Mi Primer Partido de Fútbol

Party in the Guggenheim: check
Wine tasting: check
Professional soccer game: check!

I finally got to go to a professional soccer game last Sunday. Michelle and Nina bought Kate and I tickets on Saturday for 35€ to see Bilbao Athletic play Tenerife (which from what I hear is the team of the Canary Islands?) As you can see I am not a die hard soccer fan, but I had to go to a game while I was in Spain. The game was at 5:00 so Lizzie, Michelle, Nina, Kate and I went out around 2:30 to some streets near the stadium and sat around in some bars until the game started.

I finally got to wear my Bilbao Athletic scarf, but Kate was too lame to wear hers so Nina did instead. Then Michelle went and bought herself one and right away I took advantage of my newly learned coloquial Spanish and called her a chaquetera (fair-weather fan)! Michelle is normally a die hard Real Madrid fan, so when she bought that scarf i had so give her some flack about it :)

 ¡Chaquetera!

When we got into the stadium we had no idea where out seats were and after asking at least five people some others just pointed us to some empty seats... that were fourth row! Pretty sweet deal if you ask me. We got to see all of the first half's goals because we were on the north side of the field and when Athletic scores all these giant flags go flying up in the crowds. At one point one fan had his shirt off (not a sight for sore eyes) and was getting the crowd to chant the Bilbao Athletic fight song.

(The shirtless fan...)

Athletic won 4-1, but the ending wasn't as exciting as I had hoped... Maybe it was because it was on a Sunday or because it was an expected win, but I had my fair share of fun! I don't think I'll be splurging the money to go to another game, but it was a good opportunity to show off my newfound Bilbao pride! ¡Vaya Atlétic!

La Rioja y las Bodegas

On Saturday Kate and I were invited to go wine tasting with Ashley and some of her friends in La Rioja. It is a region of northern Spain in Navarra that is considered to have the best wine in the country. We would be going to one particular town in particular called Haro where we had reservations to see a bodega (wine cellar) called Bilbaina Bodega and try some of the wines they made there. The plan was to leave for Haro at 10:45 that morning, but by that time Kate and I had only gotten four hours of sleep after leaving Fever earlier that morning. We opted to take the later bus and meet everyone there in the afternoon since our bodega reservations weren't til 5:00 in the afternoon.

(La Rioja... Ashley took this picture earlier in the day)

 (The seal of Bilbainas Bodegas)

Have I mentioned that Kate and I fail at planning any sort of adventure or trip? Well Kate and I got to our bus and arrived in Haro as scheduled. What we didn't realize was that we were completely under dressed to be walking around a town surrounded by mountains, we had no idea where we were and no map to navigate us, and to top it all off I didn't have my phone and Kate's ran out of minutes! We were able to talk to Ashley briefly so she could give us some type of direction, but it wasn't much help to two girls who were stranded in the middle of ghost town. Maybe it was because of siesta, but there was no one in this town and everything was closed! When we did see someone in the distance we had to practically chase after them to ask what direction the river was in.

(Town of Haro... Photo credit to Ashley again)

(Vineyard... probably prettier in the summer)

When we finally did find the "river" we were no where closer to finding where we needed to be. Finally the Guardia Civil (police) drove up and asked us if we needed directions. The next thing I know we are in their patrol car on our way to the bodega. As if it wasn't embarrassing enough that we were late, we pulled up to the place in a patrol car and a group of about 20 strangers (who were waiting for us!) burst into laughter! Just a tad mortifying...

(Giant barrels of wine!)

(Fermentation Tanks)

 (Storage barrels)

We finally caught up with our friends and just in time for the tour. I did not realize that our tour group would consist of more than the nine of us and for that same reason I was about shocked that I could hardly understand our tour guide. Since he was speaking to a group of about thirty and they were all native Spanish speakers he had no time to slow down for us. That made the tour a bit less intriguing... Then we also discovered half the tour was outside or in cold cellars, so once again our lack of layers came back to slap us in the face. We made the best of it though and it was interesting to see all of the different rooms the processing of wine goes through. At the end we got to sip some red wine, but once again, not by choice. It was a cheaper bottle and one of them had a licorice flavor... He showed us how to hold the wine against the light to look at the color and how to decipher the scent though so that was educating. We made it back for our 8:30 bus and all in all it was a nice day. I think a summer tour would have been the better choice, but I don't have that option, so this was just one more thing I can say I did in Spain!

