fish hooks and nata (random weekend events)

i went on a field trip with my oceanography class. and i just want to say that it was ridiculous. we went to a little fishing town called palamos down the coast and watched fishermen and talked about their equipment, and then watched the fish auction where they sell the fish, and went to a crazy museum (where the gift shop floor was made up of pictures of bins of fish, it was gross

and about spanish fish markets. there is no modest about them, anywhere. heads are left on, and they stare at you from their ice filled buckets. and the shrimp and snails and crabs crawl around on everything. sometimes they arent even in their own bucket. its a big blob of seafood. and when you want some salmon, or some of a very large fish but not all of it, they bring out the hugest knife you have ever seen and slab it up right there in front of you while you listen to the tearing of flesh. (and the sad thing is that i used to actually like seafood) sometimes the fish even still have hooks in their mouths.


ok, and now i am done with my ranting...some more interesting things i learned that weekend

1)whiskey can actually be involved in an amazingly girly
2)you can never have enough goat cheese in your life (i think i already knew that, but i just keep being reminded of it)

vocab lesson: nata= whipped cream, ron=rum, espuma=amazing (well, actually it means foam, but whatever)
speaking of espuma, tessa, emma, and i went to the amazing restaurant down the street that is only open on the weekends and i got mousse de chocolate con espuma de ron (chocolate moose with rum flavoured whipped cream!). it was so amazingly perfect. we also got a pitcher of sangria de cava, and then emma and tessa decided they werent going to drink. since when did i become the big drinker of the group? i mean, i am the one that plays pong and gives my partner all of my beer. it was a bad situation.

the next morning

when i got home from st. patricks night with tessa and emily, i was tired and went straight to my room (aka, bed) as quickly as possible.

it turns out that this was probably the best move i could have made on my part. the next morning i woke up relatively early (it is a rare weekend morning in the apartment when anyone is awake before 11am) and went to the kitchen to get some cereal. and what did i see in the living room? wrinkled in the corner of the couch? and scattered about the room, under the table, in the corner? man clothes!! and juaq clothes!! the "mood setting" light that creates fake fog (yes, juaq is incredibly cheesy) was even left on.

emma was not awake, but i just had to tell her and knew that by the time she would be awake all the evidence would be gone. so i took pictures. i know, kind of creepy and crazy. but i just had to.

what the spanish don't celebrate, we have to make up for (st. patricks day weekend)

at dinner with juaq, alone once again because emma is traveling, we are discussing weekend plans. i tell her that this weekend is st. patricks day. and she says "what are you talking about?"

"you know, irish...st. patrick...green, ummm"

she had no idea what st patricks day was! it was devestating. the only places you could find a substantial amount of green were irish pubs!

so we decided that we needed to make up for the lack of spanish celebration. home made dinner (we didnt have enough bowls, so we had to eat the soup out of measuring utensils), followed by irish car bombs. . the dinner was amazing and really made me miss making my own meals and having a kitchen around that doesnt smell like dog and rotting fruit.

so after a movie viewing from tessas computer, i got a taxi and had the most amazing taxi driver who was playing a radio station that was apparently dedicated to american folk music from the 60's and was playing bob dylan and donovan, and it couldnt have been a better ride home.

sangria, ¿para llevar? (san sebastian 3)

day three of our trip to basque country started out pretty much the same way as all the other days did, with a walking tour. this time we went to gernika. and again, i had no idea what our guide was saying (i had given up on trying to listen, and just took a million pictures instead). but we did see a pretty park, and some beautiful churches, and some amazing public art.

we then moved on to bilbao, with some random stops on the side of the highway to see the surfing sights, a church, and so on.

and finally bilbao. we had a nother walking tour. some highlights:

when we were stopped in front of a cathedral "listening" to the guide, this little boy comes walking downt the street driving a remote control car and manages to maneuver it through our group, and in between our legs. i was in love, and kind of wish i was 5 years old.


we walked by jesus opticals, as well as a store that was selling towels, blankets, and bed games. haha, i love spanish signs.

we had free time for lunch and exploring during siesta time (way to plan out the day guys), so a few of us headed to the middle of the city for some bocadillos. we found a little diner looking place with bocadillos, and suddenly it occured...sangria is exactly what this day needs. so emily, the goddess that she is, orders her sandwich and asks the man behind the counter, "es posible para tener sangria para llevar?" (is it possible to have some sangria to go?). he gave us some strange looks, but made it for us anyway in cardboard coca cola cups. we ate in the plaza in the sun, and took naps in the sun. sangria, bocadillos, siesta. we are so spanish. (imagine me sleeping in between emily and jeanna...i only woke up to take the picture)

