Sweltering South of Spain

While temperatures are said to reach the 100ºs in the south of Spain, practically a desert land, in between Joseba's medical appointment and visa interview, we decided to venture down there for some much-needed relax time.

Joseba's brother graciously offered us his camping van for the week so that we could cruise down to the southeast of the country to a National Park called Cabo de Gata which boasts gorgeous beaches everywhere you look.  We were completely on board and just went - not much research or anything - ready to enjoy the sun and turquoise water for days on end.

The 6-hour drive from Madrid to Cabo de Gata was lengthy and our first stop was to the touristy town called San José.  While it once was a fishing village, it has since become a tourist haven with restaurants, shops and a beach that seemed to be packed even when we arrived at 8pm.  With only 900-something year-round residents, the place was full of tourists who come to spend the entire summer in the Mediterranean waters.  We had a quick dinner at one of the restaurants and then headed a bit out of town to a place called Cala de la Higuera, where we set up the van for sleeping and camping heaven.

In the morning we emerged from the van with high hopes of a small private little beach and were quite disappointed when we saw yes a small beach but a huge group of people who had set up their sleeping bags all over the beach, essentially taking over it.  We closed the van's top and hoped in looking for greener pastures...or bluer sea, I guess you could say.

On the advice of the tourist booth we passed while entering, we headed to another beach called El Embarcadero.  When we arrived we got a good feeling as we saw many camper vans and motor homes.  We parked and jumped out, ready to get our feet in the sand.  As we headed down, we saw medium-sized sandyish/pebbleish beach and then a small little walkway that lead to some huge rocks and decided to go that route, hoping for a small private beach!  We were in luck and set down our towels, took off our swimsuits and lathered on the sun block.  Throughout the entire trip, we tanned naked - as nudism at the beach in the south is quite common.  A great way to avoid any tan line, we had done it before in Tenerife in the Canary Islands and decided to go with the flow and get a full  body tan.  This pic was originally taken in my birthday suit, but for the blog we have painted a swimsuit on me :)

This little beach was basically our home base for the entire trip.  We had done a big shop when we got into town and with the fridge, stove and sink in the van, happily lived the life of sun and sea.  Being quite hot, we agreed that snorkeling was in order and on the second day whipped out the flippers and goggles and started to appreciate our little beach for not only the view from land but all the richness that was happening under the small waves.  From bright orange starfish and hundreds of little fish scurrying around, we were most excited to spot a stingray floating around!

The Park, Cabo de Gata, is the largest land-sea park on the Western Mediterranean, covering some 460km.  With various habitats, our snorkeling allowed us to explore the maritime seagrass beds that were full of sealife.  From the beach, we could see the steppe habitat in the duney mountains.  With the lowest rainfall in the Iberian Pennisula (about 4in to 7in annually according to Wikipedia), the hills were dry as bones and the low-lying bushes that covered in this extremely arid zone.

After a few days enjoying the scenery from sun up to sun down, we meandered up the coast looking for something different and settled at El Playazo, a massive sandy beach dotted with colorful beer-branded umbrellas.  With turquoise water covering the white sand, the beach has to look like a Mediterranean heaven from above.

After a night of loud neighbors, we set off the next morning to fill up the gas tank, water tank and search for another hot spot.  While the shoreline was dotted with deluxe camping vans, tons of tan people and great view points, the interior was a bit more shocking.  In an area where houses were just receiving electricity in the home about 7 years ago, it was not so surprising that when we were filling the van's water tank to find ourself with people filling water jugs for thier weekly water.  There was one African man that had a huge container that he tried to carry while riding his bike.  Just getting on the bike and pushing off was almost an impossible task and Joseba helped him by holding the bike steady while he mounted the bike and then headed off, one hand on the handlebars and the other holding a 20 gallon jug.  

Once a mining paradise, the Cabo de Gata area has been scoured for anything and everything - gold, jasper, silver, amythests, agates and more.  While now abandoned, the mines still remain, crumbling in the desert heat.  Cities that were built up around them for those who came from far and wide to dig their luck also sit uninhabited and give a shabby look to small hillside villages covered in stark white paint.

While some houses were decaying before our eyes as we whizzed past, some have been remodeled and made into desert oasises.  Stucco and adobe style homes with a touch of Arabic design dotted the area.  Even with sparse water supply, some had decorated their yards with plants accustomed to the weather - namely the cabo de gata plant itself.  A tall flowering tree that seems to grow at an angle wherever we saw it, this namesake plant was curious to say the least.

As we made our way up the coast looking for an inlet to compare with the one we had found at El Embarcadero, we passed beaches that were framed by black volcanic rock, beaches with white sand and clear water and little whitewashed villages.  We  had our hearts set on the majestic Playa de los Muertos, which translates as the Beach of the Dead; although it doesn't sound catchy had a pristine stretching beach as far as the eye could see.  However, when we arrived we had to pay to even enter the beach and we knew that in this almost tourist unspoilt area, we  had found a tourist trap.  We elected to head back to our little spot and enjoy the rest of the blasting heat next to the beach.  So named, the Playa de los Muertos is said to be the spot where the current carries the dead Africans who try immigrating to Europe via boat and don't make it.  Supposedly it didn't used to be so uncommon to find dead bodies, clothes and personal belongings.

