A mouse in my shoe

I think I have the noisiest shoes known to man. The moment my foot makes contact with the lenoleum halls of the public university, a squeek can be heard each time I step, each time the sole of my shoe rubs on the floor, each time I lift a toe. The halls are for the most part empty when I arrive so just a few folks, quietly chatting near the walls are disrrupted. I´m not sure what it is, but it´s sooooo squeeky. I feel like Larry David in the episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" when he ruins the tooth fairy for the daughter of his friend because he has squeeky orthodics. I´ve really gotta get these things under control. Maybe some WD-40?

Not to mention, I have very cracky ankles. I´ll get home late each night from practice, or what not, and the house is dark. The kitchen door is very loud on it´s own, but then I try to tiptoe upstairs and stay silent. The first few steps are fine but then an ankle will sound like it´s a branch snapping. Then my knee joins in and it´s a one woman crackalackin´band all the way up two flights of stairs to my studio where I then proceed to do noisy things like take showers at 12:30 am.

I´m not sure why I´m writing all this in my blog, but it was on my mind, class was cancelled, and I felt like writing it. anyhow, happy Halloween to all you United Statesters over there! We don´t have it over here. Just a holiday tomorrow that´s more like Memorial Day. The kids don´t have school, so tonight we´re planning a few fun adventures. I was going to pick up the kids from school in costume, but Catherine kicked that idea out. It would be considered quite strange here. There´s gotta be something cool I can plan for the kids, but I´m not sure what. Louise said they do a candy hunt at home. Maybe I´ll just get them some candy and a card, I dunno.

Have a safe and a happy!

Biarritz

As previously stated, I got to take a jaunt over to Biarritz, a short 20 minute drive from the house in France. It is gorgeous! Have you seen the move "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels"? Well, that film is set mostly in a little town on the French Riviera called Beaumont Sur Mere (who knows if that´s the right spelling). Anyhow, it is quite similar to Biarritz. Catherine said they hold a world famous surfing competition there every year. For more info, here´s the website. It´s in French, but cool pictures.

So, Louise and I left in the afternoon around 3 and got there around 3:30. The beach was crawling with people and there´s a wide boardwalk to stroll along. We got some ice cream and set up camp in the sand. There´s a large palace looking building on either side of the beach and classy little shops all along the boardwalk. It was probably 75 degrees out and the end of October, unheard of.

I wish I´d had more time to take pictures, but being with an 11 year old who´s been there tons of times just doesn´t allow a girl the priviledge. Here are the few pics I did snap...

This is a shot to the right of where we sat on the beach. The building you can see to the far right is where, Louise said, her parents had their wedding reception! Holy cow.

This shady lane was to the left of the ice cream stand we visited right on the boardwalk. These old buildings were the norm on each tiny street.

Though slightly over explosed, this is a picture to the left of where we sat on the beach. Thinking back, I really should have gotten a picture of the water! Duh!

So, it was a nice little afternoon trip. As far as the rest of the weekend goes, I know I´m ruined for champagne for the rest of my life. Not that I drank it before coming here much, but this is good stuff. Catherine had the line of the weekend when she said, "even if I´m starving and dying of thirst, just tell me one thing... where´s the champagne?" Ha ha ha, she´s a card.

My weekly plans aren´t too special. Pretty much regular, but I´m going to a Los Delinquentes concert on Thursday, which I think I already mentioned. But, I´m excited. They´re on the CD that Inaki gave me, so I´ve been listening to them so I can sing all the songs at the concert, yesssss!

There´s a holiday Wednesday and the kids have no school, so who knows what´s on tap. Darby out of the house on her own hopefully. My team has a game that night at 5 so maybe I can go watch. I´m really sucking at speaking spanish with people and usually they end up catering to my needs and using a bit of english. I need to get strickter about that. My ears always seem to reject the spanish they hear. It´s like they fold right up into my head and won´t listen, which, as many of you know, is quite possible since the cartiledge in my ears is so flexible.

The rest of today will be a trip to the university, home for lunch and an afternoon of who knows. It´s really nice right now, I may need to go on a jog. I have practice tonight though and am not as young as I used to be. The hills call me, I´m off! Lovins all around.

Still here

Sorry for the lack in blogs lately folks. I guess not much went on this week worth talking about. But, I went to france this weekend and Louise and I got to go to Biarritz for an afternoon. It was a nice day and we actually got to swim. Going with and 11 year old has it´s ups and downs though. It was great to have a little girl time, but not much time for me to take pictures or exploring. It was so beautiful! But, I´ll post pictures and more description tomorrow.

For now it´s off to bed for me, as it´s 1 o´clock. Thanks to daylight savings time, it´s midnight, so that´s nice, but my bod feels like it´s 1. Don´t forget to "turn back tiiiii-uuuummm!" (For all you Will and Grace fans out there, I hope you got that joke).

