Nada de esto fue un error!

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The title of this blog is "None of this was a mistake"...its my new favorite Spanish song, and well, the only one I can sing along to knowing the words. I had many demands for more pictures, so I added them to my last blog and to this one. As I was looking through them, I noticed that pretty much all of them are "nights out"....hmmm. I swear we don't party very often!! And unfortunetely, my camera that I bought in December decided to die on me, so there will be no more until August when I can come home and fix it. A) it did not die during a night of partying (it died in the mountains for no reason) and B) yes I know I could fix it here but they want to charge me $128 (current exchange rate) to send it to the US to get fixed and they don't even know whats wrong. Damn Kodak!

So I have been learning a lot about Basque (if you say "Spanish" instead of "Basque" here, you are putting your life on the line) culture. For example, dogs here don't say "Bark" or "ruff", they say "guwow" or something like that. Interesting... And, aside from the thought that only 5 continents exist, cats only have 7 lives as opposed to our cats having 9. I credit this to the fact that its a little more 3rd world here and maybe they already lost two lives somewhere along the way. Just kidding, it is exactly the same here except no Home Depot. And by the way, at first I thought there was no Burger King, but I have found 2 each 30 minutes from home. Allegedly there is a third in San Sebastian (another half hour away), but this has yet to be confirmed. I am not the biggest BK fan, but when you want a burger (non-Basque style), McDonalds just doesn't cut it. And by the way, as of late, I haven't had much craving for it, since i learned how to cook. GASP! Yes, its true...I am a frequent viewer of US cooking webpages. I even leave comments!!! As if I know what I am talking about. However, for the first month or two, it was a little difficult finding spices as everything is in Spanish and Basque. I went to the grocery store multiple times with my dictionary. Sadly, my crappy little dictionary doesn't have those kinds of words. Only the 5000 page dictionary with pages so thin like you'd find in a Bible, has those kinds of words. UNTILLLL....I found a website that translates into 7 languages. This could come in handy in case anyone out there decides to marry someone speaking Spanish, German, French, Italian, Swedish, and to top it all off Arabic. Let me know if you want details! By the way, is it bad that the only slang words my bf knows are "crappy" and "wanker"? OOps. Back to cooking, I have to improvise a lot. For example, tomato paste does not exist here. I accidentally (on 3 occasions) bought what I thought was paste, but alas no. I am getting pretty efficient at converting grams to ounces and cups to mili-litres, etc. Also, there is no ginger, nutmeg, or paprika. And forget about making sweets....all of the desserts here are of custard consistency and basically just suck. I think when I come home I need to bring an extra suitcase for cooking supplies. I haven't exactly learned how to cook any typical dishes of the region (sorry Kristi)...oh! except one from my Spanish cookbook: Chicken with pineapple and curry....sounds Spanish huh? By the way, does anyone know how to cook fish? I do not. Please send recipes. Our type of fish is generic white fish without a name.

SO more about my life here. This week for example, we went to the beach twice. (Its Thursday and I haven't been to Spanish class yet this week...oops.) Oh, and ...I think I am getting tan...ok well maybe not, but I sure do have a lot more freckles. And as usual, I am the WHITEST person out there. You may not know this, but the people of Basque Country are really fair and many have blue eyes. But still no one is as white as me. And of course I wear long-sleeved shirts and pants and the beach...Did I mention that all the beaches are mostly topless? Yet again, why I am very different from everyone else. Everyone else is taking clothes off, while I am covered head to toe.

As for my level of Spanish, I think am past the plateau I was on for about a month. My boyfriend's mom came over to entertain me the other day when I was sick and we talked for about an hour. Pretty good if you ask me. I later realized that she is famous for smiling and laughing at jokes even when she doesn't understand. MAN...maybe I am not as good as I thought. At least I am beyond the point of speaking fluently only with alcohol. This is a good sign.

Ok that is all for now. I am still waiting for my first visitors! (Cris and Kelly in Ireland I am talking to you!) Everyone is welcome to come...well not everyone, this web sight is for public viewing and I don't want some Harold from Witchita calling me up.

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