Aritz & Arkaitz (Oak Tree & Mountaintop)

For at least 35 hours a week it's just the 3 of us. Sometimes we ride bikes, sometimes we have uno tournaments, sometimes we 'dance like Michael Jackson.' You never really can know what each new day will bring. But it's always an adventure, and usually pretty hilarious for me. I decided that a picture would best describe our time spent together.

Down to days...

-Cruised town in a bike gang a few nights ago with Gabriele and her friend Lire. We were only rolling 3 deep but hey a bike gang is a bike gang
-Koro took me to another town festival. At this one you stand in a narrow, very very crowded street and dance to music being played by a Basque band. To signal the official start of the festival, they set off a firecracker. Then, the people who are standing on all the balconies of the buildings that line the street start pouring water, flour, chocolate, vinegar, champagne, and whatever else they can find in their apartments onto the people standing in the street below. Koro thought it would be funny if she didn't tell me this beforehand. Good thing I have decent dodging skills.
-Happened upon an outdoor reggae concert in town a few nights ago. Best night ever.

hokie moments

-there are at least 2 Basque kids who yell 'Hokies!' if someone says 'let's go!'
-about a week ago I was hanging out with my friends Leire & Julen. I had been talking to Julen about music, mostly Metallica and Guns&Roses, two of his favorite bands. I mentioned that my college football team has a famous entrance to Enter Sandman, and then later that night when we were driving home, he plugged his ipod into the car stereo, started blasting the song asking 'this is it right?!?' and acted like he was jumping up and down to the song (as much as you can while safely driving a car). It was pretty amazing.
-while running near the water a few days ago I saw a guy in an Eagles #7 jersey. I yelled 'Michael Vick!' He yelled 'Yea!' And that was that. I'm quite the conversationalist I know.

some down, lots to go

meet awesome people

swim to island

go surfing

surf more

climb more mountains

bike to France

watch sunsets
'speak' spanish

longboard through the port at night

jump off rock wall into ocean

go to running of the bulls

¡julio!

-Helped with a week long camp for kids ages 3-6th grade to help them learn English
-More fútbol on the beach
-Met Leire and Ane, two students from the Basque University
-Moved in with a Spanish family. I now speak English for maybe an hour a day on average.
-New talent: riding a bike while wearing 2 book bags, carrying 2 boogie boards, and constantly looking over my shoulder to make sure that a 6-year-old and 8 year-old are still following behind me. All while not crashing...

Only in Spain

There was a party for the students on the last day of my Spanish class. We we all brought food from our home country, and then learned to play djembes. There were at least 15 people other people playing in our circle of loud druming awesomeness. In the picture are Caitlyn (American) and Johannes (German), 2 friends from class.



Yesterday was el dia del San Juan. To celebrate, people start bonfires all over the city. My friend Koro invited me to go see one of the biggest fires in town along with 6 of her friends. We saw this sweet sunset while we waited for the fires to start.



Things that would never happen in the US:

-this huge fire in the middle of the city

-all the kids around this fire who were starting other small fires...by themselves...

-if you take a piece of bark from a certain tree on this holiday it is considered good luck. However, the tree has a very small trunk, and to get bark you have to climb up pretty high since all the lower bark has been taken. Also, the bark is kind of hard to peel off. Spain's solution: send small children to climb up the tree with knives...







One of Koro's friends taught me her Basque dancing ways










Koro is the lady directly to the right of me in this picture. She loves showing me new things and teaching me about San Sebastian and the culture here. I'm also convinced that she is the most popular person in this city. Seriously...she knows everyone.

last week...

-spent some quality time with a few new friends while running the beach at night
-checked out the local emergency room, it was a good cultural experience, made it out with only a sprained wrist...
-I keep meeting people who need someone to fix their bike...it's a fun bonding time...
-got to hang out with Marie who I met with the VT team in May, we're planning an ocean swimming adventure

exciting things...

