Turkish Delite! Super Saturday!

Well, it is time for me to share my fabulous Saturday in Istanbul with you! It was SOOO busy, I feel like I could write chapters and chapters about it, but a little blog will have to do!

After the live music the night before I slept in, as I was pretty dead from my lack of sleep on Thursday night. We got around and headed to Dolmabahçe Palace first. This is a very historic and famous palace in Turkey. It was built between the 1840s and 1850s by the Sultan at the time and is MASSIVE. Here is a picture of me and my friend Alp in front of one of the side gates...yea, not even the main entrance, crazy right? It is a European-style palace and has fourteen tons of gold throughout the house...cha ching. This Palace was built to replace the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul (which is also super famous) because it wasn't as luxurious as the Dolmabahçe Palace. Well let me tell you, this place was crazy amazing. There are 285 rooms, 44 Halls, 68 toilets, 6 Hamams (Turkish Baths) and the most amazing furniture and antique things in the place. Here is a shot of just an entrance hall waiting room, a nice place to sit around wouldn't you say?

I have never seen so much wealth in one place before. It felt like watching a TV show about the rich and famous and here it was right in front of my face. The library has books in it from the 16th century, there was an exhibition of goregous old Turkish porcelian and gold teasets, there are birdcages with gold, huge chandilers in every room and that's just the beginning. Even the door knobs have gold leaf on them! I think the whole time I walked around, I was just in shock. Here is a shot of one of the stained-glass windows with the view of Asia in the background - something pretty nice to wake up to every day right?! Every new room was so impressive and massive, it makes you feel like the smallest thing in the house. After these rooms our English-speaking tour guide (who sounded more like a computer program and he might as well have spoke Chinese) told us that we were going to see the most impressive room in the whole house and all I could think was 'how could anything be more impressive than what I have just seen?' and boy was he right. I walked in and my mouth dropped. The hall we strolled into is called Muayede Hall and definitley was the most stunning room in the whole house (if it's even possible to have a most stunning room.)I wish that my pictures did it justice but it was just magnificent. Just to put it in perspective, here are a few fast facts about Hall: it is 6500 square feet, is 118 feet high, has a 400 square foot Turkish rug and a ridiculous amount of gold. Here is a shot of the ceiling. There was even a chandelier they say weighs 4.5 tons and has 664 light bulbs. It was great to look at, but I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if it fell...ha! I wonder if I am the only person who thinks that...

After the Palace portion of the tour we headed to the Harem where the women lived (when there was a Sultan) and where the bedrooms were located after there were no longer Sultans. This building was scaled down quite a lot but was still very important because it has the most important room to Turks. Thier first president and founder of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, lived here in the summers and actually died in one of the rooms. This is a photo of his bed where he died, very sad. He died at 9:05 and all the clocks in the room remain set at this time. Alp said he was a great leader and this is a very sad room for all Turks, as he is the namesake of thier entire country. Every year on the day that he died at 9:05, all Turkish people stop doing whatever they are doing and cheer for Atatürk. Alp told me that taxi drivers even stop driving, get out of thier cars in the middle of the road and cheer. Amazing national pride in Turkey.

After our tours, we headed to the Grand Bazaar, another famous Turkish spot. It somewhat reminded me of NYC Chinatown, but more interesting. There is also an inside area named Spice Market, where you, obviously, buy spices and other trinkets and such. There were so many people bustling around and bargaining prices! I tried what Alp says is the famous candy that Turkey has...the Turkish Delite (the blog namesake) which is a chewy candy that has powdered sugar on it and sometimes nuts. I was a bit nervous but after tasting it, decided I liked it haha. I didn't eat too many because we had just eaten a delicious authentic Turkish lunch and I was verrrry full. At lunch I had tried a whole bunch of different Turkish meats with breads, yogurt and veggies, all of which were delicious. After poking around the booths we headed home to rest up for a busy night.

