Monday, October 14, 2013

Happy Monday My Fellow Readers

Good day, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good something to whatever time zone you come from. I am again blogging on a Monday. It for some reason makes me feel more relaxed and makes Monday's a little more bearable when I blog, because Monday's still suck even when I am enjoying a nice cup of café con leche at a cafe. Today is not so beautiful in Vitoria. It's a little overcast and windy. It's starting to get real cold here. For example: it has been in the 50's during the day for the past week and in the 30's when I wake up. For Floridians, this is considered winter. For the Basque Country inhabiters, this is fall and I should only expect it to get EVEN COLDER. I know I have always claimed that I like cold weather more than hot weather, but I think I feel that way only when living in Florida. I am loving the weather right now, but any colder and I'm not sure if I can handle it. Yes, I have been exposed to Pennsylvania winters, but for two weeks at a time, at most. So I am starting to prepare myself for a solid six months of rain, clouds, snow and arctic coldness. Speaking of cold weather, I purchased my first REAL coat since I was 12. I'm not even sure if my coat from the sixth grade even qualifies as a real coat either. 

Me in my new coat! Yeah!

I'm pretty excited about it. Hopefully it shields me from the elements that my body is not prepared for in the slightest.

Last week, I met with the host parents of my au pair friend, Natalia who recently went back to her home in Slovakia. They wanted to have conversational English classes with me. They ended up paying me as well, and we will be meeting once a week at a cafe for conversational English. It's awesome that I got this opportunity to make a little extra money on the side. It's only for one hour and we just really talk about anything in English and drink coffee. It's awesome. And they are really cool people. The mom is a flight attendant and the dad is a pilot. 

This past weekend, I went out again. And stayed out until a ridiculous hour, again. And the next morning I woke up telling myself "never again," again. 5:30 in the morning. I really don't understand why people insist on staying out so late. I feel so wimpy when I start to get tired around two in the morning. Like, come on Sydney, you're young, you got that young energy!! Yeah, wrong. Regardless it was a fun night. I had to take the bus to the city, which was only 1.50 Euros! So much better than taking a taxi which would cost me around 21 Euros. Once I got to Vitoria, I met up with Sophie and Melanie at a wonderfully, fattening, greasy, American style restaurant called Burgerland. It was like a blessing from God for two reasons: I had to walk 30 minutes from the bus stop to meet up with them, so I had quite the hearty appetite. Secondly, American style food... home... comfort... need I say more? I was kindly welcomed with mountains of food: burgers, chili fries, ribs, nachos, french fries and beer. God bless America.  Also, on Saturday, there was a "fiesta" called Día de Hispanidad, which is pretty straightforward-- Hispanic Day. In the Basque Country, it's not as heavily emphasized because the Basque people want to be separate from Spain. So, on top of it being Día de Hispanidad, it was also "Green Night." Vitoria, since it is the Green Capital of Europe, really plays up the whole "green" thing. I don't even know what they did that was so green and eco-friendly on Saturday to be honest. I know there was food somewhere, and they had a really cool light show that went on in the main plaza, Plaza Blanca. They had these lasers, and synchronized it with music. It was so cool. I was hypnotized by it. They even had fog machines. So my friends and I got some beer, for me, I had a pica which is lemon juice and beer, and watched the light show. Later, we went to other bars, where I had a drink that is considered an after dinner drink. It kind of tastes like medicine and is horrible. 
Me and Melanie

Today in my Spanish class, we got another new student. GUESS WHERE THEY WERE FROM? If you guessed Pakistan, man are you dead on. And of course he asked me where I was from. And of course he made a sour face about me being "Americana." But that's beside the point. He told me I spoke very good Spanish and understood very well for only being here for three months. Woo! That was encouraging to hear. 

Another little tid-bit to share: Melanie and I are planning to cook a thanksgiving dinner for her family, my family and some of our foreign friends. It will be so much fun. We've already started planning what to cook. It's going to be hard not being in the States for this glorious holiday. No Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, no football, no Christmas movies, no family, no arguments. But it will be so much fun to share the over-eating ways of America with others. 


Lastly, my mom and Michael, her boyfriend, purchased their plane tickets for Spain! I am so excited! I can barely hold myself together. 
Sophie has now joined me at the cafe so I am going to stop writing now.

Besitos!!


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