mew mew...

Sleepy... last night home.

I'm at my parents' in Yellowknife. Jeopardy! is almost on. (Woohoo!) Dog sleeping on the couch. Mom's doing my laundry. I'm leaving already tomorrow.

Whenever I go home I always find I have nothing to do and way too much time on my hands, but by the end I'm rushing to finish books I started, I realize I watched none of the movies I was meaning to, and I feel like I barely spent any time with my parents. But hey, if I knew I had another week here I'd probably still be feeling like I had waaaay too much time left.

Annnnyway... the semester ended a bit strangely, and I'm still kind of hanging in the air as to what's going to happen. But academically everything went well, though the only mark I've gotten back so far is Oovah Moogah's (he gave me an A- on my portfolio, that bugger, but I still got 98% overall, EAT IT!).

Tomorrow it's Yellowknife-Calgary-Toronto and sleeping at Janzen's house. Then I've got my first-ever 12-hour-ish flight on Wednesday! Thaaaat'll be fun. Tel Aviv, here I come, once again. I'll be there for two and a half weeks, and sadly Perki will be busy with school. But I'm happy of course to see my cutie again. Should be back in Monterey on Jan. 16, and the parents might be visiting me at the end of the month. Then there's an Interpol concert in San Francisco, skiing... trying to deaden the pain of a new semester.

Well, can't wait to get to Tel Aviv... somehow I seem to have escaped the snowstorms, let's hope nothing comes up soon. Good luck me...

love or lack thereof

fools in love
is there any other kind of pain

fools in love
is there any creature more pathetic

fools in love
never knowing when they've lost the game

fools in love
gently hold each others' hands forever

fools in love
gently tear each other limb from limb




(Inara George)

Nov.

It's November!

I go to classes! I practice interpretation! I'm doing translations faster! I try to improve my note-taking skills! I do tests! I sight-translate! I am still writing stupid speeches for Public Speaking! I clean the bathroom sometimes! I go climbing!

So, pretty much same ol' same ol'... Perki has come and gone, I hang out with my roommates and my friends from school, we drink and dance at bars and last weekend we played board games. I'm still pretty good at Taboo... unless I miss the cultural referent, which happens with some frequency.

American Thanksgiving is coming up but I'm staying here and hopefully ingesting some turkey at Shannon's house. I just bought my ticket to go home to Yellowknife on Dec. 15 and more is in the works for me to be in Tel Aviv before New Year's. I have all of January off and am hoping to spend it there, but poor Perki's got classes and exams all through January, so there will be plenty of time for me to read and watch TV, which is of course all I do on vacation.

Yay! Semester ending soon! I hope it ends well...

it's October!

It's October! Today I have my first ever graded interpretation, from English to Spanish - in my LIFE! Isn't that weird? Nothing like freaking myself out a little bit twenty minutes before I'm scheduled to do it. :)

I went camping on the weekend! The Outdoor Adventure Club or whatever it's called and the rock climbing club joined forces to camp at Pinnacles National Monument, about an hour from Monterey. Much warmer and sunnier than grey Monterey. I rock climbed outside for the first time, which was a bit different... but if I can train up a bit I'd be glad to try it again. I tried three climbs; one I completed; one I got most of the way up; one I completely failed at. It was hard, ok? I'll improve, I promise.

Luckily it wasn't cold camping, but we weren't allowed to have a campfire because of the high danger of forest fires, so we just sat around a little lamp, had chili, beer, and cookies. And tried our best to not get too frustrated with the gigantic group of Chinese-American boy scouts (?) beside us. Who asked us to be quiet at 10pm so they could go to sleep, and then woke us up with yelling at 7am. Classic.

My sweetie is coming in nine days!!!!

Man Diet Coke gets me hyped up... not to mention sweet remixes... well, it's time to get my ass kicked by Esther's evaluation. See you on the other side.

sights!

On my run this morning I saw:

1. A middle-aged man, looking a bit down on his luck, sitting on the stoop of a house with his giant pet HAWK.

2. A guy walking his dog with (what I think was) a huge cat sitting on his shoulder.

Pretty sweet...

חומוס

Nick today: "Can you explain to me why hummus is so good? It's like Jesus juice. ... If Jesus was alive, this is what he'd be eating."

I got obsessed with hummus after going to Israel. My roommates got obsessed with hummus after living with me.

status

Updates:
fourth week of class is starting. My classes are mostly great, my classmates are awesome, and things at "Chateau Van Buren" (our house) are still stellar.

Here at the homestead we've been watching a whole lot of House. I'm still running a few times a week - I'm actually writing this post waiting for my body to stop sweating from my 10k run this morning. Weather's still the same. I went to the rock climbing gym last week too, and with any luck I'll keep going every week or so.

For our interpretation classes we have to meet in practice groups for eight hours each week outside class, and organizing that has been a bit of a pain, but things are coming together. It also means I have less time to waste before getting to my other homework. The groups are fun though: we're always telling each other random stories about ourselves for the other people to interpret, and we laugh a whole lot.

I also joined some of my classmates for a volunteer project that involves translating a monthly stop-human-trafficking bulletin into Spanish. http://www.stopenslavement.org/index.html

Other than that, my main news is that the Perkster bought a flight to come out and visit me before we go to his brother's wedding. He'll get here the night of Oct. 13, I think we'll get to Toronto the night of Thursday the 21st, and then we'll both fly back to our respective homes the day after the wedding, on Monday the 25th. Such a short time and I'll be busy with school... but he's coming!! :)

Ok, showertime!

SCHOOL... AUGH

Orientation is over. I was really sick of it by Friday... so much information and stuff to absorb. I tried to deal with everything they gave us but I fear I'm actually just pretending most of it didn't exist. Our professors extolled us to give school our complete attention, told us we should be reading every spare second, and ALSO that we should start working on our resumes, looking for internships, etc. All of it is one part motivating and one part... holy hell, overwhelming. I guess it'll be better when I have constant contact with my professors through class and hopefully they'll remind us of what we're supposed to be doing.

Yesterday we went SURFING in Santa Cruz! It was my first time. The neighbours that live behind us, Michael and Dave, took us out and hooked us up with rental boards and wetsuits. The water was lovely and cold and I had a great time just paddling around and riding in the occasional wave. (On my knees.) We started at a beginners' beach and the waves disappeared after a while, so we decided to try our luck somewhere else. As Amy was climbing up the slippery concrete steps to get out of the water, a few waves came and knocked her around a bit. She hit her back on the stairs and sliced a couple of her toes. First casualty of the day! We got pizza at Pleasure Point Pizza (frickin' AMAZING) and then went to "The Hook", where Amy stayed out of the water and took pictures from above.

At The Hook we got to see two otters up close, and watch huge pelicans swoop over the water. It was really cool to be near wildlife like that. Unfortunately, there weren't too many waves at that place either and way too many surfers trying to grab them. Finally Dave and Nick tried for the same wave, bailed, got caught up in the whitewash, and Nick got his face beat up with a surfboard fin. He came out bleeding hard with two huge gashes in his left cheek, a small fracture in his jaw and a chipped tooth. We spent a few hours at the hospital getting him stitched up and X-rayed and then drove back home to Monterey. Amy and I got some groceries and meds for him, and he's been drugged up since. It looks pretty ugly - pictures will come eventually. (Probably on Facebook.)

Today we went to the Jewish Food Festival in Carmel. It was sunny, there was music, and there was lots of good food to try. When we got back, though, we kind of fell into a Sunday funk - uuugh not ready for school to start. Or maybe too ready? Either way it's time to get this semester started and see what comes of it. Wish me luck!

I just woke up from a horrible dream. I was travelling, but I couldn't enjoy it because I realized that somewhere along the way in the confusion with buses, I had lost my duffel bag. HOW could I lose it? Where could it be? ........ I was so relieved to wake up and realize I don't even own a duffel bag. I am so tired of worrying about losing stuff... and so glad I'm stuck in one place for awhile. Haha! I'm such a nerd.

Two weeks have passed since I got here. Weather: every day it's cloudy with a fine mist falling in the morning, breaking into sun at noon and through the afternoon, and then by evening it's back to the mist. Activities: buying stuff to move myself in (I now love Target), reading, watching tv, running every morning, hearing Amy complain about her mandatory economics boot camp. We also have already hosted one potluck and one beer pong party (the latter took place last night). I had never played or even seen a game of beer pong, so thank God for second graduate degrees to make up for lost opportunities.

Orientation starts on Monday. We have a group meeting with our academic advisor and then hopefully I get to register for classes! The rest of the week looks to be pretty uneventful, except for a 3-hour-long "community-building session" on Tuesday that smacks of icebreakers and pointless getting-to-know-you activities. I guess MIIS is smaller than the average university so there actually is a good chance I'll run into these people again, but still. Please don't make me play games.

