La Vida Loca

Living La Vida Loca should be the title of my life right now as things seem to have gotten so crazy out of hand lately that I barely have time to stop and think. Time here seems to move by so quickly. I began the week Monday going "Great another Monday!" And before I knew it Friday is already half over. And I think to myself what have I done this past week and some odd days since this was updated. We´ll start with the weekend. It was a crazy blast of a weekend.

Friday I spent the day traversing around the city, enjoying the beach and the random rain falls that occured every other hour or so. I had originally made plans to take a trip to a city very close to San Sebastian called Zarautz (pronounced Zer- ou-ths crazy I know) where a surfing competition was being held but with the crazy weather no one was even sure the competition was still taking place. The last update I´d had was that the city Zarautz was having more storms then here and was in no condition for the competition as tents we´re being blown away like balloons. it was better not to chance it, spend the money on the bus ticket only to find there was no competition and be stuck in a stormy city, so instead we enjoyed the lovely storms that were occuring here. That evening was spent inside enjoying some cocoa and a movie with Gloria. "Failure to Launch" was the selection of choice. I´d seen most of the movie before but Gloria hadn´t and I had been interested in finishing it since the last time I´d never gotten to see the ending. So we cracked up at this hysterical love story with the hunky Matt M. and Sara J. Parker, and before we knew it, it was long past bed time.

Saturday was another slow day as the weather didn´t permit much. There had been the option of watching the women´s rowing competition at the Concha beach where we´d watched the men´s the previous weekend but again storms plus ocean equals bad idea. So we avoided that and instead the day was spent mozing around. Around 6 pm or so we decided to head over to this place in a part of town near the school called Antigua where they were offering a free dance lesson as part of a promotion to take dance classes at this place. So we got ready and took up the offer of free lessons. That turned out to be a great idea and some of the girls actually signed up to take lessons every Wednesday for the next two monthes, for the same cost as my surfing lessons. I on the other discovered that my hips don´t move quite right for the latino rythms required in these hispanic dances and decided to stick with my surfing lessons instead. After that we seperated quickly for dinner before reconvening and hitting the town´s clubs. Parte Vieje (new part) is a part of the town where there is almost nothing but bars, restaurants, clubs, and fun all night long. We´d gone there last week and had our gigantic ice cream cones, but this week we went to test out our new dance moves at some real clubs. It took a while and we hopped from place to place and around 2 am we found a club near the beach that was the hot spot. Girls got in free and the music was awsome. And we danced until we could dance no more before Robin and I returned home around 4 in the morning making for a very looooooong night.

Sunday was catch up on sleep day, and homework day as well. There were options to go see the finals of the men´s rowing competition and join the party in Parte Vieja afterwards but I was glad I´d steared clear of that party as later that evening on the news I´d heard of several fights breaking out and just mass chaos. Instead I spent the day preparing for the week ahead as it was sure to prove fierce...

I couldn´t have been more right about that either. Monday rolled in and I was still lagging slightly from the seemingly slow, but long fun and excitement filled weekend I´d had. Classes were nothing out of the norm. Fast paced, Spanish, Spanish and more Spanish, but that´s what I came for. That and to party... just kidding. I´m here to study and experience the world during my short stay here in Europe. Monday evening though was interesting to say the least. It was the first day of surfing lessons and I was pumped up until the point of arrival. After classes I made a mad 45 minute dash to the other side of town so as not to be late for lessons, got lost, found one of the other guys in the lessons, got lost togther and then finally found the place making us 15 minutes late. When we arrived I discovered I was the only girl in a class of 5 people including the surfing instructor Arix (basque name pronounced Are-ri-t-su). After introductions, and the dos besos (two kisses) that are all part of a formal European greeting, we geared up in wet suits grabbed beginners boards and headed to the beach. The first lesson was spent mostly on the sand, learning the right form for standing on the board, positioning when laying on the board so you don´t flip over, the form for paddling, and how to jump up on the board to actaully catch a wave. At the very end of the lesson he took us into the water to begin practicing rowing and said if we could to go ahead and try to jump and catch a wave... boy did I look silly. I wish someone would´ve photographed me trying to paddle and surf... surf isn´t quite the right word, more like stay balanced so as not to flip myself over and wind up with a mouth full of salt water. My first lessons was spent gargling salt water a good 70% of the time. But towards the end I started getting the hang of it and got to body surf my way back to the beach, trying once to jump and failing miserably as my arms were ready to fall off from the hard work of paddling my heavy butt out to sea against the waves of high tide. High tide= Not beginner´s waves!

So Monday´s surf lesson ended with the lovely taste of salt water in my mouth and a hug and high five from Arix who said I did great. I don´t know which girl he was watching but it definitely wasn´t me. We planned the next lesson for the next day. That lesson proved a little better as I finally got the whole staying on the board part, and even learned how to paddle better so that I actually got further out to sea faster (using what little strength I had left in my arms) This lesson was spent practicing the paddle and at the end we were once again encouraged to try catching a wave, and this time I almost did it. Having almsot NO upper body strength left I wasn´t able to push myself up hard enough to jump and land on my feet instead I surfed on my knees and as I tried to stand the wave thought it would be rather comical to break on me and laugh as I took another dive and another gargle of salt water. I think for next time I´ll remember to shut my mouth for once... it´ll be tough to scream with a closed mouth though... I´ll find a way though I´m sure.

We were to have a third lesson the next day but my arms and my Spanish professor just wouldn´t allow it as I had a huge test Thursday in which I needed all of Wednesday evening to study for. I love surprises like date changes at the last minute don´t you? Well I´ll be better prepared next time for sure as I´ll be continually looking over my notes each day so as not to have to cram should that happen again.

As today is Friday my weekend has begun seeing as I have no classes to attend to today. But I have a feeling a good portion of my day will be spent working on homework so that I may enjoy the rest of the events going on this weekend. The only plans are to attend the grand international film festival taking place this weekend as well as the awards ceramony for Antonio Banderas (whose staying in a hotel near my house) and Meryl Streep as well as a conference/interview session with Woody Allen. Hopefull I´ll be able to make them all as well as one or two of the films premeiring at the festival as there´s so many to chose from. Two more surfing lessons left before I go pro! Chao!