vegan; because my body isn't a graveyard.

state-side.
yes, indeed the time has come to ackowledge my return across the pond and my plans for the future of both my life here in america and my blog.

well, i suppose it would be prudent to begin by mentioning my return expedition via lufthansa airlines. [indeed, i did get home last tuesday, but we know how the holidays tend to distract ..] the flight was glorious. none of the planes were overly-crowded. in fact, my 10-hour trek across the ocean which quickly turned into eleven and a half was quite cozy being that the seat to my immediate right remained vacant and to my left housed a sufficiently intoxicated man from south dakota who passed out promptly after discussing my random factual knowledge about american states and demanding a book report covering important topics about mohandas ghandi. started out in 'the -gort' at 8a spanish time walking my 4 cases of luggage to the metro and concluded with an exhausted discussion between me and an airline executive about lost luggage at midnight michigan time. not to worry, it has since been dropped off on my porch and all items are accounted for. safe and sound, here at home. in fruitport. michigan. u.s. of a. excellent.

it's good to be home. there's a comfort one will never quite experience anywhere but their own stomping grounds. i feel almost as if anywhere but my parent's couch would have held a sense of intrusion, but the home that housed you, the kitchen that fed you and the fireplace that holds nostalgic memories of christmas past was the perfect homecoming gift my parents ever could have offered, and they didn't even have to lift a finger. comfort. best. gift. ever. sorry carmen, you ain't got shit on home.

which brings me to my next and final point. being that i don't have facebook anymore and my cellular plan is currently on hiatus, i can be contacted via land-line. if you don't have my number, but are interested, call kristine or laura. if you don't have their numbers, i guess you are at the mercy of chance, because i'm tentative to post any personal information that i'll have to remember to delete later. however, i do believe i am going to make an attempt to keep up with the blog. obviously it will no longer hold spanish tales of adventure and horseplay, but as a retrospective view of life goals and accomplishments, i think it could be a useful tool for communication and improvement.

newest challenge: i have been thinking as of late, the seed of thought having been planted last spring and growing non-stop into an uncontrollable beast, that i will be adopting a vegan lifestyle. more to come on this issue, however getting this out there is really cementing this idea into place. bought my first half gallon of almond milk and 4 cartons of soy yogurt. this shit is on. like donkey-kong.

caring is creepy

it has been brought to my attention that i have been seriously slacking on the blog front. in all honesty, i hadn't been up to a whole lot until the girls showed up last friday. as many of you may have gathered, i have had a wonderful time here in spain and have acquired from this marvelous experience memories that will last a lifetime. however, i am pretty ready to return state-side. in an attempt to keep everyone up-to-date on my living situation here, i have attached a few meaningless photos for ya'll to oggle.

this is where i keep my things.

look at them all.

thingy and such.

close-up view of things.

this is the courtyard in my school.

as i make precious FEW grammatical errors;

yes, you read that right, IN my school

hallway.

the building is completely open to the outside wilderness.

of bilbao.

the girls were very happy to find bilbao safe and sound.

favorite.

the weather was much more accommodating in san sebastian this time around.

luckily, as i had a fully charged battery.

blue-green ocean.

breathtaking, literally.

the hill we had to climb to get here nearly killed me.

a few of you may be surprised to know this,

but to accomplish this effect,

all you need do is twist the camera while you take the photo ..

 hehe.

and finally the 'casco viejo' of san sebastian.

had a wonderful time with the girls.

they should be half-way over the atlantic right now,

while i remain here in the -gort, waiting for lunch to be prepared for me.

after that, i may need to find something occupy my time for a bit outside of the house so carmen can come in and clean my room. then maybe later i'll let her cook me dinner while i watch more television, then if i'm tired, i'll go to bed. if not, i may sit on pinterest finding new things to occupy my time when i get home.

anyway, clearly i have nothing of substance left to discuss,

therefore i will leave you with this mini-countdown: 

[2 days until i start my last week of class]

[6 days until my final exams]

