¡Otro fín de semana maravillosa!

This past weekend was another great weekend. I definitely look forward to the weekends here. It was our first weekend that didn't have a planned excursion so we got to do whatever we wanted.

Thursday after class I went with two girlfriends to the beach in Sopelana. When we came back to my friend Emily's house (who lives in Sopelana) we ran into a neighbor of hers who is about the same age as us. She invited us to go out with her and her friends the following night. After the beach, we went to a Pulqueria concert (if you're really interested, you can look them up on myspace). They're like a mix between Ska, Punk, and Mariachi/traditional music. It was really cool!

So Friday after class we went back to Sopelana to go out with Leire, the girl we met the night before. When we got there she was still at work so we went out for Chinese food. It was so good! Unfortunately it was pouring rain on and off, so we called Leire to let her know we would not be going out. Instead we stopped at a candy store and stocked up on junk food then went back to Emily's house to have a movie night. We watched Bugs in Spanish. It was so nice to just relax with friends.

Saturday we got up super early and took a 1 and a half hour bus ride to Santander. What a gorgeous town! All of the people are so nice too! We must have looked lost trying to find the Plaza because a nice old man came up to us and asked if we needed help. It was cute. We made our way to the Plaza de cuatro caminos to buy our bullfight tickets. We bought them from a scalper for only 15€. I thought that was a good deal because I was planning on paying twice that. We did a little shopping in Santander and just walked around. We ate at an Italian restaurant and they gave us huge portions (restaurants like to do that here I think). It was so delicious! I could definitely go back there.

The bullfight started at 6:30. It was really intersting. The entire "program" has about 5 or 6 rounds of bullfighting. It starts out with a novice matador and then they gradually get better and better after each round. The first round was the hardest to watch because when the matador put the spear in the bulls neck it he didn't not fall down right away like they normally do. He was a fighter and kept on walking around afterward. çFinally he started shaking and collapsed. I was really nervous that all of the rounds would be like that but the others were much faster. I talked to the woman next to me and she explained a lot so that was cool too. The third matador did such a great job they cut off one of the ears of the bull and gave it to him as a prize.

Sunday we went to San Juan de Gaztelugatxe and Bakio with Emily's host mom Ninez and her boyfriend Reime. Bakio is also a gorgeous city (every place is gorgeous here). It had a beautiful beach and a ton of people travel there to go surfing. We really want to go back for an entire day to enjoy the beach so hopefully next Sunday we will go. (P.S. I told Reime I want to live there. Maybe if I'm ever rich I'll buy a summer home ;)). Before that we went to San Juan de Gaztelugatxe which is a church on the top of a mountain in the sea. We had to walk for a long time and then climb over 360 stairs! It was a huge workout but so worth it. The view was amazing. Once we were at the top we rang the bell, took lots of pictures and then made our way back.

We went to the beach after that but it was getting late so we didn't get a chance to lay out. Instead we went to a really cute restaurant that had delicious pizza. It was like American style because the menu was in English and even the waiters spoke English too. The guy who took our order was really funny. His wife was behind him in the window to the kitchen and showed him her hand with her wedding ring. He turned back to me and said that his wife doesn't like it when he talks to girls. It was hilarious, and of course I was the only one that noticed it.

And now it's back to another school week. This is our last full week of classes so we are going to be super busy with homework and studying for finals! Wish me luck!

P.S. I've noticed while I'm here that the majority of the people drive Audis and BMWs (it's cool to see my dream car everywhere ). I asked Ninez why everyone has them and she said that they are a lot cheaper right now because of the economy. So shout out to Uncle Steve, you should move here and then you can buy as many Audis as you want! :)

¡Hasta Luego!