Hasta Luego, España

Well, I can't believe it but my journey is coming to an end here in lovely Spain. It feels like last month that I was writing to tell everyone I booked my flight to come here, and in exactly 6 days I will be flying back home to Houston. I am going through a huge range of emotions as I close up my life here. I am torn between not wanting to leave and being so excited to see my family, friends and pets that I left behind. My mom said it the best. I have created my own little family here in a country that I have come to love and have called home for the past half year. That it is never easy to build such strong bonds and connections and then just leave it...but just because I am physically leaving it I have these new and fabulous people in my life that I hope will remain life-long friends. We can visit each other in our respective countries as well as have reunions in new places none of us have ever been. And as for Spain, well, I have so many memories that will stay close in my heart for the rest of my life. I also plan to come back here at least a few more times in my life.

I'd like to send a few shot-outs to some people who have really made my experience here that much more enriching and made me feel a little less crazy! First of all...mom and dad-you supported me financially to come here and I would not be here if it weren't for your help with that. Your investment was so much more than money...it was your faith in me and your wanting me to experience the best that life has to offer. You didn't question me once when I randomly told you I want to live in Spain. I can't begin to tell you how much your love and support has helped me to bloom and grow in this process of soul-searching. You are my best friends and I love you so much.

All three of my brothers-I know we didn't talk too much while I was away but each time we did, you're pride in me definitely kept me going. In return, I was so proud to tell people about you and how I am so lucky to have such wonderful siblings. And Ari and Rachel-thanks for making me an auntie!! Getting the news through a transatlantic call will always stay in my memory. I can't wait to meet my new niece.

Grandpa-thanks for all your articles you found in the papers that had anything to do with Bilbao or Spain and sending them to me. It kind of amazed me how often this great country and city came up in the U.S. news. Your interest in my trip really made me appreciate that much more what a great place in which I was living. Of course all your emails made several of my days too!

Diana-thanks for all the awesome greeting cards you sent my way...you must have sent one like every 2 weeks...that takes a lot of thought and persistence and I loved getting so much snail mail. The people at the institute said I was the most popular student they had ever had when it came to getting mail...thanks to you!

Eva-we had our bumpy times especially when I first got out here but man how much we have grown...I don't know too many people that would take the time or effort to work on their relationship over an ocean mostly through email and a few phone calls just to try to make things right. Your sacrifice to come visit me...I can't even put in words how much that means. You completed what was already an awesome experience in Spain and now we have technically finally traveled together. I hope we have many more oppotunities to come.

And all my other family and friends....thank you for checking in on me, for supporting me and for making me so excited to come back and see your beautiful faces. I know it's hard to leave Spain but you all make it easier because I know I have some amazing people in my life to come back to.

Para todas mis amigas en España- madre mia, voy a echaros de menos. Estais en mi corazon para siempre. Gracias por todo y yo lo se que nos vemos pronto. Os amo!

With all that said...I thought I would list out some of the things I am going to miss and not so much miss about Spain:

I won't miss the noisey bar beneath my bedroom that kept me up or woke me up several nights. I also won't miss the never-ending construction above our flat that several times I believed the roof would come crashing down on me. Really...Spain is pretty noisey and I won't miss it at all! I won't miss having to always look down when I am walking outside in order to dodge the endless piles of dog poop or puddles of pee. The Arabs on Calle San Francisco whistling and saying nasty things as I walked by. Always smelling like smoke because everyone and their dog smokes here. I definitely won't miss my teaching job (although it was good experience). Always being cold in the flat. Fighting to use the washing machine and never having room on the drying rack. Not being able to watch TV when I wanted to. The 25 minute train ride to and from my job. Never having enough money! People (directors of schools in particular) being a bit on the flaky side. Beds breaking in the flat almost once a month. The sometimes very constant rain and my pants always getting soaked. Getting sick almost every other month. Having to pay for the internet and having to go to internet cafes to use it every time. The endless trips to the supermarket...I never seemed to have enough food! Being homesick at least a little bit the whole time I was here.