And I'm off to slack off another Saturday! Wish me luck.

run run run

Hey everyone, yep that's right, I find myself in beautiful but cloudy Monterey, California.

My new roommate Amy picked me up from the Monterey airport on Saturday and took me to my new house, which is rooooockin'! Haha... it really is a very nice house, especially compared to what I was used to from Spain this year. Spacious kitchen, big living room with space for a couch, two comfy chairs, a bookshelf and a dining table; it even has a fireplace, where we've been having fires regularly since I got here. Amy even bought an axe and has been splitting our wood into kindling. (She's from Michigan.)

Amy has the room at the front of the house; between her room and mine further back is the bathroom (also spacious, with tub :D); then comes the kitchen and finally the back hall and Nick (roommate who should show up in a couple weeks, also from Michigan)'s room at the back of the house. The past few days have been full of errand-running: there's always all kinds of things to buy when you move to a new place. I got nice speakers for my computer :D Finally....

Yesterday we went for a drive along the coastline, and man is it cool. The landscape here is kind of low and scrubby with hills and short gnarled trees that I'm not familiar with, but that burst with bright-coloured flowers. The shore is rocky and full of seaweed, and sea lions sun themselves on the rocks. Gorgeous.

Monterey itself spooked me a little bit the first night I was here. Everything is picture-perfect, spotless and landscaped, with expensive signs marking the various historical landmarks of Monterey (the old jail is across from my house). It's a little bit like a fairytale town. And everyone is freakishly (to borrow Jocelyne's word) nice here. And I mean freakish. Amy and I are hoping our Brita filter gets rid of whatever those people are obviously contaminated with here. ....

This morning I went for a run on the recreational trail that starts out at a picturesque wharf and eventually starts running beside Cannery Row, which is a street that served as the setting for John Steinbeck's novel Cannery Row http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannery_Row_(novel)

All in all it's a great place to run, the trail is very well kept up and it's great to run beside the ocean again. I hope the weather will permit further activity!

I've been sleeping on the couch for two nights now but today Amy and I picked up a queen-size mattress and box-spring from a MIIS alumna for my lovely bedroom :) Of course I have no sheets or blankets yet, but...

Tons of stuff to do still with the university. I looked at course schedules tonight and came up with a possible timetable for myself that looks very comfortable indeed - no Fridays for possibly the first time in my university career. Not sure when I'll be able to actually register though... oh so much excitement. Haha.

I don't have a bike yet but once I do and it's sunny out, you better believe I'll be out taking pictures. Can't wait to show you guys this place...

Monterey or bust!

Laura's idiocy of the week: not making sure her papers were in order.

So back when I was in San Sebastian, I got some important papers from MIIS (my new university) proving that I was going to be attending their school in the fall. Admissions letter, scholarship letter, I-20 (proof that I've accepted the offer and can pay for going to school there). Without these documents I can't get into the States to live. So of course I packed these special documents away in a special place. . . and lost them.

The worst part is not that I lost the very important documents, but that I didn't notice until yesterday. I'm leaving tomorrow bright and early in the morning to drive down to Edmonton with my brother and his girlfriend. (We arrive in Edmonton on Saturday and I fly out from there; I should be in Monterey at 5pm or so.) Of course, being in Yellowknife means that it takes two days for any expedited delivery to arrive from the States. So there was no way the documents could arrive here in time for me to leave. Dammmn.

Coincidentally, however, my aunt that lives in Calgary was coming up to Edmonton this weekend, and Calgary just happens to be a major enough city for things to be able to arrive within a day. So. . . a lot of excitement happened yesterday, what with calling the school and asking them pretty please to send my documents to my aunt's address who would meet me in Edmonton on Saturday right before I flew out. My mom was not pleased, I can tell you that.

Lessons learned? Double-check shit. I thought I learned that when I missed the train from San Sebastian to Barcelona to meet my parents and had to arrange through text messages with Perki a flight that evening from Bilbao. . . all because I just didn't double-check the time of the train. Idiot. But I guess I didn't, because here I am again getting myself in a bad situation. (I know Janzen is just going to be rolling her eyes at this one.)

I swear, guys! I try! I don't know how I lose things! I don't know why really, really important things just slip my mind! All I want is to get to Monterey safely, and the good people at MIIS will take care of me from there.

Oh and good news - my future (in two days) roommate Amy found us (me, her and this guy Nick from Michigan) a house a block from campus. I am just going to be glad to have somewhere to dump my stuff. I'm tired of packing and re-packing. . . the time has come for a little rest.

Monterey or bust!

adventures in the 'knife

I find myself in sunny Yellowknife (notwithstanding intermittent rain). The sun seems barely to move, which makes it seem to me like time is not moving. It kinda seems like it starts to go down around 8 or 9, but by 10 or 11 it's still not down and I'm too tired to stay up longer. So no, I still have not experienced the midnight sun. For some reason I'm awake every day at 7:15 am. It feels strange to be tired when the sun hasn't set yet, but I manage to realize I'm tired anyway and drag myself to bed to read a few pages of Stardust before my eyes start closing. At this rate the book is going to take forever to finish.

So yesterday we went out on the boat (the "Vanessa Alyssa", not named by us) on Back Bay on the east side of Yellowknife. At one point we landed the boat on an outcrop of bare rock covered in seagulls, just because we're the kind of people that have to poke around. After nearly killing ourselves slipping on the algae-covered rock trying to climb onto the island (we left Mom and Bou on the boat), my brother, my dad and I walked around on the lichen-covered rock to the screams of the angry gulls. We checked out all the different garbage littered on the ground: fish spines, some 3cm-long bones, a jawbone with teeth, a little armbone with a clenched hand attached, a bird's head with beak, and three gulls lined up next to each other, picked clean - only wings and spiney bits left. Sorry I can't tell ya what sorts of animals those scary gulls have been eating. Except the dead gulls, that was quite obvious. Cannibals.

Anyhoo, one gull started dive-bombing us, and in my personal escape from its wrath I failed to clamber onto the boat appropriately and fell waist-deep into the water where I lodged my toes under some rocks. (Stupid algae.) I will add the picture of the blood toll the gull exacted from me a bit later. Oh, the violence! Not to complain, but last night my big toe hurt so much I had to get up and take some Advil. You may feel sorry for me now.

No other news, may try waterskiing at some point. May prove to be a waste of time, however. Nyem nyem nyem, over and out.

Toronto.....

Recap:

Geneva: stayed with Daniela for about a week in Lausanne, lost my jacket, ate fatty things, met Spaniards, even had a daytrip to Lyon to see Lisa and ... drink.

Travelled by (expensive) train to Zurich, there were no (cheap) hostels, and this provoked my Couchsurfing instinct which had for some reason lain dormant - mostly I think because I was very lazy in my planning at this step in the journey, and it's a bit messy to arrange to couchsurf at the last minute. However, I stayed with Stéphane, a French guy, who worked for Google in Zurich. He showed me around the amazing offices - they look more for play than for work, that's for sure. Beautiful cafés and lounge areas where they can take anything they want, fireman poles to get to the floor below, hammocks for discussing things, telephone pods made like helicopters or tents or hot air balloons to make calls. Basically, it's a playground.

The next day I wandered around beautiful Zurich on my own and then took a (cheap) train to Munich. There I couchsurfed with Anatol in his student dorm. We rode around Munich on bikes, through the main touristy parts and the English garden, watched a World Cup game, went out, I met up with Miriam and explored the castle... really nice time.

I caught a rideshare from Munich to Berlin with two girls, their dog, and another guy - that was quite good for my German. In Berlin I couchsurfed with Matthias in a really nice big apartment... one of his roommates wasn't home so I shared that room with another couchsurfer, a sweet Argentinean named Diego. I did almost no tourism this time around; just watched a couple World Cup games with Matthias in a bar under their house, hit up one art museum and otherwise hung out with Christian, my German professor from Spain.

I got another rideshare from there to Krakow with some German guy who lived in Krakow but worked a lot in Germany. He had a huge (gas-guzzling - which he wasn't happy about) van that was filled when we took off but emptied in Dresden, and then it was just me and him through Poland to Krakow. Paulina and Maciek picked me up there and took me to Paulina's house.

We visited Wadowice (John Paul II's birthplace), Krakow, and Auschwitz. Her parents were super nice, her dog was super cute, her brother and boyfriend were really nice, the weather was beautiful, I got to ride around in a tiny red car (Ladybug!) and get invited to beers. It was really cool to spend time with Paulina and get to see normal life in a small town. Poland has very green and attractive countryside, too.

From Krakow I took the train through Kadowice to Prague, and straight from the Prague train station I hopped on the metro to the bus station and grabbed a bus to Liberec. I took a taxi to the hotel Lukas had told me and left my stuff there to go find Fanny, Silvia, David, Luis and Ane at a restaurant. The six of us (except for Ane) knew Lukas from Spain. The next day we went to his wedding at the town hall, threw rice at him and his bride Martina, had lunch, and then got shipped off on a party bus to a chalet in the countryside where the reception was being held.