The Caves do Europe

I´m sure my family have all heard by now, but my friends don´t know yet... Whit´s on the team in Norway for sure! I mean really, was there any doubt? I´m planning a trip to Ireland and Norway for the first week of December, which I´m sure I´ve mentioned, but if you have tips please send them. I don´t have a way from ireland to Norway yet, but I´m thinking by boat. I really have no idea how much it would be or anything, so if you know, tell me, but I´ll do research too.

In other news, I understood a lot of what went on in Spanish class today! I also had a language share with my amigo Gus who I met through the university language share system. He can´t even thoroughly explain the different past tense verbs to me, so I feel better about them now. It´s just tough, especially when I´m talking. All good things.

Sadly, I had to say goodbye to a friend today. My little German gal Annika who is 20 and had a very bad experience as an au pair, is leaving after 2 months. I hear many girls are treated more like a housekeeper and babysitter than part of the family as au pairs in Spain, so I am quite fortunate. Annika is going back home to Germany Friday and back to school. I am happy for her but sad to lose such a wonderful shopping accomplice. She gave me the best compliment... she said she is always so stressed out and worried and I always seem so chill and go with the flow. She said when she gets panicked, she will just tell herself, "ok, be like Darby." Ha ha! I loved it! Especially since I feel like I´m the one freaking out all the time and other people have it under control. Anyway, I have a new place to visit in Germany any time I like, which is great! And she in Portland!

Happily, I think I made a new friend yesterday, a real friend. Not like hi, how are you, see ya later crap. I talked with Inaki, my coach, not the old guy, after practice yesterday and we actually had a conversation on movies, American ones! So, of course, this drew me right in. He didn´t know some of the real names of movies in english because the names are all jacked up over here, so he´d describe the plot and I´d get the name. It´s my new favorite game. Plus, he speaks pretty good english, so it was like hanging out with my good buddy Ky Jo and just shooting the breeze on cinematic everything. I´m going to a concert with his sister and he next week, which is soooooo awesome. Live spanish music, how fun! I can´t wait to see what concerts are like here, a whole new part of the culture to explore.

Long story short, I´m jacked! Whit´s gone Euro, I have a new friend who knows the city and speaks english, I´m understanding slowly but surely, and Pamplona is a sweet place to be. It lets me stay down just long enough to appreciate my situation and then it builds me back up, 2 fold. I probably shouldn´t have said that, because I´m a big believer in people eating their words, but I don´t care. It´s cloudy out, but warm, I´m gonna go bounce around the trails in Tajonar for a while and get a sweat up. Love to ya.

My own, private Pamplona

Weekend no. 2 alone was interesting. The new has rubbed off of a few things and being on my own feels more alone now. Driving somewhere used to be a big accomplishment and now it´s same ól, shopping at H&M is losing its luster and I don´t get paid til the end of the month anyway.

I had practice Friday night, which was nice. I was on time and everything. The scrimmages were awesome and I felt like I had a great workout. But, no new friends, and I got a little depressed in the car on the way home.

I woke up late Saturday, quite sore, got up, ate, computed and went back to bed to watch A League of Their Own. A great film. I enjoyed it a little extra this time I think because I´m away from home. Baseball=America, so there´s that. Also, it´s a sister story and I have a sister who I´m away from. I had a new incite into Kit actually. Ususally, she annoys the hell out of me, but this time I empathized with her. It must be tough not to evert be noticed and everyone deserves to have a stadium of folks chanting their name once in a while. So I just wanted to say, I may not be a stadium, but I think about all my peeps back home all the time and am chanting your name in my heart when I do.

I took a little adventure to downtown Pamplona to try to run in Yamaguchi Park, but missed it and ended up at another one. It was a nice run, right after the rain, in and out of old stone walls, which I´ll have to look up in my Pamplona book to tell you what they are. But, I got home afterwards, was sorer and only had a movie with Annika to look forward to. I like hanging out with her, but movies I can´t understand don´t appeal to me.

I went though, and we ended up watching a fashion show the mall had instead. Sorta lame and I was home by 9. I had texted Esti, a friend of Alicia´s, earlier in the week about naging out this weekend. She didn´t reply, so I thought nothing was going on. She texted me right as I got home from the mall and said she´d be over in 5 minutes to pick me up. Arantsa was with her and Esti dropped us at a friend of Arantsa´s, Manu (pronounced like "nanoo, nanoo, from Mork), I think, and she had made dinner and we ate shrimp, we had to shell on our own, which I never had. So good! But ripping the heads off and having goo come out was gross. There was also bread and a mixed salad, which is a hardboiled egg, tuna, tomatoe, white asparagas and maybe some greens, with olive oil. Then she pulls out some Spanish fried chicken which was amazing! Crusted in a type of brown sauce, very garlicy and salty, it pulled right off the bone. Mmm!

From there, we went out to 3 differnt bars then a disco and I got home at 5 am! Crazy! I love it! I´m really tired and on my way to cancer from the second hand smoke, but gosh, the folks here in Pamplona know how to treat a girl. Just when I was bummed, I got a pick me up.

