Noche Blanca!

                So it is official…I AM STAYING IN EUROPE JUST A LITTLE BIT LONGER! I was able to change my ticket from July 2^nd to the 14^th for a very reasonable price, so now I have another week and a half of Burgos Bliss. Actually, that time won’t be spent in Burgos, but in Brussels, Amsterdam and Prague with my roommates Thais and Caetano, and our friends Rafa and Daniel. I’m so excited to have some more time over here and I’m definitely looking forward to visiting these three cities.

                It was difficult to study for finals this past week, as my roommate and one of my best friends here, Monica, was leaving on Friday. It’s really weird that she’s gone because we spent every single day together, and I miss her a lot. It’s also making me realize that everyone will be leaving soon.

                Last week was uneventful because we were studying, writing and doing projects most of the week. Saturday, however, was a lot of fun because it was “Noche Blanca” (white night), a night in which all of the museums, the cathedral and the castle are open all night long, and performances are done in the Plaza Mayor. One of the performances was especially cool. A crane held up a large, white, circular object and people were hanging from it and doing a choreographed dance. Everyone in the city came out and enjoyed the festivities, which was a lot of fun.

Missing my Monica!

Rafa from Mexico, a good friend here and my neighbor

A little bit of roommate love

The cathedral all lit up for Noche Blanca

The lights changed every 15 seconds...very, very cool

It says "Burgos 2016" because Burgos is in the running for the capital of culture of Europe! (2016 is when everyone will vote.)

Awesome

In front of the lit-up cathedral!

"R" for "R-evolution"

The very cool performance!

A loving group...Almost all of the people in this group are from Mexico

Rosita, Alessandra and Tó with some protesters.

More of the performance!

There were R's everywhere!

La Flaca by Jarabe de Palo

Chicken Pot Pie, Bilbao, and some more Burgos activities...

            These weeks are going by way too quickly, and that’s the long and short of it. Anyway, it was a pretty eventful week! On Tuesday my art history class went to the cathedral in Burgos instead of going to class for lecture. I can’t believe I haven’t been inside the cathedral yet! It is absolutely beautiful. We spent about two hours inside and our professor explained all of the different artistic aspects of the cathedral. I think that my friends and I may go back on Tuesday to visit it again, because it is free for students every Tuesday.

On Thursday I made my Grandma Brandt’s chicken pot pie and apple crisp for some of my friends. Thais and Hector even helped me out a little bit so that I could get everything done before everyone came. I’m going to be honest, I’m pretty proud of myself for how everything turned out. Everyone loved it and they all want me to cook for them again! Afterwards we hung out in my apartment, played cards and later went out to Capirinha’s, a Brazilian bar.

                Friday was pretty uneventful, and Thais and I met up with some friends to hang out by the river and enjoy the sun. Afterwards, we met up with Hector, Alice and Monica for tapas at Pecaditos, a cheap, but awesome tapas bar.

                On Saturday I did a little bit of traveling! The Universidad de Burgos organized a day trip to Bilbao for the international students that cost 20 Euros, which included the bus trip and admission to the Guggenheim, a modern art museum. We left at nine in the morning and arrived at about 11 AM. We spent the morning walking around the city and checking out the cathedral.

                From one to four we had some free time to get lunch and sightsee a little bit more. Afterwards, we got to visit the Guggenheim. I’ll be honest, museums really aren’t my thing, but the Guggenheim is amazing. The structure of the museum is awesome, while the art inside is so abstract and exactly the kind that I love to see and create. Each room was very spacious and featured different artists with explanations of their art, and the art itself was made of so many different mediums. There weren’t just paintings and sculptures made from stone or other materials, there were huge structures made of iron, a room full of a yarn sculpture and even a car was part of one of the pieces.

                One of my favorite rooms was of the Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco, who went to New York and would make giant sculptures out of scraps of wood and other things he found. I loved it because Orozco’s art actually reminded me a lot of my great-grandfather Rainbolt on my father’s side of the family, because he also used to construct pieces of art out of wood and other random materials that he had. We have a couple of my great-grandfather’s little sculptures, and it’s funny how similar they are!

