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9:00 – Classes. Music lady realized that there was no way she was going to succeed in making us sing, so instead, we sit and listen to songs for an hour. Its a nice change.

10:00 – Dance. Dance man goes through all the dances we´ve learned. We make the decision that it definitely got better as the weeks went on.

11:00 – Drums with Jesus. Not going to lie, its a pretty fantastic hour.

12:00 – Txistu with Eneko. We played music, what a surprise.

12:30 – Giggles called us down to hand out lots of papers and cds. We end up with at least 10lbs of extra weight, not ok.

13:25 – Nick and Daniela almost break themselves on the see-saw. Frighten small children.

13:45 – Lunch lady Doris. She´s not happy that we´re so late… but… its the last day.

14:15 – NAPTIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

17:30 – Our last bus ride. They get us a nice bus this time with cushions and seats and wheels… alright so they all had seats and wheels but these ones are shiny.

18:30 – Tour of a pottery place. Its good for about the first 10 minutes but then they stop making things and start talking. Its downhill from there.

20:00 – Visit to the most nationalistic town I´ve ever seen. Spend equal amounts of time looking at the scenery as we do looking at the graffiti on the wall. Its a pretty educational experience.

21:30 – Dinner. We ate Kanga and Roo. The waitress hopped around to convince us that it was indeed kangaroo. Quote of the night:
Where´d you learn English?
On the internet…. porn.
(awkward silence….)

23:00 – Musicians play music so we dance. Kangroo does not appreciate the dancing.

24:00 – Back to Vitoria and off to Old Town and the City Center for our last night. Jesus and Txalaparta man come too. Its a good way to end the night.

9:00 – Classes commence as normal. We´re actually singing songs we didn´t already know today. It´s a nice change.

10:00 – Jota!

11:00 – Txalaparta. Txalaparta on metal is a lot harder than txalaparta on wood.

12:00 – Txistu with Eneko. The drumming and playing at the same time is maybe no longer grammatically impossiboe, but its still pretty complicated.

13:30 – Lunch Lady Doris stikes again.

14:30 – Lisa, Lael, and Daniela take the LONGEST DNA test EVER…. In spanish no less.

17:50 – Presentation on gaitas. Gaitas are loud but otherwise its good.

19:30 – Lael and Nick get the best pints in the world

20:30 – Dinner

22:30 – Back out to old town!

6:50 – Nick´s roommate comes home.

7:00 – Nick´s alarm goes off.

8:05 – Lisa wakes up

8:30 – Board a bus for Donostia.

9:30 – Arrive at Juan Marie Beltran´s music museum. More musical instruments there then we knew existed. Learn that, à la Juan Marie Beltran, the only musical instrument attributed to the states is the harmonica.

10:30 – Board the bus to continue to Donostia. It’s raining again.

11:45 – Arrive in Donostia. Head to the town center to listen to a band of txistularis play. Gang (due to hunger from missing breakfast) sits down for some ridiculously expensive pintxos.

12:30 – Wander around Donostia. Nick complians when the girls take too long shopping in stores. Girls disregard complaints.

13:55 – Gang is currently lost trying to find the Sargardotegi (cider house) where we´re going for lunch. Curses on the small alleys in Donostia that all look the same.

14:00 – Success! Just in time. Lunch at the Sagardotegi is an interesting experience as we learn that while cider is much nicer to drink than wine, it also goes to your head a lot faster.

16:00 – Free time. Wander around Donostia, climb mountains and take nap with the locals on a grassy knoll.

18:30 – Boat trip around Donostia. Captian has fun trying to see how many people he can almost throw overboard by turning so much. The cider has by now worn off leaving us helpless against sea legs.

20:00 – Return to the hostel for another wonderful dinner provided by Lunch Lady Doris.

23:00 – Local bar and an early night.

10:00 – Leave to go to San Fermin (yay for sleeping in).  We completely missed breakfast again on the logic that you can sleep away hunger but you can’t hunger away sleep. 

12:00 – Arrive at San Fermin.  It smells bad. 

13:00 – Small man dressed like a horse appears and starts to hit the girls with foam ball.  Apparently this is socially acceptable.  Girls are confused.  Guys are no help.  It still smells bad. 

