Bilbao

We only hoped the sunshine would last forever. This week was dreadfully cold and rainy but we still had a great week of cafe studying, teaching, pintxo pote and walking through the rain. Our roommates all were out of town this weekend so the apartment was ours. Friday after class we attended a lunch put on by USAC and one of the Basque Gastronomical societies in town. We had salad, tortilla de patata, pan and some random cookies. We learned a little about the societies as well. They started in San Sebastian during one of the wars and they were the only place that people could speak Basque freely and cook meals together. The catch is, only men were allowed to be in these "clubs" women and families were occasionally invited but they weren't allowed in the kitchen. Seems backwards from what we are used to huh? We don't think our food was actually cooked by the guys there but we were just able to use the space as an example of what the Gastronomical society looks like. After lunch we went home, cleaned our kitchen and worked out in our small bedrooms. Doing jumping jacks, burpees and planks is more difficult when you have to watch out for pointy desks while doing them. We also tried a new recipe for some teriyaki crock pot chicken. Since we don't have a crock pot we figured that putting a normal pan on low for a couple hours would do the trick. We learned that it definitely isn't the same thing. Our chicken was so dry we couldn't finish it which was rather sad because the taste was amazing! We will surely be trying this recipe again without letting it simmer as long. We also made banana icecream! It was amazing! Who knew that if you froze bananas then put them in a blender with peanutbutter you could make such a delicious (not to mention healthy) treat!

On Saturday we slept in, made breakfast and then headed off to the bus station. We bought our tickets to Bilbao and took a nice nap on the hour and 15 minute bus ride. Once we got there we didn't really know what to do so we just started walking trying to find stores that were open to browse. Of course we got there during siesta so nothing was open. Then, the best thing happened, we turned our heads and saw a real life MEXICAN RESTAURANT!! We of course immediately decided it was lunch time and this is where we would eat no matter what. The staff was friendly, the atmosphere was fun and the enchiladas we got were superb!! Since Mexican food is both our favorites, this was one of the best meals we have had while being abroad. After our meal we walked around found some more stores and then went to see the Guggenheim Museum. It is famous for its modern architecture. There was a giant dog made out of flowers in the front that was our favorite part of the museum.

We had "natural" gelato that was quite scrumptious and then walked around for a few more hours before returning to San Sebastian. After making dinner, watching a movie and making a powerpoint about Easter (for teaching) we headed to bed. This morning we went to a Spanish church with our friends Brian and Dannae. It was really cool to be able to worship because we knew what the songs were saying and could sing along. The sermon was a little harder because there were a lot of words we didn't know but all in all it was a great experience. We met a really nice lady, Mary, who is originally from Indiana but resides in San Sebastian now. She invited us to come have lunch or supper with here in the next few weeks! After church we made brunch! We had fruit salad, banana pancakes, a smoothie and I (Taryn) made my first homemade batch of tortilla de patata! It wasn't perfect but it was really yummy for my first try!

Our roommates came home from their trips and we all enjoyed some more banana icecream before bed.

This week is really busy! Getting ready for our midterm on Friday, another composition, teaching like normal, presenting a dialogue in conversation class, packing for Spring break and of course...pinxto pote on Thursday.

We will try to blog one more time before heading off on our adventures for spring break, but if not we will try to keep everyone updated about the next few weeks!

Until next time,

Tara and Taryn

Just another week in Paradise

The week passed by as normal but with the exception that the weather was beautiful every single day. Friday after our final exam we headed to the beach to spend the day with literally almost all of USACers. Our friend Max played live music for us and there were people surfing, volleyballing and passing the football around. Food and drinks were shared with lots of fun conversation and the sun brought out everybody's good side. That night we watched The Dark Knight Rises with our roommates while drinking amazing hot chocolate.
Saturday we joined some friends and hiked to a nearby town. With lots of detours and pauses to enjoy the landscape the hike in its entirety took about 4 and a half hours. We then grabbed some food and rode the 20 minute bus ride home. The scenery was breathtaking and it prompted lots of conversing about just how lucky we are to have a hike like this right in our back yard. Another topic that came up a lot is American Food. Taco Bell, Sonic, Chipotle, McDonalds, Red Robin etc were the main points of interest. We really are Americans. And proud of it!
There were a lot of stairs and steep hills that gave our muscles a work out. It was perfect weather, sunny but not too hot.
After showering and changing we went to our first cider house. If you remember from our first excursion to a Basque Farm House, cider was/is an important "staple" of Basque Culture. There are many cider houses throughout the Basque country and the one we went to was small but really interesting. There were hollowed out barrels to sit in and normal tables as well. The whole idea of a cider house is you pay a certain amount and then get unlimited cider and a four course meal. The meal includes two fish dishes, steak cooked "vuelta y vuelta," which literally means seared on one side then seared on the other. The whole middle is rare. Tara and I being the "tiquismiquis" of the group (picky eaters,) made ourselves try everything. We both liked the first fish dish because you couldn't taste the fish, neither of us enjoyed the second fish dish and Tara was not about to eat more than a few bites of raw steak. I on the other hand was pleasantly surprised at how much I loved the steak even though it was rare. The cider was actually pretty good and Tara loved the walnut dessert.

