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.