I would just like to point out that in my last post I made a grave error. Christopher Columbus didn't discover North America, he did in fact discover the "America's", which encompasses much more than North America. He landed in South America in 1492 and the Mayflower, which is different, landed on Plymouth Rock in 1621 and they, the "Pilgrims" feasted with the Indians.

Swimming, Chicken Noodle Soup and Getxo.

Wow! So it has been a while since I last posted on here. Okay well I will try to remember the best stories and put good pictures up. Well where to start....Thanksgiving is NOT celebrated here, obviously since Christopher Columbus didn't feast with the Indians in Spain, he did it in what is now the United States! But anyways, I celebrated that festive day with some of the Americans here in Spain doing this same program as me! It was a lot of fun and we had a lot of great food. It was my job to bring a dessert so I was looking on allrecipes.com to find a great dessert. I decided to make banana pudding and I went to the store to buy all the ingredients. It was very difficult because I didn't know how to say whipped cream or sour cream in Spanish and they also didn't have any pudding mix, so I opted for a cake. And no, not one to make, but one that was already made. It wasn't nearly as good as the other stuff though. We had biscuits, chicken casserole, turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, chocolate chip cookies, clementines, and much, much more. I didn't know anyone there before I went and now I have new friends here! We ended up sitting in the living room and talking for 5 hours, it was a lot of fun. All the girls were really into the conversation and the guys and I were just laying back and saying nothing, it was funny. It was a great Thanksgiving and we are planning to do something for Christmas too!

I don't have a picture of the swimming pool or the gym I joined but I will eventually. I go swimming or running almost everyday of the week and I can already notice a difference! A little less fat, a little more muscle, im basically a Spanish Arnold Schwarzenegger. People ask me all the time if we're related, jk. Well because of this weight loss my pants are always about to fall down. I have to wear shorts underneath them and use a belt to keep them up haha. They were already big when I came here though. I still haven't been paid from my job yet but I should be paid on the 15th or so, and when I do get paid, I am going to the mall and getting some new pants! My favorite store here is H and M, which apparently they have it in the States as well. I am still looking for more teaching jobs on the side, but I am enjoying the ones that I already have! Two of my students are Danny and Lorea who are brother and sister. Their mom is really nice and they treat me like a king at their house. I never tried Chestnuts before but they gave me a bag and I ate the whole thing. 

Jaime and I didn't work this weekend or the past Monday, Tuesday or Today(Wednesday) because of religious holidays, therefore we traveled a little bit to a town called Getxo which is on the coast. It was pretty cool, very pretty and home of the Hanging Bridge. We ate at a restaurant there that was based in Germany so the food was definitely something new to me. I picked the thing that had the most words that I couldn't recognize. It was okay, but really creamy. We watched some guys waste about 100 Euros on a gambling game and win nothing! They could have bought the whole damn place dinner, but nooooo, they gambled it away. We walked around the city and saw Christmas decorations, the Hanging Bridge, and the ocean! It is so weird being able to see the ocean.

Okay so I actually haven't cooked spaghetti in about a week! This is due to 2 reasons; Jaime cooked it once so that doesn't count, and also I cooked Home made Chicken Noodle Soup! It was awesome!!! It definitely tasted like chicken noodle soup so I guess I did a great job! Jaime and I cooked it together cause if I did it by myself I might burn the flat down. We were doing alright until we saw that the pot we were using was full of liquid, and we hadn't even added the chicken, carrots or noodles. It was also the biggest pot that we had! So we had to separate the soup into two different pots to cook it. Also this should have been a sing that we were cooking too much. There is still enough in the fridge to feed me for the next 4 days, therefore I am going to look at the amount of servings a recipe will provide me with before I cook it next time!

Everything here is going pretty well, I am enjoying my job, english classes, piano lessons, and traveling around Spain. I learn something new everyday whether it be a spanish word, something about the culture here, a fact from one of my online classes, or something about myself. I am doing so much here and I am very glad that I am here. Until next time.......................!!!

San Sebastian and the Bakeries

Hello readers!!! In this edition of Michael Shepherd abroad we have a smattering of pictures that you are able to view via Facebook or you can see a couple on here. We are also proud to bring you another adventure abroad of San Sebastian! Okay guys so this week I went to San Sebastian. It was a lot of fun and the hour long bus ride there wasn't bad at all. It was rather dreary weather but that didn't stop me from having fun or the swimmers from enjoying the waves. It was freezing outside!!! Most of the surfers decided to wear wet-suits, but some crazy guy was jumping around the beach on just some swim trunks. Jaime and I went to San Sebastian together, and we first got some food when we got there. Instead of going to a bar to get some food, we went to a bakery. There we didn't find anything whole, just some souffles and other pastries that were AMAZING! Then we climbed this huge and got to the castle on top of it. We were walking up to it and saw Jesus. Well a statue of him. I dubbed this picture "Modern Jesus" because of the telephone antennae he is sporting on his back.

