Friday Fun with Amaia!

Yesterday was a BIG day, the Basque teens arrived to spend a month in our area!

Originally we thought we would be support-family-members, like grandparents (a role we already enjoy) or aunt/uncle. But as plans progressed, a host family was needed and we said yes. So last evening, a busload from our town travelled to the Fort Wayne airport to welcome our new family members. Our granddaughter is staying with us these weeks to be like a 'sister' to Amaia. They are both dancers and seem very well matched.

After almost 24 hours of travel, Amaia was ready for a good night's sleep when we arrived. She's been wide awake and taking it all in since 8 o'clock this morning!

We decided to go to the 4H Fair thinking it was the last day and probably the only opportunity to experience that aspect of American life.

I took my steno pad along where I keep a list of the new Euskera words I am learning. My accomplishment of the day includes katua, untxia, ardia (cat, rabbit, sheep) because those are the animals we saw. In fact, we arrived in time to watch a bit of the cat show and came away convinced that Brutus, our cat, would never cooperate for any judge.

Michael's word for the day was bustina as he was kneading it, the clay, getting ready to throw another pot or two. And that is what he is teaching the girls to do right now as I write!

Another new experience of the day was riding around the trails on the ATV.

We've been sharing photographs and telling family stories. We looked at each other's towns and homes on Google Earth.

Amaia brought us the most perfect gifts! For Kayla and I, silver jewelry bearing the traditional Basque cross, the Lauburu. Mike is thrilled with his orange Basque cycling team jersey, the Euskaltel Euskadi .