Bilbao

So sorry it has taken me this long to post something. I know I promised to post something about my temple trip, but I've been super busy the past couple of weeks. Sorry! If you want to see pictures you can go to my pictures on facebook under march 2010. These pictures will hopefully soon be there as well.
Anyway, this weekend I got to go to Bilbao and stay with my good friend Noemi and her family. We didn't have school friday because it was father's day and so I left thursday right after school. When I got to the bus station in Bilbao Noemi wasn't there yet so I waited for a good half an hour (I couldn't call her because I left my cellphone in Burgos). She finally showed up and then my other friend Zuri came a couple of minutes later. We talked for a while and then we went to Noemi's house and talked some more (Zuri couldn't come this time because she had class).
Friday morning me and Noemi went on a run in the park and it was great up until Noemi almost fainted. Ha, that wasn't so good.

Friday night we went with Zuri to Las Arenas to see the beach and the famous bridge. The bridge was actually really cool. I don't really know how to describe it, but I'll try anyway. There was this bar and some wires and a ferry type thing. So to get across the river you drove onto the ferry and then the wires carried you across, but the ferry never touches the water so it's like you're flying, but not. Does that make sense? Anyway, Las Arenas was cool and I loved the beach.

Here's me and Noemi with a view of the ocean. It was extremely windy, but gorgeous! I've said this a million times before, but I wish I was living in Bilbao!!! Burgos is great too, but it doesn't have youth or natural beauty.

At the end of the day we went to a Telepizza and I finally got to eat a pepperoni pizza!!! Noemi doesn't look too sure about it, but I enjoyed it! I almost ate the whole pizza!

Overall, it was a great day and I was so tired that the next day I woke up at 1. Noemi did her homework while I slept and when I asked her why she didn't wake me up she told me that she would have felt bad.

This is a different beach that we went to Saturday afternoon. As you can see, we're still in winter and we're still in Bilbao where is ALWAYS rains. I think we were in a little town off of Bilbao actually, but it's the same thing, it's the basque country. This place was called Poentxia or something like that.

Here's a picture of us at the beach. It started to rain later so we ended up going back to Bilbao and getting ice cream, but the beach was fun while it lasted. Both me and Noemi ended up cutting our feet on something so poor Zuri had to go around and ask random people for tissues. Noemi and I felt bad, but we couldn't help but laugh.

This was my last night in Bilbao and me and Noemi had fun with hair. She straightened mine for church and then her mom came in and wanted to do Noemi's hair like she used to. So funny! Noemi was embarrassed, but I think the little clips and the clip in the shape of a bonnet in the back look good on her, don't you think? I still think she should have kept it in for church!

The next day I went with Noemi and her family to sacrament meeting in Bilbao and then me and Zuri went to Las Arenas for young womens to teach a song that we'll be singing for youth conference. I got to see Elder Holmes (who used to be in Burgos) and I found out that since the mission is closing July 1st, all the missionaries that would have been going home in the summer are all going home June 24th. That's 14 missionaries! Oh poor Spain. All the changes are going to be hard.

Well that was my trip and now I'm back in Burgos. I'm feeling a little sick and I hope I get better before thursday because that's when I go to Prague, Budapest and Vienna!!! So excited!!! And then after that I go to youth conference in a little town near Vitoria!!! And then I'm going to Santander with Noemi!!! Basically, I won't be in Burgos for a full day until April 12th when school starts again. I love life!

Tech

So this weekend I got to go to the temple in Madrid, but I´ll wright about that and post pictures later today. For right now I want to talk about my tech class, that I´m in right now. I really didn´t think a class could be this boring!!! I do nothing! Every once in a while we have assignments and all I have to do is copy what´s in the book. So here´s one hour wasted three times a week. Well I shouldn´t say wasted because I get to respond to a lot of emails. Anyway, right now we are paired up to do a powerpoint on linux, which I still don´t have any idea what it is. My partner doesn´t let me do anything! So finally today I got my own computer so that I could get on facebook instead of just staring at his computer. Oh well. I´m getting elective credit for it. Last term I got an 8 which is like a B+ because the tests are actually pretty hard. So that´s my story. Pretty random.

