Summary of year:
Christmas 2008 - Lapland with Renelle & Hamish was everything and more...... I met the husky in the picture below, stayed in the open fire heated cabin directly behind him, and had SO MUCH FUN! Some of the things we did in
the Korvala Inn: ice hole swimming (only 10 seconds though...) follow
ed by a Finnish sauna (95ºC), pancakes and champagne christmas morning breakfast, ice hole fishing (Hamish, but didn´t catch anything), forest cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, taboganning, meeting reindeer, getting driven in a sledge by a pack of huskies, driving my own pack of 5 huskies set against an orange sky (dusk at 2pm), and a moment where time stopped - seeing the aurora borealis, the Northern Lights on our last night.New Years 2008 - After Finland I went through Talinn (-amazing christmas market, Estonia), Warsaw (-haunting streets where The Pianist was filmed, Poland) and ended up in Kraków with Katarzyna from my language course, and partied hard in the main square at a Leona Lewis concert! After a few days here in beautiful Kraków I visited Berlin which I absolutely loved also, especially the 3 storied building in the middle of a weird suburb covered floor to ceiling in graffiti which didn´t appear on any tourist maps!
January 2009 - Moved to Oviedo in Asturias, the north of Spain, to move into a great modern apartment, and got another (and better) teaching job here too. This is the view from the apartment.
Easter - With a few friends from Madrd, I went rock climbing in Espiel near Córdoba (Southern Spain) and had an amazing time! 6th form OE really helped out hahaha.July - Back to Bilbao for 'summer camp'! Nice to live near the beach again!
August - Dad came to visit me!!!!! We went from Bilbao to San Sebastián, Oviedo, Gijón, Cudillero, Tapia, Santiago de Compostela, La Coruña ... flight to Barcelona - Dad was real impressed by the Sagrada Familia! Then a flight to Seville - so hot 44ºC walking around, Cádiz which I hadn´t been to before and was so beautiful, had problems with car rental (er, I´d booked it for July accidently...) so bussed it to Tarifa where we stayed in a luxury type tent in a farm type place many kilometers from civilisation.... was it a surprise that Fawlty Fincas lived up to its name? From the southern tip of Spain we made our way to Gibraltar, another highlight of the trip, especially seeing as this time I made it up the rock! Saw the Barbary Macaques monkeys native to Gibraltar, saw St Michaels caves, and the 1780's Great Siege Tunnels. And stocked up on Crunchie bars!!! Even had a pie which was delicious. Then northward to Ronda, Córdoba, the amazing Alhambra at Granada of course, then stayed in a 1000 year old castle in Toledo and finally up to Madrid and then Dad was off!!! It was such an awesome trip and great to see family!!
Photoset Part 1 - The Basque Country and Asturias
Photoset Pert 2 - Galicia and Barcelona
Then took a 4 day trip to Oporto in Portugal with some friends from Oviedo, saw a few other friends, went port wine tasting of course, went to the beach but too cold to swim, and loved the 100 men exhibition in the middle of the city. The city itself was a little decrepit and run down..... not like Spanish cities at all. But nice all the same, just a different atmosphere.To finish a jam packed August, I met up with Renelle and Hamish in Valencia and went to the Tomatina!!! Oh wow again! And it was all the more fun because I had specific people to target this time with tomatoes hehehehehe. Stayed in a beautiful apartment overlooking the City
of Arts and Sciences, then off to Seville (hot again!), 
Córdoba, and Granada (staying in the same hostel with a roof top pool aahhhhhh), then Toledo (hostel picture on the left) and as a new city for me to visit, Salamanca (where we didn´t see salamanders though). Spotted the frog on the University façade, wandered around and was amazed at all the historical stuff around, and then off to Oviedo! A few slower days, nice to relax, and on the beach in Gijón. We were going to walk up to the lakes in the Picos de Europa (a mountain range in the north), but the weather packed in a bit but we still were enthralled by the Covadonga church, the grotto where King Pelayo is said to have seen the Virgin Mary and from this place and started the revolution which finally threw out the Moors several hundred years later, oh, and cider of course (photo on right for correct pouring style)! But all good things must come to and end, and those two headed off to Bilbao and San Sebastián, and in the remaining 3 weeks of September I did...September - Nothing.
October - Back at work in the same academy, doing a business course as well, lets see if that´ll help me get a different job next year. Started going to rugby training, though I´m not sure if there´ll be enough girls for a (7's) team even. But going to training is fun enough!
November - Just started, and we bought a Wii! Um so maybe more distractions/reasons/excuses for me not to blog??? Hope not.
And the last photo here is one taken today, a tradgedy, no more peanut butter.