14:00 – Board the bus to go to the resto to get lunch.  Nick and Lael argue about who’s steak is more rare.  It’s a perfect opportunity to comment on Nick’s color blindness.  Lisa asks for her meat burnt please. 

16:00 – Return to San Fermin.  It’s raining.  The water does not help to mute the smell. 

16:00 – 20:00 – Drunken fun at San Fermin.  For sake of our dignity, pictures will not be posted. Bus ride home filled with sopping wet shoes and smelly young adults.

21:30 – Dinner at residence.  “Ensalada mixta” includes lettuce well past its expiration date and a pizza that, strikingly, tastes better than it looked.

July 11^th 2008

8:00 –  Breakfast.  No one is excited about the fact that we don’t get to sleep in this morning. 

9:00 – Singing.  Again, we fight an uphill battle against the urge to fall asleep.   We lose… miserably.   

10:00 – Dance.  Dance man is entertained by our state of sleepiness.  Continues evil step-cross-turn dance.  We’re (maybe) finally getting it.

11:00 – Drums with Jesus.  That makes two days in a row!  Life is beautiful. 

12:00 – Txistu with Eneko.  He gives us all drums to practice with.  We realize that its IMPOSSIBLE to play drum and Txistu at the same time.  Literally, physiologically, theologically, and grammatically impossible.  This could be a problem. 

13:30 – Lunch with LLD.  She continues to glare at us. 

14:00 – Nap time.

20:00 – Dantza Plazan.  Its pretty fantastic.  Larrain Dantza sucks… A LOT.  Everything else is pretty kosher though.

21:30 – Really nice dinner at a really nice posh restaurant of Benan’s really posh choosing.  The other patrons dislike us as we (read the dude from Uraguay) breaks a glass and the Argentinians begin singing drinking songs/games.  Nick’s meat has a heartbeat.

00:00 – Old Town!  We know the way there by heart now. 

9:30 – Singing.  Again, all we sing is Ikusi… we’re all going slightly insane.  Prediction:  We will be singing this in our sleep tonight. 

11:00 – Meeting with the Lehendakari.  Millions of pictures.  Really good wine.  Pintxos are FANTASTIC.  We manage to make it through both Agur Jaunak and Ikusi without messing up.  The President shook Nick’s hand.  (He also shook the rest of our hands… but… hey, Nick can feel special).

12:30 – Tour of Benan and Unai’s offices.  Nick goes to the bathroom and manages to get completely lost.  Wanders aimlessly until kind soul leads him back to the group. 

13:30 – We go home.  We’ve by this time had at least 2 glasses of wine.  Americans comment on the amazingness of it being socially acceptable to be buzzed before noon.

13:45 – Food time.  Lunch Lady Doris seems to not hate us as much today.

16:00 – Presentation of Triki.  Unfortunetly Tapia can’t make it, but the two guys from the music school are still pretty cool.

18:00 –   Laundry.  Its really far more complicated than it should be.  We manage to not fall asleep in the laundry room this time.  Point us.

20:30 – Dinner. 

23:00 – Thirsty-Thursdays Basque style. Maybe we should start sleeping, but what’s the fun in that?

9:00 – Classes commence.  We spend the entire time reviewing how to sing Ikusi Mendzialiak in preparation for our visit with the President tomorrow. 

10:00 – Step–cross–turn bullshit. 

11:00 – Drums with Jesus.  Nick has regained his ability to keep a beat.  Lael secretly admits to having a Professor crush on Jesus (for the uneducated that would involve being academically in love with someone). 

12:00 – Txistu with Eneko.  We learn a ridiculously complicated version of Agur Jaunak involving F sharps and E flats.  Lisa ALMOST misses playing the old Agur Jaunak.

13:15 – Lisa and Nick lighten their pocket books by buying drums.  Nick vows to make a tie-dyed shoulder strap after Lisa refuses to trade her green one for his red one. 

13:45 – Gang shows up late for lunch.  Lunch Lady Doris is not pleased.  Gets her revenge by serving less than tepid food. 

