Today has been a weird day, I think largely because of the weather. After two unbearably hot days, we had thunderstorms last night and the weather cooled down considerably. I slept well until around 4 am, when I woke up after a dream that shook me some how. It wasn't really a nightmare, but was scary and somehow stuck with me after I woke up. I actually got out of bed to shake the dream loose a little bit. It was really weird and I woke up feeling out of sorts this morning. It was a grey, dreary day, but fortunately, I got a TON done at work.
I went to my music night and had a good time for an hour and a half or so, then I headed home. I was walking toward the taxi stand listening to a podcast, when some music came on in the background of the podcast. The first chord sounded familiar, and then I realized it was a song that I really, really love by the Avett Brothers. It was so weird to hear this song in this context ... and it's a song I have to be careful with anyhow because the lyrics are very emotional and it makes me a sort of happy-sad to hear it. It has a very Chicago connotation for me - cooking in my kitchen singing it. And suddenly hearing it on the streets of Spain ... it sort of kicked my butt. I think I stood on the street corner, hand over my mouth, and tears in my eyes for 10 seconds, but it felt like an hour.
I'm not sure I can even explain it, but here's what it feels like: 95% of the time, I'm living my life here. It's different than my Chicago Life, for sure, but it's still my life. Then, something like my dream last night and or hearing this song happens, and it's like I'm knocked off one track and onto another, where I have a glimpse of my Chicago Life. It suddenly feels like I'm just treading water waiting for my Real Life to start up again. And then I'm fine, back on the "normal" track, but those few seconds or minutes send deep shock waves that result in aftershocks for a few hours. In some ways it's sad ... in other ways, it's beautiful because it reminds me that I have this life in Chicago that is so beautiful that it's okay, good even, to miss it.
Two weeks from now at this time, I'll be in the Holiday Inn Express Bilbao, trying to sleep before my very (very) early flight the next day. And I can NOT wait.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
Weekend
Saturday was a relaxing day. I took a long nap, watched a movie and did some work. I was trying to save up my energy for Sunday, when I went to Bilbao with a friend of mine who was in town from the US for the conference we were hosting last week. We made plans to hang out Sunday, even though it was supposed to be over 90 degrees.
We didn't have much of a plan, just to go to Bilbao and maybe head to the Guggenheim. We met in San Sebastián in the morning and took a city bus to the bus station, where we took a bus to Bilbao. We walked about a mile to the Guggenheim. And it was 90 degrees. We bought our tickets and headed to the cafe to get something to drink. We ordered something we thought would be delicious and refreshing, but was, instead bitter, and not refreshing. Alas. We wandered around the museum for a couple of hours, and then headed out for pintxos. We found a pretty authentic place (with no air conditioning) close by and got a few pintxos (including my beloved "boquerones" - anchovies marinated in lemon juice, olive oil, and garlic. Even if you don't think you like anchovies, you would love these guys). We then set out for another walk. We wandered through the center of town into Bilbao's Parte Vieja. It was a really nice walk in spite of being a trillion degrees outside. We then walked back to the bus station where we had to wait a while for our bus back. All in all it was a nice trip, though I got back home exhausted and probably dehydrated from the super hot temperatures (according to the local newspapers, it reached over 100 degrees yesterday).
Today it's supposed to reach the mid-90s again, which is highly uncommon for the Basque Country. Beach people are very, very happy about this. I am slightly less so since my apartment doesn't have air conditioning. I did succeed in turning the place into a cave by shutting all my shades during the day yesterday. It was cool enough last night that between the shades, my open windows, and my almost completed blanket instead of my duvet, I was able to sleep pretty well. The funniest part of this is that people were whining about how it "only" got down to 19 degrees last night (around 66 degrees Fahrenheit). After temperatures in the high 90s, I was quite happy with 66 degrees.
This weekend also marked the first weekend of summer, meaning the tourists are here in force. It's a little bit crazier than I would like here, and it will be harder to find seats for pintxos, etc., but I'm sure after 4 summers in Wrigleyville, I'll survive.