 (Really old, moldy barrels)

(The group at the tasting... our guide gave me the bottle to hold)

Art After Dark and Fever

Last month I posted about a party at the Guggenheim Museum called Art After Dark. A lot of us didn't get to go because it was sold out, well I made a point of going this month. We took a little siesta after our field trip and then got ready to party in style. My group and I didn't make it til pretty late, but it was okay because there actually wasn't much to do. There were lights and a DJ making for some sort of mingling and "dancing" if you can call it that. We went around taking pictures with the different art exhibits in the museum instead, like the LED lights below, they turned out really cool :)

Then we went upstairs and watched the party from above and met a few other international students. One guy was French and ended up being pretty friendly going against normal French stereotypes. It may have been his choice of drinks that night as well... While talking to us he mentioned this "serpiente" that he was told about by another Spanish man. All I could think of was the steel artwork downstairs called "Time and Matter" where there was a big curvy part in the middle. No idea how I thought of it, but we brought our new friend down there and he was very pleased ha.

I assumed the "Serpiente" was that curved piece in the middle

And then the museum fiesta came to a close. It wasn't as classy as I expected, but hey, now I get to say I partied in the Guggenheim. With our admission to Art After Dark we also got free cover into a nightclub called Fever. Of course, with the nightlife of Spainards the club didn't open until 2am, but we decided to go check it out. On the way we hoped to find Telepizza, some other international guys thought it was Mexican when we asked them? But it closed twenty minutes before we got there... so we trekked on to the club.

 Ladies at the Guggenheim

The metro took us to a pretty shady looking factory town, but there were hoards of people heading there too so I wasn't too worried. The club was in an actual renovated factory building and had about three different rooms going on all at once, each with different music and a different bar. But talj about sausage fest... pardon my language... but it was all guys! And they weren't even attractive guys... I'll just say that the fun and techno music only lasted so long until I was ready to go. We called a taxi that took forever to show up and when it did I had to fend some girls off so that I could get home before 5am! Overall I can say I had a really fun night, don't think I'll need to do Art After Dark or Fever again, I'll just check them off my list of experiences.

 

 

Excursión a Urdaibai

This past Friday we had another schedule CIDE trip. This time we were going to Urdaibai which is part of the Basque Country's Biosphere Reserve. I was under the impression that we were going to a big national park of some sort, but the Reserve is actually a teritory with about 50,000 inhabitants spread throughout 22 different cities. We would be visiting two of the more important cities: Gernika and Mundaka.

(Picasso's "Gernika")

Gernika is considered the historic capital of the Basque Country. We got to visit several places here including the infamous Assembly House and Tree of Gernika and the Museo de la Paz (Peace Museum). The Assembly House wasn't too impressive. There was a chamber where old and current goverment meetings still take place, paintings of old leaders, and a giant chandelier with trees on its detailing. Outside the House is the Tree of Gernika. This tree is considered the most universal symbol for the Basque people and many of the past General Assemblies were held under its branches. However, the yard is now home to several different generations of the tree and therefore making the scenery a bit less exciting.

 (The Assembly Room)

The current "tree" was planted in 2005  and is smaller than a lot of trees around Summit. New Jersey. And being only February, it looked weak and measely without any leaves. There is an "Old Tree" (or trunk) that is housed by stone columns that is over 300 years old as well. This tree isn't even the first of all the Trees of Gernika, but is the oldest conserved tree. It is considered the grandparent to the tree that lasted from 1860-2004 before the new one was planted in 2005. For such a huge symbol though, I was not that impressed.

 (CIDE group outside the current "tree"... yeah that leafless thing in the back)

The "Old Tree"

There was also the Stained-Glass Window room which was actually very intriguing. (A particular stained-glass maker I know would find it very impressive!) The room which was originally designed as a courtyard was transformed into a museum  in 1964 and the roof acts as a huge statined-glass window. The window is said to represent the symbolism of the tree as a meeting point for the different people and municipalties of Biscay. The center is obviosuly the tree and around the border there are different monuments of different places in Biscay.

 (Stained-glass roof)

Gernika is also commonly known for the tragic bombing that took place on April 26, 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. The current dictator (Franciso) of that time allowed Germans to test their bombs by dropping them on this town and the results were catastrophic. We visited el Museo de la Paz to learn more about this.Pablo Picasso even painted a painting called "Genika" to represent the tragedy of these bombings and the museum also had displays on the culture of peace and different aspects of peace all around the world. One room had a whole display of pictures, videos and clutter left over from the bombings. While you walked around there was rubble under the floor where you saw old letters, dolls, utensils, and books burned and charred among the shattered rock and cement. The museum was small, but I enjoyed it.

