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