I met many of Alp's Turkish friends, who I thought spoke no English at first. However, when we went out and they had a couple drinks...they amazingly spoke some English. Here is a shot of me, Alp and one of his friends Ibrahim, who was a blast and giggled everytime he said anything English. I guess they were nervous to talk to me at first, thinking I would laugh at thier bad grammar, but I told Alp to remind them that I speak with students everyday who don't speak great English, so it definitley wouldn't bother me one bit! So, they ended up speaking English with me, and funny thing is, we ended up at a karaoke bar, where I sang in Turkish hahahaha. How impossible! Can you read any of those words?? Like I said before, I speak no Turkish except now for hello, but I did my best to read the screen and sang which they seemed to appreciate haha. It was actually really fun and provided lots of laughter :D After a few hours of singing we grabbed some Turkish late night food...of which I knew none. I let other people order for me (something I RARELY do) and ended up with a tasty tomato and something soup, and some crazy Turkish pizza...delicious.

At about 5am we called it a night. I had an amazing time and wished the night didn't have to end becaue I knew I would have to go home the next day....sadddddd. I know I know, it's not so sad to have to go back to Spain, but I was having a blast and was only able to stay for 2 days! Hopefully I can go back and visit another time. There is way too much history to learn about, people to meet, places to eat and things to see to accomplish it all in two days, so I would love to return! More to come on my journey home in a different blog though...off to sleep now! Hope you enjoyed :D

Öpücük!

Amanda

Turkish Delite! Friday Fun!

Well, I made it back to Basque Country in one peice but not after a super fun weekend in Istanbul! I wish I could have stayed for longer, but alas the weekend will have to do. I would definitley love to go back - it was a gorgeous country! I have so much to tell you about my short trip so I will probably break up the blogs. Today you will learn about my Friday ha.

I had stayed out til about 1am the night before and had to wake up at 4am to catch a bus to the airport. Needless to say I was a bit tired. I learned a rather important at the airport that I probably should have looked up before I left - check in (facturar). Also at the airport, I realized that no one takes thier shoes off over here to go through security. I took mine off like you always do in the States and a couple people looked at me pretty funny...oooooh well. After a short 2 hour flight I landed in Munich. It was pretty busy but I still mananged to grab some post cards and check out some gift shops! All of the shops that I strolled into were like Christmaslands...nutcrackers, ornaments, etc. They also had thier fair share of steins ha! I asked the lady working at one of the stores if she would take a picture of me with a stein...I know I know, I am silly.

I finally boarded the flight to Istanbul. I was suprised that both flights had been on time - not something you see much in the States no? I actually was asked by someone in line if I was Turkish...uuuuh I guess not only can I be mistaken for a Spanish person which happens all the time here, but I look at a tad Turkish as well. Funny.

Upon arrival, I was stood in the passport control line for about 15 miutes only to get to the front and be told I needed a visa. Of course, I have a heart attack and think 'oh no, was I supposed to do something before I arrived??' I went over to the visa desk and asked for a weekend visa - a nice 15 euros and then I was all set - whew! My friend, Alp was there to pick me up! He is originally from Turkey but lived in the States for the past 10 years. We became friends at ASU and then he also lived in New York while I did and now he is back in Turkey working for an international company.

That night we went out to dinner at this fantastic restaurant named Sunset. Check it out here. We ordered some sushi for a starter (mmmm spicy tuna roll!) which I was pretty happy about. I don't know if I really trust the Spanish people here to make good sushi hahaha. But this restaurant had a special Japanese sushi chef and it was amazing. For dinner I had the special - a spicy lambchop with a mushroom risotto and for dessert an apple tart with ice cream (I guess I was missing the States ha) From the balcony you can see the Bosphorous Bridge. It is the bridge that connects Europe and Asia. Istanbul is a city that is on both continents. We spent our time on the Europe side but I was sure excited to see Asia!

