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\u201cWell,\u201d began Javi, \u201cwe haven\u2019t really talked about it. With school and everything else, there just hasn\u2019t been time to think about a trip like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe can make time,\u201d replied Julie. \u201cIt would be nice to go when these two are still there, before they end up over here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s true,\u201d said Javi. He turned back to Kepa. \u201cI guess as soon as we can,\u201d he said with a big smile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEveryone will be happy to see you again,\u201d said Kepa. \u201cIt\u2019s been a while, hasn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMaybe five years, at least,\u201d replied Javi. \u201cBefore I started school, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maite turned to Julie. \u201cJust be careful. Knowing his mom -\u201d she nodded in Kepa\u2019s direction \u201c- you\u2019ll literally be eating the entire time you are there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Javi laughed. \u201cThat\u2019s for sure! Every time I went, I must have gained at least ten pounds. Everyone thinks that the long lunches are for siesta, but it seemed that you all eat the entire time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBah,\u201d said Kepa, waving his hand dismissively. \u201cThat\u2019s only for visitors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWell,\u201d continued Javi, \u201csince I\u2019m always a visitor, that\u2019s all I see.\u201d He turned to Julie. \u201cThey all want to play host and have this spectacular meal together, but when everyone wants to do that, well, it can really add up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTell you what,\u201d said Kepa. \u201cWe can organize one big dinner with the whole family so that you can see everyone at once and don\u2019t have to feel obligated to go to everyone\u2019s house. That way, you\u2019ll have time to see other things too. Maybe have a romantic getaway to the big city or something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Javi smiled as he looked over at Julie. \u201cThat would indeed be nice.\u201d Julie simply nodded and smiled as she took another sip of her wine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They stopped at a few more tasting rooms, each of them trying different wines and passing glasses around when they found a particularly nice one. The conversation drifted to Javi and Kepa\u2019s family, what everyone was doing these days, particularly all of the cousins. Javi knew who everyone was and had a vague sense of what they had been up to, but was ignorant of the details – \u201cThere are just so many of them!\u201d he exclaimed. Kepa was happy to fill in the gaps. Javi, in turn, caught him up on his parents and what they were doing.<\/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":"After lunch, the small cuadrilla wandered to some of the wine tasting rooms that dotted downtown. At each stop, they got a small glass of wine, just for tasting, before moving on to the next one. It really reminded Maite of the txikiteo of the Basque Country and she felt more at home than she […]<\/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-5142","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-1kW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5142","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=5142"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5143,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5142\/revisions\/5143"}],"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=5142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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