Sidrería

I am proud to announce that I had my first solo kitchen experience in San Sebastián. I decided to make my host family one of my favorite soups from home. The hardest part of making it at home is being patient enough to let the macaroni cook before digging in. In Spain, the hardest part is grocery shopping! I spent about 10 minutes looking for chicken broth and another 10 looking for garlic. I ended up frustrated and with chicken bouillon instead. The other interesting twist was that the only spice we had at home was oregano. Luckily the recipe called for oregano, but I had to do without the other spices. Spices are not extremely popular here and Kepa prides himself on being futuristic by using spices (although I am finding out only oregano!). The soup seemed to be a success with the family. I was worried that it wouldn’t be healthy or pretty enough for Kepa, but it seemed to do the trick! It is stressful cooking for such a wonderful chef!

             As part of my cooking class, we went to a sidreriá (cider house). The cider houses are very typical of the Basque Country. The cider is made from apples and stored at the sidrería before it is bottled because it has to be consumed in the same year. Originally it was produced for sailors because it gave them nutrients and kept them from drinking dirty water. Cider season is between February and April and during that time, people go to the cider house to have dinner. The typical menu is tortilla de bacalao (eggs with fish), bacalao (white fish served with green peppers and crunchy onions), meat chops and dessert. Dessert consists of walnuts, almond cookies, a hard cheese and membrillo. Membrillo is a fruit (quince in English) that is used to make a gelatin like substance. It reminds me of applesauce jello and has a sweet flavor. It goes really well with the cheese. The dessert was my favorite part, and in my excitement, I forgot to take a picture! 

 Pintxo of chorizo. (Notice the typical cider glasses)

 Tortilla de bacalao.

Bacalao con green peppers and crunchy onions. 

     When eating at the cider house, it is customary to stand at tables (instead of sit) and go into the cellar between courses to get more cider. The barrels have a small hole from where the cider flows and people line up to fill their glasses. It is bad form to fill your glass all of the way because cider is supposed to have a layer of foam on it. If there is no foam, it is no good. Each barrel produces a uniquely flavored cider. They vary in levels of bitterness. I am sad to say that overall the cider was too bitter for me, but the experience made up for the cider!

 The cellar!

The cider coming out of the barrels. People line up as to not waste any cider. The man in the center of the picture is the chef that teaches our class. 

           Today I spent time with my intercambio. We meet once a week to talk in English and Spanish. She took me to a café where we got hot chocolate. It was like drinking chocolate pudding! We took it to go and sat at the port and enjoyed the scenery. Sitting there drinking hot chocolate felt like a scene out of a movie. It was like being in a completely different world!

That seems to be all for now! The weekend weather looks promising, so I am hoping for some outdoor adventures!

Besos,

Erin 

A Snowy Day in Spain!

Well the week wouldn’t be complete without a weather rollercoaster. We went from 60 and sunny to 30s and snowing. Yes, you heard me, snow. Let me just repeat, snow on the beach! It was pretty exciting to see from the inside of a warm café with churros and chocolate, but outside was not as magical. Since the weather turned so sour, I finally found time to finish knitting my “buf” (pronounced boof) with Lurdes. The new accessories will definitely motivate me to walk out in the cold.

 Enjoying the snow!

 Kepa and me with my buf.

 Churros and chocolate! (The chocolate is served warm and then you drink it at the end)

Lurdes and me!

It was a busy week for my host family, so we had very few family dinners. If I am eating alone, Kepa will make half of the meal and I will cook the rest. We try to eat together every night, but it doesn't always happen. This is what I am used to at home, but they feel terribly when I eat alone (I feel badly telling them that I am introverted so I don’t mind being left alone every once in a while!). Anyway, I always offer to help with dinner and Kepa never lets me. One night this week I was talking to him while he was cooking and he pulled out plates and salad fixings. He started organizing the lettuce on his plate, so I did the same on mine. After about a minute, he started rearranging mine. He thinks that food needs to be presented in a creative and artistic way so that it is pleasing to the eye, not just the palate (it was clear that my creative abilities just weren’t cutting it!). It was really funny and now I understand why he never wants help in the kitchen! It is hard to argue when here are the results.

A salad with sauteed potatoes and baked salmon with an olive oil and balsamic dressing!

Today for lunch I was handed a plate of rabbit stew. If Kepa asks me if I like something ahead of time I always say yes. I lied on this one because I had never eaten rabbit before, but I would be lying now if I said it was anything but delicious! I will gladly eat rabbit any day of the week! We finished it off with a dessert called leche frita (fried milk) which was a vanilla custard. It was really good, it will be definitely be showing up in my kitchen in the US.

