Just thought I'd mention that

Saturday night is not a good time to be out getting last-minute lettuce. The streets are so packed I start feeling like I'm in a Wal-Mart at Christmas. Glad to be back home.

wolas, olas!

It's been rainy lately, and with it have come these big waves that are really impressive to see. Wednesday night I visited the Peines del Viento again and finally saw water come up through the holes in the ground. Yesterday night I went running along the Zurriola, and it was really neat to see and feel... the mist of the water coming over the wall, the waves roiling beside me... all those clichéd phrases about the fury of the ocean and all that seem to come true. The waves were jumping over the Paseo Nuevo as well, so they closed it and got all the cars to move. I wanted to see the water, but it's honestly scary to get close. Anyway, I looked to see if there were any videos of the waves here, and the stuff that came up from a couple years ago is much more dramatic than now, but cool to watch. This is a short video from a news program showing the damage the waves can do: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XRq6d2fwok&NR=1

And this is a longer video with some corny music, but the views of San Sebastian and the waves are crazy. At the beginning he is at one end of the Zurriola beach: I tried venturing down that dock-type thing, but it was a veritable flood. The last five minutes I think he is filming the Paseo Nuevo. Both places are where I run. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERfw1sQYUjE&NR=1&feature=fvwp

Highlights from this week: extra job = extra money (if all goes well, an extra 450 euros a month! Now that's money!); my first time rock climbing (yes, indoors); and a schedule that's finally settling down in the schools. I will be at the one school every day now with my extra job, and at the other school two days. Lotsa work... which will hopefully equal lotsa money. I have enough free time; just gotta figure out how to use it. Happy weekend!

yum yum

Hahaha... this is hilarious. There was an article on Al-Jazeera online today about the US senate finance committee voting to approve some healthcare package from Obama. One Republican senator, however, saw the real danger behind this vote: "We can now see clearly that the bill continues its march leftward. (Ah!!! The left, the left!!!!)This bill is already moving on a slippery slope to more government control of healthcare."

No!!! Not... GOVERNMENT CONTROL!!!

We already know how that turned out in places like Cuba and (gasp) Canada!!!

I mean... really.

Anyway, children, a week or more has gone by since my last post. José Luis came to visit this past weekend, which permitted me to visit Bilbao on Saturday: we saw the Guggenheim (cooler on the outside than on the inside, but granted, their second floor was closed) and the soccer stadium (San Mamés, home of the Athletic de Bilbao). The stadium was sweet. They're going to tear it down in a few years and build a new one just beside it, as far as I could tell.

On Sunday we saw the Peines del Viento, the sculptures at the sea at the far end of the Concha beach, and had mussels for lunch. The rest of the rainy day was basically spent drinking either in bars or in my apartment, and playing cards, with Shane and Aina.

He left on Monday, and in the afternoon Shane, Aina, some friend of Shane's we ran into on the road, and I took a mighty long walk up Monte Igueldo. If you don't take the funicular straight up the side of it, you have to go up this back road which eventually curves away from the park at the top of Monte Igueldo and goes along the coast. So we wandered for some time, seeing gardens of luscious tomatoes, pear trees, lemon trees, and even bamboo. There were also some sheep and goats wandering around on the hills that slope down to the water. It was quite lovely indeed, and we were pretty tired and hungry by the time we got back to town.

I went to a capoeira class last Thursday to see what it was like... like, would I have to do crazy flips just starting out?. The answer to that question is yes. Haha, we warmed up and then went straight into headstands, cartwheels, and the rest. Parts of it were fun; parts of it I could do; but I would need some serious practice and motivation to perfect a headstand, and frankly, I don't got it. I know capoeira's cool, but I think I'd rather learn judo or something. Whatcha gonna do.

