Gernika, Mundaka, and More

       Yesterday was a pretty eventful day for everyone in the CIDE program because we went out on another excursion.  This time, we weren't missing 20 people, probably because we didn't have to leave until 10 am.  We started the day in Gernika which is part of the providence Bizkaia, the same providence as Bilbao.  This city is famous for the 1936 bombing the suffered at the hands of Hitler during the Spanish Civil War.  Hitler and Franco were bros.  The city wasn't particularly pretty because they rebuilt in a hurry but there was history everywhere.  First, we went to the World Peace Museum which is basically just a museum about the bombing.  I thought this museum was pretty cool because the floors were made out of glass and under the glass was real rubble from the bombing.  Though most of the rubble was rock and wood, there were also a lot of random items that they had excavated from the rubble, like a women's shoe, playing cards, and charred books.

    After the museum, we went to visit the Bizkaia Assembly House, where the Bizkaian government meets.  Right outside of this building is the tree of Gernika.  This was the tree where all of the Bizkaian lords met to discuss laws in the middle ages.  I was pretty disappointed that the original tree is no longer standing (even though the tree survived the bombing).  Every time the tree is close to death, they take one of its seeds, cut down the old tree, and plant its child.  I believe the current tree was the great-great-great-great-grandchild of the original tree. The tree and the town of Gernika are considered to be the historical symbol of the Basque Country.

    After Gernika, we visited Mundaka which is a fishing village right on the ocean.  For some reason, we weren't allowed to go onto the beach, but we could go on the stairs that lead right down to the water.  We had plenty of time to look around the water before our trip back to Bilbao.  This trip was way better than our last excursion.

    On Wednesday, we were given our Spanish partners for our conversation groups.  Since there are more of us than there are of them, we are actually in small groups instead of partners.  I am in a group with two other American girls and two Spanish girls.  They are super nice and I can't wait to talk to them more throughout the months.  I am also participating in the Tandem program, so I will have my own partner outside of class to practice speaking with.  I have been assigned my girl, but we haven't had a chance to meet yet.

    Yesterday when I got home from my trip, our French girl was here.  Her name is Deborah and she is super nice.  I got to go with my family to show her around a bit and get to know her.  She is only here for the week.

My sad cooking attempt

    Today was quite eventful for a Saturday too.  When I woke up this morning, it was snowing!  It does not snow in Bilbao. Ever.   It didn't stick since it was 40 degrees but my family was still pretty excited about it.  They were trying to figure out if there had been snow in Bilbao since Martin had been alive, so it's really a treat that I was here for the snow.  Lunch was a catastrophe.  I had been planning on making Cheesy Potatoes and Meatballs (the best food in our family) for quite awhile and today ended up being the day.  Writing out the ingredients for Perico to buy was difficult enough since there weren't translations for half of the stuff in the recipes.  I knew that he would come back home with something besides hash browns.... the frozen french fries he bought did the trick.  Then after that, I had to make a dish that I had never made before while only getting help in Spanish.  I tried to do as much as I could on my own because explaining was taking way too long.  At some point I gave up on having meatballs in the shape of balls and decided it was just going to be a meat dish.  I added a little more than the recipe called for in the potatoes, too, since they were thicker.  I'm not sure if it was really necessary since I do not cook, but I was in a hurry and really didn't care.  In the end, everything turned out okay but it definitely wasn't anything like how my grandma would make it. I would like to add the the hamburger has a different taste here.  It kind of tastes like crap! Only eat Nebraska beef!