Today I went to Alexis´s sort of pre-catechism thing at church. He just read one line in front of the congregation. It was adorable and he did awesome. We went out to lunch afterwards and then I was off to the game in Vitoria. I didn´t get to see the pretty parts of the town, but we won! I still haven´t broken into chatting with the girls yet, because I´m not too confident in my spanish and don´t know how to break the ice. It was sorta weird going with them and then not playing. I think I´d cut of my pinkie toes right now if they healed in a week and I could play.

However, I do get to play in one game in November. I´m not sure why I get to, but I´m so excited! For one, I love basketball. Two, who I am will come through on the court and we won´t need so many words. It´s a good thing. I´ve got a dr.´s apt. on Tuesday, something I need to be able to practice. Maybe they´ll find enough Spanish blood in me so I can play all the time. Can you test for that? I think not.

Well, hopefully I´ll take a weekend trip sometime soon and have more pictures for everyone! Write more soon!

A moment with Darby

I was thinking today... when I first got here and started kissing people hello (one on each cheek), I would make sort of a "mwa" sound when I did it. I would meet someone, walk up and say, "mwa" to one cheek as I kissed and "mwa" to the other cheek, like I was really enjoying it or something. I´m a sick weirdo I guess. I told catehrine and the kids about it the other day and they laughed pretty hard. Now I just kiss, sans noise, and it´s much more natural. Really though, kissing people on the cheeks reminds me of Vince in Wedding Crashers telling the preist to "get in here for the real thing." Maybe I´ll say that the next time I meet someone.

An incident also occurred today, that I now find funny... I was walking, sort of hopping, up the stone/wood stairs in the house. We wear slippers in the house here, it´s a cultural thing, never shoes. Mine are cheap and stretched out, so I have a hard time keeping them on my feet. One slipped off and tripped me and I fell up the stairs in the house, all alone. I banged the front tendon of my foot pretty hard and my knee. I had to sit there on the stairs, all alone, and pull myself back together. Grabbing my foot, rocking back and forth, all by myself, please just think of the visual... funny, huh? I think so. My dad said it sounded like a Dave move, so true (all said in love D). Though, I doubt my grandparents or relatives will think so, I think Abby and Fitch, maybe Finley will get a kick out of it.

That´s all I got. Just home alone on a Friday night and waiting to get tired. I hope everyone at home is great and that the lovely Oregon fall has kicked in and that you receive a "boquet of newly sharpened pencils..." Can you guess which movie that´s from? I´ll leave you with that.

Bonn Baskets

The rest of my trip to Germany pretty much revolved around basketball. Saturday night Liz wanted to head to the Hartsberg Sportshalle to see the Bonnmen´s team play. There are 7 Americans on the team and one from PLU, but he doesn´t play much. Liz wanted to meet them, so she could have some buddies who speak more english, which is a great idea.

We headed out from the bus station, as her coach had told us to, getting off at the Hartsberg Halle stop. I´m not sure if my spelling is correct, sorry Liz. We jumped off the bus and as it pulled away, we realized we were in the middle of a neighborhood. We knew the gym might be pretty small, but we had no idea it would be residential. So, we asked a lady at the bus stop, in the dark at around 8:00 pm. Liz said, "Telecom Baskets", which is the team name because Telecom sponsers them. The lady pointed up the street and we turned around to see 3 Telecom phone booths behind us, guessing that she thought Liz meant the telephone.

We walked in the direction she pointed though, since we didn´t see any other Hartsberg stop on the bus map. About a block down there was a sign that said "Sportshalle", which means Sports Hall, I think. So we followed the sign, onto a street with few streetlights and buildings on either side of us that looked like dormrooms. We were a bit skeptical, but had no other lead on where to go. A few blocks up, we hit another Sportshalle sign and turned right... more residences, fewer lights.

Finally, the street opened onto a small intersection and we saw what looked like a high school gym, without the school attached, to our left. We could hear cheerinf and people were walking in and out. We couldn´t believe how small the gym was. As we walked through the doors, two men in white shirts met us at a card table. They didn´t speak any english, but we paid for our tickets somehow, and walked through the main doors. People were smoking in the lobby and drinking, but we didn´t think too much of it, until... we saw two large bald men, wearing singlets, in the center of the gym. Locked upright in some type of hold, they were westling. At this point Liz said to me, "Um, Darby, where the hell are we?"

Liz and I, of course, started laughing our asses off and more people staired at us, like usual. As Liz found some english speakers to redirect us, I snapped a quick shot. It took quite a while longer to find the right Sportshalle, but it was worth it. A crappy game, but the stadium was packed and the team´s colors are pink and white because Telecom is their sponsor. I got a sweet hot pink scarf and a couple pics... A good night all in all.

Next up was a bit of a lazy day, but worth it. I got to see Liz play basketball in Germany. We drove about 6 hours each way to the town of Halle in Eastern Germany. I didn´t take any pictures for a reason... it was not pretty. I got some good ones of the gym though...

The girls on Liz´s team said the building used to be used for training horses. Well, it smelled like it. Sadly, the girls lost. I attribute it partly to the fact that Liz didn´t shoot in the whole first half, and not because she let chances go by, but because they didn´t get her the ball. I think it will take some time for them to get used to her and her to them, but when they do, she´ll be a major factor. I sat in the stands and thought at times, "girls, just give the ball to Liz and she´ll hit a shot," but they just don´t know her game yet. I hope I get to see a game at the end of the year to see the difference. Here are a couple action shots of our girl...

Sorry for the shortness and lack of sassyness in this entry, but I´m sleepy today and I gotta go to practice. Love to ya!

My first venture out solo

I flew into the Bonn/Cologne airport last Thursday night. A guy connected with Liz´s team, I don´t know how, picked me up. He had a little white sign that said my name and everything. Falk was his name. I´m thinking of naming my first child that now, boy or girl. He carted me over to the gym and I walked in to see Liz smiling up at me on a water break. It was wonderful to see such a friendly familiar face in a foreign land. We hugged, sweat and all, and I watched the last hour of her practice.

Leeza gave us a ride home afterwards and we got home around 10:30. We chatted for a long time. Liz was telling me how there are days when she doesn´t even speak to anyone. But, she´ll be starting German classes soon and hopefully getting a computer. So, as you can imagine, she told me everything that has been swimming around in her brain for the last week and a half. Really, it was great, because I missed her and it was so fun to catch up. As I told you in the last blog, she had a cake made and we did a little celebration that consisted of the cake and then a trip downtown by bus for McDonalds at midnight.

I think McDonalds tastes better in Germany than in America. Plus, their workers have to be fairly educated, as it´s in high demand to know english since it´s an American establishment. Anyhow, we walked around downtown at night and looked at the cute little old town with all the typical looking European buildings. We planned our shopping for the next day, which included H&M. I visited 3 H&Ms in Germany. Yes, I´m obsessed. But, they all have some different stuff, so I had to.

Before I get too far into my description, here are the pics I took of Liz´s living sitch...
To the left is Liz hanging off the stop sign at the end of her adorable little street in Bonn.
To the right is Liz eating some of the cake she made me in her cute little kitchen. We finished half of it before going to McD´s. Liz lives on her own in a basement apartment. You walk into one main room and there´s a tiny hallway with a shower on one side and a toilet/sink on the other. Walk up a few stairs in front of you and enter this cutie kitchen. The whole set up reminded me of that Geico commercial with the people in a tiny house... but just right for a Liz.
To the left is Liz unlocking the door to her apartment. As you can see, she has not given up on the open mouth smile, nor do I think she ever will. She is even getting her German team to join in. It´s an international sensation. But, as Dave will tell you, I will never give up on the Darby face, which inevitably messes up any nice picture my mom likes to take. To the right is the front of Liz´s house, where the owner of her team lives with her daughters.

Now, on to the festivities of the visit. We got a couple beers before we went home on Thursday night because you have to drink beer in Germany, it´s like water. I forget which kind we had, but Liz said each region has it´s own type and I think we got the special type for Bonn. And, you can´t really get a "normal" sized beer there, they all sort of look like 40s. So, Liz and I sat at a bus stop and drank 40s in Germany at 1 o´clock in the morning. How great is that? I´m sure we poured some out for our American homies too. We are so classy. Even more classy, we tried to take them on the bus, but that didn´t fly. Oh well.

Since Dave got me the Gilmore Girls season 6, we had to marathon watch that until 5 in the morning once we got home. Liz watched the entire thing throughout the course of the weekend and I watched all but 5. It´s 22 episodes long, about 45 minutes a piece. I think that´s quite a feat.

Friday morning, we awoke at the crack of 1 p.m. Liz is still adjusting from the jet lag. We went out to the town, I guess it´s a town, of Bad Godesberg. Maybe it was just the name of the castle we went to, I dunno. Anyhow, we bussed it in and walked around yet another adorable oldtown area. Here´s a picture of one of the streets, to the right.

There is a castle there that Liz had been wanting to hike to the top of for a while, so we did. I think it was just called Bad Godesberg. I haven´t done any research on why it´s there yet, but it was pretty and had a nice view. Here are a few pics...
The castle from a distance to the left.
To the right is the view from the top. That long white row of buildings and the steeple are sort of the central old town in the Bad Godesberg area I think. Liz will probably read this later and say, Darby is so wrong, she is talking out of her "culo" as we say here is Spain.
To the left is Liz on the top edge of the top tower of the castle of Bad Godesberg. There was a large red sign on the side that said "verbotten" something or other, but we are just dumb Americans, we don´t know any German and also feel a sense of entitlement to whatever we want, so, Liz jumped up and I snapped the shot. She got me to go up and took a picture too. It was a bad one and there was no way I was getting back up there. Really though, it´s Liz´s town, so she´s the only one who should be on top of it.