The whole thing was lovely and relaxed, but well-planned, the only (planned) disruption being the rapture of Martina by six of Lukas' male friends. Apparently there is a tradition that dictates the bride must be kidnapped and taken to a bar, where she is fed shots until the groom notices she's gone and figures out where they've taken her. When he shows up, he gets to pay the bill and take her back. . . . Well, they took her 15km away and Lukas had a tough time finding where they were. Needless to say, that was probably the peak of Martina's drunkenness that particular night. The bride and groom stayed the whole night and left in the last car back to Liberec.

The next evening we met up with Lukas and Martina to take the bus back to Prague. Poor Martina could barely keep her eyes open. We slept at Lukas' apartment that night and the next day the happy couple left for their honeymoon in Slovakia. I wandered around Prague most of that day and stayed in a hostel that night, where I was once again traumatized by the general ignorance displayed by the Americans staying there. One particular guy from Missouri regaled two younger German girls for hours with .... I don't know what, just TALKING, where he also attempted to show off his amazing knowledge of Spanish ("somos listos?" to say, "ready?") and German (he had a six-word vocabulary). I mean, great, you spent a month in Salamanca, you must know all about Spain - but what is with such gross misinformation as to tell those girls that "the sun doesn't go down until 11pm" there because Spain is farther south? And just. . . shut UP! . . . But I digress. (After I tell you that one of the guys in the other group of Americans apparently previously believed that Paraguay and Uruguay were somewhere near Uzbekistan, as well as thinking that Czech, Polish and German "seem pretty much the same".)

Ok I'll get off my holy horse now. The next day I flew out to Tel Aviv, hip hip hooray. I didn't get any sort of romantic scene in the airport though - I showed up and Perki wasn't there yet, and a Czech girl whose Israeli boyfriend hadn't shown up to pick her up asked for help from me to figure things out. So when Perki showed up we took her to buy a cell phone, call her boyfriend, and eventually we put her on a train to hopefully get picked up by her boyfriend later. Haha... poor girl. The Perk was a good sport about the whole thing, being the Hebrew translator, etc.

Then I had two weeks in Tel Aviv. The first few days are pretty fuzzy. (Me and Perki actually sat down at the end and tried to figure out what we did every day, just so I could write it down on my blog for posterity's sake.) Somewhere we hung out at Gamal's house, got Perki a haircut and went to a park in Ra'Anana. The first week Perki still had school stuff to do, I felt sick one day and basically we were just lazy. I did go to watch the World Cup final with Weiner, Segall, and their Dutch friend Mark. For the second half we squeezed into a very stifling Dutch Forum garden with big screens set up and attempted to drink Heineken and breathe. (I failed on the first account.) Me and Weiner were secretly cheering for Spain, and we got excited on the inside when Spain scored at the end.

Finally July 12 we have some idea of what we did. Perki had his test in the morning (which he aced of course) and we went to a burger bar called XO in Ramat HaSharon for lunch. Afterwards we went to his parents' house to do laundry (oh yeah, we failed horribly in finding a laundromat in days prior). Later Perki started feeling sick and (from, we think, food poisoning from the burger) had several dates that night with the toilet. Poor thing. We also watched Almost Famous with Lior.

July 13 was my birthday and the poor Perk was still recovering from being sick. He put on a brave face though and took me to Jaffa to get hummus for lunch. We walked around for a while, got fresh-squeezed apple and orange juice, and then to avoid death from overheating, drove back home. Later we took a bottle of wine to the beach and just relaxed.

July 14 is kind of blank except for the night when we went to the port in Tel Aviv to sample 'gourmet' fries and calamari and get ice cream from Iceberg. (Honey and banana... mmmmm.) Later we called Weiner to meet us on Rothschild, and he showed up with Gamal, Maytal, Neta, Yakir, Ziggy, and his girlfriend Masha. We had a nice time drinking cava and watching some random guy try selling his (?) bike (it had a child seat on the back) to everyone walking down the street.

July 15 was a special day. It was the birthday of: my dad, Perki's brother (Doron), Perki's friend (Dor), and Lior's cat (Dora). Not sure what's up with the similarity of those names. Perk and I wanted to try to get to the Sea of Galilee, but traffic was terrible and we just hit up Herzliyya's beach instead.

On July 16 Kan Tor came back to Ramat HaSharon from Jerusalem where he studies and Perki and I met up with him for ice cream (Iceberg again), a very hot walk through town, and lemonade/coffee at Cuppa Joe's. Kan Tor had some amusing stories to tell about his time in the army and bears. . . . Really what you would expect from him.

Later Perki and I met up with Gamal and Gal at the (by Perki anyway) dreaded XO, went to Gamal's house and watched the comedian Pablo Francisco (who, I must say, I did not find really funny). Then for Dor's birthday we went to some bar in Florentin whose name I never remember and an air conditioner attacked me with water. (Ok, it dripped on me.)

Let's skip July 17 where our minds are blank and move on to July 18. We picked up Weiner and Kan-Tor and drove to the Sea of Galilee in the north. We ate the best hummus I've ever had in the car - Weiner picked it out in a grocery store on the way. Perki also made a small and mysterious detour to a bookstore where he bought me (what was eventually revealed to me to be) my birthday gift: The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and Stardust by Neil Gaiman. Perki was reading the former and convinced me to read it (I'm halfway through now and it's really great), and the latter was a book he really likes (which I haven't started yet. It seems very short, I kind of want to savour it).

We arrived at the Sea of Galilee and went for a swim. I much prefer lakes over oceans (because they're not salty, but also because usually it's calmer) but there are a few downsides, namely the icky bottom of the lake in places (the Perk was a reeeeal baby about that) and the possible presence of fishies in the murky water (I fucking hate fish). But it was also pretty wavy, which made it hard to relax. (The fact that Kan-Tor kept attacking me didn't help much either.)

After we got out we drove to Rosh Pina (a town a ways away) and visited Galit, a friend of Kan-Tor's from school. Then it was hometime again.

On July 19 I let Perki sleep in a bit (or not) and took a bus to Segall's house in Ramat HaSharon. He played me some piano and guitar and we watched tons of videos both from Segall and Perki's trip to the U.S. (which have apparently vanished into the void on Perki's computer) and from their high school days. We met Perki for lunch at Edna, and then Perki and I went to a mall to do some shopping.

On July 20 we had a barbeque at Weiner's house for my and Weiner's birthdays (his was July 19). The guys pulled it together super fast and a bunch of people came. Perki and I got some groceries and cut lemons, and Weiner, Kan-Tor, and Segall prepared hummus, salad, caipirinha, and the meat (of course). In the evening Perki had a meeting with his new company; afterwards we watched Louis Theroux's Law and Disorder in Johannesburg.

July 21 was my last day. In the morning we waited for Moshe, Perki's landlord to show up (which of course he didn't), worked on tuning up Allie (my computer), got sushi in Herzeliyya, and went to the coast to sit for a bit. We bought chalva to bring home to my friends and family. Dora was extra cute. We drank Fanta and ate gummy bears. And later we went out to Oktober with Weiner and drank delicious dark beer (damn it all, I didn't write down the name but I'm sure Perk knows) and discussed law, religion, and rape. (Still some unanswered questions.) Then we got a hot dog and went home. At 3am outside Perki's apartment building, on the street, someone was blowing up large amounts of helium balloons for an advertising campaign.

Got driven to the airport, Perki was again used as my security shield (he answers questions and they don't really interrogate me), and got on the damn plane at 6am. And that was that. (Oh yeah, I didn't mention how coming into Israel this time on an El Al flight they decided during my interrogation I was suspicious, took away all my luggage for a special search [including hand luggage, they let have my wallet and a book through security and gave me my backpack back at the gate] and gave me a special extra body search just before boarding the plane [nothing internal though, thank Allah] and wouldn't allow my laptop to come on board with me. Also they don't allow hair straighteners on the plane and supposedly sent it home to my parents in Yellowknife.)

There was also some day where Perki made me malawach for breakfast with hard-boiled eggs and tomato, and when we read tons of Dan Savage columns and watched multiple episodes of Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends. Apparently Louis made an appearance at the weekly protest in Jerusalem that Weiner goes to, and thus his name came up and Perki introduced me to his stuff. Also at some point early on we went to Norma Jean (nice beer bar in Florentin) with Dor, his girlfriend Lee, Lee's little sister (who bailed early) and eventually (or ultimately? :P) Weiner.

Now I'm in Toronto at Janzen's house. Yesterday I went to visit my oma in Grimsby via GO Transit, that was pretty fun. I wish I could see her more often. At night we had the potluck at Jonathan's house - Jeannine, Ryan, Teresa, Dan, and of course Jonathan, Natalie and Janzen were present. Today Janzen and I picked up Dave from his house, walked to Kensington (it's pedestrian Sunday), and I got another suitcase from a store in Chinatown to bring back the stuff I left in Toronto with Janzen and Evan. Tomorrow my grandpa and grandma are coming to Mississauga to see me. And on Tuesday I fly to Yellowknife. I still haven't bought a flight for California.

