Feliz Navidad in France: The homes

We arrived at Patrick´s brother Luic´s home in La Baule around 2 pm on Christmas Eve. Luic picked us up in a Hummer H2. It´s about the hugest car I´ve ever ridden in. Max got to drive it home and I got to sit in the front. He tried to make it peel out for me, but a car that size just can´t. Luckily, the round abouts in France are mostly made of cement, otherwise the car would have driven over various plants and animals as we went around (over) them.

Luic´s home is gorgeous! Everything in it was art. Every room had a theme, every color complimented each stained piece of oak floor. You walk in through the kitchen, which was relatively plain. It had white tiles, basic granite countertops. One wall was painted with old European looking apartments. The hall you enter from here runs down the length of the house. It was painted a goldish-yellow and had 4 foot jewel encrusted lizards placed along either side, made to look like they were crawling at you. On the other side of the hallway is the dining room. It had lush green carpet and a long dining table that must have seated 30. One wall had a buffet on it the other was all windows, looking out onto the yard that was obviously being worked on. To the right of the dining room is sort of a nicer living area, all these spaces are quite open and one whole side of the house is basically windows. In the living area, there´s a set of pastel apolstered chairs with a coffee table. Behind it sits a round table with a large, round, domed skylight directly above. There´s a sort of glass partition that separates this table area from the hall. After the table area, there are a few more comfy chairs and then you hit the game room. All dark and manly looking, a foosball table sits on a dark wood floor, sort of a left turn from the hallway and there´s a sitting area and pool table in front of that. To the left of the game area was the door to the INDOOR pool, complete with it´s own bathroom, sauna, etc. To the right of the game room and at the end of the hallway is a sunken living room for movies and family time with a big wrap around couch and an open fire pit, inside, yes. There´s also a bar tucked back in the corner. So, that´s the downstairs...

You get upstairs through two different taircases in the main hallway. The first is just before the bar in the hallway, a large dark wood staircase, walls painted in bright colors, lots of shapes all over. Sort of a collage wall. The second staircase is almost at the beginning of the hall, which is where I walked up mostly, so I´ll start the description from there. At teh top of the stairs, if you turned left there would be 3 doors. The floor was a dark hardwood also, with bright yellow, green and red mosaic tiles inlaid as a sort of border. My room was on teh left side at the end of the hall. It had a sun theme. There was a little sitting area a huge bed, my own wading pool sixed bathtub... it was awesome and perfect for the day I spent in it alone waiting for my ride home : ) On the right side of the hall was Gail´s (Luic´s son´s) room and a bathroom. I never went into Gail´s room, but it seemed to go quite far back into the house. To the right side of the hall were 2 more bedrooms: Luic and Marie Claire´s and one that seemed to be sort of red themed, where Max stayed. If you continued up the stairs there was one more bedroom that belonged to a daughter who´s moved out. It was all sort of Indian themed with tan walls and dark purple, orange and green stensiling.

On the other side of the hallway upstairs was the main bathroom to the right and a wall of windows opposite. Just before the staircase on the right side (the big staircase) was a room sort of tucked off to the side. It hade a door with a rounded frame at the top and looked quite mythical, similar to something from the movie Nanny McPhee. There was one larger bed and bunch little ones, no doubt a spot for a family to bunk. On teh otehr side of the staircase there was another room on the end of the house with more crazy bright colors and lots of beds. Further along that was was the library, which was just a plain room with books. In the far left corner of the hallway upstairs was a sliding glass door that lead into an upperdeck of the pool where a bunch of workout equipment was situated.

So, that was where I stayed.

On Christmas day we had lunch with Papi (Patrick´s father) at his girlfriends home. It was gogeous too, in a different way. Right on a cliff overlooking the beach. It reminded me of a much more homey version of Anne Bancrofts home in Great Expectations. The backyard was large and green with a stone patio in the corner to sit and watch the waves. A spiral staircase ran up throught the house to 2 more levels. The hallways were tiny and just let you right into each room. So Triplets of Belleville, I guess too. There were large paintings on every wall and little statues on every table. Just enchanting.

Those were the homes we visited. Sorry if it´s a bit boring, but I want to remember them. I didn´t take any pics because that´s a bit of a privacy invasion I think. But, my next blog should be more exciting when I talk about food and handling your alcohol. Kisses!

For my GF Bruins

It´s 5:15 a.m. in Tajonar, Pamplona, España, Europe, World, Universe. I can´t sleep. You know how sometimes your mind just won´t turn off... yeah. I was perusing myspace and discovered Fitch had put together a little slide show. It really made me miss my friends from home. Let me share a few of the pics that pinged my heart strings...

In the first one we´ve got Team Tina with Lizzo behind the camara. God I love those gals! It was the best weekend of forfeits ever. I still haven´t heard back from that damn tourney director. "Tina comin´through" homeslices. I have never seen another ponytail bounce quite like Shai´s. I was telling Em here about the "softball card" today and how I used to give shimmy the shout out "Shaiiii" and she´d holla back, "heeeeyyyyy." And there´s the ever sweating Fitch-meister past yours truly and my mean mug. Remember our accordian parties at the old A.P.T.? And "Thunder clap, thunder thigh"? We are so weird. How about when you mysteriously showed up and started playing basketball freshman year. I don´t even remember how we became friends, I think it just was. And who could forget Liz´s choice phrases, "my fave-reet color iz nee-on yella," or that kick ass Ali impersonation. Or possibly when she decided to do an interpretive dance for devotion and practically gave Christine a lap dance? Priceless, I´m laughing out loud.

The next pic just makes me think of friends in general. Liz has a weird left eye, possibly a sprained face from an open mouth smile. Kimbo is attempting the open mouth smile, but a little late, so looks more like a turtle mouth. Tiniest mouth ever! Shai, as always, just happy to be in the picture and being all beautiful and photogenic.

Now the last one is the toughest to look at. I believe this was my junior year of hoops. I think that was the "bangs" era anyway. I think we´re at the original Fitcherosa, before the big move into town. S and T Fitch always knew how to treat us when we came through town. I think I´ve had a heart to heart with Scott Fitch everytime I´m in Ritzville. Of course, who knows if he´s actually heard me or if he´s just nodding to move things along ; ) I´m rockin´the Ritzville sweats from my first visit here in Spain. Who´d a thunk it, the Broncos runnin´ with the bulls?

