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| I think my mom's starting to believe I don't go to class... so here's a picture of class. Professor Manolo here is demonstrating how the "electric chair" works. The student must sit on the chair on top of the table in front of the room and talk in Spanish about a given topic for three minutes straight. If she pauses too long, or speaks in English, a minute is added. Good old Manolo... |
Friday, October 15
Today, we went on an excursion with our program to visit prehistoric art in caves at Puente Viesgo and Altamira. At Puente Viesgo, we were able to visit the actual caves and see the prehistoric art on the rock walls. We had a tour guide, who explained to us (in Spanish) everything about the art, which is mostly of animals (bison, deer, horses, wild boars) but also of hands and tribe signs. The artwork dates back to 16,000 BC. We’re talking hunter-gatherers, nomads, who lived in groups of 20-30 and had to work hard to survive as a group. Their artwork has a religious and magical sentiment, because they would pray to their god(s) for a good hunt. Realize I put horse on the list? Just another yummy animal to them… (Actually, there are people in Spain that eat horse. Not very common, but it happens. In fact, there are meat shops that specialize and only sell horse meat. Since our professor told us this, I always ask my host mom what kind of meat I’m eating now.)
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| This is an upside down bison painting. Altamira. |
At Altamira, we went into a replica of the real cave. When the caves were discovered, they had thousands and thousands of visitors come through, and it triggered changes of temperature and humidity that were rapidly destroying the caves. The replica was impressive though, and the artwork is extraordinary. It’s amazing to think how long ago it was created. While at Altamira, the girls and I took a class on how to hunt like the prehistoric people, using a spear and an atlatl, which is a device that makes it a lot easier to throw the spear faster. Although I never hit the deer target, it was great fun, and our teacher was quite the character. We enjoyed following his Spanish, and picking up on the jokes littered throughout his presentation.
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| It looks like I'm spearing Marissa, but really, I'm aiming at the deer behind her. |
Sunday, October 17
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| Go Racing! See the scarves? |
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Today, I went to a professional soccer game with my friend Kelsey. The team is called Racing (pronounced rath-ing), and is based right here in Santander, a few minutes from the university I attend. Everyone and their mom were wearing team scarves, and I broke down and bought one. I figure that it will make a great wall decoration if I never wear it again. =) We played Almería, and although we were the underdogs, we won 1-0. We both admitted that we missed the “jumbo-tron,” but it was fun watching the game and listening to all the Spaniards cursing all around us.
Monday, October 18
Today, I went running with Kelsey… It felt great, because it was the first time I’ve worked out in Spain, but I’m positive I’ll be hurting tomorrow. Obviously, we went for ice cream after we finished running. My host mom was mortified that I’d eat ice cream with the days getting colder, but I can’t help it! The ice cream here is easily 10x better than the ice cream at home. I love it. (And Dad, I haven’t yet gained weight…)
After class today we got our conversation partners. Mine is a guy named Luis, and he seems really nice. The meeting was really awkward, because I wasn’t sure if I should speak to him in English or Spanish… but his English is really good. He works at the university, and studies engineering. It’ll be good to practice Spanish with him.
San Sebastian:
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| This is the inside of our hostel room at 6am with some of our new friends... |
Thursday after class, Kelsey, Jesika, Christine and I caught a bus to
San Sebastian, a city in Basque country about three hours East of Santander. It also is on the coast, and is famous for its pintxos (pronounced
pinchos), which are a type of delicious food offered in small portions in the cafés. When we got there, we checked into our hostel with the Australian boy working the counter. I love his story – He was travelling through
Spain and was staying at the hostel, and spending his days surfing. He loved it so much that he extended his stay, and after a while got offered a job by the hostel owner. He’s been there all summer, and is now looking to move on now that the summer season is gone. We also met a couple guys from
Canada, two from
South Carolina, a couple girls from
Britain, and a guy from
New Zealand. The hostels are always chock-full of English speakers, but we get to hear some awesome accents. Anyways, we checked into the hostel, and after checking out the kitchen in the hostel, went to the store to buy dinner supplies. What happened next is nothing short of amazing. We purchased a huge can of tomato paste, an onion, a package of spaghetti noodles (all this: dinner), a small basket of pears, a box of little breakfast cookie/cracker things (breakfast), two bottles of cola and a fifth of vodka, and guess how much the bill was? Less than 10 Euro. Woot woot!
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| All under 10 euro... can you believe it? |
We made dinner (luckily found some spices in the cupboard to make the spaghetti “sauce” work a little better), and went out with a group of people from our hostel. The truth is, Thursday night was pretty dead, and the girls and I were looking to dance, so we were a little let down.
