Is this a dream?

I embarked on my journey January 7th at 5:50pm from the DFW airport. The last 24 hours felt more like 124142 hours. Let me explain.

The plane ride was not bad, it was just strange. I slept for a grand total of 10 minutes. The weird part was the first 2 hours went by quickly because I was learning about the Canary Islands from my new friend, Sylvia, to my left and journaling, reading, listening to music. Then it got dark and everyone went to sleep and I think I was the only one awake on the plane. And the other 8ish hours were long. We finally got to the Madrid airport- which is huge and beautiful and artsy- and made the 30 minute trek to our next departure gate to Bilbao. And let me tell ya, that was an interesting flight. There are huge gusts of winds coming from the south of Spain right now and our plane almost fell out of the sky! On the bright side, the weather was absolutely perfecto when we arrived, about 60 degrees :)

My buddy at the University of Deusto, Judit, came to pick me up. We got in her European car and drove about 20 minutes to the apartment I'm living in, right in the center of town! She gave me a little tour on the way in, thank goodness she speaks English! Then I met Chus, my host mother. She kissed me on the cheek and started asking questions and made me feel right at home.

I unpacked while Chus made a wonderful salad and revuelta de champinones (like an omlette with mushrooms, except better). I had an orange for dessert and coffee (extremely black and delicious). Then I showered and we hit the town! Chus took me to all the shops and I'm not even kidding it felt like I was in New York City. There is an H&M, Sephora, Zara, Lacoste, Gucci, you name it! We window shopped and went in tons of nice stores/boutiques. The streets were packed full of people. Yesterday was the start of all the sales in Spain (which explains the craziness) and it lasts through the middle of February. Bilbao only has about 300,000 people but it felt much bigger than that today!

We stopped by a little coffee shop, Lepanto, that was playing a soccer game between Malaga and Bilbao. It was intense! I had Rioja wine (one thing I've been looking forward to most!) and we split a torta de arroz. (I don't know how to explain what this was, just think of the most delicious pie-like dessert you've ever eaten with chocolate drizzled on top and there you have it). Then we came back and ate a light dinner at about 10pm. Vegetable soup and fish with salsa verde. Muy bien.

I have learned so many new words from Chus today. Her accent is thick, but not incomprehensible. I understood so much more of what she said at dinner as opposed to lunch, which was encouraging.

Chus and I are going to Catholic church in the morning. I am real excited.

Time to get some much needed rest.

Abrazos,
Michelle