“La Concha” is the name of the bay and of the far beach.

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… you have to hang your clothes on the balcony every night so your bedroom doesn’t smell like the Marlboro Man.

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Andrea Franzoia is the kind of Nevadan that the University Studies Abroad Consortium (USAC) was originally intended to serve. Born and raised in Elko, she is bilingual in Basque. Here in Donostia-San Sebastián she is reconnecting with her euskal heritage, which includes something fun called mus (”moose”).

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Crossing into France these days is sort of like crossing a state line in los Estados Unidos, except for the sudden change in one of the languages (Basque doesn’t go away, ever). I seem to have crossed a more significant border in my brain.

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There’s a huelga today, St. Valentine’s Day. A one-day general strike has been called throughout the Basque provinces, therefore many UPV classes did not meet, most classroom buildings having been chained closed by students and almost every shop and café shut up tight. Around town yesterday, banners warned us to “Buy your food today.”

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Besides my eight norteamericano students I have six from the Basque Country, and one of them, Edurne (at L), invited me to Tolosa last weekend for the Carnavales.

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On the number 5, en route from the UPV main campus to the Parte Vieja  for our second Basque cooking class at the Cofradía, two American students a few rows away from me are looking at the Cocina Vasca cookbook we’ve been given:
#1 — “Did you see this? It’s in Spanish.”
#2 — “That is so retarded.”

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It’s not all English majors over here. Chris Stanko has never needed to take an actual college English course, thanks to an excellent high-school education. At UNR he studies economics and Spanish, but right now he’s treating himself to a second consecutive USAC semester in Donostia-San Sebastián. When he arrived last fall, Chris no sabía nada, and so [...]

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