#buildabarricade

I have just gotten back from my much-anticipated trip to Paris! This is post going to be really long. Sorry. You asked for it!

Okay, to begin, I left Pamplona at the crack of dawn on Friday. I had bought the earliest bus ticket to Bilbao so I could spend the morning looking around. I bought the tickets before I knew that I was going the weekend before. However, I was planning on going to the Basque Museum to learn about the Basque people a little more since I didn't do that the last night. Sadly, this did not work out. Carmen told me that I should go straight to the Bilbao airport because of Iberia's strikes. Now, my flight was with Air France, but she had heard that people had to change their flights to other airlines so she told me to go ahead and check-in to ensure my seat. This precaution was actually unnecessary because I actually had checked in the day before.

You see, I had told Air France to e-mail me my boarding pass to my phone. It's a new way of boarding the planes. The airline sends you a QR code to your phone and then they scan it at security and when you're about to board. Therefore, I was completely checked in the night before my flight. Crazy, huh? The problem with this was that I couldn't do anything to change my flight. Since I got to the airport so early, I asked if I could have an earlier flight. They couldn't change my ticket because I was already checked in, which is the downside to the QR pass. It was really cool though, to just have them scan my phone screen. It's easier to keep track of a phone than a phone and the boarding passes.

Anyway, I got to the airport about 10:00am and my flight didn't leave until 3:20pm. I had tried to switch to one for 1:00pm, but as I said, I couldn't. So I went over to a cafe and tried to get onto the Wi-Fi; however, it wouldn't let me. I wasn't special enough. The Wi-Fi was only for elite business people or people who worked there. The airports in Europe are very weird about Wi-Fi, in my opinion. Even the Paris airport Charles du Gaule (CDH), only let you have 15 minutes of free Wi-Fi and then you have to pay. One thing I really miss about America is the availability of free Wi-Fi. Good thing I brought my Kindle and had had the forethought of adding books on it. I had started to read The Perks of Being a Wallflower on the bus ride over and ended up finishing it 10 minutes before my flight left. I read an entire book in one morning. It's crazy the things you can accomplish when you don't have Internet.

After I arrived in Paris, I used my 15 minutes of free Wi-Fi to check in and tell my mom that I arrive safely and whatnot. Then, I took out an e-mail that I printed the day before with instructions Tyler that had sent me for navigating the metro. Her instructions were great and I figured out how to get to the hotel with relative ease. I would be lying if it were seamless, but I didn't get on the wrong train or anything--I just had to stop and read the maps in the station a lot.

When I arrived to my final stop, I got off the train and was really confused. Tyler had figured out a route for me using Google Maps, but the actual metro stop was on a different road than it appeared on the map. I was really confused and wanted to ask someone for help, but I can't speak French. I also had the wrong idea of where Montmartre (which is where we stayed) is in Paris so when I looked at the map I couldn't find where I was. I ended up going back in the metro station and found a blown up map and found my way to the correct road pretty easily. I was settled in the hotel around 8:30 or so. Tyler wasn't supposed to arrive until 11:00 so I had around 3 hours to kill.

I wasn't sure what to do, so I ended up walking around the neighborhood for a little. I went to the supermarket and bought some fruit to eat throughout the weekend. I tried to order coffee in French and that didn't really work. At CDG, I copied some French travel phrases and tried to use those. I couldn't figure out how to pronounce certain things. Luckily, most people who work at stores and restaurants know the English necessary to do business.

I felt weird walking around at night because I wasn't really trying to get anywhere so I just pretended like I knew where I was going. I ended up going back to the hotel for a while and watched some French TV. I watched this reality show where French celebrities compete in diving contests. It was really entertaining. I think if that show were to air in America it could be called, "Diving with the Stars."

I feel asleep and when I woke up it was 11:20, so I ran downstairs to see if Tyler was there. She wasn't, so I sat down in the lobby and waited. She came in about 5 minutes later very frazzled. She had been lost for an hour and a half with all of her luggage. Eventually, a French guy had helped her find the hotel. We got her stuff upstairs and caught up. We had a Sigma family Skype session with Sarah and then went to bed.

Side note: Tyler is my sorority big sister. We're in Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority. Tyler is also Sarah's big sister, which makes Sarah my "twin." Since Tyler and I were both together, we thought it would be a perfect time to Skype Sarah because it's so hard to coordinate all of our schedules.

We kind of had a bumpy morning. We tried to buy metro tickets, but the metro station we went to didn't sell tickets. We spent a while trying to figure out what to do. Eventually, Tyler asked an elderly couple if they knew where we could buy tickets and the woman gave us two temporary passes! It was so nice. We went to a market and shopped for a little bit. We then went back to the metro and bought day passes. After that, we tried to find a Starbucks, which are everywhere, and couldn't for a long time. When we did, the power was out. In the next one we went to, the power was also out. Some kind of weird grid thing, I guess. We gave up on that and tried to find a Turkish/doner kebab place, which are everywhere, and couldn't. We ended up eating at a really bad Chinese restaurant.

Luckily, things went uphill from there. We found an operational Starbucks! That cheered us up considerably. It was freezing cold outside and the Starbucks warmed us for a good while.