From there we checked out the H&M and took a bus down town for huge bratwurst and fries. They were the yummiest. The fries, pommes, were a little yellow, but so good. Maybe they used yellow potatoes, but I prefer them to many from home. Maybe they used butter to cook them, oh yum. I´m trying not to be a fatty by the time I come home, but I´m not doing so well so far. I haven´t gained weight, but we´ll see.

Friday night we went to a team party at Liz´s teammate Hannah´s. We were all set to dance around and get crazy, but it was a more mature crowd. Mostly we ate and chatted with eachother as everyone else talked in German. We talked with Liz´s coach Lucas (pronounced Lew-kass) and her teammate Vera, who is very sweet, for a bit. As it got later and we got bored, we decided to surf the net. We had asked Liz´s teammates if they like David Hasselhoff because we heard he was huge in Germany. They laughed and said no. But, this made me remember "Jump in My Car", so I had to show it to her. We found it, but couldn´t hear it, so turned it up. As we did so, the song became quite loud in the other room. Suddenly, we realized the music that was playing at the party was hooked up to the computer. So, Liz thought fast and unplugged the speakers really fast before anyone realized the song was playing. This caused a huge screetch to occur for a few seconds, which was much more disruptive than the song. We laughed our asses off as everyone stared. Oh well.

Saturday was another late wake up. We found a Bagel Brothers, so yummy, in downtown Bonn around 2 and took a train into Cologne for the afternoon. Cologne is home to the most visited site in all of Germany, the Cologne Cathedral. We walked out of the train station and there it was, right in front of us...

I couldn´t even get the whole thing in one picture, it´s humongous! We got a little further away and asked a guy to take a picture of us. Below is what we got, which caused another fit of laughter.
Liz had heard that we MUST hike to the top steeple and look at the view. The hike was interesting. Very skinny spiral staircase of over 500 steps. Oh, and there were people going up and going down the same staircase. Nuts. There should have been a body circumfrence limit for sure and a pre-climb deoderant check. But, the top yielded the largest working chruch bell in the world, which I´d post a picture of, but it´s just a bell and this blog is getting long. The viewing deck was kind of lame, all caged in, but we got some good pics I think...


The first one on the right is between some of the gothic-ness of the top steeple. A lovely view of the Rhine River and the waterfront. The one on the left was just a cool view so I snapped it.
Pretty huh? Well, it was a very fun time. For the rest of the afternoon we went to, guess where... H&M. I went on another birthday spree and bought an awesome striped hoodie, yellow and olive green, and some cool brown striped pants that look like slacks, but have a sweatband tie waist for super comfort. And, no, they were not in the maternity section.

Here ends the first edition of my blog on Germany. The rest is all basketball all the time, so I thought it would be good to put it together. I´ll try to write that one tonight after the kids are in bed.

So, a mini-update on me has more to do with my sis than me. For those of you who don´t know, a team in Norway flew Whit to England to play in a tourney this weekend and she has 10 days to prove she´s good or they´re shipping her home. It´s so exciting! I can´t wait to go visit her, providing she doesn´t get the axe, love you Whit. I´m planning my week off in December to go to Norway and then Ireland. Pretty freakin cool.

For the immediate future, I´m staying in town again this weekend because we have bball practice Friday and I feel bad missing because I missed all last week. Sunday, the fam comes home early from France for Alexis´catechism, pre-speech on Sunday. I´ll probably go to that and then travel with the team to Vitoria where they have a game. I´m pumped about that because then I can maybe get to know the girls better. Coach Inaki, not the weird old guy, made me a spanish CD of music to listen to, per my request. It´s mp3´s so there are like 150 songs on it! Awesome. I can only listen to it on the computer, but I´m going to try to figure out how to get it onto my IPod, my skills from O-Live must be helpful in some way, right?

Thanks for reading, and until next time, here are some goodbye pictures from Liz and I to you...

Mi Cumpleanos

My first birthday abroad went off without a hitch. I think a good time was had by all. I had a language share and checked out a school concert with Annika in the morning and the Rigaults through me a little party in the evening, complete with a bit of jewelry and a CD, how nice! But it didn´t stop there. Liz made me a cake and got me a little sumpin, sumpin too. Thanks for all the emails on the day, it was just great to hear from every one. Here are a couple of pictures...

This is me blowing out my candles at the Rigaults. I´m wearing the necklace Louise gave me. It was a cheesecake, a bit chewy and the words they had written on it slid off to the side. Catherine was pissed and said she´d fire someone Monday for it, ha ha! I still thought it was nice that they got me a cake.

This is my really super cool cake the Rigaults put sparklers on. Really neat to see.

Catherine and I on my big day. Thanks so much for the celebration!

