{"id":5050,"date":"2021-11-10T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-10T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/?p=5050"},"modified":"2021-11-06T13:01:28","modified_gmt":"2021-11-06T13:01:28","slug":"the-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa-part-78","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2021\/11\/10\/the-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa-part-78\/","title":{"rendered":"The Adventures of Maite and Kepa: Part 78"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
The Adventures of Maite and Kepa is a weekly serial. While it is a work of fiction, it has elements from both my own experiences and stories I’ve heard from various people. The characters, while in some cases inspired by real people, aren’t directly modeled on anyone in particular. I expect there will be inconsistencies and factual errors. I don’t know where it is going, and I’ll probably forget where it’s been. Why am I doing this? To give me an excuse and a deadline for some creative writing and because I thought people might enjoy it. Gozatu!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The pub that Javi found was both familiar but completely different from the places Kepa hung out at home. It was full of students from the university as well as a mix of other people. Javi ordered two pints at the bar and led them to a table in the corner, where the crowd noise wasn\u2019t quite so loud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure how you do it, sitting in one place for hours and hours,\u201d said Kepa as he took a sip of his pint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Javi laughed. \u201cAs opposed to wandering the streets all night? I like that a lot too, but sometimes it\u2019s nice to just find a quiet table and talk over beers. No pressure to finish up and find the next spot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can see that,\u201d said Kepa. He took another sip. \u201cYou know, I really like these IPAs. We don\u2019t get them very often back home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Javi shrugged. \u201cThey certainly are an acquired taste, but once you get it, it\u2019s hard to drink anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo,\u201d continued Kepa with a smile, \u201ctell me about this girlfriend.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was Javi\u2019s turn to smile. \u201cOh, Julie\u2019s great. We met in class and were study partners for a while before I got the courage to ask her out. That was about six months ago or so. Anyways, we\u2019ve been dating ever since. She\u2019s beautiful and smart. And she likes the same kinds of geeky things I do.\u201d Javi took a sip of his own beer. \u201cWhat about you and Maite? When did that start?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, it got more intense recently, but we\u2019ve been flirting for a while now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, I remember. In the cuadrilla, you two could barely keep your eyes off of each other. I always figured you\u2019d get together. Man, I always thought she was gorgeous. I always thought, if I knew a bit more Euskara, I could impress her. But, it wasn\u2019t meant to be.\u201d He raised his glass. \u201cI\u2019m happy for you cuz!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kepa raised his glass and chinged with Javi\u2019s. \u201cThanks. You too. I\u2019m glad to see you doing so well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Javi shrugged as he put his glass down. \u201cWell, I graduate after this year and I have to figure out what to do next. And Julie is in a completely different field, so I\u2019m not sure how easy it will be for us to stay together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDifferent field? I thought you met in class?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe did, but it was Greek mythology. We were both taking it as a break for our core classes. I\u2019m studying math and her major is history. Not many jobs out there for us with only bachelor’s degrees. So, probably we\u2019ll both end up in grad school, but we have to get into the same school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s tough. Maite is thinking of coming out this way for graduate school too. Berkeley. That\u2019s why we\u2019re out here, for her to interview with the professors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBerkeley? Wow, that\u2019s impressive. How did it go?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kepa shrugged. \u201cWell, I think. I don\u2019t really know. I don\u2019t understand what she does, some kind of quantum stuff. Being around all of you makes me feel a little\u2026 inadequate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDude!\u201d exclaimed Javi. \u201cYou\u2019re with the most beautiful and smartest girl in all of the Basque Country! You are traveling the world! You have an amazing cousin. Your life is good!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kepa smiled as he raised his glass for another clink. He paused before taking a sip. \u201cBai,\u201d he said. \u201cLife is good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you get this post via email, the return-to address goes no where, so please write blas@buber.net<\/a> if you want to get in touch with me.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The pub that Javi found was both familiar but completely different from the places Kepa hung out at home. It was full of students from the university as well as a mix of other people. Javi ordered two pints at the bar and led them to a table in the corner, where the crowd noise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2640,864],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa","category-bubers-basque-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/maite-and-kepa-v2-01.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sYNu-1js","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5050"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5051,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5050\/revisions\/5051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}