First Day of Work

    I'm sure everyone is wondering how my first day at my job went yesterday.  It was definitely better than expected.  Besides getting turned around on the way to meet the mother at the metro station, everything was perfect.

    The girl's name is Naia and she is in the 6th grade.  She speaks English extremely well and isn't shy.  She was very excited to have me there and very excited to start.  It turns out that her mother would like it to be more of a lesson instead of playing which is different than I anticipated.  This is good though, because at that age they are harder to play with.  Her mother wants us to spend the first part of the hour practicing conversation skills and the second half writing, since they don't practice writing much in English at school.  Naia is very easy to get along with and is good about asking questions.  The family mostly speaks Euskera, the Basque language, when they are at home but they also speak Spanish and English.  Sometimes when she was confused on a word, Naia would translate it from Euskera to Spanish, and then I would translate it from Spanish to English.  It can be quite the process, but so far we are both enjoying it.  Not to mention I will be making 24 euros a week, so I won't be going completely broke.  My hope is that I will be able to find my way back to her house tomorrow because I got completely lost on my way home last night.  And, as always when I get lost, it started raining.

    Yesterday was the celebration of one of Bilbao's favorite saints, Saint Agatha.  She is a hero for the work she did for women's rights in her day.  Her punishment, along with torture, was the removal of her breasts.  To celebrate her heroism, many choirs form around the city and sing folk-songs in Euskera.  They usually dress in clothes from older times and each choir raises money for a different charity.  Last night, we went to see one of the street choirs perform outside of a few bars. While we listened, I got to try my first pintxo (which are appetizers and are customarily eaten as snacks) at one of the bars courtesy of my host-aunt Maria.  I couldn't even tell you what it was, but all I know is that it was delicious.  I also got a yarn necklace from my host-brother Martin to celebrate Saint Blaise.  He always had a sore throat and it is said that wearing the yarn necklace for a week will prevent sore throats for the rest of the year.  I'm willing to try anything!