Noviembre nuboso (Cloudy November)

It's been nearly a month since my last update! I've been focusing more on working and things like that. Plus, I haven't been on any big exciting trips. The beauty of Laguardia is hard to follow. Also, nearly the entire month it has been raining here, hence the alliterative title. So, I'll do my best to mention the highlights of the last month. I'll depend on my pics to jog my memory. One Friday, I was tired of sitting around my piso. And it occurred to me that I hadn't been to the ocean yet even though I live really close. So, I took the metro (I almost called it the subte just now, what it's called in Buenos Aires) to Plentzia. I was planning on a relaxing morning in which I could chill in a café, but it took much longer to get to the ocean than I expected, so I rushed around quickly to make it back to Bilbao in time for my private English lessons with the two girls from my church, Anne and Andrea.

 

This was only our second class, and I was substantially late. Lessons with the two girls are much more enjoyable than my classes at the school. However, I am starting at the beginning with them, and I still find myself stopping a lot to explain British/American English differences.

The next day I went shopping to Portugalete and and Barakaldo (suburbs of Bilbao) with Bryan, Saraí, and several friends of Saraí.

One of several misspelled shirts at a discount clothing store. Why don't Spaniards wear their own language?

The next week, I decided that I needed more things to fill up my work week, so I contacted some people who were interested in hiring me for private lessons. I agreed to meet them every Tuesday at their workplace. The time and location, right after my classes and less than 5 minutes away from my school, is perfect. There are 3 and sometimes 4 of them, and they work at the País Vasco headquarters of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). The only thing I knew about Jesuits, of course, is that they killed a lot of protestants in the counter-reformation. However, I've met them twice so far, and to my knowledge they don't have any intentions of murder just yet. In fact, they are excellent students with a high level of English. They also want to learn idioms and phrasal verbs.

The next day, I called the uncle of one of my students. The student had given me a slip of paper with his phone number on it and said he was interested in doing intercambio. I met up with him, not knowing what to expect, and it turned out that he is a priest. We spoke in Spanish for a while and then arranged to meet for 2 hours every Wednesday before my Spanish lessons with Adrian, 1 hour of Spanish and 1 hour of English. Iñigo (the priest) is fun to converse with, and he's impressed by my interest in theology, seeing as how very few in Spain are. We got to talking about C. S. Lewis, and he has since lent me The Screwtape Letters in Spanish, and we're going to use it as a point of future conversation.

This next picture took place on a dreary wet Sunday. I got invited to go to the Sunday flower market and met up with Ally, Claire, Jessica C., and Pinky. On the way, we got caught up watching a Brazilian drum line at a fair trade fair. We made it to the market later, then perused a chino where I found some coveted brown sugar, then went for coffee at one of the most Americanized coffee shops in Bilbao, located in Plaza Nueva.

The following week was the week of Thanksgiving, so in all of my classes, I told the story of Thanksgiving, explaining in every class that these pilgrims aren't the ones on the camino de Santiago and that these arándanos aren't blue but red (Spanish has one word for both blueberries and cranberries). There was plenty of confusion, but some classes were into it. In my 3rd cycle classes, I had them put on a skit, which resulted in some good laughs. One class made a turkey out of paper wads and markers, while in another class, the tallest student decided to become the turkey. I wished I'd had my camera.

On the day of, I didn't do much, but I did go to Dubliners for a little intercambio. I also had a hamburger from a place near my house. It was pretty good for being so cheap. 

On Saturday morning, I woke up around nine and started cooking around ten. I didn't finish until around 3:30. I started with the chocolate chip cookies, for which I had to cut up a few bars of semi-sweet chocolate. I also only had one baking sheet, so it took quite a while to bake all the dough. Then, I worked on the broccoli rice casserole, which had more steps than I expected. I boiled the rice, chopped up all the vegetables, grated all the cheese, and made my own cream of mushroom soup from scratch. The turkey was low maintenance. I just glazed butter over it and popped it in the oven. Then, Erika came over and I helped her make sweet potato casserole. Luckily I knew how to mash potatoes.

Not bad for nearly 5 hours of work, I'd say. It all tasted really good, too. And I just finished off the last of 4 kilos of turkey breast today. Everyone else brought something for the feast, and we had a great time. I was thankful to celebrate the holiday with them. Many were auxiliares I don't see very often, so it was nice to get to hear from them, too.

Here we are, minus Amanda, who arrived late. Later on, some of the other girls and Bryce came over with dessert and we enjoyed company with full stomachs.

On this most recent weekend, I went up the Artxanda again with Kata, Jessica C., and Pinky. It was cold but not raining, and it was a peaceful walk. It was cool to see snow on the mountain tops, and we discovered that we could see the ocean from Artxanda, too, rendering my Plentzia journey even more pointless.

Unfortunately, on the day we celebrated Thanksgiving, Bryan came down with a crazy virus. He had a high fever and is only now recovering. While he was MIA, I made myself useful and worked on changing things in my room that I'd been thinking about. I rearranged it and fixed all the squeaky doors.

I'm happy that I can make better use of my lamp because Kata lent me The Count of Monte Cristo, and I've begun reading that as well. With this arrangement, I can also make better use of my numerous cubby holes. And, I bought more winter clothing and a heater for my room to supplement the puny one I already have. I also have spent a lot of time looking for accommodation in Italy. No easy task since we're going during Christmas. I made a budget, too, and discovered that I've been spending less than I expected I would.

Right now, I'm off to my lessons with the girls and looking forward to taking advantage of my 6-day weekend!