Back to the big ear

I bought my ticket home this weekend. 10th of July. I have mixed feelings. At first I was very excited. I'll have Sara with me and we'll get to do a tour of the West coast. I'll get to see mom and dad and the rest of the fam who I miss so much! I'll also have a good chunk of time at home to get sick of it again.

But, now I'm realizing I have no idea when I'll be back to Spain. I'm really going to miss Iñaki's family and how they've welcomed me here and tried to make me feel at home. We had a birthday lunch for him on sunday with his dad's fam and I found myself looking up at the faces around the table and getting a little choked up.

And, I don't know if Iñaki will get to join me at home or not. Because we don't know where we'll be next year yet, he may just be in Spain, saving money until we can meet at our new home, wherever that might be. Scary. I know I can handle it, I'm Darby, not the girlfriend of Iñaki, but I kind of like having him around ; )

No matter what, I'm excited to be in Portland for the summer and in my neck of the woods and with my peeps and my language and my culture. I need to recharge my bats.

Aight, I better get to Spanish class. I'm taking the intermediate test for a degree in about a month! Javier says the intermediate should be easy for the level of our class and the advanced, a challenge. Since I have to pay to take the test, I'm taking the int.

Love to ya!

Bum foot and Catholic guilt

Hi!

I've had a pain in my right foot for a while now. It's the same foot that caused me lots of discomfort in college with plantar fati-whatsits. Gotta love wearing a boot to bed. Now, the issue seems to be a little tendony and is starting in my ankle and aching down to my big toe (phys ther majors, feel free to comment), especially after practices and games. I'm taking a week or so off of hoops in hopes to heal up.

The issue is, I feel bad. I've never really taken a large amount of time like this off from a team. And half of me really wants that time off, injury or not. So, I'm afraid I'm making to big a deal of it. But, it's hurt for a month and not improved, so no matter how minor, I need to rest it or it won't get better.

Isn't it strange how playing competetive sports can do that to you? Guilt you? I mean, hello, my good basketball days are over, college was as competetive as it's gonna get and if I want time off I should take it. I don't even care about this team and half the time I spend with them is just uncomfortable for me. Why can't I just listen to my own body's reaction and stop? I want to stop. I should stop. But I feel bad.

It's Catholic school... just kidding. It's being conditioned to never stop. Sad but true. I'm a product of a thousand different psychological games that coaches have to play with you, it is their job to play with you, to get you to preform at your highest level. Sick and twisted.

But, I think I turned out ok. And, since I am obviously detoxing now, I think I'll make it through.

Newest update... Thailand may be in my near future. I just got a tiny bit of info on it and now I'm telling everyone. I'm so lame. Tomorrow it will probably be going to Australia to teach a small aboriginal tribe that wants to assimilate to the world! A ver...

Besos y abrazos y Guillrmos mojados!

I did Madrid... in part

I'm at a crossroads... yet again. I think, maybe until I "get settled", I will continue to have these crossroads because it will be a constant battle to find work from year to year. But, I've been asking everyone's advice on this, so let's not taint the blog with more of it, shall we? I suppose any type of tainting to this pathetic excuse of a blog, at least this year, is a good thing. Words to the page my friends, it's much harder than it sounds.

Madrid and Salamanca were b'u't'full last week. Salamanca is small. The main square can be seen in a new movie that's out called "Vantage Point." They say the whole thing is in Salamanca, but mostly the overhead shots and the main square are it. The stuff outside the square is in Mexico. But, for a taste of where I was, check out the movie. There's a famous Spanish actor in it named Eduardo Noriega. It's his first American film. He's quite the looker behind the beard ladies... and gents?

Anyhoo, we walked all around Salamanca for one evening and saw the cathedral, the university and the main square. We went for pintxos at night and it was great. The cathedral was kind of creepy as it's all saints week so they have all the dying Jesus floats out on display and those always weird me out. As you remember last year, folks dress up like klansmen, but it's religious garb here, and march the stations of the cross, among other statues, through the street. Everytime I make eye contact with a dead or dying Jesus I get a chill and a cold feeling.

