I WOULD JUST LIKE TO COMMENT...

That it was supposed to snow yesterday and today. The school was expecting such horrible weather that they were discussing imminent school closure. Meanwhile, all of Europe is experiencing such a deadly "cold snap" that the weather is responsible for record lows and deaths from hypothermia in various countries, mostly in Eastern Europe.

AND THE FAMILY STILL HASN'T TURNED THE HEAT ON.

I awoke from my nap, fully clothed and freezing, under four blankets. It is viciously cold in the tundra today.

The weather in Fahrenheit. I assure you, it feels much colder when you look at the weather and it says "Feels like "-1."

At least (drum roll please!)....we are moving out on Sunday. Dana and I are taking the plunge and getting out while we still can retain our dignity, sanity, and 900 Euro a month rent. We are moving back to the hostel in Casco Viejo, where we will be each be saving 200 Euro. It will be a warmer environment in general, in terms of people and temperature.

We will be taking the Metro with another teacher who lives in that area, who leaves her car at a station and then drives to school.

The only downside is that we will no longer drive to school with the lovely family next door. We made cookies on Wednesday with the two girls. Naturally, converting an American recipe to Spanish measurements and using different ingredients turned out terribly wrong. The dough was soaked with butter for some reason, so we kept adding more flour, sugar, and vanilla. Eventually the cookies tasted ok, but they ended up turning rock solid the next day.

WE LOVE THEM!

They have just been so wonderful to us. They take us on trips with the family, have us over for dinner, talk about the education system. We're going to watch a movie at their house tomorrow night.

As for tonight, we have our last weekend in Bilbao, so we're probably going to go out. Tomorrow at 10:30 we head off to the gypsy market in Algorta with Dana's co-op, and on Sunday we visit the town of Plentzia.

WEEKEND YAY