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| The bay in San Sebastian. Picture by: Christine Nguyen |
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| Pinchos! |
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| Pinchos! |
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| Add caption |
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| Fortress, San Sebas |
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| Me at the fortress in San Sebastian |
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| A beautiful cathedral in San Sebastian |
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| Cathedral, San Sebastian |
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| More pintxos! |
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| Our picks. |
The next day, we walked along the beach, visited a fortress up on top of a hill, and then made our way down to the area of town where we heard we could try the ever-famous pintxos. This is where the photos can tell more than I can. Covering every inch of the bar counter were platters of food. They hand you a huge plate, and you put everything you want on it, and give it back to them so they can count up the bill and heat up the food that needs reheating. For about 1.70 Euro each, you get these delicious little snacks, and I guess you’re supposed to have one or two here, wander to the next café, get a couple more, and so on. My favorite pintxo was a tiny red pepper stuffed with tuna on a piece of baguette. And my description does not do it justice. It was delicious! I also tried an artichoke heart wrapped in a piece of ham, and there was a shrimp on the toothpick as well. In a moment of insanity, the girls and I tried an octopus pintxo, which was basically a few pieces of octopus covered with onion and peppers. The octopus was covered with tentacles, which I could feel with my tongue while I ate it. I’m not sure what came over me when I ordered that one… I felt like it wasn’t my choice, like it was written in my fate that I would eat an octopus pintxo and there was nothing I could do about it. To be honest, it was gross. Haha. I also tried a crab pintxo that was like a crab mixture inside a type of crepe that I thought was made of egg at first. The pintxo was also covered with a crabby sort of sauce, and was served with a little piece of baguette. Yummy. I really enjoyed the whole pintxo scene, but that night, we chowed on another of my Spanish favorites: paella.
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| The enormous paella dish. Yummmmm. |
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| Oh sangria.. |
Paella is this Spanish dish made of rice with seasoning that makes it yellow, and can have veggies, meat, or seafood. Our hostel offered a 12 Euro unlimited paella and sangria dinner Friday night, and we decided to join in. One word: dangerous. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to drink sangria again. However, the paella was delicious! It was seafood paella, and had calamari, shrimp, mussels, and little baby squids. The more sangria I consumed, the easier it was to eat the baby squid, which were about an inch tall each. We went with a group of about 12 people from the hostel, and I couldn’t even tell you how many pitchers of sangria we went through until they kicked us out at about 11:30. When we went to the bar after that, I talked to an Australian boy for about an hour about the differences in cities and economy between the US and Australia… a conversation I could never have sober. Dios mio.
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| My birthday gift from the girls... they know me so well! ;^) |
Saturday, we ate some more pintxos, then caught the bus back to
Santander. Sunday was my birthday, so a few of the girls (Kelsey, Jesika, Christine and Marissa) took me out to dinner. We tried this Mexican restaurant. It was a very interesting experience. First of all, no free chips. Second, no automatic rice and beans with your meal. Third, the waitress chewed us out when we stole an extra salsa from the next table because she hadn’t visited our table (one of two occupied in the whole little restaurant) for over 20 minutes. Fourth, the red salsa tasted like barbecue sauce, and the “regular” salsa had a pickled taste to it. Fifth, hardly any cilantro, which made me sadder than I can explain. Besides that, we really enjoyed ourselves! =) When we went out that night, we were entertained by this group of guys dancing near us that were thoroughly enjoying themselves… I’ve never seen a group of guys be so into their dancing and enjoying themselves as much as this group of boys. And it’s not like they were nerds, they were really cute! (But much too young for me…) We ended up joining forces and danced together until about 4am. It was a blast.
Sunday, I turned 22. I went and saw Despicable Me in the theatre with Kelsey and this guy named Roger Brock from Kentucky (?) who’s teaching here in Santander, and we met in the airport when we were on our way to Madrid, and he on his way to London. It was a cute movie, and since it’s a kid movie, pretty easy to follow in Spanish. In the evening, I invited all the girls in the program and we went to get ice cream at our favorite spot, La Polar. I got two flavors: Queso Frambuesa and Maracuya, aka strawberry cheesecake and passion fruit. When I got home, I was doing homework in the kitchen when the phone rang, and I heard Conchi struggling to understand what was being said on the other line, so I hollered to her, “Conchi, es para mi?” (Is it for me?) Sure enough, Grandpa Walt and Grandma Kathy had called me to wish me a happy birthday. When I got off the phone, Conchi asked me if it was my birthday that day or the following. Poor thing, she had thought my birthday was Monday, and she apologized profusely (and cursed, too… I love Spanish cursing. A few that she said in that moment: “Joder” and “Me cago en Dios”). She also came over and gave me a hug and covered my cheeks in kisses.
Monday, Conchi let me invite a friend over for lunch. I hated having to choose one, but I invited my friend Kelsey. When we came home for lunch, it was like a party! Conchi’s nephew Jose Luis was there with his wife Christina and their son Ramon (I’ve posted pictures of little Ramon before), also, the girls Marta and Laura were there like always. We filled up the table in the dining room, and Conchi fed us a delicious meal: 1st Course: Fried cauliflower, 2nd Course: Beef fillets with roasted red peppers, Dessert: Torta. Torta is a dessert, like a cake, but the bottom layer was coconut and the top layer is flan, and it’s cooked in a melted sugar coated pan. Delicious. And poor Conchi: When I saw the cake, it had brand new candles on it that said 2-1. During lunch, her neice Marta (17 years) asked me how old I’d turned, and I told her 22. Her and Jose Luis (her uncle) high-fived over the table while Conchi put her head in her hands. The paper she’d received about me said that I was 20 when I came, not 21, and she thought I was turning 21. She felt terrible. I assured her that it was no big deal, and that it was better to turn 21 again anyways in the US. In all, it was a great little party, and it was cool for Kelsey to see how another Spanish family lives and interacts. In Spain, the house is for family, so it was the first time I’ve brought anyone here. Now I can appreciate things about where I live because of differences Kelsey told me about. An example: All of the doors here are always open, which makes it homey.
Tomorrow is a crazy day. We have a midterm and an in-class essay in Grammar class, and our final for Conversation class. Immediately after class, the girls and I are running (almost not jokingly) to the airport to catch a flight to Barcelona! I’m sure it’ll be another great weekend out and about with the girls! I miss you all!
