Bio - English Version 1.0
Gaueko Izar: "gow-EH-cko ee-SAHR"; Euskara: "night star"
♥ ;; Overview: Ella. Female. 24 years old. American-born, Spanish-raised. Trilingual [English, Spanish, Catalan]. Believer in Jesus Christ. Conservative. Missionary Kid. Third-culture Kid.
"Y el corazón que a Triana va nunca volverá, Sevilla. Con qué pasión te enamorará y te embrujará, Sevilla.
Y al alba blanca le contaré lo que yo te amé, Sevilla. Bandido, ¡ay! muero yo por tí, tu paloma fui, Sevilla."
♥ ;; Background: Born in Paterson, New Jersey, moved to Neenah, Wisconsin at the age of 2 1/2 (my first memory is of driving through Manhattan to get to the airport to fly out to Wisconsin). Nine years and three siblings later we moved out to New Jersey again hoping for a move to France. My family was denied visas three times (don't ask, we have no idea; ask the French government) and decided God wanted us in Spain instead. Moved to Bilbao, Spain at the age of 12 1/2 on October 26-27, 1997 and lived there for 2 1/2 years. In 2000 we came back to the US for six months, New Jersey and Wisconsin, then moved back to Málaga, Spain and I began boarding school in Germany. Spent the next 3 1/2 years dividing my time between Germany, Spain, and the USA. My family moved to a town just outside Sevilla, Spain in 2003. Took a year off after high school in 2004, began community college in Wisconsin in 2005 majoring in Theatre, transferred after one year to the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, majoring in Spanish, and am about to begin my fourth year there. Spent Spring Semester 2008 in Valladolid, Spain. I'm politically conservative and a believer in Jesus Christ (give me any "intolerant religious bigot" crap and you'll be out the door sooner than you can cry "1st Amendment!" at me); my relationship to Jesus is more important than any label or "religion". I'd rather "walk the walk" than "talk the talk" and I don't plan on shoving any of my beliefs down anyone's throat. I believe in acceptance and respect, I believe that if more people had respect for other people there wouldn't be as many problems in the world. I believe in breaking molds and paradigm shifts, in realizing that you're not the only person on the planet and that not everyone thinks the same way as anyone else and that each person's beliefs are legitimate and should not be looked down upon, regardless of any personal bias or opinions. I also love to read and prefer reading classics to the average modern novel. The thicker the book, the better.
"Tant se val d'on venim, si del sud o del nord. Ara estem d'acord, una bandera ens agermana!
Jugadors, seguidors, tots units fem força. I s'ha demostrat, s'ha demostrat, estem d'acord, que mai ningú ens podrà tórcer!
♥ ;; Sports: I'm a huge soccer fan. Soccer... aka Association Football or Football. My favorite team is FC Barcelona, aka Barça. I've been a die-hard culé, or culer for the past year or so now, and I've suffered and celebrated with the team, and with the city of Barcelona. I love the history of the club, its identity, its very essence. I had the privilege of going to a Barcelona match at Camp Nou in Barcelona last year and it was well worth the 50€ I had to pay for tickets. On an international level I support the Spanish National Team, La Furia Roja, and I've supported them since about 1998. My "second-place" teams are Athletic Bilbao and the US National Team, but Barça and Spain always, always come first. I don't do "fandom", I don't read slash, and I create my own "canon".
"I wanna take you away, so take me to the music, DJ, let it play.
Please don't stop the music."
♥ ;; Music/Movies: I have pretty much the craziest music taste anyone's heard. I'll listen to everything from *NSync to DJ Tiësto, and everyone in between. My music genre of choice, as in the genre that manages to never let me down, is electronica, with a focus on progressive and trance. I pretty much live off of Gareth Emery, DJ Tiësto, Above & Beyond and Armin van Buuren's podcasts and radio shows if/when I can get them. I also enjoy Europop (not a fan of the Eurovision song contest, but I have a strong weakness for the music itself, especially the Swedish and Spanish stuff. Otherwise, the music I listen to tends to be in a language other than English. Spanish and Catalan are prefered since I speak them, and I'm also known to play some Italian, Hindi (Bollywood), Basque and French music as well. Any genre, but rock/alternative is the main genre. Basically, I feel rock has more substance when it's sung in a language other than English. Some of my favorite artists are the aforementioned DJs, and my favorite band of all time is Estopa, a Spanish flamenco/rumba/rock band. I also love Ojos de Brujo (Flamenco/Hip-hop), Amaral (Pop-Rock), Ken Zazpi (Basque Rock), El Canto del Loco (Alterna-Rock), Macaco (Hip-hop/Electronica/Flamenco, etc.), Gossos (Catalan acoustic/Alterna-Rock) and Lax 'n' Busto (Catalan Alterna-Rock). As for movies, I don't really have an "all-time favorite"; I have issues when it comes time to choose a movie to watch and I'd really rather have someone else choose one. But two movies I really love more than most others are Slumdog Millionaire and No me pidas que te bese, porque te besaré, a Spanish romantic comedy.