My schedule at the two schools is still not totally figured out, but so far it looks like this: Mondays three hours and Friday one hour in Rentería; and then Tuesdays and Thursdays (with whatever they assign to me) in Hondarribia. Also, if it works out, I'll be teaching an extra hour and a half to older kids in Rentería on Wednesdays and get paid separately for that (straight from da parents). That would be nice. And finally, my roommate Raúl and his girlfriend Alva keep bugging me to teach them English, so I went with Raúl yesterday to the bookstore to pick up a textbook and we made a tentative schedule of an hour and a half, Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Good God, does work never end?! Haha... I am very happy to be getting any extra cash what with the rent I'm paying and my small regular paycheque. Hopefully it will offset the price all those other crazy things I want to do, like try rock climbing and take Basque lessons. Hum de hum... time's gonna start slipping away.

picture time!!

Sunday seems like the right time to do a whole lot of nothing. This morning I got up and went for a run, and then it looked so great out that I went back out after showering to take some pictures. Then I put a whole bunch of pictures up on Facebook! (I would really like to be out at the Kilometroak but Josh isn't answering his phone and I don't want to go alone.)

I think you're all on Facebook but for the sake of convenience I'll just put the links here.

I added some pictures of the zoo to my Toronto album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=46614&id=510868602&l=5d9f288dfa

And then I made an album of pictures from travelling to Barcelona and then from here in San Sebastian: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=107904&id=510868602&l=9baaffa3e4

A couple other notes:

1) boo hoo hoo, Madrid didn't get the 2016 Olympics. Be sad, Spaniards, I was rooting for Rio.

2) I noticed even before I arrived that "la crisis" was a pretty big topic here, more so than in Canada I think. Indeed, one of the headline stories this week was that Spain was predicted to be the last of the "big" European countries to recover from the economic crisis. Accordingly, almost every commercial has a little thing tacked on the end reminding the audience what a great value their product is, and maybe a sticker that says "Precio ahorro". One that sticks in my head is Pantene's slogan: "Un pelo de lujo... a un precio que puedo." I know most products need to be seen as worth the money, but it's like overkill here.

Hope you all enjoy your Sundays. :)

phew

Alright guys, we made it to October. A couple of you voiced concerns over my diet and admittedly it's been a little extreme over the past week. Intermittently I've felt a cold coming on, and what with all the stress and lack of food, it's not surprising. I'm sure that as soon as I slow down a little bit and think everything is fine it will hit me. So yesterday I bought some vitamins and I've been trying to just take 'er easy. I stayed in last night and slept in today. Raúl made penne alla carbonara and salad for lunch, and plied me with alcohol. (White wine from Cataluña? How about a cup of red? Now a beer?) A nice way to start a Saturday, really.

Thanks also to my readers for your encouragement in picking the nicer room. I really like it. (I swear, pictures... coming soon...) I'm now living in the Parte Vieja of San Sebastián: Calle del 31 de agosto, 24, 3.d., 20003. I have three roommates right now: Raúl and his girlfriend Alva, who are from Cataluña (and think accordingly that I should learn català instead of euskera), and Pablo, a Mexican. Both guys have just started an apparently well-known cooking course here. There's one more room that will be filled sometime. There was a Basque guy, but he only stayed one night and then left. I never did end up meeting him. *Shrugs.*

Saw a movie with Arantza (the French teacher at the school in Rentería if I didn't mention her before) and her friend, and Josh, the guy from North Carolina. We had thought it was going to be in French but it wasn't, and it was fine, but I won't recommend it. No idea what it would be called in English. Moving on.

Other news... not much. Internet in the apartment, Wi-Fi hopefully on Tuesday. Tomorrow is some big event called the "Kilometroak" out by the Zurriola beach or something, so I'll try and make an appearance. Tuesday and Wednesday I'll be making small voyages to do orientation and next week I'll also have to do some more paperwork. Tonight... since Molly's not around (went to the Pyrenees... is a big rock-climber) it's just me and Josh (and maybe Pablo), so I guess we'll go "out", but I'm not sure where to or what the hell we'll do. What's the point of going out if it's just... to drink? Am I like... insane? I don't know. I don't mind sleeping. Grr... gotta meet people... hope y'all are doing great.