Triple Play, Mostly Successful

Man, good thing I'm unemployed now (today was first actual day of no work)--it took me a big chunk of the day to get just three things done.

9am-11am: I had to hie across town to see the doctor due to continuing problems with my ear, and it was not unlike an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm I had just watched in that: when I arrived there were already several people waiting because the doctor was already behind schedule, and this one guy waiting waxed all knowingly about how it's not your appointment time but your arrival time that determines who gets seen when. Conveniently for him his appointment time was after mine. The doctor wasn't bothering to call people in, so as soon as the door opened to eject the latest patient, up popped the person who thought they were next. So after this guy snaked in on me, I was next by Law of Arrival, but then had to contend with an old lady who thought she was next by the Law of Proximity to the Door to the Doctor's Office. As we were trying to sort out whose turn it was, Mr Law of Arrival comes out of the doctor's office and then proclaims equally knowingly that it all depends on the Law of Appointment Time. Fortunately the doctor poked her head out, list in hand, and set us all straight as to who would be seen when, with me at the top of the list. Yay! Ten minutes later I walked out with a referral to see an ear specialist because she didn't like the look of my ear much. I had to go to another area to schedule my appointment with the specialist, but as tends to be the case I can't get in until August. So, in the meanwhile I will continue to walk around half deaf. On the up side, I got a prescription for some new allergy meds out of the visit. Hip!

11am-12:45pm: To the unemployment office to get all signed up to receive the dole. From last year's experience, I had double checked that I had all my papers in order, so I was well prepared to get it done quickly and without complication. Wrong! The guy signing me up told me that he couldn't process me because on the form my employer gave me that confirms that my contract has ended there was one handwritten zero. Unacceptable! It all must be typed. Sigh. Back to the academy, hunt down the boss, have boss redo entire form; back to unemployment office and get into even longer line than before. The good news is that once I sat down with the properly printed form, it was a 5-minute process. Hip!

5:15-6:30: Went to try out the new Lady Gym near my house. It's one of those 30-minute alternating aerobic activity with machines circuit deals, essentially the Curves model from the US. It's not the type of place that I am particularly keen on as a rule, but I need something with structure, that isn't affected by the vagaries of the psychotic weather (like today: morning was crap and rainy, late afternoon was warm and sunny), and that costs ridiculous sums of money to get me jump-started and keep me motivated. So after today's freebie trial, I signed up for a 6-month stint. The place is tolerable, that staff is friendly, the hours are pretty decent and when I get bored with the circuit I can still go in whenever I want and use the machines (including the boxing machine and this weird egg shaped horse riding machine that supposedly works your abs and butt while making you look funny). Hooray!

Danny Zuko in Donostia

This little gem recently appeared in two spots near my house, one on the way to work and one on the way home. It's been a fun thing to pass by, and it induced me to break out the Grease DVD over the weekend. Since it's in the same stylistic vein as the iconic Amélie and Charles Bronson graffiti that are also in the area, I wonder if it's the work of the same person. Regardless, eskerrik asko, whoever you are, mystery graffiti-putter-upper(s)!




I wonder who will show up next?

Producing Dazzle, Tucking It In, Always With the Arm!

I embarked upon my Super Fun Driving Exam Odyssey! last week and to date it's been a painless experience and my resentment at having to go through the whole process is, for the time being, non-existent*.

As one might expect, the rules and regulations generally don't differ from those in the US, though I have to learn to calculate distance in meters, which I am quite bad at. I have learned that many of the laws regarding stopping and parking are not actually followed in practice here, which I had suspected to be the case. And I don't recall ever having to answer questions about how to deal with herds of animals on the road when I took the driver's exam in California lo these many years ago. But around here it's probably a good thing to know.

