Club Basque

We held club at the university cafeteria. Over thirty students showed up and participated in a variety of games and fun activities. They sat, jumped, ran, talked and had a great time together. Jon Berkimer shared how he was searching for long lasting love and found it in God's love. At the end of club we passed out posters to the students from their home base church from last summer. Those students who did not get a poster will received theirs in the mail.



Here is a clip of one of the games we played.

The pursuit of pintxos - social life

Much of Basque social life is done in the streets, literally. So we asked a couple experts from Basque Country to show us how it worked. Both young men have been to the USA many times to learn and improve their English. Their American families love them and have traveled to see them in Basque Country.

Jon Larea has been teaching industrial manufacturing for the past 9 years. Jon is certified to teach English in the schools as well. Gorka is a university student studying computer science. It was interesting to observe the different technology they used to make a list of drinks people wanted as we went from bar to bar.  Jon used a pen and paper and Gorka used his smart phone.

The group started out on the boulevard. We met out in front of McDonalds. Yes, a McDonald’s in the heart of Basque Country – despicable! The purpose is to visit several "pintxo bars" and eat their best and well known pintxo. Everything imaginable can be placed on a piece of bread - mushrooms, crab, shrimp, peppers, anchovies, risotto, with sauces of all kinds (see pictures). Twenty-three of us walked the streets, talking, sharing our experiences and becoming friends to the fantastic taste of Basque food and drink. It sure beats staying at home. Muy Bueno!

Mount Igueldo - The Lighthouse

The story of The Lighthouse starts in the middle of the XVIIIth Century.

The Lighthouse, also known as “La Farola”, was built by the San Sebastian Consulate, at 180 meters above sea level. It was a fixed light tower visible from more that 9 miles away. Its signal saved many ships from being wrecked on the rocks while entering the harbor.

Although it was one of the best lighthouses at the time, it was finally abandoned during the Carlist War because of breakages and the fog which frequently kept the light from being seen.  In 1854, a new lighthouse was built situated on one side of the mount at 130 meters above sea level.

In 1912, The Mount Igueldo Society decided to regain the splendor of the old lighthouse and remodeled it with the architect Mr. Luis Elizalde. A new floor with wide windows were added and a fabulous panoramic terrace gives people a tremendous view of Donostia.

A hotel was constructed at the top of the mount.  A carnival with a roller coaster now exists for tourists to enjoy.

Most recently, this has been the site of several international prayer gatherings in an effort to bring Light to the Basque region. The mount gives one a breathtaking panoramic view of La Concha and the town of Donostia.

Irene meets up with girls

Today we visited a school in Tolosa that had many students who came to the Northwest. Two of the girls were from Irene's home base. It was a very happy reunion.

 

Irene has been very busy. She planned to take a train ride to Zarautz to meet up with Laura and play basketball. Laura is on a team and the coach allowed Irene to come in and play. She will probably teach them a thing or two about basketball, intensity and toughness.

Unexpected joy

We had a relatively light schedule today so both teams walked about 10 minutes to Santa Teresa. The sun was bright and the air was crispy cold. I couldn't see my breath but it was close. It was one of those occasions that if you walked in the sun it felt real refreshing.
Everyone was talking about what they experienced the night before as they ventured out for dinner at 8:30. In Basque country they each lunch around 2PM, late afternoon is through 8pm and dinner is 9PM or later. I was too exhausted to even eat the night before. I went to bed, woke up about 2AM, about 4PM (the day before) for the Northwest and could not go back to sleep. I decided it was a good time to catch up on the blog.

There was some talk about the differences they encountered so far while being in Spain.

• you flush the toilet by pushing a button on top of the toilet
• some toilets have 2 buttons to flush
• some bathrooms have the toilet paper dispenser was outside the bathroom (one had to take their proper amount before entering)
• shopping carts have all four wheels swivel
• a whole lot more roundabouts on the roads
• narrow roads and fast drivers

Some unexpected joy cam while visiting the schools. At Santa Teresa Jon was walking and praying on the side walk leading to the school when we heard this call, "Jon!, Jon!". It was Mikel, a student who had stayed on Bainbridge last summer. Mikel, another student and Mikel's mother (the teacher) were excited to see him. Jon went to the classroom to help with the presentations. Syd Brown also knew a couple Basque students at the school and help with the presentations so he could spend time with them.

My team of people walked down to another school where we were going to be the next day. The students have a 30 minute break in the morning and we were going to see if we recognized anyone. Jane went inside the school to find the teacher she knows and was pleasantly surprised to have a person tapping on her shoulder - it was Sara Diez. She was in the USA two years ago. Bev and I had her over to our house to bake cookies one day. It was good to see her and to learn she was going to study medicine.

