As the title states, I've been pretty busy lately, and I apologize for the lack of contact and blog posts. I've been trying to balance all the trips I'm doing in April and on top of that trying to keep all my school work organized (of course, they had to pile up all the tests and projects before we go on our end of course trip). And, as also mentioned in the title, I've been trying to leave the house and I've had soccer. So, overall, my to-do list is piling up and, believe me, it's not getting any shorter.
But, I found a moment to relax, so I decided to update the blog. I don't have any pictures to upload, I know I promised the ones from the Canary Islands, but I just haven't gotten around to it...
So anyway, overall I'd say I'm doing well, as usual. In school we've been doing a lot of cool projects and watching movies and the suchlike, so I've been pretty interested in what I'm doing, which always makes things better. In soccer our team isn't doing so well, and I've been having a sort of "down" period, but I think I've finally gotten out of that and we'll see how things go in the next few weeks.
Other than that, the time's been going by really quickly, but nothing's waiting up for me, so I'm sad to say I'm going to have to cut this post pretty short, and if I encounter a little time in the next few weeks I'll be sure to keep things updated.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
A little more kultura
This weekend was rather relaxed. I didn't have a soccer game, so friday night after going to soccer practice I was free to do what I pleased. Then, Saturday morning a friend and I went to San Sebastian to go for a walk and we took our cameras along. It was a really nice day out and there was some pretty good lighting, so I guess I'll upload those pictures to facebook along with my pictures from the Canary Islands (which I'll get to next weekend, I promise, I know it's been over 3 months...).
Then, for lunch we went to a Sagardotegia. It's a restaurant-type place where they have giant barrels of sidra (alcoholic apple cider) lined up and, while eating typical Basque food, a guy will call "Txotx!" and everyone lines up in front of the sidra barrels. There's a little hole in the barrel that they open up and a small line of sidra pours out, and everyone lined up catches the sidra in their cups, trying not to let any of it spill on the floor. Once the last person is done, the guy closes the tap and everyone returns to their tables to eat. This, in reality, is how I guess I percieved it to be the way its supposed to work. When I went, everyone basically just went whenever they wanted sidra (usually the groups of people eating together would go together for sidra) and open the tap themselves.
Aside from the sidra, the food is a pretty important part of the sagardotegia (sagarra, by the way, means apple in Euskera). And, if I may say so myself, the food is delicious. For appetizers they gave us txorizo (basque sausage) and bread. For the first course there was tortilla de bacalao con pimientos (a tortilla with a certain fish and green peppers). For second there was bacalao con pimientos (this seemed a little repetitive to me, but equally delicious and didn't bore me, even after eating the tortilla). Then came the best part: the txuleta. It's basically a giant steak, the basque pride lies in this simple plate. Whenever someone asks me if I've eaten/if I like the food here, they'll always be sure to mention the txuleta and how good it is, and they're right. Then, after having eaten all that and watching the adults get sidra and seeing how it worked, of course, there had to be dessert. Another very typical Basque plate, cheese, walnuts and membrillo, a gelatin-type food made out of apple (dulce de manzana, basically) or the quince fruit which is kind of like a pear. It was a pretty memorable meal and if I ever go back to a sidrería, I'll be sure to bring a camera.
After this large, long lunch (another very typical thing here, along with the mentality that eating lunch before 1:30 is practically like eating breakfast), I met up with my friends around 5 o'clock, and spent the rest of the afternoon with them in Urnieta looking for places where there would still be sun as it was slowly setting, but eventually giving up when we found a comfortable place to sit.
It was quite a nice day, and today I've spent most of my day studying history or getting distracted, but tomorrow is my last test this trimester, so I'm pretty happy about that.
On another note, I've been hearing on the news and everywhere about what's been going on in Japan and, of course, I've been following the movements in the Arabic world. I consider myself very lucky to be where I am and live where I do (and have lived where I have), always feeling extremely safe and hardly facing more than a large storm or blizzard. I think we should all keep the Japanese in mind and hope for the best in such a terrible situation.
