Day 10, May 30, 2008

That day, ASB students had normal school class until 12:10 P.M. and then went to Sopelana Beach to meet with WLA guys. In the morning, we thought it would be a terrible day for surfing in the afternoon, because it was raining a lot at that moment. However, thank God, the heavy rain arrived at its end by midday. Once in the beach, 9 of WLA students participated in the surfing classes. In the meanwhile, Alberto and I could not wait to go for a swim, so we ran to the water wearing only our swimming trunks and stayed there for a short while, despite the freezing temperature of the water, while Gonzalo, Unai, and Héctor were body-surfing with their wetsuits.





Afterwards, everyone took the metro from Larrabasterra to Neguri, and then went to our corresponding houses. From 6:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. we had a farewell party at ASB, where we had lots of fun having a nice barbecue in the covered area and attending a great concert played by Dan, Sang Sun, Iñigo, and Alex West in the school's auditorium.





Later, we all went home so that the WLA guys could have dinner and pack their luggage for tomorrow's trip back home to Texas.

Next day morning, at 5:00 A.M. ASB guys took the WLA folks to the airport in Bilbao, where they took the plane at 6:45 A.M.
Indeed, for ASB members, it has been a wonderful and unique experience spending the time with you, WLA, once again, although this time in Bilbao and we hope you have also enjoyed it a lot! We wish you had a nice flight all the way back to Dallas.
See you soon!

Below there is a picture of Erik and me taken at 4:30 A.M.:

Day 9, May 29, 2008

On Thursday, WLA students and their chaperones went to La Rioja where they visited San Millán de la Cogolla. This municipality takes its name from a 6th-century saint (Saint Emilianus or San Millán) who lived here, and from the the shape of the surrounding mountains (the word cogolla means "hood"). The village is famous for its twin monasteries, Yuso and Suso, which were declared a World Heritage Site in 1997. The area is Spanish-speaking but some of the local place-names are of Basque origin, and there is evidence that Basque was spoken locally a thousand years ago.



During the afternoon, some of ASB and WLA guys took the metro to Bilbao, and went shopping around the Gran Vía, to the Fnac and El Corte Ingles. None of the WLA people wanted to buy anything, because most had already spent the majority of their money. After having been in many shops and walked so much, we had a rest in a bar, where we had a drink. Then, we returned home by metro.

Day 8, May 28, 2008

On Wednesday, the WLA group had a coastal trip to San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, Bermeo and Gernika. The weather was quite unstable, sometimes being sunny and other times being quite rainy.





In the afternoon, Erik, Héctor, Alex Champagne, and I went to Las Arenas to eat some "pinchos" in a bar.

Day 7, May 27, 2008

On Tuesday, the WLA group went to the Altamira Museum where they visited the replica of the Altamira cave (the real one is not open to the public for conservation reasons). Then they visited the medieval town of Santillana del Mar where they took a tour of the Museum of Torture.

Day 6, May 26, 2008

That day, the original plan for the WLA students was to go to Burgos and visit the Cathedral, the Castle, and some Museums, but there was a change of plans so instead, they went to France (St. Jean de Luz) and San Sebastián.



Later, in the afternoon, we all met in Artea Bowling until 10:00 P.M. We had fun playing pool, bowling, and Air Hockey.

Day 5, May 25, 2008

At 12:30 P.M., Erik and I went to Colegio Europa soccer field to play soccer with my friends. Later at 4:00 P.M. we ate at a brewing restaurant in Berango, in outdoors, since inside was full, despite the heavy downpours. Indeed, the food was excellent. As a funny anecdote, Héctor, Alberto and I somehow convinced Erik, who is a vegetarian, to taste morcilla, which obviously he did not like at all. Then, we went to the Puerto Deportivo and hanged around there until 9:30 P.M.

Below you can see a photo of James and me at the Palmera Restaurant in Berango:

Day 4, May 24, 2008

The WLA students spent the whole day with their corresponding host families. Erik, Héctor, Alex Champagne and I met in Artea with the rest of the guys. We had fun playing bowling, air hockey, and pool in the afternoon, while waiting impatiently for Eurovision to start. Later, at night we watched Eurovision in the TV while having dinner in an Italian restaurant in the mall. For WLA guys and some of us, the Chikilicuatre song was a real mockery.