My favorite Places

So I decided to randomly post some pictures of my favorite places I've been to in Spain. So here are my top ten in no particular order...

So I'll start out with one of my favorite places in Burgos. This is right by the river and I walk here every day to get to seminary, to go grocery shopping, so get to church, and it's where I run. It'sa great little path when it's dry, and when it's not I go on the cement path next to it.


The cutest little plaza in Tarragona.
I decided that if I become really rich this could be my summer home when I'm older. I love the vibrant colors and the fact that the bakery and anything else you'd need is right below! This picture honestly doesn't do it justice!


The Guggenheim in Bilbao.
It was built by Frank Lloyd Wright and is the main attraction of Bilbao. I heard the inside is just full of really weird modern art, but the outside was pretty cool. This is also where the famous Bilbao Spider is.


El Palacio Real in Madrid.
From the apartment I was staying in I had an amazing view of this building and the capitol building, so I think that's why I love it so much. Well from this picture you can only see a little bit of it, oh well.


El Catedral de Santiago.
This is the cathedral that hundreds of people walk to every year. I think this is where they say they found the body of John the Baptist washed up on shore with sea shells attatched all over him. That's why the path that people walk on to get to this cathedral has a sea shell as the symbol. The outside isn't very pretty, but the inside is amazing!


The coolest park I've ever seen!
Though it's not in Spain, they have similar parks here so I made it count anyway.


The plaza mayor in Salamanca.
Some movie was filmed here but I don't remember which one. Ask my brother if you want to know. This place was huge! We came at night and we were glad we did because it's way cooler at night, but you get the idea.


The library at the University in Salamanca.
I love how it was so open and there was a courtyard in the middle. Also, from this view you can see the main building of the university. This school is one of the two oldest schools in Europe and almost every spanish author that I have to learn about either went here, or taught here.


The temple in Madrid.
Though it's small, it's still the best looking building in Madrid. I'm going there friday and I can't wait to see it again!

And last but not least...

San Juan De Gaztelugatxe near Bilbao.

I really felt like I was in the middle of no where. The hike to get to the stairs was about an hour long and there was nothing but beautiful views. Actually there's a little cottage right before you get to the stairs to go to the church that I think I'm going to live in one day, right next to the sea, gorgeous mountains, and plenty of hiking trails! Also, at the top of the stairs there's a church with a bell and if you ring the bell, you will get married. So if you want to stay single your whole life, I suggest you don't ring the bell.

So that wraps up my really random post. I hope you liked the pictures.

Six down!

So I don't really have anything to talk about but I though I should post something anyway because it's my six month anniversary! Feel free to congratulate me! Yes, I have made it through six whole months of being in spain, and there's only 4 more left! Six down, four to go. But I don't want you guys to think that I'm having an awful time, because I'm not. Today, kids were really nice to me. That means that people actually talked to me, in case you didn't know. I got invited to hang out this weekend, but I'm not sure if it was a sincere invite, or one of those that they don't really mean. I'll find out tomorrow.
Well to celebrate my anniversary I took a four hour nap! Yay!!! And tomorrow we don't have math first hour because our teacher is going to be in Madrid, so we get to sleep in! Sleeping always makes me happy! And somehow, I always need it!
Let's see... what else happened today? Oh, the missionaries found out about transfers today, but that's not very exciting. I think elder estevez-garcia will be transfered, but I can't say for sure because he's only been with elder sayaz for one transfer, yet he's been in Burgos since october. So I'm still up in the air on that one.