we ended the day at the guggenheim. they were preparing for a big anniversary celebration exhibition, so only the permanent collection was open to the public, but that was enough considering the amount of time we had. our guide finally spoke in english for this tour, and suddenly he was interesting, and funny, and intriguing. we were all amazed at how much we liked him in english. i was blown away by the museum, and gained some faith in art again. when we had free time at the end, tessa, emily, jeanna and i decided that we needed to walk through each and every Serra sculpture. if i had that kind of money i would DEFINETLY be making huge sculptures that people can walk through and into and mess with their perspective. except you could touch my sculptures, without the museum security guards freaking out. (we touched them anyway secretly, the threat of camera security didn't scare us)

so we get to the airport, and our plane is delayed. we board (on the plane there is basically just our group and maybe 5 other people), sit, sit, sit, sit...and we have no idea why it is taking so long. suddenly, on come this large group of men dressed in suits. and all the spaniards get so excited. and they clap. and the pilot makes an announcement. and us americans still dont know what is going on...until we see the crests on their suits. it is the entire espanyol futbol team. coaches, media crew, players, everyone, on our flight back to barcelona.
suddenly we were not so tired anymore. i tried to get a picture on the sly, but felt kind of sketchy and stopped (this was the best i could do). i would have asked for some autographs, but considering my luck, and the fact that i dont know who is who on the team, i probably would have asked the 4th string player that everyone makes fun of. so i decided against it and stayed in my seat hoping one would come sit by me. no such luck. they all just sat and played video games while the stewardess gave them free water (and ignored the rest of us).

and following the worst turbulence i have ever experienced (in which the pilot came over the intercom clearly freaked out, shaky voice and everything), we arrived home safe and sound.

france, lake tahoe, and pais vasco (san sebastian 2)

and so our guide tore me away from the park, and moved us onto the bus to go to Hondarribia, a little pueblo north of san sebastian. we had a walking tour of the town, where we saw a lot of things that i am sure are very important. but, of course, no body was listening or understanding what he was saying. so all i know is that it was an amazing little town that took a bit of my heart.

and then suddenly i understood perfectly what he was saying, lunch time! he told us that we could take a boat to france for lunch if we wanted, and even though he claimed that everything is twice the price once you cross the border, you just can't pass up this sort of opportunity. so we boarded the boat to france (as pictured), and made our way to an afternoon of france. the boat ride was short, and manned by just one guy who seemed quite overwhelmed when our group of 30 americans showed up. the combination of sun and france was not good. when we arrived emily was so excited i thought she might pee her pants.

we had our minds set on some french cheese, a baguette, and some champagne (not cava this time!), and found this guy on the street selling some amazing looking cheese. he was amazing, and apparently knew every language as he was not only speaking french, but also english, spanish, and catalan. every time someone knew was speaking with him it seemed he was speaking a new language (and just to boast, he spoke to us in spanish and NOT in english!). He let us taste some of the cheese, and it was impossible not to buy it. we asked him where we could buy some bread. unfortunately it was siesta time, so nothing was open (according to him), but we can buy this loaf of bread he bought this morning...he only ate a few pieces since he bought it. and wine, where could we get wine? nowhere? oh, you don't have any of that do you? oh.






so we settled on some good french bread and amazing french cheese and ate in the sun and it was lovely. and when we had finished off the bread, we headed back to spain, and back to san sebastian for the rest of the afternoon of free, unguided time, where we re-walked the walking tour from the day before, this time in the sun. it is amazing how different a town can look from way to the next. i barely recognized san sebastian in the sunshine.

my favorite place was this place by the sea with these amazing metal statues worked into the rocks. there were also ladders that led down to rocks closer to the sea, that i should have climbed down in the name of art and photography and general adventure, but tessa talked me and emily out of it. i still regret it.

we continued with some shopping. tessa saw this dress and decided it would be perfect for my wedding. but seeing as it didnt even fit the maniquin they had it on, i don't know how much i luck i would have with it. and then, in order to make that dress fit even better, we went to find some churros con chocolate.

when the rest of the girls went up to the counter to get the churros i held the table. i was sitting next to a couple of little boys wearing firefighter hats (which are yellow here) and i talked with their dad, who was from brazil, and the place was filled with other little kids with firefighter hats (because apparently there had just been some sort of firefighters fair), but our conversation was interrupted by the appearance of churros con chocolate. they were gone in minutes.

we decided to walk back to the hotel, to work off the churros, since we were only returning in order to eat the amazing 3 course meals they were feeding us. on our walk, we happened by a carousel and ended up spending the best euro of my entire time in spain. which was followed by a surprise fireworks show (literally), some of the most amazing, as well as most creepy street performances i have ever seen, and a beach sunset.