Alp explained to me that Istanbul is a lot like New York and over my few days there I began to feel the same way. It is kind of gritty but at the same time SO gorgeous. There are about 13 million people who live in the city (much more than Manhattan but still the same effect) and it is listed as the third largest city in the world! There are a million little neighborhoods just like NYC. I feel like you could live in Istanbul your whole life and still not be able to see everything or learn about all the historic sites! Besides the fact that everything was in a foreign language, I felt pretty comfortable. One thing that was DRASTICALLY different was the driving. In Istanbul, Alp told me that they have the craziest drivers. I thought, come on, I have lived in New York, I am not going to think anything is more crazy than that...but ooooh I was wrong. On the ride home from the airport, I saw people backing up on the freeway if they missed thier exit (like backing up into crazy forward moving traffic) and even saw someone turn his car AROUND on the freeway and drive the wrong way to get back to the exit...the norm in Istanbul I suppose. One time we took a cab and we picked it up after some fork in the road that we needed to go the other way on, so the cab driver just backed up into speeding traffic and went the other way. No honking, nothing...completely regular - ha!

After dinner we headed down to a popular part of town to go out. It is a huge street with tons of bars, restaurants, live music venues and shopping. They had EVERYTHING. Starbucks, Burger King, McDonald's...the works. It was like America ha. Alp told me that McDonald's is all the rage in Istanbul - that they even DELIVER - how crazy is that? We found a live music venue and sang along to some English songs and then they played some Turkish songs, so I got to experience that for the first time. I speak NO Turkish. The man I sat next to on the plane from Munich to Istanbul attemped to teach me how to say hello - merhaba. It may look easy to say but I still managed to be bad at it. So armed with my one Turkish word, I rocked out to a bunch of Turkish songs and had a really fun time.

We stayed out til about 2:30am and then decided to call it a night, considering I had only about 3 hours of sleep and travelled all day. Saturday was going to be full of touristy stuff so we wanted to make sure to be ready in the morning :D A very first fun few hours in Istanbul, would't you say?

Off to work now, will write more about Saturday (a very busy day) and the trip home! Glad to be back :D

Öpücük (kisses in Turkish!)

Amanda

Turkey Sandwich!

Hi everyone! Can't write much because I am getting ready for bed because I wake up in 3 hours to go to Istanbul! I have a friend there, who is Turkish, and I am going to spend the weekend! I am pretty excited...random little trip! Even my European friends think this is a rather exotic trip - impressive since it's really the first place I am visiting since I have been here ha!

I will of COURSE, take lots of pictures and will share them when I get back. I hope you all have a great weekend (fin de semana) :D

Besos!

Amanda

Another gorgeous day!

Hi everyone, hope all is well. I don't have much to report today, as I have been mainly doing homework all day, which isn't so bad since I don't HAVE to do it. I woke up this morning and had some peanut butter toast (thanks Ariana!) and then decided I should take my Spanish novel (that I STILL have not started yet) and go out into the streets and maybe read in a Plaza or something. Well, what I didn't know was that the day was filled with festivities. I walked past one Plaza and heard loud music coming from inside, so of course I venture in. In the middle of the Plaza is a huge stage with dancers in Basque costume (costumbre) and a band. They were doing traditional Basque dances which was pretty exciting to see. I took a lot of videos as well as pictures and eventually sat down and had a cup of coffee and enjoyed the entertainment. The dancers were old to young. They each had a partner that they matched in clothes and danced with. The cutest were the little girls who couldn't have been more than 8 years old but still managed to know all of the dances and smiled :D. Makes me miss dance classes and fun costumes.

After the dancing was over I started making my way to the Boulevard, which is the main drag here. On my way I stopped by a culture exhibit. A few months ago we had the Film Festival which was a pretty big deal. Now they are showing a Horror Film Festival. While I am not very interested in seeing any of those films, they do have a little musem set up with past paraphanelia (I don't know how to spell that word) from older horror movies that have been at the festival. This one is one of the costumes used in a film in 2000. Creepy eh? They had like a huge cat monster, some nice three-eyed monster heads and this mermaid skeleton which reminded me A LOT of Jake the Alligator Man from Long Beach ha.