Was our team really that small or was someone missing from this picture? Either way it makes me want to be there, right there, right now. All of us together, just hanging out, maybe a hug here or there. I can actually feel being in a picture with you girls. We had one almost every pre-game meal: shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip. I could just tuck you all in for a signature Darby bosom hug right now. Sigh, croon.

Sorry this is a bit sentimental and a little focused to certain people, but it´s my blog dern it.

Otras... I´m back in Spain for New Years, woot woot. I´ll get a Christmas blog up tomorrow hopefully, but right now my hands are too cold. No pictures really for the next blog, but lots of food to describe for good G-ma Mary and tales of my attempts not to get drunk but still try everything. Rough duty...

Have fun during the holiday basketball season and go to the LSI for me and ask whoever´s blogging why I´m not there, he he he. Lemme know how all the teams are and which fancy name coaches come. Fill me in on the L.O. tourney also and how the girls are shaping up this year for H.S. Did someone take Kevin Love´s knee out yet? Oh yeah, it´s the Singler/Love Sr. year, keep me posted on that. Any personal updates on GFU ball are most fabulous of course. Peace in the middle east!

Ireland: Day 3

I was pretty tuckered out by Monday morning in Ireland. It´s funny though, when you have no one to complain to, you just don´t do it. I suppose I must have called Em or texted Iñaki a few times or emailed home saying how cold it was, but for the most part, my mood was good.

I wanted to go to the Guinness Brewery and Kilmainham Jail for day 3 and possibly hit up a concert Liz recommended. The two sites are in the same area of Dublin, so I started walking... and I walked... and I walked... and couldn´t seem to get where I wanted to go. I kept pulling out my map and checking streets and I seemed to be on the right path. Finally, after passing through a neighborhood and an industrial district, I hit the Guinness Brewery headquarters. Then and there, I decided I don´t give a crap about how beer is made and just took a picture of the outside. Oddly enough, I asked Whitney a beer brewing question once I got to Norway and you know what she said... "you should have gone on the Guinness Tour." Anyhow, here´s a picture...

A short tale... The tour guide at the castle told us that Guinness´s symbol, the harp, is also the sort of mascot of Ireland. When Guinness wanted to use it as well, the government said no thanks. So, Guinness got all clever and mearly turned the harp to face in the opposite direction of the government symbol and there you have it.

Directly across the street from the headquarters, on the window sill of a ramshackle old home, I found this photo opp, which I find funny on so many levels and I hope you do too...

So, I trudged along looking for Kilmainham Jail, and found it about 20 minutes later way on the edge of town. It´s most famous for having many political prisoners and executing them during the time of the Irish uprising from England. One of the most famous is Charles Parnell, who was said to be "the un-crowned king of Ireland", for his popular political opinions. Also, another interesting fact: during the "potato famine", this jail was incredibly crowded. And, not because the level of crime went up, because people were hungry. Jail was the only place you could get 3 meals a day. Small crimes would be commited and people would go to jail on purpose. Not that it was a picnic, but better than the outside world. A picture from the front...

Here is what a corridor of cells looks like...

Here´s one of the main halls that has been used in various films throughout the years. The large window at the top is due to the fact that at the time it was built, psychologists felt sunlight helped to cure prisoners of their mental illness of crime. It made for a pretty picture anyway...

And now, a love story... Joseph Plunkett was a famous political prisoner who was executed in Kilmainham. Before he was arrested, he was engaged to be married to Grace Gifford. On the day of his execution, the prison allowed her to come to the jail´s chapel, Plunkett was waiting at the alter and they got married, had a few minutes alone and then he was taken to be executed. Tear, sniff, honk! Years later, good ól Grace did some political uprising of her own and found herself landed in a cell as well. She was quite an artist and painted this on her cell wall during her imprisonment...

I finished up there around 1 or so and headed back into town, by bus, and wound up at Yamamouri, an excellent Japanese restaurant. I got the best ramen of all time and some green tea ice cream, yay!

Another movie was in order and I saw "Breaking and Entering" with Jude Law, Robin Wright Penn and Julliete B... the lady from Chocolate. It was ok, sort of a downer. Not recommended necessarily.

I was off from my hostel at 4:30 the next morning and on my way to see little Whitty, in her little town, wearing her very little jeans. ; )

The Harlem ARC Choir

Last night Kim took me to see the Harlem ARC Choir at the Baluarte, like Keller at home, but a bit smaller. I didn´t quite know what to expect because she wasn´t sure if she had tickets to the ballet or a concert or what. We just went...

It was awesome! I couldn´t find site about the group online, but it was just as you might picture it. About 10 people from Harlem and their choir director just standing on stage singing their hearts out. They wore maroon and gold colored robes, many of which were a little too small for the ladies. They´d start singing and every once in a while, someone from the group would walk out and take the mic for a solo. It was all in english too!

Well, all except for a few feeble attempts. I think my favorite part of the night was when an older gentleman took the song home and when it finished he yelled, gracias into the mic with his lovely accent, making it sound like Graw-see-us. And then, another member of the group was singing her praises and sort of improvising and sang, "I don´t care if you call him Hay-soos, I call him Gee-zus, amen, amen, amen."

Dad, I almost ran up on stage and shouted, "I woan be a preacher!" just for you!

There was also a Jaleel White look alike who was quite good. More of a Stephan than a Steve Urkell though. He got done singing once, passed the mic and did a little jig with his fast little feet. It sort of got me feeling Christmassy.

Alas, today I sent a package and some letters home and listened to the Cinnamon Bear and now I´m a bit down. I came to the university to get some work done and forgot my password, so now I´m blogging. I better go get that password.

Ireland: Day 2

This entry will be mostly photos because I have tons and want you all to see them. I´m still working on getting the videos to show up directly in my blog, and have another one to link to for ya. Anyhow, let´s commence...

My second day in the land of green clovers, purple hearts and blue diamonds began with some instant coffee and piece of bread at the hostel. I quickly decided that breakfast there was not safe. I headed out at about 10 am Sunday morning and walked everywhere.

My first stop was Trinity College to check out The Book of Kells. No pictures allowed of the book, but here is a shot of my favorite building on campus...

