My Experience So Far

I have never felt so lucky to be able to be immersed in a culture so independent to my own. My day started as I watched the sunrise at Playa de La Concha with my new friends. I am sure the bond we have and will continue to develop throughout this trip will last a lifetime and more. As we gathered around to kick off our first weekend and a new day in this beautiful country, we reflected on our first week and our favorite memories we have had so far. Although we had very challenging experiences, as is expected in international travel, we have been able to come together and find support and camaraderie to combat  obstacles such as culture shock, language barriers, jet lag and homesickness. The time in Donastia feels warped as in if we were experiencing a movie. The days feel long but the weeks are quite short. I have seen first hand how we have all started to grow as people, as well as how close we have started to get to each other.

Bonding With My Peers

It have found it important to look for ways to ground myself and create a new sense of home and belonging. The most valuable aspect which helped me has been my connections with my peers. Small things such as borrowing clothes or hair tools, getting ready together, “family dinners”, and even getting lost in the city has unified us as a group. From calling Muriel in the mornings to walk down to breakfast together, the many Venmo transactions between Paige and I, and ending my days by swimming at the closest beach with Kathryn.

Wine Tasting

To continue on with the day, we had a group outing to Talai Berri Txakoli Winery. It is important to understand what txakoli wine is considering it is most popular in the Basque Country. It is a white wine, however, it differs from others because it is sparkling, or as the locals say it, “it has bubbles”. Previous to the experience I was not familiar with the characteristics of what made txakoli unique.

When the tour started we were met by the most genuine and polite lady who radiated warm and welcoming energy. She began to explain how she was the owner and the winery had been passed down to her by her ancestors. It has been in her family for fove generations now. When we asked if she had children which she planned to pass this down further, she explained that although she does, they do not seem to be interested in participating in the family business. To which we joked saying there were fifteen of us to pick for adoption.

She walked us through the the winery, the first place to which she showed us was the beautiful entrance which met us with breathtaking views that I had never seen before in my life despite my many years of travel. She began to explain how they produce around 900 bottles every year after picking the grapes. These bottles are so popular that they sell out within weeks. They even export to the United States of America. She also went into depth into the struggles which the previous generations in her family faced as they first began the sparkly white wine production. They could not keep the correct temperature due to the lack of equipment and technology of the time period which became very challenging to maintain the quality of the product. Although the weather was not as expected, we got the best of it. I feared that during our drive there we were going to be in the rain, and we weren’t going to be able to take pictures, but the weather cleared out perfectly in able to let us enjoy some time outside and try all the different wines.

The Language Barrier

My biggest challenge throughout this trip has been trying to adapt to the Spanish language when spoken by the locals. Although I am fluent in Brazilian Portuguese as it is my first and native language, which helps me understand due to its wide similarities, it is still wildly different. Whenever I attempt to speak in Spanish, I end up speaking in Portuguese instead which confused the locals quite a lot. I have found that to be surprising due to the fact when people speak in Spanish with me, most of the time, I am able to understand, especially if they speak slowly.

As always, I end my day eagerly awaiting what tomorrow shall bring, because when in Spain: expect the unexpected!

The beginning

Going to Spain is my first trip ever. I’ve never even been on an airplane before, and when presented the idea of studying abroad I thought it was a perfect way for me to step out of my comfort zone. Going into this trip, a million thoughts ran into my head. What if I don’t like it here? What if I don’t make any friends? So many what ifs.

Only 5 days into this trip and I feel like i’ve made my lifelong friends and countless memories I will bring with me for the rest of my life. Yes, it was extremely difficult to get into the groove of things. I also cannot take a look at any form of bread for the rest of this year.

Other than that, though, I feel like these next three weeks will continue to bring me joy and more knowledge about the Basque Country and culture.

Pintxos tasting

What are Pintxos? Pintxos is a type of appetizer people of the Basque Country eat that are traditionally eaten on skewers and toothpicks. Pintxos are also eaten with wine. They’re a bread based dish that are served with fish, olives, pickles, squid, and practically almost everything. You will find everyone eating these anytime, anywhere.

