I thought it was about time that I write a little bit more
about daily life here in San Sebastian.
Kitchen
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| Drew making potato salad for his spanish class potluck |
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| I have been making apple pies to share with people |
My favorite part of my tiny but functional kitchen is my automatic
dishwasher (my husband ;-). My
second favorite thing is the cabinet above the sink, which is actually a built
in “hidden” drying rack!
I have a vitroceramic stovetop, which works great, but I still prefer gas. I have a countertop oven big enough to roast a chicken (which I have never bothered to do) or bake a frozen pizza (which is a regular staple).
Doing laundry
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| Hanging laundry from the guest room window |
My front loading Balay (never heard of that brand) washing
machine is in the kitchen, as is common here. I take my clothes from the kitchen to the guest
bedroom, where there is a shuttered window that looks out into a central covered (clear
plastic roofing material that lets light, but not rain in) courtyard …so the
building is like a square donut.
From that window, clotheslines run on pulleys to the opposite
apartment’s window. Luckily that
person across from us must use a dryer, because I have never seen anyone else use these lines.
Believe me, I worried for a long time about proper clothesline sharing
etiquette until I realized that I had all 4 lines to myself. I basically lean slightly out the
window, to hang and collect my clothing.
It works great. The air
convection in the “square magic donut hole” dries our laundry overnight, even jeans, and even on the rainiest days.
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| looking up at the plastic roof of the square donut hole |
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| view down from our 3rd floor window |
I have sacrificed about 5 clothespins so far to the “laundry
gods.”
I confess, I hang my underwear and socks inside the
apartment to dry; I am mortified by the thought of dropping them by accident,
and having the lady 3 floors down hanging my underwear on the handrail at the
bottom of the steps…the "system" the building has for retrieving laundry that falls
from clothes lines on upper floors.
Bathroom
Yup, I have a bidet, and like it. Enough said.
Shopping for
Groceries
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| farmer market |
I buy my barra de pan (baguette) at the corner bakery. It costs 10 cents more on Sundays.
Bread is surprisingly cheap and oh so delicious. Most people say they could not live
without bread and olive oil here.
I have never seen anyone use or offer butter. Its all olive oil, and all the time, in amounts that astound me. Olive oil is cheaper than in the US and butter more
expensive. I’ve also heard people
say with religious zeal that bread is sacred and should never be thrown
away. Once I discovered the seedy
baguette called “molino” I’ve become a one trick pony. The woman in the bakery, greets me in
Basque, and hands me my loaf of “Molino” with a big smile (I no longer need to
point and ask for what I want).
It’s always warm too! How
is that possible? This week she
told me to take a walk in the neighborhood and by the time I return it would be
ready. Of course, I obeyed. She works 6 days a week, as she said she
has done for the last 20 years, and enjoys it.
I do most of my grocery shopping at BM mercato…pronounced
“bayemmay” here. It’s a 30 min
round trip door to door. In
general I don’t think most people do the majority of their shopping in what we
would consider a standard grocery story for the items they prefer fresh. Produce
shops abound and are open 7 days a week with limited hours. Most smaller businesses close from 130-430 so people go home and eat. BM is open. Most people have their favorite meat,
fish and produce markets that they frequent, and a regular grocery store for
canned goods etc. There is a
section on specialty foods but I have never seen a single curry paste, and the
Mexican food section is extremely limited and frighteningly expensive. Prices-I’m told San Sebastian is quite
expensive compared to other Spanish cities. Yet, I would say I pay about 40-50% less for my food here
compared to in the US. With the
exception of things like prepackaged junk food and soda, food is much cheaper
here. We see a lot more food grown
on small commercial plots of land than in the US. I don’t know if they allow GMO’s here. Imported items are expensive i.e. a
small jar of Mexican salsa is about $4.50US. I have been unable to find thai red curry paste anywhere and
just finished off my last sacred jar.
