But I DID find what I was looking for!

When I was in Spain, I heard several times the song "I still haven't found what I'm looking for" by the band U2...only it was in Spanish.

I looked online a hundred times for this version of Bono singing Spanish to no avail.

Then I searched today, and found the exact translation of the title (TODAVIA NO ENCONTRE LO QUE ESTOY BUSCANDO) and alas! I found it on Youtube.

I first heard it on the busride to Barcelona, and I was humming along until I realized the lyrics were in Spanish. I really wanted that version.

Well, I thought it was U2 performing it on the bus radio, but it was actually a band called "Airbag" that covered it. But, it was a noisy bus and the instrumental aspect of the song sounded the same, so SUE me if I thought the following was performed by U2.





Ahh. I am SO glad I FINALLY FOUND THISSSS!

Okay, who left the brown shoes?

In the USAC program, once you sign up for travelling abroad, it also entitles you to the two trips arranged by USAC in the semester, for no extra charge. The first trip was a day trip (left in the morning, returned late afternoon) to some place nearby with a Basque farmhouse. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend since USAC arranged it on a certain day, then told us they needed to change the day and during this confusion my friends and I booked our Barcelona trip. Of course, right afterwards, we find that the trip was scheduled on the same weekend.

But this time, the trip was overnight, and it was to Burgos and Atapuerca, which is southwest of San Sebastian in Castilla y Leon.


I don't have much time to go into detail now (I know, I know, I also haven't updated on my Spring Break either...but I will get to it eventually), but we did get this email today from the USAC office.

But before I show you the email, let me tell you a couple things as background info. We had to each pay a 20 euro deposit before the trip in case of hotel damages. We also made this trip with students in the Bilbao USAC program, some of which I already knew from the Madrid tour before the semester began.
When we got on the bus to head home on Saturday, Patricia said, "Guys, I have to say, the hotel was extremely upset this morning, telling us that there were many noise complaints and some damage to the rooms. However, we believe this is the Bilbao students' who did the damage, and therefore we will look into it further to get the specifics and pinpoint which rooms are to blame. Therefore, you will not be able to get your deposits back until we sort this out. But I will send you an email this week once we know more."


We got the email, and it is as follows:
______________________
Enviado el: lunes, 27 de abril de 2009 14:08
Para: us
Asunto: excursion deposit/brown shoes

Dear Students,
I am very happy to tell you that we will be able to return the deposit to all the students on the San Sebastian program. We have just heard from the hotel and have been able to determine exactly where the problems originated. Thank you very much for all of your cooperation. We certainly wanted everyone to have fun and were convinced that this is entirely possible without disturbing the other guests at the hotel. I am satisfied and grateful for the way things turned out, at least as far as our group is concerned.
Muchas gracias a todos. Espero que lo hayáis pasado muy bien. Podéis pasar por la oficina con el recibo para recoger el depósito.

Saludos, Patricia

P.D.
Alguien ha dejado un par de zapatos(¿zapatillas?)marrones en el autobus. Los tenemos en la oficina.
_______________

The first Spanish part says "Thanks to everyone. I hope you had a good time. You can stop by the office with the reciept to get your deposit back."

And that little PS part says "Someone left a pair of brown shoes/sandals on the bus. We have them in the office."



So in conclusion of the trip, we partied, but not hard enough to have to pay, and someone lost a pair of shoes.

I don't get you, Spain.

A brief commentary...


Two things that are currently on my mind...

1. "batido" here is the word for milkshake. Yet batido does not always signify something with ice cream. Or milk. Or any dairy, for that matter. I think it basically is anything that's blended in a blender. Therefore, smoothies are also batidos. I find this greatly disappointing.

2. In Spain, Tuesday the 13th is the big scary day. Not friday the 13th. Tuesday. Tell me, Spain, what is so scary about a run-of-the-mill mid-week day? Lame.


That is all, for now.

More on my vacation later.

Quick!

Tomorrow I am getting on a bus to Bilbao where I am getting on a bus to Portugal!

I am going with Cassi, Alex Ireland, Mary-Kate, Natalie and May to Porto, Lisboa and Lagos in Portugal, then Sevilla and Granada in southern Spain.

I have 2 weeks of spring break here, so I will be gone for basically the whole 17 days.

I will update you all on more details when I get back!