You, my lovely, observant readers may have realized that I did not post anything for last week. Truthfully, it wasn't that I didn't have the time, it was just that I was too lazy to write last week. I hope this post makes up for that.
Starting with last week, Alex's counselor from Rotary was visiting the city of Pamplona for her vacation. She kindly invited us to come visit her so she could show us around the city. On Wednesday, us exchange students hopped on a bus and did just that. We spent the entirety of Wednesday walking around Pamplona, slept in the apartment Alex's counselor was staying in, and explored a bit more Thursday morning before getting back on the bus after lunch.
This was probably the coolest bridge ever, as lame as that sounds. You can see how it zig-zags in the background.
Wednesday night we had some time to hit the shopping center in Pamplona. Normally, I get sick of shopping faster than most, but once I discovered that the shopping center had a pet shop, I didn't want to leave. I didn't realize how much I missed visiting pet stores until we walked past the window display where little fish were swimming in a tank. My reaction was basically, "OMG! FISHIES!" and the next thing I remember is having my nose pressed up against the glass like a five-year-old while everyone else snickered at me. Anyways, the pet shop was really cool. They had a bunch of baby hamsters and several colorful birds for sale. There was also an amazing bearded dragon which I was very tempted to hold, but I restrained myself. I suppose I'm not usually this crazy in pet shops, but in my defense, I haven't been to one all year.
Another highlight of going shopping was that I finally found a pair of (drum-roll, please) pink sunglasses! That's right, I finally have a replacement for my favorite pink sunglasses that broke ages ago during orientation!
That same weekend, Rotary invited us to go to a nature reserve and see some lovely cranes during migration season. A lot of the birds from northern Europe migrate to the Iberian Peninsula for winter, and this lake is one of the few nature reserves in existence for these migrating flocks.
Unfortunately, we couldn't get very close to the birds, so I could only take pictures of the beautiful views.
There were also some neat castle ruins that we got to play on.
This week is "Semana Blanca" which means "White Week". Basically, because we live so close to the ski resorts in the mountains, our school takes off for a week and travels to the resorts for a ski trip. You are not obliged to go, and I didn't sign up for the trip, so I stayed home while Alex, Grace, and our Spanish friend, Maria, went north to learn how to snowboard. I suppose it was better for me, anyways, because I don't actually know how to ski, and I think my balance problems would make for a painful downhill experience. Because of this, I spent a majority of this week singing show-tunes and painting a large barrel that Santiago had in the garage. He asked me if I wanted to paint it, and I decided that I had enough free time this week to give it a shot. This (as of Friday morning) is what I have so far.
As much as I would love to have the barrel almost entirely painted by the end of this weekend, I cannot. We are heading to Zaragoza tonight because Carmen's (my host mom) dad had a heart attack. Carmen has been in Zaragoza all week, and Santi and I are driving down to see everyone today. He seems to be doing better, though, because he is back at home now. Unfortunately, from how Santi put it, my host grandparents don't have wifi, so I have decided to post this before we leave, just in case I don't have the time in Zaragoza.
Have a wonderful weekend!
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