Today after orientation we went on a pub crawl of the rocks. It was beautiful and I finally got my first views of the Sydney opera House. We started drinking on our tour at about 2pm and didn’t go home until about 8ish. After that, several of my friends and I went back to Coogee to get the most delicious $2 steak ever. While I was downtown, I also had my first encounter with a street performer today. He performed a stunt called the flying “Camel of Death.” I'll try to included a video of this for your benefit.... read more

Today I get to move into the house that I’ll be living in for the next 4.5 months. I’m up currently at 7:30 waiting to head out to the university to sign my lease and get my keys. I was told last night that the internet companies pretty much only have contracts for 2 years. Sean said that usually the landlord contracts with the internet company, then the tenant pays the cost of the service during their stay. However, the Uni has already told me that Internet is not included…I hope that doesn’t meant I’ll need to buy a antenna from the phone company that will let me get internet through the Cell Phone towers… … I’ve moved into my house to find that the internet service of the previous occupants has not yet been canceled. ... read more

Well, today is my last day in Bilbao. It’s a little bit sad leaving, but mostly I’m ready to go home. Spain was wonderful and all, it’s just that it’s not the United States. I need to live in a country where if I’m hungry at 1:00 AM I can drive down the street and find several extremely unhealthy options. Spain is not that country. I had my two finals today. I would be worried about them, but I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to get less than a B on both of them. I don’t know if they’re making classes easier because we’re Americas….or if it’s because it summer school, or if this is just how university in Spain goes. Whichever it is, it’s fine by me. Earning 6 easy credits for UIUC while in Spain ... read more

The title of this entry is appropriate for two reasons: 1) I went to France for the whole day today; and 2) These are the only two useful phrases I know in French (there is one more, but saying “Shut your mouth” is only useful in so many situations). Some of my friends and I took a bus for only 16€ from Bilbao, Spain, to Biarritz, France. It was a little less than a 3 hour drive and because both France and Spain are EU countries, I might as well have been driving from Illinois to Wisconsin—no passport needed (Just one more reason I like the EU: Free movement of people, goods, and money between EU countries). Despite my lack of knowledge of French, it was relatively easy to communicate with shop owners in Biarritz. ... read more

url='/Videos/4250.html' onclick='dialog("/Videos/4250.html?popped=1","tbvideo",600,600);return false;'Entering I went to the festival of San Fermin today (Aka, the running of the bulls). No, I didn’t run with the bulls, though I would consider it at a future, crazier date. I had to wake up at 4 am this morning to be at the bus by 5. After some confusion over whether the phone was ringing or my alarm was going off (it happened to be the latter; after several minutes of being confused as to why the phone wouldn’t stop ringing when I picked it up, I realized my mistake) I got ready an boarded the bus for the 2 hour drive to Pamplona. Once in Pamplona we made our way directly to the corral where the Bulls end up after the run (I didn’t actually see the run itself ... read more