Not sure if this was news across the pond, but a car bomb planted by the Basque Separatist group ETA (for "Basque Homeland and Freedom") detonated on the main campus of the University of Navarra (in Pamplona) this morning at around 11am local time. Tecnun, where Dan is teaching and working in San Sebastian, is the University of Navarra's engineering campus.
Details on the attack can be found here: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/10/30/spain.bombs.university/index.html. The prevalent thinking is that this was in response to the Spanish authorities breaking up an ETA cell headquartered in Pamplona earlier this week (story on that can be found in the sidebar of our blog). Dan's friends indicated that this is typical for ETA - when something happens in a Spanish city that is detrimental to their cause they will typically carry out an attack in that city to flex their muscles and say "your attack did nothing."
Pamplona (running of the bulls locale) is located less than an hour away from San Sebastian and there is extensive interaction between the students and faculty on both campuses. After the attack faculty and students that Dan interacted and worked with were trying to contact friends and loved ones in Pamplona - fortunately the Northern Spain winter was in full effect (rain) today and fewer people were outside when the bomb, in a parking lot directly adjacent to the main administration building, detonated. While approximately 20 people were injured, the injuries were generally minor and thankfully no one was killed. The entire University of Navarra system will be having a moment of silence at noon tomorrow to pray for the injured and for the attackers.
For those of you that are unfamiliar with ETA, Wiki (yessss Wiki) has a fairly detailed explanation of the group here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETA. As the link indicates, ETA has been violently advocating for Basque independence for a number of decades. We have experienced and observed some of the separatist fervor - from being told we are not in Spain to seeing protest signs and posters prominently displayed in San Sebastian. While this activity certainly keeps us "on our toes" we have been reassured that ETA does not typically target foreigners and have also realized that San Sebastian has, for whatever reason, not been selected as a target with any significant frequency. We hope this will continue but will certainly remain vigilant.
Anyway - thought you might want to know. The other big news is that Cindy's parents arrived safely from the U.S. Tuesday for a planned 2 week stay. We are all headed to Paris tomorrow for a long weekend and will post something about that trip and the other goings-on this weekend or early next week.
We hope you are all doing well.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Sacrebleu!! Foray into France (not toooo far into France) – Week 6
Even though we are really enjoying San Sebastian the desire to travel the open road has been gnawing at us (our mode of transportation to date has been on foot or Razor with the very infrequent bus or cab ride…we needed to feel the wind in our hair AND wanted to spend $8 a gallon to do it). We toyed with taking a trip last week but put it off until yesterday, the 18th.
Accomplishing the whole mode of transpo shift thing was not the easiest, as we had to find agencies in town (there are not that many), figure out how to rent the car, figure out how to go get the car, get out of town and back in, not wreck said car (not easy since Dan would be driving), etc. We tried pepecar.com (we are NOT kidding – http://www.pepecar.com/ – appeared to be the cheapest AND we had a hankering for Pepe since, as those of you that bother to visit the website will notice all cars come with some stellar bling on the sides that lets everyone know YOU WENT TO SEE PEPE). Alas, since we decided to head just across the border to some of the French coastal towns Pepe did not want to deal with us (it appears Pepe only will rent to you if you are NOT going into France – think its related to the whole Freedom-Fries thing). Sooo, onto Option 2, Europcar, who, although a little more expensive than good ‘ol Pepe, is an agency that we had used successfully before. Now, once the agency decision was behind us we had to choose
a vehicle and, since we were only going for one day, we chose the cheapest/smallest one they had and ended up with the fine looking whip shown here, known as the Fiat-errari (note the racing accents clearly demonstrated in the metallic blue paint job and aggressive tires the size of a personal pan pizza – the Linzell chicas aren’t waving, they’re begging to be released). The thing maxed out at 120 kph downhill with a solid tailwind (sounds impressive but it’s only 75 mph, which is the speed limit). Anyway, it got us there and back.
Enough about the car and more about where there was – we were told by multiple people that, if the weather was good, a nice day trip would involve heading up the interstate to the Pays Basque (an official recognition of the area by the French government) region of southwestern
France – first visiting Biarritz and then driving back to San Sebastian along the coast with, at the very least, a stop in Saint Jean de Luz. So that was what we did. The trip from San Sebastian to Biarritz only took about 40 minutes and we arrived in the late morning. We navigated through the town centre, found an underground parking garage, left the Fiat-errari in a safe place (with the security system fully armed and parked diagonally so NOONE would scratch the paint) and walked out an exit from the garage literally to the picture shown here – the view was unexpected and, needless to say, amazing.