We didn't have much of a plan, just to go to Bilbao and maybe head to the Guggenheim. We met in San Sebastián in the morning and took a city bus to the bus station, where we took a bus to Bilbao. We walked about a mile to the Guggenheim. And it was 90 degrees. We bought our tickets and headed to the cafe to get something to drink. We ordered something we thought would be delicious and refreshing, but was, instead bitter, and not refreshing. Alas. We wandered around the museum for a couple of hours, and then headed out for pintxos. We found a pretty authentic place (with no air conditioning) close by and got a few pintxos (including my beloved "boquerones" - anchovies marinated in lemon juice, olive oil, and garlic. Even if you don't think you like anchovies, you would love these guys). We then set out for another walk. We wandered through the center of town into Bilbao's Parte Vieja. It was a really nice walk in spite of being a trillion degrees outside. We then walked back to the bus station where we had to wait a while for our bus back. All in all it was a nice trip, though I got back home exhausted and probably dehydrated from the super hot temperatures (according to the local newspapers, it reached over 100 degrees yesterday).
Today it's supposed to reach the mid-90s again, which is highly uncommon for the Basque Country. Beach people are very, very happy about this. I am slightly less so since my apartment doesn't have air conditioning. I did succeed in turning the place into a cave by shutting all my shades during the day yesterday. It was cool enough last night that between the shades, my open windows, and my almost completed blanket instead of my duvet, I was able to sleep pretty well. The funniest part of this is that people were whining about how it "only" got down to 19 degrees last night (around 66 degrees Fahrenheit). After temperatures in the high 90s, I was quite happy with 66 degrees.
This weekend also marked the first weekend of summer, meaning the tourists are here in force. It's a little bit crazier than I would like here, and it will be harder to find seats for pintxos, etc., but I'm sure after 4 summers in Wrigleyville, I'll survive.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Fun in the Basque Country
First things first. Today is my fourth anniversary with my fantastic, amazing, incredible, and otherwise superlative husband. I don't have words to express how lucky I am to have him in my life. We have a "date" tonight via Skype during my dinner and his lunch.
This week has been a whirlwind of events. A lot of my friends have visitors in town, and even more of them are going out of town soon for various trips, etc. The school where a lot of our friends teach English takes a break from tomorrow through the end of July. So because of all the visitors and going-away celebrations, I have been very, very busy. Two nights ago we tried to go to a very famous bar/restaurant that makes fresh tortilla (egg and potato omelet here in Spain, nothing like a "tortilla" the way we think of it in North America) twice a day and also has great chuleta (a very tasty steak). Unfortunately they are closed for vacation (until mid-July). We ended up going to another place that had traditional chuleta, and its accompaniments (tomato salad, small roasted peppers, potatoes in a sauce, etc.). You order one plate of everything and then everyone shares. It was delicious and honestly one of my favorit nights here so far. Until last night.
Last night was "La Fiesta de San Juan". Or the feast of St. John. As in John the Baptist. So this feast is a pretty big deal in San Juan, and apparently marks the anniversary of birth of San Juan (approximately 6 months before the birth of Jesus). This festival is a pretty big deal throughout Spain, and the Basque Country is no exception. It starts off with a traditional dance around 7:30 which I missed. Then at 10:30, they (the town) light two gigantic bonfires and shoot off fireworks. Then the locals get in on the act. Especially the kids. Hundreds of small fires are lit on the plazas near the two big fires, and all over the beaches. Specifically by children. Small children. So the tradition is that you light the fire, then you write things down you want to get rid of. Then you jump over the fire which represents purification and cleansing. Then in the morning, you go for a swim in the sea which represents renewal and rebirth. (Sound like baptism to anyone??) Anyhow, as a mentioned, children are usually tending to these fires. And then jumping over them. Because nothing could go wrong with small children starting and leaping over fires, right? I was sure this would be a recipe for disaster, but instead, parents sort of hung out watching this, and no one got lit on fire, so far as I could tell. My friends and I put our own little pieces of paper in one small fire and hopped over it. Another tradition is trying to climb a tree that has been shaved of its bark. We watched about 6 people, and the two best were two small girls, about 9 and 10. They did much better than a strong looking grown man, and three young boys a bit older than them. Anyhow, it was a great, fun night, and the whole city smelled deliciously like a campfire this morning.
More soon, including my reflections on going to another conference in the same place I went to a different conference on my second day in Spain. Life is so beautifully different now.