After being grossed out, I finally made it to the Boulevard and there happened to be some huge race. They were bumping music and had blocked the whole road off for this huge race. It was just the end but people were still finishing to rounds of applause. I decided that since the coffee place I wanted to go to was at the end of the race and it was so busy, that I would keep walking around. I took a couple shots of the Fall weather. One is of this tree that they have here, which I have never seen before. It's like a lace kind of leave and they change color just like regular leaves. They are really pretty now that they are multi-colored. I just walked around some more, like I do every weekend and am becoming better at wandering with no direction or end point. Hooray for progress ha. Just took a few shots that I thought I would share with you. It's so funny to see palm trees here standing right next to trees that are changing color, but I love it!

I eventually got hungry and came home and cooked a tuna casserole (thanks Mom and Grammy) with REAL ingredients. I made it with cheddar cheese which I found yestserday at Eroski and cream of mushroom soup from my birthday...it was scrumptous.

Since I didn't end up doing ANY homework and reading while I was out today I have been doing it this evening. In fact, I should probably get back to my vocabulary, but wanted to share a few pictures from my weekend with you. I also added a few to my Favorite Shots on the right :D Enjoy the day!

Besos!
Amanda

Fabulous Fall Day

Hi everyone! Hope your weekends are going well. Nothing too out of the ordinary here but a relaxing and nice weather weekend so far!

Friday was field trip day for my Spanish class. We went to the Naval Musem - El Museo Naval. I would give you a link to check it out but everyone I find is either in Spanish or Basque...both which do you know good right? So you will just have to take my word that is was really good. We had about 20 students from the school and all the teachers so I guess that qualified us for a tour guide. She was great - spoke slowly enough for all of us to understand and talked a lot with her hands. I was proud of myself for understanding most of what she said...I kinda stopped listening when she talked about harpooning whales, but tuned back in to find that they used to make corsets out of whale's teeth. Also learned that you could make docks out of 4 whale bones (huesos) because they were so big. Just learned some interesting stuff like that. The whole musem was about how San Sebastian is really a naval city - starting off as an important European port city and how it now is a popular spot because of the amazing beaches. I thought it was a great field trip...it's been some time since I have been on one!

I slept in this morning and woke to perfect weather (tiempo)! I decided to venture to the mall to pick up some odds and ends to make meals with the foods that my family sent me! Needed to pick up some refried beans and such. Sadly, I did not find maple syrup - broken heart. When I got back home I met up with my Christine and we walked around, had some coffees, had dinner, etc. We mostly just enjoyed the gorgeous day. We walked around for a good three hours...with the help of a little Panchitos! This is my Starbucks replacement place. They even have frappucinos! I stop by here before the bus a few times a week...delicious! It was Christine's first time and I was happy to show her! Yum yum to the tum tum. Since I am still not feeling too well I am just staying in tonight, probably will watch a Spanish movie or something - maybe I should start that impossible Spanish novel I checked out!

Last but not least was a quote I stumbled upon today. It kind of fit my mood for the day! ¨Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile¨- William Cullen Bryant. I hope your Fall days are just as nice and you are out enjoying your Saturday!

Besos!

Amanda

Mi Cumpleaños! My Birthday

Yayay for birthdays! You guys all made it so special! I got so many calls and Facebook messages and some very special packages! I was worried that spending my birthday in a different country without my best friends would be sad but I had a great time and realized that I have really good friends here as well as great friends and amazing family at home! It was fun to have an extra-long birthday! It started here at midnight but thats not even my birthday in the States yet, but then I kept considering it my birthday until midnight Washington time hahah! Extra birthday time!

