Endings and New Beginnings

Our feast at the gastronomical society
Mondragón (Arrasate), España
My classmates and teacher Natalia (2nd from left)
Mari-Mar, my 20th Century Spanish Teacher
Natalia and I

5/15/10

It is not AGUR, it is GERO ARTE. (It is not ¨goodbye¨, it is ¨ see you later.¨)

One of my favorite things in life to do is reflect when something is over, o sea, when another ¨chapter¨ comes to an end, which of course if just the beginning of something more. This past week, I have the opportunity to do just that. It has been a truly amazing period in my life, and now I´m ready for SUMMMMEERRR! (Sorry for those of you at home who still have a few weeks left….)

First things first. I am leaving for Paris this evening to meet my parents in the morning. I will be taking the bus from San Sebastián to Paris….11 hours. Thank you Spain for making me procrastinate and not buy my train ticket. One thing that I always realize when I travel, is how much my friends and family mean to me. Distance makes the heart grow fonder, in my opinion because it makes communication more difficult, and we are forced to express more sentimental things because words are all we have from this far away! I have always discovered this to be true throughout my travels, or moving away to go to school. I always return so thankful for all of the people in my life at home. I am estatic to see my parents, and hopefully open up their eyes and hearts to the world, as this is their first time in Europe. Although I had to threaten my Dad with ¨I will hold this against you if you don´t come, because you know this is what I love,¨ I secretly think he is excited to come over and hopefully disconnect from the stresses that work causes at home. Therefore, with this excitement, comes more great family news. On Tuesday, my Mom, the sneaky lady she is, emailed me and told me that I needed to test out Skype with my brother before they came over, so we had a way of getting in contact with him when they are here. So, he ended up calling me and told me to put the video on, ¨to make sure it works¨ and then he says, ¨Have you talked to Mom recently?¨ to which I reply, ¨Yeah, why?¨ He says, ¨Did she tell you that you are going to be an official aunt?¨ Congratulations Jeff and Brandie, you will be great parents again! J As for me, I can´t stop imagining what it will be like to hold my brother´s baby and watch him (My guess is boy) grow. This is truly a blessing for our family.

On to life in Spain….I finished my final exams on Thursday. The rush started on Sunday night, trying to finish a composition on the play, ¨Eloísa está debajo un almendro¨that I read to get graduate credits for my Spanish theatre class. After completing that, I survived Monday, a ¨normal¨ day of class, before taking part one of my Español Avanzado exam, an essay test, on Tuesday. Before class on Tuesday, I spent the morning hours studying for Wednesday´s tests, which continued after class on Tuesday. Wednesday, it was an early morning to ¨refresh¨ my memory before my Spanish Theatre and Seminario tests. Both of these tests required remembering/learning more information that the second half of Avanzado´s test on Thursday. I was a little bit stressed for my Seminario test especially, as it consisted of an oral, reading, writing, and grammar/expression ¨test¨ (what they call multiple choice). As it turns out, I was so excited from receiving the news about my brothers family, as well as receiving my first package from home, 2 CD´s and pictures of my unofficial nephew Eli, right before my first test, that I just did my best…and aced both of them J. Leaving class on Wedneday, I headed to my last day of ¨work¨ with the de la Fuente family. I had promised Helene that I would take her to ice cream on the last day, which we did after her English and Dance classes. The last few weeks, her and I had grown very close, and I was a little bummed to have to say goodbye to her and her family, as they have treated me very well this semester. Ana, Helene´s mother, invited me to stay with them whenever I want this summer, if I make my way back up to San Sebastián during my travels. I told her that I would glady take her up on the offer. I departed with a small gift in hand, typical Tolosa cigarillos (a type of Basque sweet), a handwritten note from Helene, and a seashell from her collection.

Saying goodbye, or ¨geroarte¨ to the de la Fuente family was just the beginning of having to do the same to all of the USAC friends I made over the semester, and to my amazing teachers and USAC office staff that fully supported each and every student. The hardest for me was to express in words to Mari Mar and Natalia what they have meant to me personally, and how much I realize the effort and love they put forth into their jobs. I hope that as a teacher I reflect in my daily efforts the passion I have for what I do at least half as much as they do. As Natalia put it, it wasn´t very ¨Basque¨ of her to tear up when saying ¨geroarte¨ to our class, as they typical Basque people easily hide their emotions. I can only hope that I can keep in contact with both of these amazing women for a long, long time.

Finals week ended on Thursday, and Friday, the first day of summer was without disappointment. Mikeli, a 22 year old Swedish student in several of my classes, and a talented singer, participating in the Orfeón Donostiarra, one of the most respected choirs in all of Spain, treated me and two other classmates to a fabulous day on Friday. Two of her fellow choir members, Bautista and Mikel, two older Basque men, and proud citizens of the town of Mondragón or Arrasate in Basque, a town about an hour driving from Donostia, organized a free visit to Mondragón Cooperación Cooperativa. Before the visit, I had never heard of the business concept, and to be honest, I am still in awe after the visit about how these businesses are organized. It a small nutshell, the organization of these companies in the small town of Arrasate have impacted the way that businesses around the world are run, in that the employees are the bosses of themselves, and is kind of a shared concept. We were met by the president of the Cooperativa, Mikel Lezamiz (he usually doesn´t do tours J) and started with an hour tour of a factory that makes washing machines. We saw how the self organization of the employees at each station, how they are responsible for knowing everyone´s jobs around them, correcting their own mistakes, making sure they are producing at the speed they should be, etc., as well as how every piece of a washing machine is made. This was followed by a powerpoint presentation of their business concepts, a tour of the downtown area of Arrasate, and then my favorite part of the day. Lunch. Bautista and Mikel, Mikeli´s friends, are members of a gastronomical society called Karkabal. In short, a gastronomical society is traditionally for men, a place for them to gather and cook in the kitchen, and eat all together. Women sometimes aren´t allowed in societies, and hardly ever in the kitchen. This is not sexist however, as the societies originated because Basque homes have traditionally been matriarchial throughout history, and men needed a place to have their ¨own space,¨hence these societies were created. Mikel and Bautista treated us at their own cost, to an amazing mean consisting of fresh seafood (anchovies, codfish, shrimp), followed by chuleta (steak), and finished up with pastries for dessert. The tradition is to reserve the sociedad, bring your own food, cook it up, enjoy, and then clean the space, note in the computer what you drank from the drink closet, and be done. As in Basque tradition, our lunch ended up being three hours long, as we enjoyed cooking, talking, a small concert put on by our Orfeón friends, and lasting memories. The men had no other reason to do this except to share their culture and generosity with three American strangers who have interest in their culture. It was, like many others, an amazing afternoon.