dinner time, and then off to the bars. we were not about to miss the barca madrid game, and headed off to find a bar with a big screen and estrella to watch the game and yell loudly at the screen like the old men in the bar by my apartment do, even though they clearly dont pay attention to the game. we settled at the second bar we went to, and emily and i decided to get another beer. i decided to ask the bartender for the beer that was his favorite, he gave it to us, and said it was a czech beer. so we drink it, and half way through, realize that on the label on the back of the bottle it says "label of budweiser". apparently the bartender has bad taste in exports. we were then hit on, attempted to be danced on, and sweated on by these guys from san sebastian. but all they knew about the US was lake tahoe, because one of them had visited lake tahoe, and all they could say or ask us was "Has ido a Lake Tahoe?" (have you been to lake tahoe?). they were quite dissapointed when i said no, but would forget in a few minutes and ask again. it was a vicious cycle of dissapointment.

where the bumper cars sang to me (san sebastian)

school organzied weekend travels may seem somewhat disadvantageous. you can't do what you want, when you want, where you want. and basically, you are at school so its pretty much automatically not as cool. but i am going to admit right now, i am a nerd. not only did i sit at the front of the bus and joke with the chaperones, but i loved this sponsored trip to the basque country. let me explain why.

they organize everything. you pay them one lump sum, and suddenly flights, tours, itinerary, hotel, and food are all dealt with. plus, we ended up doing things that i NEVER would have spent the money on if it had been up to me. our hotel was amazing, and the meals that were included with the trip were four course meals. literally. when we got to our tables there were already warm rolls! and every day we were lead by a tour guide.

ok, so the weekend begins.
we meet at the airport at some unreasonably early hour and after a plane, bus, walk, bus, we get to this little village called Getaria. It was raining (as it continued to do for the rest of the day) and although it was only 10 AM it felt like it was time for dinner. There was no time for walking around. Food was needed right away. Thankfully we managed to find an amazing bakery, and somehow managed to communicate to them that we wanted toasted bread with jam. and the jam was homemade!! it was so good.

we continue with another long bus ride, and finally arrive in san sebastian just in time for lunch, where we are served a ridiculous amount of food and i get way too excited and eat as much as possible. literally. i have never eaten so much i thought i was going to be sick, apparently there is a first for everything. and it was so amazing, i didn't even regret eating it all.

after some digestion slash napping time, the group of us met our tour guide for the weekend, and headed out for a walking tour of san sebastion. set the scene:
cold wind
cold rain and mist
cloudy skies
no umbrella
mesh shoes and jean jacket (way to pack appropriately for the weather claire)

regardless of the most horrid weather possible for a walking tour, our guide managed to stretch it into a 4 hour extravaganza, speaking spanish nonetheless. so not even were we not paying attention to him because we were distracted by our uncomfortably wet everything, but we couldn't even pretend like we were listening to be polite. needless to say we we began to get quite ridiculous around the second hour. needless to say, emily and i began reminiscing about zoolander, and decided that blue steel would be the new theme of the weekend. this is cathedral blue steel (notice the soaked hair and wind burned face), unfortunately my cheek muscles were too cold to pucker appropriately, but i promise they got much better by the end of the weekend.

when the tour guide (who was quite good at overlooking the fact that we paid no attention to him the entire walking tour) finally said we could leave to get some dinner, all we wanted was to be warm. i was still ridiculously full from lunch, so we went to a tapas place. in basque country they call tapas pinxos. supposedly they are different, but i can't tell what it is. and we all got like 2 tapas and something warm to drink and sat as far away from the door as possible.

and the next morning there was sun. beautiful, glorious sun. and so consequently we were all suddenly full of energy. it probably didn't help that the first place we went was a theme park on a hill overlooking the city. Of course, none of the rides were open for the day yet because it was off season, and we were told that the real reason anyone goes there is for the amazing view. But the sight of bumper cars, and even better, bumper boats, and the smell of park food made me very nostalgic for some good rides. i mean, it was no holiday world (thats for you cricket), but it would have to do. i tried to convince everyone that we should stay there until the park opened, but i dont think the tour guide appreciated my ideas.

rockstar sightings

i got back from portugal, and who was here in barcelona to make my life even more amazing? eliza my contact improve love! eliza is studying in london for the semester, and was in barcelona for the weekend before heading to Morroco for her spring break. I missed most of her weekend, but fortunately got to see her on Monday. she had a pretty cool friend with her (brie). it began with some ultimateyl confusing facebook messages, but eventually we met up at la catedral (after waiting an hour with my friend tessa cuase eliza forgot about the time difference, haha) and went to lunch. It was a beautiful lunch in Juicy Jones (can juicy jones ever not be amazing? i think not), and then tessa went on her way as eliza, brie, and i strolled down to parc de la ciutadella where we had a romantic row in the pond. eliza was a professional at rowing, so brie and i got to chill in the back of the boat. at one point we decided it would be a good idea to row underneath the bridge, but didn't realize that it only came up about a foot above the water until we were practically underneath. it was pretty ridiculous, like a mini roller coaster, and we had to go underneath it several times before finally leaving the pond. we frolliced in the park, and i showed off my knowledge of barcelona, got some fancy chocolate, and then i walked them home to their hostel. it was basically a perfect afternoon.