Ok I´m really getting into this photo journal idea
This weekend, I went to Fuenterabbia and visited a whole different, incredibly large family. It was rockin´.
So, first, a new sidewalk.
These are two of my cousins, Agueda (sp?) and Susana. Susana should look familiar from last weekend. But there were approximately a million people that just dropped by saturday and so then the house was even more full than normal. Craziness.
Susana´s two kids Alex and Marta. So my cousin's kids. What does that make them to me? Do they have a degree or are they removed? I don´t know.
Then I was asked to play a video game, one of those car around the track things. But, the few of you have seen me play, know how horrible I am, and this is me playing with my cousin Ramon´s girlfriend...
Unfortunately, even though I´m playing against a girl, she beat me rotten.
This is my lovely Tia Goyere, who made the best food I´ve had here yet. And she´s just lovely.
This is Sabier. For those of you who know, this is the cousin I had a crush on. Don´t ask. Oh, and this isn´t a very good picture.
this is how big the table needed to be Sunday for lunch:
My cousin Elena, with her husband Borja and the adorable Alejandra.
But here you can really see how ridiculous this little lady is. I swear she posed for this. She´s a natural.
Bueno, here´s almost the entire table:
More cousins (the crazy one would be Koki):
And me and my cousin Pablo, who took me out Saturday night with his friends. A mighty good picture if you ask me.
This is a photo of the two of us a long long time ago:
And a lamp post for Sarah Schwartz. I don´t know if you can see it well enough, but i thought of you. I´ll try to get better pictures in the future.
:sigh: Lovely pictures.
So saturday morning I went on my cousin Pablo´s "moto" (aka tiny motorcycle/scooter) around Fuenterabbia, which was awesome despite the biting cold. He took me to La Parte Vieja, where they have like 14th century walls and streets and churches still standing. It was beautiful. I didn´t want to look touristy, so I didn´t take any pictures, but I figure I have plenty of time to take pictures so I´ll take pictures next time. He also took me up to the top of the mountain they have right next to the town and we sat there and talked for a long time about cultural differences between the US and Spain. Mostly about what Spain is like. But also about the US´s image and what it´s really like, etc.
He told me that drugs are a big problem there with the youth (he´s my age) and that spain is the country that consumes the most drugs (i´m sure in ratio to people) and that the province of Navarra (where we are) consumes the most of spain, so it´s a very isolated area with a lot of drugs. he said it´s just very common. And I saw that it was when I went out with him Saturday night. Pretty much everybody rolled up. Mind you, in very public places. But then again, it is a very small town. ::shrug::
However, I did end up sitting in the equivalent of a tennis court with him and nine of his friends - all guys - drinking. They don´t have a law against drinking in public so, well, very different. They all were drinking the same thing to, what they call calimocho. It´s basically just half wine and half coke. Wine is incredibly cheap here, so it´s a nice cheap drink for them. And while it sounds strange, I have to say it´s very good. it´s just sweet and it goes down very easy. Not strong at all and fun. So it was me and ten guys drinking. But they were great, they all were asking me questions about the US and telling me things about Spain and what young people do here.
We were there, outside in the cold, for probably three hours or more, until we were all substantially drunk, and then we went to the only club in town called "El Truck" of all things. Though you pronounce it "trook." The club was nuts. Music and lights so loud that you really can´t speak and everyone knew everyone. They served alcohol in real glasses, which was a terrible idea because everyone was dropping them and then you have broken glass and... not good, no? But it seemed very normal to all them.
An interesting point was that this guy randomly came up to me and asked me if Pablo was my boyfriend. I said no, that he was my cousin, and then I was about to explain that I had a boyfriend but then he turns to Pablo to say something. They start having a really intense conversation and I can´t figure out what´s going on, and then suddenly we go outside. Pablo is pissed, and we stand outside smoking (well not me, but him) and he tells me that the guy was stupid and wanted to get into a fight. I then realized that Pablo had protected me from this asshole and... it was very sweet. I didn´t know what to say.