Back to our regular spot we were surprised to find some new unwanted beachgoers - jellyfish.  Besides in an aquarium, I had never seen one and was quite curious but terrified at the same time.  We convinced ourself to refrain from our snorkeling desires and the next day headed to a new, less jelly-fish infested spot - another gorgeous inlet that was deserted and only for us.  We splashed in the crystal-clear water, took water jumping photos and floated peacefully for quite some time, while unbeknowest to us, our false friends were lurking nearby.  While out in the water, Joseba spotted one and I tensed up so as to not moved an inch and in doing so, brushed my leg against one that was much closer that we hadn't seen.  What pain!  From never seeing one to getting stung by one is not progress I was happy to have made but I managed to get out of the water and examine the two-lagged slash that it had made of the back of my leg. 

Having both seen the show Friends, we immediatley thought of the episode where Monica gets stung by a jellyfish and Joey pees on it to cure it.  Having no clue if it worked or not, we decided to try it, but as Joseba peed all over my leg, I couldn't help laughing at the fact that it wasn't helping the pain subside at all.  If anything, it distracted me from the constant burning feeling I felt where it had slapped me.  After disproving that theory the pain eventually went away and we were able to relax on the rocky beach.  After that incident we barely entered the water for the rest of our trip.

Said to be the most untouched part of the Mediterranean Sea, our five days were amazing in the area and offered us complex relaxation (minus our jellyfish stings - Joseba got stung the day after me).  Having the sun shine through the van windows each morning, creating a long orange mirror on the water was a great way to start each day and made for a lovely vacation.

Besos!
Amanda

Our Visa Journey - from Alien to American Resident

When we hear the word alien, we think of some green creature crawling around Mars or some crazy species who is planning on invading our Earth with their sliminess.  However, as I am sure you know, alien also can be defined as 'someone belonging to a foreign country' and this context of alien is one that Joseba and I have become oh-so-familiar with over the past few months.

Deciding to move to the USA was easy, as it was something we had been talking about for a long time, it was always just a matter of when.  However, when we started looking at the process, we realized it was quite a lengthy one and decided to get started as soon as possible and then see when to go.

Over the course of the entire process, I kept a little blog, so will share that with you all now so you can kind of get an idea of the immense amount of work behind bringing this cute boy home with me this September!  The first step of the long process is the filing of the I-130, which is an application sent to the USCIS (United States Customs and Immigration Services) to see if Joseba was eligible to apply for a visa based on his status as my spouse.  This form can be filled out for spouses, children and parents. 

In this packet, not only did I have to prove my Americaness, but more importantly, we had to prove that we are truly a married couple and that this wasn’t all a sham to get Joseba into the country.  Me being American was easy to prove – copy of the good ol’ birth certificate and a copy of my current passport and that was over.  The marriage thing though, is where we went a bit crazy.  We are in love, no doubt about that.  Anyone who knows us knows that our relationship is 100% bona fide, to use the government’s term.  But, it is true that people pretend to be in a relationship just to slide past immigration.  We didn’t want there to be a single doubt in the immigration people’s eyes, so we loaded the packet with stuff that went over and above proving that we are a true married couple.  Here is the list of what we sent off as ‘evidence’ that we are a real couple –  a copy of our marriage certificate, copy of our joint apartment lease, copy of the Spanish census data showing we live together, copy of the existence of our joint bank account, copy of bank transfers from our joint bank account paying for our joint apartment, 2 affidavits from close friends who have known us since the relationship started testifying to the validity of our relationship, a copy of the postcard I sent the family announcing our wedding, a copy of the article published in the newspaper in the States announcing our marriage, copy of plane and train tickets of trips we had taken together and, last but definitely not least, a copy of a lot of blogs I had written about with Joseba in them  (trips to Stockholm, Berlin, the wedding, etc).  If that is not enough to show we are a legit couple, I don’t know what is.  It was funny as we printed out something like 20 of my blogs – while this has been an amazing way to sort of document and share what I have done here, it was also incredibly helpful for this packet.  I mean, some of the blogs are 2 years old – it’s sort of like a living history!  

When we decided to send the package, we were scurrying around like crazy; we needed to have the translator, Erika, sign off on all the translations, take passport-style photos (which are nothing like identity photos in Spain) and get to the UPS place by 7:30.  As luck would have it, there was quite a lot of traffic, no parking and a jam in the photo printer machine.  In the end, we got all the stuff and raced to the UPS office.  We made it just in the nick of time and somewhat laughed because we thought we would have been finished for an hour or so by then.  Regardless, we were ecstatic to have made it and to get this devil of a package en route.  In the past 48 hours, we had just lived and breathed immigration.  We raided Iker and Ixaskun’s house and took their printer, probably using a good 200 pages of printing paper.  The problem was that if we found one mistake, maybe we had to make the change on that paper but then also on the cover letter and such.  We were printing like Gutenberg and what a mess we had all over the floor.  After final printing, then came time for hole punching and neon arrow sticking.  In the end, the package came together, something like 80 pages and 11 sections, but finished, thank God. 

So by time we got the UPS, this package was like our baby.  I had no shame in asking the friendly UPS lady to take a picture of us before we shipped it off.  She laughed and obliged.  Check out my grip on the package!  It was off and a quick 2 days later it was received and signed for at the USCIS office.  The games had begun.  

When the USCIS receive your package, they immediately send you a ‘notice of acceptance’ meaning they have gotten the package.  When they approve it, they also send a ‘notice of approval’.  Because we live abroad, we included a form stating that we elected to be notified via email, that way we wouldn’t be chewing our fingernails waiting for something in the mail.  The email of acceptance never came.  And then it still didn’t come and still.  I began biting my nails.  After 10 business days of no notice or anything, I decided to call the USCIS and ask if they had a status on the package.  I was a bit nervous to call because I didn’t want to annoy them and have our forms sent to the back of the line, but was really anxious so decided to call anyways. 

