CuppaTea

A few times over the last few weeks I have found water in my kitchen: on the bench around the sink, on the floor in front of the sink and the washing machine. (And yes, I mean washing machine and not dishwasher.) Usually these discoveries were made first thing in the morning. But I had no idea where the water came from. Occasionally I have heard a drip, again always during the night. It was usually a small puddle, which dried quickly during the morning. It was an odd occurrence, but it didn’t seem too serious. Sometimes I thought it was just the overflow from the sink when I washed dishes in the evening, only to be found in the morning.

The first thing I wanted to do when I finally arrived in Spain was buy some nice postcards to send to family back home. Touristy, but normal. What I didn´t expect was how hard it has been to find postcards. The first place I tried was a little bookstore, which sells notebooks (the primary reason I was there), published books, magazines and a few other bits and pieces. I wasn´t terribly surprised that they didn´t stock postcards, but it was worth asking.

What were my impressions of Bilbao? First, that one short, busy weekend was nowhere near enough time to see the city properly! And the city itself? It felt huge and sprawling after a few weeks in Villablino. When we left the train station to catch the metro there were lights and people and buses and cars everywhere well after 9pm. There were a lot of people on the metro. Even the fact that the city has a metro system was huge for me – I´d never been on one before. And my Australian tendency to keep left meant I got in the way sometimes!

One of the things I love about visiting other places, or spending time with people from other places, it the joy people get from sharing their foods. This may be their favourite foods, or things that remind them of home (if they are travelling or away from their home country, like I am at the moment), or typical or famous foods of a region.

Last weekend I travelled to Bilbao with three other people. We drove to León and then caught a train to Bilbao. Hours of moving through the countryside of Spain. Mainly by train. Though not only on the plain.

One of the reasons I came to Spain was to practise using Spanish, and to try to improve my vocabulary and fluency. So you may be wondering how I´ve been going, and what strategies or methods I´ve been using.