¿Que tal?

After one month here in Madrid, I finished the course at BLC and am certified with my CELTA. I had a great time, learned a lot, and enjoyed being with the others. There is one slight problem, I had no idea that Madrid and schools plunge into oblivion during August-everyone goes on vacation and jobs are scarce. If I can't find any teaching position this month, September is a guarantee whether in Madrid or any other city-the majority of school's begin hiring in sep and continually throughout the school year. However, I have already notified about 40 different school's that are listed on a teaching website that I can start immediately, I'm searching for any part time work, and Simon from the course lives in Madrid is in the same boat and we'll go next week dropping off applications. I also need to go into the embassy to get the paperwork sorted out, once they begin processing the papers, the schools are allowed to hire me-as a few schools already replied to say.
Simon, who's from England but has been in Spain for a few years with a Spanish fiancee, is really nice and we have a lot in common. He's polishing his spanish and also wants to join me to go to some intercambios where people meet up to exchange languages (mostly spanish and english). A few of the students during the course also would like to show me some of the other sites I haven't been to in Madrid and go to the intercambios also.
So, the day after the course, I went on a trip with Elisa and Drew to the northern coast of Spain which is called the Basque region. In landscape, it is very different from all other parts of Spain because of its coastal mountains, Cantibracas, green countryside, and rather cool weather. Where most vacationers go to the Mediterranean sites, Elisa likes going up north where its not as busy. Elisa's from Ireland originally and has lived in Spain most of her life. Her family's still in Ireland and she even invited Drew and I to come visit this month, but afraid the expenses would be a problem. So we got to practice are spanish a bit with her and she showed us around the area.
We stayed in a small pueblo called Pebeño which we walked to the beach area in Muskiz. The next biggest city is Bilbao which we went into one day and toured around and went to the Guggenheim museum which is for modern art including some of the artists I saw at the Reina Sofia. Bilbao is located between the other big cities of Santander and Cantabria to the west, and San Sebastián to the east right next to the border of France. The northern coastal region stretches to the west coast with the city of Santiago. The Camino de Santiago goes along this whole stretch which is believed to be the path of St. James as he preached in Spain, and there is a huge cathedral in Santiago dedicated to this patron saint of Spain-people have made pilgramages on this camino for centuries. So, Bilbao is in the heart of the Basque culture. Basque is a culture distinct from that of Madrid and other regions(Catalan, Castillian, Galician) where throughout history it has tried to be independent from the rest of Spain. It still continues to do so and keep its own politics, language, and other things. The Basque language is radically different where pure spanish (Castillian) speakers can't even understand, yet they speak spanish also. So it was hard enough for me to try to read the travel brochures they had in spanish where its also split in Basque. They still bear their own Basque flag and other symbols which we got glimpses of like during the traditional wedding we came across. It's all very fascinating and we got much commentary from Elisa who knows a lot of Spanish history.
When we arrived at the beach in Muskiz, it was actually a holiday and many people packed the beach with live music and such. Went swimming a little in the nice and rather warm water. The town's were famous for industry and mining areas. You would walk past little ruins and sites along the trails. Upon one of the hills, which was closed to visit, was actually a major site of a battle from either the spanish civil war (right before WWII) or from WWII, and it was a major Basque weapons facility. One day we walked along the coast a ways to another little town tucked in and had lunch. It was very beautiful, sunny, with a nice breeze along the walking path. I took the bus back to Madrid after a few days.
I'll keep ya up to date when more news comes my way. Thank you all for your prayers. I've downloaded Skype from Skype.com to phone people for free if any of you want to do that it's really simple. Otherwise emails have been great.
Love you,
Kyle