Here is a shot of the school crest and I don´t know what it means, but maybe you can find it here.

Next stop was Grafton Street for a bit of shopping. It was all decked out for Christmas and had some music going on as well. Here´s a link to my video of some of the music I heard while walking down the street.

At the end of that street lies a large park called St. Stephen´s Green. Here is a shot from outside...

And one from inside...

At this point it started to rain... a lot. So, I headed back to my hostel to take cover and on my way, it stopped. I got a couple pictures on O´Connel Street, right by my hostel, at that point. Here´s the fancy looking post office...

This shot is a huge pilar that stands in the middle of teh street on a median. There wasn´t much of a plaque, but it seemed to be donated by someone and people were touching it as they passed, so maybe it´s good luck? Anyhow, I like the picture...

Did you know they have Quiznos in Ireland? Well, they do. And, since I thought it might not be anotehr 8 months until I´d get a Turkey Ranch and Swiss on wheat, I was lame and got one instead of testing out Irish food.

After lunch came more sites, like Dublin castle...

I took the tour, which was cheap and OK. The building is still used for government functions and is pretty modern on the inside. The original was midevil, but burnt down, so this new one is largely Georgian in style. There are still some remains of the old castle, but just foundation and they look like a pile of rocks to me.

I took a pic from outside the Christ Church Cathedral because Rick Steves said the inside wasn´t worth it...

And here´s a picture of St. Patrick´s Cathedral, which I wanted to go in, but it was closed...

Finally, I was cold, wet and hungry, so I grabbed a snack and headed back to the movie theatre. I saw "The Departed", which was awesome. But, I thought Jack Nicholson was bad, which is rare for me. The young ones, especially Leo carried it (I have a new found love for him now) and Mark Walburg and Alec Baldwin should be nominated for their supporting roles, so funny!

On a side note, today was such a fun day! Iñaki and I drove all over NE Navarra and I got tons of great pictures. Then I met up with Kim and we went to the Harlem ARC choir, performing at the Baluarte in town. It was awesome. I´ll have to do more of a literary entry on that tomorrow.

I hope all is well at home. I miss you!

Whit´s got skills

So, I couldn´t quite figure out how to embed a video in my blog, but they are uploaded to Youtube and you can view them at their respective URLs.

I wanted to give everyone a first hand account of how Whitney is doing in Norway on her team. This first video is of her excellent offenssive kills and then a play of the team on D. Gotta love the right handed jump hook big sissy handed down, eh?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAlfAl-KvuY

This second video really shows how Whitney has improved this year and how much this experience is helping her grow as a player...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVVx8ASuTmg

A chip off the old wobbly block! I´ll post more on Ireland now soon : )

Hostel take over

As you already read, I had quite an introduction to Dublin with Angus and the fanny slappers. Now, I want to give you the full picture as far as my hostel goes. So, to begin this long journey that is blogging... my journey, here is a picture from the street outside Brown´s Hostel...That´s me in the corner, or my shadow rather, taking the picture. Next up is the inside of my hostel. Oddly enough, though my dorm was called "Carrick", I think it was secretly the "Scarface Room." I slept with a huge poster of Al Pacino next to my head and there was another poster of the film on the right as you walk into the room. It´s very welcoming when you think about it. Tony Montana was a very giving man... sharing his cocaine, protecting his sister from men because he secretly loved her, smacking Michelle around a little, oh and only kicking your ass if you really owed him money. Afterall, his most memorable line is, "say hello to my little friend." Hello Tony, hello. Pics...

This bottom one is the view from my bed, number 819 (top bunk, yessss!) towards the front door.

My bed was just fine. And, other than the putrid smell in the lobby, and the water being shut off for 3 days, and my scary Russian roommates who would wake up crying and shrieking odd things in Russian, it was a dandy stay!

All right, I´ll address these things. The putrid smell reminded me of (disgusting description coming...) what a casserole of roquefort cheese, sweatsocks and puke might make a home smell like after baking for 2 hours and then being left on the table for an hour. I literally had to hold my breath in certain areas of the hostel so I wouldn´t dry heave. That was mostly downstairs though. My dorm smelled fine, until the water was shut off. This left us no option but to "do our business", myself and 15 other girls that is, and leave it until the toilet was able to flush again. I think I brushed my teeth like 4 times in 3 days. I didn´t take a shower until I got to Whit, so from Saturday morning to Tuesday night. I could literally take my ponytail out and it would stay in the shape of a ponytail, sans hair tie. It was gross. And then there were the odd roommates. They would speak in Russian sometimes and english others, but one of them woke up screaming and crying in the middle of the night, yelling in Russian. It was a bit scary the first night, but I got used to it.

I was a little nervous to be out too late at night on my own, so no bar scene for this gal. But, in hind sight, I don´t think anyone would have bothered me, but rather, may have thought I was homeless or about to mug them. Here´s what I wore almost the whole time in Dublin... I know, red snowflake gloves just scream badass!

I was going for an "Ashlee Simpson, I don´t care how I look, I´m fabulous because I´m me" kind of look. I think I pulled it off.

My first night was fairly uneventful, but nice. I started out at about 5, walking all over my area, getting a tourist map and checking things out. I was located about 5 blocks off the main drag, O´Connel Street, and within a 15 minute walk of all the good shopping and some cool sites. I got to go to an english movie! I ended up going every night, but the first one I saw was Stranger than Fiction. I really liked it. A nice branch out for Will Ferrel and I always love Maggie Gyllenhal.

Here´s a nice pic from the O´Connel bridge looking down the River Liffey on my first night...

DublinDoesn´t it just make you want to hug a leprechaun and drink some Guinness? I love this picture! I really lucked out because I didn´t use the flash and all the right things are in focus I think.

Anyhoo, that was my first night. I´ll post day 2 later, but I need to get some Christmas shopping done and unplug the drain in my bathroom. The sink is so clogged that the standing water doesn´t even drain after I wait a while. Lets hope I got mom´s genes as far as being handy goes. Dad can certainly run a 10k, but making things work is not his strong suit. Love you!

Back and in effect

Hola folks! I´m home in Spain, yay! I have soooooooo many blogs to write. So, be patient with me, they will come. Meantime, maybe Whits is going to blog a few... her link is in my new links section to the right. Love to all!