                After the Guggenheim we headed back to Burgos and got ready for the “Fiesta Multicultural” (multicultural party) that my friend Laura organized at Abuela Buela’s. They played music from Mexico, Brazil and Colombia, and Laura belly danced. It was so much fun to listen to and dance to such different music. The Mexicans and Brazilians did the dances that are from their own countries, and it made me wish that the US had its own way of dancing like other countries do.

                Finals are coming up next week and I am not looking forward to it! This week will be spent buckling down and getting work done, and afterwards my friend Liz will be coming to visit!

Cathedral at Burgos

Inside the cathedral

The courtyard

Playing with the chicken for chicken pot pie

Chicken pot pie! Woo!

Charlotte from France and Alice from Ireland enjoying the chicken pot pie

Bilbao!

Bilbao is a part of the Camino de Santiago

The Nueva Plaza of Bilbao

The spider outside of the Guggenheim, attacking my friend Hector

The Guggenheim

One of the sculptures outside of the Guggenheim

Thais, Aleks from Poland and I

Laura in her belly dancing costume with the owner of Abuela Buela

's, Luis

Poor Caetano is sick in the hospital! He's all better now, though...

Caetano and I

Erasmus party in the hospital!

Chicken Pot Pie Dance

I did a test run on the chicken pot pie today for my roommates before I cook it for everyone, which I'm planning on doing Thursday! We had a little too much fun with the chicken, however...

This is for you Grandma!

Beautiful Burgos

                Well, we got lucky with another beautiful week in Burgos! I spent most of my week doing different things outside with my friends (along with going to class, of course). On Wednesday a group of us decided to rent bikes and ride them to Fuentes Blancas, which is where we had our picnic the week before. The system of renting bikes in Burgos is very economical, and also very popular throughout Europe. All you have to do is go to the municipal office of the city with your bus pass, and then you receive a PIN number, which costs three euros. There are bike stations all throughout the city in which red Burgos Bikes are locked. At these stations, you use your pin number to unlock a bike, and then once you’re done with it, you can leave it at any of the bike stations in Burgos. The PIN number is good for however long you need it, which is nice. Now I am able to rent a bike whenever I’d like…I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of it before! The only catch is that you have to have returned the bike to a station within two hours, or else you will get charged. We had a lot of fun riding our bikes through the city and out to Fuentes Blancas, and when we got back, we decided to make lunch at our apartment and enjoy the rest of the nice day together.

                Thursday was rather uneventful, as I spent much of the day doing some studying for finals, and then that night we had a party for all of the Erasmus at our apartment. Friday was just as gorgeous as Wednesday, so we decided to go to Fuentes Blancas again for a big “barbacoa” or barbeque. Everyone brought so much food and we grilled all day long and just hung out in the sun. We stayed pretty late into the night, because it was so warm!

                Saturday was uneventful as well. We spent most of the day hanging out and cleaning. On Sunday, my roommate Caetano decided to have a barbacoa at our apartment with a lot of different kinds of Brazilian food. Everything he made was so good! I’m always impressed with his cooking skills. Because Caetano cooks so much and is always introducing me to different foods from his country, I have asked my Grandma Brandt to send me a recipe of her famous chicken pot pie so that I can show him some food from Pennsylvania! I’m also going to make either apple dumplings or apple crisp. This week I will be making it for him, along with some of my other friends. I might do a test run tomorrow before I make it for everyone, because I want it to turn out well!

Caetano and I on our bikes!

The boys...Tapia, Hector and Caetano

Our whole group that went on the bike ride

Hector and I on the tire swing at Fuentes Blancas

My roommate Thais and I with our friend Adam from Ireland

Thais!

Monica is leaving next Friday :(

Adam from Ireland at one of our parties

Monica and I with some of our friends from Mexico, from left: Rafa, Bere, Tapia, Raymundo and Hector