Biarritz was once a very exclusive resort (mid-19th to mid 20th century) where royalty would go to sun their crowns (a nice, although dated, article describing both places we visited can be found in the NY Times archives: query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=travel&res=9C0CE1DB143CF931A2575BC0A966958260) . As the article indicates, it all started with Napoleon III’s wife building a teeny
little vacation home on the beach (now the Hotel du Palais – we got by the security and looked around – a little too pedestrian for our tastes as evidenced by the shots of the hotel and from the back of the hotel looking across the bay). As the bay pictures hopefully show you, the entire beachfront is very spectacular and the area is real popular with French surfin’ dudes (who wipeout A LOT). From what we understand there are a number of competitions in Biarritz due to the waves that can roll in.
Accomplishing the whole mode of transpo shift thing was not the easiest, as we had to find agencies in town (there are not that many), figure out how to rent the car, figure out how to go get the car, get out of town and back in, not wreck said car (not easy since Dan would be driving), etc. We tried pepecar.com (we are NOT kidding – http://www.pepecar.com/ – appeared to be the cheapest AND we had a hankering for Pepe since, as those of you that bother to visit the website will notice all cars come with some stellar bling on the sides that lets everyone know YOU WENT TO SEE PEPE). Alas, since we decided to head just across the border to some of the French coastal towns Pepe did not want to deal with us (it appears Pepe only will rent to you if you are NOT going into France – think its related to the whole Freedom-Fries thing). Sooo, onto Option 2, Europcar, who, although a little more expensive than good ‘ol Pepe, is an agency that we had used successfully before. Now, once the agency decision was behind us we had to choose
a vehicle and, since we were only going for one day, we chose the cheapest/smallest one they had and ended up with the fine looking whip shown here, known as the Fiat-errari (note the racing accents clearly demonstrated in the metallic blue paint job and aggressive tires the size of a personal pan pizza – the Linzell chicas aren’t waving, they’re begging to be released). The thing maxed out at 120 kph downhill with a solid tailwind (sounds impressive but it’s only 75 mph, which is the speed limit). Anyway, it got us there and back.Enough about the car and more about where there was – we were told by multiple people that, if the weather was good, a nice day trip would involve heading up the interstate to the Pays Basque (an official recognition of the area by the French government) region of southwestern
France – first visiting Biarritz and then driving back to San Sebastian along the coast with, at the very least, a stop in Saint Jean de Luz. So that was what we did. The trip from San Sebastian to Biarritz only took about 40 minutes and we arrived in the late morning. We navigated through the town centre, found an underground parking garage, left the Fiat-errari in a safe place (with the security system fully armed and parked diagonally so NOONE would scratch the paint) and walked out an exit from the garage literally to the picture shown here – the view was unexpected and, needless to say, amazing.
Biarritz was once a very exclusive resort (mid-19th to mid 20th century) where royalty would go to sun their crowns (a nice, although dated, article describing both places we visited can be found in the NY Times archives: query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=travel&res=9C0CE1DB143CF931A2575BC0A966958260) . As the article indicates, it all started with Napoleon III’s wife building a teeny
little vacation home on the beach (now the Hotel du Palais – we got by the security and looked around – a little too pedestrian for our tastes as evidenced by the shots of the hotel and from the back of the hotel looking across the bay). As the bay pictures hopefully show you, the entire beachfront is very spectacular and the area is real popular with French surfin’ dudes (who wipeout A LOT). From what we understand there are a number of competitions in Biarritz due to the waves that can roll in.
As we have been doing in San Sebastian, we spent a lot of time poking around Biarritz and seeing the sites. There are nice footpaths along main beach and on the large rock outcroppings that surround the beach and one in particular was a lot of fun. This path takes you out to the “Virgin on the Rock” via a bridge and provided us with great views 
of Biarritz, Spain to the south and west (we think the far right peak is near San Sebastian in the 2nd pic) and the French Atlantic coast in the opposite direction. We had a lot of fun here since there were great places to climb and hide (Dan and the girls went up near the Virgin sculpture and Audrey found a neat little spot just her size). The Musee de la Mer (Biarritz Aquarium) was located directly adjacent to the Virgin path and we, naturally, went on in. It was a nice little aquarium that had some interesting displays on life in the 
Bay of Biscay and a good shark tank but by far the MOST interesting attraction was the seals/sea lions. As you can see in the pics they were some LIVELY critters (no, the underwater one was not dead, we waited to make sure). Watching them was actually pretty fun – the one lounging by the water (he's waving to all of you) was completely zonked and the youngest one in the tank was messing with him by swimming by and nudging awake. He was NOT happy about being aroused and let everyone know it – similar to some members of the Linzell family that shall remain nameless.
of Biarritz, Spain to the south and west (we think the far right peak is near San Sebastian in the 2nd pic) and the French Atlantic coast in the opposite direction. We had a lot of fun here since there were great places to climb and hide (Dan and the girls went up near the Virgin sculpture and Audrey found a neat little spot just her size). The Musee de la Mer (Biarritz Aquarium) was located directly adjacent to the Virgin path and we, naturally, went on in. It was a nice little aquarium that had some interesting displays on life in the 
Bay of Biscay and a good shark tank but by far the MOST interesting attraction was the seals/sea lions. As you can see in the pics they were some LIVELY critters (no, the underwater one was not dead, we waited to make sure). Watching them was actually pretty fun – the one lounging by the water (he's waving to all of you) was completely zonked and the youngest one in the tank was messing with him by swimming by and nudging awake. He was NOT happy about being aroused and let everyone know it – similar to some members of the Linzell family that shall remain nameless.
