Language Day

Today was quite the language day. First I tutored this guy in English in the morning. I thought it went quite well - and I made a few euros too. In the afternoon I headed to an Ikastola in the neighboring town with Ainhoa and her mom. Her mom was so nice and fell straight into my archtype of super-nice, late-middle-aged, European teacher. I met with the head of the English department and we figured out a few days for me to come in and help with the different English classes - I'll come in on four different days in all, and help with 10 different classes. It's just about perfect. I even got a tour of the school today, and heard more Basque in an hour than I'd heard the rest of the semester (at least actively). The kind of thing that really motivates you to start studying!

In the evening Nadine came over. So sad that I've met her with only a month left in Pamplona, but at least we've met! We spoke mostly in Spanish, since that's already our default (and why not? It's neutral, and we're in Spain), but we not only share 5 languages, we have roughly equal levels in all of them (obviously I'm a bit better in English, and she's worlds better in German... but our Spanish is similar, as are our Norwegian and Basque!). Way too fun. We played with Basque a little bit, I introduced her to Uni, (as she's interested in Faroese - she's even heard of Alvdalska/Elfdalian, and was pleased as punch that I had!), and then we watched a half hour of Norwegian comedy followed by the Norwegian dub of Treasure Planet.

She reminds me a bit of my old self, but more organized, and marginally more resources as a European. It's a dangerous combination and it sorts of scares me. :P And makes me happy. I told her, I used to have your kind of motivation, in high school, but it's fallen off a little bit, somewhere along the way... but talking to you now about these things makes me excited again...