A quick note from Norge

Hi friends and fams! Whit's at practice right now, so I thought I'd drop everyone a line from Norway. The weather is pretty crummy, but Whit and I have had a few events each day, so we're not doing too bad. Mostly, it's just nice to be with my sister for a little while so close to Christmas.

Yesterday we had a hilarious experience, or at least we thought it was... we strolled down to the fish market to sample some of the excellent Norwegian salmon we've been hearing about. We get down there and step up to the counter, finding a man who speaks english. We chose a chunk of smoked salmon and he wrapped it up for us. When he returned, he asked us, in his nice Norwegian accent, "Where you from?" Whit answered, "The states." The man nodded and asked us, "I have some salmon I smoke for myself and you can have a taste." He went behind an island in the center of the fish pavillion and pulled out his special smoked salmon and sliced off a couple of tastes for us. Then we tried to say bye and thanks, but he just went on his merry way and forgot about us.

It was so funny. Why did he even ask us where we were from if all he wanted to do was give us a taste of his salmon? Maybe you had to be there, but it was all quite odd. So, we got our chunk of salmon and a taste of his and were on our way back into the cold, laughing our asses off.

Tomorrow we're going to Oslo with the team. I'm so excited to see Whit play! I'm going to try to take some video with my camera and post it, but who knows how that will go. She'll probably get to stay in Oslo with me until Monday too, the rest of the team leaves Sunday. So, that'll be nice, maybe we'll get to do something cool there, or get more tastes of old fishermen's salmon. Ha ha ha!

I've got lots of pics and stories from Dublin and some from here that I'll post and blog about when I get home to Spain.

I hope everyone's holiday seasons are going well. I'm starting to miss home a bit, since it's this time of year and all. So, know you're missed and thought of daily. Love to ya!

Darby Cave and the Fanny Slappers

I realize I'm supposed to be on vacation right now and having a blast and soaking up Irish culture, but I have a story that I just can't let pass me by. Since I packed almost nothing, a pen and paper are not at hand and I have to blog this. It could rival my "luggage store" story, but since this is a first draft, it may be a bit weak. With time, I may embellish it enough to send to my girl Tina Fey.

I arrived at Brown's Hostel this afternoon around 3:15, Ireland time, an hour earlier than in Spain. I found it fairly easily and pushed the creaky glass paned door open to have a putrid smell fill my sensitive nose. I figured that might just be the smell of most hostels, as this is my first one. A group of Spanish tourists, 5 of them, were ahead of me to check in. They spoke broken english with the clerk, and I thought about translating, but lacked the courage.

A girl named Maria kept saying, "we paid two, 9 for 1 18 for 2..." The clerk kept saying, "oh I know you're fucking me over so bad right now..." in his lovely Irish accent. As I stood in line behind the group, two girls walk in from inside the hostel. One was shorter, with a ponytail and a smile, the second was tall with a trucker's hat and a spike sticking out of the left side of her lower lip. Both held mugs filled with wine and had purple teeth.

The tall one says, "hey Angus, how's it going up here?" The clerk looks up and tells her to, "shut the fuck up." This sends both girls into hysterics and they settle in on the table with all the maps in the corner to further comment on the clerk's situation. Angus asks, "so, did you find out what that smell is?" (Ah, so it doesn't usually smell like this...). The short one answered, "yes, it's the roof." "What?" says Angus. "Yes, the roof," says the tall one, "I was sure you'd have seen us, I positioned my ass just so in fromt of the camera for you," as she bends over and shows him. Both the girls giggled, and Angus frantically tries to get the Spanish tourists checked in, rolling his eyes at the girls.

It takes another 10 minutes or so to get everything figured out and Angus gets up to show the group to their room. The girls say, "Angus, you have customers waiting," referring to me. Angus walks up to me and grabs my shoulders, squeezes them, and strokes my face twice with his right hand, sayimg, "thank you for waiting loyal customer," then turns and walks away. I laughed nervously and started talking to the girls, as they laughed at Angus' gesture. "So, how long have you two been here?" The short one says 3 weeks and the tall one 5 months. They both work in Dublin and live at the hostel because it's so cheap.

Angus returns... "Ok, who's next?" He says, though I'm the only person at the desk. He takes my info and starts searching for my name. "Darby," he says, "Darby Cave? Wow, you're parents sure didn't like you." I said, "What, I like my name." Of course, he busts out, "Darby O'Gill and the Little People, I love that movie, toy tah tah toy." The girls say, "what? That's a movie?" And Angus explains it. "What's your last name Angus?" the tall one asks. "O'Donnel" he answers. Angus decides to use my full name at all times at this point and tries to say it a lot, "Darby Cave, here's your room number, Darby Cave, and breakfast, Darby Cave, is served at 8 until 10, Darby Cave, accept on Sundays, Darby Cave, it's 9-11, Darby Cave, because God was a lazy bastard..." and on and on.

"Darby Cave huh?" The tall one chimes, "That sounds like a singer's name." A new customer walks in and she turns to him and says, "Hi, this is Darby Cave, she's debuting tonight and will be here all week." Angus starts describing to me that I'm in the Carrick dorm and the girls squeel, "oh that's where we are, it's a good one!" Angus cuts in, "watch out though, these two are fanny slappers." We all laugh. Another customer walks in and Angus says, "Hello, I'm Angus O'Donnel and this is Darby Cave and the Fanny Slappers, they'll be here all week."

That's all I can remember of the dialogue now... hopefully more hilarity will come to me as I sleep in my top bunk in the back of the Carrick dorm at Brown's Hostel tonight. I left there at about 5 tonight and walked around downtown and got a toursits map. I also got to see an english movie, yay! There aint no dubbin' in Dublin. Stranger than Fiction. I really liked it. I'll probably go see another tomorrow night. Thanks to my GFU student ID with no date on it, I can get in for 6 Euros, yesssssss! I've got to get them in when I can, I sure do miss going to movies. Spanish ones are good too, but I usually get sleepy trying so hard to understand.

I'm not sure what's on tap for tomorrow, but I want to see the book of Kells and go to the Guiness Brewery at some point. I'll blog more when I get home, or maybe tomorrow, who knows. Kiss me, I'm Irish!