Let's see, how could I make this blog post longer? Oh, I know... but I should probably leave that for another day. Over and out for now.

The L-Meister.

poland

I'm at Paulina's house, a friend I worked with at Waldkirch in Germany, (perhaps stories to follow in a later post.), just outside Andrychow, near Krakow.

On the tv is Shallow Hal, which is dubbed, but... only sort of. I hated dubbing in Spain - this is far worse. There's only one guy who does the dubbing. And he doesn't even do different voices for the different people. It's as if someone is doing a director's commentary over the movie... but he only talks after the people onscreen do. He is hardly even expressive. Apparently this is how it is usually done in Poland.

Today we visited Krakow and practically boiled to death in the sun. Then, we took a tiny bus back to Andrychow which the driver filled with people (seats, then the aisle) and didn't bother putting on air conditioning (if there even is any in that bus). The windows can't be opened. The air seemed thick. But we made it alive.

After some pierogis Paulina, Paulina's boyfriend Maciek and I went for a beer in Andrychow, and then I got to walk Paulina's family's husky Nari. She was a good girl, and it was cool to be out in the country at night. It's been a while. The quiet, the bugs, the fields, the dark. Then at 10.30 Paulina's mom insisted that we have supper - I insisted I wasn't hungry, but I managed to put back that plate of roast beef and potatoes reeeeal darn easy.

Now it's time for bed.

Anyway, my agenda for tomorrow: get hair trimmed, get my eyebrows done, send a couple postcards, and visit Auschwitz. Yeah, I know.

And on Friday I make my way to Liberec (I'll arrive later than I wanted to, but it turned out to be a lot farther from here than I thought) for Lukas' wedding.

Alright, definitely time for bed now. I haven't been keeping too up to date on the travels, but I guess that's what Facebook is for.

Night!

and, that's right.

I just need to confirm for everyone that popped collars look ridiculous. I saw one today in a museum and it was just confirmation for what we all knew already.

P.S. in case you were wondering, I will arrive in Toronto July 22 in the afternoon and fly out July 27 to Yellowknife. You may start planning the parties now.

cheesy

Lessons learned in Switzerland: you may not be able to get a driver for your train to the chocolate factory, you can't get decent weather, and everything is damn expensive, but rest assured that you can find everything you need for a fondue dinner at the corner store.

Cheesy.

Geneva

I'm in Lausanne, 60km away from Geneva, staying at Daniela's house. Right now people are busy honking up a storm thanks to today's World Cup match that saw them beat Spain. Oh, poor Spain.

General observations of Geneva: - it's the first place I've seen adults use scooters as a legitimate commuting tool. And no, I don't mean the motorized kind. - There is so much English spoken here it's disgusting, every time I turn around another American arises from the woodwork. - Grocery stores close at 7PM?!!!! And I thought Spain was a crapshoot. -There are SO many Kebab places around here. Seems like way more than in Germany even.

Today I went to the Ethnological Museum of Geneva (MEG) and saw Buddhist monks making one of those powder-things. Aw darn, I read the word and now forgot it. I'll just give you the picture instead.

They also had this cool music exhibition based on the work of Constantin Brăiloiu, a Romanian music archivist. They had computers with all the folk music he had ever recorded and archives from around the world. In another room they also had a sweet sound system set up and a touch screen where you could see what was [the biggest?] hit in 50 different countries at the beginning of 2009, and then play them. In Canada it was supposedly "Crack a Bottle" by Eminem, Dr. Dre and 50 Cent. Uh... what IS that even? In Spain it was "Beggin" by Madcon... I know THAT song. Ugh.

Tomorrow I go to Lyon to visit Lisa, I'll stay overnight and come back Friday morning. Daniela and I have yet to make plans for the weekend - the temperature has a low of 9 degrees for Sunday. Whaaat...

Oh yeah and I forgot to mention that I lost my jacket. My faithful white Columbia jacket that I've had since high school. The one that was supposed to warm me and protect me from the rain falling down from the sky. I had it on yesterday afternoon before meeting Daniela, and then it vaporized by the time I walked away from the train station with her. Inexplicable really. The same thing happened to me with my sunglasses in Getaria... I have absolutely no idea what could have happened to them. Sigh...

Buh I'm hungry. How nice that there are several Indian restaurants on this street. *Drools a little.* Must wait for Daniela...

rum diddly yum

Hey y'all.... once more... my vacation plans. I changed a few things around, mainly based on the exorbitant amount it costs to get to Slovenia. And time constraints, and the fact that I really wanted to visit Daniela and Christian in Switzerland and Germany respectively. Here's my new tentative plan, in case you're curious.

June 15 - parents leave from Barcelona and I'll fly to Geneva. Possibly go straight to Daniela's place in Lausanne. Stay there over the weekend.
June 21 - head to Zurich.
June 23 - Munich. Hopefully see Miriam (couchsurfer gal extraordinaire I met in San Seb).
June 26 - Berlin. Hang out with Christian (German prof from Ciudad Real days).
June 29 - Krakow. Or Andrychow I guess, to see Paulina... it'll be my first time in Poland too, I'm excited.
July 2 - Liberec. July 3, Lukas' wedding.
July 6 - flight to Tel Aviv. I'm flying El Al.... wheee!

And then... July 13, mah B-DAY in Israel! Yay, I love having my birthday in random places and Israel seems like a good place to do it in. I like the beer... and the people.

Then I'll meander on home around the 20th. July 27, I have a flight to Yellowknife already.

Roommate search for Monterey continues...

Parents are here in San Sebastian right now. I'm feeling a bit under the weather but I better pull myself together and get some day trips planned.

Over and out, love, laura.

i'm still here. i guess

Hey everyone... I'm writing to you from Inga's house in Barcelona where I've decided to camp out for the week. What a friggin' gracious host. I have two days to kill here (in the sun, shouldn't be that hard) before Primavera Sound starts. Then it's three days of that before heading back to San Se where I get to couchsurf at someone else's place. (If you'd like to host me, you know how to get in contact. :) )

Hum de hum... it's also the time to start figuring out what the hell to do with my time off. This morning I wrote up a rough sketch of the places I could hit from June 15 to July 4, when I should be in Liberec for Lukas' wedding. (I assume I'm still invited... hehe.) It looks like it's going to be one of those hit-the-capitals trips, which is unfortunate but necessary due to time constraints. I'm thinking Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, with maybe a sidetrip to Berlin before heading to Prague. But this kind of depends on whether my friends in Slovenia, Hungary, Berlin and Poland can have me - if they can't, I'll have a bit more time freed up. So, let's see what they say.

Then from Prague I'll probably go back to Tel Aviv for a couple weeks, come back to Toronto around the 20th, and I have a flight from Toronto to Yellowknife on the 27th of July. Wheee. Thanks Air Canada seat sales for making my decisions easier. I guess I should get my major landmark flights booked and out of the way, and then I'll just fill in the time between Slovenia and Liberec however I see fit. Sounds like a plan? Sounds like a plan.

well, Adrian's gone...

... and so ends a two-and-a-half week long stint of hosting couchsurfers. There were a couple moments where I couldn't spend as much time with them as I would have liked, but I think generally everything worked out fantastic. If I hosted more than one at a time we'd all hang out as a group. Adrian stayed with me for I think a week, and after a few days I started putting him in charge of taking the new ones out to things I didn't feel like doing. :P It worked out quite well. I even got in a rock-climbing session on Monday night with Eli and Adrian - and my forearms are still sore, it sure has been a while since I went.

Classes finished yesterday; I've been starting to clean out my room and organize the things I want my parents to take home and the things I'll take with me travelling. I still need to clean out the fridge and I think today's the day to also tackle some pesky clothing stains with homemade remedies and attempt to stitch up my pajama pants with my Chinese store sewing kit. I'm feeling nice and domestic, and I finally have the house all to myself :)

And as you can see, no real obligations. Delicious deliciousness.

*tear*

Ok so I did almost shed a tear when my one class's half an hour with me was up... Marivi knocked on the door and they all cried out "Noooo!" and looked at me with supplicating eyes... I gave them their little Haribo party packs and they all lined up and gave me a kiss on the cheek, I think some of them were genuinely a little down about it being the end. Awwww.

So goodbyes do suck, but I'm doing my best not to think about it. In one week I'll be in Barcelona vacaying it up. Thumbs up for that.

almost

The other evening I was out for a run and I'm pretty sure I saw somebody put their dog in a water fountain so it could get a drink. Other than grossing you out a little bit, that should give you an idea of how small some of the dogs are around here...

