Visitors! Paris! Mexican food! Fun fact!

While supper hasn't even begun in the states, it's well past midnight here and even though I have unfinished homework due tomorrow, I'm up - trying to burn calories (well-spent on scrumptious Spanish food) through procrastination. It's an art, I must say, and I think I've just about perfected it. This blog is perfect practice.

We go to Paris in two days! And as if that weren't exciting enough, my parents are coming to visit us! They called and booked the flight during my brother's spring break, so I can't wait to see them. Lots of planning is in the works, but hopefully we'll all get to check out some unexplored European turf on their vacation. The next week, we've got some UT friends flying over from Austin for their spring break, so that should be a blast. And Cade's dad might come up to see us too! It's so nice to have everybody here!

My title promised a fun Spain fact, so here you go:
There are few "American restaurants" in Spain. And the few that exist generally just serve hamburgers, which I guess is the stereotypical American food. I had a "hamburger" the other day, which consisted of an unbunned patty with a fried egg on top...crazy. And Chinese restaurants are EVERYWHERE. And they're cheap. You can get a three-course meal with desert for around 6€. I've seen a few McDonalds and Burger Kings around (Seth would be upset to know there are no Taco Bells), and there's one Subway that I know of. And the flavors for the Ben and Jerry's here are all in English. What else?

Mexican - according to my professor, there are a few authentic Mexican restaurants here, but not many. And they're pricey. Veeerrry pricey, which is sad, because I miss Mexican (yes, TexMex too) tremendously. And honestly, I put this picture up mostly to console myself. Just looking at it makes my boca water. We would cook some here if it weren't 1€ a tortilla here. (And 3€ per can of refried beans).

Turkish food here is "comida rápida" (fast food), and the 1€ clearance mystery meat at the grocery store is disgusting. And cheap. But we're two broke college students nearly emptying our savings to live in Spain; ya can't complain.

Somehow, I almost always end up writing about food. But my post is taking a sweeping tangent which is a tell-tale sign that I need to get off and be academically productive. As for y'all, it's about time for supper. Enjoy your meals - and eat some steamy enchiladas for me.

I miss y'all like I miss Mexican food. :)

-Bana

Menú del día

Obviously, lunch is HUGE in Spain. The meal, called the menú del día, is served by most cafés and restaurantes around 2 - 2:30 (and definitely not anytime before then), and most of them have a menu of what they're serving that day for lunch outside. When lunchtime rolls around, people just walk around, looking at their outside menus until they find something they're in the mood for that day. They're all three-course meals (with usually 4-5 options for each course) and INCLUDE a bottle of wine for two people.

Since we're trying to save our money in order to travel as much as possible this semester, we've been cooking every day instead of eating out. But last Thursday, we treated ourselves to the menú del día at one of Bilbao's cafés.

For 11€ each, we ate:

First Course - paella con carne (paella with meat) that was absolutely DELICIOUS!
Second (Main) Course - I had pechuga de pollo (chicken breast) with peppers, and Cade had the salmon. Just like our paella, they were both delicious!
Third (Dessert) Course - I had mousse de limón (lemon type mousse pudding), and Cade had some type of creamy pudding that was absolutely delicious!
Included with the meal was a bottle of vino tinto (red wine) and a bread basket.

It's too bad we can't eat out every day, but that was absolutely delicious! And it's so crazy how everything gets so busy during lunchtime. All the stores are closed (pretty much, except the restaurants, bars and grocery stores), and everyone goes out with their friends for the menú del día.

Dos Tejanos en Espana, Primera Semana

Hola, from our first week en España. I think we’re FINALLY starting to adjust to this strange place and language, but it’s still taking time. Today we went to the Guggenheim, which is absolutely amazing. It’s mostly architectural art, and there are a few exhibits that are really interesting and engaging and a few more modern that Cade and I are I guess too “uncultured” to realize their aesthetic beauty. :)

We got a call from the apartment office yesterday that said our rent was late and that we had to open up an account right away before 9:30 this morning. In the states, they’d give us a few days but in most cases not here. So we went to the bank today and tried to open una cuenta (an account), but they told us we needed some identification number for non-Spanish citizens to be able to open an account. Nobody told us that! So we went to the “hacienda” to get our NIFs (which we thought would be a same-day kind of thing) and filled out our forms and everything and the lady said it would take a few days before we got them. So we couldn’t get an account and were freaking out, scared that the apartment would kick us out or something. But when we went back to the apartment, they were completely cool about it and just let us pay our first rent in cash until we get our NIFs to open a new account. We pay our electricity and water each month along with our rent. Water is a flat fee of 8 euros per month, and electricity is 30 euros per month (but if we end up using less than that, they refund us the unused amount each month). They were really cool about it.