I make my own hummus, and buy only Spanish cheese, which is delicious
and costs a fortune in the US.
Drew has gotten into the Spanish wines, and cidre, which is unbelievably
cheap for the quality. You can buy
this year’s wine for a few euros, and a Crianza, which I’m told is at least 3
years old for 5-10UE in the grocery store.
I actually go to a halal meat shop owned by a Moroccan man
for chicken because I like the spices, and because I can buy peanut butter and
nuts from him at great prices. The
storekeeper always greets me with a big familiar smile. And seems to take pride in the fact that I am a return customer and like his products. This is apparently pretty rare here for
a non-muslim to buy from a halal meat market. My muslim classmates think this is hilarious. They also think it is totally
disgusting that I make Thai/ Indonesion peanut sauce with the peanut butter. I tell them “don’t
knock it till you try it. “
The fact that I have to carry everything up 52 steps keeps
me from overbuying. I have a tiny
fridge about the same size as my washing machine. To my surprise, it is enough space. Ok, maybe not for a Thanksgiving
turkey, but so far I haven’t needed more space. I waste far less food here. At home my guilt about wasting food is relieved by my
chickens, to whom I feed our food scraps… no chickens here. I’m embarrassed to say
it has taken me nearly 5 months to get up the courage to buy fish. Prawns are easy, point and you just
indicate how many handfuls. But to
buy fish, you kind of have to know something about the various types of fish.
You also must speak enough Spanish to describe what you want done with it, or
be really good at charades. I
stand in front of a counter filled with ice, with whole fish staring back at
me. I point to the fish I want.
The fish “butcher” takes the fish, weighs it, asks if I want the head and bones
(presumably for making fish stock).
I scrunch my nose (a universal “no”), do I want it skinned? how do I
want it cut? …“ en lomos, por
favor” (filets), and then in “trozos” chunks. If they find parts of it have a parasite, they cut it off
and weigh it, deducting it from your price (though you always pay for the head
etc. It takes about 10 min for
them to scale, skin, debone, and filet).
All customers take their number and wait patiently. If the person ahead of you orders more
than one fish, it can be a long wait.
I can’t imagine people waiting that patiently back in California. I have never had such delicious fish in
my entire life as I have had here.
When I was buying my first merluza, which was about as big as my arm, I
had no feel for how much of that huge fish would be edible. When did I become so disconnected from
my food and the source?
Odd things that have
happened
#1
While talking in the train station with my schoolmate from
Pakistan (in very broken Spanish), a woman started screaming at us, dropped her
pants to her ankles, wiggled her bare butt at us, pulled her pants up, gave us a severe unintelligible tongue before storming off.
I’m pretty sure she had a screw loose. People here in Basque country generally tend to be more
reserved (usually), very friendly if you start a conversation, but usually
don’t initiate it. A Spanish person told me it could have been a gypsy woman because minutes before we had an odd interaction with a man leaning heavily and awkwardly into us to listen to our conversation. The Spanish person said gypsy women are very possessive with there men, and would blame other women for attracting their mans attention. I'm not totally convinced...but I must admit it is a possibility that wouldn't have occurred to me in a million years.
#2
The other day I was sitting on a park bench reading in the
sun by the river when an elderly (85yo- ish) man, about 5ft tall waddled up to
me, cane in hand, and said something unintelligible. After going back and forth trying to understand him, and
finally explaining that my Spanish wasn’t very good, he said it didn’t
matter…he wanted me to go with him tonight. Ok, like I said, my Spanish isn’t very good, but I know when
I’m being picked up. A friend said
“maybe he just wanted to take you out to dinner”… but why would you want to
have dinner with someone you can’t converse with? What did he have in mind for dessert?