We also went to the Moulin Rouge. We took a couple pictures outside (Tyler has all of the pictures of the both of us as she had an actual camera and I used my phone) and checked out the area that the public can see. If you want to watch a cabaret at the Moulin Rouge, you have to pay about 150 euros, which neither of us had. Maybe when I win the lottery or write a best-seller.

Tyler had a guide book that outlined a walk through Montmartre. We started out in a cool looking cemetery. Apparently, the original cemetery had to be destroyed, so they took the graves and compiled them into this one part. It looked like a city of tombs to me. The only person in the cemetery that we had sort of heard of was the inventor of the saxophone. It was too cold to try and find it, but it was cool that Mr. Sax was there. I wish we had stumbled upon it.

After the cemetery, we continued along the walk. The next stop was Van Gogh's apartment. It wasn't as cool as it sounded, but nonetheless, it was really neat to be outside of his apartment. To clarify, all they had was a plaque saying that Van Gogh lived here. So it wasn't a huge tourist attraction or anything. We actually saw people coming in and out of it. I think it would be really cool to live in that building.

I also found the Vandoren office building! If you play a reed instrument or you have children who do, you know what I'm talking about. Vandoren is a popular type of reeds that the band directors always make you get. I thought it was cool to stumble upon the reed people.

It was obvious that there were some other people on the same tour as us because they kept stopping at the same places. It was kind of funny.

We walked through a garden dedicated to a WWII heroine which was cool. It also had this headless saint which was a little strange, but hey, it was cool.

We then went to Renoir's apartment. It was very non-descript and hard to find. The only reason we found it was because we found some American tourists with a Rick Steves' Paris guidebook and they told us where it was. The one Tyler had wasn't as clear, I guess. It was basically a regular wall. We decided to be creepy and we climbed on the half wall across from it to see over the big wall. It was a nice little garden area.

After that, we stopped at the Moulin de la Galette, where a famous painting by Renoir was done. It was precious. Apparently, there used to be 11 windmills and now there is only one.

We continued along the walk until we reached a touristy section. We had made it to the Sacre-Coeur cathedral. The view from the cathedral is the highest part of Paris and you can see the entire skyline. Unfortunately, it was extremely foggy and couldn't see a whole lot. Nonetheless, it was beautiful.

However, I'm getting ahead of myself. Before going to the cathedral, we looked around at the gift shops. There were all these "artists" doing caricatures around the streets. Tyler and I had a miscommunication about whether we actually wanted one. I thought it might be cool to have one together. Two people started doing one of each of us and I didn't know what to do. I think we both thought the other one wanted one done. Tyler was jabbering away in French with her guy, so I just let the other one draw me. He talked to me in Spanglish since I don't speak French and I told him that I speak Spanish. When he was done, it looked absolutely nothing like me. He then told me that they normally cost 50 euros but that he was knocking it down to 30 for me. I told him I didn't have that. Tyler came over and just told me to walk away and we both told him we don't have that. He kept going down until he got to five euros and I ended up giving him 3. I felt kind of bad, but I didn't want the caricature anyway and Tyler didn't pay any for hers. We ended up throwing them away because they looked nothing like us. My brother and I got really good caricatures in Paris when we visited several years ago, but these were just bad because they weren't us. It was like the artists made up people to draw.

I already told you about the view from the cathedral, so I'll jump to the inside. There was a person standing in the doorway telling everyone not to take pictures and to put their cameras away. Which I thought was kind of weird, but whatever. We walked through the cathedral. There was interesting signage on the symbols in the cathedral, which always interest me.

What really struck me as odd and bothered me, was that they sold souvenirs inside the cathedral. Notre-Dame did this as well. They both had gift shops and stands selling souvenirs INSIDE the cathedral! I thought that was crazy and half expected Jesus to show up and knock over some tables. Tyler and I talked about this, it's one thing to ask for donations but another to make a church into a business. Or at least take it out of the sanctuary. It just didn't feel right to have that going on inside a church. After all, that's the only time we see Jesus get mad in the Bible.

After the Sacre-Coeur, we hopped on a metro and headed over to the Concierge. This is a building that has been in France since the Middle Ages. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of it (Tyler has them), but I can tell you that the gates in front of it reminded me of Buckingham Palace. The Concierge has been used for many things over time. It once was a castle for the kings and queens. During the French Revolution, it was used for keeping prisoners. Now it's museum.

The first part of the Concierge was an exhibit on the the changes in perception of castles over time. It was very interesting. The part about the middle ages referenced Arthurian legends a lot and featured a copy of a book about Gawain and a painting of a quest Lancelot went on. My inner Arthurian nerd geeked out.

Continuing on with the nerdiness, the last part of the exhibit was about how castles are viewed today. There were replicas of Disney castles and such. The coolest thing was this giant Lego Hogwarts. Tyler and I fangirlled over that thing for quite some time--all composure forgotten. The castle had such detail. It had scenes from all of the books. For the Harry Potter fans, it had Platform 9 3/4, the Chamber of Secrets complete with a basilisk, the Durmstrang ship, the great hall with students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, a Hungarian Horntail on the castle (which is a movie thing and not from the book, but still cool), dementors on the roof, Sirius escaping from Buckbeak, Dumbledore's office complete with a bed, McGonagall enchanting the statues in the castle, and the graveyard scene with a dead Cedric next to the Triwizard Cup. It was AWESOME.

