I watched a Spanish documentary on Lubbock, Texas of all things last night. It was heartrendingly wicked. How strange to see your culture through the eyes of another.  The documentary was about a 15 year old girl in Lubbock who is trying to get sex education to be part of the school curriculum. She fights conservative politicians who threaten her and call her names, anti-gay protesters who tell her she´s going to hell, drives around in her SUV, has deep talks with the charismatic, large-toothed youth pastor, and makes a true love waits commitment all in a 50 minute time slot on primetime Canal+. Busy girl. We look like a cult, my friends, with all of our false religion and hatred.

With that said, my Spanish Aventura is almost finished!

I have finished all of my work, done my presentations for painting and sculpture, finished my sketches, done my last drawing, given my last english lesson. My room is now cluttered with suitcases and last-minute plans to take advantage of every single part of this beautiful city before I go.

I will go to the beach one last time, eat pintxos, wander the old city, go to the Museo de Pais Vasco, see a contemporary art exhibit, go to the giant yellow meat market where pigs heads are stacked on top of each other from where they are staring you crazily down, all wobbly and google-eyed. I will see Zigor, Raquel, Andrea, Jean y Pedro one last time. Finish my gifts for the girls in my group and have our good-bye dinner. Then, we will board a bus to Madrid on Friday morning and I fly to Dulles Saturday before the sun rises over this strange and mysterious country.

Thanks for the love, friends. See you soon!

I am sorry I have been derelict in writing. I feel like so many of my blog entries sound the same.

My English lessons are all of a sudden going so well! I don´t know what happened! I learned the secret to Alvaro´s attention span--playing games. Last week I was about to do him physical harm (I´m being serious) and this week, we went OVER the time that we usually meet! And Raquel, the student from my Uni who is moving to London in February, is so eager to learn, she actually asked me to make up an exam for her. I asked her to read a short chapter in a book but not to waste her whole day on it. She read it four times and wrote down about 50 words that she didn´t understand. Wow! And she is more than precious, so kind and open. I am learning un montón about teaching English. I didn´t realize there was so much to know...

I like how all the Spanish people carry their bread for lunch around with them during the day. They usually pick it up on the way home from work mid-morning or while they are out running errands. Then they carry the long stick of French bread around wrapped in a small sheet of paper with both yellow ends sticking out to meet with friends at a café or on the bus or shopping.

I am writing a book. :) I can´t tell you what it is about, it´s a secret. Registration is a NIGHTMARE. I don´t want to talk about it. That will suffice. And, most delighfully, I am going to see an Argentinian Ballet tomorrow night at an old Basque theater.

There is a strike tomorrow at school. None of the students are coming and they are going to stand at the gate and refuse to let anyone enter. They have good reason to strike, the government wants to to get rid of all liberal arts subjects at public universities. Or at least that´s what the students walking around with hockey masks and bar codes on their foreheads say. This is fun for me, I realize, somewhat at their expense. But, I get to stay home all curled up in my house and avoid the rain which has been falling unceasingly for 5 days!  Alone, listening to The Decemberists (they are coming next week!) and reading and writing and drawing and drinking tea....Does it sound like we don´t do much studying here? We really don´t.