I bought a special t-shirt for good Friday actually... It's from the Big Lebowski. Remember Jesus, the professional bowler played by Jon Toturo in that movie? Well, I found a sweet T in Madrid that had a picture of him on it being super sassy, and the caption reads "Nobody fucks with Jesus." I felt it was approriate. After all, they say Jesus rose, hence, you can't really fuck with Jesus (son of God) because he comes back. As well, in the Big Lebowski, Jesus is the best bowler around. So, it's a double meaning. Anyhow, it's my first religious/raunchy T-shirt and maybe the only one of it's kind. Two themes on one shirt that have no business being in the same sentence, but really, they do. I dunno, I have a twisted sense of humor.

Anyhow, my trip... The university in Salamanca is one of the oldest in the world. They have a large door facade on one side with a million things carved into it and one tiny frog somewhere. If you find the frog, you have good luck. So, we did that... yay luck!

It's a fairly small town, Salamanca, so we saw most everything in one evening and then went for pintxos. Pintxos is how they say tapas in the north of Spain. I actually prefer it to the term tapas because when you say you went to a tapas bar, people always think you said topless bar. Back to it, the pintxos in Salamanca are famous. Not for their deliciousness, though they are, but for the price. Each time you order a drink, you get a free pintxo. And they're not small. We got tiny plates of paella, eggs and potatoes and chunks of bread with various mayo based spreads slathered on them. At one place, we had two wines a paella and a potato/egg/chorizo mix a piece for 9 euros total. It was great. A fabulous ambiance too. The bars are packed and you fight to the front to order, stand on one leg to eat and then off to the next bar, nextdoor to see what tiny treat they have prepared for you. Well, that doesn't sound wonderful when I read it, but such great people watching to do and convos to listen to.

Next, Madrid. I will have to go back. We had one awesome night out. Gma Billie and Pa Pete would be proud of how Iñaki and I cut the rug... or the cigarette covered, waxy concrete floor, as it was. It was a Thursday night and still lots of folks out and about. One club just had really great music, so we hung there most of the night and danced hardcore. I'm talking a little swing, a lot of dipping and twirling and maybe a salsa attempt. Anyhow, great fun.

We walked around on Friday as well and it reminds me of NY how it's sectioned off into various neighborhoods, with big buildings everywhere and a large park in the middle and museums. Everything was closed on Good Friday, so I'm going back some weekend soon. I'll take more pictures then.

Here area few links for a bit of visualization...

Salamanca, Madrid, Me...

Alive and pretty healthy. Lovins' by the tubfull!

Carnaval

This past Tuesday, Katie and I decided to ditch our obligations and soak up some Basque culture, which I truly needed. I gave my 14 year old girls team the night off and rescheduled my Tuesday tutoring session for Thursday.

And why do all this you ask? Car-nah-vahl... carnaval! It´s sort of like the Mardi gras of Basque country but much older and a totally different celebration. It´s sort of like Halloween, but there are specific, historic, legendary costumes. Some kids just go as whatever, and others choose a typical get up. There´s no door to door trick or treating, but a big party.

Katie and I went to Lanz. Here´s a tiny description. As the link tells you, the winter nights were long and boring and needed a bit of folklore and a reason to party. As well, a great way to ring in the spring. In Lanz, they follow the old carnaval legend of Milochin. Milochin was a giant robber, they say. He used to come down from the hills and rob the townspeople of Lanz with his buddy, Silipot (I think is how you say it), and then they would run back up into the mountains with all they had stolen. One year, the townspeople decided to stop him and captured the pair and ran them through the town for everyone to see. Afterwards, they killed them both and had a big bonfire and dance in the center of town. Mom, you should ask Tom Graff if he knows any of this stuff.

So, the town re-enacts this each year when the sun sets on carnaval and it´s so cool. Katie and I went way too early, because someone from my school said we had to. But, Irene and Angel were there an hour before to meet us and they got a better parking spot than we did! Anyhow, we arrived at 4 and waited around and walked around the tiny town about 10 times, sat on an old wall, chatted and had a snack in the car... it was a beautiful day, and crisp. A good one for passing time in a small town. There was just one bar so we had a beer and a coffee and then just perused. Anyhow, once the sun set, the festivities began. Irene, Angel, KT and I stood on the side of the road and all these guys dressed as sort of clown witches and sacks of potatoes came running by and hit the townspeople and threw them all around. I guess they are Milochin´s gang. The sack guys have huge wooden pitchforks and they really get scary with poking you. The witch clowns hit us with brooms. Angel is much smaller than Irene and Katie and I and they grabbed him and threw him across the street, it was hilarious!