Ahem. So after that, we moved on to the exhibit about the Concierge as a prison. We kind of rushed through it because it was about to close and Tyler really wanted to see Marie Antoinette's cell. She got to see it, but I glanced at it and thought it was a chapel and didn't go far back enough to see the reconstructed version--the people shooed us out before I could go over and see it. Ah well.

The Concierge is right by Notre Dame. We decided to grab some dinner before going to see that. We found a Doner Kebab place and ate some delicious kebabs. I had really missed doners from when we lived in Germany. After that, we picked up some pastries for the next day's breakfast and I got scrumptious Nutella and banana crepe.

On the way to Notre Dame, we stopped by Shakespeare and Co., which is a famous bookstore. We were so cold that we ended up going upstairs and reading children's stories for a while just to dethaw somewhat. We found some good ones! We found this one called Bilbo's Song or something like that about Bilbo Baggins. We also read a couple of tales from Tales of Beedle the Bard and Philip Pullman's retelling of Rumplestiltskin.

When we ventured over to the Notre Dame, we actually walked into a sort of dedication service. Apparently, they're getting some new bells for the tower and they had them all lined up in the aisle. So that was neat.

The weather kept getting colder and colder, but we wanted to stop by the Eifel Tower and get some pictures before we turned in for the night. So we hopped on the metro and hung out by the Eifel Tower as long as we could stand it. We even got to see it glitter (no sun needed), which it does every hour so we hit it at the right time.

It was absolutely freezing so we decided to head back and watch the new episode of Vampire Diaries (a show we both watch) and catch up back home, but the Wi-Fi was out. Maybe that was a blessing in disguise because we probably went to bed earlier than we would have otherwise.

We both had flights at 10:20, so we got up at 5:30am to head to the airport to make sure we had enough time and so Tyler checked in for her international flight early enough. We made it to the the airport about 7:30. I was getting stressed because I needed Wi-Fi to get my boarding pass and the airport's 15 min of free Wi-Fi wasn't working. Finally it worked and I felt much better. Of course, I could have talked to the air france people but then I wouldn't have had as much time to spend with Tyler.

Alas it was time to go, so we said good-bye. I flew back to Bilbao and took the bus to the old part of the city. I wanted to find the Basque Museum but by the time I got there it was one o'clock and the museum closed at two and I didn't know exactly where the museum was.

It was really nasty weather; cold, rainy, and foggy--perfect for dementors. So I decided I'd stop in on a mass. I found that I understood a lot more than I normally so. Either the priest was easier to understand or I'm understanding the way a mass works more/my Spanish is better. Then I wandered around looking for a decent and inexpensive place to buy pintxos (pinchos) but most places were closed. I went somewhere, but they weren't very good. But I was so hungry that it didn't really matter.

I ended up paying a couple euros to get an earlier bus back because I was exhausted, cold, and wet and had nothing to do since everything closes on Sundays. I happened upon a statue of John Adams before I left, which was neat. He apparently helped Biblao at one point in a matter of diplomacy.

For some reason, the bus I was on had Wi-Fi and the airports don't. That's how I got the blog post done so quickly--I outlined it on my phone while I was riding the bus. It's just a bit odd to me, I don't understand.

When I got home, Carmen greeted me warmly and had made me some hot chocolate served with bread to dip into it. I can't remember if I've written about hot chocolate in my blog, but hot chocolate here is different than in the U.S. In Spain, when you order hot chocolate you usually ask for "Cola-Cao" (Cola-Cow), which is hot milk served with a packet of mix that turns your milk into hot chocolate milk. I don't like it because I don't like chocolate milk. Then you have "chocolate caliente" which is made with a type of chocolate bar that you mix with hot milk to make this really rich and chocolately beverage. It's very delicious. Needless to say, I was touched and it definitely hit the spot because I was still freezing cold. Coming back home was the first time since Friday that I've actually been warm.

Well, that's my basically trip! If you're wondering about the name of the title, Tyler and I had a joke going on about building a barricade if something went wrong. We made a lot of Les Mis references at the end of the day.

I hope you enjoyed my novella of a blog post. If I haven't scared you off, tune in next time for...

Bilbo...Baggins?

As promised, here's an account of my trip to Bilbao.
I always thought that Bilbao kind of sounded like Bilbo, which then naturally made me think of Bilbo Baggins. As it turns out, Biblo is the Basque name for Bilbao. Bilbao is in the País Vasco, aka the Basque Country, which is actually a region in Spain. Navarra has a lot of Basque people, but Navarra is it's own region and not a part of the País Vasco. Anyway, I really wanted to find a T-shirt or something touristy that had something to do with Bilbo Baggins. Maybe that's too much of an English thing.

I went to Bilbao with some of the people I met on the San Sebastian trip. We took the 9 o'clock bus out of Pamplona and arrived in Bilbao around 11. We spent the rest of the day sightseeing and touring the Guggenheim Museum.




When we arrived in Bilbao, we were all pretty hungry, so the rest of my group bought breakfast and I got some to-go coffee and we found a park to picnic in.  To clarify, Carmen had made me two sandwiches and gave me an apple to take for the day. So I ate a sandwich and drank my coffee.  This definitely saved me some money on the trip.

