Survived the 1st week!!!

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Ok, somebody pinch me! Is this actually for real? I´m living in Spain for the summer! Maybe it´ll lose its appeal by the end of the summer, but I still can´t get over it, no matter how many times I say it! I can´t believe its already been almost a week since I´ve been here.

I was met at the airport. Here´s a trip for future travels, if you´re young and cute you can get through customs rather quickly if you don´t speak the language here 😉 The guy just rolled his eyes at me and passed me through when I said "no hablo español". And then there was Alvaro to meet me at the airport with a sign that said "Megan". I´ve always wanted to do that...makes you feel kind of important 😊

So I´m now living in an apartment in the part of Bilbao called Santutxu (pronounced San-too-choo). There are a lot of people who speak Basque around here...cause you know its wasn´t going to be hard enough just to learn Spanish, now I have to try and decipher 2 languages! And apperently Bilbao is pronounced Bill-bow, not Bill-bay-oh like we though before I left. Oops!

So far I think Spain is pretty much what I was expecting. It reminds me a lot of Italy. I think the biggest difference is obviously the language. Next to that, the 2 besos (kisses). I don´t think I´ll ever get used to kissing complete strangers, especially coworkers! Speaking of work, its not quite what I was expecting. Its more just everyday routine lab work and less "engineering" than I was expecting. But so far so good. I broke a beaker and glass rod on my first day....but really, with my luck, would you expect anything else? But its all good. There is one girl in my lab who´s working there for the summer who speaks English, which has made learning soooo much easier. She´s only there until 2 though and I work until 5 - 5:30, so there´s lots of sign language going on in the afternoon. The people I work with are amazing though, I couldn´t have asked for better. They´re so easy going and good natured 😊 One girl gave me 2 free tickets to the Guggenheim museum for tonight, but I didn´t realize it closed at 8, so we missed it 😞 Oh well, we know for next time.

I´m off to Barcelona for the weekend, so hopefully I´ll have some good pics to show off later. If I can figure out how I´ll upload some photos from our trip to the coast.

Hasta leugo (see you later!)

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Comments

[Auntie Suelo aka Consuelo]

Glad to hear you survived week one
Hello Megan, I'm so glad to have been able to access this site and to hear of your first weeks adventures. While you were visiting with the gorgious Spaniards in Barcelona, Richard and I were at Canyon Lake with your mom and dad and Nina. We stayed for the day and spent much of it in the water as it was very warm. We got to see Mon on Friday night, and she was going home to finish her school assignment and a work project. I've been keeping an eye on the temperatures in Spain, and thus far it looks very nice. I talked to Zio Toni on Sunday morning and told him you were in Spain, but let him know that you had made no decisons about traveling into Italy at the end of your Spanish experience. Buenas semana Love you, lots of hugs and kisses (dos)