One other interesting aspect of the Biarritz visit was that a film was 
being shot there – it was one of those foreign films and, although we have no idea what the title was, we suspect it was an uplifting piece of work. The scene they were shooting when we arrived involved a group of people in full Tyvek wandering the beach carrying a bunch of post-apocalyptic equipment. Looked pretty funny given the weather (upper 60s) and surfer dudes in the background but we knew we needed to respect the director’s motivation and vision.
being shot there – it was one of those foreign films and, although we have no idea what the title was, we suspect it was an uplifting piece of work. The scene they were shooting when we arrived involved a group of people in full Tyvek wandering the beach carrying a bunch of post-apocalyptic equipment. Looked pretty funny given the weather (upper 60s) and surfer dudes in the background but we knew we needed to respect the director’s motivation and vision.After having the requisite crepes (remember we were in France - crepes avec Nutella are the kids faves), lunch and poking around a bunch of shops in Biarritz we headed back to San Sebastian via
Saint Jean de Luz – a beautiful and, as the Times article alludes to, much quieter place. It was obvious that, although there were some hotels and plenty of restaurants around, this village did not depend as much on tourism for its livelihood as our previous stop (the fishing wharf appeared to be quite active – hopefully you can see how the Basque fisherman paint their trawlers in bright colors and the building architecture from the wharf shot, both quite distinctive for the region we think). We wandered around, looked at the beachfront and checked some shops and, most importantly, ate dinner 
(restaurants in France open at 7pm which is, at least, 1 hr earlier than their counterparts 30 mins. away in Spain – we’re told this is one of the many cultural differences that happen when you cross the border). We scoped out a few places and chose one that would cook Paella for 4 – for those of you that don’t know Paella its a common Spanish dish consisting of rice, beans, vegetables, chicken and seafood. To cook Paella requires a special pan, one that we do not have back at La Casa GRANDE, and we were craving it. So, we ate a Spanish dish in France listening to reggae music and loved EVERY minute of it (sorry, no pics – too busy eating). We arrived back at la Casa late and wiped but would not have changed a thing. It truly was a great day – one of many that we have had so far during this adventure.
Saint Jean de Luz – a beautiful and, as the Times article alludes to, much quieter place. It was obvious that, although there were some hotels and plenty of restaurants around, this village did not depend as much on tourism for its livelihood as our previous stop (the fishing wharf appeared to be quite active – hopefully you can see how the Basque fisherman paint their trawlers in bright colors and the building architecture from the wharf shot, both quite distinctive for the region we think). We wandered around, looked at the beachfront and checked some shops and, most importantly, ate dinner 
(restaurants in France open at 7pm which is, at least, 1 hr earlier than their counterparts 30 mins. away in Spain – we’re told this is one of the many cultural differences that happen when you cross the border). We scoped out a few places and chose one that would cook Paella for 4 – for those of you that don’t know Paella its a common Spanish dish consisting of rice, beans, vegetables, chicken and seafood. To cook Paella requires a special pan, one that we do not have back at La Casa GRANDE, and we were craving it. So, we ate a Spanish dish in France listening to reggae music and loved EVERY minute of it (sorry, no pics – too busy eating). We arrived back at la Casa late and wiped but would not have changed a thing. It truly was a great day – one of many that we have had so far during this adventure. Hopefully you are all having great days wherever you may be as well – we continue to miss you one and all. Take care and we’ll talk to you soon.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
La Casa GRANDE de los Linzell – Week 5
The Linzell’s are now grooving along to our weekly Euro-tune (its techno) and things are going 
swimmingly (a word which lets us include ANOTHER beach picture from Saturday, the 11th). The 11th was another beautiful day and we spent most of it on the beach with poquito being spent in the rather frigid water – we’ve been told that people swim the bay sans wetsuit until December (muy loco, in our opinion). We sat on the fairly empty beach and kept repeating to ourselves that it was October and we were beach-bumming it – something that our State College nouveau-riche lifestyle has never allowed us to partake in.
Our town tours continue, with a walk around the Eastern side of the bay a week ago (the correct photo of the sculpture by Jorge Oteiza shown here along with a photo of the main surfing beach, Playa
Zurriola, where thanks to our visits, Kelsey and Audrey no longer need anatomy lessons, if you catch our drift). We continue to enjoy the exploring.
