Baloncesto!

So this past weekend was a good one. I told you about Friday in my last post and on Saturday me and the guys went to Vitoria, which is the capital of the Basque Country. It was a really cool city. It was sort of split into two between the old town (parte vieja)and the new town. The new town had a bunch of really sweet parks and buildings. Around 4 pm or so, which is siesta time in Spain, we found this really peaceful park where we all just crashed for a while. The sun was out and it felt so good. I just laid down on the grass and put on the new Jack Johnson cd, and then passed out for about an hour. It was one of the more peaceful places I've been. Most people are at home sleeping or something at that time so the streets are very quiet. Here's a picture of my napping spot.

Then on Sunday we went to the beach with a group of about 9 of us. One of my friends, Ainhoa, bought a volleyball so we hit the ball around for a while. There isn't a net, but it was still cool. Monday night, I cooked up mom's world famous chicken/vegetable stir-fry. Evan was my wingman, and we cooked it pretty dang well. The barbeque sauce here is a lot closer to tomato sauce than back home, so it wasn't an exact replica. And they didn't have bean sprouts, which are a key ingredient, but it turned out excellent.

Today we got back from classes and went and hit the volleyball around a little more, then Fabrice and I went to the park down the street from our apartment and played some pickup basketball with a couple kids, one was 16 and I think the other kid was the same age. I haven't touched a basketball since the beginning of January, which is by far the longest I have gone without touching a ball since I was probably two years old, so this felt really good. One kid, Nelson, is from the Phillipines and has only been here for 8 months. I tried speaking to him both in Spanish and English and he didn't seem to speak either one very well. He and I were on a team and we took down Fabrice and Jason (the other kid) 16-13. We kicked it up a notch at the end to get the w, because we're clutch like that. I asked Nelson in Spanish if he knew Kobe Bryant and he perked up and smiled. He said he also knew Iverson and Michael Jordan. I mentioned Pau to him and he smiled again and mentioned that he played for the Lakers. Then I told him that my brother went to the game yesterday and he thought that was so cool. They said they were playing again tomorrow so we'll probably head back for another game.

Right now, Evan is trying one of his mom's recipes. It's some kind of chicken and pasta. I'm pretty pumped for it. Our dinners have been really good so far. We're all bringing our moms' recipes and way of cooking to the table and we've been making some pretty good stuff. We've gotten creative too and tried to come up with some of our own stuff. So far I wouldn't say that we've had a bad meal. But my personal favorite, of course, was the stir-fry. You just can't beat it.