This week has been a whirlwind of events. A lot of my friends have visitors in town, and even more of them are going out of town soon for various trips, etc. The school where a lot of our friends teach English takes a break from tomorrow through the end of July. So because of all the visitors and going-away celebrations, I have been very, very busy. Two nights ago we tried to go to a very famous bar/restaurant that makes fresh tortilla (egg and potato omelet here in Spain, nothing like a "tortilla" the way we think of it in North America) twice a day and also has great chuleta (a very tasty steak). Unfortunately they are closed for vacation (until mid-July). We ended up going to another place that had traditional chuleta, and its accompaniments (tomato salad, small roasted peppers, potatoes in a sauce, etc.). You order one plate of everything and then everyone shares. It was delicious and honestly one of my favorit nights here so far. Until last night.
Last night was "La Fiesta de San Juan". Or the feast of St. John. As in John the Baptist. So this feast is a pretty big deal in San Juan, and apparently marks the anniversary of birth of San Juan (approximately 6 months before the birth of Jesus). This festival is a pretty big deal throughout Spain, and the Basque Country is no exception. It starts off with a traditional dance around 7:30 which I missed. Then at 10:30, they (the town) light two gigantic bonfires and shoot off fireworks. Then the locals get in on the act. Especially the kids. Hundreds of small fires are lit on the plazas near the two big fires, and all over the beaches. Specifically by children. Small children. So the tradition is that you light the fire, then you write things down you want to get rid of. Then you jump over the fire which represents purification and cleansing. Then in the morning, you go for a swim in the sea which represents renewal and rebirth. (Sound like baptism to anyone??) Anyhow, as a mentioned, children are usually tending to these fires. And then jumping over them. Because nothing could go wrong with small children starting and leaping over fires, right? I was sure this would be a recipe for disaster, but instead, parents sort of hung out watching this, and no one got lit on fire, so far as I could tell. My friends and I put our own little pieces of paper in one small fire and hopped over it. Another tradition is trying to climb a tree that has been shaved of its bark. We watched about 6 people, and the two best were two small girls, about 9 and 10. They did much better than a strong looking grown man, and three young boys a bit older than them. Anyhow, it was a great, fun night, and the whole city smelled deliciously like a campfire this morning.
More soon, including my reflections on going to another conference in the same place I went to a different conference on my second day in Spain. Life is so beautifully different now.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Spanish breakthrough
I realized last night while I was thinking to myself in the shower that I can explain a LOT of things in Spanish that I couldn't explain just two months ago. I now have a pretty decent command of the three past tenses as well as progressive tenses, and a very simple future tense. I'm still not good at the subjunctive, conditional, or real future tenses, but I can talk about way more things than I ever could before. Vocabulary is still my major struggle, but I'm learning more and more every day. I feel like 90% of what I say is "Como se dice ..." (how do you say ...) and then pointing at things I don't know the names of. Not very elegant, but it works.
I got a couple of packages in the mail yesterday, including what were supposed to be pyrex mixing bowls (since I have no mixing bowls here) ... they were shattered thanks to really poor packaging on Amazon's part. Now I have to figure out how to return them, which is no easy task from here. I also REALLY need some sort of casserole dish or something that can go in the oven, since I'm getting tried of stovetop cooking all the time ... and speaking of cooking, I have to go to the grocery store after work today, which is unfortunate, since it is super rainy today.
I got a couple of packages in the mail yesterday, including what were supposed to be pyrex mixing bowls (since I have no mixing bowls here) ... they were shattered thanks to really poor packaging on Amazon's part. Now I have to figure out how to return them, which is no easy task from here. I also REALLY need some sort of casserole dish or something that can go in the oven, since I'm getting tried of stovetop cooking all the time ... and speaking of cooking, I have to go to the grocery store after work today, which is unfortunate, since it is super rainy today.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Sleep
I've never been very good at sleeping. I can nap pretty well, but at night time I can't fall asleep, I don't stay asleep, and as a consequence of this, I am no good at getting up in the morning. It's been this way at least since I was in high school. After 10 years of this business, you'd think that I would be used to it. But I'm not ... especially now that my body and brain have decided they might rather be on Central Standard Time than on Central European Time. This means that I am wide awake at midnight (and often at 1 and 2) and wake up often through the night, but am very, very tired at around 6 am (11pm in Chicago) and stay very tired until around 1 pm. I'm not sure if this can be attributed to lingering jet lag, the desire to be awake when my people are awake, or just my normal weird insomnia issues. Regardless, it is no fun at all.
