Notes from Abroad

03 Dec 2014

Tomorrow marks the three-month milestone of my time in Spain. Although I can’t be 100% sure, I believe I’ve finally overcome the last of the culture shock. While it has been a difficult battle, there have been plenty of fantastic experiences that create the culture which preceeds the shock. In other words, although I’ve suffered from culture shock for the time being, at least it’s been worth it.

So, here are a few stories about my time so far:

Pinxtopote:

This might be my favorite. So far I’ve visited four cities/towns– San Sebastián, Bilbao, Mondragon, and Vitoria-Gasteiz– and in each there is an “old part” of the downtown area with alleyways lined with shops and plenty of bars with people eating, drinking, and talking both inside and outside the restaurant. There are plates and plates of hor d’oeuvres, each one around 2€ each. Instead of having to buy a whole meal when you go out with friends, you can instead enjoy one or two of these with a glass of beer, wine, water, or, as I prefer, mosto, which is an orange and grape juice mix. In this way I get to taste a lot of different foods.

The pintxo itself is usually made up of two parts, the base and the topping. The base is usually a slice of French bread (though here it’s just called bread…), but the topping can be literally anything. I’ve tried pintxos of tortilla (which isn’t the tortillas from Mexico. It’s like a casserole/cake of potato, egg, and cheese), sausage, crab-salad, peppers, and a spinach-cheese topping.

Here we’ve got hot chocolate (which is not cocoa; it’s more or less melted chocolate in a cup. Needless to say, it is BEAUTIFULLY DELICIOUS), a piece of bread, and a “tortilla-taco” (my title, not theirs. It’s the Spanish tortilla sliced in half and stuffed with lettuce, tomato, chicken, and other taco-ish ingredients). If you compare the two pictures, you’ll see not all pintxos are this size, but they can be even fancier.

Traditional Basque Social Dancing:

One weekend I stumbled upon a Basque Ceilidh in the center plaza. Instructors shouted out instructions in Basque, a band performed traditional music, and a large crowd observed while the braver folk gathered to dance together. Drawn in by curiosity, I looked on for a while before jumping in. I failed miserably, so I bailed out and watched a little longer. Then I tried again, this time with more success. There were three general styles of dance, two of them very similar to Contra and Scottish Country dancing. It’s fun to experience the local twist of an international activity.

Medieval Festival

Much like the reinnacance festival in Raleigh, the center was decorated with flags, vendors set up booths selling kids’ toys, jewelry, clothes, knives, sweets, meats, and other crafts, and earlier on there was music, theatrical performances, and carnival games (the latter three, unfortunately, I missed because I was out of town). Even though not all of the wares were strictly from the time period, the ambiance was very festive, the night beautiful, and it was fun to pretend to be part of the time period for a little bit.

Thursday Movie Night

My friends and I have started a weekly tradition of watching a film each Thursday night. After dinner we head up to the living room, share a couple packs of cookies, and pop in a DVD. Kids here love the same movies that are popular in the U.S., and we’ve watched a wide variety: The King’s Speech, Mission Impossible, Date Night, Holiday in Rome, Twilight, and Hancock are some we’ve seen. This week’s will be Lord of the Rings.

All of the titles are translated into Spanish –and sometimes it takes me a while to puzzle out which movie they’re talking about– and the dialogue dubbed. Quicker than I expected, I adjusted to the new voices and translated dialogue; the more I watch, the more I see the art in translating a film. Although the words don’t match up with the lips of the actor, the speech begins when he opens his mouth and ends when he closes it, and if he marks a phrase with emphasis with his hands, that’s the word that’s emphasized in Spanish, too. It’s got to be a tricky process.

The amazing part is that I watch and can understand without subtitles… sometimes I can’t believe that I actually understand what is being said and what is happening. (Then again, I understand a lot less on the nights I’m super tired.)

And then there’s the visit to Guggenheim Museum…