Day 3, May 23, 2008

That day ASB and Westalke students went to our school, where we had a special schedule:

During the first two hours, we enjoyed an impressive 8th Grade show, and then 11th Grade did a slide show on the pictures of USA (NY and Texas).
Then, while ASB pupils had their normal classes, Westlake students had time for Internet communications in the computer lab; afterwards, they had a PE lesson in Spanish; later, 11th Grade taught some important things about the Basque Country in Spain and France, and lastly, when 11th Grade had Philosophy class, Westlake students had a Spanish lesson.



Later in the evening, we stayed in the Irish Pub of Algorta and then had dinner in the Puerto Deportivo. At the end, we walked around the lighthouse.

Day 2, May 22, 2008

That day we visited the city of Bilbao.In the morning while it was raining, we rode in the tramway and then used the funicular railway to go to the summit of Bilbao and see the beautiful landscape.




Later, we walked to the Guggenheim Museum, where the Westlake students took a guided tour for at least one hour. As you can see in the photos, the weather was not quite favorable.






Finally, we went to the Hanging Bridge by bus and thus completed 5 different means of transportation in one single session: metro, bus, tramway, funicular railway, and Hanging Bridge. We took a lift to the top of the bridge, walked across to the other side and then we boarded the hanging cabin back to the side we departed from.

Later that afternoon, we met in Artea to play bowling.

Westlake's Sojourn in Bilbao

Day 1, Wednesday May 21, 2008:

After our school classes, we all went to the Bilbao Airport to pick our American counterparts. In order to show them our very pleased welcome towards them, that evening we had a fine barbecue at ASB and at the same time we talked about life and stuff and showed the Westlake folks our school building inside. We, ASB students, were definitely amused by their arrival to Bilbao. At night, most of us met in a restaurant of Las Arenas called Glas to watch the European Champions League Final of Soccer, in which Manchester United beat Chelsea.

Below there is a photo of the WLA/ASB group in front of the school's main building:

Welcome Westlake!

Hi folks!

How are you all doing? Just 6 days left before we all see each other again! We are very excited to meet with you guys again. We are now discussing about the plan for your stay's schedule. We hope you will spend a great time both in Madrid and in the Basque Country.

I wish you all a nice flight, despite the extremely long time it takes to come to Spain. Just take it easy and relax while flying.
We are really looking forward to seeing you in Bilbao.
See you very soon! Bye.

Trip back to Bilbao

On Tuesday morning, we woke up at 3:45 A.M. and arrived at the airport at 5:00 A.M. We were all quite sad to leave Dallas and say good-bye to our Texan friends. In total, the trip lasted about a day, including flights and stays in the airports. We flew first from Dallas to New York/JFK; then from there to Paris/Charles de Gaulle; and, at the end, from there to Bilbao. We finally arrived at 9:00 A.M. It was a very wearisome trip, indeed.

Westlake, Texas: Day 8 04/21/08

On Monday, we went to WLA and stayed there until 3:45 P.M. In the morning, Jon gave us time to prepare some presentations on Vizcaya: social life, food, TV, the city of Bilbao, and the ASB. We did them in Spanish so tha the WLA students could practice their Spanish. After having finished preparing them, we went to the school's gym to watch the last WLA students presenting their personal projects, and after that wandered around having a look at each project. We then presented ours to them and then got time to update our blogs. We then had lunch at 1:00 P.M. and a break.

After the break, we had English class with the 10th grade WLA students. We watched a video called "Death of a Salesman".


A photo of me trying to pay attention to the movie in English class


Our host parents picked us up and took us to Anisha's house, in order to celebrate a farewell party. The Chandra Family lived in an amazing mansion, slightly smaller to Olivia's. It also had two floors, as well as a pool table, an arcade machine, a pinball machine, a table football, a cinema, a sports gym, a swimming pool with a pretty small bridge above it, and a small cinema. We all had a variety of food to eat and all sorts of drinks, and spent a lovely time altogether, hanging around, listening to music and playing in the recreational room. It was our last day in Texas with the WLA guys.


