EXPEDITIONS
Our day trip to the seaside town of San Sebastián, in the Basque province of Guipúzcoa, was awe-inspiring. Even though we only had a relatively short amount of time to take in beautiful sights along with the fresh salty-sweet sea air, we were still overwhelmed by the variety of magnificent sights, including the numinous architecture of San Sebastián’s neo- Gothic cathedral, the striking contrast of the modern Kursaal Congress Centre (which hosts the annual film festival) and the golden sandy shores of the picturesque beach strip. Pelota vasca is a high-intensity sport in which its participants smash a rock-hard ball against a wall using their hand or a racquet. The sport is extremely popular not only in the Basque country, with its own national league (Federación Internacional de Pelota Vasca), but also on the global stage, with annual international tournaments. El Frontón Labrit (the national stadium for pelota vasca players) in Pamplona was chosen to be the venue for our own final showdown: boy versus teacher, man versus man. It seemed like an apt place for us; surely we ranked among the top tier of pelota players in Spain, our skills marvelled at by onlookers. Tensions were running high as we stepped onto the pelota vasca court with its frontones (walls) looming high over us, the prospect of eternal glory and bragging rights for the pair who could successfully defeat the giant figure dressed in Lycra, the notorious Señor Iltchev, along with his trusty sidekick, Señor Almada. On the day, although each boy was awarded a medal for their participation, the extremely talented duo of Charlie and Ziyad were endowed with the (metaphorical) winner’s crown, after a hard-fought, gruelling event, which left us all with bulging blisters on our hands. This victory, however, was short-lived, as we were defeated at the hands (literally) of a group of eight-year-old children. Much to our dismay, and at the cost of our newly inflated egos, our skills proved ineffective against their natural instinct and promising talent. Pamplona offered us not just an invaluable immersion in the culture of Spain, but also a week-long intensive course in pure Spanish, with every student’s language skills and confidence improving considerably. Many of us also made contacts with native pamploneses, who invited us to return to the city and pledged to support us in future endeavours. A tremendous week, then – and not a bull in sight. We were overwhelmed by the variety of magnificent sights
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