winding down...

just over a month before I leave and the phase I'm in right now is definitely more on the "excited/get me over there already" end of the spectrum. The plan, as far as I have it, is as follows:

September 15th, butt-thirty AM. arrive - possibly not so jetlagged thanks to the Ambien my fantastic doctor gave me for just this sort of occasion - in Madrid. Meet up with Tory at airport, go to her apartment, drop stuff. Possibly take nap of up to two hours. Take it easy, get shown around the city a little by Tory and any of her assortment of madrileño friends. Eat delicious Spanish food. repeat until after dinner. Crash.

September 16th. Meet up with Tory's other friend/guest, Erin. Repeat activities of day before. Do whatever it is you're supposed to do in Madrid. Any suggestions as to what I should do in Madrid BESIDES Buen Retiro and the Reina Sofia (I did these two things on my very short trip there two years ago)?

Sept 17th or 18th. Take bus to Bilbao. Hopefully the fancy bus with plush seats and attendant service!

Sometime between October and December: Visit stepsister in Sevilla.

Some other times: go to France, Croatia: Decide where else I want to go.

So as you can see I don't have a lot nailed down. Where am I living in Bilbao? won't know til I get there and have checked out apartments. Where am I staying in Bilbao until I find a place to live? need to pull that together (best-case scenario involves couch surfing).

other things I need to get together...
*sell my car
*get together teaching materials... i.e. menus, maps and interesting Raleigh stuff. What is "interesting Raleigh stuff"??

Oh, and. AND!! I heard from the guy who was an auxiliar in my school, IES Laudio BHI, last year. What has 400 legs, is between the ages of 12(ish) and 17(ish) and is getting up on trilingual? MY STUDENTS. That's right, I GET MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOLERS. TOMA. oh, what's that, you wish YOU got to teach 200 Basque teenagers? So did I. But now I am. oh yes.

Wow, this is getting long. Time to round it out with some questionable thoughts from the "eating out" section of Wikitravel's Basque phrasebook:

Sukaldea ikusi dezaket? "Can I look in the kitchen?" (unless you're a health inspector, I can't see how you're within your rights or sanity for asking this...)