That’s something I’ve noticed about this place. Spaniards are really nice and eager to help you. Most people know English, but we don’t ask them to speak it so we can get more Spanish practice. Yesterday, there was a big group of us – maybe 5 or 6 people – who were obviously American and obviously lost, and there was some lady who just stopped on the street to help us find where we needed to go. It’s hard understanding them when they speak so fast, but if they tell you can’t understand, they slow down and speak more clearly so you can understand it.

But I like the Spanish spoken here much better – it’s so clear to understand what people are saying in surrounding conversations because the way they speak is so clear and crisp. They don’t slur their words and annunciate everything. I imagine it’s the same thing for someone trying to learn English. I’d guess trying to understand a British person would be much easier than someone trying to learn English from a Texan. We’re less annunciated, but I’m proud of where I come from. :)

That, in addition to their accent (the theta, which I’m inadvertently starting to adopt like in gra’th’ias or empe’th’ar) is something I’ve noticed about the places and people surrounding me. Some other things that separate this new place from back home:

*First, and maybe of higher or highest importance: beer and wine is dirt cheap here. You can buy a fair bottle for 1 euro, and a better bottle for 3 or 4 euro. In fact, we found a bottle that we paid $15 for at a Specs back in Austin for only 3 euro! Also, beer is dirt cheap. We found a can six-pack of Budweiser today for 92 cents! Of course, that’s 92 cents in euros, but that’s still cheap.

*Secondly, beef and ham are expensive. We went to the grocery store today to try to buy groceries for the next few days (we’re trying to cook mostly instead of going out to eat so that we can save money to travel more across Spain and Europe), and it costs 4 euro for 6 slices of ham! On the other hand, fish is fairly cheaper here (I guess since we’re so close to the coast).

*Everybody smokes here.

*Spaniards really care about the way they dress. They look really nice, but have their own style which is completely different than back in the states. Tennis shoes are discouraged, so it’s no wonder that everyone can automatically tag me as an American before I open my mouth.

*Everyone walks in Bilbao. Or they take the bus. There are a few cars around, but not nearly as many as there are people here. Public transportation up here is abundant.

*They play American music in the grocery store like all the time, and it’s weird. And there’s a lot more English than I thought there would be. The other day I bought some cereal that said “corn flakes” on the box.

*People here look really fit. There aren’t many overweight people here, and we think it’s because their food is healthier. Maybe it’s just the Basque area we’re in, but we haven’t found much fried food, which is good. And everyone walks everywhere, so that makes sense too.

*EVERYBODY closes for lunch. The entire city just shuts down. It’s the most important meal of the day, and it consists of two courses, a dessert and a glass of wine anywhere from 10-15 euros for a reasonable price. It’s not bad, but we’re trying to cook more because our priority is traveling. Today we cooked chicken spaghetti with red sauce and baguette bread (amazing and fresh for only 40 euro cents). MMM. The food here is buenísima.

*Everybody said it rains a lot here, but at least since we’ve been here, it’s been really pretty and sunny. It’s only really rained one day, but I hope I didn’t just jinx myself out of a semester of good weather.

*There’s a lingerie store here called “Woman’s Secret”. No joke. I wanted to take a picture of it but I haven’t had my camera handy yet.

If you have any questions about Bilbao, Spain or Europe in general, just ask us!

We’re learning everyday new and crazy things that are constantly surprising us!

We’ll write more when we can, and if you’d like a post card, please give us your address and we’ll try to send something. Parents – don’t worry; we already bought y’all a postcard so yours should arrive soon. We just have to figure out a) where a post office is, and b) how much it costs to send mail back to the United States.

Also, I have pictures, but I don’t know where to post them. I’ve never used Flickr, but I guess I’ll try to check that out since Facebook isn’t available to everyone (and most importantly our parents). We’ll let you know when we get that figured out.

Well, until next time! ¡Hasta luego!

Day 2, ¡Está bién!

Whew! Well, so far at least, day 2 was much better than day one. Bana had her orientation today and met several people. I took my Spanish placement exam this morning and then spent the rest of the afternoon with the other girl from UT on exchange like me. That's when I found out that Spaniards don't eat lunch until 2:30! The restaurants don't even serve lunch food until 2:30! But, eating at 2:30 was a lot easier than getting kicked off the bus yesterday.

Overall, I think we're both feeling A LOT better today. Tonight we went out with a couple of people that Bana met today. We went to a bar and had Pintxos (Tapas, or Pinchos, as they're known locally). It was a new experience for all of us. You try ordering a food you've never had at a bar you've never been to in a language you've never actually used! But, it worked! We got what we wanted and, hopefully, got over our fear of actually talking to Spanish people.

So, today was a success. Of course anything would be better than the day we had yesterday! But, in the words of Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), "The night is darkest before the dawn." Today dawned our adventure in Spain, and we're serious! (For those of you who haven't seen The Dark Knight, watch it!)

1st day here...