Marcy Schroder from the New Life Home Base met up her Basque daughter when she surprised her by coming to Olarain where we are staying. We all got to meet her. It was a good day.

Family and relationships are cherished. We seek to understand and know each of our students and family better.

Riding high in Tolosa

Today we spent time in the classrooms presenting the Summer in the USA program to students. Before going to a school we climbed the hills around Tolosa, Spain. Tolosa is a town and municipality to the south of Donostia-San Sebastián in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa, Spain. It is located in a valley of the river Oria and overlooked by Uzturre, a white cross-topped mountain.

Irene said, "let's go to the top of that mountain."

So we did our best. We went to the end of town and it only took us two attempts to find a road that went high above Tolosa.

Irene, "Is this a two-way road?"

Yes, the roads were narrow and winding. We encountered a few cars going up, but no accidents. We saw sheep, oxen, hundred year old farm houses, fruit trees of some type, tractors, bales of hay and farmers that did not crack a smile when we waved. The view was tremendous.

My passengers (Irene, Jane, Ruth, Syd and Jon) may have gotten a little nervous looking out their window to only see a sharp drop down the mountain but it was adventurous. The tour was especially exciting when we reached the end of the road and had to back up 100 feet and turn around in a tight area. Thank goodness for new vans with a tight turning radius.

From 2012 January Trip

We will be traveling to Tolosa again this week and I will report on their well known and very tasty beans called BABARRUNAK.

Blessings

Were off to Basque Country 2012

Our Air France flight was delayed 15 minutes and we lost 10 minutes in the air, putting us 25 minutes less time to make our connection flight in Paris.

You have to understand that the Charles DE Gaulle Airport has been under construction for the past several years I have been coming to Basque Country. This is the first time our flight was that late. What complicated the connection process was the necessity to go through customs to get our passports stamped. The problem was we had to exit the plane on the tarmac, ride a bus for 5 minutes to the middle of the airport, stand in line with 50 people with 2 custom agents working frantically to get people through only to walk a quarter mile to the sign that pointed outside with no signs on the curb to give us direction. We saw two large tour busses unloading, but no N2 Bus to transport to us G2 terminal. We all went inside to see if we missed something. I remembered that this was what I did last time we were at DE Gaulle. Jane went to ask someone and I went outside to look for the bus. Sure enough, as soon as we were about to panic the N2 bus pulled up to get us to the G2 Gate.

The N2 bus was a 5 minute ride back to the same terminal we exited the plane. I looked at the LED monitor on the bus and it said Next Destination G2 Terminal – 6 min. The time was 10:01 and our plane was to depart at 10:15! But I said to Jane, but the building over there says G2 and we were passing by it. Then the bus turned sharply, the time on the monitor said 2 minutes till arrival. Boy, are we going to cut this close. We walked very quickly through the G2 Terminal doors on a mission. Jane asked, “Where do we go?” I said, “Turn left, we have to go through security again.” The government of France had really constructed a nice security area since the last time I visited. Fortunately, no one was waiting in line so we went right through, except for my suitcase caring the video projection unit for the classroom presentations. They had to screen it using the wipes to detect explosives. Precious minutes were ticking away. Finally, all clear.

Our fast walking turned into a slow jog and the slight decline down the walkway to the waiting area at Gate 23 helped speed us up a bit. If I was smart I would have told the King’s West and Olympic College track star, Irene Moore who is traveling with us, to sprint ahead of us and hold the plane. I turned the corner, with Irene right behind me, and saw two flight attendants down the stairs to the doors that led to the plane. One lady went out the door to the plane, the other lady told me as I was huffing and puffing that it was too late. “You will have to go upstairs and get a later flight”, she said. I couldn’t say anything because I was out of breath, Irene did not break a sweat and Jane and Marcy were just coming down the stairs to the waiting area. The flight attendant repeated herself about going upstairs to book another flight to Bilbao. Jane said we have four people waiting for us in Bilbao and we have no way of contacting them. I had may arms on the podium still breathing hard when the second flight attendant flung open the door after returning from the plane and said we can BOARD! I ran over and gave her the double kiss on the cheek thank you.

Unfortunately, our luggage did not make the flight. I am glad to say, we met up with Syd on the airplane. He was wondering what took us to so long. Ruth was on a later flight but because of all our delays she beat us to Bilbao. Marcy was able to meet her Basque daughter and family at the airport and everyone but me got on the 12:45 bus to Donostia.

I need to wait here for a couple hours to pick up Billy from Portland. I had time to write this introduction to our trip. I better go and see if he has arrived. I hope the rest of our trip is this exciting.

Agur

P.S.
Billy missed his connection and got on another flight which was to arrive at 8PM. I returned to Donostia. I received notification that our luggage was to be on the same flight Billy was on. So, I was able to pick up the luggage and Billy in one trip to the airport. Sweet!