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.