martes, 28 de febreiro de 2012

Hendaia: or The Time A Public Bathroom Attacked Me

Saturday we experienced Carnavales in Iparralde (French part of Basque Country).
It was pretty similar to that of Irún (which I will elaborate on some day, honestly). There were less people in the crowd though, and no cabezudos. Also, the giants were smaller, and carried by children: thus they were called gigantillas. My friend Kelsey didn't get a chance to participate in Irún, so she and I paraded in Hendaia. I was justice and she was the bishop with a big belly. After the parade, people gathered in a square where they did readings in Basque and French (thus I understood nada de nada). According to my culture class, they were talking about all the problems they want to rid themselves of in the future. Which is why they lit one of the giants on fire. (I should note they removed his head, because it took a lot of effort and would be sad to see it in flames.) After the fire, many people headed down the street to a sort of warehouse/gym. There we had the very Basque txistorra sausage in corn tortillas. Yummy, but not my favorite ever. My friend chatted with the mayor of Hendaye, no big deal. He's trilingual. The Basque folk bands played some classics and some modern songs as well. We hopped along, and even immitated the dance of a pair of women who knew how to folk dance. The night concluded with a Celtic band concert. Except, most people had left by that time, and the area for the audience was filled with little kids in costumes jumping around. Cute. :)




Bathroom humor:
Kelsey went into the public bathroom first, but told me she couldn't figure out how to flush it. No worries, I shut the door behind me and proceeded to the toilet when suddenly it flushed by itself. Well that's handy! But then as the light was dimming, water started spraying above the toilet. Yikes, so I moved back towards the door. Then the water began spraying at foot level, all over my shoes, and it was soapy too. I tried opening the door, but it was locked so I started banging on it yelling "Lemme outta here! OPEN UP!" I could only imagine myself like in those adventure movies: only an inch of water away from the ceiling, struggling to breathe. Luckily the water stopped before things got so out of hand. :D When I got out, we realized that after using the bathroom, you are supposed to close the door because then it automatically closes itself. I'm sure that useful information was posted on the outside, except somebody tore the sign off! Amusing story if I do say so myself.

Yesterday in Basque dance class the teacher was critiquing and offering advice for improving the polka. When he came to me he said "I don't think I can help you. I don't know what your problem is. 1-2-3, 1-2-3..." I told him 3 is just too much for me. Haha I'm just bad at the polka (embarrassing because I'm Polish and Czech!) and my partner has to drag/shove me along, even though technically I am the man in the set-up. After class I had dinner with my friends Diana & Atún. Their host mom said I could come over, probably because they talk about how pathetic I am living without a host family. ;D We had tortilla de patatas (which I had been craving) and quite a selection of prepared vegetables. First truly healthy dinner in quite some time.