I will miss my friends first and foremost. I'll miss the amazing food, especially the tortilla! I'll miss Nikki's awesome selection of DVD's and Bristish chic lit novels. I'll miss my yoga classes where I continued to work on my Spanish and my emotional state...my instructor was awesome and I will truly miss his wisdom. I'll miss going out to all the bars and discos and dancing like there is no tomorrow. I'll miss kissing and dancing with random, beautiful Spanish men in the discos. I'll miss Casco Viejo, the Nervion River (and running along it), Zubiarte, menus del dia, chocolate con churros, pintxos y vino, short weekend trips to other cities. My friends...I'll miss speaking Spanish and learning Spanish. I'll miss the beautiful beaches where it's normal to go topless and fall asleep for hours. Dinners and lunches with my friends. The awesome fashion and shopping. The cheap chinese stores where you could find anything and everything. My friends.... My flat and all the flatmates I have had over the course of 6 months. Hilde's massages. The sunny, clear-blue days. The view of the beautiful moutains in every direction I walk. The Umbrella song (amigas- vosotras sabeis!) Kalimotxos, Sangria, Txakoli and all the lovely and cheap La Rioja wine. The alioli at Asia di Roma. Cafe con leche. Have I mentioned my friends? Catching up each evening with Nikki. Nikki and me swtiching off making dinner for each other. Nikki helping to undress me when I was too tired or drunk. My side trips to Paris and England. The fresh organic fruit store five feet away from my flat. The fresh bakery with awesome bread four steps away from my flat. The nice pharmacy lady across the street who always gave me the good drugs to make whatever illness I had go away. Most of all...I'll miss my friends.


I could go on forever but I will stop there. I truly did have the time of my life here and I am actually really proud of myself for making it more successful than I could ever hope for. I feel I have done enough soul-searching to really know myself again and that is priceless.

What's next you all ask? Well....as always, I don't have a definite answer. I have lots of ideas and promise to keep you posted. In the meantime I plan to see where life takes me next. It is after all, an adventure.

Eva's visit to Spain

(Me and Eva in Plenzia)

On February 13, Eva took the very long flight from New York to visit me for 5 1/2 days in Spain and we used every single minute possible to soak it all up! Before this trip it had been almost a year since we had last seen each other and even then it wasn't under the best circumstances as we were attending the funeral of a very close family member. It was about time we spent some quality time together and remember what it is like to be the two crazy best friends we have been beginning from the age of ten. We have also been dying to travel together and although it's hard being a poor, post-graduate with hardly any vacation time this was a great glimpse of what it would be like. I am so thankful she made the financial and time investment to come see me...I have so many cherished memories from her trip that I will never forget.

So on Wednesday, I went to pick Eva up from the airport after a pretty significant delay. We got started with our day by going to the Guggenheim since that is basically the most crucial thing to see in Bilbao. This was only my second visit and I was once again taken away with the beauty of the structure. It is just so magestic. The main exhibit was called Art in America, which was pretty funny since we both have a good idea of the American classic artists. Also, a lot of the things in the exhibit were things that came from New York museums and Eva had already seen a good amount! Oh well, she still loved seeing it all. After that, we took the funicular up Mt. Artxanda so she could get a good view of the entire city. We went at a beautiful hour where the sun was just beginning to set.


(view from Artxanda)

After taking lots of photos we went a beautiful cafe/restaurant called Txakoli...named after the yummy Basque white wine. I made her try her first Kalimotxo (coke with red wine) and she really liked it. We also ate a few snacks. Finally we headed back to the flat to freshen up and then made our way to Casco Viejo for a lovely dinner of the best pintxos in town at Cafe Bar Bilbao. I treated Eva as a birthday gift (her birthday was in November). As I suspected, she absolutely loved the pintxos. We shared a bottle of Txakoli and I got thoroughly drunk. Then I took her to a different restaurant where I don't like the food but the desserts are amazing. Finally we made it to bed to get some rest for the next day.

On Valentine's Day, Eva and I took a nice day trip to Plenzia-a small beach front town about 35 minutes from Bilbao. It is the last stop on the Bilbao metro and I had always wanted to see it. Since we went in the middle of the day we were just about the only people walking around. Everyone else was either at work or taking siesta so it was kind of neat...it felt like the town was ours. As you walk off the metro there is a near bridge that takes you over a river that is full of little tug boats. It seems almost every person who lives in that town must have a boat and they all just park them in the river.