The lady at USCIS was very friendly and said that living abroad it’s possible that we would NEVER receive the hard copy notice because they only put 45cent stamps on the letters so it probably wouldn’t arrive.  She gave us the case number and told us to check the status online.  We went to the website and put our extremely long case number in and started to read what popped up.  It said blah blah blahh APPROVED blah blah blah.  I about died!  We hugged like there was no tomorrow and did a happy dance in the living room!  Here we were worried that they hadn’t even started working on the application and it was already approved!  What luck!  We were hoping to get the ‘expedited line’ and we did.  Turns out, most I-130s take about 5 months to reach approval stage and ours only took 11 days!  If you are a US Citizen and you are living abroad with your spouse, they do a courtesy of giving you a quick pass.  Boy did we appreciate it!

With the first step down we eagerly started preparing for the second step – when the package gets sent to the NVC (National Visa Center).  For this we really had to be on top of our game.  We became super fans of a website called VisaJourney, which is a huge forum community of people who have done, are doing or are planning to immigrate or help someone immigrate.  The amount of information is extraordinary.  It is set up as a helpful tool to anyone going through the tricky and long process.  

Waiting waiting waiting – that wass the name of the game.  Ever since we got our notice of approval hard copy, I had been calling the government agency that the application is being shipped to – the NVC (National Visa Center) to see if the case had arrived from USCIS.  Here is where they button up the case even more – show that Joseba will be financially supported, that he isn’t a criminal, that he doesn’t have any crazy diseases to spread to our citizens and so on.  What normally takes only a month really had us excited, but although turning stuff in is said to take a month, it seems that merely waiting for a case number was going to be the same amount of time. After about 10 straight days of calling (business days that is), we were finally told on May 25^th that the actual case had been received on May 21^st however they hadn’t input it into the system yet and to call back in another 10 business days. 

Calling and calling and calling – every day.  It was like my new addiction!  And finally, almost a month to the date after our notice of approval, we got a case number at the NVC!   After about 15 minutes of holding, the usual, they took my call.  It’s always the same thing – ‘good afternoon, your case or receipt number please’ to which I always friendlily respond with my receipt number and always get told ‘we have the file but it hasn’t been entered into the system yet.  Please allow 10-20 more business days for that.’  But today, Roberto answered my call and instead of giving me that schpeel after hearing my number he asked for my full name and DOB and the beneficiary’s (Joseba) full name and DOB.  I knew that this was it!  I gave all our info and then asked for the case number, happy as could be and then wished him a good day! He said to wait for an email from NVC and then we could get started on the next phase of our immigration journey.

We finally got some contact from the NVC a bit later!  They sent us each an email which basically states the case is now being handled by the NVC and is ready for progress to be made.  Joseba had to send in a ‘Choice of Agent’ Form, basically select an American who has a US bank account who can pay the fees and a stateside address to receive mail quicker.  While I have the bank account, we opted to be contacted by email which is faster by far!  We sent the form, super excited and finished up the big packages that we would soon have to send – sponsorship paperwork and the official immigration application!  AHHHH!  We had been waiting for so long and were so pumped to finally get some action with the NVC.  We even did a little happy dance in the kitchen!

We finally got the Sponsorship forms, or Affidavit of Support papers as the NVC calls them sent off on Thursday the 14 of June!  In this package we needed to prove that Joseba would have Stateside financial support so that he would not become a drain on the economy.  To do this, you have to prove, via your taxes and current job, that you have enough money to support the 'alien' above the poverty level.  Since I earn my money outside of the US and the income will not continue when we arrive, my income was useless so we had to ask my cousin and her husband, the Cathy and Paul you have read about in my blogs before, to be the joint sponsors.  Cathy and Paul, being an alien himself from New Zealand, were happy to help bring Joseba over and quickly filled out the paperwork and sent it over to us.  Cathy snapped this pic before sending us her part of our massive paperwork pile!

For this package to be sent it, the NVC states that you are supposed to write the case number on each page…which adds up to quite a lot of work seeing that the package was over 100 pages!  Our lving room transformed into an office with garbage papers on the ground, hole punched papers littering the table and a million pens.  Not only did we have to prove that there is enough money to support Joseba should he turn into an unemployed bum, but I also had to do a lot of proving myself – showing that although I haven’t lived in the States for quite some time, that I have always maintained my life there and it is my permanent domicile.  To give you an idea of all of the stuff I had to submit to prove that, here is the laundry list of what I mailed in:  a personal letter stating the above, my voter registration at my permanent address, my past checking and credit cards statements that arrive to my address, my active student loan bill, a copy of my valid driver’s license, a copy of our apartment lease here showing that it will finish on June 30^th, a letter from Grammy stating we will live at her home upon our arrival and emails from current contact I have with employers looking for a  job!  