            I visited my first museum in San Sebastián this weekend, the aquarium. It is interesting that here an aquarium is half museum and half fish tanks. There was a lot of history on fishing and whale catching in San Sebastián. People used to tie tarps around the whales when they were being butchered so that people would have to pay to watch. It was a double source of income. The whale fat was used for all sorts of things, but the whale meat was mostly used for dog and cat food. There were also explanations of the various types of large scale fishing methods. I never knew that there were so many methods. 

            I was just told that Indianapolis is warmer than San Sebastián and I thought I was going to a warm beach in Spain! Here is to another week of exploration! 

Besos,

Erin 

The Art of Cleaning

Another weekend has come and gone and, as usual, I know that I will inevitably forget to tell you about something! The highlight of the weekend was taking a quick trip to the town of Orio with Lurdes and Kepa. We drove on a winding road with mountains on one side and the ocean on the other. It was beautiful. We lucked out that it was sunny (a rare occurrence here) and we could see quite a bit. The drive ended in Orio where we walked around the beach and ended up stopping for a glass of wine and anchovies. I have now had anchovies twice this week and am trying to warm up to them. They are better than the ones in the U.S. but they are still a bit rough! We then returned home and had paella and lemon mousse for lunch. A wonderfully relaxing start to the day! 

 Kepa asked me if we had horses in Indiana since I kept taking pictures of them. My reply was yes, but not ones on the mountainside. He just laughed at me.

The majority of my weekend was spent studying, not too bad either!

This week I also encountered the joy of Spanish cleaning. I was trying to be helpful by offering to vacuum my room and clean my bathroom. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Let me just start with exhibit A… 

 and exhibit B.

 These may not seem so scary from afar, but in real life they are terrifying! Luckily, I vacuumed when I was home alone because it took over 5 minutes and a manual in English to plug it in. I would have never guessed that vacuuming in another country could be so time consuming! I thought I had made it through the worst of it until I volunteered to clean my bathroom the next day. I was handed a bottle of bleach, a concentrated multipurpose cleaner and two rags. I wasn’t sure how to approach bathroom cleaning without mint smelling toilet cleaner and bleach wipes, so I did my best. It is good that I don’t have to share my bathroom because at this point I can’t guarantee cleanliness!

On the upside, I have been mistaken for a local multiple times in the last few weeks. This must mean that the scared look on my face is disappearing and that I am blending in! I gave an old man directions in Spanish and he understood, so I am feeling quite accomplished. I am also learning about walking. As an American, I walk as quickly as I can to get where I am going. It doesn’t work like that here. Walking is part of the activity, not just the transportation. I was walking with Lurdes and Kepa to get pintxos and I had to focus on walking slowly because I was leaving them in the dust. It isn’t that they are incapable of walking quickly, but there is no need. It is pretty cool that they can just relax and enjoy the world around them. I am working on enjoying my surroundings more instead of being American and rushing through everything. It is a good life lesson to slow down and enjoy the little things!

I continue to learn more and more about San Sebastián, the Basque Country and Lurdes and Kepa everyday. Even a relaxing weekend is full of adventure!

Besos,

Erin 

Biarritz

The best part about being in northern Spain is that France is just a short bus ride away! This past weekend, Sophie, her sister, another friend and I took the bus to Biarritz, France. It is a small city in the Basque Country of France. There are 4 regions of the Basque country in Spain and 3 in France. The weather started out nice, but ended up rainy (not a surprise here!). We had fun despite the weather. The day featured a trip to the aquarium, the chocolate museum and two cafes. As everyone knows, the best part of France is eating, so we made sure to spend most of our day doing that. The city itself is located on the water so the views were amazing!

 A view from the coast of Biarritz.

 Café number 1: Chocolate filled croissant and chocolate eclair (shared of course!).

            Our day in France wouldn’t have been complete without seeing a Frenchman twisting his mustache (just like the movies!) while driving his car. We also barely made our bus back. It turns out we were at the wrong bus stop. We lucked out that the bus drove by and we were able to flag it down. We almost had an even bigger French adventure! It was a great day overall and definitely something worth seeing!