(sunset in Plenzia)

Other than walking around, eating a lovely menu del dia and walking on the beach, there wasn't much else to do. After a few hours we headed back to Bilbao. We socialized with all my roommates for an hour or so. It was really funny because our kitchen is the smallest room in the flat and we could have all sat in the living room but instead as more people began to join us, they took chairs from the living room and put them in the kitchen. It was really cute, you had to see it. Finally, Eva and I went out to a Valentine's dinner at a beautiful modern restaurant called Viva Bilbao where we had some of the most interesting dishes with the most interesting types of food. Eva had a tasting menu where her first coarse was in the shape of a lolipop that was frozen foie gras with this interesting sweet sauce. She also had a dish that was kangaroo...it was actually pretty good. I ate a yummy duck dish that was more of a mediterranean style with figs and fried onion. We both shared everything and it was really enjoyable. We also shared a bottle of the Spanish Cava Champagne and got a really good cheesecake dessert in the shape of a heart.

On Friday, we stayed in Bilbao and made it a shopping day. I took Eva to all the best spots like the Gran Via and Casco Viejo. We both ended up buying a purse from a famous store here called Mi Sa Ko...where all the purses are very original and are made in the Catalonia province of Spain. We took a short break at a nice place called Cafe y Te where we both had some good tea and where I had her try some tortilla...a type of pintxo (one of my favorites)made with potatos and egg. We shopped until all the stores closed and finally went back to the flat to chill for a while. Then my friends came with us to the karaoke bar because Eva really wanted to see what a Spanish one would be like. We found some English songs to sing and Eva was a hit among the crowd. They all applauded each time she sang...she really has a great singing voice.

On Saturday all my girlfriends came with us to San Sebastian. I had been here once before but I was still so jetlagged that I found a beach and fell asleep for practically the whole time! This time I really wanted to see the town because it is said to be the most beautiful city in northern Spain. After a nice hour long bus ride, we walked for a long time around the sea.


(the girls in San Sebastian)

We took a short break at a cafe and shopped a little for souvenirs. We saw the beautiful port area and then walked into the old town where there were some amazing stores. We all bought a treat from the pasteleria (bakery). They were all divine. Then we went to one of the main beaches...The Concha, where we found a beautiful cafe on the beach. Unfortunately, we had to wait about an hour to be seated and the menu del dia was not very good but we still enjoyed being in a beautiful environment and talking and resting. After a long lunch, we headed back to the buses. After eating some pasta for dinner, we all got ready to go out to some discos. All of our friends came to pre-drink at our flat and then we went to two different discos...we couldn't go all night because we were so tired but we managed to stay out until about 3am. Eva loved seeing the different environments and differents music that can change so dramatically from one disco to the next.

On Sunday, we all woke up again and all the girls went on a daytrip to Santander...another beach front city I had always wanted to see. The bus ride was a little longer this time but it was good to fit some naps in. We walked along the sea for a while and then found a little cafe that offered boat rides to different parts of the city. We sat in the cafe and had some good cafe con leche and some really awesome tortilla with chorizo. Then we walked to the port area and then walked back in time to catch the next boat. It was such a beautiful day to be on the water and under the sun. We went to the complete other side of the city where we found a beach and played for about an hour. It was so cute to see all the girls running around and jumping in the water with all the their clothes on. Eva and I started doing cartwheels on the beach and cheerleading jumps. It has been so long since we have done any of those that we were really sore the next day!


(cartwheels on the beach in Santander)

After getting burned out from all those cartwheels, we found a restaurant with a good menu del dia. Although there were some items on the menu that they ran out of, we still all had some of the most tasty meals we had ever had. Eva got her paella she had been craving too! After lunch, we headed back to the boat to get to the other side of town where we went back to the buses. After getting back, Eva and I went back out into Bilbao to do some more shopping for gifts for her to bring back home. We also decided to have a very late dinner at a lovely place near the Guggenheim called Tapelia. We ate some more lovely pintxos and a really good salad. Then, unfortunately Eva had to begin packing up. We finally went to bed after she was all packed.

The next day, we woke up and talked for a long time during breakfast. We went into town so I could buy a cheap bag that I could pack some of my things in for her to bring back with her to NY so I could avoid dealing with having too much luggage when I come home. We'll see if I still have a problem...probably. Then I took her to get chocolate con churros because you can't come to Spain and not have those. She loved it of course! Sadly, our time together came to an end. I took her back to the airport where we sat and chatted until I had to get on the bus in order to make it to work.

We were both so glad she came to visit, regardless of how short the trip was. She came when we had some of the most beautiful weather ever since I had lived in Bilbao. It was mostly clear blue skies each day and it usually warmed up enough to not need a jacket. I know this was an experience neither of us are ever going to forget and I was so grateful to have a visitor that could see my life here and meet some of the amazing friends I have made along the way.