Snow in Elgeta

We had a little bit of snow recently. We went for a winter wonderland stroll with plenty of fun... snowballs, whitewashes and abstract snow angels. We all ended up as snow fairies by the end of the stroll.

Anboto Hike

Here are a few pictures from a sunset hike up Anboto, I believe it is the tallest mountain in my residing province of Euskadi. It was a good workout for me, but the other beast just scaled it. One thing that is dear to my heart in the Basque Country has been the gorgeous landscape and mountains. Now I have scaled one.

Classes

I haven't said much about my work here but here are a few blurbs from my journal about teaching here:

My classes at the Official Language School or the Spanish abbreviation the EOI have been mostly quite rewarding. I find the lower levels a little more challenging because I have had a lack of good activities appropriate for the level but I am learning what might be a good idea. They all look super bored while I am in the class though. On a better note, I had a really good discussion about home schooling in the highest-level class, the C1. I am not a particular advocate of home-schooling but the Spanish students had some great feedback about the values and disadvantages of doing home schooling. Most came to a consensus that there needs to be more home involvement in the education process, but didn’t agree with full rights for the parents to educate their children any way they desired, that their needed to be some sort of overseeing or tests to show children’s progression to match at least that of the public education system. I had a new appreciation for Alli’s desire to homeschool my darling nephew, who I miss greatly.

I have started to feel more competent in the lower levels with some specifically prepared activities, but the C1 and B2 classes are still my favorites.

This is a blurb I typed up probably a month ago, but never posted:

I have finished my third week of classes and today will be my second week with some little boys in a neighboring town. Two are five years old and one is three. One of the five year olds told me that I was dying because I didn’t speak Basque. It was very challenging last week because the boys were hard to keep doing anything and weren’t very obedient. The mothers told me that one of them would stay with me next week and if one of them misbehaved then the parent would discipline them. It was nearly impossible to teach them anything in English because they wouldn’t listen to me and then I would try to tell them in Spanish and they would start giggling. I must have a funny accent. While we were walking through town, they were running up to me and hitting me on the butt. The mothers were just letting them do it and then I said no and they kept doing it. I swapped one of them on the tummy when he touched my bum and then the mother told him not to. They are very young boys, so I think for today I just need to have some fun interactive activities planned for them and I might just speak in English, ooh maybe twister, then I can teach colors…

I am no longer teaching those boys, because the mothers eventually wanted to leave it. The boys usually ended up running around the house, crying or doing something else but never really listened to me, even in activities.

I do have one other "clase particular" with Amaia, an older sister of one of the boys and she is a sweetheart. She has an excellent level of English and so we just spend the time chatting and she works on her speaking and listening. We went shopping once, made cookies another time and went to a music fair. In some ways I feel like an older mentor; I enjoy it.

España, je je je

Funny things about España:

They start numbering the ground floor at zero. So what would be our second floor is the first floor or “1a/primera planta”.

Marijuana is legal to smoke. (I don’t smoke any thing, tobacco or anything, but do smell marijuana often even just outside the university buildings were I am currently staying). Although one of the other Basque guys here told me that marijuana is illegal, but others say it is legal to have up to a certain amount on you, but not legal to sell or buy it. Also, there are stipulations about growing it. …?

Also people smoke out the windows of the residence building.

One of the Spanish girls I met said that her doctor was smoking in the room during her doctor’s visit. The doctor, take note. BUT be careful to judge, although smoking is much more common here the girls said this should not be happening. People do smoke in places that say “Espacio sin fumar” or essentially, “Smoke-free zone”.

They park on the sidewalk; anywhere there is enough space.

They have long pillows so that the pillow is the same as the width of the mattress.

They have socialized medicine. I went to see the doctor and I just checked in at the hospital, gave them my passport, told them I was working here at the school and waited in line. The doctor did all the paperwork while seeing me and sent me off with my diagnosis, treatment advice and prescription. I didn't have to pay or check-out, or anything.