Post 11: I have a visitor!

Andrew and I at the top of the bridge overlooking Getxo,
the city right next to Bilbao.

In terms of school, I've actually been pretty busy lately.  I had a midterm this past week and three essays due this week.  It's probably a good thing; it can be easy to forget that I am here to STUDY abroad and not just explore.

On Thursday night, the Athletic Bilbao soccer team played Manchester United in Bilbao.  The cheapest tickets to the game were 220 euros, so I decided to save my money and just check out the crowds around the stadium.  It was crazy!  Imagine the world is ending, but people are happy about it.  This is what the streets looked like.  There was garbage everywhere.  Broken glass was inevitable.  There were police there, but I guess it wasn't wild enough to intervene because they just stood to the side in a small group.  The people were friendly enough, but it was definitely one of the craziest sights I've ever seen.  After realizing that we'd only be able to see a fourth of a small TV screen from 30 yards away, my friend and I opted to hop on the metro and watch the game elsewhere.  As luck would have it, we ran into some friends in the metro station and ended up having a great night.

View of Getxo

In other news, I have a visitor here for the week!  Andrew arrived in the Bilbao airport in the early afternoon.  After dropping off his bags, I immediately started showing him around.  He was exhausted, but letting him sleep would have just made it more difficult to adjust to the time change.  We grabbed some lunch, walked the beach, went to the top of a bridge to see an amazing view, and watched the Bilbao Athletic soccer game against Valencia while sipping on what Andrew now refers to as "dope" hot chocolate.

Andrew took a picture of this cafe.  The owner ran out
and looked like he was going to yell at Andrew.  The
owner was then stunned at Andrew's size, so he
just turned around and ran inside.  He looked scared.

My host mom is very nervous about how tall Andrew is.  She keeps on thinking that he'll hit his head on everything.  She is constantly telling me that she has never seen someone so tall in her house before.  All of the people here seem shocked at his size; they point at him and talk about how tall he is.  The average Spaniard is probably like 5'6" (and that's being generous).

In other news, I had my first beer from a Burger King today.  It was a mediocre draft.  I felt obligated to order one.  My meal included a beverage choice of water, soda, or beer.  I don't like soda and I already had a full bottle of water with me, so beer was really the only logical option.

I hope all of the U of I students are enjoying their break!  My Spring Break isn't for another couple of weeks, so I guess I'll just have to suffer through the rough life of a study abroad student for a little longer...

Until next time...¡Adios!