I started off using a set of materials I had in Spanish, but it turns out the materials that Jeff gave me yesterday are in English. So, I figured to speed things up I'd do a bit of study in English and then switch back to Spanish, but the non-native English in these exams is so distracting with its unintentional hilarity and/or crazy no-sense-making that I don't know if I can actually learn anything. To wit:

If you are driving with your dipped beam headlamps on, can you dazzle other road users?
a. No, because only the main beam headlamps can produce dazzle.
b. Yes, if they are badly adjusted.
c. No, never.

An intention to carry out a manoeuvre must be indicated...
a. always with the arm.
b. with the indicators, or in their absence, with the arm.
c. always with the indicators.

These first two just give me the giggles, making me think of Broadway shows and old Jewish guys from New York. The next one just makes no sense at all:

If you park your car on flat ground, before leaving it, what must you check?
a. That the car is well tucked in.
b. That the wheels are against the kerb.
c. That it cannot be used without my authorization.

I know the answer is not (b), but I really have no freaking idea what (a) or (c) mean**.

And thus out goes the "English" part of the study plan and the possibility of doing the exam itself in English. I'm sticking to the more comprehensible Spanish!



*I suspect it will come out in full force when I have to pay out loads of money to do some required driving practice and the actual driving exam.

**If you're playing along at home, the answers are to the questions above are: b, c, c.

Outdoor Outings

I woke up to an on-going cacophony of honking horns, and wondered what had people all riled up.

As I headed out on Beltxu to get to the train station so as to hie myself out to Renteria, a neighboring town 15 minutes away, to meet up with former colleague and fellow gringo Jeff, pick up some materials to study for my driver's license exam and check out the new English academy that he and his wife Olga recently set up, I got my answer: Ironmen and Ironwomen.

Streams of triathletes, both of the running and the cycling varieties, were making their way along the beach, wreaking havoc with both car and regular bike/pedestrian traffic. I was on the clock, and riding through the masses of people without running anybody over was a challenging mini-athletic event in its own right. I made the train, but with two seconds to spare, littéralement.

Arrived in Rente, it turned out other more fun plans were afoot: a picnic on Jaizkibel mountain with Lee (another former colleague) and wife Mirari--very exciting as I rarely get out of the city. We trekked up to the picnic area, and of course the views from up top were fantastic: sea to the north, hills everywhere else. Yummies were cooked up on the grill, the kids were played with, and sun was taken in until the clouds rolled in. That was the end of our outing, but all in all it was a pleasant nature/social do.

Another pleasant nature/social do took place on a smaller scale yesterday when Michelle and I had a stroll though one of the big parks in town. It was my first time in that particular park, and it was quite nice, especially the gorgeous peacocks, the peahen, and the two fluffy baby bunnies hopping around. One young peacock started doing his whole feather display thing, but it was a bit odd as he was in the presence of a pigeon rather than a peahen. Assuming that he was well aware that lady pigeons are not in his league and not a terribly confused young bird, we figured he was just practicing his mating dance so he wouldn't flub it when he finally got a peahen to say yes to him. The pigeon, it must be said, was not all that impressed.

Aftermaths

I'm fully enjoying not having academy classes anymore--Monday night was the last of it. Just 10 classes/5 days at the uni to go!

This morning I woke up to the lingering burn-y smell from Monday night's San Juan bonfires (a summer solstice and purification celebration), yet another event which I missed (usually due to having to work and/or simple ignorance). In fact, I've missed this event every year I've been here--clearly I have A Knack. I usually hear lots about it, though, primarily from the kiddies, who find the whole event very exciting, not the least because they get to throw all their work from the recently finished school year into the flames. And this year I saw some before- and aftermath as a bonfire pile was being groomed in a little clearing next to the stairs between my house and work. Lots wood and twiggy bits were in a pile, and next to it bags of old newspapers, which were later added to the pile and whose charred remains now litter the stairs. In the early evening before the big event, kids were running wild in front of the academy, all wound up in anticipation. I'm sure much more is involved in this event, but since I've never been I couldn't really tell you about it. Next year, mehopes.

