Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Friday to Sunday the 25th

Nikki and I decided to make banana bread and do a little cooking. It was definitely an adventure to encounter baking soda and mushy bananas since I never really go to super markets cus Conchi takes care of cooking. So after a little while in Eroski and Ercocera we went back to my kitchen to cook since it is always clean and has all the necesities to cook and make anything! So that was fun and we smelled up the whole little apartment with the most amazing smell. Conchi loved our banana bread too, she was like it is bread with bananas and then decided it was not bread but a pastry or something to have for dessert since it was pretty sweet with all the sugar we put in it.
Friday Conchi invited me to her little pueblo near Burgos just southwest of Bilbao about an hour and half or so to attend her brother and sister in law's year memorial service. They died in a car accident. So Feli, her sister, Begona (a very common name because she is the patron saint of Bilbao) and about 70 other family and friends celebrated the lives of Conchi's brother who was a great politician, I was told. We arrived and it was the first day that I was really freezing in Spain, maybe about 6 or 7 degrees Celsius. So a few government officials and friends spoke about Costan Santidrian and then opened a curtain to reveal a plaque given to the family in his honor. It was a very nice ceremony and I really enjoyed talking to all the townspeople and hearing what they had to say about Conchi and her family. I am so honored that she wanted me to come and experience that with her. I remember her face when she asked me, it lit up with enthusiasm, "quieres venir?".
So then Conchi stayed the weekend and I returned with Feli, who also hosts students and is super present. She showed me around Burgos, where we had to go from the little town Nocedo where Conchi actually has her house. I saw the cathedral, huge and lot like la sagrada familia cathdral in Barcelona, and el camino de Cid, which was a famous path for travelers from Spain to the rest of Europe way back when. Feli (short for felicidad, an inordinary name)is great and talked my ear off, very enthusiastic and nice. When we walked it got worse, she tended to bang my arm or grab onto me to enforce what she was saying.
On Sunday I went to an Athletic Club game, and I went with a couple of friends, but ended up meeting pretty much everyone in our program inclusing our profesors there. Walking over the bridge to the stadium, since i live about ten minutes away, I was stuck behind a huge crowd singing athletic club songs and chants. We sat in the first section and so close to the players, we could almost touch them. Athletic colors are red and white (red is the oficial color the Basque country). Athletic club was winning the whole time, everyone was cheering so loud and had flags that were waving in the air in the stands the whole game, and then the other team scored a goal and then tied it two minutes before the end of the game, it was sooo disapointing. I really wanted athletic club to win. It was awesome to see the players and how they are in such great shape! Everyone went out together afterwards and when I got home from walking home in the freezing cold, I had a steaming cup of hot chocolate in my warm apartment and watched some spanish tv.

No comments:

Post a Comment