Then came Milochin, in capture. He´s a big giant they´ve made out of broom sticks and dressed like the clown witches. Silipot is a big fat guy that rolls along behind him, also captured, and is dressed like the potato sack guys. They walk them all through the town to show they have caught them and they are guarded by the guys who are going to shoot them in the town square and two guys carrying the fire to burn their bodies with. Sounds violent, I know, but all old legends are that way.

So, the whole thing finished in the town square, where the exicutioners waited for the criminals. They shot them, and dismantled them and then did an old Basque dance in a circle for a while. The news was there and Irene said I should have gone and been like, "I came all the way from the U.S..." But I was too shy. I think I could have done it though, the español´s gettin´pretty good.

We headed home after that, but it was a cool adventure. I´ll try to upload my pictures soon.

I hope all is well back home. Talk to you soon I hope!

Parqueso

Hello!

I miss you! Whoever you are… if you are in Spain reading this, if you are from the States, I miss you. Lately, I just want to be around the special ones in my life and say goodnight to work. Probably because I have to change schools and my schedule could go all out of whack again just when it was starting to even out…

This past weekend was Jennifer’s last one here. She’s my Canadian friend who was au pairing for a family here. She got on a train for the long journey back this morning. For the last 4 days or so it’s been all Jennifer, all the time. I’ve been sort of a homebody the last few months, so I strapped it on and took one for the team.

The festivities began Friday, going out the Chinese food, then out downtown until 4. It was really fun and I hadn’t done that in a while. However, I had to coach a game the Saturday morning at 9 and got home at 5… you do the math. I rested up after getting our butts kicked and a big group of us went to a sidreria in Pamplona and went out for a bit after. A good time was had by all. The lack of sleep was totally worth it.

Sunday, I woke up at around 12 and realized I had a test on the whole first half of the year of my Spanish class. I started to study and then got a call from Irene because I had planned to have lunch with her, her dad and her grandma that day. I nervously walked back out the door at 2 that afternoon to meet them to get a ride over to Bene’s (grandma) without my usual helping hand/hindrance, Inyaki, by my side.

Bene has the cutest dog ever named Chiqui (chicky). He’s so good all the time and tiny and doesn’t smell bad and they seem to be the best of friends. Irene and Paco and I sat in the living room with the pup for a few as Bene finished up cooking. Mom, this is the kind of dog you want. He’s got mostly black fur with a little bit of Jack Russell tan coloring in the face. He comes to about my mid calf and doesn’t jump or drool and just reaches up and puts his chin on your knee when you sit near him, so cute. Oh, and your hand doesn’t smell after you’ve pet him.

The lunch was fabuloso. We had a paella and some roasted pork ribs that were delish ish ish ish. She even made a cake that had this creamy middle and frosted it, so yuum. In the middle of the paella, I reached in to serve myself more and Bene said, “I like what you’re doing.” Confused, I replied, “eh?” And she said, “the food is here to eat, never have shame about it, just eat,” or something to that effect. It was great. I told Inyaki about it later because I thought she might have been teasing me. He said she’s never ironic.

After the coffee, Irene looked over at me innocently and said, “wanna play Parcheese?” I said sure, I’d never really played before, but sure. As soon as everything was set up, I realized I had no idea what I was in for. The Mayos are professionals. The only sound you could hear for the first few minutes was the click of dice against the walls of hand sized wooden rolling barrels or Paco and Irene telling me it was my turn. The dice were being rolled so fast I had no idea when to go and when to stop! If someone rolls a 6, they go twice, so sometimes I would roll in the middle of someone else’s turn and they’d get annoyed.

Paco tried to take me under his wing and tell me when to move and which piece and where, but I was a little frazzled and not understanding too well. I think he ended up getting a little irritated at me. It was actually pretty funny because I’d never seen this side of them before, the Parcheese just brought it out of them. I ended up winning the last game so, yeah!

On the ride home, Paco helped explain some of the stuff I needed to study and I ended up getting a good grade on the test. My professor even told me that I’ve improved a lot, which was nice to hear. He always says, “es el amor.” (it’s the boyfriend). To which I respond, “no, es la familia del amor.” (it’s the family of my boyfriend). Inyaki has helped a lot, yes, but one of my big motivations has been not to look like an ass in front of his family and to be able to hold a conversation.

So, that’s all that’s new with me. Hangin’ in here trying to find a balance and think about the future, or at least to plan the next year. Hope to talk to you all soon! Loves!