Brooke B., Ane, Maider, Rocío, Luis, and Katie


Mostly everybody in front of Anisha's mansion


Later, at night, Olivia, Alberto, and I watched the reamining movie we rented, "Without a Paddle". It was really funny, but missed the last thrity minutes as I fell completely asleep in the coach, as well as Alberto and Olivia. We then took a photo of us three as a nice souvenir, and went straight to our bedroom at. We then had to pack everything in our suitcases for the following day's ordeal trip.


Alberto, Olivia, and Luis in Olivia's movie theater

Westlake, Texas: Day 7 04/20/08

On Sunday, Alberto and I woke up at 10:30 A.M. and headed to a park in Dallas in Mr. Jenkins's car. There we met some ASB students, like Alex, Sang Sun, Álvaro, Willy, Carlota, Alejandra, and some WLA students, like Viky, Stefanie, Noah, Chelsea, Alexandra. We played basketball and made some passes with Chelsea's soccer ball. We also saw a health drive celebrating a gathering at the park for fund-raising purposes. There were a mile run, food stands, motorbike shows, and an artificial rock climbing cliff.


Alvaro, Alex, Viky, and Stefanie in the park


WLA girls relaxing in the park


After that, we went to the Northpark mall to do our last shopping in Texas. I did not buy anything, and then Alberto, Sang Sun, Alex, Noah, and I ate together some hamburgers at Sonic Restaurant. Later at 6:00 P.M. Olivia's mother came to pick Alber and me up to her house. We were not hungry so we did not have dinner,and at 9:30 P.M. Alberto and I went to the swimming pool with Olivia, Taylor, and their neighbor Kyle, a gentle tall guy. We spent a nice time talking everyone i the hot tub; Taylor, who had just came from the school newspaper meeting in Austin, said that her school group won 47 awards! One of them was given to the best cartoonist of the whole state of Texas. Alberto and I were very impressed, so were Olivia ad Kyle. We all also jumped to the freezing pool, except Taylor. Later we even sneaked stealthily to our neighbor's spooky house's pool and quickly came back; it was so hilarious the way we had to climb the fence to cross from one house area to the other. Indeed, we had lots of fun that night. After Taylor and Kyle left, Olivia, Alberto, and I went to bed.

Westlake, Texas: Day 6 04/19/08

On Saturday, we woke up at 9:00 A.M. and went with all the boys of my ASB class and some boys from WLA to the Arenas Stampede to play a soccer match. Mr. Jenkis and Juan Carlos were present there and also played in the match as well as some Mexicans, Argentinians, and a Bulgarian. Actually, there were two matches, both intense and very active. My team, formed by Juan Carlos, Mr. Jenkins, Unai, Alex, Sang Sun and me as well as the Bulgarian and others, beat the other team - Luis O., Manolo, Willy, Alvaro, Gonzalo, Ibái, and others - in both matches. An interesting detail to remark was that Jon Asensi played goalie for a while on my team, doing his best. A bunch of people were watching us play from the stands, including Héctor, Ibón, Íñigo, Alberto, Connor, Stefanie, Tater (Bailey's yonger brother) and many others.


Red Team (my team) vs. Blue Team


Afterwards, we joined the girls at Flip's Burgers, and had lunch, mainly barbecue type food. Later most of us went to Grapevine Mall, where we spent around three hours, shopping and wandering around. I bought loads of clothes, sunglasses, a belt, and an ashtray with a map of Texas for my father. We also went to a skate park to watch Luis Óscar and many small kids skate either with skateboards or with rollerblades; most of them were quite good for their age. Finally, at 8:30 P.M. we were picked up. Once home, we had dinner, and then went to bed.

Westlake, Texas: Day 5 04/18/08

What a day! This was the day of Six Flags Over Texas! The most ancient Amusement Park of the Six Flags chain in America, and much more exciting than any of those in Spain! This was really the day mostly everyone was waiting! We got to the park at 10:50 A.M. and could stay there until 2:30 P.M. I spent the whole day in the park with Alberto, Manolo, Álvaro, Ibón, Ibái, Luis Óscar, Gonzalo, and Willy. We first went to ride on the most amazing-looking rollercoaster, called the Titan. Whoa! What a ride! Alberto and I sat on the second seats and whereas Alberto lifted his arms during the whole ride, I was so scared that I held the handlebars all the time. From my own experience, this ride was much better than anyone from Terra Mítica; it had so many great loops and many times it seemed that we were going to crash against some of the close long poles that held the rollercoaster. They said that The Titan ran at a speed of 120 km/hr. We all enjoyed it and thought it was quite short!