But the castle was over-all a really interesting place to be, we could see the whole city and the river running right through it. We found a cannon and some German girls up there, they could speak German, English and Spanish. I was jealous, super jealous. Next we went to check out some bit building that Jaime wanted to see. It was closed but I was okay with that, it was just a building to me. Although we did find an ice cream store right next to it, which thankfully was open. We also got to a restaurant called "Vaca" or "Cow". It was very americanized but we didn't care, we just wanted a sandwich. While walking around eating our food (very American), we walked through a really cool park where we found this statue of two lions. I took the liberty of their permanent state to take a picture next to them. 

In San Sebastian I saw the ocean for the second time in my life. It was frankly amazing. It ran off into the sky without so much as a goodbye, but always threw waves my direction. It was pretty cool. I have officially skipped a stone into 2 different oceans. That same night we returned to Bilbao and to our flat. I showered, changed and went off to a bar with my friends from the Txoco. We went to a bar to watch the soccer game between Madrid and Bilbao. Madrid smashed Bilbao because we suck, and Ronaldino just kicked out butt, scoring 2 points out of 4. It was fun watching my friends because they would get super angry when Madrid scored. Apparently between the 2 teams there is a lot of animosity. I didn't bring my camera though so I couldn't get any pictures of angry people. Well it is getting late here so I am going to go, but I hope you enjoyed reading it and don't forget to check out the pictures on facebook!

That is me skipping a stone into the ocean.

School!

Yes, school. I suppose that I am in school taking classes to go to school and teach kids something so that they can hopefully go to the next level of school. Oh and I teach in a school as well right now, but you already knew that. Wow this week has been super busy for me. Lot of school related stuff. I remember when I first applied for this program I was under the impression that I would be a teachers assistant. Why wouldn't I think that? The application of course said that I would be working under a teacher and helping them. WRONG! I teach 9 classes a week and 7 of them I am the only teacher in the classroom. The other 2 I am an assistant and will only be for the first 3rd of the year. The next 2/3's I will be the teacher. I am not complaining, just merely speculating at the difference between the word and the action. I actually prefer teaching the classes on my own, working under another teacher gives me no flexibility or originality! The professor that I assist in named Lourdes. She is extremely nice and has been a huge help during my move here. We have an English Department meeting tomorrow so I will for sure see her there. Who is in the English Department? Lourdes, Amparro and I. Haha so it's not too large, but it feels cool saying that I have to go to the department meeting.

Friday night I went with my friends from the Txoco bar hopping. Being only 20 years old and from the United States I have never been able to drink(legally) and especially not go to the bar. Well my friends showed me what bar hopping meant. They are ridiculous with it here! I don't know what it is like in the United States but here they move as a herd. There were about 60 people at the first bar, then after an hour we decided to move to the next bar. about 30 of us started walking to the next bar. 30! It was ridiculous. At the last bar there was a dance floor and it was a blast. The floor was wet from everyones shoes because it rains a TON here. But it made for a great dance floor and I attempted the moon walk, without much success. Saturday night we decided to take it easy and play a trivia game. I am getting better in my spanish speaking skills but I was useless during this game! I had NO idea what they were asking each other. I ended up contributing to my team by reading the question to the other team. If I leave here tomorrow(which I won't) I could leave knowing that I have successfully taught the culture of Spain one thing; the word awesome. Isn't that awesome? They love saying it and also throw in the occasional "cool". Be proud Mom and Dad, be very proud.

Today I have been working on my homework. I was doing an extra credit assignment for my nutrition class over olive oil. I had to research how it is made, what the difference between Virgin and Extra Virgin olive oil, as well as terms like "first cold pressed", "light" , and some other ones that I can't remember. But in the middle of my assignment Jaime came to my door inviting me to eat lunch with everyone. We had a variety of food but one of the dishes was a regular salad with diced tomatoes, sliced red peppers and EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL! Okay now that I think about it I am pretty sure it was just Virgin Olive Oil. But still, crazy coincidence right? Jaime and I watched a french film today as well, it was REALLY good. I need to take it easy on the capital letters, sorry. This is the second french film we have watched but in each there has been the same beautiful french actress. I have no idea what her name is but she is a great actress. I also studied a bit of piano today but I have a feeling that after 2 weeks I should have learned the bass clef pretty well by now. Oh well, hopefully I study more tomorrow. For now, I am going to go to bed. Will post again soon. Goodnight everyone in the United States, I love you and hug each other for me!