Bored to Busy

So this week we only had three days of school (carnivales) and I only went to two of them. Thursday I woke up with a stomach ache so I decided to stay home rather than face those kids that are in my class. And then I went friday and in the morning I just sat there while everyone else took the math test (la recuperacion, how do you say that in english? recuperation? that just doesn't sound right). And then we didn't have philosophy because our tutor hour carried over. And then to finish it off we got out of school a half an hour early. So basically I could have stayed home friday as well.
Anyway, all day friday and saturday I did nothing. I sat in bed and read or watched movies. Until at around 6 o'clock I decided to go for a short, painful run. I'm so bored!
So I wished that I could have something to do besides studying...
Today when I came to church there were two other missionaries that are traveling around the mission to help out the other elders there. One of them gave me the challenge to get my host family to come one sunday to church (I think it's impossible, but I'll try). And then Lucy, a friend, told me that we are having a youth activity on thursday. And then the branch president's wife gave me the primary manual so that I can start preparing lessons because I'm now teaching english to little kids on thursdays. And then Lucy (again) asked me to help her out with some computer stuff next sunday and then invited me to eat over as well. AND THEN the missionaries in Burgos asked me to help them in a lesson they are having with a couple from Alaska on friday, but since I have school I told them I couldn't, so they said they'll find another time.
So that's my story on how I went from being super super bored to extremely busy in just a few hours. Be careful what you wish for! Lesson of the day

Tarragona

Today and yesterday I didn't have school all thanks to that dirty little holiday callled carnival. So my host family decided to go visit my host mom's family in Tarragona (a little city about an hour away from Barcelona). To be honest I wasn't very excited because a few weeks earlier I got an invitation from my friend Zuri to come visit her in Bilbao this weekend. However, after the first day I was loving it. I immediately saw how different her family is compared to Pachi's and I liked them a whole lot more.

The first day we went to see a carnival race in the old part of town and I got to see a lot of cute costumes that made me change my mind about carnival just a little bit. That's the first picture you see. It still won't let me move that picture down and I have no idea why!!! Can anyone help me?

On our walk around the city we ran into the cutest dog!! The owner had left him outside a cafe and so me and Miguel played with him for a few minutes. Once we were done taking pictures the owner came out and didn't look too friendly. Oops.

Then that night we went to a carnival parade where everyone watching was dressed up. I hated the parade and my idea of carnival is probably worse now than when we started.

The next day we went to see more of the old town and I got to see the outside of the cathedral. It's amazing how sick of cathedrals a person can get! So that's why I only wanted to see the outside instead of going with just Pachi in the morning to see the inside. Then the rest of the day was pretty relaxing. I took a two hour nap in the afternoon and I also tried to watch as much of the olympics as possible. Here they don't care about the olympics at all. My host family didn't even know there was a sport called cross-country skiing. Sad sad sad. I think they don't watch it because they don't have people from their country competing. Yet, spaniards think they are so good at skiing? It just doesn't make any sense.

And then it was Monday and we went home right after lunch. So that was my trip. I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get to see some of the main things to see in Tarragona, and I didn't get to go to Barcelona, but overall it was pretty good. I should have never been nervous to meet Cristina's family.

Shopping in Spain

Tomorrow I'm going to stake conference in Vitoria and I'm way excited! This is one of the only times, since coming to spain, that I've actually cared about what I look like because, well, um I'm pretty sure you guys can guess why. Anyway, so today I went shopping to find something that I can wear tomorrow. Boy was it crazy!!!
I decided to go around 5 so that I would miss most of the crowds, but after an hour or so the stores were packed!!! You may think that's because there were good sales going on, or it's a holiday or something, but no, the stores are always packed!!! I think it's because there's nothing else to do here. So I came home around 8 with the biggest headache and only 4 purchases.
My other complaint about shopping in spain is the organization of the stores. The boys clothes are always in front, so in order to see the girls clothes you have push your way through a ton of smelly boys checking themselves out in the mirror. Then when you make it to the girls clothes you can only pick out 4 things to try on because that's the limit in the dressing rooms. Then IF you find something you like to have to go past the boys again and stand in the forever long line. The lines are so long that when I finally found something at Zara I immediately put it back after seeing the people lined up.
Anyway, the point is that I miss shopping in the states where there's space to breath, indoor malls, normal looking clothes, and huge dressing rooms!