I was extremely excited to try the pintxos. I have a pretty big tasting palate and I also told myself I would mot say no to anything I came across. I unfortunately did get full after the first restaurant we went to though. At the first restaurant we went to, Professor Z started by introducing us to the practical foods that most people start off with. We had different types of ham, squid with potatoes and vegetables, blood pudding, and the very traditional pintxos, olive with pickled peppers and anchovies.

I was mainly excited to try the pintxos because I felt as through it would be a good way for me to truly fit in with the culture here. You can learn a lot about a country through the food they eat and how they’re served. When we went to the second restaurant, I was given the honor of making guacamole. It did really catch me off guard when they brought all the ingredients to me. Being able to make this myself helped me to feel immersed in the

culture as well as try new things. It was so fun being able to do it with everyone and experience a new type of food none of us are familiar to. Being able to try it with everyone also gave me a sense of clarity that we are all in this trip together.

The tradition of Pintxos reflex’s the culture of Spain regarding the food and that the citizens of the Basque Country like to enjoy and savor their meals and not simply rush it just for nutrients. They eat the pintxos for enjoyment alone, and to spend time with the people they love. One thing I found very cool was that although they only serve alcohol during specific hours of the day, the restaurants get packed with loyal customers who will spend all night eating Pintxos and drinking wine.

Professor Z told us that an old tradition to find a good Pintxos restaurant is to see if they have napkins on the ground, because that means people enjoyed their food and used a lot of napkins.

Me and the group attending Pintxos Thursday as well, a type of Pintxos tasting that takes place every Thursday. You can get Pintxos and wine for only 3 euros. I saw Pintxos Thursday as a way to get the community of the Basque Country together and celebrate one another and enjoy one another’s company.

Not so favorite

The one thing that I did try that I was really surprised I did not like was the gelato. My favorite flavor of Gelato back home is pistachio. The pistachio I tried yesterday was actually salty. It caught me off guard since I was craving something sweet. I did have the banana split flavor which was extremely good but did not make a good mix with pistachio.

Closing statements

I cannot wait to continue to try new things during my stay in San Sebastián and continue to learn more about the Basque culture and language. By the end of this trip, I hope to try almost every restaurant with pintxos and continue to fall in love with this country. I will continue to treasure these moments with my new lifelong friends and hope to look back on this trip positively.

I can’t believe it has already been 3 full days in San Sebastian! Today was a day everyone was looking forward to since there wasn’t supposed to be a drop of rain. The days prior included mostly on and off rain meaning our entire group got drenched, and a fun trip to the beach wasn’t really possible. Due to biking being one of the cheapest and fastest modes of transportation my boyfriend and I got especially soaked those two days. The beautiful views throughout all of the bike riding made up for it though. 

The day for our group began as usual, we all were at Lacunza taking our spanish classes. These classes are very unique because there are people from all across the world in them! Mine specifically includes two guys from Canada, one guy from China, a girl from Germany, a girl from Switzerland, a father from the U.S. and then 5 other people from our UML group. One of the guys, the dad from the U.S, was particularly interesting because he is only taking this class so his daughter doesn’t quit learning spanish. He wanted his daughter to learn how important it was to learn another language and how it lets you connect with even more people. I’ve come to realize the truth of this myself and how fulfilling it is to be able to engross myself in this culture and truly enjoy it. 

I think Lacunza teaches in a special way. They somehow make me want to constantly focus and participate even though it’s a total of 3 hours of class with only one thirty minute break. The way the teacher has us always talking with one another is a big difference compared to my high school spanish class experience. Most of the classes I have taken for Spanish include a lot of lectures with minimal talking. To me, it’s harder to focus and learn that way, which is why I like Lacunza’s method better. 

After class half of the UML group, including I, went with Professor Zabalbeascoa to try San Sebastian’s pintxos. Prior to even going to San Sebastian we were actually required to read a book about pintxos called The Book of Pintxos by Marti Buckley (who we will be excitingly getting an autograph from later on in this trip). This book included a ton of different recipes of pintxos from bars and restaurants in the Basque Country. Now, you may be wondering, what are pintxos? They are typically finger foods in the Basque Country served at bars and in the U.S. would be considered more so a snack. What I have noticed is that during their typical lunch hours, between 2 and 4 pm, most of them just eat pintxos. This is unique to me since back home us Americans usually have a single, but large meal for lunch. 