After the second 150-page package, we were happy to start working on the DS-230 forms, which is the official immigration visa application from the Department of State. Basically, you give your personal information (name, address, age, where you have lived, etc) and promise that you don't plan to assassinate any American,  bring bombs, participate in sex trafficking – all these sort of things that no one says yes to.  Then on top of that, we had to submit our marriage certificate, Joseba’s birth certificate, Joseba’s civil status certificate and his police records…which was clean.  Yay! The Civil Status Certificate was kind of a joke though because from the Spanish government, it is the Certificade de Fe de Vida y Estado, so not only does it say if he is married or not, but it states that he in fact IS alive!  Apparently, someone has tried to apply for an American visa with a dead man's name before and now this is part of the process, no joke.  We had all of those things, except for the police records and we put in the request and waited patiently for them in the mail.  However, when the certificate arrived, it wasn’t to Joseba, it was to JoseFa!  Microsoft Word had autocorrected his name, since it is in Basque!  Luckily, Joseba’s assessor’s secretary was able to throw in some nasty words and got us the certificate in a jiffy so we could include it as soon as possible in our package.  This time it arrived to Joseba, thank god! 

We sent the package and since that was all we could do, we just started the waiting game.  Tick tock tick tock.  Finally, on June 29^th, I called to get a status update and the guy, although I couldn’t understand his accent much said CASE COMPLETE which are the words anyone filing for a visa just can’t wait to hear!  We were worried that the paperwork would take longer than that, but having received everything, it seems they were quick to process the application and now we just had to wait for an interview date in Madrid!  Eeeek! 

After almost 2 weeks of waiting we finally were informed of Joseba’s interview – which was scheduled for August 16^th.  It was defintiley  not as early as we wanted it, but we were happy to atleast write it on the calendar and have a date to look forward to.  

The journey to Madrid for the interview started with a medical exam that Joseba needed to do with one of two doctors in all of Spain.  Approved as a Visa Doctor, he had to pay a hefty sum to get a check-up which included a blood test (checking for HIV and syphilis), a chest x-ray, checking his vaccination record and the regular yearly check-up stuff.  The results were available the next day, which are neccessary to bring to the actual interview at the Embassy, but instead, we headed south to Cabo de Gata, in the south of Spain for a short beachside vacation while waiting for the August 16th interview which was the following week.  

On the day of the interview we swung past the doc's office and got the results, which they gave to us in a sealed bag which could NOT be opened by us, only by the Embassy officials. 

At the Embassy we arrived about 40 minutes early and had to wait in line outside to pass through security. We had done some shopping before and brought a weekend bag to carry around with us, which we planned to leave in the storage area in the Embassy since they do not allow these big bags inside the Embassy itself.  The security guard saw me and said, nope you can't go in with that, you have to wait outside, at which point my heart dropped.  But then, another security guard saw that I had an American passport and said 'are you an American citizen?'  and I answer 'yes', and she said that 'oh, well if you're a citizen come on in, we will hold your bag until the interview is over, no problem, but just for citizens'!  Lucky break!  Since I was not the one having the interview I technically didn't even need to go to the interview and was a bit stressed they wouldn't let me in for that, but here the big hubbub was about the bag!  They let me in and we were assigned a number and passed through to the waiting room for Consular Services.

While there was no clock, there were a lot of people but our process moved quite quicly. We were called to window 1 where a nice woman leafed through our paperwork and asked questions here and there - confirmed where we would live upon arrival, asked the relation of the joint sponsor to us, asked if this was the first marriage for both of us and then asked for the medical results. She took the results but gave us the x-ray to keep. She also gave us back all of our originals that we had sent to NVC (marriage certificate, birth certificate, etc) but said the Embassy needed to keep the original police certificate and instead gave us the extra copy we had sent. She took the passport and then took the fingerprints (digitally) and kindly told us that we would be called back to another window for the 'interview'.

We waited about 15 more minutes and were called to window 6 - a window that you had to go through a glass door to get to (privacy we guess). Anyways, in there, he confirmed that my spouse was the person applying for the visa and asked him take the fingerprints again and then to raise his right hand and swear that all of the information we had provided in the paperwork was correct and true. He swore that it was and ta-daaaa we were told that the visa would arrive in the mail in a week or so. That was it!

We were in such shock that we asked if the process was really over and we were finished! We had brought extra evidence in case they doubted our relationship but the interview was a breeze - no showing photos of our continued relationship, no showing updated living arrangements, nothing - so EASY!

We were so excited that we even asked the security guard out front to take a picture of us - smiling huge smiles! He kindly obliged but made sure not to get the Embassy in the photo haha.  

At the interview they took Joseba's passport and will put the official Visa stamp in it and mail it to us this week at which point he has 6 months to enter the country.  We have already bought our tickets and plan to arrive to Seattle on September 13th - after a long process.  It was a lot more work than we had expected but hearing the words that he was approved and our little dance and hug fest made up for it and when we step out of the Customs Area in the SeaTac airport on September 13th, it will have been all worth it!

Muxu!
Amanda

The Basques Rewriting History

When we imagine the European explorers coming over to the New World on their ships and meeting face to face with the natives, we more or less think about the late 1500s or early 1600s.  However, new evidence has been unveiled which proves that there were Europeans on the continent over a hundred years earlier by, drumroll please, the Basques!  This history-book changing info has been brought to light by an archeological team in a town near Toronto who unearthed a piece of rod iron from a Native village.

This month, a documentary called The Curse of the Ax premiered on Canadaian TV detailing this amazing find.  The archeological team found an old Huron village called Mantle.  With digital reconstruction they were able to learn that the village contained more than 90 longhouses and 3 exterior protective walls called palisades, all of which would require somewhere in the  midst of 60,000 trees worth of lumber.  With many mouths to feed (about 2,000), they also planted corn so far that their farming grounds would cover the now metropolitan area of the city itself!