But we assume that you are all tired of seeing multiple angles of some backwater European coastal city and figured this would be a good time to show you the pad, hangout, bunkhouse, domicile, residence, dwelling, manse, abode, address, heezie, building, etc., etc., etc. – a place we like to call La Casa GRANDE de los Linzells (phonetically en Espanol – “La Catha Grande de loth Lintttthhhhelllllllllttttthhhhsss). SOOOO – welcome to our Crib!!!!
As we said during the Week 2.5 report, we’re on the 4th floor (in Metric-speaking countries). Our apartment is one of four on that floor. It is a 2 BR unit that was refurbished right before we moved in (say goodbye to the deposit…). When you open the door to the apartment you see the main living area and kitchen, which includes a stovetop, oven, fridge/freezer and,
BEST OF ALL, a dishwasher!!! As you can see in the general entry pic and photo of the kitchen, everything is done in early Ikea. In addition to the 2 BRs (girls have a bunk and the ‘rents have a bed that is a king widthwise) we have a futon that will sleep 2 (so C’MON OVER – your retirement may be shot but the dollar continues to strengthen against the Euro, so it’s a great time for a trip). The futon pic, which shows 2 lovely ladies doing some homework, sits next to a crazy bean bag chair/albino candy-corn shaped thing that can become a bone of contention when 
watching Spanish TV (Is it??? Oh yes IT IS, the JoBros on a Spanish TV station last week – OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!! – seems they were in-country last week and (1) it’s obvious they speak about as much Spanish as Dan does and (2) no, they did not call us).
swimmingly (a word which lets us include ANOTHER beach picture from Saturday, the 11th). The 11th was another beautiful day and we spent most of it on the beach with poquito being spent in the rather frigid water – we’ve been told that people swim the bay sans wetsuit until December (muy loco, in our opinion). We sat on the fairly empty beach and kept repeating to ourselves that it was October and we were beach-bumming it – something that our State College nouveau-riche lifestyle has never allowed us to partake in.
Our town tours continue, with a walk around the Eastern side of the bay a week ago (the correct photo of the sculpture by Jorge Oteiza shown here along with a photo of the main surfing beach, Playa
Zurriola, where thanks to our visits, Kelsey and Audrey no longer need anatomy lessons, if you catch our drift). We continue to enjoy the exploring.But we assume that you are all tired of seeing multiple angles of some backwater European coastal city and figured this would be a good time to show you the pad, hangout, bunkhouse, domicile, residence, dwelling, manse, abode, address, heezie, building, etc., etc., etc. – a place we like to call La Casa GRANDE de los Linzells (phonetically en Espanol – “La Catha Grande de loth Lintttthhhhelllllllllttttthhhhsss). SOOOO – welcome to our Crib!!!!
As we said during the Week 2.5 report, we’re on the 4th floor (in Metric-speaking countries). Our apartment is one of four on that floor. It is a 2 BR unit that was refurbished right before we moved in (say goodbye to the deposit…). When you open the door to the apartment you see the main living area and kitchen, which includes a stovetop, oven, fridge/freezer and,
BEST OF ALL, a dishwasher!!! As you can see in the general entry pic and photo of the kitchen, everything is done in early Ikea. In addition to the 2 BRs (girls have a bunk and the ‘rents have a bed that is a king widthwise) we have a futon that will sleep 2 (so C’MON OVER – your retirement may be shot but the dollar continues to strengthen against the Euro, so it’s a great time for a trip). The futon pic, which shows 2 lovely ladies doing some homework, sits next to a crazy bean bag chair/albino candy-corn shaped thing that can become a bone of contention when 
watching Spanish TV (Is it??? Oh yes IT IS, the JoBros on a Spanish TV station last week – OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!! – seems they were in-country last week and (1) it’s obvious they speak about as much Spanish as Dan does and (2) no, they did not call us).
The rest of the apartment is some of your typical U.S. apartment stuff and one non-typical U.S. apartment item. The bathroom has a single basin, shower and commode (typical), we have a decent sized clothes washer in a utility room (typical) and the dryer is located to the right of the washer (to load and unload turn the window handle to your left, pull and lean out – definitely not typical). As the photo hopefully shows, you need to make sure you hang on tight to your threads while placing and 
removing because, should you drop one, it will fall 5 stories and it may take an international tribunal to get it back – we have only dropped a clothes pin so far.
removing because, should you drop one, it will fall 5 stories and it may take an international tribunal to get it back – we have only dropped a clothes pin so far.
Well that ends the tour of our Casa and – we do not have another 14 bedrooms, 18 bathrooms and combination indoor basketball court and bowling alley to show you. As they say on Cribs, peace-out.