On the pintxos tour we tried so many different foods, it was an out of the world experience. The first pintxo that we tried was a very famous one called gilda. A gilda is a combination of olive, “spicy” green pepper and anchovy. I say spicy like that because as Professor Zabalbeascoa stated “basque people have no tolerance for spice”. Unfortunately I’ll have to trust the words of my peers in that it was good because I was feeling a bit off today and wasn’t willing to risk making it worse. I did however try all of the dishes after that. 

At Mendaur we tried many different dishes including piparras (the green pepper in gildas), jamon de bellota, and carrilleras. Out of those three dishes I couldn’t tell you my favorite since they all tasted so good! My peers seemed to enjoy all of them as well since the plates were completely cleaned off by the time we had to move to our next location. This next location only included one dish, but it was very good, it was called Jamón de Bellota. Jamón de Bellota is a cured leg of pork. It reminded me of prosciutto. We didn’t stay here very long since the ham was eaten extremely fast. We moved on from there to our final destination which was cheese cake. The line was very long, so Professor Zabalbeascoa stood in line while the rest of us stood off to the side of the street. While standing there this group of people walked up, stopped, and started singing a song in Spanish that everyone joined. It was a unique, fun, and cool experience. They actually did it a second time, but at that point the cheesecake had come out so we were leaving and couldn’t listen to them sing. Overall the pintxo trip was a great experience and everyone got to eat so many different foods that you would never see in the United States.

Hola from San Sebastian!

Today marked our second full day in San Sebastian, and was a day where I made sure to bring an umbrella. Yesterday, our first full day, was full of some terrible rain, soaking most of our group!

The day began similarly to yesterday: Breakfast at the Hotel, renting a bike from the local kiosks, and cycling to Lacunza (our language school). Unlike yesterday though, my girlfriend and I made sure to get to the bikes quite a bit earlier. Despite having mostly beautiful bike paths all over the city, we unfortunately found out the day prior that some of the roads do not allow for bikes. Google maps was not very aware of this, and led to us being 10 minutes late to our first class!

The path to the school is quite beautiful, as you get to ride right up along a beautiful beach. This beach is none other than La Concha, ranked as the #1 most beautiful city beach by some. It surely lives up to its name too, something you’d have to see to understand. Descriptions couldn’t quite do it justice.

Today’s class was pretty interesting, focusing on integral parts of the Spanish language. This included things like different verb types, conjugations, and proper grammar for typical sentence structures. I was never one to enjoy Spanish class in High School, but coming back to it whilst being in Spain was a very different experience. Still, the best part of attending Lacunza was surely the experience of meeting new people and making friends. The school has students from all around the world with vastly different backgrounds. In just my class alone we have students from Germany, Canada, Switzerland, China, and of course the United States. The thought that all of my peers from different countries are attending an English based class to learn Spanish is very interesting to me (and honestly a bit mind boggling). I couldn’t imagine learning one language using another I am not fully confident in, yet my peers manage to make the job look easy!

After class we met with Dr. Zabalbeascoa, our trip advisor. He brought us to a Funicular, which was basically a rickety old train that brought us up Monte Igueldo. At the top of this mountain was a very beautiful view that overlooked the entire city. Besides being able to see all 3 of San Sebastian’s beaches, you were also able to see some of Paris off in the distance! I especially liked seeing all the little sail boats parked in various parts of the water, looking like little toys in the distance.

To my surprise, there was apparently an amusement park up there as well! Here our group got to ride Western Europe’s oldest roller coaster, one that was operated by hand crank! It was only 3 euros to ride, and was definitely worth it! It was super cool to be on something like that. Apparently it was not the first roller coaster built, but instead one of the few that survived WW2! 

I also tried my luck (or maybe skill) at one of the game booths. This one required me to hit moving targets with a pellet rifle. I asked the attendant how many shots I needed to hit for a prize, and was told something along the lines of “we will see what happens”. I shrugged it off and took my shots. I was actually quite proud of myself too, as I hit 10 of my 12 shots! Excited to win a prize, I asked the attendant how many I needed for the big Spongebob stuffed animal. I was heartbroken to find out it was 35. Having paid around 10 Euros for those shots, I was pretty upset. 30 Euros for the chance to win something worth probably half that was not very fair. I have a feeling that number is adjusted depending on one’s skill level. I do not recommend playing those games!