Birthday cake number 2 occurred at Liz´s in Germany, what a sweetie that girl is. I´ll make a couple other blogs about that trip, but I´m putting all teh birthday stuff here. I arrived in Bonn and went straight to Liz´s practice. We went over to her apartment after and she had made an awesome brownie/cake. I blew out the candles and then we went to McDonalds. How wonderful. Here´s that pic...

Liz couldn´t find a 2, so she bought two 1´s for me, as you can see on the cake. How inventive!

Ok, so as I said, I´ll do one blog on the trip to Liz´s and one blog on teh basketball part of it, to sort of split things up. Maybe one tonight, but maybe not. For sure check back tomorrow though for the Darby and Liz German Extravaganza!

Darby Day Eve

The fiesta known to some as "La Fiesta de Pilar", to others as, "Darby Day", is here tomorrow! I allowed myself a little shopping spree at H&M to celebrate. Not too much of one though. I´d ratehr travel and look like crap than don some sweet threads and sit at home.

Really, I´m up to my same ol tricks. Good practice last night and a good class this morning. Annika and I went shopping after, obviously, and she was amazed by Le Clerc and it´s enormity. She says they have nothing like it in Germany. We don´t have much like it in teh U.S. either, but all our stores are so big, so the idea of a humongous store is not off my map.

I´m still waiting to have my first encounter with the Euro GAP. I´ll need some money saved for that because I can´t be held responsible for my actions in that store.

Tomorrow I have a language share at 10:30 and than am meeting annika for a concert put on by the university at noon. That´s about the extent of my birthday plans. I have a few random pictures for you though...
This, to the left, is a really old house in teh middle of down town Pamplona. I went down there yesterday to buy a bus ticket and spied it on the corner of one of the many round abouts (they don´t really have stop lights here, just big circles you have to sort of double dutch your way into without hitting the rope, so to speak). I thought it was cool, so I snapped it. I´m told it´s still a residence, which is extra cool.
To the right is the neighborhood dog. He lives with a man around the corner from our house that owns some pigs. It´s always kind of stinky over there, but he´s a very good dog. He never barks and is always just sort of hanging around in teh street for a pet or a pat on the head.
To the left is a hedge that runs all along the sidewalk on my way out to the trail where I jog. It always smells like mint and pumpernickel, in other words, delicious. Mom, do you know what kind of hedge it is?
This picture of the clouds is specifically for Whitty the Woo Cave. It was much more breathtaking in person, but I thought you´d enjoy the cloud picture, since you take so many. I´d say we´ve got better clouds in Spain than in Portland. France had some good ones too. You better come check it out Whits.
And finally, to the left is a picture of the largest boxes of cereal I have ever seen. The ones on the lower shelves are regular sized, so you can tell how huge they are. But, I was rather disappointed when I picked one up to have Annika take a picture of me next to... it was empty. Sorry Kev, your dream ceareal box is a fake. But, pretty cool lookin´.

I´m not sure when I´ll get to blog again. Tomorrow´s going to be busy and I´m heading to Bonn on Thursday. I´ll get something up after my trip ASAP. Adios.

Go team!

I snagged a few pics from the game last night so you all can see where I practice and who with. Team Navarra (that´s us) smoked team Logrono by about 20, it was awesome. To the left is a picture of the gym from the bleachers up above. Usually, while we practice, two screens are down, dividing it into 3 courts, which we use one of. There´s also a sport court with a blue rubber floor in another building that we sometimes practice on. Down at the far end, you can see team Navarra chatting at halftime.



This picture to the right is sorta blurry, I had to brighten it a lot. Team Navarra is in blue. #14 is Maria. This is pretty much where she stays on offense, or "attaque" as it´s called here. She likes to rome around the 3, hit a shot or drive. I think Izaskun and Pui are in the middle, following the shot. Those two are some hard workers. Izaskun drives and finishes really well and Puis always all over the place. I can´t tell who´s being blocked out in the post, but Anna took the shot, barely visible on the right. She´s only 16 years old and a very good shooter.

I found out last nigth that most of my team is are still in their teens! Maria and Pui are 23 and 25, but the average age is probably 19. It´s so weird I´m playing with girls who are younger than ones I´ve coached. But, whatever, as long as it´s basketball.

Now, I want to show you a picture of Lourdes and I, since she´s so wonderful and sweet...
She doesn´t usually have that weird look on her face, I just don´t think she was ready for the picture. It´s the only one I have of she and I, so, sorry Lourdes.

Finally, here is a lovely picture of myself in my element... writing blogs to my friends and family back home in my sweet gnome pajamas on a Sunday morning.


Have a great Sunday! It´s gorgeous here in Darblona, sunny and crisp. I better get a run in before the "chocolate drawer" placed accessibly in the kitchen and filled with Swiss Milka chocolate, catches up with me. I think it´s safe to say I´ve had a bit of chocolate in some form every day I´ve been here. Yikes stripes! Love to ya.

Bonn Voyage!