Then, for lunch we went to a Sagardotegia. It's a restaurant-type place where they have giant barrels of sidra (alcoholic apple cider) lined up and, while eating typical Basque food, a guy will call "Txotx!" and everyone lines up in front of the sidra barrels. There's a little hole in the barrel that they open up and a small line of sidra pours out, and everyone lined up catches the sidra in their cups, trying not to let any of it spill on the floor. Once the last person is done, the guy closes the tap and everyone returns to their tables to eat. This, in reality, is how I guess I percieved it to be the way its supposed to work. When I went, everyone basically just went whenever they wanted sidra (usually the groups of people eating together would go together for sidra) and open the tap themselves.
Aside from the sidra, the food is a pretty important part of the sagardotegia (sagarra, by the way, means apple in Euskera). And, if I may say so myself, the food is delicious. For appetizers they gave us txorizo (basque sausage) and bread. For the first course there was tortilla de bacalao con pimientos (a tortilla with a certain fish and green peppers). For second there was bacalao con pimientos (this seemed a little repetitive to me, but equally delicious and didn't bore me, even after eating the tortilla). Then came the best part: the txuleta. It's basically a giant steak, the basque pride lies in this simple plate. Whenever someone asks me if I've eaten/if I like the food here, they'll always be sure to mention the txuleta and how good it is, and they're right. Then, after having eaten all that and watching the adults get sidra and seeing how it worked, of course, there had to be dessert. Another very typical Basque plate, cheese, walnuts and membrillo, a gelatin-type food made out of apple (dulce de manzana, basically) or the quince fruit which is kind of like a pear. It was a pretty memorable meal and if I ever go back to a sidrería, I'll be sure to bring a camera.
After this large, long lunch (another very typical thing here, along with the mentality that eating lunch before 1:30 is practically like eating breakfast), I met up with my friends around 5 o'clock, and spent the rest of the afternoon with them in Urnieta looking for places where there would still be sun as it was slowly setting, but eventually giving up when we found a comfortable place to sit.
It was quite a nice day, and today I've spent most of my day studying history or getting distracted, but tomorrow is my last test this trimester, so I'm pretty happy about that.
On another note, I've been hearing on the news and everywhere about what's been going on in Japan and, of course, I've been following the movements in the Arabic world. I consider myself very lucky to be where I am and live where I do (and have lived where I have), always feeling extremely safe and hardly facing more than a large storm or blizzard. I think we should all keep the Japanese in mind and hope for the best in such a terrible situation.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Iñauteriak!
This weekend (Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday) marks the annual celebration of Carnival, in spanish Carnavales and in euskera Iñauteriak. It's basically like an extended version of halloween in that everyone gets dressed up and there are parades in the streets, but there's no asking for candy involved. On Saturday my friends and I went to Hernani, a neighbouring town, where everyone basically gathered in the streets and in bars dancing, socializing, and, well, drinking. I have been to Hernani before and it seemed to me like there were less people than there ordinarily are when there are "fiestas". I figured out why yesterday. There's a huge celebration in another large town called Tolosa about half an hour away in train, and you'd probably have to look pretty closely to find someone not dressed up. People of all ages, babies, toddlers, teenagers, adults, I even saw a few grandparents dressed up in full-on clown costumes. I got a few good pictures on my phone but I'm not sure how to download them so as soon as I find out I'll add them on to this post. Today's supposed to be the biggest night so I'm sure I'll get some more pictures.
Other than the celebrations, rides (they had bumper cars and your typical amusment park rides, except for roller coasters, of course), and all the people gathered in the street, I really enjoyed Tolosa and I think I'm going to go back one day when there aren't any celebrations going on just to see what it's like. I found it to be a really beautiful town and I really liked the atmosphere.
The next few weeks will be rather calm after Carnavales finishes and once April comes around I'll have a lot of stories to tell.
Other than the celebrations, rides (they had bumper cars and your typical amusment park rides, except for roller coasters, of course), and all the people gathered in the street, I really enjoyed Tolosa and I think I'm going to go back one day when there aren't any celebrations going on just to see what it's like. I found it to be a really beautiful town and I really liked the atmosphere.
The next few weeks will be rather calm after Carnavales finishes and once April comes around I'll have a lot of stories to tell.
Twenty-Eighth Week
Carnavales. My friends and I dressed up as football players. And we weren't the only ones. I guess the sport is so weird here they've turned it into a costume.
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