The Season of Goodbyes is in full swing: goodbyes to students, goodbyes to friends and colleagues who will be off to Other Places. We're losing Elen, who on Thursday is off to a summer gig in Britain and then a new job in Cadiz in September. We're losing two other teachers, who will also be leaving SanSe. So it's all rather sad, but there is the silver lining of all the get togethers before the end.

Summer ducks are being put into rows to one degree or another: Basque classes are being arranged, materials for studying for driver's licenses are being obtained, words about French intercambios are being put out, documents for doles are being collected and collated, etc. Quack!

Parapente Adventure In the News!

Somebody from El Diario Vasco, one of the local papers, interviewed Elen about the parapente adventure and MS. Then a photographer from the paper came to the academy to take some photos. Today saw the publication of said interview & photo in both the print and on-line editions. Take a gander!* Iñaki and all the other hang-gliders get a mention as well, so cool beans all around.

More jumping is going to happen on Sunday, and after that there will a "fiesta grande" at Kiskurra in Gros. Stop buy if you're around; I believe El Diario Vasco will even be providing croquetas or some such food item!



*It's in Spanish, natch, so if you want a rough translation, say the word.

Live Beach Blogging

Today the weather is fan-tas-tic, and so I'm coming to you live, from a beachside café. I am in the midst of finishing up some end-of-term paperwork that is due shortly, enjoying the view as per below, grooving on the below-mentioned tunes, also as per below, and consuming an overpriced beer.

Recipe for alleviating work-induced tedium.

----------------
Now playing: Toumani Diabaté's Symmetric Orchestra - Mali Sadio
via FoxyTunes

Just Mundane Stuff

This week is the last week with the little ones and the teens (who must suffer a final exam today, the poor things). Yay. On Monday I offload the adults and then the the following Monday I see the last of the uni profs. More yay. And then I am free!! Being free is good, but being free also requires management on my part: I must write myself up a schedule so I can make sure I actually do all the things I need (and want) to do and avoid getting bored or depressed during the coming three months of unemployment. Walaka will have to send me his project-tracking spreadsheet so I can copy it and Stay On Top Of It All! (For reals, Walaka, please send.)

Since no real instruction can go on with the kids at this point, instead of throwing a movie at them, this week I'm trying a bit of theater with them, using masks for the main characters from their book. There are 4 kid masks and 2 animal masks (a monkey and a parrot), and naturally the kids argue over the monkey and parrot masks. But after a round of yelling and then gloating/pouting, they manage to pull themselves together, move on with their little plays, have fun and be cute. And speak English.

After almost a year of failed attempts, my ladies (the three women who have been in my evening class for the past three years) and I finally got together for dinner Saturday evening. It's always nice to hang out with them, and this time I had convinced them to go to Kino Kafe in Egia, a place I dig because it has great, non-same-old-same-old food (delicious crêpes!) and a groovy, relaxed atmosphere (cozy hippy crunchy-ish movie buff chic!). The first challenge was to convince them that it was easy to get to Egia (all the way on the other end of town) and that walking through the tunnel under the train tracks was not really a scary or dangerous thing to do. The second challenge: what with their being non-hippy sorts, their reaction to the hippy crunchy-ish/slightly borroka-ish vibe worried me a bit, but in the end they were enchanted with the place and food--just minor complaints about the marijuana smell coming from a nearby table. Sweet (and savory) success!

Among all the weekend activities (parapente, fiesta, dinner out) I squeezed in a translation of a paper on software engineering. All the fun things I learned! In the end a fairly nicely balanced geek/non-geek weekend, thank you very much.

Parapente Report, Part 1

Just back from the parapente adventure. The weather was perfect and we had a nice group gathered up in some semi-remote spot on Ulia. José and Mónica, the parapente people, were great, and all the jumpers had an utterly fantastic ride. Everyone landed with huge smiles on their faces. The cowards (myself and Blayney's mother) had a pretty good time as well, content to view all with feet firmly planted on ground.

I ended up taking over 200 photos and a bit of vid, but as I have a translation to finish up, for now I give you the jumpers of the day (minus Abel, who went up before I got there, so no photo of him in his jumpsuit):

Elen!