"Isiltasunak non zauden galdetzen dit, noiznahi. Zure izena mila aldiz oihukatuz, noiznahi.
Iritsiko naiz, argiak jarraituz. Iritsiko naiz, berriz saiatuz, noizbait."
♥ ;; Languages: I love languages. I love learning them, I love speaking them, I love meeting people who speak a different language. Not that I have anything against the English language; it has its own unique history and special story. But I grew up speaking it; it doesn't have as much of an appeal to me. I generally tend to prefer to study or look into languages that are more "obscure" or lesser known than others. Romance languages like French and Italian (and Spanish) bore me to tears and I have no particular interest in Greek or Latin. The first language I ever truly fell in love with was Basque, and from the day I first heard it spoken on TV while living in the Basque Country of Northern Spain, I knew I had to speak it. Twelve years later I can only remember a few words and phrases, even after studying it for two years in school, but it has never left my mind. I love its complexity, its variations, its antiquity. However, I honestly feel that my "soul" language is Catalan. This one took me by surprise: being a Romance language I never became too deeply interested until reasons I still can't recognize. Something switched on inside my brain and I began studying it, simply because I could, and ended up falling in love. At this point I'm not completely fluent, that is, capable of carrying on conversation without faltering or stumbling over words and grammar, but I'm geting there, and I'm hoping that with a bit more practice and a little bit more time I'll be fluent within, at the earliest, a year. I'm completely self-taught, that is, I haven't spent a dime on classes or textbooks and have learned all I know from scouring the internet for resources and by talking to people I've come across from the area to help me out. I don't even know at which point I realized that this is my "soul" language, but that's what it is. Other languages I've taken an interest in are Welsh, Irish (Gaelic), Old English, and Russian, and maybe I could throw in some Brazilian Portuguese and Italian in there just to make life a little interesting, though I can already understand most of what goes on in these last two. A small part of me would also be interested in learning some Hindi, so we'll see how far that goes...
"I've traveled the world, I've been up and down, I've seen lots of places, but this is my town. You've got what it takes, the night is awake, the music is pumpin'.
Barcelona, gonna take to the skies. Barcelona, got a late night flight.
♥ ;; Places: I love traveling; my favorite single place is probably airports. I'm enamored with the feeling of coming and going, of travel, of people going somewhere, anywhere, whether it's home or vacation, whether they're arriving to visit or it's a return voyage. Airports mean travel, and even with the agony of security checkpoints and customs, and check-in, I just love the feeling of being somewhere where country borders are blurred and where nothing exists but travel. I've been to most countries in Western Europe having spent about ten years of my life being a European resident, whether it was for two-and-a-half years while I lived in Bilbao, Spain, or for three-and-a-half years while I was attending boarding school near Loerrach, Germany, a twenty-minute drive from the Swiss and French borders. But Spain is the country which has stolen my heart, the one country that makes me feel completely at home. If I could live in any one place for the rest of my life it would be in Barcelona, Spain. I can't explain it; I've technically only spent five days there, but the city managed to steal my heart and my soul with it. I am, of course, first and foremost American, and even if I have to spend the rest of my life applying for visas to live in Spain, it would never be worth it to give up my American citizenship. My primary goal is to live in the city of Terrassa, a small city outside Barcelona, which I've fallen in love with through pictures and anecdotal evidence of the beauty it contains. I'm a huge fan of the beach and I've always wanted to visit Hawai'i, and I hope that one day I'll be able to go. I'd also love to visit Australia and Southeast Asia.
"Perquè sol no vull trobar-me, ni demà ni més enllà. I és que saps que sol neixes i te'n vas, te'n vas sol.
Desperto i veig que tu hi ets, que cada dia és un dia més que puc ser lliure. Sense tu no puc
viure."
♥ ;; People: The main subject of my admiration at this particular point in time is the Spanish/Catalan footballer (soccer player) Xavi Hernández, who plays for my team FC Barcelona and the Spanish national football team. It's hard to explain how I first realized my admiration without going into a long backstory, it has to do more with random moments and an interview I found while doing some "gossip
research". I've come to find that he is one of the few celebrities who has integrity, who's honest about who he is and what he does, who exudes class and intelligence, and is never seen on the front page of any tabloid. I don't know how to explain it, but he's also the one celebrity who's never disillusioned me for some reason or other. I don't dream of meeting him, I'm not a groupie. All he has to do is keep playing beautiful football and stay awesome and that's all I need.