Next, we took a ride on the Texas Giant, rated the best wooden rollercoaster in the USA. This time, I sat on the last seat with Manolo! Just before the ride, ALberto and I did a bet, in which he would pay me two dollars if I lifted my arms during the whole ride, or otherwise I would have to pay them to him. Unfortunately, the ride was so fast and scary that from the moment the rollercoaster began to fall its first steep slope, I put my hands on the handlebars for the entire trip. On the other hand, Manolo dared lifting his hands until the end! This ride was indeed longer and even faster, but did not have any loops at all; however, sometimes we got the impression that we were going to get smashed against some wooden poles. It was a terrible fun experience!




Later, we ate some pop corn and pizza.

Afterwards, at 1:00 P.M. we went to try if we could ride Batman, but got quite upset on realizing that there was a very long queue and the guy in charge of the rollercoaster warned us that we would have to wait at least two hours. So instead of riding on Batman, we rode on Mr. Freeze, which for Álvaro, Ibái and me was the most incredible rollercoaster in the enitre amusement park. Ibái and I sat on the first seats! The machine accelerated and ran at an extremely high speed until the very top after many loops, and then came all the way back; in total it lasted about 25 seconds, quite short, but INTENSE. Of course, I did not dare to lift my arms in this frightening ride.

Later, we all went to some luck games. In one of them, Ibón won a cool black acoustic
guitar for having scored two consecutive balls in a bucket. Then, a friendly adult who saw Ibón with the guitar out of tune, offered his help to tune it. Once it was correctly tuned, I borrowed it and started playing it. Meanwhile, a Mexican happy-go-lucky-looking 19-year-old fellow approached to me with a small funny red guitar, and started having a nice conversation. We talked about music, our favorite bands, where he and I came from, etc. He told me that he was born to Mexican parents in California, and was enlisted in the infantry army of the USA in New Mexico. He said that he came by car from New Mexico by himself to Six Flags to spend the whole day and later return to New Mexico, since the next day he had duty in the army. He was a really kind and naive person; I kind of felt sorry for him though, but he was so nice that ibón and I decided to be generous and exchange guitars. And suddenly, Ane, Rocío, Alejandra and the other girls appeared, and Alejandra said a funny lie to the man, begging him to give Patricia his Tweety hat he was wearing on his head until he took it very seriuosly and gave it to Patricia. We all laughed and had a great time, and just then at 2:30 P.M. we said farewell to the poor Mexican guy and left Six Flags Over Texas.



We went by car to WLA, and at 3:45 P.M. Olivia's mother took Alberto, her daughter and me to a video club to rent three movies: "The Hitcher", "The Texas Massacre", and "Without a Paddle". Later we went to their house. A while later, Olivia's mother let us use her golf cart. We both spent the rest of the afternoon riding the golf cart, doing races with some neighbors and then we met with Ane, Rocío, Bailey and her brother Tater around Bailey's house. We took many photos of us with the golf cart and Tater's motor scooter, and did fun races. At night, we ate some pizza with Olivia, and later went to the cinema in her house to watch "The Hitcher", a scary movie. We then realized that the "Texas Massacre" we picked was the older one so we decided to not see it. At 12:30 A.M. we all went to bed.

Westlake, Texas: Day 4 04/17/08

On the morning, on Thursday April 17th, we went to the zoo and stayed there until 2:30 P.M. During the stay, we ate pizza for lunch and observed lots of animals, many of which I was very impressed, such as the monkeys, the rhinocerous, and some interesting birds, like the tucan and the penguin. We also saw many lizards, crocodiles, elephants, a desperate white tiger that scracthed the glass frantically every time we got closer to hassle him, and a cheetah that kept walking in circles around a tree trunk as if having a nervous tic. Afterwards, we went back home. Olivia's mother suggested to Alberto and me to visit a clothes shop near Town Square to see if there were clothes that we wanted to buy. Unfortunately, I did not find any clothes I liked of my size, while Alberto bought a polo. Next, at night we went with Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins and the Flowers Family (my host family) to see an incredible hockey match between Dallas Stars and the Mighty Ducks of San Francisco. The Stars finally beat the Mighty Ducks 3-1. We saw the match from a V.I.P. room, so it was fantastic! Alberto and I enjoyed this match much more than the baskteball match; there was an even much more motivated crowd shouting loudly all the time.