I spoke Spanish this morning without thinking about it, which was weird. Normally, it requires some amount of thought, and if someone at the bus stop comes up to ask me a question, I just say that I don't really speak Spanish. Today, I was so tired that I just responded to the question in Spanish. Maybe I need to be really tired to speak Spanish well.
I apparently signed up for the school bus to work today, since I got on the bus and 6 of my co-workers were already on the bus. We ended up getting off early to take the "shortcut" to work. Normally, I take the bus to the closest stop (less than a 10 minute walk from work) that sort of overshoots our office building. Today, we got off 4 stops before that and cut through a huge outdoor amphitheater (out of use so far as I can tell) and a wooded path. It's a much longer walk, but you're on the bus for less time - I don't think it's that much shorter, you're just outside more. I rarely take this route when I'm by myself because some trees on the path make me sneeze like crazy ... plus, I'm usually dressed in grown up clothing, so cutting through an amphitheater, going down a hundred or so stone stairs, and walking on a path that is only partially paved for 15 or 20 minutes isn't my favorite thing to do. I'm glad I wore flat shoes to work today!
I spoke Spanish this morning without thinking about it, which was weird. Normally, it requires some amount of thought, and if someone at the bus stop comes up to ask me a question, I just say that I don't really speak Spanish. Today, I was so tired that I just responded to the question in Spanish. Maybe I need to be really tired to speak Spanish well.
I apparently signed up for the school bus to work today, since I got on the bus and 6 of my co-workers were already on the bus. We ended up getting off early to take the "shortcut" to work. Normally, I take the bus to the closest stop (less than a 10 minute walk from work) that sort of overshoots our office building. Today, we got off 4 stops before that and cut through a huge outdoor amphitheater (out of use so far as I can tell) and a wooded path. It's a much longer walk, but you're on the bus for less time - I don't think it's that much shorter, you're just outside more. I rarely take this route when I'm by myself because some trees on the path make me sneeze like crazy ... plus, I'm usually dressed in grown up clothing, so cutting through an amphitheater, going down a hundred or so stone stairs, and walking on a path that is only partially paved for 15 or 20 minutes isn't my favorite thing to do. I'm glad I wore flat shoes to work today!
Monday, June 20, 2011
Writer's Block
I've been trying to write a post about "home" for almost a week now ... and I've been trying to write about the Puerto Rico trip, without any luck. So for today, I'll tell you a little bit about my weekend.
I'm starting to settle into Spanish weekends. Weekends in Spain (especially in the summer) start in the early afternoon on Friday. By about 2 pm, almost everyone is out of the office. The official hours of the administrative staff here are 9-2.3 on Fridays (all year). During the summer those are the official hours for the entire week (and summer runs from early June 'til mid-September). Anyhow, everyone takes off early on Fridays. I had a terrible sinus headache, so I headed home around 3 (this should have been a warning sign for later on!!). My friend who hosts the Tuesday music nights was playing a concert in Irun (a town very close to the French border), so a bunch of us were heading there for dinner and the concert. I met up with my friends and rode in a car (other than a taxi) for the second time since arriving here. The drive was nice because it was dusk and the landscape is quite pretty. We got to Irun, and it was raining. Fortunately, I have learned the lesson that in the Basque Country you always need a sweater (because the temperature will drop 20 degrees) and an umbrella (because chances are it's going to rain). We tried to find a pintxos place and wandered into a bar that two of the Spanish people with us really liked. We had a drink and shared a very tiny sandwich, but they weren't serving any warm food. So we tried three other bars, none of which were serving food. It was getting colder and colder, so finally we asked if there was anywhere that was open. We ended up at a food court in a very strange mall. It was strange because there were two pintxos bars and a Burger King in the food court. The pintxos bars both had table service (weird for a pintxos bar and weird for a food court). Anyhow, we got our food and, though it was not very tasty, were happy to have any food. We headed to the concert, which was very good, and then headed home.
