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 : )

El Doctor: My first experience with rubber ankle bands

I had to go to the doctor for a check up in order to play on the hoop team that I can´t really play on... hmm, that makes sense. Inaki showed me twice how to get there, but I still got lost. I left at 3:30 for a 4:00 appointment and finally figured out where I was at about 4 and found a parking spot at 4:15. I´ve heard it´s culturally ok to be late in Spain, so I wasn´t too worried. But when I got there, the doctor called the sports pavillion to tell them I made it, meaning he had called to say I was late earlier! Oops.

But, I´m getting ahead of myself. Just getting into the building was a rough one for me. I pushed the little buzzer outside the tall building that looks like an apartment complex. The doctor answered, in Spanish. At that point I was all worked up because I was more than 15 minutes late and wasn´t understanding much Spanish, let alone english. I told the doctor who I was and he buzzed me in. I couldn´t tell where his office was, based on the buzzer, so I had to go back out and ask. He buzzed me back in and waited in teh hallway for me. In Spain the floor numbering is different from home. What we would call the 1st floor is the 2nd, etc.

Anyhow, I found doc and then he made the A-OK call. Like every doctor´s appointment, first thing´s first. He had to interview me on my medical history. I think I understood what he was saying for the most part. I either told him I was completely healthy, or that I have cancer, respiritory problems and a history of heart disease in my family. He nodded and smiled, so I figured I was good to go. At a few key moments I misunderstood him. Have you ever been in a foreign country and had the word menstration yelled at you repeatedly? That´s yet another new experience I´m crossing off my¨"to do" list.

Next came the physical. He sort of pointed into a back room and motioned which clothes I needed to remove and which could stay on. This could have been a highly embarrassing moment also. So I figured I´d just leave more on than I´d take off and let him tell me again if I needed to remove more.

First, I took off my shoes and stood on a glass plate about a foot off the ground and he turned on a light beneath my feet for a few seconds. I´ve never done that at home. Then I touched my toes, tested how hard I could breath into a tube, the usual. Next came the really odd part. He had me lay down on the table and strapped rubber bands to my ankles and writsts and then attached dull metal spikes to the rubber which were attached to a machine through a cord. Then he took more cords and attached them to my stomach and chest with little air suction thingys. It was all quite a mad scientist situation really. I don´t really remember what happened next... hopefully not a Seinfeld at the dentist moment. I think the machine was turned on and I laid there for a minute or two.

Post-machine was the skin fold test, which I´d never had, but made me feel quite fat. I rode and exercise bike for 10 minutes and had more little suction things on me and doc gradually upped the resistence. By the end it was pretty hard and I kind of wanted to push him away from the damn knob! But, I made it, harm free. He gave me a note to give to the sports club, who knows what it says. I guess I should read it. And that´s it, I´m cleared to play for my team, but I can´t really play. This is a true test of making every practice a game situation. Scott, you should really use that psychology. Tell half the team they aren´t going to play Friday and see how they do in practice. They´ll be animals I tell you!

Quite an experience. And now, not one I will forget because it has been immortalized ala blog. Tonight´s the Los Delincuentes concert, yay! That´ll be blogged tomorrow. This weekend I get to play in a game Saturday night with the not so good team from the club. Hoops are hoops though. Yesterday I took Alexis to one of the Navarra games, the team I practice with. He had a lot of fun and so did I, explaining things to him and such. And that´s about it. I better get a tema session done and get a run in because it´s pretty out again. Word.