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