(Bombing rubble under the floors.. book and spoon)

After having a seafood themed lunch we got back on the buses to head to Mundaka. A town known for its surfing. It is part of the Mundaka Estuary and is clearly still a small fishing town. There were the typical old town homes and we got to walk out onto a pier to look out into the Cantabric Sea, but of course it started to pour, so the view was not so spectacular. We headed over to a church that was closed, and got to see more of the coast. I realized some people were climbing down some stairs to get closer down to the water and just as I was about to join them one of the teachers scolded everyone to come back up. We got to walk around a little more, but the rain kind of put a damper on things, so we got back onto the buses and headed home for the day. It wasn't one of our best trips so far, but I love when I get the chance to travel anywhere. And it will be cool to see Picasso's original painting of "Gernika" when we got to the museums in Madrid.

Txoko y Pintxos con Vino!

So far I have really been liking my classes here in Spain. Nothing is too hard and all my teachers are really down-to-earth. One class in particular though is something I would never get to experience in the States. I mentioned earlier that I am enrolled in a Practicum:Spain in Context class. It's one half theater and one half cuisine. I am having a hard time enjoying the theater part because comical improv excercises and charades are not really my thing. But my doubts about that class are completely washed out with the other half. My spanish cuisine class has definitely been one of my favorite parts about my schooling here. During our lecture classes we get to learn about the typical food of Spain's Basque region and we learn different recipes that we actually get to cook in what they call a txoko (cho-ko), which is basically a kitchen.

 (Javi, our cook)

Last week we got to walk to the txoko about twenty minutes away from campus where we met the cook who was going to be helping us. His name was Javi... Turns out to be the same guy who cooks the food in our Residencia Comedor. That made me a little nervous. There were three courses on the menu for the day: Acelgas con Pencas Rebozadas, Tortilla de Patata, and Arroz con Leche. Javi had almost everything set up for us and then put us to work on cutting up potatoes or preparing the Acelgas. Acelgas con Pencas Rebozadas was a new dish for me. You take acelgas (chard?) and place cheese and ham in between, like a sandwich. Then you roll the "sandwich" around in some flour and dip it into a bowl of beaten eggs. And then they are fried in oil and ready to eat. (Note: they never use butter to cook here, they always use olive oil.)

 (Acelgas con Pencas Rebozadas... not the actual ones we made though)

Tortilla de patatas is a dish I have here way too often, so I wasn't too stoked about cooking it. The tortilla is not what a tortilla is in the US, this dish is actually almost like an egg omelet with potatoes mixed in. As simple as it sounds, my group had some difficulty completing this task. After one side of the tortilla is cooked in the pan, you need to cover the pan with a lid and flip the pan so that the tortilla then lies on the lid (cooked side down) and you can slide it back into the pan for cooking. Well after Javi's impressive show the first time, a girl in my class gave it a try, but didn't have the ability to fully rotate the pan and the entire thing slipped right out onto the floor. I guess the skill takes some getting used to...

(Torilla de Patata)

And finally the dessert. Arroz con leche. (Translated: Rice with milk, sounds appetizing huh?) This was served at our dining hall once and Kate and I almost spit it in eachother's faces after trying it so I was not looking forward to eating it today, let alone cooking it. According to the the recipe you are supposed to boil a large pot of milk, then add the rice and let it cook along with sugar and some sticks of cinnamon. It didn't even look appetizing.

(Our actual arroz con leche)

After all was said and done, we sat down to eat our freshly cooked Spanish meal. The Acelgas, which I was unsure about, were delicious! I was actually disappointed we made so few. And the tortilla was spectacular as well, it even tasted better than the ones I had been eating almost every day. And the arroz con leche... so good! Who knew that I would devour every bit of this meal. I think the secret has to be that when foods are cooked in large quantities at our Comedor they do not turn out the right way... But for our little group of ten, everything turned out perfectly. I cannot wait until Menu Dos!

(Saw this shirt in a store and thought it was comical)

So not only do we get to cook our own food, but we get to go on field trips too! Last Wednesday a group of us went to Santurizzi with our teacher Ana and my favorite teacher in CIDE, Francisco, accompanied us as well. We went to a Pintxo Bar called El Parque for a degustacion de pintxos y cata de vino (a tasting of pintxos and wine). They had a table in the back set up for us where we were going to learn about the wines of the Basque region and try a few of the Basque's well-known pintxos. 

