Week one: check.

Sorry, guys. I've been a bad blogger. I promise I'll try and get the hang of this! For now, all you need to know is that this last week has been quite the adventure: frustrating at times, a little scary, but mostly, absolutely amazing. After hours of delays, a 9 hour plane ride (sitting next to the coolest woman ever- she was a professional cyclist), and lost luggage for FOUR DAYS (don't even get me started), I am settled in Bilbao and loving it.

If I recapped the last five days in complete detail, I'd put you all to sleep...so all you need to know is that we've been doing a lot of orientation sessions with the university, exploring the city and surrounding areas, and getting to know our (wonderful) host families. To make it much more manageable, here's a top 12:

1. In Spain, it is completely acceptable to eat dinner at 11pm. I do every night and it's killing me. And yes, it's supposedly bad to eat right before you go to sleep, but no worries...everyone (my retired host parents included) goes to bed super late, like 2 in the morning. Crazy! No wonder they all take siestas! Which brings me to...

2. Siestas. Everything closes down around 2 o'clock for lunch. Restaurants, shops, everything...closed. Everyone goes home to eat and nap. I thought people were exaggerating the siesta when they talked about Spain. They're not.

3. My host family = awesome. I can't tell you how WONDERFUL it was to arrive from the airport in the middle of the night - disgruntled, terrified, and worried - and have Conchi (my mom) waiting in the street for my taxi, hug me before I could even get out of the taxi, and walk with her arm linked in mine the whole way home. They all talk slowly with me and are patient with everything I say (I think the dad thinks I'm really dumb) and have been a tremendous help.

4. Today I walked past a marijuana store on the street. Whaaaat?

5. The Spanish, as much as their eating schedule is messed up, can EAT. And they eat well. I've tried a few new things like tortilla española (tortilla de patatas), which is kind of like an omelette-pie thing with potatoes. Muy bueno! But man, does Conchi get upset if I don't finish my food, which I often don't because there's so much! She brags to me that the last three girls that have stayed with her family "se engordaron" (got fatter) before they left. Ha. The culture surrounding food and body image certainly is different!

6. A common drink here is "calimocho," which is is a mix of red wine and coca-cola. Kam's needs to get on that.

7. Bilbao is beautiful. It's a fascinating mix of new and old, culture and industry, tradition and modern custom - it's such a rich atmosphere and I absolutely love it. Seeing the steel Guggenheim museum - a piece of art in itself - against the backdrop of tidy, colorful, mismatched apartments is a perfect example of how Bilbao can't seem to decide what century it's in. I love it. My favorite place is "Casco Viejo" - the historic neighborhood that forms the old city center. No cars really drive here...the tangled web of cobblestone streets are full of pedestrians wandering from shop to shop. Trendy clothing stores are mixed in with tapas bars, panaderías (bakeries), souvenir shops, and more. My descriptions won't do it justice.

8. Bilbao is more loyal to "Basque country" than it is to Spain. The Basque region is made up of 3 provinces, and it considers itself quite separate from Spain. For example, you see the Basque flag (ikuriña) a lot more frequently than the Spanish one. Bilbao is the capital of the province Biscaya. In Basque country, many people speak the Basque language of Euskera. It's all over the street signs, packaging, etc - Bilbao is essentially a bilingual city of Euskera and Spanish.

9. I live in an area of Bilbao called Arangoiti. I'm quite certain it means BIG-ASS HILL in Euskera. Ok, maybe not...but it certainly is. When I go running, I dread returning home every time. It's more reminiscent of mountain climbing than going for a jog. On the way home from town today, I joked with Megan (a U of I student who lives in the building next to me) that even if our host moms nos engordan, our butts are going to be great by the end of the semester. Haha.

10. 'Vale' means OK. For the first few days, I had NO IDEA why EVERYONE kept saying 'vale' alllll the time. I thought it was a command form of "ir," so every time my host mom said it I thought she was telling me to go somewhere! Hahaha...it's basically a filler word and they say it a ton. Wow, did I feel dumb when I found that out!

11. "Britt" in Spanish sounds more like a strange noise than a nickname. It sounds a little bit like BLEEET when people try to say it. Spanish people are about as fond of trying to say it as I am fond of responding to a sound that reminds me of a smoke alarm. En España, me llaman "Tani" (in Spain, they call me 'Tani'). Not gonna lie...it's growing on me.

12. I have a long way to go with my Spanish. Sometimes, it's frustrating...but I am learning so much every day - not just the language, but the culture, customs, and a whole way of life that I am discovering the beauty of little by little.

Alright. That's all for now! I'll try to write a little more frequently so these aren't so long!

¡Hasta luego!