An exciting dig already with about 200,000 native artifacts, when they found a piece of iron it got a shift into mega-exciting.  Iron was not made in the Americas at that time, so it had to have been from Europe.  Seeing as the village was said to have been active before the first supposed European-Native contact, the archeologists were surprised but also very excited about the possiblity of having found the oldest artifact in Canada.  Calling in for support, the team contacted a forensic archeologist who along with the help of some high-powered X-ray machines was able to figure out that the iron was rod iron and that it even had a special marking in it.  Like a brand, the iron workers at the time would carve out their own mark on their pieces.

This clue took them all the way to the Basque Country to search out the confirmation of the marking.  Landing in Hondarribia, the coastal beautiful coastal town that was well-known for their whaling skills, the archeologist headed to a small mountain village called Zelain to look at historical pieces of iron work from the 16th century up close.  Sure enough, she found the same marking on an axe there that was on the piece of iron found at the interior Canadian site!

It has been thought for a long time that the Basques reached the New World before it was officially discovered by Columbus in 1492, but since the language was not written at that time, no records exist.  After clearning out their hunting grounds of whales they had to move on to different parts of the sea.  They are known to have ventured all the way to Canada's Newfoundland area where artifacts have been found of them setting up villages during the whaling season.  There have been 16 of these fishing camps found along the Canadian coast, the oldest being in Labrador.  It has also been said that the Basques and Natives fostered a line of communication between them and that according to some historical studies, the Basques would leave a few cabin boys with the Natives during the off-season to become fluent in the local tongue for when they came back for the next whaling round.

Whaling importance is seen on this wall in Hondarribia

It seems that some of the first Basque whalers left behind an axe on one occasion when they shipped out and the Natives, who came around after they had abandoned the temporary housing areas, found the axe and saved it.  This foreign metal was traded as a valuable piece and eventually reached the inland of Canada - the Mantle village.  The archeological team along with the Basques were able to even pinpoint a couple of ships that left Euskal Herria heading towards nowday Canada that the axe probably was on.

Since trading between Europeans and Natives didn't really start until the end of the 16th century, this new information is something that is going to have to be taken into account when writing history books.  Here, the Canadians have proof that Europeans set foot on an area of their country that supposedly hadn't seen someone from across the pond for another hundred years!  What an amazing discovery.

Seeing as I don't get Canadian TV over here, I downloaded the hour and a half documentary and loved it!  I  highly recommend it if you get the chance.  I have included a little video clip that gives you a quick summary of it, but the real thing is much better!  It was an entertaining process to watch but also incredible to watch history changing before my eyes!

Muxu!
Amanda

Agur Donostia!

Some of you might be wondering, where the heck are Amanda and Joseba?  Didn't they say they were coming home on the 24th of July for a month-long visit?  Well, the 24th has come and gone and they aren't here as you may have noticed.  But, we have a good reason!

After booking our trips there were some changes here and we decided to lengthen our 1 month trip to about 1 month + 2 years.  Yup, you read right!  We started with the immigration process and are almost finished and tomorrow will be leaving our lovely Donostia apartment.  After spending a monthish in Joseba's hometown we will head over to the good ol' US of A to start an exciting adventure!

Saying goodbye to friends, projects and family will be tough but we are looking forward  to microbrews, gorgeous hikes and a new city to explore together.  The shock of a new country will be in full swing when we arrive - just think - football season starts, Halloween, Elections, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Superbowl...it's a lot for someone who has never been to the States!

I'll post a blog once we finish with the entire immigration process about what we had to do and how it went but figure you'd like to know that we have mailed about 500 pieces of paper for the entire process.  We'll make sure to plant a tree upon our arrival! 

We are excited for this next step and I am definitley looking forward to being back on American soil for a bit!

Muxu!
Amanda

Let the Games Begin!

As I am sure most of the world did as well, I was overjoyed to watch the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics yesterday!  I love the Olympics just as much as the next person, but since we don't have a TV at home, had to look for someone to watch it with!  My English friend Holly was a perfect candidate because she was just as excited about the Games as me. 

Having done Olympics as my last unit in Summer Camp, I had a lot of fun little things to bring over when I headed over to her place for the start of the events.  I appeared at her door with a torch and then proceeded to shower her with coloring pages and dot-to-dots in case she wanted to do them in between events.  I placed an origami Olympic rings necklace over her head and then one over mine so we'd be twinners, or Olympic Groupies as her husband named us. 

We watched anxiously as the Ceremonies started and were highly impressed.  Shame that Queenie didn't really jump out of the helicopter though haha!  As the athlete parade begin, we started on our Team GB cupcakes that I'd made for the occasion (carrot cake cupcakes that mm mm good!).  We commented like girls do on all of the outfits of the countries, some good some bad.  For all the chatter about the US uniforms, I was quite disappointed.  The boys looked ok in my opinion but the girls' below-the-knee-length skirt really threw me for a loop.  Regardless, we just loved how happy and proud the athletes looked. 

We toasted to the Olympic torch lighting with some champagne and were happy to say, Let The Games Begin!

Muxu!
Amanda

Amerikanuak

Last year, at the Zinemaldia, the San Sebastian Film Festival that is on par with Cannes and Sundance, a film premiered that peaked my interest.  Named Amerikanuak, you can imagine what it is about - Americans!  Turns out Basque isn't that difficult after all!  Unfortunatley, the times of the showings didn't work with my work schedule and I missed it. 