Rain's back with wind and cold, but I have high hopes that by the time Perk gets here the sun will peek its little head out again. Yep yep yep... after tomorrow's done it's only a week till I'm done classes. FOREVER. Muah ha ha. I'm not mourning it too much cuz well, it needs to be done sometime and the sooner the better. Work ending means I'm on vacation for two and a half months. Wheee...

Another honking big post

Hi guys, I know I really need to, like, update this blog more often so that the posts don't become novels. Unfortunately this is going to be another long one where I tell you stories and then attempt to explain what my immediate future looks like. And then after this one, I promise to try and amuse you with shorter and lighter blog posts filled with interesting anecdotes. . . . Yyyyeeesss.

First up on the table: my trip to ISRAEL for Semana Santa!! If you checked out my facebook album, I attempted to order the photos with dates, but I'll go ahead and give you a little more detail on my adventures here. Why did I go to Israel, you ask? Ok, background information: I met my lovely Israeli friends Amit Perelstein and Amit Segall back in Toronto, September of 2008, through Couchsurfing. And I thought it was high time to visit them in their sunny country.

So then: March 31st I flew out and arrived in Tel Aviv at midnight; Perki and Segall picked me up and we hung out for a bit at someone's house, where I was offered marijuana for the first time since I hung out with Perki and Segall in Toronto. These boys are a bad influence... :P

April 1st: Groceries with Perki's roommate Lior, where as you might have seen in my FB album, all products with yeast in them are off-limits (Passover), but matzo is in high abundance. Perki and I went for a walk on the beach to kill some time before going to visit Segall at his work in Ramat HaSharon (just beside Tel Aviv, where they grew up). Segall made me my first delicious Israeli cappuccino and stuffed me with cookies. Then Perki showed me around Tel Aviv, and we had dinner at Perki's friend's house.

April 2: Perki takes me to Jaffa and introduces me to really good hummus. We basically just walked around in Jaffa all day, sat in the sun, people-watched, and went home to have supper. Then the boys (Segall, Perki, Kan-Tor, and Weiner) took me out to Rotschild street in Tel Aviv where we drank out on benches, botellón-style (but we bought the wine from a Spanish-themed bar first, a bit classier). I have fun with these guys....

April 3: hit up a t-shirt market with Segall but none of us bought anything. I got cute magnets though! We went to the port to get pizza and walk around/fight our way through the crowds of people also out for a stroll. Worse than Spain on a Sunday, I'm telling you. Well it was Saturday, which is of course the Jewish Sunday, so.... went to a cute bar and got my first Goldstar (beer); afterwards me and Perk went to go see Alice and Wonderland in 3D, fuck I hate those stupid 3D glasses... hahaha. Hey Perk, where's the picture of us with those glasses?

April 4: Segall took me, Blondie, Aviyah and Weiner to the Ramat Hanadiv gardens in Zikhon. Post-garden tour Segall and I thought it would be a good idea to find the "secret spring" the brochure taunted us with in the 'park' area of the park. And so we commenced our epic hike across the Israeli wasteland, which almost killed Aviyah, but not quite. Halfway through we came across some Roman agricultural ruins; then we kept going and just hoped for the best. (ie that we would get back to the car.)

Of course we did make it, and next up was Haifa, where we got lunch, visited Elias' tomb (I think) in some church (God I'm awful) and then poked our heads into the Baha'i gardens... freaking amazing, and random. On the way home Blondie invited me to his house for the second Passover dinner, which was very sweet of him, but he did NOT explain the amount of food I would be expected to eat. Happy Laura of course wants to try one of everything, but she was not aware that there would be two full tables of food offered BEFORE the main course. And dessert. God help me. And yes, I ate the fish ball. I still remember it quite well, haha.

Perki picked me up and we attempted to go out with Lior, Segall, and Weiner, but we couldn't find a bar we liked so we ended up getting a hot dog and playing "Sababa ve hacol" the whole night. So it wasn't a complete loss. :)

April 5: Went to Caesarea with Perki and Segall. The Ralli museum was cool (and free); there were some neat pictures and Dali sculptures to gaze at. Caesarea was like a little archaeological theme park. Sun, ruins, explanatory videos, and gift shops. Wheee!

April 6: drove in the morning to Kan-Tor's house in Jerusalem with Perki; Weiner came too! Kan-Tor outdid himself in an eight-hour, very-complete tour of Jerusalem. Basically we came down from Mount Scopus to the Mount of Olives and crossed into the Old City, and then walked around there all day.

Jerusalem, how can I describe thee. Plenty of religious types, Jews, Arabs, tourists... Judaica to buy, Holy Burgers to eat, wishes to make... Jesus' path with the cross to follow... birthplaces of people, old walls below the ground, different quarters all mashed together. A labyrinth of stuff, really. Afterwards we went for a walk in Ein Kerem, and (sort of) saw the Rose Garden, Knesset, and Supreme Court. Weiner went home; Perki, Kan-Tor and I got pizza and later a beer with a whole bunch of Kan-Tor's friends from school.

April 7: it took us a while to get to Yad Vashem (the Holocaust museum), so by the time we had been through there (it is quite complete), it was closing and we couldn't see the monuments outside. Ah well, Jerusalem is a maze for those of us without previous knowledge or GPS. Stupid Jerusalem... haha. Kan-Tor invited us out to drink wine at one of his friend's houses, and later the group of us went out to dance and drink expensive rum and cokes. It was actually super fun. Even Perk got into the music despite his earlier skepticism... haha.

April 8: Last day in Jerusalem! Kan-Tor dropped me and Perk off in front of the Damascus Gate and we got some souvenirs in the Arab quarter. Ok, I got some souvenirs. We hit the Jewish and Armenian quarters as well (not sure if on purpose) on our way to the Jaffa Gate, and we also got some directions from some Jewish guy in a tourism office. This had the added bonus of Perki doing prayers with tefilin for my benefit (because this guy is of course very happy to help any stray Jew find a few minutes for prayers in their day). Perki also got to have a little heart-to-heart with him in which he learned that it's ok to be my tour guide, but not my husband. Thank goodness we ran into that guy... what would we do without religious guidance?

From the Jaffa Gate we made it to the Ben Yehuda pedestrian walk and finally to the Mahane Yehuda market. It was cute and functional, and I reeeeally miss that cinnamon chalva we bought there. Perk, I changed my mind, I'm going to need you to bring me some when you come visit. :P

We got some really good ice cream there too. The kind of good that's reminiscent of Cream in

Toronto (I'm sure you all remember, #1 ice cream in Toronto last year?), haha. Alternative flavours and whatnot. We tried the basil, but settled on spices and pistachio. I would definitely go back.

Hummus and kubbe for supper, and then a quiet night doing laundry in a university residence complex with an appalling lack of public bathrooms... sigh. Hehehe.

April 9: took our leave from Kan-Tor and left him an autographed picture of myself, Kan-Tor and Weiner. It will be interesting to see how long that stays in the frame... :) Perk and I then drove to Ein Gedi, on the Dead Sea. Saw my first and last camels and a couple Bedouin camps on the way. Swam/floated in the water, found the mud pit and mudded up, and then clambered agonizingly over the hot rocks back to our stuff (lots of rocks, little sand. Was there any sand?). Perk was a superhero and brought me my sandals... haha. Oh Lord I'm such a wimp. When did this happen?!

We rinsed off and headed back to Tel Aviv. That night I met Dor and his girlfriend, a couple other people came over and we played some word game (in English, how sweet of them) that I refused to play properly, and then was so tired that I had to go home. Man, being a tourist is tiring....

April 10: Well, it's Saturday, and we need some food for breakfast. That means a trip across the city to find the open grocery store. (What was it called in English? "International Taste"?) It was totally awesome to find Honey Nut Cheerios, and we continued the fruit, yogurt and muesli-for-breakfast tradition we'd started at Kan-Tor's place. Yummm. Today Perk got a break from me; I got dropped off at the Tel Aviv Art Museum and then walked over to the beach to hang out for a bit. It was quite nice to just walk through the streets in summer... ah, summer in April.

Then of course my phone ran out of money as I was telling Perk where to come pick me up, and I had to hope my directions ("just north of the fake Gaudi building") were adequate, which they were in the end. Thus how the ugly, fake Gaudi building saved my life! And I will forever be indebted to it. ... I'm not sure how I feel about that.

At home we made shakshuka (Perki made shakshuka) and Segall came over to serenade us and get yelled at by the cranky neighbour. Haha, poor boy. The three of us met up with Weiner after supper (and after watching the Jerusalem episode of the Simpsons) and we went out in the Florentin area of Tel Aviv. Ate a delicious hot dog. Went home.

April 11: Are you getting bored yet? Today was a day to run errands, and a day to do nothing. The weather made you want to just press fast-forward and get to the next day. It was weirdly oppressive. And of course it happened to be Holocaust Memorial Day starting in the evening, so all in all a bit of a strange day. We saw the port at Herzeliyya though, which was nice, and Perk got a nice shirt at the brand-new H&M in Tel Aviv.

