Today was great. After messing around most of the morning in my pajamas, I met up with my two new post-doc friends at ~3:30 at the Aquarium and started climbing to the statue of Jesus. We climbed up part way and I was pretty sneezy, due to allergies. We got up where we thought the cafeteria/bar was, and unfortunately it was closed for the weekend. We took in the beautiful view by the cafeteria and continued our climb. We got almost all the way to the top and decided to stop in the little museum that is in the castle underneath the statue. We poked around there for a while and then continued our trek. We got up to the top and took in the statue and the gorgeous views of not only La Concha bay (the more famous part of San Sebastián, but also the beach in Gros. This is the part of the beach that surfers love. The view is completely astounding - I don't know if any words can do it justice. You all should just come here and see it for yourselves. :)
After the climb we went back down the "mountain" into Parte Vieja. We met up with another expat friend of my new friends who is from England. We went to a cafe for some coffee and tortilla española (a very famous dish around here with eggs, potatoes, and onions. Sort of like a quiche with mostly potatoes instead of eggs). Then we strolled around Parte Vieja and ended up at a cute park that has a lot of ducks with kids feeding them. After the park, we went to a French bakery for a small pastry which we took out by the harbor to eat and people watch for a bit. The people watching ended up being great, because we ran into one of the girls' former roommates, who is from Italy, and her Spanish friend. We ended up going into Gros (a neighborhood on the east side of town across the river), and decided to meet up with the former roommate later. We went to a bar and sat on a terrace by the sea watching the sunset. We ended up running into the English guy's fellow English teacher from South Africa and her Spanish boyfriend. So we all had a drink together. Then the Italian girl, her Spanish friend, and 4 of her other Italian friends came to meet us at the bar. All of us had another drink and pintxos and then went our separate ways. The two other postdocs had family plans tomorrow, so they went home, but it was only 9:30 (early, even by Chicago standards), so I went out with the British guy to meet some of his Spanish friends.
We met his friend Tomas at a bar back in Parte Vieja. He was with some of his "cuadrilla" friends. So far as I understand it, the concept of "cuadrilla" is very particular to the Basque country. Basically, this is the group of friends you grew up with. It's the people you've known you're whole life who you remain close with your whole life (regardless of where you move). Typically, it's very hard to become friends with these sorts of groups of friends, but everyone was very nice tonight. Unfortunately for me, very few of them spoke much English. So, I listened a lot in Spanish (I understood most of what was going on). I spoke a little bit of Spanish, and then spoke English which Tomas translated for me. :) We had some really great Basque cuisine - including tomatoes (which I normally hate, but were actually very tasty), some small mild peppers (also usually not my favorite, but very good) and then the chuleta. Chuleta is an extremely tasty steak - and these guys, from this area, say this bar has the best chuleta in the area. It was really some of the more delicious steak I've ever had. After we finished there, they went on to another bar, but I ended up coming home. The climb really made me sleepy - plus, I didn't want to be coming back here by myself too late tonight.
I'm still hoping to go to the sideria on Sunday. I was also invited out for drinks tomorrow night. The conflict is that now I have too many plans. :) I was actually invited to stay with my friend from Michigan at her house out of San Sebastián. I may take her up on that, since it'd be nice to get out of my apartment for a night. That said, I'll be happy either way, since I can spend some time with my new friends if I don't spend the night there.
I also must talk about "besos." When you meet anyone in Spain, especially if you are female, you get besos - one kiss on each cheek. Usually the person you are meeting says their name during the besos, which means, I rarely learn anyone's names. I'm trying to concentrate so much on not bonking my head into their head that I can't really pay attention. This especially problematic for Basque names, which tend to be long and phonetically difficult for me. Fortunately, I can use the excuse that I am not a native speaker (and that I am American and not used to besos yet) to ask their name again. Plus, they all have trouble with my name, so they have to ask me too.
Everyone I've met so far is incredibly, incredibly nice. It's strange here because even people you think you'd have nothing in common with, you do - especially expats. It's really incredible to see this community of people that form just because they're all from places other than here. The cool thing to see is that everyone who has lived here for a long time loves it. It's almost not fair to say "loves it" - they are incredibly infatuated with the place. I met a guy tonight who has lived here for 7 years and used to live on the Mediterranean in Italy. He insists that this is the most beautiful place on Earth. He said he's lived here for 7 years and still thanks God every day for the beauty of the place and the kindness of the people.
In spite of the difficulty of transitioning here, in spite of how much I miss Peter, Sophie, my friends, and family ... in spite of all of that, I am really, truly lucky to be in such an incredible place with amazing people. I'm not sure I could imagine doing this anywhere else. So tonight, I'm just letting myself be grateful to be exactly where I am ...
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