So... I´m going to Bonn for my birthday! It´s so exciting. Liz and I will have a couple days together to hang out and then she has a game in Halle Sunday night. Her coach said he´s 95 percent sure that I can just ride with the team to watch the game. Isn´t that cool? I get to see Liz play basketball in Germany! I´ll be sure to take pictures for the blog so you can all see too.

I had my first language share with Lourdes this morning. I loved it. We talked for almost 2 hours, which is extra long. My head was spinning by the time we were done, but she says I´m understanding her a lot better than when we first met and that she understands me when I speak, which is good. Now I need to get the grammar and more vocabulary down.

Going over to her house is like going to see one of my grandmothers. She just welcomed me right in, had an extatic smile on her face the whole time and fed me cookies and tea. We don´t even speak the same language and I know very little about her life, but I know she´s one of the sweetest people I´ve ever met. If anyone wants to come visit, we´ll certainly swing by her apartment to say hello.

Tonight my team has a game, so I´ll go watch, which is cool and lame at the same time. I´d so much rather be out there playing. Last night at practice, Maria got stuck guarding me, meaning she´s a guard, not a post, so it´s pretty easy to score on her. Everyone is a little bit impressed with the hook shot right now because it´s unfamiliar to them. Just wait until I start launching them from 15 feet out, they´ll get tired of it really quick. Anyhow, she and I would just laugh every time I scored on her. We also played this game where it´s one on one, you start at half court and just go at the basket and try to score over the D. Once I faked like I was going to one hoop and went to the other one and that got a good laugh because it left Maria in the dust.

I´m not meaning to toot my own horn here, I just think it´s cool that jokes and silliness can come across even though we´re not using words. We chatted a little bit more last night, some of the girls on the team and I, but the true evidence of our characters and who we each are as people is shown while we play better than when we attempt to talk. It´s pretty neat.

One thing I do understand though is when the girls cuss. And, it´s a lot, they have potty mouths. If they ever miss a shot, it´s "mierda", shit. Yesterday I heard a new one, "hijo de puta", which is son of a bitch. And those are the only two I´m familiar with, just wait until i have a larger vocab. Hilarious.

I don´t curse too much, only yell when I get pissed, thanks to the excellent training in biting my tongue I received at GFU. So, it always sort of shocks me when I hear it and understand it. Funny stuff. Watch out... I may come back with the mouth of a Spanish sailor : )

As you can tell, my first weekend alone is going pretty well. I felt lonely last night, but after practice, I felt better. I watched Mrs. Doubtfire for some nannying tips after my language share this afternoon and had fresh tomatos and fresh buffalo mozzarella (that title is so funny) with olive oil and a little fish dish for lunch. Yummy! Now, I´m going to shop a bit more for my mom´s birthday present and try to explore downtown. Hasta luego!

Odd food no. 2

For the first time ever, I ate a lichi yesterday. It was really good. The best way I can describe the texture and flavor is a mix between a grape and an onion. I know it sounds gross, but it´s not. The peel is bright pink, the color of a raspberry, but looks a lot like the bud from a dog wood tree. You tear it off and a soft, juicy, white fruit is inside. It´s shaped like a tiny pumpkin, but feels like the inside of a grape. It´s very sweet with a bit of bitterness. I´m not sure if we have them in the states, but check them out if you can, like at Zupans or something.

Mini-update

Not much has been up in Spain the last couple days. I´ve been going to practice and class and driving the kids around and eating of course. I´ve also been hunting this little bird that pirches on the window sill when I´m on the computer. Dave was wondering what types of birds and bugs we have over here and I keep trying to get a pic of this bird and it always flies away.

As far as basket goes, the team is now talking to the German Embassy to see if I have enough german blood to play in games. Remember the older guy who I talked to to start playing on the team, Yuso? Well, I saw him again last night and it was weird. He´s always grabbing my neck or putting his arm around me. Maybe it´s just my American bubble of space, but I´m weirded out. We´re going to start a language share on Monday mornings, during which he will stay on his side of the table at all times.

Next week is a holiday for half the week. I say it´s for my birthday, but the Spanish say it´s for some other important thing, whatever. I get Thursday-Sunday off, so I´m going to try and fly to Bonn, Germany to see Liz play a little German ball. I´m sure we´ll eat lots of sausages and drink lots of beer too. I can´t wait! It´ll be so nice to see a friendly face on my birthday! I hope it works out.

Class is about the same. I´m staying home this weekend while the family is in France to catch up on studying and try to go do a language share with Lourdes. A girl from my Spanish class, Annika, and I are going to a movie Sunday as well. A Spanish movie and we´ll speak in Spanish. She´s German and has a little german accent in Spanish and English. Charming. I also plan on exploring downtown a bit more and to go to the bus station and check out schedules for weekend trips.

Louise and i are meeting Catherine and the older son, Max, for Chinese in a few, so I better run. I´m enjoying my time here, but I miss all the little things from home too. Say hello to Portland for me!

