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: