Last you heard, I was staying up all night hanging out at the hostel. Well Friday during the day, or maybe Saturday, Dana and I wandered aimlessly into the town of Atxuri, which we found by following la Ria de Bilbao. Friday was akin to Black Friday in the US, because it was the day after Three Kings Day. The streets were packed with bargain hunters....and the ETA. What is the ETA, you ask? I shall tell you.
ETA stands for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, which translates to mean Basque Homeland and Freedom. According to Wikipedia they are an armed nationalist and separatist organization, labelled as terrorists by Spain, France, the US, and the EU a few years back for doing things like setting off car bombs and murdering police officers. NBD, am I right? Anyway, they want to declare independence from Spain, though the Basque Country is already pretty autonomous. These flags are everywhere:
The weather has looked like this everyday, it's not just Atxuri:
We happened to witness a protest the other day. The ETA had gathered and was making an organized plea to the government for the return of Basque prisoners. They wanted all incarcerated ETA members to be returned to prisons in the Basque region.
Saturday was our last day in Casco Viejo in Bilbao, we spent it at the Museo de Bellas Artes. They had an amazing retrospective of Antonio López, who is a hyper-realistic drawer, painter, and sculptor but with a slight Surrealist twist. Something's always a bit off...and he's extremely talented, I mean the exhibit was just amazing.
Saturday night we went out to a punk show at a bar called Azkena in Bilbao Centro. I had found these bands online, and realized they were playing nearby....the B.C. Bombs (Basque Country Bombs) and Segismundo Tóxicomano. As intimidating as the crowd seemed from the outside, it was your standard punk show. The Basque punks are super supportive, they knew all of the words and the show was surprisingly well organized, though still ran a good hour late. The bands played for an hour and an hour and a half. The B.C. Bombs are the best, I bought a t-shirt.
You can imagine our surprise, after a stressful four days, of finding out we are living with 5-7 people (include the younger Maria's boyfriend, and housekeeper-type) rather than in a quiet apartment as we had anticipated. It's still a bit stressful, our room is clearly the two boys' room, who have been moved elsewhere in the house to accommodate. We can't communicate well and can't tell if they want us around or not - every time we venture downstairs they just ask if we want something, and we say not really, I explain in broken Spanish we want to get to know them, and they stare at us blankly. We're hopefully discussing the situation with the director of ASOB tomorrow.
Otherwise, the family who drives us to school is absolutely wonderful, the girls speak beautiful English and think my Spanish is both hilarious and humiliating. The school...is indescribably awesome. I love it. All of this stress has been worth it to be at this amazing school. The building is old, and simple, with covered outdoor hallways, and a small courtyard and two playgrounds. The teachers are all incredibly friendly, ones I hadn't met kept stopping me asking, "Are you one of the new student teachers from New Jersey? Who are you working with? Wonderful! Stop by my classroom, my name is ___, I'm right over there!" Teachers go by their first names and wear jeans, it's the best. The students are normal, except much more talkative and animated than Americans. The students are 95% Spanish or Basque, 5% International. They talk nonstop, rapid Spanish and sing along to their iPods and are climbing out of their seats like first graders. But they can speak very good English to their teacher, Pauline, my co-op and to me. Pauline and I are on the same page, her lessons are really cool, and I'm starting my postcard lesson on Thursday. I love it, I can't wait for tomorrow. Pictures of the school will come soon.
Naptime.
Adios,
Kelsey
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