France-y Shmancy

I went, I saw, I had a crepe. The weekend in France was very nice. The family´s home there is called Patxoula (Puh-choo-luh) and it´s in a small town called Villefranque. It reminded me of a beach town in Oregon, though it´s not close to the beach. There is a central town area with a grocery store, bakery, dentist, restaurant, etc. You drive out into the country side and that´s where all the homes are... large ones. All the buildings seem to be white stucco with red trim in Villefranque and there are lots of rolling green hills. Here is a picture of Patxoula:
I tried to brighten it up a bit, sorry it´s so dark. You enter through a large wooden gate and come down a long driveway to get to it. Like a fairy tale. There´s one large central room when you walk it with windowns from floor to ceiling looking out over the park-like backyard. To the left is the kitchen and, right, is a TV room. The colors inside are very bright reds and yellows. Upstairs are all teh bedrooms. Here´is a picture of the backyard and pool:
The water was very warm and it was nice out Sunday, so we got to go swimming. I was feeling a bit under the weather, so I slept til 11 both days, yikes! France is for rest, not work, so I had the weekend off though I was with the family.

Louise and I went into Bayonne, the larger town the home is near. My friend Paul infromed me yesterday that it´s the birthplace of the bayonette. Don´t you love items that can do you double damage in a violent way? I know I do... right. Anyhow, the town is charming. Lots of long, skinny cobblestone streets with high apartment buildings on each side and shops on the ground floors. It´s just what you´d imagine old time Europe would look like. Here are some pictures from downtown Bayonne:














The one on the left is Louise in front of the fountain in sort of the center of downtown across from teh cathedral. In the picture to the right you can see the narrow streets and the cathedral´s peak sticking up in the background. This one below on teh left is of homes and apartments that sit right on the river, across from downtown Bayonne. While taking this picture, two French guys came up to me and babbled a bunch in French and then walked away. Louise informed me that one came up and said, "hey, baby, I lost your number, can you give it to me again?" When I didn´t answer, he said, "fine, we´re through then," and walked away. So I guess I had a French boyfriend for a minute and we broke up. Not everyone can say that. Is it cheating if it´s only for a minute? Please forgive me Daveo.

In the ehart of downtown Bayonne lies a huge cathedral. You´ll just be walking along and suddenly a street will open onto a square, the picture with Louise in it. The cathedral is situated there and here are a few pics:

On the right you´ll see the spires of the building from inside. There´s sort of an open walkway all around a grass courtyard when you walk in. The actual church part was locked, so we just looked around the courtyard. Below is one of the corners of the courtyard. I was standing behind one of those open walls you see across the way from me when I took the picture. Hopefully that gives you an idea of what it looked like.





To the right here, you´ll see a statue from the cathedral. It´s headless. Louise, the ever informative tour guide, told me that during the French Revolution, they cut the heads off all the statues of kings and queens in the cathedral. Very interesting. So, none of the statues have heads.

After our tour of the town, Louise and I met the family a few blocks up, at Jose´s apartment. I got to meet his family and have some champagne and enjoy the old architecture of their apartment. It is three levels up, right next to the city walls and gates, in the middle of downtown. As Jose informed me, if you have a house in France, it´s out in the country. Most people actually live right downtown rather than out in neighborhoods. It really preserves an old time feel I think.

That was about the extent of Bayonne, but on Sunday, we got to visit the chateau the family is renovating. It´s so beautiful and Louise told me it once belonged to Napoleon... yes, THE Napoleon Bonaparte. Wow. When they bought it, it had been burnt out and had squaters living in it for years. They had to start from the ground up to rebuild it. It reminds me of something out of a Jane Austen movie. Here´s a picture of the home from the outside and the view from the top room:





Gorgeous to see! The inside is still being worked on, but it reminds me of that Charlie Brown cartoon where they´re in France in a chateau... yeah. The grounds also have a chapel and stables, but the pics I took are too dark to post. Anyhow, cool stuff.

Those are pretty much the highlights of my first trip to France. It was cool, when we crossed the border Catherine and I did a little celebration for my first time there. No champagne in the car of course. We had a bunch of special food while there as well. Fresh bread from teh bakery every day, a berry tart with berry mouse inside, the best souffle of my life (only the 2nd, but incomparable to the one from Morton´s at home), fresh mushrooms sauteed with cilantro, and fau grau (sp?). Yes, I ate duck liver. And, it´s not bad. Very dense and slicable, it could easily be a spread. If I hadn´t known it was duck liver, I may have enjoyed it more.

Now, a quick update on my vacation time... I have the 1st week in December off, not January, so if anyone wants to come travel with me during that time, lemme know and we can plan. I´m thinking Ireland, London or Paris. The family has decided not to go on the African safari, but rather go to an African island off the coast of Portugal and they´re inviting me to go! So, I´ll be in Africa for Christmas, isn´t that cool/nuts? I´m not sure if I´ll get a chance to come home until July, which is a little sad, but I knew this might be the case. I´ll blog more tomorrow or so on some of the regular day to day, but I hope you enjoy this one! Love to all.