The boyfriend of a friend of mine is a member of a sociedad** here. Basically, it is a members-only organization that has access to a communal kitchen and a large dining room. The sociedades tend to be male-only in terms of membership, and historically, only men were allowed in at all. Of course, times have changed, so Friday 10 of us were invited over to cook at the Sociedad.
Only 3 people (including the member) are allowed in the kitchen at a time, so we had to cook in shifts. But overall it was a ton of fun. Not just eating our meal, but also watching everyone else eat and cook. We had pintxos to start, then huge salads, huge merluza (hake), risotto, revuelto de hongos (sort of scrambled eggs with fancy marinated mushrooms), quiche, flan, mini-cheesecake things, fruit, etc. etc. It was all delicious, and we all ate a disgusting amount of food.
But most of all it was really, really fun. I laughed harder than I have in weeks. Then, yesterday was another friend of mine's boyfriend's birthday. So another dinner. And more fun and laughing. And lots of Spanish people singing tons of songs.
And then today was unfairly gorgeous. Nearly 60 degrees and sunny and fantastic. So I went for a long walk and was really grateful for this weekend and for my time here. While it's sometimes frustrating, and while I always miss Pete, I'm also really happy to live this life right now. So weekend 1 of "appreciate what I have" is officially a success.
You can read more about sociedades on wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Txoko. They're apparently called txokos in Basque, but no one really calls them that.
**Note: Sociedad should not be confused with Real Sociedad, the fútbol team here.
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