the sabbath.

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I went to church in Bilbao today and this has been my theme song for my Spanish adventure so far. Every time I walk through the cities and countryside I turn on this for my soundtrack. It's just too bad I didn't have my ipod when I got lost trying to find the ward in Bilbao and was 'walking the old eroded streets'
Luckily, I made it just in time for sacrament meeting. I met the Branch President. He is this wonderful man from Colombia. They have a class for single adults and I already made some friends. After church, I took a little walk around the Guggenheim.
That thing is amazing. Bilbao is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been in. I contemplate never leaving...
Then I found out the Metro/subway was closed to get back to Gorliz. I still don't know why. It is a 45 min Metro ride, so walking was out of the question. Then I saw two girls from church by the Metro station and they helped me find a bus that would take me half way and then I would have to change buses to make it the rest of the way.
Many nice people helped me out along the way. This older lady that sat next to me on the first bus even called one of her friends on her cell phone to see when the buses to Gorliz pass by and where I should get off.
Now, at home finally, I will rest, like the sabbath requires.

Aaron, Guess what this smelled like????

if you guessed Uruguay, you are right!

yo vivo aqui!

a bridge in Plentzia, Spain. This river runs in from the bay of Gorliz



Gorliz, Spain. taken from a hill in Plentzia, Spain


Jone was tired of riding her scooter, so I took a turn and she took a picture


Josu and Maite walked a little slower than Jone and I


this is Jone and I. She is the older of the two girls that I tend. This is the best vacation ever!

not having a cell phone is weird....

Attention everyone: I am in Gorliz, Spain. Luckily we were able to set up wireless in the house of the family where I am staying, so I will be able to blog a lot! I am an au pair, if you did not know. I just met the family when I arrived here yesterday. They are very nice and this area is sooooo beautiful. I wasn't nervous at all to go across the world and stay with people I did not know, until a few seconds before exiting the plane, when I realized I could not remember what the dad looked like who was coming to pick me up....AH. When I walked out of the salida, I saw a man and woman and waved, thinking it was them, but they just ignored me, so I looked around and saw another man with a little girl who looked very familiar and that was them and they recognized me right away.

We had a 3.5 hour car ride back to Gorliz from Madrid and it was fun to conocer the country side to Basque country. In Basque country, the capital being Bilbao, they speak two languages, Spanish (Castellano) and Basque. Basque sounds really similar, but is written so differently. Quite a few times, I hear people speaking, think it is Spanish, can't understand AT ALL what they are saying, and finally realize that they are speaking Basque.

The weather is a lot like San Francisco and other coastal parts of Northern California. We live really close to the beach and go down to a plaza right near the beach a lot. It is humid, but not too hot, so it's ok!
Their house is so beautiful! I have my own bedroom and bathroom. There are no closets here, just big built-in cupboards/armoires. I think I love that. Also, did I mention that I love bidets? and also Spain. I love it.

ps: pictures coming soon.

Voila!!!

Here is the bike I have been working on. I loved fixing it up and now I can't wait to ride it everywhere!!! After I got it painted by my neighbor's paint guy, I put the crank shaft and handlebars back on by myself.
I went to the bike shop one day to buy some new parts. I told the guy I needed to fix the corroding handlebars and he gave me a Schwinn set of bars that they were going to throw away, so I put those on instead of the old ones. They look so great!!

Then my friend Casey helped me put on the back brakes and the derailers. He wasn't sure how to hook up the cables, so I took it to this shop and they made it ride really nice.
Today, right when I got it home, I stuck on these HOT PINK decals that I bought from Hungary via ebay.

It is sooooooo pretty! I don't think the pictures show how bright the colors truly are...but one day I will be riding down the rode and you will spot me on my custom made bicycle...

Futurific!

Susan had a birthday, shout hurray! We decided to welcome her future of being in the 30's by having a theme party. Theme: the future. We all got carried away and had a blast dancing like robots/aliens/spacemen, eating milky ways and watching Spaceballs.




Now that I have seen a little glimpse of what the future looks like I can tell you, believe me friends, you are gonna love it. The future looks bright.



my friends will and kyle made this video to show at our party, (may not be suitable for children) but hilarious for everyone else

Any advice for a long flight???

Last night as I was looking at my seating assignment for my trip to Spain, I started feeling tired and claustrophobic with a sudden urge to use the bathroom, but the inability to do so freely because you have to make someone else get up each time. I am not really nervous or scared to be in a new country with people I don't know for three months, I just am dreading the airplane ride over the atlantic. It's 5 hours from Las Vegas to Philadelphia, then another 7 hours to Madrid. Right now, I am wishing I could teleport
Any advice for a long flight??