Day 6

Today Carmen´s family and I woke up relatively early to go to church, which I was excited about. However, we were a little late. We rushed into the beautiful church and tried to find seats with her extended family. While we did this, the preacher stopped giving his sermon and waited for us while giving us a stern look. This was so embaressing! After church, we walked around and watched the parade. It was a very long parade and it was extremely hot. I was sweaty and my feet and back hurt from all the standing, but it was interesting to watch. Then we got tapas and went back to her grandparent´s house for lunch. I took a short nap afterwards and then we went to a birthday party for two of her friends, which was fun. Now it is 1:30 in the morning and I am ready to go to bed!

Day 5

Today I spend the day with Carmen´s extended family. They had a birthday party for her cousin, Pablo (his 9th birthday). We went to dinner with her friends and watched the fireworks. Then we met up with her older sister and her friends. After that we joined her parents and headed home. I am tired!

Day 4

Well, I am writing this on Saturday morning because yesterday I did not have time to write. Yesterday was quite a day! I went to bed relatively early the night before because I had to wake up at 7:00 in the morning to get ready for the trip we were going to take to Guernica (probably wrong spelling) and Bibao. My host father, Tito, took me to the school where we were going to meet and waited with me for the other students to arrive. Once they did and our bus arrived we were off! We drove for about three hours north to the countryside of Guernica. The bus did not really have air conditioning and the windows did not open so I began to feel anxious, faint, and sick, as well as closterphobic. I thought I might vomit, so I moved to the front seat next to the driver and brought a plastic bag with me. On the turn into our destination, the bus stalled in the middle of the street and would not start up again for a few tries. I was panicking because I desperately needed fresh air but finally it started up. We drove into the forest, where there was a parking lot, a playground, a restaurant, and some houses. Everyone was confused about what we were doing, so most turned to playing on the see-saw or swings. The teachers decided we would embark on a thirty minute walk to the famous "painted forest", where an artist had painted trees in the 1960´s. It was rough. Nobody knew about this hike, so we were mostly wearing sandals and clothes one would wear to a museum and our frustration grew as we saw cars drive up the steep hill that we were forging. But, we toughed it out, through the steep uphill and downhill, and made it to those damn painted trees, which were actually very cool. And the view was absolutely amazing.
After the painted forest, we got back in the bus and headed off to the peace museum in Guernica, which was great. It explained what had happened during the horrific bombings on a personal level and spoke for peace in the future.
After the museum, we grabbed some lunch and headed off to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. There was tons of traffic but we made it and explored the museum for two hours. My favorite was Anish Kapoor, who had very interactive art. He had some mirrors he had made that were crazy! You could not tell if some of his work was 2 dimensional or 3 dimmensional. It was difficult getting everyone back together, but we finally did and headed home. By this time we were all exhaused from a very busy day and lots of walking. On the bus ride back I popped blisters on my feet. Us students knew that we had a long night ahead of us because it was the first night of the Fiestas de Burgos.
We got back to the school around 8:30 where our host students met us. Then, Carmen and I headed to her grandparents house, which they use when they visit Burgos. The streets were absolutely flooded with people in red and yellow because Spain was playing football (soccer). There were huge screens set up in the plazas for people to watch the game. I took a shower there because I was filthy and then watched the game with her family and ate dinner.
I went with Carmen and her friends and their Americans to see the fireworks after dinner. She held my hand as we made our way through the tight crowds of people that crowded the streets and finally made it to the river, where all the young people went, and watched the fireworks there. Everyone in the city was in the street watching the fireworks. The fireworks were louder, bigger, and closer than those in the United States, and my stomach hurt afterwards. We stood around the river for awhile, talking and observing the heavy teen drinking that was occuring. Then Carmen and I left to find her family and sat with them in front of a cafe/bar. We went for a walk and saw live music playing, Spanish music as well as rock and roll (with English lyrics). At this point it was probably one in the morning and everyone was still out, laughing and walking and dancing, both the young and the old.
At about two, Carmen, her parents, and I got in her father´s car and headed home. I checked my email and went to bed, slept heavily and then woke up at one in the afternoon today!

Day 3

I slept in until 10:30 this morning! Then Carmen and I woke up and had breakfast (toast for me with olive oil and sugar). Our baggage was supposed to arrive at the school at 10:00 so my host father went to the school to pick my bag up, but they were not there. Carmen and I went to the school around noon, hoping the bags would be there. We waited for a while and then they finally arrived! We walked back to her house and then went out again to go to the mall to get more food for her rabbit, Kitty. When we returned, I was pretty tired and took a short siesta. She woke me up for lunch and we ate cooked vegetables with olive oil and vinegar with her father. I went back to sleep for a while after, and then her father drove me to the cathedral where our group was meeting. We had a fantastic tour of the cathedral, which was absolutely beautiful. Then we took the silly tourist train around Burgos, stopping at a lookout point where we had a great view of the whole city, which was very fun! Then Carmen, my mom and I went to a store, Blanco, which was having a huge sale (50% off everything!) and I got two dresses and two shirts for just 35 euros! The clothing is much cheaper here. Then Carmen and I went to another store, Zara, and then headed home. We just had omelets with potatoes in them for dinner which was delicious! Definitely my favorite meal so far. I am going to go to bed soon because tomorrow I have to wake up early to go with our group to Bilbao and Guarnica. ¡Adios!

Day 2- Parte III

Sarah here. Carmen´s family and I just returned from visiting her mother´s uncle at his apartment for his birthday. They were actually impressed with my Spanish! I think it has improved over even these last two days! The young boy there, Pablito, is learning English and had a brief conversation with me in English. Her family was very kind. It is 11:35 PM and I think I will head to bed soon. It has been a great day!

Day 2- Parte II

After lunch, Carmen and I went to "la playa" with all the American exchange students, host students, and a bunch of people from their school- which was really just a part of the river that had sand (and I think the water was polluted). We talked for hours and had a great time. The young people dilute their wine with coca-cola- classy. We shared jokes in English and Spanish as well as the noises animals make in both languages and laughed lots. All the Spanish students are so friendly, kind, and funny! And tomorrow our luggage comes!

Day 2

Sarah again. I had a wonderful nights sleep after taking a sleeping pill and sleeping solidly for 11 hours! Here in Spain, they have fantastic blinds that keep the room muy oscuro. I just had lunch with Carmen and her father. We had lentil soup, which was delicious, and they tried to feed me fish and fruit and cakes as well but I was too full! Here they eat breakfast, lunch around 3:00 or 4:00 (which I thought was dinner yesterday) and then another meal around 10:00 PM or later. Yesterday I was too full to have any dinner!
Today we were supposed to take a train ride today but Jesus, our guide and the English teacher at the school, had the wrong time so we just walked around not knowing what was going on. It was a bit scattered, but we got to see much of the city. We are going to go to the beach of a river this afternoon with friends. It has been so much fun so far and my Spanish is pretty okay.

My mom is living in her own house! Her family owns another house and is letting her live there. The husband of the family seems really cool. He makes his own honey and goes into the woods and gathers herbs to make his own tea. And he has a house in the country that he goes to for tranquility. Sounds like Brian and my dad would love him! He is retired and collects coins and presses flowers he finds in the woods. He is going to teach my mom to cook Spanish dishes.
Can´t wait for Carmen to visit Santa Cruz!