            Lurdes and Kepa continue to teach me more and more about the Basque and Spanish cultures. Today Kepa made a traditional meal for Carnaval (celebration before lent). It was meat that was cooked in gravy with homemade mashed potatoes. I also tried white asparagus for the first time. It was different from green asparagus but very good! For dessert, we had something similar to French toast. It is bread that is soaked in milk and cinnamon overnight and then the next day is covered in egg and cinnamon and fried in olive oil. It was definitely my favorite part!  The food overall has been delicious and healthy. Kepa is very into healthy eating. Lunch each day is something that he makes the night before and leaves out for me in the morning. The schedule is as follows:

Monday: lentils

Tuesday: Soup

Wednesday: rice

Thursday: Chickpeas

Friday: pasta

It is such a luxury having a homemade lunch everyday. They didn’t believe me when I said a typical lunch for me is a sandwich. Lunch is such an important meal for them that a sandwich would never suffice.

 Friday's lunch: Pasta with tomato sauce, oregano and zucchini.

A view from the kitchen window! Notice the lemon tree on the right!

            Lurdes has been concerned about the weather here. She has made it her responsibility to make sure I am properly bundled up before I leave the house. She gave me a coat to wear the other day, which has been nice because it has been very cold and windy. The other day she couldn’t believe that I didn’t have gloves. About an hour later she was handing me fingerless gloves she had knitted. She had pulled out her knitting needles and old yarn and made these gloves in less than an hour. I was like that was fast and she looked at me and was like “it is all about recycling, mi hija (my daughter).” Not only do I love them, but it really made me feel like a part of the family! 

Fingerless gloves. I was talented enough to take a picture of me wearing them so you can just imagine it!

This week looks to be a relaxing week since we only have two days of class. Hope everyone is doing well!

Besos,

Erin

Annie

The sun will come out tomorrow…

After a week of being Annie, I have finally been adopted by Daddy Warbucks! Miss Hannigan is a thing of the past and Lurdes and Kepa are the future. They are a couple in their 50’s with two kids around my age. Their daughter is in London and their son in Berlin. Lurdes and Kepa are amazing. The whole situation was thrown at them and they have responded with nothing but love and open arms. We have so much in common. Lurdes likes to knit, sew and, as she says, do activities with her hands. Kepa is the chef of the house and loves sports. He is an amazing chef and focuses on healthy eating. A typical dinner consists of a salad with varying ingredients, protein of some sort and bread. Every meal in Spain has bread with it, which is good and bad. Last night I decided not to eat it to and they called me out on it. I have never before gotten in trouble for not eating bread, but here it is a serious problem. Kepa told me that bread doesn’t make you fat it is everything you put on it. We all had a good laugh! I will be sure to eat my bread from now on!

            I am really enjoying every moment I spend with them. They are so friendly and interested in everything. There are so many things they want to show me and tell me about. It is great! I couldn’t ask for a better host family!  I feel more welcome in their house after just a few days than I ever did in my previous apartment!

            Since I have been busy playing my role as Annie, I have neglected my blogging duties. I will try to summarize as much as I can! Two weekends ago I walked to the top of a mountain to see a huge statue of Jesus that overlooks San Sebastián. I don’t know the history behind the statue, but it is on top of a fortress. I went with some friends and we lucked out on the weather. It was a beautiful day and we got some great pictures of the city. Warning to anyone visiting me: you will be doing this walk so bring your camera and walking shoes!

 Jesus. This is as close as we get could get, but it is a huge statue.

 The view overlooking Gros, which is a part of San Sebastián.

The port at the bottom of the mountain. 

            This past weekend was full of travels. Friday there was an excursion for the entire group of students. We visited an old cider press and a church that is unique for having 14 apostles on the front. This was followed by a stop in the town of Zumaya, which is a geologist’s Mecca. There are visible layers of rock that make up the mountains. The layer from 65 million years ago can be seen and it was used to prove that dinosaurs became extinct during that time period. The presence of iridium in that layer showed that the meteor that hit Mexico caused the extinction. Because iridium is typically only found in space, it had to be the cause of the extinction. It was a beautiful little town!

 Sophie and me overlooking the mountains in Zumaya.

 A small city in the mountains where we stopped for lunch.

 The beach in Zumaya.

The church with 14 apostles. 

            After a full day of exploring, Sophie and I took a bus to Logroño to visit her sister. We went out for pintxos (tapas). The highlight was grilled shrimp and pineapple with sea salt. It was a very relaxing weekend, and also very needed. It was nice to step away after such an eventful week. It gave me time to clear my head and come home to start fresh with Lurdes and Kepa. It was the perfect weekend!

            I think that sums it up! I will try to be better about blogging! Hope everything is going well there!

Besos,

Erin