That's my dog Winston. Isn't he awesome? Cool. :)

El Txoco

El Txoco. Seems like a super weird name right? Well it is, it's in Basque, the local language here. It is pronounced (El Choco). Well anyways it is a room at the church here, dubbed "el txoco" because of what it is used for. Basically 20-30 year old's go there just to hang out and most of them are in the youth group at the church. It is just 1 big room with couches, and big table, a sink area with appliances and alcohol. People go there to have a drink or two and just hang out. It is tons of fun! I have made some good friends there and they are super interested in me just because I am American (and no, they are not interested in stealing my kidneys). They ask me questions all the time about how to say different things and if there is an ocean next to me, what houses in American look like (they always ask me if the houses in American are like the house on the Simpson's), and other stuff. The names of the people in the picture below are Irati, Gaistxa, Alvaro, Neera, Mikel, and myself. Also there is a dog running around that room who's name I can't remember in spanish but it means Sawdust in english. Haha I know, really personal.

So those are some of my friends that I met through the church here, they are pretty cool people. I have another local buddy named Jokin. Tomorrow him and I are playing Fronton, I am sure you guys shall hear about it in the next blog post. Which by the way sorry for taking so long to post this one! I have been super busy lately getting myself situated and stuff, but these will hopefully be more consistent (3-4 days). Okay so things are getting better here. At first I was EXTREMELY homesick because this isn't only my first time to Spain but my first time out of the United States. It was such a culture shock. Different languages, almost everything is closed from 2:30 till 5 in the afternoon, breastfeeding in the open is COMPLETELY normal, the lack of vehical laws, the public transportation here, the fact that there are almost no houses, just apartments, the food change and so many other things. What I would give for a chipotle burrito, you have no idea. Well since going out to eat is more expensive than cooking at home and way less fun I have been doing some cooking lately. The photo below is of my roommates and I. There is a new addition to my flat! Her name is Diamandra and she is from the Dominican Republic as well as Annie. She is super cool and very nice. Annie, Diamandra and a friend of theirs cooked for us all last night. The dish was called Mangu, which has a very interesting past. It is made of mashed plantains (not bananas, they're different) cooked some secret way that I don't know, topped with a fried egg and sauteed onions. It was alright tasting, the plantains could have been mashed potatoes for all I knew. But they told me that Mangu got it's name when Americans invaded the Dominican Republic in the early 1900's. They ate food from the dominican republic while they were there and when they tried this specific dish they would say to each other, "man, good!", therefore it got it's name "Mangu". Haha I know that it sounds crazy, maybe it is an old wives tale. Maybe not.

So the picture below is what I like to call the final product. It is me after shaving all the hair of my head and cheeks! It was so much fun! Trust me guys, I much rather prefer to have hair, but now I know that when I go bald at age 45(fingers crossed) I will look gooooood. Anyone who knows my father will say, "Oh my gosh, it is Phil". I am a spitting image of him. It was a good experience though, and the hair is already growing back and will continue to do so. Tonight was the first night that I could see my own breath soooo hopefully it grows back fast, it is getting cold here! Oh and Mom if you are reading this I was walking to the Txoco 2 nights ago and I smelled this amazing odor, it reminds me sooo much of your house. I found the souce, it is a tree with these white flowers facing down. I stole a flower and it currently sits next to my bed for me to smell when I want to, well now it's dead without any nutrients or water to keep it alive. Any idea what this smell is reader? I don't know the name of the tree. 

Oh man, it is currently 1:15 in the morning and I have to get up in like 7 hours. So the michael of friday morning is going to want to punch the michael of thursday night. I suppose I should wrap this up. Well as I sit here on my bed with my window wide open while listening to "Super Freak" by Rick James I am pretty pleased with where I am and what I am doing. This is such an amazing opportunity that I am really fortunate to have been able to partake in. I miss all of you soooo much back at home, I think about you guys every day! But I know that this is going to be so much fun! And plus, ya'll aint going anywhere! So I shall see you all in person in 7 months (  month has already passed! I can't believe it!) and I will make you some amazing spanish food and play you a piano song that I am learning here. Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Si-Do. I hope that was a satisfying preview of my skills. Haha well I hope you guys enjoyed this and I will have another one in a couple of days! Until next time, hasta luego!