One day my friendly middle aged neighbor who lives with his
mom across the hall (she was out of town) set up a bizarre alter outside his
door comprised of a record, dog hair, magazine pages, incense, a dog bone, and wires
from some electronic device spread 5 feet in all direction. I think he was trying to protect his
dog from the “evil spirits” that were agitating his dog, causing the dog to
bark like crazy and run up and down 4 flights of stairs peeing. I had a worrisome brief conversation
with him before heading out for a few hours. He had been shouting and playing super loud music at all
hours. When I came back there was
blood on the “alter”, on the dog, and on him. Cookies in front of my door and a string tied to the
knob. I had a feeling his
delusions were caused by some unhealthy behaviors combined with not taking
meds.
I called the owner of my apartment for advice. He called 112. A team of 6-8 police/healthcare
personnel came and spent 1.5 hours calmly talking him into going with them. It was impressive to see how they
handled it.
Going out with
friends
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| Going for a walk on a sunny day |
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| Pinxto- sauted veggies in a pastry with quail egg on top |
Café con leche at 10 or 11, a beer or wine at 1, lunch at 2
or 3, Maybe pintxos and a beer or wine at 5-9 dinner at 9 or 10…dar un vuelta
(take a stroll)…this are all normal things to do at these somewhat standard
times. It kind of makes it easy to
make plans with people. Depending
on what time they invite you to get together, you know what you are going to
eat or drink and what to expect. In most bars you can
get non-alcoholic beer and Moxto (grape juice), but not always soda or
juice. “Pintxo etiquette” (called
tapas in other parts of Spain)- You usually point to the ones laid out on
plates on the bar, and the bar tender puts it on a plate for you; sometimes he
will hand you a plate and tell you to take what you want, but don’t take
anything unless he gives you a plate.
The best pintxos are ones that you order from the chalkboard behind the
bar. You can also get larger portions called "raciones." One would NEVER think to have
dinner before 9pm or 930 here. Of
course it is typically a small meal compared to lunch.
The best deal in town is the lunch “menu of the day,” which is usually written on a chalk
board in front of the restaurant or bar.
It is usually 9-13EU during the week, and includes a “first” course, which
could be soup, salad, veggies (you choose), and a “second” course, which is usually
some kind of meat dish (veal, rabbit, beef, pork), or fish, or chicken (you choose),
followed by a desert (cheesecake, chocolate tart, arroz con leche, flan, yogurt
or a piece of fruit), water or wine (you are typically given a whole bottle of
wine), and sometimes a post-desert café. Probably the oddest things I’ve had so far here are beef cheeks and pigs ears. Nothing as weird as the roasted cicadas
(bugs) I ate in Thailand.
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| Typical pintxo bar |
It takes a little effort to discover what the fuss over the
food here is all about. My first
impression was too much mayo, too much salt, too much fatty Jamon. Now that I am better at ordering, I am
enjoying the food more, but still miss my hot spicy ethnic foods.
Miscellaneous
entertainment
There is a steady flow of music events, photography,
sculpture, film and art of all kinds.
Many things are free, or there are concessions. We went to see the symphony for 12 euros in the "nosebleed section" recently. We were struck by a sign at the ticket window that indicated students under 30
and, the unemployed could by tickets 30 min before the show for 3 euros (less
than $4). Why not right? It’s better to play to a full house,
and offering youth affordable tickets “grows” the audience base in the long run.
There is a movie theater that plays
movies in their original form about a block from here. We have never gone. We watch a lot of pretty good American
and European movies that are a little older, in Spanish with Spanish subtitles
on regular TV. It is our way of
killing 2 birds with one stone…improving our Spanish and enjoying a movie. If we get really confused we google it,
to figure out the plot (cheat). Really, walking is our primary source of entertainment. Never know what you will see!
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| A guy enjoying a sunset paraglide |
That's about all I can think of...basically service has been fabulous, but plan on spending a ton of time waiting for the bill unless you ask for it. Even Spaniards who get tired of waiting get up and walk over to the counter sometimes to pay.
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| Paraglider decided to land in a park |
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| These guys are always out playing in one of the plazas |
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| Buen Pastor Cathedral |
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| city hall |