The intense match with the players showing a lot of drive



Taylor, Luis, Alberto, and Olivia



Alberto and Luis

Westlake, Texas: Day 3 04/16/08

On Wednesday April 16, we had a very busy day. On the morning we came to WLA, where we had to update our blogs,as usual. After an hour, we all went with the 10th grade WLA students visit three museums during the whole morning:
-THE DALLAS MUSEUM OF ART
There were many sorts of paintings, such as Greek, Roman, as well as African, Asian, North American, Indonesian expostions and other styles and art periods, like Renaissance art, modernist, contemporary, realist, impressionist, and expressionist paintings. Inside the museum, it was like a labyrinth, very confusing. We also saw some private collections donated to the museum.I really found the African and Indonesian expositions quite interesting, especially the wooden heads masks from Africa and Indonesia.



- THE NASHER SCULPTURE CENTER
The most impressive sculptures for me were the long white pole pointing up to the sky, with people walking straight in a line over it, and a group of beheaded people.



-THE 6TH FLOOR MUSEUM AT DEALEY PLAZA(where John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated).
During the visit, we listened to a walkman guide, which talked about the 35th USA President's life: his family, his programs, his election campaign, his policies, the main events of his professional life, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, Space Exploration, Nuclear Test Ban Agreement, the Vietnam War, his assassination, etc. From the windows of the 6th floor, we could see the sniping spot where the magnicide took place - in the 89th Street of Dallas. It was believed that the sniper Lee Harvey Oswald was the one responsible for shooting Kennedy on November 22, 1963 at 12:30 P.M. There were many legal documents, home-made videos and documentaries about the event. I found out also that two days after Kennedy's death and Oswald's arrest, Lee Harvey Oswald, in the middle of an interview, was shot by Jack Leon Ruby at 1:07 P.M. I also read in the museum that there was a public suspicion in 1988 and a possible conspiracy, that maybe Lee Harvey Oswald was a member of a complot that wanted to devise a plan to kill Kennedy. I also read that in 2013 the name of the true murderer will be revealed to the whole world. Indeed, there four shots on November 22: one missed, another hit Kennedy in the neck and went through his palm, another one hit one of the other politicians in the car, and the last one hit Kennedy in the head.


Later, at 6 P.M. we went to see an exciting basketball match between the Dallas Mavericks and the New Orleans Hornetts. It was the last match of this year's regular league, just before the play-offs. But before we arrived to the stadium, as most of us were calmly walking across the street, we were suddenly offered the chance to ride on a cool bus full of graffiti! Once inside, the driver gave us a marker to write our names and signatures on the walls or ceilings while he drove us to the basketball stadium.

The match was very crowded and noisy, full of emotions and motivation from the public. "Deeeefense! Defense!" those cheering shouts still resound in my ears. In the breaks, there were some crazy games for winning loads of money; for instance, we saw two people covered with glue rolling on the floor full of dollar bills, and the one that had pasted the most bills earned a huge amount of money. What also surprised me were the big screens showing couples from the public kissing and hugging; it was funny. The final score was 111-98, so we were very happy at the end, so much that several boys of my class started dancing. After the match, I bought a Mavericks T-shirt that had the name of "Stackhouse" and Alberto bought a Mavericks T-shirt with the name of "Kidd". Mr.Jenkins, a former ASB teacher, then drove Olivia, Alberto and me to Olivia's house, where we had dinner as soon as we arrived, and immediately after that went to bed since we were so weary.


Go Mavericks!!!