(The group at El Parque)

We got to try the Vino Blanco (white wine) first. It is called Txakoli (cha-ko-lee) here. I would definitely reccomend it mom! A man who worked at the bar, never caught his name, explained to us with drawings how white wine is made in Spain. With the different types of fruits and grapes and how long it must ferment, etc.

After that we were given a taste of Rioja or Vino Tinto (you guessed it, red wine). I am not really a fan of red wine, but it was nice to try it. While we were given the much more detailed explanation of the red wine our pintxos were passed out. There were four to try from. Rabas (squid or calamari), Brocheta de Rape, Lagostinos y Calabacin (a skewer with fish, shrimp, and zucchini), Laminado de Bacalao al Pil-Pil (a piece of baguette with fish, red and green peppers, onion, and a salsa of garlic and olive oil), and Cucuruchos de Hojaldre con Ensaladilla (a cone pastry stuffed with crab meat, shrimp, egg, mayonnaise, and gulas-small eels!) As you can see, a lot of seafood over here in Spain. My favorite.....

I tried them all though. The Rabas tasted just like fried calamari, the Brocheta with fish and shrimp was good, but really salty, and the Cucurucho was disgusting. The mayonnaise seafood mixture inside was hardly edible and the tiny eels were just too much. My favorite ended up being the Laminado de Bacalao. Bacalao (cod) is the most common fish eaten here, but I could hardly taste it with all the vegetables and pil-pil. I really liked getting to go to a place and learn about what I was eating rather than just guessing. It's too bad we didn't get more wine! (wink-wink) We have another trip planned to a different place later on in the semester so look forward to that post and more recipes from meals I learn to cook!

¡Carnaval!

"Carnival, that explosion of color, music and celebration which takes place just before Lent..." has been one of the craziest weekends here by far.Carnaval is a week-long tradition here in Spain. We learned about the history of it in my Basque Culture class. Some of its origins are traced back to the pagan festivals which were held by the Romans to celebrate the end of the harsh winter and welcome in the Spring, but now the celebrations have been incorporated into the calendar of the Catholic Church as a festivity before Lent begins, so generally the celebrations take place in the week before Ash Wednesday. We were also told that the Carnaval celebrations in Spain were prohibited during the forty years of the Franco era (Francisco Franco was the head of the Spanish dictatorship for over 35 years) and were not restored until after the General’s death in 1975. Just in case anyone was wondering! ;)

Last Thursday the celebrations began. Unfortunately, as a close-minded American, I did not know Thursday and Friday were not the nights to dress up. My friends and I went out Thursday night in full costume: Kate and I were a Cowgirl and Indian and Kelly and Nina were an Angel and Devil. We met up with our other friends Michelle and Lizzie who dressed up like cats and we made our way to an Erasmus Party, these parties for international students all over Spain. There were not as many costumes as we expected, but I did find some fellow Indians and got a picture! We did some dancing and mingling, Lizzie lost her camera at one point so I really need to be careful with my things when I go out.... And Night #1 of Carnaval came to an end.

During the day on Friday a group of us went into Casco Viejo to eat some pintxos (tiny sandwiches that are in all the bars around here) and came across a small carnaval celebration with some rides and food stands. A few of us got giant cotton candy on a stick and some churros. So delicious. Friday night was a bit more interesting… Kate and I switched costumes with Nina and Kelly so now I was the angel (obviously). We had planned to go to another Erasmus Party called the “French Kiss” party (I think it had that name because of Valentine’s Day…) but somehow we got the location wrong. We showed up at a club that was closed and found out the actual location was all the way on the other side of the city. Instead of going back to find the other party my friends and I waited around to go into the club we showed up at originally. Bad idea. After opening at midnight my friends and I were there with a total of ten other people. I’m all for non-crowded hang outs… but dancing around in an empty club is just awkward. And the others weren’t dressed up! So another night of useless costumes came to an end.

