Times are good here. It's a cloudy Sunday and I'm in the UC computer lab after typing up a paper. Good time for a s.o entry, since it's not really beach weather to me. The week of classes was boring as ever, but everything else continually gets better. Now that I spend less time with the Texas crowd, I get along with them better, I learn more, I have more fun, and everyone goes home happier. My new friends come from Western Michigan U, which I'd never even heard of before coming here. Great bunch of folks, they are. So at the very least, I've got my little social circle that's capable of speaking English.Yesterday was a road trip out to two towns, Bilbao and Castro. Castro came first, and it was a small fishing town on the border of the Basque country. Spent half the day there wandering around with the two UT professors, one other smart guy here from UT, and our UC guide, who's a 25-year-old student chick. We ended up walking along a gorgeous pier, seeing a 13th century Gothic church built by the Romans, as well as the ruins of some minor Roman aqueducts. And lunch was one of those local restaurants that's nothing special to the locals but completely blows the minds of tourists. For 7.50 each of us got a salad, a plate of chicken paella, dessert and a drink, and we just about died from satisfaction. They call that kind of thing a combination plate, and it's very common here, if you're ever headed to Europe. It's definitely the way to go if you want to eat really well without spending all your money on food. Afternoon was Bilbao, and I didn't do much there besides see the Guggenheim and the Fine Arts Museum. The Guggenheim was extremely impressive. I fell in love with the look and feel of the whole building, there's an educational area for those of us who haven't had art history, and the audiotour was really good. I learned that I like some Pop Art. The Fine Arts Museum, even though it was host to a lot of famous Spanish painters, didn't really interest me at all. Had I had the choice to do it over, I would have skipped it and did the exterior Guggenheim tour. Regardless, it was a truly fine day and the pictures are fantastic. Sometime this week I'll be burning my first of probably two photo CDs, at which point I'll send along a couple photos to my email buddies since I can't manage my online albums from here. So I'm counting my time here in Thursdays, the day which I arrived and will leave. I'm down to two more Thursdays, and on the third I leave to come home. Translation: I'm now under three weeks left here. I feel like it's the perfect amount of time to learn more of the language and finish school without getting sick of anything. Better yet, I'm looking forward to getting home, but I'm very happy that I have almost 3 weeks still here. And when I get home, I'll be happy to be home, but I'll be very glad I went. Things are working out nicely here. Pretty much all of the kinks have worked themselves out as far as minor details of survival, like food, sleep, travel, etc. From here on out I get to sit back and enjoy the ride. That ride is taking me to a few more Spanish cities, including Salamanca (where Soph is) and I'm currently looking into spending my last weekend hitting up Barcelona and Ibiza. So, in closing, as I say here to the Texas crowd whenever I leave: Adios, bitches!