moving on.

the sheer amount of uneventful rainy days correlates to my lack of posts. today was the first time i saw the sun in eight days. on the first day of fall, it felt more like summer than it had in two weeks. the weekend was mostly spent indoors. watching movies. eating lots of food. mostly pizza. monday morning i booked my flight to paris! i leave one week from today! this week with family X hasn't been too bad. of course there are the usual spiteful refusals to do homework and whatnot. nothing compares to the drama of last week though. yesterday, the mom was actually home. after M threw a temper tantrum, she let me leave at 6. what a relief! today, M did her homework relatively quickly. she was rewarded by a trip to the local sports club. we swam for about 45 minutes. it was actually a good time. she does in fact have some redeeming qualities. (wow, i sound like a terrible person.) i even swam a few laps. boy, i am out of shape. it was nice to get some real physical activity though. albeit slightly half-assed.

yesterday, was the first time it wasn't raining during the time i wake up and four o'clock when i have to go to family X's. i wandered around casco viejo (the old part of town) for awhile. i revisited the chocolate shop. i also found this park on top of a hill. it had great panoramic views of the city. check out the pictures below. actually, they aren't that great. it was gray and hazy. but it's the thought that counts.

what a climb. for real.

the river below.

a typical bilbao day.

today i basked in the basque sun. i took the funicular up to the top of the mountain directly across from the guggenheim. at the top there is a suburb of bilbao. well technically, it might be part of the city. people actually use the funicular as a form of transportation, it's not all fun and games. there was a small park at the top. the view was pretty awesome. my favorite thing was this sculpture on the edge of the park. it looked like a giant curved fingerprint. the sun and the shadows it cast were beautiful. i took a ridiculous amount of pictures. that could also be attributed to the fact that i was actually doing something. and there was sun!

the gug below.

lots of shadows.

the sculpture

to scale.

fun building i passed on the way up.

on another note, my days in bilbao are dwindling. monday i am setting off to barcelona. wednesday i am paris-bound. the uk will be happening somewhere in there. who knows. i booked my ticket home to the states today. i have exactly six more weeks to get my europe on. i also won't be flying home but to dc. a little states mini-adventure before it's time to buckle back down in the real world. the unknown. but a more comfortable unknown.