 To get to the Guggenheim, we walked through the park after we ate and then along a river. There were several awesome saxophone playing street musicians. I love saxophones because my brother and some of friends play it. I also enjoy playing the saxophone when the clarinet is too quiet. I kind of wanted to take the person's soprano sax and play it myself, but of course that would have been rude.

You've probably heard of the Guggenheim Museum, even if you don't know exactly what it is. Before visiting the one in Bilbao, I knew that it was a famous art museum. Aside from that, I didn't really know anything else about it. Well, know I know that it is specifically a modern art museum. There are only a few in the world. We have one in New York city. The others are in Venice, Berlin, and Abu Dhabi.

We all split up in the museum and planned to meet back in an hour in a half. I had one of those audio tour things you hold up to your ear. I walked through the museum and if something looked interesting to me, I'd punch in the number and hear the explanation of the artwork. I must say, I don't really understand modern art. I feel like with most of that stuff, the artist just threw something together and came up with a philosophical reason behind it. I guess I just don't understand. Nonetheless, it was very interesting. The building in itself is art. I included pictures of it from all angles.

 After the Guggenheim, we walked down to the Casco Viejo of Bilbao (the old part of the city). It was very cool looking. We went to a bakery and got some sweets as a late afternoon snack. I got a stracciatella gelato and everybody else got pastries. I feel like I'll get plenty of pastries when I go to Paris this coming weekend and I was feeling the ice cream.

Apparently there's a medieval part, but we didn't go there. I'll probably go find that when I go this coming weekend. I do love medieval stuff.

Now that I've been to Bilbao, I know my way around a little, I have a map, and I kind of have an idea of what else I'd like to do. For instance, go to the medieval part and there's a Basque museum that sounds intriguing. Maybe some of the mysteriousness of the Basques will be cleared up for me.

 After touring the old part, we decided to slowly make our way back to the bus station. We stopped for drinks at a little pub and then went to a restaurant once we were close. All in all, it was a fun trip and I'm really glad I went! Thanks to Carmen, it was also very economical. Maybe next time I'll happen upon the barrio "Shire" and meet Mr. Baggins (barrios are like zones of the city).

This coming up week looks like it'll be pretty chill. Then I'm going to PARIS!!! I can't want to see my really good friend and sorority big sister, Tyler. We're going to have a blast.

Until next time!

Ash Wednesday, Valentine's Day, and a Protest

I'm doing another bus ride post. The blogger app has come quite in handy.

Let me pick up where I left off. On Wednesday, I went to an Ash Wednesday service. It was very good. It was interesting to see how similar it was to the ones back home. I noticed that this church said a version of "and also with you" in response to a variation of "God be with you," which made me excited because we always say that in the Presbyterian Church. We even did a passing of the peace! One difference I didn't expect was how they did the ashes. They made the cross on the top of my head, not my forehead. So that was different. All in all, however, it was very similar.

Thursday, of course, was Valentine's Day. It's only a big deal here for young lovers, so there really wasn't too much going during the day. My mom had sent me se Brave Valentine cards, so I brought them to class and shared them with my classmates, elementary school style. Everyone really liked them. I had to explain the concept to my teacher and some of my friends from other countries, but all in all they were a hit. I'm disappointed that they don't do post-Valentine candy sales. I really wanted to buy some. Oh well.

I had an extremely difficult grammar exam on Friday. The problem with my Spanish grammar is that I haven't learned new grammar since high school. Now I'm in a class where we're learning ALL the types of past tense (there are four), all the subjunctive tenses, the future tenses, and the conditional tenses along with what words you can use with certain expressions and trying to distinguish when to use the two different verbs for "to be." It hasn't been clicking for me until a few days ago when I realized the problem. Almost my entire class are not native English speakers. They're from all over the world. Therefore, the professor is teaching us Spanish grammar and explaining it I'm Spanish. My brain is just a little too set in English to learn grammar that way. So I went to learnspanish.com and taught myself the grammar, since they teach it for English people trying to learn Spanish. It magically made sense! So hopefully I did well on the exam.

The rest of Friday was pretty low key. I went on a long walk with Carmen and then relaxed for the rest of the evening. I got a notice for a package that my mom sent me and I tried to get it, but they told me I had to come back tomorrow to get it. The mail system is so strange. Why would they send you a package notification if they won't let you pick it up on the same day? Oh well. So I got it the next day.

Saturday, I went shopping with Carmen in the morning for a new bag. We didn't find one so I went out by myself after lunch. I went to a store that sold purses for 10€. I bought two and a wallet for 22€ in total. A bargain. Hopefully they hold up. Also, I bought ibuprofen (or ibuprofeno) for TWO EUROS!! It's a pack of 40 pills that are 600mg. So I bought a pack of prescription strength Advil for 2€. Crazy!

If you were wondering why I'd need ibuprofen, my bad hip has been acting up on me. I guess it's probably a combination of the uneven streets and the ice or something.

While I was downtown, I saw a protest going on. Spain has a really bad economy at the moment. A lot of protests happen, but this one was bigger. I'm including a couple pictures. They started in the city center, then moved to the giant traffic circle, blocking traffic and the buses. Lots of horns were honking. On the other hand, a lot random people started clapping. I watched it for a little while and then left because it was getting dark.

I am currently on my way to Bilbo, I mean Bilbao. It's a city to the east of Pamplona and has tons of cool stuff. There's a Guggenheim museum, which we might go to. If not, I'll go next weekend. I'm flying to Paris out of Bilbao, so I built some time into my trip to look around Bilbao. I'm glad my friends invited me to go this weekend because I'll be able to find my way around next weekend easier. I'm going to go ahead and figure out how to get to the airport and all that.

I will post soon about my day trip! I'll take some pictures as well.

Cultural Activities

Hello, readers!

If you'd like me to ever write about anything specific, let me know! If you see something I mention or was really vague about and want to know more, just leave a comment asking me to elaborate. Or if you just have a question about something and would like a blog post about it. Again, I love your feedback!

This weekend was, again, very relaxed. I'm getting to know Pamplona more and more. I can't believe I've been here over a month now! Crazy!!

On Friday, I went to a creative writing workshop, which was very cool. I took a class called Creative Writing Workshop last semester and found that a lot of things were very similar. This one was a bit more informal because it wasn't actually a class (as far as I could tell). I was actually under the impression that it was a session on creative writing and we would be doing writing exercises or hearing a lecture. In reality, it was actually more of the format of the class I took, where people submit stories and have them criticized by the rest of the group.

In this session, four people's stories were being reviewed. The person would go to the front, read their story, and then hear the feedback from the rest of the group. I could actually understand the feedback more often than I could understand the story. I think my favorite story was one about the French Revolution. 1) I could sort of understand it and 2) I just like the French Revolution as a theme.

On Saturday, Carmen and I went shopping to look for a new bag. I want kind of a bag that can carry a few books, but also serve as a purse when I don't want to carry all of that. So kind of like a messenger bag, but a little smaller. I've seen them everywhere except for in the stores. I didn't buy anything, but Carmen got a new purse and a new duvet cover for her bed. Ah well, maybe I'll be successful next time. Now I know where I can buy purses anyway.

I didn't really do very much on Sunday. Carmen and I went on a walk, but it started raining, so I mostly stayed inside and read. I needed to finish Robinson Crusoe for a book club meeting that was on Monday. While we were walking, however, we bumped into some friends of Carmen. It was a family with two young people around my age (I really couldn't tell how old they were). They kept trying to get their son to talk to me in English, but he turned really red and said he was too embarrassed because his English isn't that good. I told him that he didn't have to. It reminded me a lot of when I used to go to Mexican restaurants with my parents and they would always try to get me to talk in Spanish with them. I definitely would now, but then I thought I'd embarrass myself.

I actually tried to go see The Ugly Duckling (El patito feo), but I got completely lost. The website and pamphlet I had said that it would be in the science building. I checked the campus map and it said it was in one location. I wandered around for an hour trying to find the building to no success. I could just hear Master Yoda saying in my head, "Lost a building, have you?" I was exactly where the map said it should be and yet there was no building. I think it's part of another building, but everything was locked up tight. As it turns out, the play was in the Medicine building. They should have just said that. I would have known where it was if they had said something related to medicine. That's a completely different part of the campus. Ah, well. You live and learn.

Last night I got to go to my first book club meeting! It was very exciting to meet other Spanish students and listen to them discuss Robinson Crusoe. Although I didn't talk, I'm glad I read the book because I could follow their topics of discussion. It was also fascinating to hear them discuss an English book. They all read it in Spanish and so it was funny hearing some of the names translated. There's a character named "Friday" and they called him "Viernes." They didn't talk too much about the English perception of the Spaniards as much as I would have liked, but maybe that's because I was there. At some point in the future, I'll definitely participate in the discussion, but it was really loud in there and I don't like trying to talk loud in English, much less Spanish. They normally meet in a different pub, but we had to meet in a smaller one because we met on Monday. So in the future it shouldn't be as loud.

When Robinson Crusoe escapes his island, he travels through Pamplona, except he calls it Pampeluna. I thought I'd include the excerpt for your enjoyment:

When we came to Madrid, we, being all of us strangers to Spain, were willing to stay some time to see the court of Spain, and what was worth observing; but it being the latter part of the summer, we hastened away, and set out from Madrid about the middle of October; but when we came to the edge of Navarre, we were alarmed, at several towns on the way, with an account that so much snow was falling on the French side of the mountains, that several travellers were obliged to come back to Pampeluna, after having attempted at an extreme hazard to pass on.

When we came to Pampeluna itself, we found it so indeed; and to me, that had been always used to a hot climate, and to countries where I could scarce bear any clothes on, the cold was insufferable; nor, indeed, was it more painful than surprising to come but ten days before out of Old Castile, where the weather was not only warm but very hot, and immediately to feel a wind from the Pyrenean Mountains so very keen, so severely cold, as to be intolerable and to endanger benumbing and perishing of our fingers and toes.

