Under the Spanish Sun

Today's been the first day in a while that the weather has been warm and comforting. And that means there's only one logical thing that must be done today...

A 3-hour long midterm!

Tim (Professor Durbin) secretly laughing under his breath

After my instructor thoroughly drained our brains with an 18-question midterm, the rest of the day was spent relaxing on the beach for an equal amount of time.

Ironically, even on the beach, my peers and I still couldn't escape the concepts we had learned from the class. It has been forever ingrained in our heads that the windmills seen in the picture to the right have an energy flux of 2-3 watts per square meters.



Or that in the picture to the left, the wonderful sand on the beach and the people tanning are being exposed to somewhere around 100 watts per square meters of sunlight.

Despite seeing constant reminders of school everywhere I go, it's surprisingly nice to take a class abroad, especially when the instructor does well in incorporating the local country into his lesson plans and recuperation from an exam involves lounging on the beach.


Aside from that, not much has happened since my last post. Yesterday involved letting my curiosity get the best of me. In other words, I wanted to procrastinate from studying for today's midterm. I ended up taking the metro past my neighborhood of Algorta, and into the neighborhoods of Bidezebal and Berango. I'll use my journey to explain common sights one can see in Bilbao/Getxo, some of which I may have mentioned in earlier posts.

Spanish people love their escalators and walkways

Metro Stations can be spotted by their bright red signs

As well as overhead walkways

Getxo is an active children's paradise

Round-a-bouts add a nice touch to the mazes of narrow, one-way streets

Individual, specialized fish seller

Individual, specialized meat seller

Individual, specialized fruit seller

Individual, specialized bread seller

The green hills and multi-story apartments of Berango

Clothes dryers are unusual in Getxo

The Rain in Spain...

Falls mainly on the weekend. The weather has been very wet the past three days. Thus, the activities most of the USAC students did were limited. Sunday, I walked to the neighborhood called Portugalete. It's on the other side of the river bank that I have grown accustomed to so needless to say, I went there with the intent to get lost. Here are some of my highlights:

Walking down the hill to the river in Portugalete

Small salsa festival for the older generation

One end of the suspension bridge

Giant platform holding cars and people being transported over the river

I aimlessly walked on to the platform without paying

Crossing the suspension bridge took me to Areeta, which I was already familiar with. I had a sweet tooth at the time and decided to get homemade gelato from a little shop I always passed by in Casco Viejo. By metro, I arrived at my destination in about 15 minutes, where I got this:

Queso Idiazabal Ahumado Con Nucces Y Membrillo. In other words, cheese ice cream with walnuts and a caramel like sauce. I have actually seen cheese with walnuts and quince sweet on the menu of a relatively nice restaurant in Bilbao so I guess why not turn it into ice cream. Ultimately, it was very strange and hard to eat at first but it became better the more you ate of it. The cheese crumbles made the texture feel like ice cream that's too icy, but the walnuts made up for it.

Monday, I spent the entire day (aside from class) with these people:

Kaitlin (UNR) and Nick (NAU)

The day included a trip to a local bookstore in Bilbao, dinner around 10pm, and an adventure at a children's park till 1am. Although we had planned to go to a really nice restaurant for the evening, we later found out that we were largely under-dressed for the occasion. Instead, we grabbed some individual pizzas for about 10 Euros (about 13 dollars). Things to note: Spaniards still don't go light on the oils/fats, even with pizza. However, we believe it's a trade-off given their lack of processed foods. Even on the soft drinks we had, we couldn't find anything close to the ever-so-common "high fructose corn syrup," typical of the average American diet. Instead, they opt for actual sugar, which although still bad, it doesn't make you stupid. Also relevant, Bilbao has many dozens of parks and recreational areas for children (which we took the liberty of enjoying in as well), which isn't always the first (or even top five) option among children in the U.S. Conclusion: Spanish people are relatively healthy.

Tempted to get a head start on next semester

Even more tempted to get a freshly baked pastry

Texture: Like biting into a lemon-flavored cloud

Big statues of food aren't that uncommon here

Nick's carbonara pizza = best breakfast idea ever

Thin crust that would make New Yorkers proud

Ultimately, its been a great here for the past few days despite the weather.

Foreign Food

This weekend has been more relaxing than anything. There isn't much to talk about aside from going to the beach and eating with the host family. It's been raining a lot recently and the rain here is interesting. It comes down light like snow and creates a sort of mist in the sky. Anyways, this post will be dedicated on the food I've eaten while I've been here.

Interestingly, my host family is more Americanized than the other families participating in the USAC program. On the first day, I had burgers and on another I had pasta alfredo. But I've done some local shopping at the various markets around town (including one on the sixth floor of the El Corte Ingles, the biggest department store name in Europe). Here are some food I've encountered:

• The milk in Spain isn't refrigerated like in America.
  
• The cereal they have in my house is even more sweet than in America. It's filled with something similar to the cream you'd find in an Oreo. 

• Hello Kitty brand cookies I found in the store
  
• Actually, Hello Kitty and The Simpsons are two cartoon characters that I've noticed a couple of times on my journey throughout Bilbao
  
• They even have a restaurant tailored to The Simpsons
  

• Aquarius is a popular sports drink in Spain. It's similar to Gatorade and comes in either limon or naranja.
  
• Found some snacks made in Spain that remind me of shrimp chips
  
• White asparagus is in every convenience store. The ones I bought were local and have the texture of mush.
  
• Also purchased some strawberry tarts imported from France.

• Bread is a big thing here. Almost everyone goes to the store daily to pick up some fresh bread to eat with their meals. I've had french bread every day with both lunch and dinner.
  
• The cheese is amazingly rich. The spread that I got was made from the milk of cows, sheep, and goat and tasted almost like butter. Maybe because they also put butter in it.
  
• Spaniards don't go light on rich ingredients like olive oil. Maybe to make up for their lack of spicy foods?

 

• I found a cookie called Filipinos
  
• They come in a variety of flavors, including chocolate and white chocolate
  
• Not sure what the reasoning or correlation is behind the name but it was interesting

Other things I've noticed while shopping/dining is:

• Spanish stores have a lot more dried meats than in America
• Fruit is much cheaper and, at least in my house, is considered like a desert for after the meal
• People don't really snack in Spain and it's rare to see somebody eat while walking
• You can't get dinner after 11pm; only alcohol and coffee is served after 11pm

Although I've yet to really have traditional Spanish/Basque cuisine, I plan to go sometime soon. There are three things on my list to try: pintxo (which are like little appetizers); menu del dia (which is a multi-course menu for a relatively cheap price); and lamb brain (which is very popular here). I'll blog about these experiences as they come.