Getxo, my new home

Beginning of September


First impression of Getxo... PARADISE. From my apartment it's a 5 minute walk to the beach. Young and old people are always on the street. Little kids run in and out of the bars, playing while their parents socialize. Elderly women meet up with their other elderly friends to have a glass of wine with a pinxto. This place is full of life and it is great.  


Gexto is the town I live in, Algorta is the neighborhood, and it is on the outskirts of the city of Bilbao, Spain. The following is from my friend Brendan Eggen also known as Eggz, he explained it better, so here I copy and paste his words:


"Bilbao is where the majority of people are bilingual. The native language of the Basque Country is Euskera, otherwise known as Basque. The Autonomous Community of País Vasco is made up of 3 parts, Álava, Gipuzkoa and Vizcaya where I live."

The famous museum of Bilbao, the Guggenheim

Bilbao is a complete different place in the winter, it is no longer warm and sunny. Instead it is cold, rainy and somedays very windy, but the ugly weather doesn't stop the people from going out and enjoying the day. 

Puerto Viejo (old part of Getxo)

The old fishermen port 

One of the beaches of Getxo

The 1st semester I lived with Jackie and Emily. Jackie is from Chicago, and is in Getxo for the second time. She had been here 5 years ago with the program USAC for a semester, and she loved it so much that she came back on her own for a year. Emily is from Iowa, the same age as me and came for the fall semester only. As for the 2nd semester, when Emily decided to abandon us and go back to the states, Caitlin moved in. She is from Nevada and the same age as me as well. This year I have been blessed with good roommates, we are all different but have a lot to share with one another and we get along really well. 

Jackie and I on Halloween

Emily and I in September

Our apartment is a little on the old side, but has a lot of personality and is spacious. We have 4 rooms but only use 3 because the other one is a pretty small. We have a moldy bathroom with a shower and a half bathroom on the other end of the apartment. We have a washing machine that is in the kitchen and a patio to hang our clothes to dry (dryers are considered a luxuries instead of a must). We have an awesome balcony that looks into our gated apartment complex. We have a living room and a dinning room where people are always in, either having dinner or haaving movie nights. Also, we have made a deal that we only speak Spanish while we are at home, since it is hard to keep up the Spanish when you are around too many USAC students at one time.

Outside my apartment complex

My room