Poor Friday was really frightened when he saw the mountains all covered with snow, and felt cold weather, which he had never seen or felt before in his life.   To mend the matter, when we came to Pampeluna it continued snowing with so much violence and so long, that the people said winter was come before its time; and the roads, which were difficult before, were now quite impassable; for, in a word, the snow lay in some places too thick for us to travel, and being not hard frozen, as is the case in the northern countries, there was no going without being in danger of being buried alive every step.   We stayed no less than twenty days at Pampeluna; when (seeing the winter coming on, and no likelihood of its being better, for it was the severest winter all over Europe that had been known in the memory of man) I proposed that we should go away to Fontarabia, and there take shipping for Bordeaux, which was a very little voyage.

It is extremely cold here, but at least it's not the coldest in the history of humans, eh?

Everyone was so nice! It's really hard to get to know Spanish people here, because they aren't as open (it's actually a stereotype for northern Spain), but once you do, they are great people and will do anything for you.

Today I'm going to a party for Fat Tuesday at a classmate's apartment and tomorrow Carmen is taking me to an Ash Wednesday service. It's going to be fun to see Lent because Catholicism is much more widely practiced. Protestants kind of do Lent as they feel like it, but all practicing Catholics observe Lent. In the Presbyterian church, we definitely do Ash Wednesday and enter a Lenten season. I'm excited to compare. That's my Christian Education major showing. Not going to lie, I try to change prayers I hear into inclusive language (challenge accepted).

Hopefully the weather will stabilize. It's been cold, pleasant, freezing, raining, snowing, rain-snowing, cloudy, and partially sunny just this week. As my mom reminds me, Europe is winter is a bit crazy, but then the springs are heavenly.

¡Saludos y hasta pronto!

Basque Basics

I can't say that I've learned all there is to know about the Basques, but after a month of being here I think I know enough to write a general blog post. 

The Basques are a group of people who have lived in this area of Europe for centuries and centuries. To make an analogy, the Celtic and Gaelic people are to the United Kingdom as the Basque people are to Northern Spain and Southern France. 

They still speak their language, Euskera, which is completely foreign to me and other Latin-influenced Europeans. It's very gutteral and the sentence structure is totally different. In a few entries previously, I said that I picked up the Euskera version of the Hunger Games. Looking at that version, the words are extremely long.

This is a paragraph from The Hunger Games summary in Euskera:
"'Kapitolio' aren aginpide tiranikoaren pean bizi dira herritarrak, miseriarik handienean eta norbere barrutitik irteteko askatasunik gabe. Pertsona bat baino ez da ausartuko arauak haustera eta bere familiarentzat zer jana ekartzera: Katniss da, hamasei urteko neska bat."

They have the root words and then add suffixes and prefixes to add different meanings. That's why words are so long.

When Spain started to form together as a nation, the Basque people were one of the last to be conquered. When they were, they were largely left alone to do their own thing. Even now, there is a "Basque Country" which consists of 7 provinces in Spain and France. Even though Navarra is not technically a part of the Basque Country (they want it to be), Euskera is everywhere. In the United States we often have Spanish or French in our stores and on our products. Here it's Euskera and maybe Catalan or Portugese. I can always pick out Castellano (Spanish), of course, but when distinguishing the other languages, Euskera uses a lot of z's and k's, which Latin based languages really don't. 

Speaking of Catalan, the province of Catalonia is actively seeking their independence from Spain. As you probably know, Europe originally consisted of hundreds of smaller kingdoms that eventually combined into the countries that are here today. Most are content, but the regions of Catalonia, Galacia, and Vasconia (Basque Country) all want their independence. Cataluña's independence movement currently has the most force. If Spain where to lose Cataluña, they would lose all the tourist revenue earned from Barcelona. 

The Basque independent movement used to have much more power; however, they have gone through a leadership change recently and have lost a lot of the force. The independent movement was mostly comprised of Eta, which is a Basque terrorist organization. It's actually quite like a mafia. 

Eta is the reason that the University of Navarra has such strict security. There have been several bombings here. There was one in the 80's and a couple several years ago. My professor who told us this doesn't think there is any current danger because of the leadership change, but that little tidbit is certainly not advertised on the prospective student leaflets.

I've yet to actually meet a Basque person. Well, I probably have, but I haven't met a solidly Basque person. Carmen's mother was Basque. One of my professors has a Basque last name. However, I haven't met someone who has spoken the language in front of me and who is really passionate about their heritage. I really want to meet one (or more!) before I leave. I think their history is extremely interesting and I'd love to know more about it. There's this shroud of mystery around them for me still. 

I'm sure my professors and other more knowledgable people who read my blog are cringing at all the historical mistakes I probably made. Sorry! This is just what I've come to understand over my month here. I hope that the majority of it was correct and you found this informative.

Communication Issues and Strange Encounters

So on Tuesday I wrote this glorious blog post about not having class. As it turns out, I, along with the rest of my class, was wrong about the professor not showing up.

She sent out an e-mail the day before telling us the hours for tutorial on our projects that we have to present. I read the e-mail and thought, "Great! I'll definitely go to the tutorial after class." We all went to class and the professor wasn't there. We assumed she was sick and didn't tell us or had some kind of emergency. So we left after 25 minutes of her not being there.

