Little excursions that I have been fortunate to be chauffeured to with some of the other guys have included an afternoon in Lekeitio, a small coastal town, with Clément. We picked up a hitchhiker on the way and Clement was quite trusting as he had accidentally left his wallet and camera in the backseat, but all was well. We enjoyed a wall through town and on the beach.

Also, we went on a hike in the Basque mountains with Camille, Marcelo, Clement, and Michele. The fog rolled in late afternoon and we realized we only made it up halfway so decided we would have to make another visit sometime later.

We also went last weekend to pick up Marcelo from the airport in Santander. Roman the mighty Russian/Spanish hulk was a good chauffeur and we all took a lovely dip in the ocean, but sadly I 've no pictures to show for it.

More excursions to report in upcoming blogs, hopefully with more detail...

ÉIBAR

(pronounced A-Bar with the accent on the A)

Because of what I had heard I did not expect grand things coming here. So I was quite content upon arriving. Everyone says it is ugly and industrial, which many of the buildings are. There is always the hum and clunk of factories but it is often mixed with laughing children playing football with friends and people out in the street talking. Eibar is in the valley of a few surrounding mountains which you can see above the many tall apartment buildings.

Photo footnotes:

Jose is wearing the plaid shirt and is the English director who has treated me as another daughter. The beats are gigantic and some of the best Basque produce. Gipuzkoa is the province I am living in and one of several that comprise the provinces of the Basque Country today. There are some varying politic stances in the Basque Country regarding what actually comprises Euskal Herria, or the Basque Country, but Gipuzkoa is included in all politic stances. Those are the rocks of Oñati, and I am not yet climbing as you might tell by my attire in the photo. The last pic is me on the river cruise in Barakaldo, see below for hat explanation.

It is hard not to miss home now that I am not site seeing and busily traveling, but I received a very warm welcome at the EOI (the school I will be at). Jose Ignacio, the English Director has been such a kind and welcoming person and has introduced me to people at the university, and people in Eibar. The other professors that I have met are very kind and I am looking forward to a year working with them. I have only begun observing classes and am not yet officially working. I can observe classes "if I want to" but otherwise I have been trying to get my living situation figured out. The students have been fun to meet and I think the motivation level is present to really want to speak English.

I am currently staying at a student residence. At the moment the girls' floor does not have a kitchen, and the are the public swimming pool type with push button and inconsistent heat. It is just over a half an hour walk to the school, but the people have been very kind and helpful. I am also enjoying getting to know some other “extranjeros” staying on the floor below. Most of them aren’t students but are doing internships or working as Engineers at a research institute here in Eibar. There are also some sweet girls on my floor but most leave on weekends and so I have been spending more time with the international guys below.

The world Champion of indoor rock-climbing is from Eibar, and I am going to check out if there is a rock-climbing group of some sort. There is an indoor rock climbing gym at the public sports center or “polideportivo”. The gym doesn't provide equipment, so I am waiting on my shoes to get started. I did meet another auxiliar or language assistant that has some extra gear, so hope to get together in Eibar or Oñati, which is nearby.

After I get situated I think I will have loads of extra time, so I hopefully will be able to get in some extra traveling and also work on my sketching and portfolio. I would like to start giving private lessons as well, and have one contact for that so far. There is an organization in Spain that volunteers to help blind people called Once. They organize a large lottery that blind people often sell tickets for, giving them a means to earn money. I have heard of an Once office in Eibar and need to ask in the town hall about it and about another volunteer organization that works with people with Down's Syndrome.

I have gone to the media presentation/official Basque welcome in Vittoria-Gasteiz and also the orientation in Barakaldo, which is near Bilbao. In Barakaldo, they gave the Language assistants baseball hats which the ayuntamiento de Barakaldo crest stamped on them, but it was quite funny to see a load of English speakers with the iconic American baseball caps dispersed. Mine came in quite handy to settle the wind's effect on my hair while I was on the river cruise they also provided for us. It was a tour of the renovation of the industry in the area. Bilbao before the instalation of the Guggenheim was an industry hub, a nasty industrial factory field, but has been undergoing renovation within the last decade and has become more cosmopolitan. I still have yet to visit Bilbao outside of the metro, but look forward to making the trip.

I have gone on several other small day trips and will post some photos for those...

