Considering Chinese as extra language Nowadays I feel quite comfortable with Spanish and English to travel over the world. It is true that I have never visited Asia and Africa. However, perhaps the time has arrived to consider an extra language; Could it be Chinese? I guess it will be hard, that it will require years before appreciating a possibility to effectively communicating in Chinese. I have to make my mind and consult reports to understand whether it will be worth to try it.

The Bertsolaris I want to introduce a cultural activity from the Basque Country. It will be short. The Bertsolaris are people that very quickly makes his mind to conceive a kind of poem with the only purpouse of having a good time by pulling the leg to each other. It has some resemblance to rap. Even if the purpouse is as simple as that, the way to achieve it is really difficult. There are technical challengues such as finding the appropriate words to fill the gaps dictated by a given metrics and finishing each sentence so that they rime. On top of that, the masters are able to incorporate a meaning that is unexpected and highly funny. Aitor.

Pelota mano, an sport from the Basque Country I am sure some of you have heard about "Pelota Mano". This is an sport originally from the Basque Country, however as the interest and the possibility to make a life from it decreased in our country, a good number of players moved to the States, mainly to Miami area. Pelota Mano is played in a "Fronton", an space surronded by two high flat concrete walls at ninety degrees. A ball is also involved in the play. The goal of the sport is to be able to return the ball to the front wall after no more than one jump in the floor. Of course, each player tries to win a point by sending the ball as fast and far as possible from the location of the oponent. It can be played as individual matches as well as in doubles. The match is won by the player or team that first arrives to twenty-two points. Take a look about how it looks like in the following link to the local TV in the Basque Country (sorry but the language you can hear is not Basque but Spanish...): http://www.eitb.com/es/videos/detalle/1390120/video-pelota-vasca--torneo-blanca-2013/ Along the last years, Pelota Mano has experienced an increasing interest even in the Basque Country. They have been two companies, Asegarce and Aspe, which have enroled a number of players and organized a league the responsibles for this renewed interest on this sport. They key behind the success has been the ability they have shown to involve the TV in the process. In other words, the matches are broadcasted by a TV channel so that the incomes the TV earns from the advertisements also pay for the companies and then for the players. Tomorrow there will be two matches in my town. It could happen that I go to see the live matches... Thank you for the correction! Aitor.

Two interesting books Today I have spent some time with a good friend of mine. I have no way to go out because I have an injured knee, so I specially appreciate his visit. We have been talking about a couple of books I am reading. In fact, I have already finished one of them, it has been writen by Zygmunt Bauman. I would recomend the book to anyone that is interested in the way of living, stablished economical order and sociology. The book shows several aspects of our society that most of us understand as obvious that in fact are lies. For example the need of economical grow to assure our standard of live in the future. I encourage you to read the book, it does not take more than two or three hours. The second book has nothing to do with the previous one. 'Si hoy es jueves, esto es Tombuctú' written by Paco Nadal. Paco is both a writter and a traveller, and he does both things in a very intereseting way. If you want to try some of his entries in spanish, take a look at http://blogs.elpais.com/paco-nadal/ This is all folks! Thank you for reading and for helping me, Aitor

The most exciting time today Yesterday I was in the hospital. My left knee was badly injured, due to some serious running activity l did last year. The knee needed an easy quirurgical intervention in order to fix the meniscus. It was easy. After spendind the night at the hospital, today i am at home again! The most exciting time today has been when I have realized i could stand up and walk almost normally. I thought i would need several days before being able to do some steps by myself. It will be very interesting to see how my knee recovers its capabilities. I will keep you aware of it. Thank you!

My goal It is interesting when you try to learn some subjects, that you depend heavily on the feedback from those that master the topic. It happens to me with the English, I feel more or less fluent, however i am convinced i repeat errors again and again. The reason behind, i guess, consists on me having used the same structures, pronunciation tons of times without any feedback about my errors. Therefore, I found this approach really interesting. I know i have to try hard both in written and spoken exercises. I am really decided to jump ahead with regard to my proficiency in English. It is a long time that I feel at the same level, with almost no progress... Let´s cross fingers to see this happen!