Being a doer

I´ve spent the last week being more of a doer than a stop and tell everyone about it... er. So, the blog has been really lame lately. But, I still have pictures to post from Vitoria and an awesome dinner of Spanish-Mexican food. That will all have to wait, unfortunately, until I get back from Dublin/Norway, on the 12th. We´re heading to France tonight to spend the night and I leave from Biarritz at 1 pm. 2 days on my own in Ireland and then I head to Norway on the 5th to see little Whitty. I´m so excited! Wish me luck, though I know I´ll be in the land of clovers and Lepprachans (how do you spell that?). Have a great weekend, week and weekend everyone! Tootles.

Africa, NOT my Africa

My newest news is that I am not going to Africa after all for Christmas. The family will be visiting folks in France for the two week break at the end of the month and I´ll get the first week of January, or maybe more, off to do what I want. I was really pumped to get all tan at Christmas, so maybe I´ll try to plan a trip to somewhere warm. I´m going to be in Spain for New Year though because people dress up in costumes and that will be sweet. Maybe Whit can come visit then, yesssssss!

Almost time to go hang with her, how fun! She says we´re going to watch Christmas movies and eat baked apples and ice cream one night. Sounds awesome to the naked ear, but we are far from home and I just don´t know how my little heart will handle Christmas in a far off place yet. I was just sort of planning on skipping it this year because it might be too painful to think about. I guess with Whit there it will be good. We´ll probably just hug for about the frist half an hour we are together.

Lately, I´ve been a bad student. It´s really frustrating me because I think that getting to know people while I´m here is the most important thing, but it´s putting me a little behind in my studies. Really though, I´m just being lazy. I have the time and i´m just not setting it aside. Just thought I´d vent that to you all back home so you can flood my inbox with messages saying, "it´s ok Darb, you´re doing great!" Yes, please coddle me.

Basketball Sunday went well, and resulted in lots of pictures from downtown Vitoria and Estella, etc, at night. I´ll post them soon. Many are blurry, but pretty and I got to take a sweet night time rodeo around the area. The team I played with won, the team I practice with lost (tear), and the team we wanted to win in Vitoria won. Good stuff.

I hope all is well back home! Send me an update on you when you get a chance. Lovin´s.

Thanksgiving in Spain

Here I am, 6:30 pm, still in my gnome pajamas and bathrobe. My weekends have truly become weekends. At home I still had tons of things to get done before the next week began. Here, I can just be lazy all day. I need to catch up on my sleep anyway. Lets just say I´m soaking up the culture.

So, Thanksgiving. I got home after class and Emily had whipped up some stuffing, parsnips and was thinking creatively about using some lovely green apples we bought for dessert. Kim, the American Au Pair who works for the mayor, and just got here a couple weeks ago, also joined in. We bought a pre-made chicken, boiled corn, made mashed potatoes, bought an apple thing that was supposed to resemble a pie but didn´t. Don´t worry, I had a supervisor for all my cooking endeavors. I made the potatoes, mashed some squash and started the gravy, Em finished it. We had quite a spread.
I think I must have my camera on a weird setting because my pictures are more blue these days. Anyhow, Catherine and Patrick came home to celebrate with us, which was nice. We had tons of food and good chat time. And when all was said and done, Emily left the house looking like a homeless person, as Catherine said, with her bottle of wine and broiled apple. That´s what she decided to do with the apples, broil them with brown sugar and white wine inside. Sooooooooo yummy. Here´s Em being homeless...

Not much else is new here in Pamp-town. tomorrow will be basketball day extrordinaire. I´m playing in a game at 10, watching anotehr one at 12, the team I practice with, and going to one in Vitoria after that. So fun! I miss watching games and knowing people on teams and being a fan.

I´ll try to blog more soon. It´s a lazy day here and I need to go wake myself up with a dance workout. Speaking of, Emily is on the dance workout wagon. She loves them. I´m telling you folks, try them, you´ll like them. We could all use more dancing in our lives. Happy feet, yay!

And the winner is...

Me! Based on the votes I got in, which were not many, I beat Whit in the big body contest. Crazy. I guess my best insult is no longer usable and the tables have now turned.

I´ll blog tomorrow on my first Spanish Thanksgiving, "accion de gracias." It was a good one. I hope everyone had a good time with friends and family back home!

Pasta Sandwich

Have you ever heard of a pasta sandwich? In fact, have you ever heard of a condiment called pasta sandwich? An American condiment called pasta sandwich made by the Heinz company? Well, it exists.

Yesterday Em and I were in EleClerc shopping for our super-fantastic-spanish-american Thanksgiving celebration, which we´ll be having tomorrow and I´ll blog about later. Anyhow, we hit the condiments aisle to see if we could find gravy and Emily started looking over the various mustards trying to figure out which one had the least amount of artificial ingredients. I waited patiently, but sometimes have a hard time standing still, so I started looking at various jars, almost dropping some, almost opening some, and suddenly, a label popped out at me like a jack in the box.

"What´s this?" I thought. "A jar that reads ´pasta sandwich´ that is neither pasta nor a sandwich. How can this be? There must be a mistake..." So, I took a picture...

I´m sorry, but every time I look at this, I start laughing histarically. What the hell is it? It´s not a pasta, it´s not a sandwich, yet, based on the label, it´s the original pasta sandwich. The original... I guess there must be other types? Maybe alfredo pasta sandwich, or pasta sandwich meaty? Ha ha ha!

To make matters worse, or better, it´s by Heinz! Yes, an American company! Yes, a former presidential candidate´s wife is hooked to the name on this label! Yes, her family speaks Spanish and should be able to translate this thing appropriately! Pasta Sandwich, ha ha ha, I can´t stop saying it. Que ridiculo.

La Borracha

If you would like to keep a high opinion of me, if you had one to begin with, please do not continue reading this entry. I have given this much thought and the pictures that resulted from last night, though incredibly embarrassing, are just too funny not to share. I feel it´s my duty as a blogger to entertain and inform, therefore, I am about to completely deface myself for your enjoyment.

It was Emily´s first night out in Spain. I´m not going to explain many details of the night, but let the pictures speak mostly for themselves.

1. The tale begins on a lovely night in Pamplona...

2. The night began harmlessly. Here, Emily tastes a vinegar pickled onion for the first time with Iñaki´s friend Montxo (the "tx" here makes a "ch" sound, it´s very Navarra). Everyone was sober, everyone was nice, it was great.

