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