Lovely La Rioja

Wow....I need to make a point of writing more often!

So much has happened in the past three weeks! I started teaching English classes and I am enjoying it sooo much! I teach students who are anywhere from 16 to 60 years old. I teach beginner and intermediate English classes. I go into the classes for 30 - 45 minutes and pretty much teach about anything I want. So far, I have done lessons on Halloween, giving directions, and politically correct terms. I have to speak extremely slow sometimes, especially in my beginner classes, so that they can understand me.

This past weekend, Liz came to visit me!!! We met up in La Rioja (wine country). My roomies and I rented a car and I drove to La Rioja. We went to a wine museum:
(http://www.dinastiavivanco.com/inicio.asp)
The scenery and the colors of vineyards are beautiful!!! We learned so much about the history and the making of wine...there's so much richness in the culture of wine!!! We got to do some tasting here...but I only had a few sips so I could be a responsible driver :)! After this we drove to Logrono, the capitol of La Rioja, to pick up Liz from the bus station. We then traveled to a vineyard called Ysios in Laguardia.

After this, we went to get pintxos in the center of town and then decided to head back to Bilbao. Heading back to Bilbao was stressful....Karen, our GPS navigator, had an australian accent and would pronounce the spanish street names very badly! It was so funny. Karen, however, did not do a good job of navigating us back to the car rental place so we could drop off our car. A one and a half hour trip back to Bilbao turned into a three hour trip and most of it was spent driving around Bilbao....looking back it is hilarious, but at the time, it was super annoying! We finally made it home and then Liz and I went to get kabob's at a restaurant near our piso. These kabobs (gyros) are the best I have had...yum!

The next day (Saturday) Liz and I went to Ikea so that she could get some things for her apartment. At Ikea, we ate hotdogs and donuts for lunch...so healthy haha! We also went to El Corte Ingles so she could get a straightener. That night, the roomies and I had some friends over for a little gathering...Kendall and Carolyn made some yummy finger foods (bars and bruschetta). A few Spaniards came to the party, as well as other language assistants from the area. Some of them played flippy cup on our patio...while Liz and I and others chatted in the kitchen and living room. Martin (our British friend) brought his ipod speaker and soon enough, we were jamming to spanish music, justin timberlake, and beyonce...jamming turned into a dance party in our living room. This was a fun night and it was great to hang out at our apartment instead of go out for the night because none of the language assistants had gotten paid yet!

Sunday...Liz and I went to see the Guggenheim Museum. There was an exhibit of the architect Frank Lloyd Wright and I got to see some paintings by Picasso, Kandinsky, and many others! So exciting! We also went salsa dancing at Mozart's in the evening. I got asked to dance quite a few times. Most of the guys who asked me to dance were older. They did a lot of spinning me around. I learned some salsa steps, but still need some more lessons! They have classes on Mondays and Thursdays...so we are going to go back one day because you get one free lesson!

Liz and I got to skype with Victor when we got back, which was fun! He was being so hilarious! We toasted our 'webcam reunion'...I had wine, Liz had water, and Victor had a mojito drink (which he ran to get from the convenient store haha). Good idea on the toasting, Victor ;)

Liz had to go back to Siguenza on Monday morning...I was sad to see her go, but am looking forward to traveling with her to other countries!!