While on the field study we also went to another city in the Basque Country and it was Bilbao. I liked Bilbao because it was a city but not far from the mountains and the outdoorsy area. You can see here the city buildings and the mountains not far off.
Bilbao is also in the north of Spain, though not as close to France as San Sebastian. It was about a 4.5 hour bus ride from Madrid.
We took a tour of the Athletic Bilbao stadium and it was really cool. The people of Bilbao are really passionate about their futbol. 
Q and I in front of the field
The beautiful field that is so well kept.
Me sitting in the club house at the field.
My group in the locker room!
While in Bilbao we also went to the Guggenheim museum. There was some really interesting modern art in there. Out front of the Guggenheim there is a big dog that is covered with flowers and it is called puppy.
Here is a picture of Nasim, me, Kerry and Q in front of Puppy.
Here you can see Puppy from the back off to the left, he is really large.
The Guggenheim has a really beautiful design and architecture.
So whimsical.
There are certain parts of Bilbao that have very modern architecture. Here is a very interesting looking bridge.
Another thing we did was go to eat at a Txoko. Which is a gastronomical society, where men cook great big meals for a group and serve it family style. They are very exclusive, you must be invited and in the past women were not aloud in the Txoko. It recently changed, and while we were there the meal was made by some nice men as well as my program instructor from Madrid, Alvero.
While here we heard some traditional basque music and heard about some traditional basque instruments.
The two people on the left also did a traditional basque dance for us while the man on the right played the instruments for them. The dance was really interesting looking, it reminded me a little of irish dance.
Here he is demonstrating how to play this flute like instrument, you can see me in the back! (I stole this picture from a friend) :)
Another awesome thing we also did while in Bilbao was watch a Pelota game. It is a very traditional basque sport that is very high paced. It was interesting to watch because the ball went so fast.
Here is the court that it is played on. there is the front wall that you see and to the right there is another black wall that they play off of. Interestingly this game is also very popular in Florida and there are other pelota courts throughout the United States.
Here are the players that we watch, all have been playing for their who lives, the one in the middle in the blue was the world Pelota champion in 2009. Another fun thing about pelota games is the betting. during every game a bet is made for who will win and usually you win money, we did the betting but all we won were shirts. I bet on the red team but the blue team won :(
After we watched the game, the players taught us how to play. It was really fun but super hard. Her one of the players is trying to show me how to do it.. I never did do it right.
The game is played with all different things, baskets, rackets but it was originally played with your hands. While we were watching the demonstration there was a local news station that did a story on "the students from the United States coming to watch a game", apparently that is big news in Bilbao ;)
Here is the link to the story and a video of us playing! http://www.elcorreo.com/vizcaya/v/20111028/vizcaya/fronton-souvenir-20111028.html
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