Post 7

Nothing too exciting happened in class this past week.  Unfortunately, my favorite professor will be out of class for the next five weeks because he was hit by a car and broke his leg.  This guy is awesome; he finds ways to make things that usually bore me seem exciting.  He will truly be missed and his sub better step up to the plate because she has big shoes to fill.

A float with a sardine in the Carnaval parade...
the burial of the sardine symbolizes the end of
Carnaval and the beginning of Lent 

This past week has been a week of holidays.  The first holiday of the week was Valentine's Day.  Now, normally I do not celebrate this day at all because I find it silly; however, I did celebrate it a little this year.  It only took me being 4000+ miles away from Andrew to decide to honor the day with a card.  The card wasn't sappy or written in English; therefore, it was the perfect card for me to give.  Andrew doesn't speak a lick of Spanish.  I also went out to lunch with my closest friend in Bilbao and received an amazing Valentine's Day care package from one of my best friends from home.

The second holiday of the week isn't technically a holiday but it definitely should be.  My Dad turned 54.  I obviously couldn't be there to celebrate with him, but I sent him delicious truffles from Belgium.  I was also able to Skype him after he did P90X.  That's right.  My Dad woke up on his 54th birthday and did P90X.  If that's not impressive, then I don't know what is.

Holiday number three of the week was Carnaval.  I previewed what Carnaval is like a little bit in my post last week, but had the true experience of it this past weekend.  Carnaval is definitely a worthwhile experience.  There are little carnival rides for kids, plenty of parties for adults, and a parade for everyone.  The adults are rowdy and the children are cuter than cute in their costumes.  The parade floats were pretty awesome; however, the five float parade seemed a tad short in comparison to the U.S. parades that I am accustomed too.  There were also no politicians in the parade, which was mind boggling but a really nice change of pace.  For some unknown reason, there was a woman decked out in an American flag patterned outfit in the parade.  No other country was represented in the parade and the U.S. isn't exactly loved here.  It was rather peculiar in my opinion, but exciting nonetheless.

The America themed woman at the Carnaval parade

The costumes for Carnaval rival the Halloween costumes of the U.S.  Coordinating costumes is really popular here.  Families all follow a theme or groups of friends will all dress as the same thing.  Groups of friends that all dressed as Snow White or some other character looked rather goofy to me.  Instead of diversifying and dressing as different Disney princesses, they all had to be the exact some princess.  For these groups, I obviously judged which person wore it best in my head.  American magazines have trained me well.

My long "summer vacation" as my friend Tony calls my time abroad has been great thus far and I already know that it will be hard to leave both Bilbao and the amazing new friends that I've made here.  I do miss everyone at home though and absolutely love hearing from people.  I hope all is well for everyone!  Until next time... ¡Adios!