3. After a couple hours of chatting, we all decided to go out, Em Iñaki, Montxo and I. Here is a picture of Em and I at her first bar in Pamplona.
4. Montxo got a little silly and put Emily´s tie on his head. What good ól fashioned fun! Keep in mind the rum and cokes are beginning to flow...
5. More silliness as I put on Em´s glasses. My cheeks are beginning to redden a tad here.
6. Here´s a shot of everyone in the group. I guess a big gust of wind must have come along, because we all seem to be tipping over to one side, like we weren´t on steady ground... a curious thing, the ground.
7. This is the next group shot we attempted. As you can see, a failure.
8. I took this picture myself, quite a steady hand with all that rum in me. I even had Em´s glasses on. Em´s getting happy!
9. Sadly, all good things come to an end. We headed to another bar and for some reason, when I arrived, I became quite tired. I just couldn´t seem to stand very well and the wall in the bathroom was so cozy, so I decided to take a nap.
10. From there, things went down hill. When your tummy hurts, you must get whatever is making it hurt out. So... I did...
11. The night finished with a classic, I just puked and feel much better picture, not to mention a long walk.

Coincidentally, this all occurred just across the street from my main man Hemmingway´s statue. I´m hoping this gets me some brownie points in my whole "statue to Darby" pursuit. I came, I drank, I left it all in the streets of Pamplona.

Once again, sorry to the family members who may now feel your relative is a big fat drunk. Well, rest assurred, I´m not. Just having a hell of a good time!

Who´s the bigger body?

Back when Whit and I were playing college basketball, we noticed that many a time our coaches would hand us scouting reports on which the description "big body" was used for certain players. We came to realize that this may be the universal description for posts and that we might also be described as such to other teams. Hence, the term "big body" was brought into our regular vocabulary and, when used, is often followed by a punch to the arm or the explitive, "shut up!"

Now that we are both back in the game (she more than me certainly) we are comparing to see who has the biggest of all big bodies. We can´t decide for ourselves, so we´re putting it to a vote. Here are two pictures of us in our uniforms, Whit´s is in a practice uni. Take a look and email me your vote, who´s the big body champion? darbycave@yahoo.com ... I´ll post the results next week.

Joder! (Ho-dare!) (@#¬€%$!!!)

Last night was supposed to be my coming out party, my debut on "the good team". It was their preseason championship and they were playing the Public University, where I go to school. I was so pumped up! I knew I´d be late, but Emily came over about 20 minutes into the game, so I was making good time. Catherine and Patrick are gone, so I´m lucky Em agreed to babysit...

9:15, I got in the car... game time was 8:45. By 9:20 I was on the byway, very quick for me. I was taking the round abouts in 3rd gear, a rarity. I hit Cicur aound 9:30 and parked outside the gym by 9:35. I ran and started tearing off my sweats, turning off my iPod... I flung the front doors to the gym open and stopped... There were girls in the gym, but none had uniforms and the formation seemed quite casual, like a practice... hmm. Oh and no one from "the good team" was in the gym. "Mierda!" I thought. My front desk buddy, who always tells me the locker room to go to without using words, informed me that the game was actually at the university, which happens to be 5 minutes from my house!

By the time I got home, it was 9:50. I figured it was too late to go, so Em and I had a couple glasses of wine as I whined about missing the game. I didn´t want to go so late and give the impression that I felt I could just walk in and play. "Ooooh wow, big American girl thinks she´s the bomb..." I know that´s what they would have thought : )

As it turns out, that´s exactly what I could have done. It was a close game and they ended up losing by 10. It was explained to me before the game, that though I was so excited, the game didn´t mean much and was more like a practice game really. So, I assumed it wasn´t going to be much of a match. Damn it! Oh well, it´s in the past. Hopefully there will be another one I can play in. Tear, cough, sigh.

Em and I had a bunch of fun chatting though and a lovely product of our good times is this fabulous picture of us. Em wanted to make mean faces, but started laughing as I snapped it. So, she looks cute and I look like a monkey, but what else is new. She´s here now and we´re about to go robe shopping and are currently discussing how stumpy the bananas are here at my house and how long and nice they are at hers. Anyhow, the picture...

I love it! We are the funnest!

On a side note, my room is the place where all the flies from the summer come to die during the winter. I have about 15 fly corpses on the floor outside my door. They´re just in regular fly position and I keep trying to smash them because I think they´re alive, but then they don´t move and I have at least killed them further. It´s sort of a sad game because I always win. Anyway, I need to sweep those flies up.

And, I´m off...

A time out

I apologize for my 4 day hiatus from the blogosphere. I had a weekend alone with the kids and some reflecting on life to do, so that took up most of my time. Other than eating lots and lots of cookies with Emily of course. We are trying to keep each other thin on this trip by constantly offering the last of whatever we have to the other. One of us always ends up eating it though.

I haven´t taken many pictures lately. I need to take a weekend excursion or day trip to San Sabastian or Vitoria soon. Ireland/Norway is almost here, so I need to finish planning that first. Thanksgiving is almost here as well and Em and I are thinking hard on how to find turkey and corn and stuffing and all that great stuff. Thank you America for having binge eating holidays!

This morning I took the kids to school and the hills around Tajonar were peaking up through clouds of fog. I took a couple snaps...
The second one´s a little blurry, but I thought it still captured the moment. So pretty!

Last week, I was showing Emily around a little, the very little that I know, and making up history about Pamplona that I think is true, but possibly not as well. I finally got to take a picture of the Ernest Hemmingway statue in the Plaza del Torros. The inscription on it basically says "thanks for the party!" I think that´s incredible. The man has a statue in honor of how much of a kick ass time he had in Pamplona. Well, that´s my new goal, to have a statue next to Ernie saying, "you rock too Darbo!" Here´s the picture...
Literally translated in my broken Spanish, sans diccionario, the inscription reads: "Ernest Hemmingway: Premiere noble of literature, friend of this town and admirer of our parties... (que supo?) to describe and to spread the city of Pamplona, San Fermin."

Very cool.