The same class meets the following day. The professor came in and asked us if we had gotten her e-mail. We all had gotten the one about the tutoring hours and told her this. As it turns out, the tutoring hours were DURING class, not after. I've never had a professor cancel class to do tutoring, or if they do, they're very explicit about the plans. She just sent us an e-mail saying, "Tutoring hours are 9-10:30" which is our class time.

She got frustrated with us because we didn't ask her to clarify her meaning. This reminds me of when I was having rent issues. Carmen got frustrated because I didn't ask her to clarify. I always ask to clarify if I don't understand, but you can't ask to clarify if you think you understand. I thought that we were going to have class and then she had open office hours for us to come in and talk to her. That's what it sounded like she said in the class before and in the e-mail. Luckily, I wasn't the only one who thought they understood so she scheduled another tutorial. I will read e-mails with more care in the future.

During my free time on Tuesday, I went downtown to look for Valentine's Day cards to send to friends back home. I thought they might like to see some Spanish ones. The only ones I found were these Hallmark Cards for lovers. I'm really confused as to why they don't have Valentine's Day cards. I understand that it's a cultural difference, but the gift-giving aspect of Valentine's Day has worked its way here. Do they give gifts without cards? Guess so. I seriously looked everywhere. I went in candy shops, stores for kids, little shops selling Valentine's gifts, and the giant department store here. Absolutely nothing. I thought about buying Christmas cards or party invitations, but I decided against it.

While I was shopping, I had my first experience of being hit on by a foreigner. It was really uncomfortable because he invited me over to his house and kept trying to get my number. I ended up lying about my age, name, where I live, made up a friend that I was going to meet, and finally made up a boyfriend just to get him to go away. Not going to lie, it kind of put me on edge for the rest of the day. There's a fine line between being cautious and paranoid. 

I honestly felt like I was targeted because I'm foreign. It probably wasn't the case, but with the media being what it is today I hear so many stories. I have to admit, while I'm out alone, I'm afraid of a lot of things. I'm afraid of being cornered on the street. I'm afraid to give money to performers or beggars for fear of being harassed for more. I'm afraid of the vendors on the street who sell things because they get really persistent. I'm afraid of strange men inviting me to their houses. I'm afraid of men who come up to talk to me when I'm alone. It's probably irrational, but nonetheless, these things go through my mind. I'm a very non-confrontational person and I don't like to be mean/forceful with people. But I have to learn how to be more assertive, I suppose.

I don't think that this is a magic solution by any means, but I'm thinking about buying a large purse here that's in fashion here. I was walking around with my backpack and American purse, and it made me look like a traveler. Another guy stopped me to ask me where I was from. I don't like standing out. I've always been a behind-the-scenes person. Maybe this is good for me. Whatever the case, this experience definitely frazzled me. I found a park with Wi-Fi and skyped my mom on my phone, which calmed me down a lot. It made me realize how irrational I was being. However, as a woman, I do have to take precautions that men don't necessarily have to take. It's not fair, but that's the way it's been since the dawn of time. I have to walk the tightrope that separates paranoia with being smart.

To clarify, I am certainly not afraid all of the time. Most of the time I'm fine. It's just sometimes when I'm downtown, I get wary when people approach me and I'll get edgy. Especially when they come up from behind me. Plus, I have a very overactive imagination. However, I'm going to follow the British slogan: keep calm and carry on.

When the professor skips class...

The professor didn't show up to my class this morning. Rather than going home, I decided to hang out around town. There are some things I want to buy and I know that if I go back home I'll just lay in bed. Which is nice, but I'd rather get things done.

At the moment, I'm sitting a café listening to Taylor Swift, Usher, and basically the top 20 radio of the US. Kind of strange being in Spain hearing American music playing. Anyway, I got a cafe con leche (coffee with milk) and fresh squeezed orange juice--which is the most delicious thing ever. They cost €2.60 Euros, which is quite good. Now I've got the Spanish version of Scott Westerfeld's Uglies (it's a post-apocalyptic novel that I read in high school) and I'm going to read a bit. After that, I'm going to go shopping.

There aren't Wal-Marts here, but there are little Chinese stores that sell commodities for very low costs. I think this is better than Wal-Mart, because I actually can buy from the Chinese.

Yesterday, Carmen showed me the library that is in our area. She told me that this one is much smaller than the main one, but it has books and movies that I can check out if I don't want to walk as far (the other is a 30 min walk). Well, we approached this really large building and I was confused because she said the library was small.

We walked in and I saw a museum. There was art-work hanging on the walls and sculptures. She lead me over to the stairs and a blast of chlorine hit my nose. Carmen laughed at my expression when I asked her if there was a pool. It's apparently the multipurpose building for our zone of the city. The basement has a pool, the main floor is an art exhibition, and the top is a library. So basically all of my favorite things.

I don't have class until 2:15, so I have to make it somewhat productive. I wish I could just finish all of them at once, but I'll figure out how to pass the time. Carmen usually goes out and deadlocks the door, which my key doesn't work on. I would ask if I could come back today, but again I want to be semi-productive. I'm enjoying bumming around town.

Festival de San Blas

Before I talk about the festival, I'm going to tell you a little more about my weekend. I didn't do very much because it rained all day Saturday, but I'll talk about what I did do.