You can also find me on:
♥ Last.fm
♥ Facebook
♥ Tumblr
♥ Twitter
♥ MSN: gaueko_izar@live.com
♥ ;; Overview: Ella. Female. 24 years old. American-born, Spanish-raised. Trilingual [English, Spanish, Catalan]. Believer in Jesus Christ. Conservative. Missionary Kid. Third-culture Kid.
"Y el corazón que a Triana va nunca volverá, Sevilla. Con qué pasión te enamorará y te embrujará, Sevilla.
Y al alba blanca le contaré lo que yo te amé, Sevilla. Bandido, ¡ay! muero yo por tí, tu paloma fui, Sevilla."
♥ ;; Background: Born in Paterson, New Jersey, moved to Neenah, Wisconsin at the age of 2 1/2 (my first memory is of driving through Manhattan to get to the airport to fly out to Wisconsin). Nine years and three siblings later we moved out to New Jersey again hoping for a move to France. My family was denied visas three times (don't ask, we have no idea; ask the French government) and decided God wanted us in Spain instead. Moved to Bilbao, Spain at the age of 12 1/2 on October 26-27, 1997 and lived there for 2 1/2 years. In 2000 we came back to the US for six months, New Jersey and Wisconsin, then moved back to Málaga, Spain and I began boarding school in Germany. Spent the next 3 1/2 years dividing my time between Germany, Spain, and the USA. My family moved to a town just outside Sevilla, Spain in 2003. Took a year off after high school in 2004, began community college in Wisconsin in 2005 majoring in Theatre, transferred after one year to the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, majoring in Spanish, and am about to begin my fourth year there. Spent Spring Semester 2008 in Valladolid, Spain. I'm politically conservative and a believer in Jesus Christ (give me any "intolerant religious bigot" crap and you'll be out the door sooner than you can cry "1st Amendment!" at me); my relationship to Jesus is more important than any label or "religion". I'd rather "walk the walk" than "talk the talk" and I don't plan on shoving any of my beliefs down anyone's throat. I believe in acceptance and respect, I believe that if more people had respect for other people there wouldn't be as many problems in the world. I believe in breaking molds and paradigm shifts, in realizing that you're not the only person on the planet and that not everyone thinks the same way as anyone else and that each person's beliefs are legitimate and should not be looked down upon, regardless of any personal bias or opinions. I also love to read and prefer reading classics to the average modern novel. The thicker the book, the better.
"Tant se val d'on venim, si del sud o del nord. Ara estem d'acord, una bandera ens agermana!
Jugadors, seguidors, tots units fem força. I s'ha demostrat, s'ha demostrat, estem d'acord, que mai ningú ens podrà tórcer!
♥ ;; Sports: I'm a huge soccer fan. Soccer... aka Association Football or Football. My favorite team is FC Barcelona, aka Barça. I've been a die-hard culé, or culer for the past year or so now, and I've suffered and celebrated with the team, and with the city of Barcelona. I love the history of the club, its identity, its very essence. I had the privilege of going to a Barcelona match at Camp Nou in Barcelona last year and it was well worth the 50€ I had to pay for tickets. On an international level I support the Spanish National Team, La Furia Roja, and I've supported them since about 1998. My "second-place" teams are Athletic Bilbao and the US National Team, but Barça and Spain always, always come first. I don't do "fandom", I don't read slash, and I create my own "canon".
"I wanna take you away, so take me to the music, DJ, let it play.
Please don't stop the music."
♥ ;; Music/Movies: I have pretty much the craziest music taste anyone's heard. I'll listen to everything from *NSync to DJ Tiësto, and everyone in between. My music genre of choice, as in the genre that manages to never let me down, is electronica, with a focus on progressive and trance. I pretty much live off of Gareth Emery, DJ Tiësto, Above & Beyond and Armin van Buuren's podcasts and radio shows if/when I can get them. I also enjoy Europop (not a fan of the Eurovision song contest, but I have a strong weakness for the music itself, especially the Swedish and Spanish stuff. Otherwise, the music I listen to tends to be in a language other than English. Spanish and Catalan are prefered since I speak them, and I'm also known to play some Italian, Hindi (Bollywood), Basque and French music as well. Any genre, but rock/alternative is the main genre. Basically, I feel rock has more substance when it's sung in a language other than English. Some of my favorite artists are the aforementioned DJs, and my favorite band of all time is Estopa, a Spanish flamenco/rumba/rock band. I also love Ojos de Brujo (Flamenco/Hip-hop), Amaral (Pop-Rock), Ken Zazpi (Basque Rock), El Canto del Loco (Alterna-Rock), Macaco (Hip-hop/Electronica/Flamenco, etc.), Gossos (Catalan acoustic/Alterna-Rock) and Lax 'n' Busto (Catalan Alterna-Rock). As for movies, I don't really have an "all-time favorite"; I have issues when it comes time to choose a movie to watch and I'd really rather have someone else choose one. But two movies I really love more than most others are Slumdog Millionaire and No me pidas que te bese, porque te besaré, a Spanish romantic comedy.