On Wednesday night my friends and I went out to a bar for live Brazilian music. I met some of my Brazilian friends there as well :D It was really fun and although I wasn't feeling too well it was a must to celebrate...24 years old - que vieja! (how old!) It was nice to have my friends out celebrating with me. I, of course, took a picture with my friends so you guys can meet them. From the left is Lotte (pronounced low-ta) a student from the Netherlands; next to her is Jean Paul (john paul) also from the Netherlands; then me...you know where I am from ha; behind me is Maksym (mack-seem) and Finn (just like it looks - fin) both from Berlin. Jean Paul is my housemate (compañero de cuarto) and he knows these people from University. They have become my close friends! We had a great time and met some new friends - some actually from the States hooray!

On my birthday in the morning, I was pretty stuffed up and let myself sleep in. I finally got up at 11:00 and opened my presents hooray! Ariana sent me a fabulous package with things she knew I would miss from the States - cheezeits, peanut butter, candies, mac n cheese and American magazine and books and a Chicago present! I was pumped! Grammy had also sent a box with yummy gravies (which they have ZERO of here) and souviners from her cruise. She said it wasn't my real birthday present but it was full of things I loved! After resting up, I went to work where I got to hear my birthday song in 3 languages - English, Spanish and Euskera (Basque) - funny that they are all to the same tune as ours. The kids were SO excited it was my birthday! One of my private students who is 18 years old actually sent me a message on my phone in the morning saying happy birthday. However, she is still learning, so she spelled it like this: hapy berday. hahah I guess that's how it sounds no? It was super sweet of her!

After a long day of energetic kids I was excited to go out to a birthday dinner! I had stumbled upon a Mexican resturaunt, so of course I wanted to try it! Jean Paul and Lotte and I went out to a nice dinner there and I was pleasantly suprised with the food. I actually found a margarita, which is unheard of here! We got some nachos, guacamole, and I ordered enchiladas with chicken (pollo). It was a good deal too...we will definitley go back! It will probably become a regular place for us! After a glass of wine to celebrate the end of my birthday I came home to read all the emails for my birthday! So many! Thank you so much for them!

I woke up this morning and had a call from the office saying I had two more packages...how exciting!!! I ran over and got them and ran home to open them! They were SO heavy! Mom and Grammy had sent me a lot of goodies and I was excited to open them! Gosh they sent so much - delicious food like Chef Boyardee Ravis, Mac n Cheese, Cream of Mushroom and Chicken soups, LIFE cereal (hoooooray) jellos, oatmeals, granola and chili and more mmmmm. My roommates are all excited to try out the foods - especially sloppy joes which they have never heard of hahah. These aren't quick little meals...these are going to be delicious and much appreciated feasts. Those packages of oatmeal will last me a long time because I will savor them ha! Same with all of the other foods...they are going to be special treats! My family also sent fun birthday gifts that I love - some jewelries, a wallet that I have been wanting forEVER, measuring cups (silly thing to want right...not so silly when you have recipes in cups not milliters or whatever hahaha), lotions and clothes. I was so happy! I cried of course...ha! The cards - they get me everytime! Thank you thank you thank you!

My birthday was pretty special, but now, I'm 24 ha. Dang. Off to work soon, but thank you again for making my birthday so special! Love you all!

MUCHOS BESOS!

Amanda

GOBAMA!

Barack wins! The Spanish say it - ¡¡¡Barack ganó!!!Hooray! I woke up early today thinking I would catch the end of the results but it turns out you guys voted for change in heaps and they called the election for Obama pretty early in the evening, while I was sleeping! I was so excited this morning! While I was happy to see the USA election from here, yesterday was the only day that I wish I was in the States since I left! I wish I could have been in Times Square last night for the huge rally for Obama. Alas, I am still here (which isn't so bad haha) and everyone here is very excited about our decision. It was the talk of my Spanish class and all my students mentioned it today in class. Everyone asks me if I voted, and of COURSE I did! I have read most of the CNN articles today and had a big smile all day :D