Saturday finally rolled around… And my friends and I had plans to go to the city parade later that day. Kate had other plans though. She joined a conversation exchange group called “Tandem” where she gets assigned a Spanish buddy. She was put with a younger girl named Olga who also attends the University of Deusto. They only really got to exchange contact info, but when the weekend rolled around Olga invited Kate to come out to her town and celebrate Carnaval with her and her friends! Definitely out of any of our comfort zones, but she agreed and headed out around the same time we went to the parade. The parade was really fun and interesting. Unfortunately it was sleeting and so cold I couldn’t feel my feet, but there were all kinds of fun floats and traditional dancers. Groups of costumes like PacMan or Zombies who danced to “Thriller” would walk by and throw candy to the little kids and everyone was dressed up for this event (but not us... of course). A lot of the floats were very strange and we couldn’t always decipher them since the announcer was speaking Euskarra. One had a vagina on a throne, and another was depicting what I think was a brothel, and another was poking fun at the Armed Forces so instead of it saying “Fuerzas Armadas” it said “Fuerzas Mamadas” which Santi explained meant, “Strong Blowjobs” uh…. They had floats to poke fun at places they didn’t like too. Spain, France, United States for examples. But we had the ideal spot at the parade because we were at the very end, where each group performed and the judges would tally up to choose the winners for the best costumes, dancers, musicians and singing groups. We liked the Bolivian Dancers, traditional drummers, and Thriller performance the best.

Since we had seen so many ridiculous costumes at parade earlier… Star Wars and Viking families, a group of ducks, a guy dressed as a fat cheerleader, Avatar, a girl actually wheeling an entire bed around with her… We knew we wouldn’t stick out like sore thumbs this night! But we were out of costumes… We could have repeated like Kelly and her cowgirl costume, but Nina and I went and bought masquerade masks and boas last minute. We headed to Casco Viejo where we heard a lot of the action was taking place and found tons of other people. The streets and metros were packed with costumes. I took a picture with a cow for Libby, there were a group of Tetris blocks, a mariachi band, a pregnant man, butterflies, clowns, and painters, anything you can think of. We came across an outdoor concert too, but we had no idea who was playing so we all headed to a club we were pretty familiar with called DaVinci. Once again the place was too packed to move, so I opted to head home with a few friends, but Saturday was the most fun of all the nights by far.

Kate made it back in one piece the next day. She actually had a lot of fun, but said she had to speak Spanish almost the entire time! She said Olga and her friends hand-made their clown costumes and it was awkward at first, but they all ended up getting along really well. What an experience… I don’t know if I could do something like that…

It’s only Monday, but I think I am done with my Carnaval experience. It really ends with the Entierro de la Sardina (the Burial of the Sardine) on Ash Wednesday, which signals the end of Carnaval all over Spain. A gigantic fake sardine is paraded through the streets, usually followed by a funeral procession of mourners dressed up as priests or nuns. I don't think my friends and I will be going to this, mainly because we don't know where it is... But it just goes to show there are still some pretty weird traditions around here.

Crossing the border to... Francia

Last Friday (not yesterday) CIDE planned a group trip to the south of France and another Basque city in Spain called Hondarribia. It was a very early morning starting at 7am... And I hear it was a very scenic bus ride, but I slept through the whole thing. We arrived in a small French town called Bayona (Bayonne) that was one of those classic picturesque cities right on a river. We had a brief tour of the main landmarks like Castillo Viejo and La Catedral de Santa Maria, but then we we mostly on our own for the rest of our stay.

We were told Bayona was known for the chocolate so we were determined to find a yummy chocolate shop. We stopped into a pastry shop first and I swear some of the things in those cases looked fake. Kate is obessed with fruit tarts so she died and went to heaven. We both treated ourselves with a little snack... but still wanted to try some chcoolate. We back-tracked to a little Chocolaterie and decided to try out their "Le Special de la Maison." I knew what "maison" was! We each recieved a frothy cup of hot chocolate with heavy cream to spoon in. I have never had a better cup of hot chocolate in my life. It was like a was drinking a chocolate bar. Unfortunately my group and I didn't purchase any other chocolate or think to buy any fresh french bread, but I was still satisfied with my choice. We explored a little more and then loaded back on to the buses and back across the Spanish border. We were fed another humongous three course lunch, where in one of the courses I am not sure what kind of meat I ate... But it was all filling nonetheless.

We headed to Hondarribia next. Another quaint little town on the water, but this time we had the option of doing everything on our own. The old part of the town is entirely surrounded by a medieval stone wall and there were different Puertas that made for entrances into different parts of the town. We walked around and saw the old Castillo of Carlos V... not much of anything. And then we found the Iglesia de Santa Maria, but it was under construction and we couldn't go in. So mainly my friends and I spent our time just walking around and taking pictures. It's amazing that little towns like this still actually exist.