Friday, I met up with a friend of Monica's to talk Spanglish with. She also brought along her son, who is about my age. They were both extremely nice and we went to a coffee shop and talked for an hour or so. We spent the first part talking in Spanish and the second part in English. I think the Spanish part went over better. I think it's hard for Spanish people to understand my American and quasi-Southern accent. I tried to talk slowly, but it was easier for me to say something in Spanish and them respond in English. 

It was funny how chill the mom was about her son's partying. He told me that he was really tired because he had been up late drinking with friends. I looked at her expression and she was just smiling and had this kind of "oh, young people" look on her face. As awesome as my mom is, she definitely would not be like that if I were out late drinking. 

I was planning on going to a Spanish book club meeting afterwards, but I checked Facebook for to verify the time and place and realized that they had changed the time. It's harder for me to read their online Spanish because it's more colloquial, so I had missed that fact. Ah, communication.

Speaking of communication, Carmen and I had a problem with the rent payment. I had to pay her a deposit before coming here to secure my place. That deposit will either be returned to me when I leave or I can use it to pay for my last month. I didn't understand that until Friday. I thought that the deposit I paid was the rent for January, so I thought I was good until then. A few weeks ago, she kept asking me about the rent and so I was really confused why. I paid her and just thought I'd paid early for February. Nope! I had actually paid her for January.

Well, Friday was the 1st so she expected a payment. However, I thought I was good until March. When she asked me about the rent, I was really confused. She explained it to me, using different means until I actually understood. I was close to tears. She wasn't angry, but kind of frustrated and exasperated that I hadn't asked her to clarify before then. I didn't because I thought I understood. I hate disappointing people. So, after meeting with Monica's friend, Carmen and I went to my bank's atm and withdrew what I could for that day, since I have a debit card with a maximum withdrawal per day. I paid her the rest the next day.

On Saturday, I went downtown with Carmen to run errands with her. She had to return a sweater, I had to buy a bus ticket and pay the rest of my rent, and she had to buy food. We went to two marketplaces. The first was one that I hadn't been to with her before and the second was the one we went to last time. 

The first market was obviously a newer building than the other. It blended with the city well, but it wasn't as pretty on the inside. It had two levels. Carmen went shopping and let me look around. I went downstairs and discovered this group of performers who were making their way upstairs. I followed them and got up really close. I'm linking the video I made. 

Two of the people performing live in our building, according to Carmen. In the video, it's hard to see the band but they had trumpets, saxophones, trombones, a couple baritones, and some other instruments I didn't recognize. There are several saxophone features, which made me think of my brother, Hank, who plays saxophone. The dances performed are typical of Navarra.

The performance in the video for Pamplona's Carnaval, or at least I think it was. I think Carnaval happens several times a year here. Today, Sunday, was a festival for San Blas. I'm learning little by little about this Catholic run nation, so forgive my ignorance. If I understand correctly, each day has a saint as well as every church. Today, for whatever reason, they have a festival for San Blas, "san" meaning saint. Carmen didn't know the reason for it. I guess it's just a tradition and after while you forget the original reason for it.

My Catholic friends (you know who you are) likely know much more about this than I do. I apologize for what I get wrong. All cathedrals have images of Christ and Mary; however, each has their own patron saint. There is one for San Fermin, the patron of Pamplona and the namesake for the "Running of the Bulls" festival. The festival for San Blas takes place outside of his church and they hold mass in honor of him throughout the day.

We went inside the church, which was ridiculously packed, and it was at the tail-end of a mass. They served communion and it was just amazing to hear the story of the last supper in Spanish. You kind of forget after a while that what we say is a translation of Jesus' Aramaic or Hebrew and therefore it's the same it other languages as well. Of course, I knew all this, but it's just different to see it in practice. I didn't take the communion for two reasons. One, it was really crowded, and, two, I don't think I'm supposed to because I'm not Catholic. Catholics believe the bread and wine is converted into the literal body and blood of Christ and since I don't believe that, 
I don't think I'm supposed to take it. 
I've heard one of my really good friends who's 
Catholic say that. Right, Katie? 

Carmen and I went downtown and vendors were all set up in front of the church of San Blas. They were selling all sorts of things. There are specific sweets for this day as well. The most popular are the "roscos," which sort of like a donut but smaller.








Unfortunately, we didn't stay very long because it was really cold and windy. However, I caught a nice glimpse of a Spanish festival.

The candy that you see hanging from the stalls reminded me a lot of "Ring-Pops." I don't know what they're actually called, but I call them "ring-bracelets" because essentially that's what they are. They also sold rings on a stick. Whichever you prefer, I suppose. The kids were just holding the ring bracelets and not actually wearing them. Silly kids.

Later today, Carmen and I are going to make torrijas (pronounced "tor-ee-has"), which are absolutely delicious. She made me some for my birthday and makes them every once in a while. This time she's going to teach me. She makes them whenever she has to much bread and it's going to go bad. Kind of like when we have too many bananas so we make banana bread. The torrijas remind me of the delicious french toast my dad used to make me when I was younger. Hint, Dad, you should make me some when I come home.

Well, that's my weekend in a nutshell!

Oh, if the video above for whatever reason didn't work, here's the link: http://youtu.be/-5zZ4tCmBq8