There´s this amazing thing about family here where, even though they don´t know me very well, my whole family treats me like immediate family. To my tios, I am their daughter, and to my cousins, I am their sister. It is the sweetest thing in the world. For example, when me and Miguel left Tia Blanca Mari´s apartment to go to Fuenterabbia, I was also moving out of her apartment because now I´m with my other Tios. And usually she waves goodbye from the balcony as we leave but this time she didn´t. Then Miguel told me that she didn´t come out because she was so sad that I was leaving. I mean, she also lives alone which must be very hard, but... it´s so sweet. And then Sabier, my cousin, came up from Alsasua to Fuenterabbia I think to see me, and... it´s just all very, very adorable. And then everywhere I go they tell me that I´m welcome back anytime. Tia Goyore told me that I didn´t even have to call, I could just show up. It´s very impressive how important family is here. It´s one thing I really like about Spain.
Lastly, today I´m back in Pamplona, and I took my spanish test, got into the highest level, and started the class. It´s very laidback, mostly about talking, games to expand vocabulary and learn common sayings in spanish. I like the class a lot also because there are no americans. Haha! A bunch of french girls, a few from Bulgaria, one girl from Brazil (who I think is my favorite), and the one guy from Hungary who I was avoiding before. :) Oh well. I tried. oh! and a girl from poland! So i´m very excited. And I had lunch with three italians and another girl from eastern europe somewhere and I told them all about New York City.
In talking about it, I realize again how lucky I am to be living there, studying there and also to be here. How lucky I am to have a lot of things. Everyone was asking me about what it was like to study theater and and I... just felt very lucky. And popular! That was really weird. But I had about ten people listening to me at the same time. Go figure. But I think that´s also because I spoke the best spanish at the table and the only way all of us could talk was in Spanish. That´s the other thing I like about these foreigners. no english. I especially like the Brazilean girl because she knows practically no english at all, you know? She speaks portugeuse (sp?), so we both have to work hard to communicate.
So I´m happy, I also now have free internet. But I´m going to go home and relax now. I´m sleepy. Big kiss from Spain!
So, first, a new sidewalk.
These are two of my cousins, Agueda (sp?) and Susana. Susana should look familiar from last weekend. But there were approximately a million people that just dropped by saturday and so then the house was even more full than normal. Craziness.
Susana´s two kids Alex and Marta. So my cousin's kids. What does that make them to me? Do they have a degree or are they removed? I don´t know.
Then I was asked to play a video game, one of those car around the track things. But, the few of you have seen me play, know how horrible I am, and this is me playing with my cousin Ramon´s girlfriend...
Unfortunately, even though I´m playing against a girl, she beat me rotten.
This is my lovely Tia Goyere, who made the best food I´ve had here yet. And she´s just lovely.
This is Sabier. For those of you who know, this is the cousin I had a crush on. Don´t ask. Oh, and this isn´t a very good picture.
this is how big the table needed to be Sunday for lunch:
My cousin Elena, with her husband Borja and the adorable Alejandra.
But here you can really see how ridiculous this little lady is. I swear she posed for this. She´s a natural.
Bueno, here´s almost the entire table:
More cousins (the crazy one would be Koki):
And me and my cousin Pablo, who took me out Saturday night with his friends. A mighty good picture if you ask me.
This is a photo of the two of us a long long time ago:
And a lamp post for Sarah Schwartz. I don´t know if you can see it well enough, but i thought of you. I´ll try to get better pictures in the future.
:sigh: Lovely pictures.
So saturday morning I went on my cousin Pablo´s "moto" (aka tiny motorcycle/scooter) around Fuenterabbia, which was awesome despite the biting cold. He took me to La Parte Vieja, where they have like 14th century walls and streets and churches still standing. It was beautiful. I didn´t want to look touristy, so I didn´t take any pictures, but I figure I have plenty of time to take pictures so I´ll take pictures next time. He also took me up to the top of the mountain they have right next to the town and we sat there and talked for a long time about cultural differences between the US and Spain. Mostly about what Spain is like. But also about the US´s image and what it´s really like, etc.