Chicken and Rice

This is my roommate Jaime and I. That nut you see there is from our first adventure to a town called Vitoria which I mentioned in my last message. I figured that I gave all of you a good background of why I came here and what I have been doing so far but I forgot to give information about my roommates! Jaime is 27 and hails from California. This is his 3rd time to Spain and his 2nd time here through this program teaching English. He is Mexican and is bilingual, so needless to say I point to him when strangers approach. Just joking, I am improving my Spanish a lot. Just yesterday I was hanging out with some local friends who don't speak English. After they said something to each other I realized that I understood almost everything they were talking about! Anyways, back to the Jaime and the chestnut. The reason we brought the chestnut back to our flat is because every time we go on a day trip somewhere, we are going to bring something back with us as a souvenir.

If I am going to be here for 8 months without a mother or a cafeteria, I am going to have to learn to cook, right? I was getting pretty tired of cereal and pb and j's every night, with the occasional exception of Annie cooking meals for Jaime and I. So i have decided to learn to cook! Since my skills are limited to oatmeal and the occasional cake(frequent phone calls included), I started off basic. My first meal was spaghetti, sounds easy, right? WRONG! Okay so I know how to cook the noodles, you fill the pan with water, put some oil in it and when it is boiling you add the noodles. Ready to eat when you throw a piece on the wall and it sticks, it works I swear! But the sauce, that is a different story. I had no idea how to cook it and was thinking of just adding some water to the 2 cans I bought from the store. But I had no idea therefore I waited for Annie to get home to show me. We diced and onion, a red pepper, added chicken stock, chicken bouillon, garlic powder, cream and cooking oil. Thank God I waited, I think her spaghetti tasted a little bit better than mine. I won't consider myself a spaghetti maker until I can accomplish it without her help.

         (Grandpa! I took this picture for you. It was the coolest car I could find at the Car Show in Vitoria.)

So I am sitting here in my living room writing the blog post, with my belly filled up with Special K Fruit cereal. It WAS supposed to be chicken and rice. The story behind that starts with my roommate Annie. She is a great cook from the Dominican Republic and is teaching me how to cook. Although it slipped her mind that we were cooking chicken and rice for dinner. I was enjoying the nice morning sun on my balcony when Annie tapped on the window, asking if I would like to eat some of her chicken and rice lunch. I blanched, saying that I had no idea she was cooking, but I would love some of it. I guess my cooking skills will have to wait for training until tomorrow night. If any of you readers have seen the movie Julie and Julia, you will know what I am talking about. She cooks 2-3 meals a day then publishes them in a blog. That is NOT what I am doing, I just happen to have a blog and am learning to cook at the same time. My meals will make their way in here of course, but not in too great of detail.

This is a picture that I took on a walk. As you can see Bilbao is BEAUTIFUL! I am so lucky to be here, although I am pretty sure the winter is going to suck. The kids tell me that it rains for 2 months straight and the river floods. I'm not sure whether to believe that it is that extreme here but if it is i'd better buy some rain boots. The gymnasiums around here rent out bikes for free for the day, so Jaime and I are going to go rent some for a day and explore our neighborhood of San Inazio and the surrounding landscape! Next time I update this blog i'll hopefully have pictures of my classes that I teach and maybe a picture of me without hair(???). Today I taught from 3-4:30, so a pretty relaxed day. And it only included 2 students, but they were both teachers that want to improve their English conversation skills. The reason that there are only 2 students in the class is because A) it is optional and B) because today was the first day, not too many teachers know about it yet. Hopefully more start coming, but i'd rather keep the amount of students down to about 15. Anymore that that and I won't be able to spend quality time with all them! With the two students today we talked about controversial subjects such as Barack Obama, Animal Experimentation and Household Guns. These topics were just designed to get them talking and use irregular vocabulary. After that we listened to songs on youtube that had lyrics. I chose "I can't wait to be king" from the Lion King and then we listened to Roxanne by The Police. After that it was time to call it a day, but a good day at that. They told my supervisor that I was "Dynamic" so she complimented me! Well I think I shall go and enjoy a chocolate croissant. Check back in a couple of days!!!

