This morning at 9:00am, a bomb exploded in the parking structure at Terminal 4 of the Barajas Airport in Madrid. Forty injured, two presumed dead. The ETA has taken responsibility, and this breaks a cease-fire that has been in effect for nine months. It’s apparently the first time that the ETA has killed in over 3 years. All dialogue between the government and the group has stopped because of the bombing.

I will be arriving in that airport in less than a week, so this is a little jarring. I tried to get coverage in Spanish through El Pais, Spain’s biggest newspaper based in Madrid, which was a bit of a realization on how hard it’s going to be to understand real Spanish. I think I’m just going to have to deal with the fact that I won’t be able to understand a majority of my world for a while. That, I think, will be one of the hardest parts of the transition. I’ve got to watch more Spanish TV, read more Spanish news.

I am still fuzzy on the whole ETA / Batasuna vs. Spanish government conflict, and I will be trying to learn more about this in the coming days. I think that the ETA ultimately wants independence for Pais Vasco, but I’m mostly not quite sure yet.

Let’s build some Spanish vocabulary with the current headline from El Pais:

ETA revienta la tregua con un atentado en el aeropuerto de Barajas que deja dos desaparecidos

First attempt: “ETA ____ the ____ with a _______ in the Barajas airport that left two missing”

re·ven·tar intr.

1. (explotar) to burst, pop
   el globo reventó en la estratosfera the balloon burst in the stratosphere
2. (romper un neumático) to burst, blow (a tire)
3. (romper olas) to break (waves)
4. (brotar) to burst, gush (a spring)
5. (estallar una pasión) to be bursting with
   reventar de envidia to be bursting with envy
6. colloquial (morir) to kick the bucket, die

Idioms:

• reventar de cansancio to be exhausted
• reventar de gordo to be as fat as a pig
• reventar de rabia to be furious
• reventar de risa to die laughing
• reventar por algo to crave something, be dying for something
• reventar por hacer algo to be dying to do something

tre·gua f.

1. military truce
2. figurative (descanso) rest, respite
3. (pausa) lull, letup

Idiom:

• no dar tregua never to let up

a·ten·ta·do m.

1. (crimen) illegal act, crime
2. (ataque) assault, attempt (on someone’s life)

Leaving us with something like: “ETA breaks the truce with an attack at the Barajas airport that left two missing”

I’ll learn this language, I swear I will.