April 12: Last day in Israel. In the morning was the two minutes of silence; me and Dora (the cat) watched from the window as everyone stopped what they were doing down in the plaza. The siren winds down and everyone starts moving again.

Perk had to drop off an assignment at the university, so I got to see the campus, and afterwards I finally tried sachlib. We walked home again, got a bag together, and went to sit out on a beach near Herzeliyya. Fries, wine, sunset, and then it was time to get ready to go. We ran into Lior as we were leaving to have supper and so we all got to go get sushi together. :) Yummm... then Perk brought me to Ben Gurion, where he proceeded to get interrogated about me, supposedly to speed up the security process. Poor Perk, what did I drag him into?

Then it was goodbye Tel Aviv... I'll miss you.

And such was my vacation! Of course it started raining as soon as I got back to Madrid/San Sebastian... sigh. But the weather quickly improved and I'm back feeling good. Last weekend I went with Iñaki, his German friend Marianna, and his roommate Jakob (the Dane) to France on Saturday, and Vitoria on Sunday. Then just this past weekend Jocey came to visit me in San Sebastian. So every weekend pretty much feels like another vacation. It's awesome...

I've opened up my couch to Couchsurfers again, so I think this weekend I'll be hosting. The next weekend (May 8-9) Inga will come to visit (¡¡finally!!). And then can my little brain even believe it... only three days left of school. On the 13th I'll head over to Barcelona to pick up Perki from the airport and crash at Inga's house. Perk leaves again on the 26th of May and my parents will be coming on June 5th until the 15th. Then I just need to be in Liberec for Lukas' wedding, and I'll be going back to Ontario for a couple weeks in July. Then it's up to Yellowknife and down to Monterey at the very beginning of August. And I start a whole other adventure! Geez, wish me luck, guys.

So there y'all have it! I'll try to keep these posts lighter in the future, I promise. :) Talk soon...

Learning with perki (by amit segall)

"Amit is with capital A. Perki is the professional, so he should be the one who explains and tells us what to do." Segall began directing the experimental blog post. (For some reason I can't figure out how to put the goddamn pictures on my blog.) "Let me try it first", said Perki. "Said is with double e", said Segall (aka Amit with capital A.). (Saeed = Hebrew pronunciation.) (Joke.)





"You're changing stuff!" cried Segall as he played his guitar.

Perki successfully uploaded the picture, Laura cried in frustration, and Perki recommended updating her browser. This adventure will be continued once I'm back in Spain.

"No one's going to understand anything... any of this", predicted Perki.

I - LOVE - IT - HERE

Of course, just as time starts running out, I start getting happier. It's always that way, isn't it? You just start getting into a place and it's time to leave...

Ok, I shouldn't get ahead of myself. I have until June here. But on Wednesday (March 31) I fly out to Israel where I'll be for two weeks, then there's just a couple weeks in April, three weeks in May until my parents come, and then I'll be LEAVING! Eeeegh! Euskadi, I don't want to go! There's so much more to see!!

Can you tell I went somewhere today? And that the weather's awesome? I'm in a good mood. :)

Last weekend I finally went to visit Jocelyne in Barbastro! Holy moly, I can't believe how long we've been here, how little time is left, and WHAT the fuck, she hasn't even been here to visit yet. I went out to freaking BARBASTRO! Aragón was fun. The trees were in full delicious flowering, the landscape reminded me of my biking days in Ciudad Real, and the towns were hilarious! That is: rural! I mean, it's kind of rural around here too... I guess... what with the farms and the sheep and whatnot... but it's different. Zaragoza is only a three-hour bus ride from Donosti, but ooohhhh my what a difference those hours make. I spent a night in Barbastro, the next night in Huesca at Joce's French friend Amandine's house, and the Sunday we went to visit Zaragoza, which was cute indeed! Barbastro and Huesca were fun to visit too, if only for a breath of (agricultural) air! I didn't do a whole lot of "tourism", but it was nice to be with Joce and to see new things!! We visited a cool castle near Huesca, I wandered around the centre of Huesca at like 1am and it was very cute, and Zaragoza is charming.

Today! I went with my friend to Getaria and Zarautz, which are two towns right beside each other along the coast, about 25 km from Donosti. Absolutely beautiful to see with the waves crashing onto the shore. They're both tiny, but Getaria is more fishing-village-y and Zarautz is more beach/surfing-y. Spring (when it doesn't mean random rain) means happy sun and brisk breezes. I forgot my camera, and then so did he. Hopefully I'll be back, but we walked through lovely meadows, had great views from the top of a hill, and even went to a multicultural event (I know, those exist here?!) where we watched capoeira and a sort of play about Basque witches. And watched a freaking adorable black child run about the stage. From the Cuban stall I had a coconut-and-guayaba cake which was delicious, and Iñaki had some sweet-milk-and-rum drink which tasted to me like a vanilla milkshake. And believe you me, it's been a while since I've had a vanilla milkshake. Freaking - Delicious.

Tomorrow I really have no plans, but it's supposed to be nice out, so I might go for a li'l walk along the coast to the next town over and take some pretty pictures. And a picnic. I heart good weather... :)

welcome to the Basque Country

So I normally don't do the whole politics thing, and I'm not going to pretend I know anything profound about the Basque situation, but there's some crazy shit been going on that I think should come to light. First observation, the way news about the Basque Country is presented here and outside Euskadi is very different, and I can notice that without hardly ever watching the news. But I'll get to that more.

So big thing that's going on right now is the discovery of an ETA affiliate's body. The whole time I've been here there have been posters up asking 'Non dago Jon?' (Where is Jon?) This refers to Jon Anza, who disappeared in April of last year. He went to take a train to Toulouse and no one ever heard from him again. Perhaps could be considered suspicious because the Spanish government was following his whereabouts closely... then he disappeared, and suddenly they had no information as to where he was. So some people are like .....Riiiight. Sure.

Now posters have popped up with his picture, with 'JON ERAILA' (Jon murdered) as the new title. Turns out they finally identified a body in a hospital in Toulouse as being him. About time. So far the autopsy's ruled out any trauma to the body and internal hemorrages, and has pronounced the cause of death a heart attack. The toxicology report is still pending. The family's up in arms because they won't allow the family's doctor to do an autopsy on his body.

Anza only entered the hospital 11 days after he disappeared. Someone found him in a park, unconscious, and brought him in. No one checked the lost and found for his passport, and somehow they only checked the missing persons list against the unidentified-bodies list now. The question is still: where was he for those 11 days? Did the Spanish/French governments really not know anything about where he was? Did they have anything to do with his disappearance? Etc. The French press recently came out with a couple of stories saying that they believed the governments must have known where he was. So certain elements of Basque press had a hayday with that.

Living here is making me realize that there really are two sides to every coin. And also, how incredibly different the coverage of this stuff is inside and out of the Basque country. What really gets my goat is articles like this, from El País:

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/Francia/halla/Toulouse/cuerpo/Jon/Anza/muerto/infarto/mayo/elpepiesp/20100312elpepinac_12/Tes

The first lines: "So much for more of the 'dirty war' against ETA. What ended Jon Anza's life - whose disappearance, torture, murder and burial was blamed on Spanish and French security forces by the group - was a heart attack." And with that they write the whole thing off. The third paragraph reminds us that ETA is still extorting people, that they blew up the T-4 parking garage in Madrid... etc.

Talking to some of my (American) friends, I've heard also that Anza had cancer, that ETA had actually turned on him, and that Anza was a horrible criminal. (He participated in the murder of a police officer in 1981.) So, a 'good riddance' sort of thing.

Yeah, nobody likes terrorism. In fact, most of us rightfully hate it. So some people write off the Jon Anza thing because he was a terrorist. But I think people have a right to know what happened to their loved ones. Will the truth ever come out?

around

I just listened to a message left on my cell's voice mail by some señora and her husband who apparently called, were confused about the fact that they had reached someone named "Laura", and decided to talk about it for four minutes without remembering to hang up. They kept repeating my voice mail message over and over sarcastically... like it's my fault they called my fucking phone! Hahaha... soooo random.... I hate this fucking phone. Did I tell you guys about this already? How I keep getting text messages and phone calls for some lady who evidently isn't paying her bills? Doña Isabel de los Santos Sánchez, I hate you.

Well since I'm here, it's adventure-telling time: on my week off in February, after going to Carnaval with Drew, I headed down to Madrid for a couple days, where I stayed at Rubén's place. I got to see his band rehearse and ride around Madrid in Rubén's awesome little car, heavy metal a-playin'... weather was too bad for a repeat of the motorcycle tour. Since he was working during the day on Thursday, I hung out with his German roommate and her two friends. And Mario. :P On Thursday night I hung out with Sam, Tyler, and Marco (couchsurfers from the States who'd visited me in San Sebastian) in some mega-mansion in a mega-nice area of Madrid. The girl's dad, whose house it was, works for the American embassy. Niiiiiice. We also hit a jazz bar, and called it a night.