Luckily, they did a reprive showing a few months later in a theater where the soundtrack was played live and the documentary was shown on a large screen behind the band.  It was a new and impressive way to watch a show.

Spoken mostly in Basque, I of course was reading the subtitles like a champ, but kept having to remind myself that although listening in Basque, I was seeing images from my own country.  With the Spanish Carlist Wars in the 1830s and soon after the Gold Rush of the 1860s, many Basques came to the States looking for a new life.  As we saw in the documentary, it was a tough life and those who have remained in the States - mainly California, Idaho and Nevada  - haven't had it easy either.  Faced with a dying culture as well as a disappearing trade, sheepherding, the documentary takes a look at the remaining Basques in Elko, NV.

If you want to hear a little Basque in action, check out the trailer HERE.  

Based on the 2000 Census, there are 57,793 Americans with Basque descent.  After the big peak of immigration in the 1800s, the wave of new Basques in the States shot down and has stayed low ever since.  The people in that Census are thought to be the descendants of their countrymen who came over more than 200 years earlier. 

Seeing as we will soon be in the USA, I found it interesting to see the two culture mixed.  It presents the part of the Basque culture in the States that seems to be dying out slowly, but the truth is that the Basque culture is still very alive in other areas.  With Basque Organizations, kids on the West Coast can be proud of their Basque heritage by competiting in traditional Jai Alai, dancing traditional dances and learning thier mother tongue.

Idaho is the state most associated with maintaing a good level of Basque culture.  Not only is there a great Basque Club there which facilitates the dancing, language, sport, community, etc but also many Basques in high places.  According to Wikipedia, the past Idaho Secretary of State, Pete Cenarrusa, and the current one, Ben Ysursa both claim Basque heritage.  With Boise being sister cities with the famous Basque town of Gernika, the Basqueness of the area oozes.  Boise State even offers a Basque Studies program.  I have met students from there who have come here to perfect their Euskera!

Even being in the US, hopefully we will find some things that remind us of the mother land!

Muxu!
Amanda

Giranice does Jazzaldia

As many of you know, Joseba plays guitar in a band.  The group is called Giranice and they are pretty nice to listen to I might say, but then again, with Joseba being in the band, I guess that makes me a bit biased.

An instrumental group, Joseba plays the guitar along with another guitarist and bassist who are complemented by a violin and a drummer.  From time to time they throw in some xylophone and keyboard to attain their unique sound.  The genre of music they play is called Post-Rock, but before meeting Joseba I had no idea what that really meant and to this day I don't do a good job of explaining all of the intricacies of this realm of music.  The way I try to put it in layman's terms is that it is sort of like soundtrack music.  Imagine the movie 300.  Ready?

Ok, so Giranice's music would start out calm and melodic, something you would like to sway to as the Trojans are relaxing or chatting or something, then the scene cuts to them marching into battle and the music changes along with it - dropping into a powerful rock.  Strumming with all their might on the guitars and the voilinist playing his instrument with the enthusiasm of an electric guitarist, the music becomes energetic with multiple layers of sounds happening all at the same time.  They rock and rock until the battle scene would end and then cut back to a melodic and more tranquil tune which leaves your head spinning and ears ringing from the drastic transition from loud to soft as the Trojans walk away with thier victory.  All of these different scenes in their music translates to many different beats, styles and bouts of creativity that leave you very impressed.  For a listen, check out their page that lets you listen online for free or lets you download their first album HERE.  The second album should be coming out soon (like 2 weeks)!

When I first met Joseba the band was coming along but in the past 2 years they have morphed into a group that turns out great music and hops from concert to concert.  After competiting in an international music competition here in Bilbao, in which they came in 3rd overall, they have started gaining more and more recognition.  From radio interviews to magazine blips, the word Giranice is appearing more and more in the Basque Country.  But what does Giranice mean you may ask?  Well, better explained by Joseba, but it is a play on words.  In Euskera, Gira in the French Basque Country means we are and Nice is the English spelling of the Euskera work for Naiz, which means I am.  So, in a creative and Basque Country pride way, the band translates to mean We Are I Am.

Listening to their music is described by critics as taking a roundtrip journey through the sounds.  Having done this roundtrip time and time again, the group were extremely excited to be invited to perform at Jazzaldia, the massive Jazz Festival in San Sebastian.  They performed on Saturday afternoon on a huge stage overlooking the entire beach.  Possibly one of the best places to play, I was more than happy to attend as a fan.

After Jazzaldia, Giranice will be hanging up their guitars, violins and drumsticks as they take a long break.  With members moving to different countries and big life changes happening all at once, the band is stopping at their peak - with good memories and a heck of a lot of fans!

Muxu!
Amanda

I give summer camp a gold medal!

As many of you know, this year I was working with 1 year olds.  It was obviously not my dream job if you had talked to me in the past months, but seeing as I had to work in the Summer Camp, I requested that I be given a group of kids that could atleast string a couple of words together.  I was given the primary school kids - aged 7-9 and it was a dream!  I was back to teaching instead of baby-sitting and I loved it! 

A folder I made for a student

The kids were great from the start.  Although they had just finished an entire school year they still loved working and learning more stuff.  As I had been out of teaching for an entire year, I too was excited to be there. 