-new friend Soraya. We met in a coffee shop a few days ago to speak English for and hour and Spanish for an hour
-missing the bus to class on a stormy day but then getting to have a great conversation with 2 friends who happened to be on the next bus
-learning some Basque
-lots of bike riding...
-good surfing weather
-crazy awesome sunsets
-in 4 days I will have been here for a month. what?!

new friends

just wanted to mention a few of the people I have had the chance to meet in the past few weeks...

Gabriele - a college student who is thinking about coming to visit VT in the fall. This week she is taking me to a good sunset watching spot that she knows about.
Marie - I got to spend an afternoon surfing with Marie, I'm looking forward to hanging out with her some more this week.
Koro - a woman who I meet with to practice English for 2 hours a week. She doesn't like being inside, so we meet up outside to talk while we walk on the beach, or so she can show me her favorite mountains.
Gorka - another college student who wants to visit VT in the fall. He is a triathlete. I am working on convincing him to swim to a nearby island with me...

weekend adventure

Yesterday easily ranked in the top 10 adventures of my life.
I got dropped off in a town about a half hour away to run what I thought would be just a normal 11k race. After stuffing a 10 euro bill for the bus ride home in my shoe and hiding my phone in a tree, I started what turned out to be anything but a normal race. After running along the beach, straight into the ocean, climbing up rocks to get out of the water, crawling in sand under strands of barbed wire, running across tires, climbing up over a wall, jumping over concrete hurdles, climbing through tubs of ice water, diving through 30foot tubes, climbing over a giant mound of hay, running up and down gravel hills in that looked like a motorcross track, running a long hill straight up a mountain, then running up more hills, and then another hill, and then since that wasn't steep enough, running up a trail straight up through the woods, then running through what looked like an abandoned prison on top of a mountain, which included running through underground tunnels that were pitch black while hearing what sounded like gunshots coming from the smoke bombs that were being set off all around us, climbing a spider web of bungee cords, running across a plastic sheet covered in slippery soap, a watery trench, a and series of up and down hills with ropes anchored at the top since they were so steep, then finally running down a long downhill with a view of the ocean and the whole town, jumping 2 fences to get in and out of a cow field, then more steep rocky down hill, then running back into the town and back through the hay, tubes, and ice, and back over the wall, I finally crossed the finish line. I had the time of my life. But maybe I should read race descriptions before I sign up for them...

Also though, racing this weekend was an unexpected reminder of so many things that God has taught me in the many hours of my life that have been spent running. It was an awesome to have some time to spend thinking about some of these things....while dodging smoke bombs. Yay for surprises.

blown away

The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders;
where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy. Ps. 65:8

Ephesians 3:20

The family that I am living with had encouraged me to take a Spanish language class so that I can learn as much Spanish as I can while I am here. Because my au pair job would be starting in the first week of June, I would only be free to take classes at night. Also, I looked up information about some of the language schools here, and most of them cost 250-300 euros per week.

-Last week, my host family found a class that meets every weekday in the morning for the next 4 weeks, ending on June 23.
-This weekend, the family that I will be an au pair for said that they don't need me to start working until June 24th.
-The whole class costs 20 euro.
God is awesome.

new energy

Things I'm looking forward to:
Visiting a new church tomorrow
Going to a Spanish class on Monday
A holiday in June where people light and then jump over fires all over the city
Getting really strong legs from riding a bike up huge hills many times a day and running at high speeds while carrying a 5-year-old.
Can't wait!

the beginning...

San Sebastian is an amazingly beautiful city. Yesterday, I learned that it is about 10 times as awesome when explored by bike.

I arrived here on May 16th to meet up with 9 others from VT. We spent last week in a whirlwind of working with students at a local school, playing fútbol, and practicing English with people of all ages. The rest of the team left at 4am this past Saturday to return to Blacksburg, so my solo adventure in Spain has begun. For the next 2 months plus a few days, I will be spending time with and getting to know Spanish and Basque people, teaching/practicing English with people here, climbing mountains, riding bikes, taking care of kids, swimming in the ocean, taking longs walks on the beach, and learning a little more about this culture every day.

This blog is going to be short and sweet, but will hopefully keep you updated on what God is doing in Spain this summer. Thank you so so much for all your prayers.