A place to hang my socks.

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  Lasarte, Basque, Spain
Sunday, November 16, 2008

 After two weeks of
bumming a room in Hernani, I have found a place of my own. Today marks the
fourth day at my new home and I'm loving it! I had a great time staying with my
friends but felt that I needed to move on. The longer I stay with roommates the
quirkier I find out I really am (i.e. socks...). For the rest of my stay I will
be renting an apartment here in Lasarte. It's probably not fair just to put
'socks' in parentheses and leave you with that. Some of you already know, but
for everyone else I will divulge the ugly truth.   Ok, so I'm not as bad as I used to be,
but I am really picky about my basketball socks. I always have to wear two
pairs when I play. They used to be color coordinated for games, practice, and casual.
But I have loosened up on that a bit. So if you only have three practices a
week how many socks do you need? Here goes, Sock Arithmetic 101...

Basketball: 2 pairs X
3 practices=6    Casual:
1 pair X 7 days=7

Total: 6 basketball +
7 casual=13 pairs/week.

  And it's good to have extras so I packed
16pairs for my trip. Well, the other day when my roommates came home from work
they saw the drying rack full of socks (there are no clothes dryers here). "You
packed more socks than the two of us own together!" They thought that it was
the strangest thing. So that's why I moved. The apartment was not big enough
for the three of us and all my socks. J

  No, that is not exactly why I moved. My
independent took over and I needed a place to come and go as I please without disturbing
anyone else. I was getting too spoiled because they cooked for me and would
drive me wherever I needed to go. The only downside to my apartment here in
Lasarte is that there is no direct route to basketball practice. I have to take
the train to Donostia and from there the bus to Astigarraga. It only gets
complicated after practice because the last regular bus is around 10:10pm. On
Friday I didn't get out of the gym early enough and missed the bus. I spent
almost two hours waiting at the stop before my teammates happened to drive by
and insisted on giving me a ride home. Of course it was the only day that I had
forgotten my sweatpants and I was FROZEN! Too stubborn to call for a ride I
just kept faith that the next bus was just about to come (apparently not until
12:00). But now I know, don't miss the 10:10pm bus.

  Besides making my move and trying to
figure out the bus schedule, it has been a pretty calm week. Yesterday I met
with some friends and went to the Saturday market in Tolosa. There we met with
more friends for some drinks and pintxos. One of them is a teacher and asked me
to come talk to her class of 9-year olds about America. After the market I came
home and got ready to watch some basketball. My team had a game and then
afterwards we went to watch the men's team in Donostia. I took the train back
home, had dinner, and finished the night by watching the entire Spanish version
of "Finding Nemo." I knew exactly what they were saying because my Spanish is
getting better. And maybe because it is one of my favorite movies back in the
states and I have it memorized. Either way I am feeling more comfortable in my
quest for Basque Country immersion. 


Txintxo ibili!

(Be good!)

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