At the Mt. Igeldo Amusement Park on a sunny day

Over the 4-week long course, most of the students were signed up for every week, so I decided to do a theme each week so that they could focus on something and instead of it being random worksheets and handouts that had nothing to do with each other, that they felt like it was more a unit in school and they were able to see their progress.  I gave each student a folder and kept their work in it for the week and sent it home with them on Friday as a testament to what they did and also, having personalized the folders depending on the theme, a little memento of that week of Summer Camp. 

My students showing off their medals

Between summer theme (beach crosswords, sea vocab, Shipwreck games and so on) to Dragons (vocab that they'd never heard of - scales, fangs, etc), my favorite unit was this week when we did Olympics.  Being the last week, the kids were tired but the Olympics stuff really got them excited.

Charades with beach vocabulary

Each week we did a bunch of vocab exercises, grammar work, crosswords, wordsearches, games like charades to practice the vocab and reading stories.  Then, this Friday we added onto it by seeing the Olympics in action - we held our own games!  What looked like something out of a family reunion in the States, the kids were elated to do garbage sack races, spoon races with cotton balls, 3-legged races and more.  I had made some medals out of metallic paper and after each even we would have a medal ceremony.  For just being paper, the kids idolized the medals and were extremely excited to have me put one around their neck. 

Mummy Wrapping - the next Olympic Sport!

Field Trip to the Library!

Along with games and grammar, the entire Summer Camp group (my kids and all the younger ones) also took some field trips around the city during the course.  With a ride on a boat out off the coast of Hondarribia and a trip to a pupper museum to nice parks and even an amusement park, I actually had a pretty good time out of the school too.  At the Mt. Igeldo amusement park, which sits atop the biggest mountain in San Sebastian, I actually got to ride the roller coaster with my kids.  I asked the ride operator if I could ride it just in case one of the kids got scared....pshhhh really I just wanted to go on it myself haha!  While little it had been so long since I'd ridden one that I threw my hands up and screamed along with the kids. 

The folder of the boy who cried he loved camp so much!

While only a 20-day course, I feel that my teaching buzz has been re-energized.  I almost lost it there for awhile, because you can only 'teach' so much to a 1-year old, but back into the swing of things with elementary school kids, I had a blast just like the kids.  One kid today, when his mom came to pick him up, told me, 'Ok Ms. Amanda, I have to go home now' and I gave him his folder for the week (a medal podium in which he was the gold medal winner and two of his Summer Camp friends were silver and bronze) and gave him a little side hug and said he did great during the Camp and that I hope he had a great summer.  He ran off and I was a bit surprised at his reaction until a co-worker said she thought she saw he had started to cry.  My heart dropped.  I ran after him, along with all the girls in my class, up to his mother's car and she looked equally alarmed.  She asked me what had happened and I said I had just given him his folder and a hug and he burst out into tears!  What had I done?!  Are my hugs THAT  bad?  In between tears he told her that he had had such a great time that he didn't want the summer camp to end and that he wanted it to be next summer camp already so he could come back and have more fun!  The girls and I huddled up and gave him a group hug and he gave me one more hug and then got into his car.  THAT is why I love teaching.  Thank you Summer Camp for making me remember that and also sending me off to vacation with that as my last impression.

Muxu!
Amanda

King of the Castle

After our whirlwind tour of Bordeaux, we decided to stay in le France a little longer and took the car almost across the entire south of France to a little village called Caunes.  With only 1500 residents, this little village is not something you would probably set your sights on when glancing over a map of the country, but we had an amazing destination in mind.

Madeline, a friend I met when I moved here who now lives in London, frequents the little village because her London-born mother actually has given up the hustle and bustle and moved to a gorgeous home on 22 acres of breath-taking land.  Her mother, Rowena, runs it as a B&B and it just so happened she had a room for Joseba and I to meet up with Madeline and her boyfriend John for the weekend!

Finding it was a bit of a challenge as the road has a name but no street numbers.  The houses are named, so you just need to keep an eye out for the house name and that's how we eventually found the house and headed down the gravel driveway where Madeline and Rowena were waiting for us with a picnic ready to go.  We grabbed a neccessary bottle of wine, changed into our swimsuits and headed off to the most beautiful part of her property - a small little stream and a waterfall.  After 4 hours in the car, the potato salad, cous cous, chicken and veggies and the wine were just what we needed as we relaxed in the sun.

We spent the majority of the day just taking in the landscape - rolling green hills, trees everywhere you looked and the blue sky dotted with a few puffy clouds.  As you can see in the photos on her B&B site the place is gorgeous and we were happy after a stressful week to just BE.  In the afternoon we managed a small trip into Caunes (about 5 minutes away by car) to buy the all important wine for dinner and that was our day - lounging around, drinking wine, getting a tan and dozing off from time to time.  What a life!  The wine was especially tasty.  Caunes is in a wine region called Minervois, after the Roman Goddess Minerva from when the Romans were there and introduced grapes and olives to the area.

The next morning we took advantage of the peaceful atmosphere to sleep in and then woke up and had our coffee barefoot on the huge wooden porch looking out at the grass.  There is something about eating breakfast outside in the sun that really makes your morning.  Having woken up like that, we got around and headed into the little village to do some exploring while Madeline and her mom went off to the airport to pick John up.  For 2 hours we wandered up and down the narrow streets and in the process barely crossed paths with anyone.  All of the windows were open and seeing as the town was so small we could hear TVs, kitchen conversations and music spilling out of the windows as we meandered.