Luis, Brooke B., Rocío, and Ane


Ibón, Luis, Brooke B., and Rocío

Westlake, Texas: Day 2 & Cultural Differences

Next day, Tuesday, April 15th, Alberto and I woke up at 6:30 A.M. and immediately took a shower. After having breakfast, we went to school in Olivia's car with Taylor and her younger brother, listening to Olivia's cool music, and arrived just on time, at 8:00 A.M. At the beginning there was a meeting of the entire school and our ASB class. There was a short song played by a flute and sang by some elementary school students. The WLA were pledging their allegiance to the flags of Texas and USA. Then, the director introduced us to the school. When we entered the 10th grade classroom, we began doing cultural activities. For the first activity we divided ourselves in groups of five or more (students of ASB mixed with WLA students) , in order to ask each one of the group personal questions, such as favorite food, favorite song, favorite hobby, etc. Later there was a class competition to see which group remembered the most about the personal things from members of their goup. After that, the 10th grade students prepared a skit to show us the American clichés. Overall, they were quite interesting and funny. Later, we decided to do another activity: we divided ourselves into groups of five or more again. This time, we, the ASB students, had to inform the WLA students about the interesting places to visit and things to do in Bilbao, such as visiting the Guggenheim Museum, riding the tramway for a tour of the whole city, etc. Then, each group presented what the WLA students learned.

At 11:30 P.M. we had pizza in WLA, and left school at 12:30 P.M. Later, we were taken to a baseball game at the Texas Rangers Ballpark in Arlington to watch the local team, Texas Rangers, lose against LA Angels 7-4. It was quite entertaining, although a bit too long - it lasted about two hours and thrity minutes. Then Olivia took Alberto and me to her house with Taylor. We had fun playing ping-pong from 7:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. Later we went to Wendy's to pick our hamburgers and french fries. After we finished our dinner, Olivia, Taylor, Alberto and I went to take a bath in their neighbor's swimming pool. Then at 10:30 P.M. we went to sleep.




Here is what my teacher Jon Asensi assigned us to do during the night for homework:

AMERICAN CULTURE (in Texas) VS. SPANISH CULTURE (in Bilbao):

SIMILARITIES:

-Clothes - however, some WLA students said that generally we dress more formally
-Music -for instance, Taylor, Olivia and I have same taste for music, especially rock
-School subjects
-How the colleagues treat each other, laughing and joking
-Pastimes: sports, hanging out with friends, shopping, playing videogames, reading

DIFFERENCES:

-The American lifestyle is faster and more agitated, and most people seldom are not in a rush.
-The Spanish lifestyle is basically more calm.
-In the USA, cities are separated into different sections for living, shopping, visiting and working, so everyone must constantly use the car to drive from one place to another, even though newer cities are trying to mix everything together. As a result there are restaurants, pubs, banks, and drive-ins.
-In the USA, there is a curfew at 11:00 P.M. In other words, youngsters are not allowed to be outside their homes later than that time, whereas in Spain we tend to stay out until late in the night.

Social life:
-Americans are usually more dedicated to social and community activities.
-Americans are more open, naive and nicer, while people in the Basque Country, as well as Galicians, are more reserved, resentful and generally more hot-tempered.
- The drinking age in USA is 18 or 21, depending on the state you are living in, whereas here in Spain the drinking age is 18.
-The driving age in USA is 16, and in Spain, 18.
-Since prior to now there used to be a worrying number of accidents because of drunk teenagers who drove, the driving and drinking laws are more strictly applied in USA than in Spain, where most of us neglect them.

Food:
-In USA, people are very likely used to eat for a very short period of time, while we tend to take our time eating for a much longer time.
-American people use dressings, sauces, and spices for the food much more often than us.
-In general, Americans tend to enjoy fast-food meals (hamburgers, hot dogs, etc.) and junk food almost everyday, while we generally prefer to eat healthy food and other stuff, such as chick peas, lentles, beans, tortilla, paella, etc., and usually eat fast-food once every three or four weeks.

Timetables:
- In the USA most people wake up at around 6:00 A.M., have breakfast at 6:30 A.M., start school at 8:00 A.M., have a snack in the first break,have lunch at 1:00 P.M., and have dinner at around 5:30 P.M.-7:00 P.M. They then go to bed at 10:00 P.M. - 11:00 P.M.

Housing:
-Most of us in Bilbao live in flats, and few live in mansions and luxurious apartments in exclusive places like La Galea and Neguri.
-Americans tend to live in all kind of houses in the suburbs; some WLA Texans lived in luxurious big houses, others in normal apartments, others in cottages, and others in ranch houses.

