Photos of Irun

These are especially for my father because every time I talk to him he asks me what the city looks like and if I would finally take some pictures of the city where I live. I actually stole these pictures from my friend Katie (Thanks!) and I´ll get my own pictures taken as soon as it stops raining and the sun comes out...I promise!

El Ayuntamiento (City Hall)

Plaza Ensanche (One of the main plazas on Paseo Colon)

Plaza Ensanche (About 3 minutes from my piso)

Another plaza (Across the street from Plaza Ensanche)

A view of the city

A churro stand that just appeared one day of of nowhere.

A "carnival" that appeared with the churro stand one day. The music they play for the children is amazing...anything and everything from Bette Midler to Kanye West.

For all of you who understand Spanish, this blog is for you. This was found on a web-site for a bar here in Irun called "Pentagrama." I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Para el baño

Si estas en una discoteca y vas al baño, anda solo; no le pidas a un amigo que te acompañe, eso únicamente lo hacen las mujeres. Si quieres hablar con un amigo, dile que salgan afuera de la disco.Se debe dejar un espacio entre un usuario de urinario y otro. Es decir, si entras el baño y hay dos urinarios disponibles, debes utilizar el que no tenga usuarios alrededor. El orden es: un urinario siendo usado, un urinario vacío, así sucesivamente. En el caso de que no haya urinarios que permitan cumplir esta recomendación, deberás esperar afuera del baño hasta que salga alguien y puedas cumplir con lo recomendado. Solo esta permitido mirar hacia la pared que tengas de frente. En algunos casos podrás bajar tu cabeza y mirar tu “chorrito”. En ningún caso y bajo ninguna circunstancia es aceptable que mires otro “chorrito” que no sea el tuyo. Tu compañero de urinario no es tu amigo. Lo recomendable cuando tengas que usar el baño es que entres con cara de perro bravo. Olvídate de decir “Buenas Noches” al entrar. Si alguien te saluda, ignóralo; compórtate como si no lo hubieses escuchado.

Does anyone else find this as hilarious as I do???

What a weekend! Seriously, what a crazy weekend! So much has happened in such a few short days that I don´t even know where to begin. Here are just a few of the highlights:

* Friday during the day I met a guy standing outside an Internet cafe here in Irun. He told me he had seen me a few times before and told me I had beautiful eyes. He then asked for my number and I was so caught off guard by the whole situation that I just gave him my number. Bad decision!! He called me 19 times on Friday and then another 15 times on Saturday and then a couple times Sunday. I kept telling him I was with friends and that I already had plans this weekend but he was very persistent. And then Saturday night I lied and said I was having dinner with friends so that I couldn´t meet with him and then was caught in my own lie when he saw me walking down the street...alone. But I was on my way to meet friends so I managed to get away. I´m hoping he has finally gotten the point.

* Friday night we went to a bar here called Izartxo where they decorated the entire bar with a Halloween theme. All the bartenders were dressed up. There were pumpkins and skeletons and everything Halloween everywhere you looked. It was better than some Halloween parties I have been to in the States. They made a "magic potion" and invited everyone to talk shots. It was awesome.

* Friday night consisted of more drinking and more dancing and ended with me arriving home around 5:00 am.

*Saturday I met up with my friend Katie (the other American here in Irun) and we had plans of going to the beach but ended up instead at a cafe having coffee. While having coffe we encountered a guy that we supposedly met the night before, although neither of us remember meeting him. He buys us more coffee and we begin to talk to him. His name is Alex and he is from the Ukraine (and super cute!). We end up talking to him for a couple hours and make a new friend! Yay!

*Saturday night consisted of more drinking, more dancing and more fiesta!

*Unfortunately, Saturday night (and by night I mean 5:00 in the morning) ended with me getting very hurt by and very upset with someone who I believed I was very important to. I learned that just because you love someone doesn´t mean they love you in the same way. Relationships are really hard and they don´t always work out how you would like them to.

*Katie, Olga (Katie´s roommate) and I must have made a lot of "friends" this weekend because we have been approached by a lot of people who know us (or at least, remember us) and we have no idea who they are!

*There are a lot of really cute boys in Irun! Like, wow, more than I realized.

Here are some photos of the weekend:

Me, Olga and Mikel

Olga and Me

Katie and Me

And then here are 2 photos from the weekend before: