Today I went to Vitoria for a reception from the Basque Government welcoming all the Language Assistants. I went with two of the professors from my school and we left at 8:45 am. This meant that I had to get up a good 2 hours earlier than I had been waking up for the last week. I wasn't really in the mood to go when we left so I just slept for the hour it took us to get there. When we got there we had a little presentation from some very important people (or so it appeared). It's really interesting here in Spain the presentations that they give us. In Madrid it was a bunch of information that I can survive without or information that didn't pertain to us at all. Today was no exception. Their only saving grace was that the power point presentation was written in English. Otherwise I would not have heard a word they were saying. At the end of the presentation the VIPs were telling us how seriously we need to take our job and how it is completely unprofessional to be friends with any of the students. It was quite interesting to me because that is the one thing that I wanted to get out of this experience. But maybe that comment was directed more to the people who are working with high school age kids. I really don't know.

After the presentation we have a little reception with pinchos (tapas) and drinks. That was the best part because they served us wine, beer or soda at 11:30 in the morning. The pinchos were pretty good (some better than others) but it was nice to talk with everyone. All the language assistants were there and a lot of the teachers/professors from the various schools. Everyone loved the professors that we have in Irun and wanted to switch schools with us. It's nice to be envied!

After everything was done we went to a little bar and had another drink and some more pinchos. This was probably the best part because it was just hanging out and talking and laughing. All the professors from my school are so much fun, so I have a really good time just talking to them and learning about them.

Then we came back to Donostia. All the professors had to go to Irun for class but since we don't have to work this week I went home. I got a letter and picture that Elliott (my nephew) had drawn for me. Very cute. It's also good to know that the postal service will deliver my mail to me.

Have some errands to do now so I gotta go. It's also not raining so I want to take full advantage of that.

Besos y abrazos.