Today was spent on the beach again hanging out with our roommate Dylan and her family who is visiting. After another concert from Max we all had lunch together and then went our seperate ways. We had another group meeting tonight and watched a sermon from our friend Dannae's church. It was a good meeting although we were missing a few people.

This week is supposed to go back to sad gloomy weather but only 12 days until Spring Break!!

Until next time,

Tara and Taryn

A weekend away

So after class on Friday we went home, showered and packed for our weekend adventure to Barcelona. Knowing we didn't want to miss the bus this time, Tara let me make us leave as early as I wanted. Thinking our bus left at 3:00, I decided 2:00 would give us plenty of time to go to our favorite bakery for a bocadillo and walk to the bus station. When we arrived at the bus station at 2:35 I looked at my ticket and read that our bus was actually not scheduled to leave until 3:40...and Tara knew the whole time but didn't want to be in charge of time. So we waited in the beautiful sunshine for an hour. Once we got on the bus and sat down the bus ride was very enjoyable. We even had two really loud men sitting behind us that were playing games, taking phone calls amd smoking in the bathroom. The ride took about 7 hours including a half hour stop. When the bus stopped we grabbed our backpacks and walked into the station, later finding out we got off at the wrong stop.. Once we figured out which way our hostel was we hit the metro and were off! 

Our first stop in all new places it seems is a pizza place. Pizza must be a comfort to us bevause it is always the first food place that seems logical to stop into. The pizza we had was far from extraordinary but the service was great and the waiter even told us which way to walk to our hostel. Once we found it and went inside we were pleasantly surprised. The guy showed us around and then told us we could use the wifi, computers and printers for free as well as all of the kitchen supplies. There was a ton of juice for us to drink and yogurt, muffins, croissants and toast for breakfast. We both brought towels with us, which was unnecessary because we had a towel, a pillow and a comforter on our bed waiting for us. The whole place was really clean and it was way less sketchy then our last hostel experience. 

As you know from our London experience we are expert metro travelers. The metro in Barcelona was no different and we maneuvered through the huge city easily. Saturday we got up had breakfast and then Ericky (hostel guy) showed us where we should go while staying in Barcelona. First, we took the metro across town and then walked up levels and levels of stairs, sidewalks, and okay escalators too..until we reached the top of Park Guell. Here you could see the whole city below and it was truly beautiful. There were a lot of people around and it had a large population of trees surrounding the hill. After hitting some shops we took the metro back to another part of town. Here we spent the day walking around this huge area. First stop was lunch and then walking around a big mall. We saw the Museo Nacional d'art de Catalunya, Torre de Calatrava, Palau Sant Jordi, Estadi Olimpic, took a sky trolley to Castell de Montjuic, and finished that area with a fantastic light and water show at Font Magica de Montjuic. Basically we saw some cool buildings, walked into the stadium where the 1992 Olympics were held and jammed out to Disney music in Spanish while watching water do tricks. It was a great day. After this we went down by the beach for an ocean front dinner. We shared paella and a bottle of white wine, it was superb. 

Sunday we first went to the Sagrada Familia, a huge church in the city. It was so amazing. The outside and the inside were incredible and it was well worth the time in line as well as the ticket. There was mass going on downstairs and areas where you could go and pray as well. After this we walked around some more and found lunch. The next few hours were spent at Las Ramblas. A really long street full of vendors. We both bought Barcelona jerseys and had delicious gelato. We spent an hour on the docks basking in the sunlight and watching and old man feed the seagulls. After walking up and down the roads and seeing all the museums and buildings Ericky said we should see we walked back to our hostel and got our stuff together. We had a really interesting dinner, Tara had carbonara, "ain't like mama fixed it," I had a tortilla de patata sandwich and until this night I didn't know you could make a bad batch of tortilla de patata. We all learn the hard truths sometimes. Barcelona was a really great city, it is a definite place to visit and spend a week but we are still 100% happy we chose San Sebastián as our city to study in for the semester. 

We have a really busy week ahead of us. We both teach this week, we have a presentation on Tuesday and our final for our second class this Friday. Our roommate Dylan's family is coming to visit as well so we will probably hang out with them. We will also be finalizing spring break plans because the countdown is on...18 days! Did we mention we bought our tickets for Disneyland Paris!? 

Until next time, 

Tara and Taryn