Yesterday I was pretty anxious, wishing I could be home experiencing it with all of you guys, but instead I stayed busy by running errands. I made sure to take some time out to relax. Because it was so sunny and gorgeous yesterday I stopped at an outdoor café and grabbed a café con leche (coffee with milk). They actually gave me sugar cubes to put in my coffee which I had never seen haha. I sat outside for awhile reading my Spanish magazines and acting like I am a local. My Spanish tutor gave me a bunch of magazines which she calls 'women's magazines' - things like Glamour. There is a really popular weekly magazine here called Mujer Hoy (which means Today's Woman). She gave me a few of those and is so nice...she went through her magazines and gave me ones that had articles she thought I would like. The magazines she gave me have articles about Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain on the prospect of becoming First Lady (remember, these are like a week old) and another one about a special doctor who lives in NYC. I am taking my time reading through them, but am having a good time :D I also stopped by the library to check out a book that my teacher reccomended for me...yikes a whole novel in Spanish. I snapped this shot of me next to the shelf of books...all in Spanish!!! It's a lovely face I am making, I know hahahah. It will definitley take awhile for me to read and understand but I am gonna start it!

Other than that, it has been pretty regular here...spanish class in the mornings, errands, english classes and then hanging out with the roommates at night. Headed out to hear some live Brazilian music with my friends tonight! Hope your week is going well.

Besitos!

Amanda

YAY Mail!

Guess who got mail today?! Me!!!

Yay for a Halloween card from Grammy, a postcard from Grammy in México and a package from Ariana!!! I allowed myself to read the Halloween card since Halloween is over and I read the postcard because it was too easy not too but I told myself I can't open the package until my birthday...so it is sitting in my room anxiously waiting to be opened. I was SO excited to get mail, and it was a special treat to get it all at the same time - woo hoo! Thank you guys!!!

Can't write much, just got back from Spanish class and headed off to English class but wanted to share my exciting part of the day so far! Will write more later.

Besitos!

Amanda

Tres de Noviembre (November 3rd)

Hola everyone! Hope your Monday is off to a great start! Mine has been jam-packed! I woke up early to start that Spanish class at the Red Cross and loved it! There are students from all over - Japan, Russia, Germany and some others and the only language we all speak in common in Spanish! We did some worksheets and worked about talking in the past today. It has been so long since I did a worksheet in school, but it is good practice and I was happy to finally have a class. Of course, since I was the new student, I got to introduce myself and then the teacher asked me questions about what I said. She puts you on the spot! My teacher is the one who signed me up, but curiously enough, I don't know her name. I asked another girl in the class and she said that the teacher has never said her name - haha how silly! (qué risa) Regardless, I liked the class and am excited to go tomorrow. I had that class and my private lesson with Carmele, so I should be speaking fluently in no time!

On my walk from the language (lengua) school to the bus, I saw this in front of a toy store...kind of silly. It is this huge teddy bear with a moving arm that dips into bubble mix and then he has a fan in his mouth that blows out the bubbles. I was highly entertained. Another funny toy story is that today after work I ran to the grocery store and while shopping a HUGE chipmunk, well a person dressed up as a chipmunk, was walking around the store handing out coupons and Trident gum. It makes sense...chipmunks have big teeth and Trident gum is good for your teeth, but I definitley laughed out loud in the grocery store. I should have gotten a picture!

Headed to bed soon, going to do a little homework and then call it a night. I was reading CNN International, which I do every day, and saw this article. It is about an artist who did a huge portrait of Obama on a beach in Barcelona. I stole the picture, thanks CNN. While I have not yet been to Barcelona, I was excited that it was in Spain and had to do with the election. Everyone here is so interested in our election tomorrow...even my 13 year old students ask me about it! Don't forget to VOTE tomorrow!

Nothing really special to report today, but wanted to share those silly little stories. Have a great day!

Besitos!
Amanda

A weekend full of food!