Our tour with Dr. Zabalbeascoa ended with the sculpture Peine del viento, or Comb of the Wind. This sculpture featured 3 Iron structures. From where we were able to stand, one was behind us, one was close to us, and one was far in the distance. One interpretation of the artwork says that you’re able to stand in the present, having the past behind you and the future ahead. It’s a pretty important thing to remember too, as I often find myself getting stuck in the past or over worrying about the future. It was also quite interesting to learn the origin of the sculpture’s name. The wind blows from the water, past the statues, and into San Sebastian. Hence the statues are able to comb the wind before it ever enters the city!

Today was definitely a very fun day, and there were many more parts I wish I could list! I can’t wait to see what each other day brings!

On the first day of our program, we had class, took a tour around San Sebastian, and then had a discussion about what the next 3 weeks of the class would look like. During this discussion we were given the dates of our blog assignment and I accidentally raised my hand for the first day. Unfortunately that meant I had until 8 pm the next day to write a 750 word Blog. Normally that would not have been a huge issue, but I realized that the first day had been relatively tame. We had not done any of the fun events that were planned for us for the next month, all we did was take a class and then walk around the old city. It was fun but it didn’t seem particularly noteworthy. I began to worry about what I was going to write about. I milled over it in my head. I procrastinated until I remembered something I had learned. Ironically the life lesson was about the learning process. That story also reminded me of another story I had of traveling around spain. Here are those 2 stories: 

“Ava, ¿qué es lo que te gusta y lo que no te gusta?” I stare blankly back at my professor.

“¿Perdón?”

“¿Qué es lo que te gusta y lo que no te gusta?” he repeats

I look around at the room of faces sitting in a circle. I thought: These people in this classroom are definitely better at Spanish than I am. Before class those 2 kids near the corner had a full conversation in Spanish. The teacher stared back at me expectantly.

“¿Entiendes o no?”

“Uh, si”

I muster out an answer stumbling over my words. I was relieved when the teacher was satisfied with my simple answer and passed the ball to the next poor sucker in the class. Much to my chagrin the next student answered with ease, an accent reminiscent of los Madreleños I had met during my first week in Europe. I felt out of place. I was uncomfortable.

I had arrived in Spain 2 weeks prior to the program starting. In my time there I had many encounters like the one described above. A person would speak to me in Spanish and though I could make out what they were saying, I struggled to respond. People would nod their heads and wave. At first I frequently said 

“Lo siento, más despacio por favor.” Over time though, that became:

“Inglés por favor” 

My 6 years of Spanish classes in the states amounted to these couple of phrases that I relied on for several days of my trip. This would change however.

My dad had a few Spanish friends he had met in his youth. While in Spain we went to see them, one gave us a historical tour of El Escorial. Our friend Consuelo talked endlessly about the history of Spain and I managed to ask several questions and crack a couple jokes. I was very interested in what she was saying so I did my best to understand her. Even if that led to embarrassing mistakes. The whole time Consuelo spoke I was stumbling after what she said. I felt as though I was trying to assemble a puzzle with missing pieces. I could pick up a few words and figure out one sentence just as she moved on to the next. As one can imagine this was exhausting. After the tour my dad pulled me aside and said:

“Ya’ know Ava, I think in one day of speaking with Consuelo, you have improved”

I was shocked. I got better? I realized that over the course of the day I had begun to speak more and pick things up better. 

But this brings me back to that first day of class. While sitting there red and flustered after the embarrassing encounter. I realized something: learning is supposed to be hard, you should feel uncomfortable. Ironically, in order to learn one must put themselves in situations where they feel completely useless, and stupid.

Instead of comparing myself to the others in class I began to listen to what they said in Spanish. Over time I have begun implementing things I have picked up from my classmates, teachers, and the people around me. Even if the people in my class are better than me, Their level is a benchmark that I want to achieve and surpass. 

With my next 3 weeks in Spain I want to continue to put myself in uncomfortable situations. I came to Spain in order to learn Spanish and experience what Spain has to offer. Like a sponge I want to soak up all the information available to me.