He told me that drugs are a big problem there with the youth (he´s my age) and that spain is the country that consumes the most drugs (i´m sure in ratio to people) and that the province of Navarra (where we are) consumes the most of spain, so it´s a very isolated area with a lot of drugs. he said it´s just very common. And I saw that it was when I went out with him Saturday night. Pretty much everybody rolled up. Mind you, in very public places. But then again, it is a very small town. ::shrug::
However, I did end up sitting in the equivalent of a tennis court with him and nine of his friends - all guys - drinking. They don´t have a law against drinking in public so, well, very different. They all were drinking the same thing to, what they call calimocho. It´s basically just half wine and half coke. Wine is incredibly cheap here, so it´s a nice cheap drink for them. And while it sounds strange, I have to say it´s very good. it´s just sweet and it goes down very easy. Not strong at all and fun. So it was me and ten guys drinking. But they were great, they all were asking me questions about the US and telling me things about Spain and what young people do here.
We were there, outside in the cold, for probably three hours or more, until we were all substantially drunk, and then we went to the only club in town called "El Truck" of all things. Though you pronounce it "trook." The club was nuts. Music and lights so loud that you really can´t speak and everyone knew everyone. They served alcohol in real glasses, which was a terrible idea because everyone was dropping them and then you have broken glass and... not good, no? But it seemed very normal to all them.
An interesting point was that this guy randomly came up to me and asked me if Pablo was my boyfriend. I said no, that he was my cousin, and then I was about to explain that I had a boyfriend but then he turns to Pablo to say something. They start having a really intense conversation and I can´t figure out what´s going on, and then suddenly we go outside. Pablo is pissed, and we stand outside smoking (well not me, but him) and he tells me that the guy was stupid and wanted to get into a fight. I then realized that Pablo had protected me from this asshole and... it was very sweet. I didn´t know what to say.
There´s this amazing thing about family here where, even though they don´t know me very well, my whole family treats me like immediate family. To my tios, I am their daughter, and to my cousins, I am their sister. It is the sweetest thing in the world. For example, when me and Miguel left Tia Blanca Mari´s apartment to go to Fuenterabbia, I was also moving out of her apartment because now I´m with my other Tios. And usually she waves goodbye from the balcony as we leave but this time she didn´t. Then Miguel told me that she didn´t come out because she was so sad that I was leaving. I mean, she also lives alone which must be very hard, but... it´s so sweet. And then Sabier, my cousin, came up from Alsasua to Fuenterabbia I think to see me, and... it´s just all very, very adorable. And then everywhere I go they tell me that I´m welcome back anytime. Tia Goyore told me that I didn´t even have to call, I could just show up. It´s very impressive how important family is here. It´s one thing I really like about Spain.
Lastly, today I´m back in Pamplona, and I took my spanish test, got into the highest level, and started the class. It´s very laidback, mostly about talking, games to expand vocabulary and learn common sayings in spanish. I like the class a lot also because there are no americans. Haha! A bunch of french girls, a few from Bulgaria, one girl from Brazil (who I think is my favorite), and the one guy from Hungary who I was avoiding before. :) Oh well. I tried. oh! and a girl from poland! So i´m very excited. And I had lunch with three italians and another girl from eastern europe somewhere and I told them all about New York City.
In talking about it, I realize again how lucky I am to be living there, studying there and also to be here. How lucky I am to have a lot of things. Everyone was asking me about what it was like to study theater and and I... just felt very lucky. And popular! That was really weird. But I had about ten people listening to me at the same time. Go figure. But I think that´s also because I spoke the best spanish at the table and the only way all of us could talk was in Spanish. That´s the other thing I like about these foreigners. no english. I especially like the Brazilean girl because she knows practically no english at all, you know? She speaks portugeuse (sp?), so we both have to work hard to communicate.
So I´m happy, I also now have free internet. But I´m going to go home and relax now. I´m sleepy. Big kiss from Spain!