On Thursday, we had an orientation with all of our classes. We got all of our syllabi and talked about what to expect during the quarter. My two professors Ana and Nekane seem really nice and I think I’m going to like them a lot. Around 2:00pm we headed to the Comedor for lunch. The food there is pretty good as far as “dining hall food” is concerned. We get to pick a dessert (usually fruit or yogurt), a first plate (vegetables or pasta), a second plate (meat with side dish), bread, and a drink. Afterward, I looked around until I found the computers and finally got to do a little emailing before heading home. This was the first time that I had to take the bus home and I wasn’t exactly sure where to get off. I thought that it would just stop at the same place where I get on in the morning (not thinking that it’s on the other side of the street). Needless to say, I didn’t get off when I was supposed to, but I didn’t know what to do so I just stayed on the bus because I thought it would eventually get back to where I needed to be. We got to the end of the route and the driver gave me a really strange look and told me I had to get off because it was the last stop. I tried to explain to him what had happened (in Spanish of course) and I could tell he thought I was an idiot. I mean, I don’t live in a city, okay? I feel like I have an excuse considering that I’ve lived in Fayetteville and Athens. Anyway, when we got back to my stop the diver said, “aquí, aquí” so I would know to get off lol.
On Friday, we had to be at the University early to catch our bus for the first excursion to Bilbao. It was about a 2 hour bus ride. We took a tour of the Guggenheim museum first. The architecture of the building was really interesting because one side (facing the river) is designed like a boat. It is made of titanium panels to make it look like fish scales that seem to move when the sunlight is reflected. Very little of the museum was typical because it consisted mostly of complicated curves and angles to keep the viewer interested at all times. Also, there was a piece in the museum which was a scrolling LED screen with words like the one that we have at OU. I thought it was pretty cool that little old Athens, Ohio has something in common with a museum in northern Spain. Besides the tour, we didn’t really get much free time to explore the museum because we had a reservation at the museum restaurant. The meal was really strange (I think they call it elegant?) and it lasted almost 3 hours (which I thought was funny considering that we spent only 2 hours in the museum. After lunch, we took a bus tour of the city because it was raining and not good weather for walking around. The city had some nice architecture and at the end of the tour the rain had let up a bit so we had a little free time to walk around and shop.
Later that night we all decide to go out into the night life of the city. One of the girls in the group who was here last quarter too has her own apartment. We all went over there for a while and hung out and talked. Afterward we headed to a really small bar close to Taryn’s apartment. I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty nervous considering that I had never been to a bar before (haha Leah) and I still barely knew the people in my group. Before I left my apartment, Miguel gave me a little “be careful” lecture about keeping my stuff in my pockets and not putting my jacket down anywhere. It was really cute and great to know that he really cared about my safety as if I were one of his daughters. Anyway, it ended up being pretty fun. We all danced and had a good time and it was a good icebreaker for the group because everyone kind of let their guards down and just had fun together.
The rest of the weekend was very relaxing. On Saturday, I watched movies with my family all day. On Sunday, my padres went to visit Amparo’s father all day so I lounged around the house with Maite and watched movies. It was really nice and we bonded a little that day. It was nice to just relax all weekend with no work to prepare myself for the first week of classes.
Oh, P.S. I found out that all of 180 is going to be in Morton 201 this quarter! How not fair is that?!? You guys are lucky...