"Isiltasunak non zauden galdetzen dit, noiznahi. Zure izena mila aldiz oihukatuz, noiznahi.
Iritsiko naiz, argiak jarraituz. Iritsiko naiz, berriz saiatuz, noizbait."
♥ ;; Languages: I love languages. I love learning them, I love speaking them, I love meeting people who speak a different language. Not that I have anything against the English language; it has its own unique history and special story. But I grew up speaking it; it doesn't have as much of an appeal to me. I generally tend to prefer to study or look into languages that are more "obscure" or lesser known than others. Romance languages like French and Italian (and Spanish) bore me to tears and I have no particular interest in Greek or Latin. The first language I ever truly fell in love with was Basque, and from the day I first heard it spoken on TV while living in the Basque Country of Northern Spain, I knew I had to speak it. Twelve years later I can only remember a few words and phrases, even after studying it for two years in school, but it has never left my mind. I love its complexity, its variations, its antiquity. However, I honestly feel that my "soul" language is Catalan. This one took me by surprise: being a Romance language I never became too deeply interested until reasons I still can't recognize. Something switched on inside my brain and I began studying it, simply because I could, and ended up falling in love. At this point I'm not completely fluent, that is, capable of carrying on conversation without faltering or stumbling over words and grammar, but I'm geting there, and I'm hoping that with a bit more practice and a little bit more time I'll be fluent within, at the earliest, a year. I'm completely self-taught, that is, I haven't spent a dime on classes or textbooks and have learned all I know from scouring the internet for resources and by talking to people I've come across from the area to help me out. I don't even know at which point I realized that this is my "soul" language, but that's what it is. Other languages I've taken an interest in are Welsh, Irish (Gaelic), Old English, and Russian, and maybe I could throw in some Brazilian Portuguese and Italian in there just to make life a little interesting, though I can already understand most of what goes on in these last two. A small part of me would also be interested in learning some Hindi, so we'll see how far that goes...
"I've traveled the world, I've been up and down, I've seen lots of places, but this is my town. You've got what it takes, the night is awake, the music is pumpin'.
Barcelona, gonna take to the skies. Barcelona, got a late night flight.
♥ ;; Places: I love traveling; my favorite single place is probably airports. I'm enamored with the feeling of coming and going, of travel, of people going somewhere, anywhere, whether it's home or vacation, whether they're arriving to visit or it's a return voyage. Airports mean travel, and even with the agony of security checkpoints and customs, and check-in, I just love the feeling of being somewhere where country borders are blurred and where nothing exists but travel. I've been to most countries in Western Europe having spent about ten years of my life being a European resident, whether it was for two-and-a-half years while I lived in Bilbao, Spain, or for three-and-a-half years while I was attending boarding school near Loerrach, Germany, a twenty-minute drive from the Swiss and French borders. But Spain is the country which has stolen my heart, the one country that makes me feel completely at home. If I could live in any one place for the rest of my life it would be in Barcelona, Spain. I can't explain it; I've technically only spent five days there, but the city managed to steal my heart and my soul with it. I am, of course, first and foremost American, and even if I have to spend the rest of my life applying for visas to live in Spain, it would never be worth it to give up my American citizenship. My primary goal is to live in the city of Terrassa, a small city outside Barcelona, which I've fallen in love with through pictures and anecdotal evidence of the beauty it contains. I'm a huge fan of the beach and I've always wanted to visit Hawai'i, and I hope that one day I'll be able to go. I'd also love to visit Australia and Southeast Asia.
"Perquè sol no vull trobar-me, ni demà ni més enllà. I és que saps que sol neixes i te'n vas, te'n vas sol.
Desperto i veig que tu hi ets, que cada dia és un dia més que puc ser lliure. Sense tu no puc
viure."
♥ ;; People: The main subject of my admiration at this particular point in time is the Spanish/Catalan footballer (soccer player) Xavi Hernández, who plays for my team FC Barcelona and the Spanish national football team. It's hard to explain how I first realized my admiration without going into a long backstory, it has to do more with random moments and an interview I found while doing some "gossip
research". I've come to find that he is one of the few celebrities who has integrity, who's honest about who he is and what he does, who exudes class and intelligence, and is never seen on the front page of any tabloid. I don't know how to explain it, but he's also the one celebrity who's never disillusioned me for some reason or other. I don't dream of meeting him, I'm not a groupie. All he has to do is keep playing beautiful football and stay awesome and that's all I need.
You can also find me on:
♥ Last.fm
♥ Tumblr
♥ MSN: gaueko_izar@live.com