Hello hello
My last journal was getting pretty old, so here I am to tell you all about the Basque Culture Days.

It's an annual thing, organized by us the Basque students in cooperation with the Basque Country University and a few other institutions and organisations. Some of them really cooperate (give money -like the government of Basque province Bizkaia- or space -like Ethnographic Museum, Muza cinema or pubs where concerts and parties are held), some just give their name to make the thing more... prestigious? E.g. we got the City Hall's patronage... pity it was only an honorary one = no money.

Anyway, the thing that goes wrong each and every year and seems it can't be helped: we run late with almost all the preparations. Consider this:
One of our main organizers, K, keeps in touch with Basque folk group Hegoaize and was supposed to ask them when they can come to Poland, so we can set the date of the Days for then; there were two possible dates - 15-17.04 and a week after that. She said they wouldn't make it for the latter, so we'd have to hold the event right after the Easter break. OK, we said. Then, some two weeks later she called one of us and said: "Let me know when you have the date of the Days set, so I can tell the guys of Hegoaize..." Now, waaaaait a moment. Hadn't she settled it already? 0o

Another example: I was responsible for posters and advertising leaflets for the Days. Adur (our Basque teacher) seemed really nervous about them being done and printed by a certain time, so we had time to post them up in university buildings, dormitories and suchlikes. Yet, I couldn't get him to fix the programme once and for all, and waited, like, half a week for information on the availability of a single lecture room for a certain time. And when I had the posters done and printed and ready to post up, he failed to appear where I told him I could show them to him and ask for further directions... Instead he texted me some two hours later, saying that he "forgot to answer and we can take care of the posters tomorrow." To be honest, it took much longer than "tomorrow"; I ran about the city with the bloody posters for full three or four days _-_

There was another curious thing concerning posters. Namely, the ones from last year hadn't been very good; they were dark and not really eye-catching, and they had black letters on deep red and green background, so when someone photocopied them as leaflets, half of them came off black-on-black. So, I wrote a tentative e-mail to aforementioned K, telling her that maybe this year we could avoid this mistake... The answer I received, half an hour took me wiping the venom from my computer screen. She said (to put it briefly) that we were ungrateful and knew only how to criticize other people's work and that if we're so clever then we should make all the posters ourselves. ...OK, we said after we got over her angry outburst. I made the main poster and leaflets and Sonia made her boyfriend make poster for the Hegoaize and our friend Aingeru's concert.

Then, there was the nature itself plotting against me.
Apart from posters, I was directly responsible for stage design/decorations and props for a play we did on the second Day. I had had every intention of making about half of them over the Easter break, but I fell sick with something flu-ish (still dunno what it was) and couldn't move out of bed for a couple of days, which left me with two days to finish them, one of which was already the first Basque Culture Day = I didn't have all the time I wanted.
Apart from decorations and props for the play, I was also giving two lectures (which, needless to say, I hadn't had prepared before and had to put them together only a few hours before I was supposed to actually give them ^^' ), one on ancient Basque mythology and the other on Basque folk carnival. I am told people enjoyed them quite a lot, and some even got interested in a couple of matters, which makes me really happy.

The only thing that made me a little sad was that none of my friends to whom I advertised the Days came to any of the events.
_{Except one guy, but as far as I can tell, he came more to have a look at my person than for my effort of getting people to know the culture I'm telling them about. He wouldn't have come if it wasn't me speaking.}

It makes me sad because, compared to last year's, these Days were really a success. Of course, there were mistakes, but now we are wiser and won't make them next year.
For example, I won't (or hope not to) fall ill with a flu-something and will make everything in time, which (probably) will result in me NOT being a zombie half of the time. The third -and last- Day, the last event, there was a Basque party in a pub close to the Old Market. I perched on a table trying to focus my drifting attention on whatever was going on, when Adur came up, looked at me and said: "Have you slept at all?" "Uh... yea... like, 4 hours today, and another 4 yesterday..." "Hmph. Can be seen, you know." (Oh, really? Can my hay-fever-cum-cold and stiff neck and nervous cramps on calves be seen, too? No? Good.)

There were people willing to give their best and to share their knowledge and passion with others who came to watch and hear. There were people from the Basque country who made the effort of coming all the way to Poland to play and sing for us, to teach us play their unusual instruments and dance their folk dances. There were contests with prizes and lots of good food (these two usually attract people; I can't see why so few came for the official part this year where there was a big table with free traditional Basque refreshments -and Basques are known for good food...).

All in all, when I got back home on the third Day (in fact it was night already), a strange comparison came to my mind. I thought that all these Basque Days have a similar effect to sex on me. They are deadly exhausting, but at the same time they give a great satisfaction ;3