We miss you one and all and hope you are doing well.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Changes in the Weather – Week 4
We hope everyone is doing well back in the States and weathering the storms that have arisen since we’ve been gone – both Wall Street and hurricane Palin. We are continually amazed at how much interest still remains in the goings on in the U.S. over in Europe – the economic interest makes sense considering the ripple effect that occurs but the interest and knowledge of our political process and the players involved here is pretty extensive. Seems that many Europeans know more about the issues and stances that exist than many in the U.S.
That is NOT the weather that we are referring to in this post, however.
The end of this week, however, brought the first good Atlantic storm since we’ve been here. Rain
Thursday/Friday/Saturday (HEAVY on Friday), wind and heavy surf, and temps in the 50s-60s (locals say that is cold, which is a good sign). Everyone went about their business as usual, including us, and that included the requisite beach visits. There were a couple of interesting beach related by-products of the storm, though. One was that the surf brought with it a LARGE contingent of Kelly Slater wannabes (surf and boogie-boards) that converged on the beach closest to our apartment (there is a good surfing beach - Playa Zurriola – on the other side of 
town so only a few surfers are at the close beach on a normal day). The best waves must be right against the seawall, because they all line up right along it and wait (see the pic - once you get up YOU’D BETTER HEAD LEFT). New guys join in by jumping off the wall (2nd pic) – making sure they miss another surfer and that they hit a wave crest to avoid the rocks below (note to all that were wondering – we did not see our mulletrockingSpanishvandrivingdude among them even though HE HAS THE HAIR). It’s a cool place to watch surfing since you are close enough to hear them talk and you can watch them heading towards or away from you.
Our walk along the seawall took us past the surfing dudes and to the western entrance of the bay where some interesting sculptures are located. The sculptures, "Wind Comb" - created by Eduardo Chilleda (Basque artist, go to http://www.eduardo-chillida.com/index.php?id=1&L=3 to find out more about him) are one of the symbols of San Sebastian and are quite dramatic when viewed in any weather. During a decent storm, with the waves crashing around these large steel shapes, they are really dramatic and great to see. Another aspect of the
viewing area (we assume Chilleda also did this) are 5 vent holes located in the cobbles of the Plaza fronting the sculptures – they must snake their way to the side of the sea wall that faces directly into the Atlantic. When the tide is in and the waves are crashing they send up geysers of air and water vapor in conjunction with some pretty load sounds. The entire scene is amazing – the second stormy night evening that we visited the 
girls brought sketchbooks and did some drawing and Dan conned them into sticking their hands over the holes. Everyone made it out safe, though.
That is NOT the weather that we are referring to in this post, however.
As we continue to establish ourselves here we are starting to ride the weather rollercoaster that many locals told us to expect when we arrived – San Sebastian, being on the Southern end of the Bay of Biscay, is located in the wettest region of Spain (everyone keeps saying “wait for the rain”) and weather can change on a dime. Last weekend the weather was beautiful, 
sunny and in the mid-70s – we took advantage of this and rode the inclined railway (Funicular – see the pic, note the ubiquitous sponsor) in San Sebastian. The railway goes to the top of Mount Igueldo and we went Sunday morning to check out the view and the small amusement park friends told us about. We had a great time and the views were amazing – we included one shot of La Concha Bay to give you an idea (you can see some of the lower peaks of the western end of the 
Pyrenees in the background; our Apartment, the girls school and Tecnun are to the right of the pic). We looked around, rode some rides (all of which were Circa 1960s but fun – see the bumper-car and boat action shots) and, of course, had some snacks.
sunny and in the mid-70s – we took advantage of this and rode the inclined railway (Funicular – see the pic, note the ubiquitous sponsor) in San Sebastian. The railway goes to the top of Mount Igueldo and we went Sunday morning to check out the view and the small amusement park friends told us about. We had a great time and the views were amazing – we included one shot of La Concha Bay to give you an idea (you can see some of the lower peaks of the western end of the 
Pyrenees in the background; our Apartment, the girls school and Tecnun are to the right of the pic). We looked around, rode some rides (all of which were Circa 1960s but fun – see the bumper-car and boat action shots) and, of course, had some snacks.
The end of this week, however, brought the first good Atlantic storm since we’ve been here. Rain
Thursday/Friday/Saturday (HEAVY on Friday), wind and heavy surf, and temps in the 50s-60s (locals say that is cold, which is a good sign). Everyone went about their business as usual, including us, and that included the requisite beach visits. There were a couple of interesting beach related by-products of the storm, though. One was that the surf brought with it a LARGE contingent of Kelly Slater wannabes (surf and boogie-boards) that converged on the beach closest to our apartment (there is a good surfing beach - Playa Zurriola – on the other side of 
town so only a few surfers are at the close beach on a normal day). The best waves must be right against the seawall, because they all line up right along it and wait (see the pic - once you get up YOU’D BETTER HEAD LEFT). New guys join in by jumping off the wall (2nd pic) – making sure they miss another surfer and that they hit a wave crest to avoid the rocks below (note to all that were wondering – we did not see our mulletrockingSpanishvandrivingdude among them even though HE HAS THE HAIR). It’s a cool place to watch surfing since you are close enough to hear them talk and you can watch them heading towards or away from you.