[7 days until closing ceremonies]

[9 days until i pack up all my earthy possessions]

[10 days until i return]

see you all very soon.

sing to the mountain

November 18th already.
What madness is this? In one month, I will be crawling back through the looking glass, coming out the other side to a whole new perspective on my kind of normal. Definitely stoked about the girls arrival in a couple weeks. Truth be known, this is all happening SO FAST. A month ago, I was ready. Ready to head home, back to the world I knew; everything that was comfortable and reliable and, well, let's be honest: convenient. It's easy to call your friends on a boring Saturday night when you're feeling the sting of lonliness, knowing they live right down the road. Suddenly, an hour and half seems like a stone's-throw and the unfortunate nature of this business is that it took me overseas to realize this very simple fact: it's not where you are, it's who you're with that brings value and significance to your life. But now that my remaining time is dwindling down to mere minutes, I find myself wishing I could take a step back and slow it all down. But every time I try to take everything in before I miss it all, I find it flashing by in an instant and is gone again. Which is sad, because the last thing I want to bring home with me are regrets.
On a more cheery note, today. was. stunning. Still tentative to risk a jog, I took my camera on brisk walk along my usual jogging route around Algorta, Gobela and Las Arenas.

So there's a more in depth view of where I live from the path I jog.

This weekend is shaping up to be something excellent.
Pretty excited.
The countdown has begun:
14 days until the girls get here!

<3

gaztelugatxe

What luck Monday has brought me. First attempt: successful.

The adventure began like this:

Ali // well guys, we can either follow this road here to our right

or we can hang close to the coast. either way, we'll get there . .

We decided it was best to stay near the ocean, as we were heading to an island of sorts,

which kinda lives in the ocean, that was about all we knew.

After rounding our third or fourth curve atop one of the many deadful hills,

we caught a glimpse of our destination.

It was at or around this point that we came to a beaten path through the woods

and a decision was to be made //do we think this is the right way,

or should we continue up the hill of certain death and see what's up there . . ?

Continue we did. Sweating bullets and shedding attire,

not quite sure how far we had gone; not entirely sure where we were going,

we stumbled upon some random //tree-boat// restaraunt hidden amid the sloping hills and mountainous flora. 

It must be mentioned that it was Patrick, I believe who voted we press on,

as this was clearly a popular venue and with this many people visiting the church every day,

the path would CLEARLY have to be paved, therefore the beaten trail through the woods

is DEFINITELY NOT the way to go.

From said restaraunt/parking lot where all varieties of Spanish peoples congregated after driving a mere 5 minutes up the mountain it took the three Americans a good half hour to climb, we found excellent photo taking opportunities. Many minutes were spent here pondering the certain pleasure that would surely follow an event such as rolling around on this luscious lawn for an indeterminant amount of time.

After taking stock of our position in relation to the church, which I may point out is now hidden from sight,

we realize that we have passed it and we have now successfully made it to dillemma #1.

Was that really the trail we were supposed to take?

The one BEFORE hill-climb from hell?

sweet.

We decided to head back to the trail that OBVIOUSLY was NOT the right way, although clearly, it was.

This is a glimpse at the bottom of steepest hill of my life [until that point].

Stumbling through rough terrain,

avoiding picker-brushes and slippery ruts cut between rocks and tree roots,

we finally came to a cliff overlooking the ocean . . dillemma #2.

The church was, yet again, just beyond our grasp.

Buuut, we did have the opportunity to take in some breathtaking ocean-views

and joke about our unnecessary trip back to the unpaved path,

and what's more, our ill-fortune with once again having to endure

THAT BLASTED HILL. from hell. of death.

awesome.

I may have forgotten to mention that it was rounding 80 degrees this day.

Please take into account my sweater and jeans at this time. Thank you.

After re-scaling Mt.Everest - we returned to the //tree-boat restaraunt// and discovered, quite simply, acutally, that had we gone a mere 20 feet further, we would have discovered the paved trail leading directly back down the mountain of gaztelugatxe, you know, the one we just climbed. Yeah, at least it was paved. Thanks Patrick, you were right . .  

