughout the semester tomorrow, and will be interested to see if I can actually read them. One of the exchange students who lived here before left a Spanish-English dictionary behind, and I expect I'll be cracking that open once every other line, give or take.

Hasta later

It's edible, and I'm hungry

I have successfully arrived in Bilbao. My trip had very few hitches at all, the hardest part was navigating the Charles-de-Gaul airport in Paris, I'm glad I'm flying to Madrid and then Philly on the way home. Even if that airport is harder to get around then Paris, I should be fairly proficient in the language by then and should be able to ask for directions.
My family is interesting, I have a mother named Marisa, and a little brother named Aitor, who is either 14 or 15, I've had conflicting reports on the matter. They are not nearly as family-oriented as I thought they'd be, but when we're all together(a phenomena that usually only occurs around dinner time) it's not a bad time.
School starts on Monday, I can hardly wait. We're doing these orientation sessions now, which last about half the day, leaving the other half as free time, but considering how new and foreign everything is here, that tends to mean bumming around the city for a few hours and then just going home and sitting around. I've made a few friends that I've spent some time with walking around the city, but there still seems to be an excess of time that isn't being productively filled. My reluctance to spend money is also probably effecting the amount of time I'm spending "out".
The city itself is beautiful, there's plenty of cool looking buildings with a river splitting it up. I'm blessed with having an apartment right on the river and just a block and a half from the University, this is convenient both in terms of location and in hindering my ability to get lost, as long as I can get to the river, I can get home.
Today we're taking an excursion to some of the older cities in the Basque region, hopefully that eats up a lot of time, although I'm also hoping to get back in time to change some money and finally have some euros. There's a few conveniences I'm living without at the moment, namely a cell phone(which I've heard is quite cheap here), and although I'd rather not have to spend the cash, the american dollars aren't doing me any good just sitting in my pocket.
My next post will likely come after school starts, although perhaps a bit earlier, we have the whole weekend free and while I hope to spend some more time with the friends I've made in the program, I'm sure I'll have plenty of down time.

Hasta later

8 days and counting

In a little more than a week, I will be getting in a car and driving up to Chicago to get on a plane, which will take me to Philadelphia. I won't be spending more than a few hours in the city of brotherly love, as I'll be getting onto another plane and flying over to Paris, the City of Lights. Again, after little more than a few shakes of a lamb's tale, I'll be boarding a third and final plane and traveling to Bilbao, my final destination and home for the next five months. There, I'll be studying Spanish language and culture, making friends, having adventures, and probably going bankrupt.

Although I've read my fair share of them, this will mark the first time I've ever written in a blog, and I intend to update this one fairly regularly, perhaps once every two or three weeks, sometimes more often, sometimes less. I won't be bringing a camera with me, so this will be for the most part devoid of photographs, from time to time one or two pictures may make an appearance.

I suspect I'll write in this again before I go, probably ruminating on how much or little of my life can fit into a 50 pound suitcase. I suspect I'll have to leave the nunchucks behind, but that's the way these things go, I think.

Hasta later