Our walk along the seawall took us past the surfing dudes and to the western entrance of the bay where some interesting sculptures are located. The sculptures, "Wind Comb" - created by Eduardo Chilleda (Basque artist, go to http://www.eduardo-chillida.com/index.php?id=1&L=3 to find out more about him) are one of the symbols of San Sebastian and are quite dramatic when viewed in any weather. During a decent storm, with the waves crashing around these large steel shapes, they are really dramatic and great to see. Another aspect of the
viewing area (we assume Chilleda also did this) are 5 vent holes located in the cobbles of the Plaza fronting the sculptures – they must snake their way to the side of the sea wall that faces directly into the Atlantic. When the tide is in and the waves are crashing they send up geysers of air and water vapor in conjunction with some pretty load sounds. The entire scene is amazing – the second stormy night evening that we visited the 
girls brought sketchbooks and did some drawing and Dan conned them into sticking their hands over the holes. Everyone made it out safe, though.Next week the forecast says back to the 70s again – of course that is what was predicted for the past few days a week ago too. We’re buckled up and ready to ride along. Assume you are also experiencing some changes in weather as we all head into fall and winter. Hope you are all staying reasonably dry, safe and warm and we’ll talk to you soon.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Settling in - weeks 2.5 and 3
Sorry about the blogging downtime - we have been having some logistical problems due to I-net issues (signal we were "borrowing" diappeared and took some time for us to get some legit form of I-net). All is good now, though.
We're now ending our 2nd full week in San Sebastian and we can honestly say that a routine has started. The girls finished their first full week of school (note the unis) and are liking it - Kelsey has made some good friends and Audrey is playing the "meet and greet game" which she excels at.
They are attending an all-girls, private Catholic school that teaches in Spanish, English and Basque (Eskibel - http://www.eskibel.com/index.asp). We are in the process of phasing out the Basque portion of the classes. We take them to meet their bus @ 8:30 and meet them again after school @ 5 (note the whips that they ride to and from school - probably why the tuition is upwards of 500 Euros/mo for the two of them - worth it though). They eat lunch @ school and have a couple of recesses - totals about 2 hrs of down time which helps with the longer school day. So far their favorite classes are, obviously, the ones taught in English but that will change.
We're now ending our 2nd full week in San Sebastian and we can honestly say that a routine has started. The girls finished their first full week of school (note the unis) and are liking it - Kelsey has made some good friends and Audrey is playing the "meet and greet game" which she excels at.
They are attending an all-girls, private Catholic school that teaches in Spanish, English and Basque (Eskibel - http://www.eskibel.com/index.asp). We are in the process of phasing out the Basque portion of the classes. We take them to meet their bus @ 8:30 and meet them again after school @ 5 (note the whips that they ride to and from school - probably why the tuition is upwards of 500 Euros/mo for the two of them - worth it though). They eat lunch @ school and have a couple of recesses - totals about 2 hrs of down time which helps with the longer school day. So far their favorite classes are, obviously, the ones taught in English but that will change.
Dan started "feeding the fertile minds" at Tecnun (http://www.tecnun.es/) this past Thursday and has taught two classes now (class meets Thurs/Fri from 9-10:30 - feel free to tell him what you think about this demanding schedule). He is teaching a "structural health monitoring" class to the equivalent of senior engineering students. The class deals with determining how buildings and bridges are behaving and making informed decisions about whether to repair/replace them (basically an overeducated way of saying he is teaching whatever he feels like). Dan is going to his on-campus office for a reasonable amount of time everyday to prepare notes and hang with the hombres there (other faculty and graduate students - he is drinking ALOT of coffee with them).
Cindy is holding down the fort and exploring San Sebastian. She is taking "power walks" along the beach most mornings and enjoying the relaxing time. She is also keeping close track of what Dan says in Spanglish so the family does not get deported.
When we are not doing our weekly gig we all are continuing to head to the beach - one goal is to go there every day that we are here, regardless of the weather (its been great so far - mid-60s to mid-70s and sunny - locals are telling us to brace for the rain, though). The girls love to visit a playground in the sand that is quite close to our apartment - has many exciting things to play on that would not meet legal standards of safety in the U.S., like the death-defying spinning stand on wheel doohickey shown here (the girl in the red dress is Ana - daughter of the faculty member at Tecnun that helped Dan with the sabbatical - she is a good bud of Audrey's and goes to Eskibel).