Sonia!

Blayney!

Iñaki!

Aitor!*

*Not Viva's resident Aitor, another different Aitor...

Parapente y fiesta--Update

Moved up for UPDATE!

Ack! Last minute changes due to weather!

Parapente action is TODAY, Saturday, starting at 15.30. And because so many are jumping, landing will not be on beach but back on Ulia. So we'll all be congregating at the jump spot on Ulia.

Fiesta action is still TOMORROW; no change there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The date has been set, all has been arranged:

Next Sunday (the 15th) Elen the lovely galesa and 5 other insane brave souls will be hang gliding onto Zurriola beach (where moi, the cowardly photographer, will be waiting), after which there will be a gathering of many people (of both the guiri and non-guiri varieties) at Bar Txofre in Gros to meet, mingle, and find out more about MS thanks to FELEM (la Federación Española para la Lucha contra la Esclerosis Múltiple), who is sending along some stuff to hand out.

If you are a local (according to site meter there are a few of you local lurkers out there!!), you are welcome to come join in the fun, meet some cool people and practice your English/Spanish/Basque/Welsh/French--we'll be at the beach from 11.00-14.00, and at Bar Txofre from 16.00 on.

If you are not a local, you can check out the video on the bottom left of Elen's donation page, which will give you an idea of what the jumpers will be experiencing. And you can help us out by keeping your fingers crossed for good jumping weather. :-) Diolch yn fawr! Thanks! Eskerrik asko!

The Best Thing So Far

I'm paying pretty close attention from over here, and for me this is the best thing that Obama has done so far--enlisting Elizabeth Edwards to help him with his health care reform plan. With whip-smart, kick-ass Edwards on board, I feel just a tiny bit more optimistic that things will actually change in the health care arena.

I'm not an Obamamaniac, but I certainly like him well enough and will be pleased as punch to have him as my president. The other day I got to talking with a older woman at a café and she told me that seeing Obama having a real shot at the presidency made her think that America is changing for the better and she was relieved to see it. I think that Obama at the very least will do a world of good for our tattered reputation abroad, which is no small thing.

Domestikatin' and More

I go in late on Wednesdays, and I try to take advantage of having a free morning to get something productive done. Can't say I always do, but today I got up to do all sorts of fun and exciting chores like laundry, killing ácaros (vacuuming), and a bit of cooking. I've been wanting to take a walk, continuing my nook and cranny exploration plan, but the weather of late has not cooperated. Thus, I blog--typing is exercise, is it not?

The slooooow process of rescuing things from the old hard drive continues, and I'm starting to see some losses. The biggest one so far is that I can't import the data/records from the old Address Book to the new one and so far haven't worked out how to recover it. A bit of googling yielded ideas, none of which worked. But I imagine some fix will turn up. Or not.

Yesterday I went over to Sue's place to help her with her new iMac, and now me want. Sue is the one going through the autónomo process and so I'm following along in her wake and keeping an eye on how it all goes, gathering tips and warnings. And in return I am serving as her Mac help desk. A good trade all around for the both of us.


Hmmm, here's eppie 2 of Italian Spiderman. Not as good as the first, but the music and the clothes are still groovy, man.

Much more interesting is chinlone, which I discovered the other day when I watched the film Mystic Ball. Chinlone is, as the website says,

the traditional sport of Myanmar (Burma). Chinlone is a combination of sport and dance, a team sport with no opposing team. In essence chinlone is non-competitive, yet it’s as demanding as the most competitive ball games. The focus is not on winning or losing, but how beautifully one plays the game.

It was simply amazing to watch. Indeed, the skill needed is great, and it's a sport that virtually everyone seems to participate in: men, women, children, adults, and even los abuelos. Here's a trailer to get a flavor (and more trailers are here), but I recommend trying to get your hands on the film proper.