Let´s see... another picture that I like is of me from last week exploring the various parks in Pamplona at night. I´m quite good at riding dogs with springs for legs...
Tomorrow it is possible that I´ll be able to play in a game with the better team in Navarra. I first have to bribe Emily to be here with the kids while I´m gone because Catherine and Patrick are out for the rest of the week. I hope she´ll babysit! Also, I need to ask Catherine if it´s ok. She´d just have to be here with them while they sleep, no real interaction necessary. I hope it works out because I really want to play.

Ohhhhhhhh, also... the other night I met Nicole Kidman... Iñaki´s friend Luis attempted to translate their conversations on movies and kept saying, "I am Nicole Kidman." It was really quite hilarious. I also found out that in Spain, Burt Reynolds is known as Bart Rain-yols and Tom Cruise is Tom Crew-iz. They´d keep saying to me, "You don´t know Bart Rain-yols? He´s an American actor!" Luis later told me that I need to work on my pronunciation in English. A funny man, that one. Seriously though, I can´t believe how hard people try to accomodate me here. It´s so nice. I don´t expect it and they really try to make sure I understand and include me. It´s pretty great. At the same time, it makes me feel like a jack ass for not knowing their language very well yet. But, I´m still working hard-ish on it and new things are making sense more often.

I have no real plans for the week other than to stay here this weekend for some Darb-time and work on achieving hemmingway status. I´ll keep you posted. Love to ya!

PS - Check out my cousin Kelly´s blog on helping out in N.O., http://360.yahoo.com/kellylynnfullerton. Quite interesting...

Best fight ever

Last night at dinner the kids and I chowed down while Catherine watched the news in the other room. Scratch that... I chowed down as the kids did the best they could to avoid eating. In trying to divert my attention from the food she had not ingested, Louise began to sing a bit. Alexis was not pleased with this and said, "Weez, no singing at the table!" Louise continued to sing. Alexis yelled to Catherine in French and Catherine yelled back in French.

I can only guess that Catherine told her to stop because she then began to mouth the words to the song very dramatically. Alexis stared at her for a moment, fork in mid-air, and began to do the same, while pretending to sing the song into the sausage on the end of his fork. They literally did this for about a minute and a half, closing their eyes so one could not see the other. Because, I´m guessing the rational was, that if you looked at the other person, you "lost." But this was unspoken and just sort of an inherant rule between siblings. I enjoyed it.

Más vocabulario

Today I was working on a tema for Spanish class and had to look up a couple words. In hanging out with folks lately, I´d been hearing a certain word often and decided to look that up as well, since it was on my mind. Dumdidum, I gently thumbed through the dictionary, birds chirpping around me, butterflies on my shoulders, my bright eyes sparkling with the thought of learning a new word, a bit of knowledge for my sweet little mind so I could further communicate with my new fellow countrymen... thunder roared, the birds fainted and the butterflies died when I came to the "J" section of my Collins Pocket Plus and my eyes scanned the definition for (Grandma Billie, DO NOT click on this link!) joder.

The link I found only has the one definition, but my dictionary has many more. My favorite part is that it is first and foremost a verb, ha! (Update, Iñaki reminded me that he actually told me this before, the verb thing). So, being the lover of language that I am, I had to look the english word up in an english dictionary too. Yep, it´s a verb. Interesting to know. Sorry if you´re not on my wavelength here, but I think this is hilarious. There I was trying to expand my vocabulary and either hit the jackpot of Spanish expletives or the exact word I should not know in case I accidentally use it in the wrong situation. I´m a glass half full kind of girl, so I´m gonna say it´s a good one to know.

In case you haven´t heard through my mom and dad, Whit the Weege is doing better. She got a phone today and is charging it. She relayed to me that beer is really expenssive in Norway, so I should buy a bunch at the duty free shop when my plane lands, a very important part of my trip to see her. She´ll be taking the "big body" photo for a vote from you all this weekend, so I´ll post that for a fun change soon. She´s written a bunch of blog entries but hasn´t a blog. I told her what to do, since I was once the blog bitch of OregonLive (sorry for the language today GMB, I´m feeling saucy). I won´t tell you much more in case she gets her blog rolling soon and can tell you herself.

Today I´m heading home to hang with Emily. I´ve made her into a Dawson´s Creek fan, and I think she best described it when she said, "it´s so terrible, but I can´t stop watching it." I also need to finish my laundry, which takes days to dry now that it´s colder outside, hence, in the garage where there isn´t a working dryer but a place to hang my clothes out. I sort of like hung dried clothes though. Hmmm, I´ve got a scarf on today, ala Dan and cara last Christmas, which is awesome and I may bust out my Saturday Market knit cap later. My life is so exciting! Well, I´m enjoying it anyway. I´ll keep you posted, until then, I´ll be kickin´ it Darb Style.

Fall in Tajonar

It´s such a pretty day today! The sky is blue, there´s a touch of wind and crisp air all around. I love it. I wore a hat and boots and one of my shirts with the hand cuffs, which I love because they make me feel like a ninja.

Crispy leaves are starting to appear all over Tajonar. I walked down to our little park today and sat on a bench with my iPod and some vocab to study. It was lovely. On my way back I went out of my way to step on every dry leaf I found. It´s so satisfying when you get a good one that makes a solid crunch. Don´t you love that noise/feeling? Or am I just a bit crazy... maybe both.

I guess I just wanted to share my autumn mood really quick. Now it´s time tah teach dem kiddies some well english!

Portland, Pamplona, what´s the dif?

There´s a new au pair in town and she just happens to live right nextdoor to me. She also happens to have lived some of her life in Oregon. She also happens to be a super cool party person (which you would not get unless you watch season 6 of the Gilmore Girls). As well, she is named Emily. She looks a lot like one Erin Smith, who I know some of you folks remember from CCHS.

Anyhow, she´s really nice and I´ve shown her around a little bit and she went to a vineyard with her family yesterday and told me all about it. So cool, I´m gonna have to set up a trip like that for myself. I´ll wait until it´s actually from my own experience to tell you about it.

We had a super-American time the other day as we attempted to order some food on a walk around Pamplona. All was going fairly smoothly, until I placed my coffee too close to an elbow and that elbow belonged to a woman, who turned around rapidly and spilled the coffee all over my shoe, herself and the floor. The cup also shattered on the lenoleum. Now, I take full responsibility for the fact that I placed it too close to her, but Emily informed me later that the lady kept glaring at me as we picked things up. All I have to say to that is that I am in perfect control of my elbows at all times and other people should be the same.