So far, so good. We'll keep you informed about our adventures. Hope everyone in the States is doing well. We miss you one and all.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Week 2.5 - WE ARE HERE (don't tell anyone...)
After all the trials and tribulations we have arrived in San Sebastian, Spain, are are settling in. Believe it or not the trip overseas was remarkably uneventful, with minor delays and ALL, yes ALL, our bags arrived.
After landing in Bilbao we were driven to San Sebastian in a van sent by the University of Navarra by a nice young man who TOTALLY ROCKED a mullet, northern-Spain style (we'll call him the mulletrockingSpanishvandrivingdude). After helping us stick our bags in the van the mulletrockingSpanishvandrivingdude drove us to SS in RECORD time (Mercedes vans can do approximately 200 mph, by our estimation) while all of us drifted in and out of conciousness due to sleep deprivation. We pulled up to our
apartment and hung with the mulletrockingSpanishvandrivingdude until our keys arrived and then hauled the bags to the fourth floor of our building, which is actually the fifth floor in non-metric countries (NO, Dan is not that strong, we had help and an elevator).
Once in the apartment, we put everything away and took in the views from out our window
. The apartment is on Calle Matia (Matia Street) about 5 mins from the Playa de Ondarreta (one of SSs main beaches - in the background of the pic) and in a nice neighborhood with everything close by. After doing some initial neighborhood scouting we all passed out and slept for 10-15 hours.
Since arriving we've been taking care of some basic things, getting a bank
account and cell phones, meeting with the realtor to pay our "finders fee" (NOTE TO SELF - become a realtor in Spain - they get 12% OF ANY DEAL), visiting the girls' school (they'll start late this week or early next) and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, enjoying the beach (Kelsey and Dan swam to the floating swim/slide platform thingy in the background of the last pic today). We figured we needed it.
That's it so far - hope you enjoy and expect another post at the end of this week. Ciao.
After landing in Bilbao we were driven to San Sebastian in a van sent by the University of Navarra by a nice young man who TOTALLY ROCKED a mullet, northern-Spain style (we'll call him the mulletrockingSpanishvandrivingdude). After helping us stick our bags in the van the mulletrockingSpanishvandrivingdude drove us to SS in RECORD time (Mercedes vans can do approximately 200 mph, by our estimation) while all of us drifted in and out of conciousness due to sleep deprivation. We pulled up to our
apartment and hung with the mulletrockingSpanishvandrivingdude until our keys arrived and then hauled the bags to the fourth floor of our building, which is actually the fifth floor in non-metric countries (NO, Dan is not that strong, we had help and an elevator).Once in the apartment, we put everything away and took in the views from out our window
. The apartment is on Calle Matia (Matia Street) about 5 mins from the Playa de Ondarreta (one of SSs main beaches - in the background of the pic) and in a nice neighborhood with everything close by. After doing some initial neighborhood scouting we all passed out and slept for 10-15 hours.Since arriving we've been taking care of some basic things, getting a bank
account and cell phones, meeting with the realtor to pay our "finders fee" (NOTE TO SELF - become a realtor in Spain - they get 12% OF ANY DEAL), visiting the girls' school (they'll start late this week or early next) and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, enjoying the beach (Kelsey and Dan swam to the floating swim/slide platform thingy in the background of the last pic today). We figured we needed it.
That's it so far - hope you enjoy and expect another post at the end of this week. Ciao.
Week 2 - waiting for not much
Sorry about the delayed Week 2 post - we've been a band of Gypsy's lately. Our squatting with the Grandparents continued, 1st half of the week with Cindy's and the second half with Dan's. Even though the sole purpose of sticking around was to (hopefully) receive everyone's Visas, we were able to spend some more quality time with the families which was great.
The end of the week was JUDGMENT TIME. We headed east from Columbus to spend the night in a hotel in western Jersey (Stanhope -
aka SPAINhope, NJ to be exact - picture Barcelona surrounded by Superfund sites) Thursday. This was so we could get our bright and shiny faces to the Spanish Consulate Friday morning to pick up any and all documents that may be there. We headed to Manhattan and entered the 5th portal to hell (aka the Spanish Consulate) @ 10am to find out that Cindy's and the girls' Visas had not arrived and, BETTER YET, the Spanish government only approved Dan's Visa for 3 months! YIPPEE! After some questioning and weak answers from the Spanish authorities we put our tails between our legs, spent some 
time in FAO Schwartz (NO MONEY SPENT!) and drove back to State College. Here we spent a few nights, got our bags, and basically came to the conclusion that we were going, regardless of the circumstances!
Once again, the additional time spent with friends was great. We were able to have dinner with friends and eat some delicious SWEET Spanish-themed cookies (thanks
KA aka MS), do breakfast with the Youmans @ the Corner Room (traditional kids wink pic shown) and say some goodbyes again.
