Bar Zear-bide

Bar Zear-bide is one of hundreds of Basque bars in Bilbao. Like all the others, its menues are in Euskera first, Spanish second and the grafitti in its bathrooms are always in Euskera (and the occaisional English phrase). But unlike all the other Basque bars that closed early yesterday, Bar Zear-Bide stayed open late. Very late. 5 AM late. It adorned its walls last night (and last night only) with hundreds of removable American flag stickers. It hung a large American flag above the place. It rented a big screen. It put Cardinals and Steelers helmets on the beer tap's faucets. Jerseys were hung on the ceiling. All in the name of a little football.

I don't care about Arizona. And to be honest, I rather dislike the Steelers. But last night, for some reason, I decided to get very into the game. I decided to root for Arizona because I like underdogs and I remember their awwwfulll record only a few years back. I went in a large group split evenly between Arizona and Pittsburgh fans (though scant few of us cared before last night). The bar was packed with Americans (and people from other English speaking countries that showed up just for the chance to speak English). Nobody cared more about the game than Courtney, who is from Pittsburgh. Well, nobody except Taylor, who placed €70 that the Cardinals would beat the six point spread. Both Courtney and Taylor went home happy that night.

Nothing much else to say. Yesterday I ate dinner with the family of a friend. I had forgotten how good real food tastes after eating at our residencia. It was so nice for a change. mmm....

Oh yeah! The other day we found flies in our soups in the cafeteria. I went out for a ke-bab that night.