On Friday I went down to Tomelloso to hang out with José Luis. He showed me the town, we hit up the Lagunas de Ruidera - which I had been to in 2007 when there was much less water - got some food and drink, and went out with some of his gal pals. On Saturday we went over to Ciudad Real (where I studied in 2006-07) to meet up with a big group of his buddies from Horcajo (his hometown). We (ok, they) played poker for a couple hours, got tapas from La Cabaña, and took the bus (what an adventure... no one ever takes the bus in Ciudad Real) to the Fito & Fitipaldis concert in the Recinto Ferial. Big exhibition building full of Spanish people holdings huge beers in plastic cups. And singing Fito. It was entertaining enough. Afterwards it was off to La Fontana (oh, some things never change).

Oh, I didn't mention that on the streets of Ciudad Real I met Rafa, Mark, AND Julián at different points of the night. I think that's everyone I know that lives there, so, not bad. :P

The next day it was a loooong trip home on three hours of sleep.

And that was that! This past weekend I went to Bilbao for a Couchsurfing "Meeting Mundiala 2010". Friday night we had a mingling social at a bar/event place called the Hikaateneo; Saturday we ate at a sidrería (pretty lame compared to the real deals we have here in Gipuzkoa, but the food was good), relaxed for a bit, and then it was drinking-game time back in the Hikaateneo. We learned some dice game called Kinito, which I quickly spurned for the much more fun bounce-the-coin-into-the-roll-of-tape game. BRING IT, people. Then we went out on the town: I know I was in four different bars, but I could not for the life of me ever find them again. I ended up sneaking into a friend's hostel (not that hard, considering there was no one at reception) and sleeping in an empty bed rather than attempting to find my host's house at night. And finally on Sunday, I ate a bunch of delicious delicious pintxos and did my best to keep warm and awake until we all drove home again. I'd gone with four other people from Donosti (Gonzalo, Ana, Iñaki, and Sandra) in a car, and on the way back we were grooooovin' to all the best commercial hits. Oh Lady Gaga.... :)

Donosti is lame for couchsurfing, but I can't really blame it. It's just small and tranquil. Iñaki says he's going to try to liven it up... wish him luck.

okey doke

'Tis all good, it's been beautiful lately, and the trip to Hondarribia was a success.

Today after a small run I studied a little bit on a bench on the Paseo Nuevo. I went for super guiri mode, with socks 'n' birkenstocks and a New York hoodie. And I sat there, thinking "how awesome that this isn't France/that there are no Moroccan guys walking along here who would make me feel nervous and harassed". Of course, as I was walking the ten steps back to my house, I had to pass an old man carrying a fearsome cane, who decided it would be fucking hilarious to slightly step towards me as I passed by and freaking YELL into my ear, "QUÉ me dices!!"

.... Can't people just leave other people the fuck alone? Grumble, grumble.

more random observations

You know you've gotten way too used to Spain when a comfort salad involves white asparagus, corn, and olive-and-vinegar dressing.

The Chinese stores around here really need to be open past 11. Where is one to go for late-night chuches? Isn't this what Chinese stores are for?

I know there was more I wanted to say, I'll get back to it when I think of it.

OH.... and apparently a "ciclogénesis explosiva" is heading our way tomorrow. First of all, what the FUCK does that mean? Second of all, does this mean my small trip to Hondarribia tomorrow will be blown off course, so to speak? I'm supposed to be taking advantage of my weekends, I don't need this inclement weather foolishness.

carnavales

Carnavales was awesome. I usually don't dress up for Halloween or really anything if I can help it, but at the last second I threw on a black ballerina skirt, striped socks and my hater deflectors and caught the train to Tolosa with Drew. I don't really know why or how it was such a great night. We just spent it roaming the streets amongst the other party-goers, hitting every bar we saw for a drink and a dance, joining in the dance parties on the street, following drum ensembles, and just generally scoping out the town. We also checked out the fair going on - lit-up rides and carneys - but Drew wouldn't go on the Alcazar Jail ride with me. Scaredy. Our last stop was at the top of the stairs looking down upon a sort of Where's Waldo - that costume's a popular one here - and then we ran to catch the 1am train back home. I know, I know... 1am... lame. These kids from Oregon just have early bedtimes.

One of the best things I think was we didn't see a single other foreigner (more specifically, guiri) the whole night. That made us feel special. Thanks, Drew, for a sweet Carnaval! Viva Tolosa.

people of S.S:

GOD I need a cell phone with a camera on it. I would be blowing all y'all's minds with my pictures of the worst hair EVER. And there is plenty to choose from here. I wonder if I can't find something on google. 'Basque hair'.

................Um ok, I guess a 'Basque' is some kind of lingerie, thankfully the image results weren't QUITE too inappropriate for work. Doo de doo...

As a textual teaser and hopefully precursor to an image, a very common cut is the 'short up top, dreads down back'. How awesome is that. While I'm on the subject, I'll just go on and describe a typical Basque 'guy from the mountains' look. Running shoes, mountain pants, horizontally-striped sweater, the hair described above, and a man-purse. These 'mountain pants' are warm with sort of really big knee patches of a different colour than the rest of the pants. Like these. http://www.psmoutdoors.co.uk/img/thumbs/827.jpg

Anyway I must be boring you... so onto my next observation. My favourite place to read is actually on public transportation, and in Toronto on the TTC, there are ALWAYS tons of people reading, even if that only be the Metro. I read on the bus here, but no one else does. I literally don't think I have seen anyone else read on the bus. I wonder why that is. I guess maybe if you're only on the bus for fifteen minutes at a time and it's not a regular commute, it's not worth it. But I always get happy to take the bus because it means I get to read in peace. :)

...?....?

Today I saw a woman wearing jean overalls... wow, that's been a while, and I certainly didn't expect it to come from a Spanish woman.

Secondly, I found Skippy peanut butter in the Chinese store near my gym. WHAT are the ODDS?

It wasn't chunky, so I didn't buy it.

wowwwza

Hello everyone. What do I have to tell this time, you ask? Well... let me see.

I got initiated into pintxo culture last Saturday night: after watching some heavy Chinese documentary about drug smugglers, Aina, Claire and I (later joined by Louise) hit up a bunch of good pintxos places in Gros. First on the list was a bar I can't quite remember the name of right now, but which is affectionately called by Aina '1985', although within the group we are somewhat at odds about what the exactly appropriate year-label should be. We don't even have the decade down. All we know is the atmosphere is pre-1990. This tiny place has great pintxos, a long cocktail list, all of which are prepared with love by the curly-haired owner, who always dresses up in his snazzy vest, and the best part: the music. But I'll come back to that.

After 1985, we moved on to three other bars, having a couple pintxos and a glass of red wine at each one. It was so much more relaxed than the Parte Vieja; it was nice to have space to talk and not have to fight crowds of people for the waiter's attention. And of course, the pintxos were amazing. But yes, I know, I have yet to go to La Cuchara, which Aina swears has the best pintxos in San Sebby. And the best arroz cremoso, which was my favourite pintxo of the night.

We returned to 1985 for a cocktail. The other 15 people in the bar seemed content enough, but that couldn't compare to the lust for dance that brought us four girls back there. Lights were dimmed and Boney M was played. Lots of Boney M. And other awesomely danceable songs. I am a complete nerd, but basically this is the music I look for when I want to go out to dance to. Oh yes, I remember now: The Final Countdown came on and I rocked out the guitar solo. Oh... my god. The shame. And the utter, utter joy.

Hahahaha. Aaaaalright. The only down point to that bar is that the waiter wasn't too happy about giving us glasses of water - he'd give them to us, and then make some comment about how we should be buying bottles of water. I do always feel weird/bad about asking for water at bars for some reason; I mean, yeah, I guess I'm not making you any money. But I love water (as anyone who knows me can affirm), I love the fact that it's free, and I don't like creating waste by buying bottled water. Hence why I cart my Sigg bottle everywhere with me. I hate feeling bad about loving water. So I guess if we ever go back there, I'll just make sure to bring my own water, and avoid the conflicts.

The rest of the night was just spent bar-hopping. It had its messed up parts, so I won't go into it, and instead I'll move straight into reporting on my excursion to the Peñas de Aya with my kids.

We left 8.30 Monday morning from Rentería, met the other bus of kids from Bayonne, and did some orientative games. It was really hard to get the Spanish and French kids to mix, and who can blame them - neither of them really spoke the other language. I was kind of surprised that seemingly none of the kids from Bayonne spoke Basque. I may have mentioned this before, but the kids I teach are all taught in Basque, so they're bilingual. One of the teachers from Bayonne, Jon, was native of both Basque and French, so Carlos (a teacher from my school and the leader) would make announcements in Basque, which Jon would then translate into French for his students - that's how I knew what was going on. Normally I just speak Spanish (obviously) in my schools and I have no problem; it was kind of funny to suddenly have to switch sides in order to understand.