Sunday, the 14th of September, we headed to Philly to fly out. Regardless of all the garbag
e that we went throught to get our "paperwork" we were excited to finally head to Spain (the objects blocking out the sun behind K&A are our bags). We'll let you know what happens.
The end of the week was JUDGMENT TIME. We headed east from Columbus to spend the night in a hotel in western Jersey (Stanhope -
aka SPAINhope, NJ to be exact - picture Barcelona surrounded by Superfund sites) Thursday. This was so we could get our bright and shiny faces to the Spanish Consulate Friday morning to pick up any and all documents that may be there. We headed to Manhattan and entered the 5th portal to hell (aka the Spanish Consulate) @ 10am to find out that Cindy's and the girls' Visas had not arrived and, BETTER YET, the Spanish government only approved Dan's Visa for 3 months! YIPPEE! After some questioning and weak answers from the Spanish authorities we put our tails between our legs, spent some 
time in FAO Schwartz (NO MONEY SPENT!) and drove back to State College. Here we spent a few nights, got our bags, and basically came to the conclusion that we were going, regardless of the circumstances!Once again, the additional time spent with friends was great. We were able to have dinner with friends and eat some delicious SWEET Spanish-themed cookies (thanks
KA aka MS), do breakfast with the Youmans @ the Corner Room (traditional kids wink pic shown) and say some goodbyes again.
Sunday, the 14th of September, we headed to Philly to fly out. Regardless of all the garbag
e that we went throught to get our "paperwork" we were excited to finally head to Spain (the objects blocking out the sun behind K&A are our bags). We'll let you know what happens.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Week 1 - visit to notSpain
This will be the first of (hopefully) a series of posts about our adventures during the next 6 months. Expect exquisite prose from all the Linzells.
For those of you that are not aware of our plans between now and next March - Dan is on sabbatical from Penn State for the entire academic year and will be teaching and doing research at TECNUN, the technical campus of the University of Navarra, in San Sebastian, Spain. The entire Linzell brood is joining him. Kelsey and Audrey will be attending school and Cindy will be keeping everyone in line and hopefully getting some time to herself.
We WERE scheduled to leave on September 1st, however the Spanish go
vernment put a wrinkle in our plans by not completing Visas Cindy and the girls needed for our stay on time. Since our house in State College was rented starting September 2nd we had to scramble to find a place. Fortunately, the Grandparents stepped up and graciously allowed us to stay at their places in O H I O (otherwise known as notSpain).
Even though our departure has been delayed, we've had fun. We went to see the Lion King (which TOTALLY ROCKED according to the girls - not just because they got little Lion King choc-o-pops),
Dan and Kelsey were able to watch Ohio State look like a I-AA team in person against Ohio U,
we hiked Old Man's cave (neat state park near Cindy's parents' house) and Dan was able to get in some flyfishing.
Our next departure date is September 14th out of Philly and IT IS NOT GOING TO CHANGE AGAIN. Between now and then we have to travel to NYC to pick up any Spanish documents that are at the consulate there, go back to State College to spend a few nights and retrieve the multitude of bags that Cindy skillfully (repeat, SKILLFULLY) packed and then head to Philly to leave.
We hope you enjoy reading about our adventures as much as we do sharing them with you.
For those of you that are not aware of our plans between now and next March - Dan is on sabbatical from Penn State for the entire academic year and will be teaching and doing research at TECNUN, the technical campus of the University of Navarra, in San Sebastian, Spain. The entire Linzell brood is joining him. Kelsey and Audrey will be attending school and Cindy will be keeping everyone in line and hopefully getting some time to herself.
We WERE scheduled to leave on September 1st, however the Spanish go
vernment put a wrinkle in our plans by not completing Visas Cindy and the girls needed for our stay on time. Since our house in State College was rented starting September 2nd we had to scramble to find a place. Fortunately, the Grandparents stepped up and graciously allowed us to stay at their places in O H I O (otherwise known as notSpain).
Even though our departure has been delayed, we've had fun. We went to see the Lion King (which TOTALLY ROCKED according to the girls - not just because they got little Lion King choc-o-pops),
Dan and Kelsey were able to watch Ohio State look like a I-AA team in person against Ohio U,
we hiked Old Man's cave (neat state park near Cindy's parents' house) and Dan was able to get in some flyfishing.
Our next departure date is September 14th out of Philly and IT IS NOT GOING TO CHANGE AGAIN. Between now and then we have to travel to NYC to pick up any Spanish documents that are at the consulate there, go back to State College to spend a few nights and retrieve the multitude of bags that Cindy skillfully (repeat, SKILLFULLY) packed and then head to Philly to leave.
We hope you enjoy reading about our adventures as much as we do sharing them with you.
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