Saturday was full of errands - I did laundry for the first time since before Puerto Rico, which meant that nearly everything I have here was in the wash. I did some grocery shopping and tried to go to the yarn store, which changes its hours on a whim, so of course it wasn't open. I finally got functioning headphones, so now the sound doesn't go in and out in the right ear depending on how I move the cord. I managed to get a little work done and then headed out to my friend's house for some mojitos. It was really fun, and even though we were supposed to go to a concert that night too, I ended up heading home. My sinuses and allergies are slaying me this week. I'm hoping they calm down soon! I was supposed to go for a hike with some friends yesterday, but wasn't feeling very well.
Overall, it was a relaxing weekend. I'm settling in more and more to the ebb and flow of Spanish and English during conversations here. I can also tell I'm settling in because I'm starting to get more used to people. I know who I like to spend time with and who annoys me. I know where to go if I want to meet up with friends and which places to avoid. This weekend is another conference here. It's located at the same place as the first conference I went to the second day I was here. I'm excited to go back now that things have changed. I'm sure I'll be reflecting on how different things are (I am) since I arrived two months ago.
I'm starting to settle into Spanish weekends. Weekends in Spain (especially in the summer) start in the early afternoon on Friday. By about 2 pm, almost everyone is out of the office. The official hours of the administrative staff here are 9-2.3 on Fridays (all year). During the summer those are the official hours for the entire week (and summer runs from early June 'til mid-September). Anyhow, everyone takes off early on Fridays. I had a terrible sinus headache, so I headed home around 3 (this should have been a warning sign for later on!!). My friend who hosts the Tuesday music nights was playing a concert in Irun (a town very close to the French border), so a bunch of us were heading there for dinner and the concert. I met up with my friends and rode in a car (other than a taxi) for the second time since arriving here. The drive was nice because it was dusk and the landscape is quite pretty. We got to Irun, and it was raining. Fortunately, I have learned the lesson that in the Basque Country you always need a sweater (because the temperature will drop 20 degrees) and an umbrella (because chances are it's going to rain). We tried to find a pintxos place and wandered into a bar that two of the Spanish people with us really liked. We had a drink and shared a very tiny sandwich, but they weren't serving any warm food. So we tried three other bars, none of which were serving food. It was getting colder and colder, so finally we asked if there was anywhere that was open. We ended up at a food court in a very strange mall. It was strange because there were two pintxos bars and a Burger King in the food court. The pintxos bars both had table service (weird for a pintxos bar and weird for a food court). Anyhow, we got our food and, though it was not very tasty, were happy to have any food. We headed to the concert, which was very good, and then headed home.
Saturday was full of errands - I did laundry for the first time since before Puerto Rico, which meant that nearly everything I have here was in the wash. I did some grocery shopping and tried to go to the yarn store, which changes its hours on a whim, so of course it wasn't open. I finally got functioning headphones, so now the sound doesn't go in and out in the right ear depending on how I move the cord. I managed to get a little work done and then headed out to my friend's house for some mojitos. It was really fun, and even though we were supposed to go to a concert that night too, I ended up heading home. My sinuses and allergies are slaying me this week. I'm hoping they calm down soon! I was supposed to go for a hike with some friends yesterday, but wasn't feeling very well.
Overall, it was a relaxing weekend. I'm settling in more and more to the ebb and flow of Spanish and English during conversations here. I can also tell I'm settling in because I'm starting to get more used to people. I know who I like to spend time with and who annoys me. I know where to go if I want to meet up with friends and which places to avoid. This weekend is another conference here. It's located at the same place as the first conference I went to the second day I was here. I'm excited to go back now that things have changed. I'm sure I'll be reflecting on how different things are (I am) since I arrived two months ago.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Time flies ...
I arrived in Spain a little over two months ago, and it already feels like an eternity. I got back from Puerto Rico a week ago today (right about this time, actually, my flight was landing in Bilbao). It feels like I've been back forever. That's good because things went back to my new "normal," but it's bad because I feel like I need a break and need to see Pete again now. Fortunately, it's only 27 days from now 'til I get back to Chicago, so I don't have long to wait, but as we all know patience is not my strong suit.