Continuing along this nearly 50 degree slope toward the center of the earth,

we come across yet another beaten diversion

away from paved footpath we were currently following.

Do we continue on or should we venture off?

Given recent events, logic dictates that we stay on the path MOST traveled. 

Which brings us to dillemma #3:

the. path. ends.

You have got to be joking me at this point.

Oh, but wait, Patrick, what was that about a touristy location being so busy,

they MUST have a paved path all the way there. CHEYAA!

I prayed for death at least three times making my way down this ragged crevasse

cut away by years of errosion and rainfall.

notice how there used to be a handrail to guide your way . .

yeeeah, thanks Spain.

Alas, finally we met our destination:

La iglesia de San Juan de Gaztelugatxe.

P.S. The answer is yes, to those of you who may be wondering if I contemplated collapsing into a slow, comatose like death at this point. Thank goodness, however, I denied myself that simple pleasure, as the view from above was worth the trip ten-fold. And had I simply fallen to my demise, you would all be unable to experience those envious feelings of NOT being on this island so as to take in these beautiful ocean-scapes in real life.

aaand, this was the way back - -

. . with cows.

In all seriousness, this was probably my favorite day that I have spent since coming to Spain.

It was a beautiful day, the weather was absolutely amazing, the countryside was breathtakingly gorgeous.

And if it weren't for the hills [of which, there were many] the reward wouldn't have been nearly as sweet.

I'm looking forward to a couple more adventures similar to this in the near future.

Then, I will be ready for my girls to come enjoy some of this wonderful country and culture along with me,

and after that: Snow. Bing Crosby. Christmas lights. Home.

Thanks guys!

guernica

Seriously feeling the heat from the pressure of performance on the blog front. I guess I wasn't aware of how many people actually read this nonsense. Where shall I begin? Well, last Friday the CIDE program took a trip out to Guernica where we visited the Peace Museum as well as the Tree of Guernica and the Basque Museum. Interesting trip, took a few photos. Very few.

remnants of the great oak.

pablo picasso.

the water here was a pretty amazing teal color.

cute little pueblo.

It's not that this trip didn't justify it's own blog post, I'm just incredibly lazy.

This weekend however, was indescribable and could not go without mentioning.

Friday I decided was going to be a day of productive enterprise, therefore I awoke promtly at 8am and got to work picking up the disheveled hovel that had become my room. An hour later, seated quite peacefully within my freshly primmed abode, I decided to start reading a novel for my culture project due a few weeks from now. A couple hours of that and I was feeling pretty inimical and decided a run would be just the cure. Laced up my kicks and set out ocean-side. [and I was opposed to running along the beach in Pier Marquette due to unwanted stares, ha!] I have never felt so objectified in my entire life. Perhaps it's not rude in Spanish culture to stare at a person incessantly while walking past on a sidewalk, halting conversation entirely until 5 METERS past, however I am not accustomed to this gesture and continue to be completely put off by it. Nonetheless, I kept jogging at a snail's pace and returned home to a hot shower and nice dinner of [not] squid. Around four, I set out to find a quiet park bench on which I posted up for a couple hours polishing off a few more chapters on the epic story of love, family and war. Feeling quite productive, I returned home to watch a couple episodes of American television and enjoyed dinner with Paula and Carmen. Later, I grabbed a beer with a friend and as luck would have it, we ended up running into half of the CIDE kids in Algorta [my hometown]. As a result of this chance encounter, I made plans with Patrick and Ali to head out to San Juan the following day to explore an ancient church atop a small island just off the coast.

Which brings me to Saturday adventures, however I have been sitting here at my computer for over an hour now trying to upload these 20 photos and something keeps malfunctioning leaving me no viable option other than throw my computer out my window and see how long it takes the street sweepers to gobble up the remains. Have no fear, photos will be available as soon as my patience returns.