16:00 – Scintillatingly awesome presentation by Juan Mari Beltran, a folkloric musician/instrument collector who plays, give or take, 25 or 30 instruments because he showed us how to play all of them.  He’s pretty much the biggest badass every and we’re all in love with him.

18:00 – Javier decides that Lisa’s hair is the color of carrots. 

20:30 – Dinner.

23:00 – Bars.  It was a special night.   

8:00 – Wake up to watch running of the bulls. Lisa is very upset to hear that six bulls are killed everyday in Pamplona during San Fermin.

9:00 – More singing. Very hard to not fall asleep as it takes 45 minutes to get through Ixilik Ixilik Dago. Nick is pisssed (and would like everyone to know)

10:00 – Dance. We go from doing dances meant for 5 year olds to learning really awesome jota steps. Nick is elated that he can at least keep some sort of rhythm today.

11:00 – Txalaparta! Hit some boards, played some txirula, all and all, we deduced that we’re awe-inspiring. Txalaparta man, recognizing out awesomeness, offered to teach us how to play the alboka. Obviously, we accepted.

12:00 — Txistu. He gave us drums today. It was AMAZING.

13:30 – Lunch. Rice and strange ham/cheese deep fried sandwich thing. Its better with catsup.

14:20 – Lisa heads to the stadium of the Alvares (futball team of Vitoria). Nick watches an episode of Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia with Lael and Daniela. It’s quickly becoming an addiction.

14:45 – Board a bus for Bilbao.

15:45 – Arrive at the stadium of Athletico Bilbao in San Mames for a guided tour. Lisa is vastly entertained by the scowl Unai wears throughout the tour… apparently its like a Giants/Dodgers thing.

17:00 – Head over to the old quarter of Bilbao for a guided tour. The tour guide is useless but the area is pretty.

18:30 – Hit up the Guggenheim Museum. Gang is incapable of figuring out how to work the audio guide. Eventually give up and just walk around aimlessly. Note: Dog is very cool, spider is not so cool.

20:00 – Visit the Portugalete village to admire its famous Transporter Bridge. Walk across very very very high walkway. Argentineans do zazpi jautziak on the bridge. Lisa is not fond of looking down. Nick drops a nickel off the top of the bridge. Watches it as it falls. SPLAAASH!! Ride transporter back to other side.

21:30 – Dinner at El Molino. Wayyy too much food.

23:30 – Get back on bus to head home. Argentineans sing all the way home. Peter Pettigrew pulls out his poxpolin and starts to play. Lisa and Lael discuss the question of how they were going to break it and hurt him simultaneously. Several theories were proposed… we’ll let you know how it goes.

9:00 – Singing. We sang one song and then spent the rest of the time talking about the difference between regional dialects and Batua.

10:00 – Nick becomes a total white boy and loses all ability to keep rhythm. (He lost all ability to do a simple turn) Gang is very upset about the fact that they’re making us do a chiding dance and San Petrike (sp?) Dantza. We do not approve of being treated like five year olds.

11:00 – Drums with Jesus! Nick once again is incapable of keeping a rhythm worth shit. Girls are entertained.

12:00 – Txistu with bad man. Lisa, Nick and Lael start learning a fandango.

13:00 – Gang heads out in an attempt to find laundry soap. Success.

13:30 – Lunch.

16:00 – Nice man named Oier gives a lecture out something dance related. Pretty pictures. Beyond him saying hello to Valerie, it was pretty much wasted on the Americans.

18:00 – Went to a bar to have a drink and teach Daniela how to play mus.

20:30 – Dinner.

23:00 – Head back to the hostel to throw a load of laundry into the machine. Everyone is absolutely ecstatic about the idea of having clean clothes. (We were starting to smell… but then… so was everyone else)

00:00 – Decide we want to go out. Start following random people. Get entirely lost.

00:30 — Lael wins 50 cents.

1:00 – End up at Molly Malone’s. First bar that has apple juice. Lisa is stoked that she can finally order a vodka pomme.

2:30 — Home. Go to put laundry in dryer. End up falling asleep in laundry room.

3:15 – Security guard stops by to say hello. We go back to sleep

4:00 – Finally go to bed.