Fall, a Photo Montage

So, I know I already wrote today, but then I took a walk on the most gorgeous day ever and thought I’d post some of the fall scenes that are only a 5-10 minute walk from my house. I get to LIVE here – how cool is that??

Arches on the Paseo de la Isla

Paseo de la Isla

Plaza on the Paseo

Espanoles Paseando

This last one is my personal favorite, just because I love the old people paseando as they so frequently do here in Spain.

Can you see why I’m in love with fall? Now if we could only figure out how to keep the cold winter weather off for a few more weeks…!

 

If yesterday was Saturday, it must have been Bilbao!

Somewhere in the middle of a cozy siesta moment last week, I decided that since I didn’t have plans for a longer weekend trip this weekend, a day trip to someplace nearby would be a great idea. And, I thought, I’ll choose a place that is relatively close to both Logrono and Burgos so that I could invite Jennis and Lucy and make a lovely weekend of it. So, i suggested Bilbao and we were on our way. Now, Bilbao is also conveniently close to San Sebastian, so I suggested to The Boy that he come, too. (P.S. I promise I didn’t choose Bilbao for this reason, it just happened to be a nice added side benefit! Haha)

Jennis, Lucy and I all arrived around 10:30 in the morning and started walking through the center of town, following Gran Via to the Casco Viejo (= old town) of Bilbao for a coffee. And despite the fact that we were all pretty darn cold when we arrived, the day was sunny and shortly became glorious. We were all dressed for the winter that it’s become here, and we were all shedding layers by about noon. But we ended up in a cafe near to a pretty church in a plaza (haha, I feel like that phrase could pretty much describe Anywhere, Spain) where a wedding was about to happen, so we gawked like tourists and admired the novia (= bride).

Side note: weddings here seem SO much fancier than they are at home! Like, obviously the bride and groom are dressed up and gorgeous, but everyone else is practically in ball gowns and perfectly coiffed. Intense.

From there we wandered some more, finding a new plaza and climbing this huge long set of stairs that ended in a cute park where some guys were playing pick-up soccer. Oh, not to mention that it had a fabulous view of the city! At this point, The Boy called, having driven and parked someplace in the city, so we found another plaza to have coffee in and wait.

I’d like to say that while I wasn’t nearly as nervous about seeing him this time as I was the first time, I WAS kind of nervous about him meeting my friends and how the two worlds would come together. But if there are any people here that I’d want him to meet, it’d be Lucy and Jennis. And of course, I had absolutely no reason to worry, as usual. There was mutual liking of the other by everyone involved, and we passed the rest of the

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao

day nicely wandering around the Casco Viejo, tapeando in the Plaza Nueva for lunch and then heading over to the Guggenheim Museum to admire its strange beauty. We ended up in a park by the Guggenheim for a mid-afternoon drink before going to the bus station to go our separate ways.

Oh, and did I mention that the day was kinda perfect?

 

Things I Love

Given that I’ve just been ridiculously happy and in love with life these past few weeks, I am going to write about the things I love, in no particular order:

1. Fall. It has smelled like fall for a few weeks now, and it never fails to make me smile. The smell is really hard to describe, but it’s some combination of crisp air, fireplaces burning, and fallen leaves. It just instantly transports me back to childhood and that sweet, expectant time before Halloween and Thanksgiving. I am fully capable of walking around town in the evenings, smiling like a crazy and breathing deeply. It just makes me so, so happy.

2. Crunching leaves. I learned how to say this in Spanish last weekend (hacer crujir las hojas = to make the leaves crunch), and now I think my life is complete. I spent all this past weekend running into the piles of leaves that are more frequently appearing along the sidewalks, looking for the especially crunchy leaves to squish under my feet. Yes, I am 5 years old. I’ve accepted this.

3. Friends coming to visit. I had a lovely visit this past weekend from Lucy and Abby, two friends from Logrono, and we just generally wandered around being tourists in town. It makes me feel so much more connected to life here when I have friends come visit.

4. My teacher, Bea. She is one of the teachers I work with in the bilingual program at school, and she teaches art. She’s young (late-20s), friendly, helpful and just a lot of fun to be with. When she heard that my friends were going to be in town this weekend, she immediately offered to take us all to see the three monasteries around Burgos in her car, and we spent all afternoon/evening on Saturday with her, her boyfriend, and their friend. She is WONDERFUL, and I love her. She is always inviting me to things, suggesting fun things for me to do around town, and just generally being a friend, and I appreciate that so much being a stranger here.

5. My roommates, Manuel and Cristian. They are ADORABLE. They are 18 year old university students, and I am in love with them. They remind me of my brothers in many ways, being away from home for the first time in their lives, and figuring out how to be their own people. It’s like living freshman year all over again, but without any of the stupid stressful drama that goes along with it: the partying until all hours, the not going to class, the stupid stuff that occurs when you drink too much alcohol. You know, basically exactly how MY freshman year went. Haha.

6. Speaking in Spanish. This may seem like a stupid bullet point, but it’s really not. And even if it were, it’s my blog to be stupid in. I am everyday amazed at the fact that I can totally communicate with people in Spanish and actually get my point across. This is not to say that I don’t make mistakes (I totally do!) or don’t have moments/days when I suck at speaking and nothing comes out quite right (omg, this totally happens!), but by and large I can communicate with people in a meaningful way. As in, I can have conversations as opposed to just answering questions with simple “si” or “no” answers. I think of this every time I am chattering away in Spanish with someone. This makes me very happy.

7. New friends. I met a new girl on Thursday night whose name is Elin, and she’s from Sweden. We met through the Couch Surfing group that’s here in Burgos, and we went out for drinks on Thursday night, and then met up again while we were out on Saturday night. She is SUPER nice, and we’re actually going to go to see a movie together tomorrow night. But aside from having more people that I know here, which is cool, I love that I am able to make new friends and be comfortable with new people so easily now. It wasn’t so long ago that I felt really awkward and uncomfortable in new situations, and I’m pretty sure I’m never going to take this ability to make new friends for granted ever. It’s just a really great, fun skill to have.

8. Boys who say cute things. Can I bring up the fact that I’ve met a boy? I met him a few weeks ago in Logrono, and he’s from San Sebastian, about 3 hours to the north of Burgos, on the coast, close to the border with France. His name is Imanol, which is apparently a very Basque name (he’s Basque), and he’s just about the nicest person I know. So, we’ve been talking on the phone quite a bit since we’ve met, and I actually went to visit him last week in San Sebastian for a day, which was lovely. But the part that makes me really happy is that he just sends me cute little messages all the time, saying nothing but just establishing contact, telling me I’m guapa (which means pretty) and just generally making me feel pretty. Those little things can really never been underestimated.

I think that might exhaust my list of things that I love. I just thought I’d share.