Speaking of patience, I was getting pretty frustrated at work yesterday by how slowly a particular project is going. I knew I was not going to have the patience to sit through Spanish (about half of the class was gone Monday and Tuesday, so it was going to be a re-hash of those two days). So, I decided to leave work a little early and head out to run some errands and give myself a Spanish lesson. I decided I was going to talk to someone at the grocery store. The original plan was to finally brave the meat or fish counters, but they were doing their afternoon cleanup so weren't being very helpful. I took a leisurely stroll through the market and found some things I hadn't seen before when I'd been rushed through. Fresh asparagus - which was not with most of the fruits and veggies, but in a sort of different area with a few other things I hadn't been able to find (e.g., carrots). I still have yet to find shallots, which is sad, and they didn't have broccoli yesterday, either. I did manage to find limes (inexplicably near the fresh nut section, which includes some very tempting chestnuts). I also found canned artichokes (jammed between a gigantic section of canned white asparagus). I'm not sure if I've discussed the Spaniards love of canned/jarred white asparagus ... but they love it. It comes in these tins and is huge ... and tastes nothing like asparagus. So weird. But so are a lot of the other food obsessions here. There is a whole aisle devoted to tinned fish. It's not just sardines and anchovies (which are fine with me), but there are various tinned small fishes in a wide variety of sauces. Apparently, one needs enough varieties of tinned fish to warrant an entire aisle at the grocery store ...
Anyhow, I took my finds up to the counter and had a real conversation with the cashier. I also had a nice conversation Tuesday night with a friend of a friend who complimented my Spanish. I am still unendingly frustrated with this process of learning Spanish, but I have to remind myself how much easier it is. Conversations in big groups flow between Spanish and English, and I survive. Overall, I think my impromptu Spanish practice was more useful than Spanish class yesterday.
___________________________
Totally forgot to post this today! Oops! I'm having a low-key evening here, going out for a walk now that the rain has stopped and the sun is out again. Tomorrow my friend's boyfriend (who is also my friend I suppose) is playing a concert in Irun (about 25 minutes away near the French border), so we're all going. It will be quite late, but should be fun!
Speaking of patience, I was getting pretty frustrated at work yesterday by how slowly a particular project is going. I knew I was not going to have the patience to sit through Spanish (about half of the class was gone Monday and Tuesday, so it was going to be a re-hash of those two days). So, I decided to leave work a little early and head out to run some errands and give myself a Spanish lesson. I decided I was going to talk to someone at the grocery store. The original plan was to finally brave the meat or fish counters, but they were doing their afternoon cleanup so weren't being very helpful. I took a leisurely stroll through the market and found some things I hadn't seen before when I'd been rushed through. Fresh asparagus - which was not with most of the fruits and veggies, but in a sort of different area with a few other things I hadn't been able to find (e.g., carrots). I still have yet to find shallots, which is sad, and they didn't have broccoli yesterday, either. I did manage to find limes (inexplicably near the fresh nut section, which includes some very tempting chestnuts). I also found canned artichokes (jammed between a gigantic section of canned white asparagus). I'm not sure if I've discussed the Spaniards love of canned/jarred white asparagus ... but they love it. It comes in these tins and is huge ... and tastes nothing like asparagus. So weird. But so are a lot of the other food obsessions here. There is a whole aisle devoted to tinned fish. It's not just sardines and anchovies (which are fine with me), but there are various tinned small fishes in a wide variety of sauces. Apparently, one needs enough varieties of tinned fish to warrant an entire aisle at the grocery store ...
Anyhow, I took my finds up to the counter and had a real conversation with the cashier. I also had a nice conversation Tuesday night with a friend of a friend who complimented my Spanish. I am still unendingly frustrated with this process of learning Spanish, but I have to remind myself how much easier it is. Conversations in big groups flow between Spanish and English, and I survive. Overall, I think my impromptu Spanish practice was more useful than Spanish class yesterday.
___________________________
Totally forgot to post this today! Oops! I'm having a low-key evening here, going out for a walk now that the rain has stopped and the sun is out again. Tomorrow my friend's boyfriend (who is also my friend I suppose) is playing a concert in Irun (about 25 minutes away near the French border), so we're all going. It will be quite late, but should be fun!
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