SAN SEBASTIAN

The first picture and one below were taken during the foggy AM and the top right is from the beach in the afternoon. The bottom right is taken on the hike up Monte Urgull, from the other side of a tunnel, which I believe was originally a shooting range. To the left is a self-portrait of a tourist. (Again, loads more pics on my facebook...)

So now I am back to where my blog started (although not yet caught up). I got in to San Sebastian at 5:00 off the night bus. After getting oriented, I walked ten metres or so to the bus stop for the bus I would need but it started running at 7:10 AM and I still had over an hour to wait. I wasn’t sure what to do, but a taxi dropped someone off right in front of me so I paid 6 euros to go to the hostel instead of waiting at a cold dark bus stop. There was a little bit of concern about what I should do while I waited there, but it all worked out.

I used internet at my hostel until my laptop battery ran dry. Then I went for a walk along the boardwalk and a large jaunt around downtown. I bought some figs and mezcla de frutos secos or essentially trail mix and enjoyed them by the ocean. I’d gotten a map at the tourist information center and planned some activities for the upcoming and next day.

Bits from my journal (excuse the grammar I was writing for myself):

“I am just sitting on a bench in front of the ocean on the boardwalk and I have gotten a lot of funny looks, maybe that is the way they look at each other, but I have gotten several second glances from sort of miffed looking faces.”

[I think this was either because I was eating trail mix for breakfast or because I was wearing a beret because that is more commonly a hat an older man wears even though it is sort of “de moda” right now. ]

“Mostly people have been very kind. At the grocery store, the produce woman who sold me figs, the hostelero after I communicated with him in Spanish. It is amazing how it comes back even though I probably sound funny about some things. Like I told the tourist office woman that I entered the shopping centre.”

So in San Sebastian I looked at different cell phone providers, walked around quite a bit, felt like a tourist, hiked Monte Urgull. I had some paella at a restaurant in the bay near the beach which was somewhat of a challenge to eat. I sort of chuckled and asked the waitress how to eat the large headed shrimp, if I was supposed to eat the head. I think she said to suck or slurp out the inner head juice, but I filled up fine before needing to eat those bits. There was too much food really. Also, they tried to give and charge me for bread. I just didn't touch it while I ate and then explained that I hadn't wanted and hadn't touched it. For unwary travelers, this is a common addition to a lunch bill if you aren't careful. I then enjoyed a walk and rest on the beach which was beautiful and the sun was shining.

A note on the video, I realize it doesn't quite demonstrate the paradise I says it is, but I included it as proof I was up there. If it doesn't show it is because it took over half an hour to load, so I am just posting...

In the late afternoon I met the director of the English department from the EOI (Escuela Oficial de Idiomas or Official Language School) from Eibar. His name is Jose Ignacio Valles Rouce and he is very kind. He drove the hour commute to and from Eibar to San Sebastian to bring me to the student residence where I have been staying.

A few more views

I had to include one more post with pictures of this darling boy wearing a scarf. He was out with his grandmother who wore a suit and both looked very Parisian.

also, Louis said this wall artist (the first picture I am not sure on the spelling, sorry) was important. I wanted to share it.

I hope you enjoyed looking through my lens of Paris.

So any interested readers know, I have loads more pictures on my facebook, which says more than I can communicate on the blog....

More photos

Levi's are an expensive jean in Europe. I took a picture of the red and black plaid shirt because I am sure I have seen one similar in Idaho.

There were all sorts of types in Paris. I especially liked seeing women with curly frizzy hair and life as it is. Paris was romantic and fabulous and full of real people. I see an existence of stereotypes about other cultures and their peoples and an exoticism held in place about beautiful ideals, but even though people do more commonly dress up a little more outside of America, especially outside of American university towns where students habit wearing pajamas to class, there isn't a superior race. I loved Paris and I think I want to say that it was just as human as any other place. I highly recommend it :)

La Mode

These pictures are for the boutique The Connection, from Lewistown, MT. I did try to take some pictures at another shop that I just loved the dress of, but the shop attendant came out and made me erase the picture. So I have not as many as I would like. We did go shopping at least twice and the second time at the Galeries LaFayette. The women’s department was over 5 floors with different departments in every section of each of the floors. The golden dome in the pictures is the interior of the Galeries LaFayette. (I bought a striped scarf that although is not the classic white and red or blue, it will continue to be my Paris souvenir).