The whole town is practically all made of sandstone and the things that differentiate the houses are thier shutters.  Colorfully painted, they are the way the owner can express their personality with thier curb appeal.  Pale blue seemed to be the color of choice, but we did pass some purples and pinks and whites.  The name Caunes comes from the word for Cave, of which there are many in the area.  In fact, the red marble that is quarried from the nearby caves is quite a tourist pull for the little village, and it just so happened that the day we were wandering around was a Marble Fair.  As people came out to the streets little by little, stands started appearing with elaborate and beautiful marble sculptures for sale.  As a result of so many Marble Fairs, the city was also dotted with massive pink marble sculptures in tribute.

The sun was beating down on us and when we met Rowena, Madeline and John again, we were happy to enjoy an ice cold beer before heading back to the house.  Following the same routine as the day before, we packed up the picnic bag and headed to the waterfall for lunch in the sun.  The evening was relaxed again except that that evening we were able to watch Rowena and some of her B&B guests do a special pottery firing process!  On the property, Rowena, a potter and pottery teacher,  has her own studio and many guests come to do week-long pottery vacations.

For dinner we had a delicious meal called Raclette.  A Swiss dish from the French word racler, to scrape, the idea is that you have a small grill where you cook veggies and meats and below, in individual little cooker spoon-like dishes you place cheese which melts and then is poured over your cooked goodies from above.  It was heaven in my mouth.  Match it with some wine and the scenery while eating, and it was paradise!

Tired from the time in the sun and the relaxing (it's a tough job to be so tranquil!) we turned in early and were up the next morning ready to send John back to London on time.  After we dropped him off at the 'Kiss And Fly' loading zone, Madeline, Joseba and I headed off to see the famous Carcassone castle a few minutes away.

Carcassone is thought to have had settlements since all the way back in 3500BC but turned into a fortified city when the Romans entered the picture in 100BC.  Later however, Septimania (as it was called then) was ceded to the Visigoths in the 5th century and soon after was founded under that name and became an important trading post.  The Visigoths added to the fortress by adding more walls and towers and the start of the massive basilica within the walls now called Saint Nazaire. 

As a flourishing medieval city, the castle although now designed for tourists is set up to reflect this era.  As you cross the massive drawbridge over the once full moat, you can climb up the stone street and imagine it without the ice cream shops and tourist stores and imagine horses speeding up the way or ladies with magnificent dresses around the town.  Looking out from the outer walls and the towers, the vast landscape is beautiful and the castle positioned perfectly to see 180º of the land.

While looking over Pays Cathare, or Cathar Country, I tried to piece together the tumultuous history that it had - changing hands from the Visigoths to the Saracens, then conquered by the Viscount of Nimes and then getting dragged through the Albigensian Crusades to rid the area of the county's namesake Cathars.  After the Viscount Trencavel was overtaken and left to die in his castle's own dungeon the city was soon after taken over by King Louis IX who added even more protection to the already almost impossible to enter castle walls.  After about 400 years of stability, the city's focus went less from being a fortress and more to the woolen industry during which the castle started to go into ruins.  By the mid 1800s, in such bad shape, the French government had the intention to just tear it down but this outraged many people and the decision was overturned and renovations begun taking place in 1853.  The project was a mighty one but was done so well that in 1997 it was named a UNESCO Heritage site and a definite must-see!

Bisous!
Amanda

The USA is more Basque than you know!

Being America and living in the Basque Country, I really enjoy finding tidbits of information that link the two together.  With an ocean seperating the Old Land and the New World, you would doubt that there are many connections but turns out the Basque immigration to the States has left many imprints of the culture that I am submersed in every day to the good ol' US.  One shining example that I recently learned about is the heritage of the State of Arizona, according to Arizona Highways Magazine!

Although I lived there for 4 years (Go Devils!), I never took time to think about nor investigate the meaning of the state name.  I figured, as many people I assume, that it was either Spanish or Native American.  However, in the end, it is Basque!  Did you know?

When the area split from New Mexico it was then that it was named the Arizona Territory.  Having had a rich history of minerals, namely silver, the name that was chosen needed to reflect the wealth of the area. They chose the name Arizona because it did just that.  But as time went on it seems the original meaning, the word that had been used in the Territory for over a hundred, got lost.  In modern times, some people thought it was a translation of arid zone, which is Spanish would be zona arida not arida zona, so that didn't work.  Others thought it was a word used by the Native Americans of that area, the Pima, but again, no such word existed. 

In the 1700s many Basques came to the New World and some settled in the New Spain region of current day Arizona.  One namely Basque, Bernardo de Urrea lived in the area on a farm he named Arisonac.  In the Basque at the time, it translated to mean:
Aris - oak tree
on - good
a - the
c - (makes the word plural)
So, this Mr. Urrea lived on a farm called The Good Oak Trees.  In modern Basque it would be written as Aritzonak.  Seeing as Basque wasn't a written language until recently, these changes in spelling could have contributed to the confusion about the origin of the name.

When modern people saw this labelled on a map, they didn't assume it was the Basque name of the farm, but instead the Pima's original word and when they named their Territory after it searched for the translation, finally coming up with 'place of little springs'.  This wasn't an actual true translation though because this translation comes from the Pima word ali shonak, seeing as the word Arisona didn't exist.  Notated that the word Arisonac was the original word of the area on a map from the 1730s,  many copies were made and in the end the misconception grew. 

Looking back now, with the original and true translation, as you drive through the Sonora area, you notice the many Oak trees that sprinkle the landscape and understand the Basques aptly naming of the place. 

Muxu!
Amanda