This weekend we stayed in Bilbao in the old part of town, a labyrinth known as Zazpi Kaleak. On Sunday we went to Mungia, Bakio, Bermeo, Gernika, Muxika and Amorebieta. Thanks to a fortunate series of events, Megan Y. was able to find the house of her great grandfather who immigrated to the US around the turn of the century. We met the family now living there, her family. It was surprising for them to have a stranger from the USA show up like that claiming to be their relative. We talked for a long time about the geneology. We still have some research to do but all signs indicate that it is her family. It was an amazing experience. If you want the full story you´ll have to wait for the novel.
Bizkaia is a beautiful place, as is the whole Basque Country. You can´t imagine the forests, unless you´ve been to Idaho or Oregon. We are hitting it hard in school, but not in the bars. I´m saving it up for Thursday.
Tonight a Bertsolaria is going to sing at dinner. If you don´t know what that is, Google it!
Until next time. Agur!
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This weekend we stayed in the convent which is next door to the school. Some who know me may find it surprising that I, being the chain smoking, hard drinking, Lord´s name in vain taking kind of guy that I am, would elect to stay in a house of nuns. I only dealt with one, Encarna, who was elderly and kind. My room was small but had a great bathroom. I met the parish priest, Juan Mari, and he drove us up to one of the mountains and we hiked for a few hours early Sunday morning. But the xirimiri forced us to go back.
We walked one town over to Beasain and we were delighted to find that nothing was open. We walked up the highway to Lazkaomendi, which has one restaurant and other than that, is just farm houses. We walked to a small town past Lazkaomendi, Zaldibia. We´re in beautiful country. We ate in the restaurant in Lazkaomendi and an old bertsolari sang to us.
This is by far a better ¨Basque Country¨ experience than you can enjoy in a big city like Bilbao or Donosti. Everybody speaks Basque and outside of this small city, it´s very rural. When not in class, all there is to do here is walk around, speak Basque, eat, drink and smoke cigarrettes. But, those are pretty much my favorite things to do anywhere, so what better place than here, eh?
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Beno, lehengo astea ya bukatuta dago, zein tristea, eh? Serioaz esaten dut baietz ez dudalako denbora asko hemen baina beno, oso pozik nago, primeran.
Atzo gure parranda eguna zen. Esaten da atzoko parranda besteak baino gutxiagoa zela. Nik oso ondo pasa nuen. Joan ginen tabernak Heren izena du. Beno, zer kontatzeko? Kaña batzuk, kalimotxo batzuk, dantzatu nuen, eta Meganen arabera, dantzari ona naiz. Zein konplimendu, ez?
Gero beste taberna batera joan ginen eta goizeko lauretarako denok OSO GORAZ kantatzen genuen kalean. Gau bat harrigarrizkoa izan zen.
Asteburu honetan konbentuan egongo gara mojekin eta espero dut hori ongi ibiliko dela. Mendira joan nahi dugu, a ver…
Beno, utziko zaituztet, eskerrik asko irakurtzeagatik, ondo pasa asteburuan, eta agur!
Beste gauza bat: Iparaldeko ahoskera enkantatzen zait!
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Due to the overwhelming number of requests for a post in English, I will oblige my anglophone family and friends who could not read my last one that, save a few sentences, was in Euskera. This place is awesome, primeran, un lugar encantador. So how am I doing? Well,…
The people have been more than willing to help with any problem, linguistic or otherwise. Today I did an interview with EITB, which is the Basque television and radio station. The video should be on the site within a few days.
I enjoy the classes very much. I have three classes a day, each one for two hours. Each class has a different teacher. Nire ustez, (in my opinion) the first class hits us with new grammatical concepts and is a bit dryer. But I enjoy that kind of thing. The second class is basicaly a continuation of what we were doing in the first. Then we have lunch, which is from 1:30 to 4:30. After eating you can take a nap, do homework, or get a drink in the bar. Then we go to the last class, which I think is the most fun. We don´t study technical grammar per se, it´s more conversation and practicing our Basque. Today we had to tell a story. Anything we would care to share with the class. I talked about the night we ate hedgehog in Donosti, and how I ordered three, one for each of us, as it turns out, we didn´t even need one. The girls, being girls, couldn´t finish this new and exotic dish. So I ate all three. Beer never tasted so good after eating three puréed hedgehogs. I really think they just killed them up on the mountain, maybe with a .22 or a BB gun, and threw the hedgehog cadavers in a blender and scooped the goop back into their shells or hard body or whatever the hell it was, still with the spines on the back. When in Rome, eat like the locals do.
Other than that, I go thru my day speaking three languages: Basque 90% of the time in normal day to day interactions; English 8% when I want to express myself in the every trustworthy mother tongue with my Megans; and I speak Spanish 2% of the time to ask for a translation or a ¨Nola esaten da…?¨ (How do you say…?) But here, everybody´s first language is Spanish, and we are not here to speak Spanish, so we do not have conversations in ¨Cervantesen hizkuntza¨ (the language of Cervantes), as our teacher Aitzol refers the the Castilian tongue.
Well, that´s about it for now. For all you fellow grammar nerds out there, we are currently studying, among other things, hypothetical situations and the subjuntive. For example, ¨If I had money, I would buy food¨ or ¨If I were smarter, I wouldn´t be working here.¨ Those are the kind of constructions we have been practicing. Eskerrik asko irakurtzeagatik (Thanks for reading) eta ondo pasa, agur!
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Kaixo, oso ondo nago hemen Maipiden, klaseko materiala pixka bat zaila da baina beno, gramatikazalea naiz, asi ke ez dago arazorik. Jende gustiak euskeraz bakarrik hitz egiten du eta nik ere. Gaur dantza klase batean fandangoa ikasi dugu. First impressions: everybody is so nice. A bit surprising, seeing as how I was just in Madrid for a week. Ingurua ederra da, mendian egoteagatik. Irakasleek eta beste ikasleek niri asko laguntzen didat.
Batzuetan ingelesez itzulpena eskatzen didate gazteleraz ez dakien jendeentzat eta oso pozik egiten dut. I love being in a place where you must learn and utilize the local language, immersed and immerged like a man underwater, and you must either swim or drown. It stimulates the mind like a crossword puzzle.
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