seriously, now less than a week left here in bilbao…it’s crazy. thanks for reading up to this point!! 😀
monday
so, last night i realized the magnitude of the things i did during the weekend. like, i actually did so much. i had to take 6 modes of transportation just to get back to bilbao. took the txl bus to the airport, the plane to frankfurt, the plane to berlin, car in madrid, bus to bilbao, and finally the tram back to my dorm. the worst part was that the bus got delayed over an hour (there was also this lady RIGHT BEHIND ME whose voice was so penetratingly loud that even my noise-cancelling headphones couldn’t drown her out). and i was real tight about it, but in reality, i got back to my dorm at the same time that my last two flights (from bergen and from vienna) arrived lol sooo. not doing too bad.
well, actually, i was probably annoyed because i had 2 presentations to do, and the first one was at 8 am. in perspectiva, we had our presentation about disabilities, and i think it went ok. i mean, our professor said, “perfecto, muy bien el trabajo” afterwards, but i can’t say it was the best presentation i have ever done. it was in spanish, and i had some notes, but i ended up kind of winging it cuz i don’t like looking at notes when i present. the other presentations were a bit more dynamic than ours though, so maybe that’s why i felt like ours wasn’t that good. at least it’s over. and one good thing about it, it made me like the people in perspectiva more. i mean, they are social education students, they are quite caring haha.
in gender studies, we FINALLY got rid of this darned group project that had made the past week a real pain for me. that went ok too, eh, it really could have been better, but i don’t think it was as long or boring as the other presentations we had to sit through. thank god it’s over. i was so relieved after that was done. no more presentations in my deusto career!!!!!! lol!
after class, i went with flo and attorie to celebrate being done with group projects 5ever (lmao until 2019) at stromboli. i’d say that we finally went there (we had talked about it previously) for cookies and cocktails, but flo got tea, so she kinda ruined that. i had a piña colada as my first-ever cocktail, and to be honest, the one without rum is better (cuz it’s straight sugar), but i’m glad i tried it! we talked there for a good amount of time, catching up on our weekend trips (they went to barcelona), etc.
after we had been there for a few hours, we decided to treat ourselves to dinner. cuz why not? keep the celebration vibes going. the struggle was to find a place that was open for dinner before 8 pm. we did it though – we went to coppola’s non-stop kitchen for some italian food. it was good! i’m glad we got to try a new restaurant. the only downside was that by the time we left, it was already 9 pm, and we had planned on being cozy in bed by that time.
tuesday
i got out of bed officially at almost noon. i stayed up later than i should have the night before because i had a mini panic attack about our gender studies report because it was really insufficient……so i decided to just let myself sleep in. the lord knows i needed it after the crazy non-stop week i had. it turned out that we didn’t do anything new in multi (we just went over our exam), so no skin off my nose!
i did go to my three hours of afternoon class. i mostly went to perspectiva because it was the last class, and i was lowkey sad when i left. my group gave me big hugs and good wishes for the future. in spanish, we just reviewed for our exam (meh), and in basque sorta the same thing except we reviewed the culture part.
after school, attorie and i went to martina’s cuz it was tuesday and 50% off. against my better judgment, i got something (the pastel de arroz with the whipped icing). we tried to do work at la alhondiga’s cafe, but the wifi was really acting up, so later on i ended up going to the library upstairs to use its strong wifi network. i spent all my time working on the ridiculous gender studies report cuz at that point, i just want to be done. get it out of my life forever. bye. and i did do it, but it really exhausted me. group projects aren’t fair, but i’d rather save my grade even if it means saving the grades of those who didn’t do anything.
on the bright side, when i got back to cmd, there was a christmas dinner with special food. it was all pretty unhealthy though…at least i managed to snag a pear before turning in for the night.
wednesday
today i had many interesting conversations about the spanish educational system.
barely anyone went to multi today because class wasn’t required (i never got this memo). after i awkwardly walked in 20 minutes late to the pre-deparature meeting, flo, attorie, and i went to class. but despite the fact that we didn’t talk about anything new or relevant to the exam, i was really glad i went. we had this long discussion about weaknesses and strengths of the oral presentations we had in class and about the spanish edu system in general. also, the american guy in our class – finally found out why he is studying at deusto… short answer? he was bored. lol. he just wanted a change of scenery. yolo. i feel him though.
