yum yum

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

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

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

I mean... really.

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

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

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

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

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