Sports:
- Americans prefer playing and watching American football, basketball, ice hockey, and baseball.
-Our traditional favorite sport in Spain is definitely and exclusively soccer.

Ethnicity:
- In USA (as we saw in Texas and in New York), there is a great blending of ethnic groups and people from other races and cultures, while in Spain there is much fewer mix of such people.

Family:
- In USA parents have greater control than their kids and are usually closer to their teenaged children than in Spain.
-The families are especially responsible for the wellbeing of their children.

School:
- School in the USA is more comfortable and welcoming, and it is very noticeable the sociable atmosphere that is maintained in Westlake Academy.
- School in the USA begins at 8:00 A.M. and finishes at 3:45 P.M., while our school starts at 9 A.M. and ends at 3:30 P.M.. However, the time of start and of finish varies in allschools throughout Spain. Students from WLA have one hour and fifteen minutes of school more than us, but tend to have less homework. Their recesses last as long as ours.
- WLA, even though it does not seem to be so, is a public school, unlike ours, the American School of Bilbao.
- WLA is small, similar to ours, and both have more or less the same number of pupils, around 300.
- In both WLA and the American School of Bilbao, students eat in the canteen.
-All students come to and leave WLA by car only, while we go either by bus, car, taxi or moto to our school.
- Every morning, the entire school community meets at 8:00 A.M. to swear their allegiance to the flag of USA and Texas.

New York - Westlake, Texas: Day 1

On Monday April 14, we woke up at 5:30 A.M. in NY and got our luggage ready on our assigned bus. Once in the airport, we took the plane and, after a three hour-long flight, arrived to the Fort Worth Airport in Texas at 10:50 A.M., and waited a little while for our American counterparts since we arrived 25 min. earlier than intended. Everyone came to pick us up, except Alberto's and my host, Olivia Flowers, because the plan for the day was to have barbecue party at my host's house, so Olivia had to stay in her house to help her mother prepare the welcome party. Alberto, Unai, and I arrived at Olivia's huge house in Mr. Jenkins's car. What a mansion! It had a nice garden, a swimming pool with hot tub, a pool table,a ping-pong table, a cinema, etc. It was a formidable day; we got to know nearly every one of us, ate hamburgers, played pool and played a crazy, funny American football game. Overall, it was all fun.

After the party, at around 4:30 P.M., each one of our ASB class went to their corresponding hosts's houses, while Alberto and I stayed in the house since Olivia is our host. Unai and his host, Tyler, also stayed with us to have a dinner together at the Babes Restaurant. At 5:30 P.M. we had to go to Westlake Academy to assist to a meeting for Olivia's outstanding year in tennis and other people's accomplishments in other sports. There we coincided with Sang Sun and his host, Noah, and met our former ASB P.E. teacher, Juan Carlos Herrera. Half an hour later, we had dinner, which was Kentucky fried chicken, smashed potatoes, some cake with honey, and corn. Everything quite tasty. Then, at 7 P.M. Alberto and I came back to Olivia's house, where we had a pool game with Olivia and her neighbor friend Taylor. At the end, Alberto and Olivia won. Later, at 10:30 P.M. Taylor left and we all went to sleep.


 
Team 1
Josh, Willy, Ibai, Tyler, Sean, Kent, Anisha, Kyle, James, Olivia, Brooke A., Alberto, Luisfer, Unai, and Iñigo


Team 2
Héctor, Gonzalo, Ibón, Álvaro, Sang Sun, Lucie, Alex, Taylor, Corey, Noah, Ryen, Tim, Stefanie, Viky, and Erik

In NY

We arrived to New York City on Thursday April 10 at night and we installed ourselves in the hotel YMCA in 63rd street in West 5. That same night we ate dinner in a McDonald's and then returned to the hotel to sleep.

Next day, Friday April 11, on the morning we made a visit to the Cervantes Institute, which is located in #211 49th Street. There was a Spanish lady who explained and guided us in the Institute, telling us many interesting pieces of information about it. For instance, she said that the Cervantes Institute was founded between 1991 and 1993 by the fusion of former institutes of Spanish culture, in order to create a database of Spanish works, an exposition center, and a way of promoting culture through Spanish, Galician, Catalan, and Euskera classes. It has extended around the world , and there are right now 70 centers of such organization around the world. She also mentioned that that particular center contained 11,000 audiovisuals and 7,000 videos, all in Spanish. We also learned that 70% of the material was in the cellar; there was an auditorium for cultural activities, such as the reciting of Cervantes's most famous novel, "Don Quijote". The building comprises of two floors and a basement, where the auditorium is located.