Oh, I also have a fun night to share about! My first movie night in Spain! I watched my first spanish film, Tesis, by Alejandro Amenábar. He also did "The Others," as an American reference for you. Anyhow, it was really good. I could follow for the most part, but that was because the filming was well done. I think a good film should be something that is understandable without dialogue. But, I´m going to watch it with english subtitles so I can make sure, later : ) It´s about a girl who does her thesis in film school on violence in film. She gets a hold of a very violent video, finds out who the camera man was, or so we think, and may be his next victim... ooooooh. Then we watched Dr. Strangelove in Spanish. Better in english I´d say. I was a bit sleepy, so it was hard to stay focused. When it got over, we weren´t really tired, second wind, and Iñaki attempted to teach me to salsa, but I sort of sucked at it. This was disappointing because I´m such a Dancing Queen back home, but he´s got quick little feet!

That´s about it though. Practice tonight and class tomorrow. I better get some vocab. Later taters!

Cheesecake, the dinner of champions!

I had a round, individual sized cheesecake for dinner Saturday night. It was really yummy and just my size. The perfect pre-game snackaroo. My first bball game here was last night at 8:15, with the team that is described to me as "just for friends", meaning not so good as the team I practice with. But, just for friends means anyone can play and the level is good for me, as I just want to have fun. I even have a uniform. I may not be supposed to, but I´m totally bringing it home because it´s the best souvenir ever.

We played at a school called San Cermin in downtown Pamplona that has a large gym with a green floor. Basically the same set up as the sports pavillion in Cizur, but not as nice a floor. But just fine for my taste. The girls on this team are just as nice as the others. One in particular, Beatriz, kept coming up to me and trying to get me pumped up during warmups, saying, "vamos!" and giving me high tens or patting me on the back.

The game began and I sat for the first 6 minutes or so. A few differences from the states... we have the triangle shaped key, which is actually good for me because it sets up my hook... the shot clock is 24 seconds... and 10 minute quarters rather than a 20 half. 3 in the key and fouls are the same, unfortunately. Anyhow, not a good start. I was a bit nervous because I really wanted to play, but didn´t think I´d get much time because I was new.

I subbed in and started a little slow, shaking the game-time rust off. The other team was in a zone, which is tough to score against for me. As time passed I realized I was about 6 inches or more taller than everyone on their team, our opponents. Also, the fact that girls kept running into me and making a loud groaning noise, sometimes falling to the floor, lead me to believe I was also stronger than most of them : ). So, I just started to post up as much as possible and shoot, shoot, shoot!

The plan worked! I scored more than I ever have in a game, 31 points´, and I didn´t sub out for the rest of the game. And every single one was either a right hook shot or a right handed layup. Great passes from my teammates. I guess that´s not much different than at home, but I have a left hook too, I swear, and, I also don´t score this much. A moral to this story - eat cheesecake for dinner more often!

I had a lot of fun, obviously, and I´ll be back next week if they´ll have me. Here´s a picture of me in my uniform. Love it! I´m a "big body", huh Whit? You send me a pic of you in your uni and we´ll do a comparison. I´ll post a pic of me and one of you next to it and then I´ll have people vote. Waddaya say ya big Weege?

Los Delinquentes

My voice has dropped an octave due to lack of sleep and my eyes are puffy. My hair still smells like smoke after showering off the sweat from at least 20 different people. I have a deep smokey feeling in my chest from all the secondhand I inhailed and sore hips from the push and shove. All in all, a fabulous night!

I went to the Los Delinquentes concert last night with Inaki, his sister Irene and their cousin. I can´t remember the cousin´s name though, I´m a jerk. Here we are... (l to r, cousin, Irene, me Inaki).It was so fun! It was in a little club outside of Pamplona. Inaki said there were supposed to be 380 people there and it felt like it, which made it all more awesome. Here are a couple snaps from inside...
Packed! We got there sort of early and staked out a good spot. We had to hold our ground as more people started piling in, but used our excellent basketball skills and survived. And look how close we were.

Anyhow, Los Delinquentes seem like sort of a rastafarian meets folk music group. But there´s some rock in there too, pretty upbeat. Their lead singer is a tiny little afroed guy with a high pitched voice, but it works with the sound. At times he played a kazoo and it was actually quite similar to the sound of his voice. The crowd had great energy and sang half the songs for the group.

Culturally, it was just like home! The band came out, people freaked out, pushed and shoved to get to the front, sang, danced if they had room... etc. (I think you all know what that "etc." stands for).

At one point, the band was waving a huge pirate flag around the stage. The group got in a big circle for the finale and a few jumped in the middle and did little dances. Then they all put their arms around eachother and sort of mumbled a loud drunken sounding tune and shimmied off the stage. Good one. Inaki is a self-proclaimed expert at one armed picture taking (watch out Liz, you have some competition) and here´s one of me being really happy to be there, the typical Darby smile really...
Things wrapped up at about midnight, early, so we went into Old Town Pamplona and danced around at a couple bars for a while. Irene and I decided at the first bar, that though we can´t speak to eachother much, we know the other is nice. Yeah... I don´t know. The bar was a really long room with sort of a dance area in the back. This seems to be the typical set up for bars in Old Town. It´s pretty cool, the streets are pretty much deserted and quiet and you can look up at all the old buildings. Suddenly a door will open and music blares out at you and it´s packed inside.

Irene and her wiley ways figured out where the band was hanging out after the show, which happened to be right across the street from the firstbar we went to. The first one was called "Garazi" and the 2nd, "Terminal", just for my own memory, no story enhancement really. So, we walked across the street to Terminal and Irene basically went up to the band members and started making friends. She´s one of those gals who is always making friends. I just love that about her.

More pictures... The first is Irene and I dancing at Garazi (I think I look a lot like Kevin in this picture and it also looks like the girl behind us is very tiny and I´m punding her on the head) and the second is a sweet picture from Terminal. None of us are really doing anything, but I really like the picture.
Sorry the writing for this entry is a little lame. I´m still pretty sleepy. But, at least you have some pictures and a basic idea of my night. If I get anymore inspiration, I´ll share a tall tale. Now, I´m going to go shower again : )