Touchdown in Europe!

My first view of Europe: Londons farmland
see all photos »

After months of planning and many hours of lugging around of a 16.5 kg backpack, I have touched down in Europe for my first time!  I flew overnight to London, took a 3-hour bus ride to transfer from Gatwick airport to Stansted, took a flight to Bilbao where Daniel (my wonderful friend who was on exchange at Ivey last year) picked me up and drove me to his student flat in Pamplona, where the annual "Running of the Bulls" takes place every year.  From what I gathered, there are many intricacies to Spanish culture and here in the Basque Country, where there is still some political unrest.  Daniel´s generation has been brought up to have disdain for both the Spanish and Basque flags, as both have political conotations.

Spain from the plane
see all photos »

Daniel´s flatmates are super nice(Iñigo and Javier, I butcher both pronunciations) and waited for us to get back from the airport late last night before cooking up a meal of Spanish omelette, spicy sundried tomatoes, jalapeños, tomatoes, proscuitto and Italian bread.  Nothing fancy, but so yummy, especially after the long haul trip.  We watched TV (The OC in Spanish and football, of course) and talked about episodes of Friends and how they differ in English and Spanish.  The funniest thing about the night was that the TV remote recently ran out of batteries and they now change the channel with a broomstick from the comfort of their couch!

You´ve not seen drama until you´ve watched The OC in Spanish

Daniel & Monica in Pamplona
see all photos »

After barely sleeping during my 20-hour journey, I hit the hay and fell asleep immediately and woke up to the sound of Spanish birds chirpring.  Birds don´t just chirp in Spain, they give´r like they´re eating other birds for breakfast.

Daniel has a lot planned for my stay here, which was just too kind of him.  I will meet more of his friends, his girlfriend Leire and an exchange student from Toronto, as well as his family in San Sebastian.