We first visited a bunker that was built by Franco before the Second World War; although he was an ally of Hitler, just in case Hitler got some strange ideas into his head, Franco decided to build a line of bunkers along the border with France. So all of Spain's concrete went into building these things, not to mention a lot of money and labour from the prisoners of the Spanish civil war, and now there's a string of bunkers along the border of the Pyrenees. Huh. This one was just pretty much a tunnel underground. The exit was never finished, so it just looks like a cave.

All about protecting the Spanish people, huh, Franco.

Anyway, next up was a grouping of cromleches (is that the correct plural?). These are stones from the Neolithic grouped in circles - the most famous one, of course, being Stonehenge. They're also found in France, India, Portugal, the Americas... Their meaning is still fuzzy - maybe they were just tomb markers, or maybe there was some big geometric conspiracy going on.

(Side note. I just checked on Wikipedia for cromlech, and it turns out that although in Spanish and French they use the old english word cromlech to describe these things, while dolmens are other things, in English we usually just use 'dolmen' to describe them - God, what the hell.)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35664045@N06/4336891567/

Moving on, we proceeded to the Peñas de Aya - Aiako Harria in Basque - and climbed one. It's funny how it started as just a nice walk up through a forest.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35664045@N06/4336892805/

Then it started getting snowy. I was carrying a bunch of stuff and getting my feet soaked through my ragged Converse shoes that I wore because I was just going to throw them out anyway. I know, whine, whine, right.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35664045@N06/4336893755/

Up at the top it was pretty windy and snowy - we cursed the snow pretty bad on our way back down, too. Lots of sliding was involved. The crazy part - it all melted that same day. Goddamn you, snow. It was weird looking down to Donosti as well - it looked all sunny and peaceful, and here we were getting snow-whipped.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35664045@N06/4336894875/

Anyway, blah de blah, we hiked across the mountain, made it to a hostel, made sure all our kids were fed and then gorged on meatballs and french fries, and the next day went to a mine that's now out of use. The tour was in Basque soooooo can't tell you a lot about that place.

I was really tired this week.

P.S. I still don't understand how to put pictures in my blog, so for now I'm leaving those stupid urls in. Cry about it.

lovely, lovely

On Saturday I went with Aina and her "crew" to a sidrería (cider house) in Astigarraga, a small town near San Sebastian that is known for its sidrerías. There they give you a fixed meal, with all the sidra you can drink! The sidra's great, the food is amazing, it's a good time with friends; all in all, it's a very nice excursion. There's a certain way of getting the sidra: first you pick which batch you'd like to try; next, the staff turns the spigot and out comes the sidra arcing through the air to the ground, and you do your best to get it in the glass and get some nice foam on top. The idea is that a line of people does it, each one with his or her glass under the one before, and thus no sidra makes it into the bucket on the ground. I'll admit we weren't that good at it, though, and we got told off a little bit. Hehehe.

Our "menú" consisted of: chorizo y morcilla (sausage and blood sausage); next, a tortilla de bacalao (cod omelette); a nice piece of bacalao (cod with I don't know what delicious green veggie on top); chuleta (steak, wonderfully rare and salted); and finally dessert of membrillo y queso (quince jelly and cheese) y nueces (walnuts). Sorry about the Spanish... but it's just not that cool in English. Everything was amazing. I didn't know what blood sausage was until afterwards (to tell the truth, I'm still trying to be vague on it so I don't get grossed out), but it was amaaaazing. I was the one going "you're not going to eat that? Ok, hand it over here." Haha. Yummay.

The next day I rolled out of bed and met a couchsurfer from Australia who was just visiting San Sebastian for the day, down from France; we met for breakfast (well, I had a café con leche and a croissant, but he was ready for some pintxos already) and ended up spending the whole day together. It was kind of rainy and shitty, but he was in such a good mood and so willing to do anything that we ended up having a great time together. We went up to the Jesus statue on Urgüll, souvenir-shopped, ate amazing pintxos and drank beer, and even got into the Real Sociedad soccer game for free. (We got there late; I told the ticket-checker that the box office was closed - which was true - and he was like "OK", shrugged, and let us in. Schwing!) It is days like that that make me really love Couchsurfing and couchsurfers. I also love it when there's really nothing you *should* be doing.

En fin, it was a great weekend and it should be a great week. Yesterday night I had a nice candlelit dinner with friends and much red wine after climbing, and today my kids didn't show up for my 4.30 class because the cafeteria workers are on strike (long story, chaos has ensued at school) so I just hung out with Molly before heading to the library. Tomorrow night is 1970s American thriller night at the Teatro Principal, and on Friday Aina and I have been invited to a dinner at a "sociedad" (a kind of gastronomical club, shrouded in mystery, closed to outsiders and historically women) with Molly and her Basque boyfriend. Yep, things are looking up. I hope they stay that way. :)

cold waves

Yes, I went swimming in the Atlantic today. Yes, it was cold. Yes, it was salty. Yes, it was awesome.

Afterwards we had a sushi picnic with the leftovers we had from last night and went for a hot chocolate. That was a few hours ago, but I'm still cold... I'm doing it again next week. :P

new year, new me, blah, blah, blah.

Well everyone, here we are in the new year, happy and healthy, I hope. I for one am back in the city we all know and love - San Sebastian. No, I'm not glad to be back, but I will be soon.

Let me tell you how my vacations actually turned out. They were fast and slow, hot and cold, short and long... to summarize, they were kind of messed up. I left San Sebastian for Barcelona on a Friday to spend the weekend at Inga's house before flying out on Monday. My mom called on Saturday, however, to tell me that she'd been diagnosed with "follicular lymphoma" (can't tell you what it is really, I should really Wiki it sometime). Cancer always kind of puts a damper on things, so I ended up scratching the plan for Connecticut and going back to Yellowknife instead. Ev and I spent hours the next day changing all my plans - I still would go through Toronto on my way up to Yellowknife, and I'd bump back my return flight from JFK to give me more time up north. So I spent a few days in Toronto; Ev left for Connecticut on the 25th. I spent most of Christmas Day in a hotel in Mississauga, watching tv. I did battle the awfully cold wind and rain to get myself supper from Popeye's, which was the only restaurant around open; I had never eaten from there before, and I probably never will again.

Anyway, I shipped out bright and early on the 26th and stayed up north till the 6th of January. Not a whole lot to report: Reub was there for a bit; they got a Christmas tree just before I came but we never decorated it; my dog is cute; it was cold but pretty; we watched lots of Jeopardy. I went snowmobiling once with my dad and we drove alongside a dogsled. You don't realize how cool yet absurd those things look until you actually see one. I got a cavity filled. I managed to eat most of my gigantic slab of Arctic char at Bullock's (delicious, but for some reason you get a double portion size). There was nothing really happening in Mom's situation, since it was everyone's Christmas vacation. However, once I got back here she got word that her latest biopsy turned out clear, which means she will be doing four weeks of radiation on the affected area, rather than any chemotherapy. So that's great news.

Her and Dad were going to come to visit me here in February, but it looks like that trip will be postponed now. That is good news for the Fito & Fitipaldis concert that José Luis invited me to that week. (I think it's that week?) Whatever. The point is, I have a week off in February ("la Semana de nieve", "Snow Week", so nicknamed because everyone goes skiing). And I should be able to make a li'l trip down to the nether regions of Spain, otherwise known as Madrid/Ciudad Real.

I also have good news about my program at MIIS. Not only did I find out that I got in super fast, they also let me know only a short while later that they're giving me a $12,000 merit-based scholarship. The maximum they give out is $14,000, so that is pretty freaking awesome actually. Goooo me! :P Free money!!

As for my time in Toronto, it was really amazing. I have this weird love affair with that city... I'm not sure why I like it so much. But I managed to see a lot of great people and buy myself rain boots (sorely needed) and another pair of those Puma sneakers I love (just 'cause).

It was pretty cold, but I was so happy just to walk around the streets while Ev was at work. Yes, I also got to be with Ev again, which made me very happy indeed. I had a really good time with him, just eating out and walking around like we used to do.

That meant of course though that things were pretty shitty when I first got here. We agreed that we wouldn't speak for the remainder of my time here, so I had probably the longest week of my life this past week. Kudos to Molly and Aina for putting up with me and for their support. Aina even brought me out last night, so I was nice and hungover today to teach. You know... people here have the idea in their heads that I don't drink. I was like... what? Really? Wow, I was that much of a hermit last semester? For shame, Laura... for shame.

Ok, I can't figure out how to put pictures in the middle of my post, or I would put some up. And on that undramatic note, I sign off for now,

yours truly,

the Juicemeister.