I am pretty happy this weekend is over because I have ate QUITE a lot of food over the last three days ha! Thursday started off the weekend well and I went to an 'American Party'. There is a bar here and each week they throw a theme party. You don't dress up or anything but they serve food and drinks and play music relative to thier theme. I was pretty curious to see what an Amerian party would consist of so I couldn't pass it up! Turns out it was old American music, cheeseburgers that were pretty yucky and Budweiser hahaha. Oh America! I did have a good time though! I invited my new American friend, Christine from Florida, out and we got a kick out of the whole thing. We ended up getting some free prizes for drinking the drink of the night, woo hoo American night. Best part of the night was the guy (non-American) who drew an American flag on his forehead...backwards ha! You can kind of see it in this picture - I tried to take a pic of him without being SO obvious! The other flag in green, red and white is the Basque Country flag (bandera). Eventhough Friday was Halloween and I would normally be out and dressed up, I didn't do anything here...tear. I didn't do much on Friday night but had a drink with Erika and we ordered Tortillas con Patatas, which is like a Spanish omlette with potatoes in it. It is a local speciality and every bar has it but I hadn't tried it yet. Erika insisted I try it! It was tasty and I am kind of craving another!

Saturday is another story...I was barely even home! It was gorgeous out and I decided to find a coffee bar and sit there all day doing Spanish homework. While walking to the coffee shop I ran into Adam, my co-worker and he said he was headed to my part of town for pintxos (Basque version of tapas, which are like individual appetizers). Pintxos, pronounced pinch-o's...like spaghetti-os but with the word pinch) are VERY popular here. All the bars have plates and plates out of all different kinds of pintxos and they give you a plate and you put as many little pintxos on the plate and they keep track for you. Here is a pic of a pintxo bar in the Parte Vieja. At the end you say you're done and they tally it up and you pay...and it's normally so inexpensive (barato) you only have to pay a few euros! There are so many tasty ones and so when he asked if I would like to join him for some pintxos, I couldn't say no! Well...I didn't get any homework done because we just kept going from pintxo bar to pintxo bar, drinking wine and eating delicious pintxos! You order wine here by asking for a vino tinto (red wine), vino rosado (a blush) or vino blanco (white wine). I stuck with vino rosado most of the night and had such a wide variety of pintxos...croquetes (kind of like little deep-fried cheese balls with meats in them), lamb kabobs and even a thing that had a bunch of eggplant in it. When I ordered that one I didn't know what the Spanish word for eggplant was so I had no idea what I was getting myself into...but it was suprisingly tasty. Let's be honest, if I knew what it was before I ate it I would probably not have tried it! We successfully ate pintxos and drank wine for about 10 hours...which seems to be the norm here in San Sebastian. It is really what people do on the weekend...walk around and eat and drink and visit with friends. It was great when more friends met up and we became a group going from place to place! I found one bar where you could write with chalk on the walls - so I sent some love to Washington! By the end of the night I was stuffed and pretty surprised with how much I had eaten...but I guess it was over like 10 hours hahaha.

Since I didn't do any homework (deberes) on Saturday I have been spending all day doing it today. I have also been writing report cards for the students I teach. We send then home each month, so I have been writing little comments like 'estudiante bueno' (good student), 'pone mucho interes por inglés' (has a lot of interest in english) and those sort of things. I guess the parents love to see what we have to say, but it feels so funny to write a report card!

On Friday morning, Christine showed me where the Red Cross was and I signed up for the free Spanish classes! I will now attend free classes weekdays from 9:15-11:15am which will be SO helpful! I will still keep my private lessons with Carmele just for the one-on-one attention and conversations but I am SO excited that I will be surrounded by Spanish now. It's going to be so helpful in learning quicker. I am pretty pumped about class tomorrow but also a little nervous! I am sure it will be fine. I spoke a little bit with the teachers when I went to sign up and was able to carry on an ok conversation. They of COURSE ask about John McCain and Barack Obama...as soon as you say you're American here, they also ask about them! Well, I should get back to preparing for the Spanish classes tomorrow...its going to be a lot! 2 hours in the morning and an hour and a half with Carmele in the afternoon - whew! I hope you had a great weekend and are getting ready for a good November!

Besos!
Amanda