Four things

1. As always this time of year, the air is full of craziness and antsy-ness and giddiness. The school year is winding down, the young kids are all bouncing off the walls, little hellions who can't wait to be fully freed from school; the big kids (teens and uni types) are dazed and tired, finishing off the last of their end of term exams and resits, and trying to sneak away before the official end of the course. We bigger hellions, the teachers, are also antsy and anticipating the end of the year, planning summers and temporary or permanent travels to other climes.

2. Last weekend there was a Eurovision do, and was great fun to see just how bad a good many of the acts were. EV is clearly not about the music anymore, but still it was nice to see that bad taste and lowest common denominator pandering is hardly confined to the United States--Barbie and Ken aesthetics and regional cronyism rule Europe as well! As for Spain's entry, we found it to be utterly embarrassing. Compared to the other bad acts, the clownish Chikilicuatre (who is in fact an actor of sorts, not a singer) stuck out like a sore thumb. Which is rather impressive in its own way, actually. Still, Spain should have ranked in the bottom 5, but thanks to its (near-)Ibero-mates Andorra, France and Portugal, it finished at #16. Ack!

3. Thursday evening a few friends and I went to see CocoRosie, a Paris-based American sister duo that we didn't know much about beforehand (just "Beautiful Boyz," featuring Antony). One sister plays piano, keyboards, harp and guitar and provides often operatic vocals; the other sister plays all manner of other musical gizmos, including steel drum, and does the bulk of the singing in a twee sort of voice. There was also ample sampling and instead of a drummer they had a guy who, armed with only a microphone and his own human vocal apparatus, provided all the backbeats and other vocal trickery bits. He was amazing to watch, and at one point he had the stage to himself to do his thing and he was much loved by the crowd. Wish I had caught his name. During the show they projected all sorts of interesting and odd visuals on the backdrop: bits of home videos, collages and photos and other arty bits, and for some strange reason, clips from White Chicks. It took a bit of growing into the music, but in the end we all quite enjoyed it--it was a fine overall package. In the post-mortem Marc described them as Cat Power meets Björk, a fairly apt description. Here's a taste; keep your eye & ear on the guy in the back:

4. I took my first trip to a governmental office to start looking into being autónoma (self-employed). The whole experience was far pleasanter and more informative than expected, violating the International Law of Impenetrable and Unpleasant Bureaucracy. The two women manning the front desk were very nice, funny and patient with all my questions. I even got a free little Basque lesson when one woman patiently scheduled a future meeting for me. They gave me a bit of a spiel about how the process works, took some information about what I'd be doing, and then proceeded to throw potential piles of money at me to help me get set up and survive my first year in business. Given my situation and what I'd be doing as an empresa individual, I'm eligible for a number of different grants, subsidies and loans from various sources--the city of SanSe, the Basque Government, and the national employment office. As an American, it's odd to have the possibility of so much financial help from government and public agencies. One grant in particular was very strange and wondrous from my gringa perspective: I can get a 6,000-euro grant from the national employment office if I first sit around and collect unemployment for three months. No living on unemployment for 3 months, no 6,000 euros!

Anyway, the exploratory process is begun, and in late July I attend a week-long business management course, where I will be given lots of help and advice about things like drafting business and viability plans, marketing my bidness, keeping my books, and other such useful things. For the time being I'm quite open to the whole idea of being self-employed as seeing the availability of all the financial and other aid makes the whole process much less scary. There are naturally other variables to be factored into the equation, so we'll see how it all turns out.

Jump for MS

One fine day in the near future that is this June, the lovely Elen is going to jump off Ulia mountain (marked with red tag on the map) onto Zurriola beach (the beach closest to Ulia), and not just because she's crazy. She and friend Steve are paragliding to raise money for the MS Trust, which may one day soon be able to help Elen and others with MS.

If you have any spare monies lying around--any amount is welcome--check out Elen's fundraising page at Justgiving.

Italian Spiderman

This is so awesome I can't resist posting it:

This is the first part of ten; a new one is released every week. Va bene!