after that, i talked to my gender studies professor about the exam and talked to her about our awful group project. it made me feel better to get that off my chest too. but after talking to both aitor and her, i felt really inspired to write an open letter to the students of deusto. like, maybe they need to hear they need to get it together from an actual student. because the things i have seen this semester are not ok. and it’s a problem for me cuz these kids are my generation… like… we’re gonna have to work together in the future………
following that meeting, i went to my spanish exam (meh), and instead of going to basque, my gender studies classmates that also have basque with me, we all studied in the cafeteria (with juanito’s blessing tho). that was surprisingly productive. i went to la dolce vita with attorie after that cuz we wanted acai bowls. i mean, it was wednesday – had to treat ourselves (i have been taking this treat yourself thing way too seriously)….
thursday
i went to ud early because i wanted to continue my convo with my gender studies professor. it was great, and i appreciated her welcoming my criticism. in the actual gender studies class, we didn’t really do much besides give some feedback & talk about the exam. only sad thing really about gender studies ending was saying goodbye to lorena. she really helped me keep my sanity during the tumultuous time we had working on the femvertising group project. in spanish, we had to take a hard grammar exam. i had so many doubts haha. in basque, we went over the homework and then learned about bertsolaritza.
and just like that, my classes at deusto finished. yup. really anti-climactic!
i spent the remainder of the afternoon working with my gender studies girls preparing questions for the exam. we managed to go through every single author of relevance, which was pretty impressive!!! i love the solidarity in these tough times (finals szn); it always just comes way too late… XD
friday
after spending the last few weekends on go, it was nice to wake up in bilbao on a friday. i spent most of the morning and early afternoon attempting to study for the gender studies exam at 3:30 pm, only taking a break for lunch and a quick trip to the supermarket. i think my studying paid off because the exam was easy for me. the words just kept flowing out!
coincidentally, the last erasmus parties of the year were going to be held today, and talk about the perfect way to celebrate being done with my most difficult exam + passing spanish haha!! so post-exam, i got ready. did my hair, makeup, the whole shebang. i even wore a dress – my midi slip dress from asos. (ok. something no one tells you about midi skirts? they’re really so hard to walk in. i felt constricted the whole night XD.) once i was done gussying up, i went to rebeka’s flat before the happy erasmus gala dinner thing. it was fun; i even met some new people. what a time to meet them – the last night!
not everyone who was at the pre’s went to the happy erasmus gala dinner, and i don’t really blame them cuz it cost money. idk why, i thought it was going to be super fancy, but it was more like we stood around, talked, and ate pintxos. at least i got to see many of my friends there, like monika and luis, etc. they also gave out awards (i mean, i didn’t involve myself in erasmus parties enough to have people know who i am but anyway), but not too much else happened. we were supposed to stay for the party in the other room of the club, but everyone left to go to flash, so we did too XD.
saturday
it took us awhile, but we eventually made it to flash. i was thankful i signed up for the free list as a back up plan haha! unfortunately, i don’t think flo ever made it inside, so it was just me and attorie conquering the dance floor (haha not really). attorie left pretty early, but i stayed almost the whole night until i saw that rebeka was leaving, so i left with her and went back to her flat and slept there for a few hours.
when i woke up, i went to la brasa canalla to get a burger. sadly, they were having an event or something in the space, so the kitchen wasn’t making any burgers. i was quite disappointed, but i mean, always gotta have that back up plan right? i ended up going to this place called florida (how appropriate for me!) and getting a burger and fries cuz i had seen good reviews on tripadvisor. it was conveniently located near-ish to martina de zuricalday, where i picked up the last almond croissant they had. :p and to balance out this junk, i went to the supermarket and got half a liter of orange juice (sooo cheap… only €1.79)!
this errand running took a hot minute, and i was so glad to be back at colegio mayor to be able to eat my food! the burger itself was pretty good, kinda soggy by the time i got to it, but the fries were not my cup of tea.
i spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on stuff and trying to get my life together! it being my last saturday night here, i probably should have tried to do something interesting, but i was so dead from friday – the relaxation was much needed.
sunday
it was absolutely amazing waking up at noon today. i must have slept more than 12 hours, which never happens, but i spent, like, an hour writing in my notebook before sleeping so that i would actually be able to sleep haha. wow. so worth it!
well, i slept away most of the morning, but in the afternoon, i ate lunch at cmd, wrote, and thought about studying for my upcoming exams in basque and multi. and somewhere in between, i had a mild panic attack because my computer wouldn’t turn on….
around 6:45 pm, i finally left my room to go meet up with attorie to buy the food we needed for movie night at my room (lol i know, me hosting movie night in my single – just wait til 2k, i’ll have a common room to actually host haha). we got the goods from coppola and la dolce vita. shout out to the waiter that let us take their cultery.
well, movie night is about to start, so that’s the end of this entry..bye
ok.. i guess we’re done here.
abroad for what 
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