Once the visit ended, we made a very long walk through the city to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, from 49th Street to 79th Street, and before entering, we ate a hot dog for lunch. We then made our way through the museum thanks to a guide who showed us its highlights, mainly paintings. Since we walked at a very fast pace with the guide, some of us got lost but that does not mean that they could not enjoy the visit without the guide. We saw the first greek sculpture in a standing position, many modernist and cubist American paintings from the 20th century, French Renaissance paintings, works by Pablo Picasso, etc. Soon after this, we went to see an original Egyptian temple moved and rebuilt stone by stone in the museum.








Later, we spent practically the whole afternoon shopping in SOHO (South of Houston), where we all bought some clothes during 2 hours.At night we went to have dinner at an Italian Restaurant in Little Italy. Just after leaving the restaurant, there was a limousine who offered us to go with them for a certain amount of money to the Hotel YMCA, but Jon Asensi and Mrs. Marcia rejected it, since the driver had no car licence and so it was quite risky. We then decided to better walk to the hotel.





On Saturday April 12, we woke up at 6:40 A.M. and left YMCA at 8:30 to get the metro to Battery Park, from which we sailed in a ferry to go to Ellis Island for a visit of the Statue of Liberty, the symbol of freedom, opportunities, security, and future, which was quite impressive. We then visited the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, and saw that a very big number of people from Spain, Eastern Europe, Asia and other parts of the world had immigrated to the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. In the park there was a monument for the Korean War veterans.




Even though we had to wait like one hour due to the fog, we finally managed to sail in the ferry and visit the monuments.



The museum had a database where you could find out if any of your ancestors had immigrated to the US through the Ellis Island. This could also be consulted through the internet. Besides this, it contained pictures of immigrants and ships, immigrants' luggage, etc.

Afterwards, we returned to Manhattan, and watched a funny street show. Then we had lunch near Times Square in McDonald's at around 4:30 P.M. There, since that day was Hector's birthday, Manolo and I decided to buy a salesman an interesting DVD for Hector! Unsurprisingly, Hector seemed to enjoy the video, as we all expected, hehe. Later we crossed through Wall Street to get to Ground Zero, where they are rebuilding some skyscrapers at the moment. We also went to see a huge statue of the first President of USA, George Washington.





We then did some shopping during the afternoon in a mall in South Port, where I bought a T-shirt for my sister María José, and later at night arrived at China Town, where we had dinner in a Chinese restaurant. After having finished eating, we came back to the hotel by metro; cleaned ourselves; and started to write this blog entry for our classtrip to USA.



On the fourth day, Sunday April 13, we had a long stroll in almost the whole morning in Central Park, where we saw many people jogging and playing baseball for fun and lots of people walking with their dogs.



We then went to Broadway to try to buy tickets for the musical "Mamma Mia!", but they were sold out, so we had leisure time for shopping around Times Square while Jon and Marcia tried to find tickets on resale. Meanwhile, we visited a couple of guitar shops but did not buy any guitar, because we did not have enough money. Then I went to another store, where I bought a T-shirt.


At the end, Jon and Marcia found the tickets, and gave us a bit of more free time and time to eat before the musical, which started at 2 P.M. We then went to the "Mamma Mia!" Musical, which really impressed us all. It was a great show! It had both great singing and dancing. It was about a young girl who is about to marry, but still does not know who her father is, so she decides to invite the three possible "father candidates", about whom she read in her mother's diary. Finally, her mother marries the girl's father, and the girl decides not to marry, because she is still too young, and thinks that she needs to keep growing up before her marriage.



Afterwards, at 4:30 P.M. we visited the amazing Empire State Building. From the top, the 86th floor, we observed the entire city of New York. There were incredible views from the top, indeed. Later, we did some shopping again, especially in Apple Store, but did not buy anything however. Once in the hotel, we had dinner in the dining room, and then went to our bedrooms to put our clothes in our suitcases so that they were ready for the next day to leave NY and go to Texas by airplane.