So, we made it. We’re now home sweet home in our new dorm/apartment, and now our heads our reeling with the culture shock that we knew was going to come but didn’t think it’d be this bad. But I guess that comes inevitably when you’re in a foreign country where you don’t know nearly enough of the language as you should.

So, let me start from what I guess would be the beginning. The flight from Houston was long, but nice. What really sparked our interest were the TV updates, which updated the passengers on where the flight was on the globe. It tracked the trail from Houston to Frankfurt – something interesting to keep up with when all you see for hours upon hours is blue ocean.

Nonetheless, I guess we arrived a little late because once we arrived at the German airport and readied ourselves to transfer to Bilbao, it was all rush rush rush. Much to our surprise, we had to go through another round of customs for German security, where Cade went through additional screening because apparently the magnetic strip bar code in his pocket pants is an inadvertent act of terrorism. But after we (and mostly Cade) got through that security check, we realized that our flight to Bilbao left in 10 minutes! So we rushed down to the gate, after much rigmarole due to the crazy geography of the German airport (trust me, it’s confusing). The good thing is that they got word that the flight from Houston was late and waited on us. Whew!

But apparently it wasn’t like it really mattered, because we didn’t fly out until nearly one and a half hours later because of ice on the runway and plane and everything. But FINALLY we flew to Bilbao.

First of all, let me say that Spain is gorgeous. As we flew in, we could see quaint little farm houses perched up on those beautiful green mountains. After our arrival, I met up with my study abroad program and headed to Bilbao!

But that’s where the culture shock came in. It was beautiful watching it from afar as we descended into Spain on the plane. Once Cade and I actually explored the city – we realized how truly different everything is. Seriously. And it’s not like I expected it to be like Austin – I just didn’t expect such a huge culture shock like this.

So as soon as we moved our stuff into our dorm that we’re sharing, we headed out to find a cheap pay as you go cell phone, because obviously ours won’t work over here. So after shopping around a few places (Cade doing all the talking because he knows WAY more Spanish than I do and seriously impressed me tonight), we bought a pair of cheap phones for 19 euro each.

We were so excited that we had our little phones finally that we decided to explore more of Bilbao by hopping on the tram. So Cade steps on the tram, and I walk up to the doorway, and the bus starts freaking out: BEEP BEEP BEEP. So, naturally – scared like hell – I step off the bus and the doors just slam shut and the bus rolls away.

So Cade tries to get the driver’s attention to open the door for me, and he won’t budge. The bus, and Cade, disappear – leaving me all alone in a city that I’ve only been in for three hours (without a map). I had my newly bought cell phone, but that didn’t do me any good because we had just gotten the phones before our tram sham and hadn’t had time to give each other our numbers. So there I am, scared out of my mind, without knowing Spanish fluently, without a map, without anybody’s phone number, my boyfriend probably halfway across town somewhere, and without a clue on how to get through this foreign city.

So naturally, I chase after the bus, but the damn thing beat me and went out of sight before I got halfway to the end of the block (but btw, the city is walkable – the roads are tiny and because of this, I think, it looks a lot bigger on the map than it is geographically). So I decide I’ll just walk home, before realizing that a) I don’t know where that is, and b) even if I did, I don’t have a map to get me there. So, I did what I should have done in the beginning, and went back to the tram stop where we got separated and there was my knight in shining armor – just as scared as I was.

So then we both get on the tram, and check out a few things – like the university and the Guggenheim museum (which really is a remarkable piece of architecture). Seeing as how nobody thus far had checked for tickets, we thought that the tram was free. So naturally, when we were done at the university and museum and ready to go back home, we got back on the tram. Ten minutes later, we got kicked off.

Apparently, the tram isn’t free. You have to have this special ticket type thing which we had no idea about, and when the guy asked to see ours and we didn’t have it, he made us get off at the next stop.

Then we went to the grocery store to get some food to cook for tonight (we have a kitchen in our dorm room), and were shocked as hell that milk, among other things, is sold on a shelf at room temperature. But we bought our food (what we could recognize at least), paid 7 euros and were out the door of our first international shopping escapade.

Bilbao isn’t Austin, and I didn’t expect it to be. But I didn’t expect things to be so different, either. When we got home, we each curled up and crashed on the bed, exhausted with all the things we just don’t know about this culture and the way things are done here.

But then again, I know that we’re not the only ones who’ve experienced this our first day abroad. It was, all in all, a terrifying experience. But hopefully as we learn the ways of Bilbao – we’ll have the time of our lives, and come back like everyone always does from abroad saying it was worth it all. The good part is that we’re together. There’s no way that I would have survived the culture shock from tonight if I didn’t have him by my side.

But either way, we start our respective study abroad programs tomorrow so hopefully that will propel us both into a faster adjustment to this unknown place. For now, it’s just plain intimidating.

It’s not night for most of our readers, but it is for us. ¡Hasta luego!