Santurtzi / Santurce

Finally, after trekking through a mountain of savagely inefficient bureaucracy, I just got my placement in Spain for next year. My top three choices had been Cataluña, Valencia, and the Basque Country, in that order, but because the former two comunidades are going belly-up (or patas arriba, "paws up") I'm going to be up north living with the vascos for the next year.

Specifically, I've been placed in a town called Santurtzi/Santurce, which are its respective names in both the native Basque language and the dominant Castillian Spanish. I think I explained earlier in a blog post about all the crazy languages that Spain has within its borders. Of these twisted tongues, Basque is surely the most distinct and difficult to learn.

But enough about linguistics.

Santurtzi is part of the Bilbao metropolitan area. Bilbao might ring a bell for some of y'all because it's the home of the famous Guggenheim Bilbao Museum. I went there once, and here is some evidence.

¡Qué susto, macho!

I know what you're thinking: that's one big spider. And you're right. It is.

It's art.

Anyways, Santurtzi is about 9 miles northwest of Bilbao, at the mouth of the river that flows into the Bay of Biscay. I think. Go look at a map. 

A is Santurtzi. B, appropriately, is Bilbao. The A for Santurtzi is not as appropriate, although "A" is the second letter of its name.

So as you can imagine I'm really excited to start wading through another bog of meaningless and drone-like paperwork so I can obtain my visa for the next year. I'm also tickled pink about cleaning my apartment and not getting any of my security deposit back!

A general representation of my sentiments.

But seriously, I couldn't be happier about my placement next year. 

Sometimes, I worry too much about logistics instead of enjoying the moment. I think I might be the only person in the world that does that. Right?