En la Cuadra Negra

Hello family, friends, and strangers reading this! As most of you know I am currently in Spain, experiencing a once in a lifetime opportunity. It has only been 20 days, but my life has been absolutely crazy for the last 20 days. So much has changed in my life, I don't even know where to begin. First of all I shall start off with tell you readers why I decided to embark on the 8 month long journey in a city, country and continent where I know absolutely no-one. Why would somebody want to do that? It's sounds so uncomfortable and scary. Well let me tell you guys, it is uncomfortable, and scary. But that's the reason I came on this trip! In Omaha, Nebraska I was extremely content and while I was attending college in Lincoln, NE my days were filled with learning and fun. But was I growing as a person? Yes. But here I am growing so much more! I am getting to experience another culture where they don't speak the same language, eat different food and most people don't have cars! It is considered a luxury to have one, most people take the metro (including me). I came here to learn another language, I came here to see if teaching is really for me, I came here to learn how to play piano, I came here to grow more independent, I came here to change. It has been difficult, as many of my friends and family members can vouch. E-mails and scattered phone calls are amazing, and Skype is a blessing on this earth. I am fitting in better here, am making friends and exploring Spain one street at a time.

For the first 3 days I stayed in a hostel called Akelarre. It was nice but small and I shared a room with 6 other people. This is also where I met Jaime, who is now 1 of my 2 roommates. Jaime and I walked around the city for a couple days and discovered how the metro works, where our schools are, the Guggenheim Museum, and looked for a place to live. After our first outing we found a great place. It was a little pricy but we soon learned that housing here costs more. We wanted to say yes but we didn't have a 3rd roommate. We met Annie back at the Hostel a day later, offered to show her the flat and she liked it. Now im sitting on our sofa in the living room writing this. San Inazio is the name of the neighborhood I live in, and it is beautiful. I walk out onto my balcony and look at a HUGE hill, or a small mountain, depending on how you look at it. My view is filled with grassy hills, trees, bushes, old run-down houses, and TONS of feral cats.

I like them. Also everybody here has a dog. Like, everyone. Most of the time they don't keep them on a leash, they just run around which is great. My first great experience begins this friday. Jaime and I had just gotten back from an afternoon shopping at an outlet mall. He bought some stuff for his room and we were carrying it back to the flat. While passing the "Fronton" courts I noticed there was a game going on. Even though I already had learned how to play from some other locals, I asked this group of 6 people how to play, hoping they would invite me to join them. Success! After a minute of questions they quickly invited me to play with them. I joined and to their surprise I was very good. I still lost every game but it was only my 2nd time of playing. Afterwards they invited me to go to a bar and have a beer. I told them I was going to get my friend Jaime to come along as well. Since I live only 4 blocks from the "Fronton" courts it was a quick journey to get him. When we arrived at the bar they had a sandwich and beer waiting for me. The sandwich was great but I passed on the beer and instead ordered a glass of Pink Wine. I know, manly. But it tastes way better than beer. I had another glass of wine and another sandwich, and I didn't pay a dime! They were excited to make some foreign friends and invited me to play with them again this Friday. This time I will offer to buy on of them  drinks.

Oh I almost forgot to mention my landlord Dona Maruja. She is super nice and is always giving me stuff. She calls me grandson and I call her grandma. Today she bought me gloves for the cold! I was just looking at them but I didnt have my wallet with me, and she bought them for me! They were only 2.50 Euros, but still she's awesome. With her, my awesome roommates, my beautiful backyard, the close location of the metro and a gym not 2 blocks from my front door, I kinda think I got the jackpot with my flat.

My next great experience takes place in a town called Vitoria. Jaime and I decided to take a day trip there since we never work on fridays, saturdays or sundays. Buying our tickets was the first step, so we took the metro to a bus station at San Mames and then rode the bus from Bilbao to Vitoria. There I saw a lot of cool things. We went to La Plaza de la Blanca Virgin, which had a cool statue and a huge church hidden behind apartment buildings. Next we went through these 6 small parks that were right next to each other, and we saw the huge house of the president of Basque country. We also tried out some of the local food there. I tried fried  fish balls, haha. They were fish mixed with a cream, rolled into a ball and then fried. We spent the day walking around and eating back the calories burned off from walking by stopping at bakeries along the way and gelato shops. The bus ride back was a little crazier with a group of Romanian teenagers playing American music on their speakers and a group of older people in the back singing group songs in another language. So all in all it was a great day and I returned very tired. I spent the night watching the Pianist, and now Berlin is on my list to visit.

Well thats it for now, I will try to re-post within the next 2-3 days, if anything post worthy happens. Until then I hope you all liked it and are excited for the next one!