Eguberri on!

This year's Christmas festivities were very Basque. On Christmas Eve (nochebuena) almost every barrio had their own celebration. In our hood that included a primary school parading and singing Basque Christmas carols, dressed of course in typical Basque attire. Zer polita! Seriously they were all so adorable. I even saw a baby dressed up with a baby-sized txapela (beret) to boot. A group of kids sang in a carnecería, which seemed like the cover of a Christmas card...or perhaps a scene from a Belén. Apparently they go caroling house to house for money, but with the economy the way it is, this tradition is becoming less frequent.

View from the house of children dancing in the street

After lunchtime, Olentzero and Mari Domingi met and posed with the children of Donostia. Think Santa and Mrs. Claus, except Basque. At nightfall various children's dance groups paraded along with goats and Olentzero and Mari Domingi.  The dances took me back to when I took a dance class here in 2012. I had forgotten most of them!

Christmas Eve dinner was early by Spanish standards: we started nibbling before 8! It was a pretty solemn Christmas, with no gifts exchanged.  There was, however, an abundance of shouting.  Seriously, for 4 people (not including myself because I didn't say much) there was a lot of noise. Discussing politics, love interests, and memories all required yelling. That's Spain though. As is going out after Christmas Eve dinner...

Basque scene from a Belén in a plaza

Txotx!!*

There are about to be a bunch of posts in a row because it's the holiday season, and I've been doing stuff worth writing about.

This year thanks to my anaia adoptivo (host brother), I feel that I got the authentic Santo Tomas experience. The festival is celebrated in Donostia and other Basque towns the December 21st. Its roots are the baserritarrak (Basque farmers) coming to town on this day to sell animals and goods. Now it has morphed into a day of sidra and txistorra for all citizens wanting to pay homage to those traditional Basques.

First of all, the weather was wonderful, nothing like the late December you might imagine. We went to the center around noon to check out the herri kirolak (country sports) which included a group of men dragging a giant boulder. So Basque. Unfortunately we didn't see any aizkolari, which is my favorite herri kirola where they chop wood (see this entry from 2012).Then we began the fundamental Santo Tomas activity: consuming txistorra sandwiches and a bottle of sidra. Traditionally on this day txistorra, a sausage I prefer to chorizo, is eaten on a corn tortilla called talo. However, there were much more txistorra stands than talo stands, probably since making talo is more time-consuming and requires some skill. Therefore the lines were immense and we opted for eating our txistorra on regular bread.

Then we headed  to a less central plaza to hang out with the cuadrilla of my bro.  Most of them were dressed in the typical outfits of the Basque Celebration: a loose black overshirt, a blue and white plaid handkerchief around the neck, and a black beret. (Cuadrillas are an interesting  cultural difference I often forget about until I'm on the outside. Groups of friends stay together from very young until old age.) Anyways, we spent probably 5 hours drinking sidra in the sunny part of the plaza. Nearby they were playing club music in euskera, which actually exists. Also someone was renting out little cabezudos, so every once in a while you'd see a kid running around with an old man's head. Hilarious. There was even a Galicia stand selling octopus and Galician wines. Represent!

Get behind me, Satan hahaha

After so long, part of the group broke off to play pelota vasca and we moved to the Parte Vieja which was packed. There was barely room on the streets for people to push in one direction--bars overflowed and people partied in the streets. Then my bro had to go to work, what a pity!

I would've stayed on with his amigos who were very nice to me, the quiet foreigner. But when I went back to look for them, it was like searching for someone in a where's waldo convention due to everyone wearing the Basque outfit. Madre mía!  Nevertheless, since Santo Tomas is a day festival, I didn't feel so bad returning home before Spanish dinnertime.  Besides, I had sleep debt from the night before and the night on the train.

Lastly, thumbs up to San Sebastian for promoting reusable cups. I'd say the streets were much cleaner because of it. Also I believe they were giving 1 euro for every empty bottle of sidra collected. I like the way they think.

* txotx is what Basques say when they realize cups are empty and they're about to pour more. Needless to say, with such a big group it was yelled often

Another International Thanksgiving

Once again Lauren and I hosted a Thanksgiving dinner, except this year it was even more international. We had representatives from Spain, England, Brazil, Italy, and Angola.

THANKS TO:
Lauren for baking pumpkin pie, corn bread, and a type of apple strudel. Yum! This made the meal a legitimate Thanksgiving. And she majorly helped with the clean-up, knowing how I detest doing dishes.

Diego for seasoning one set of chicken thighs.  A few minutes before putting the chickens in, I asked Diego, "So...what do we put on it?" He found a recipe and whipped up some dressing. And then at 9:20 when the gas tank went out before we had boiled the potatoes, he made 2 trips to the gas station to get more gas. Diego saves the day!

Alex for "teasing" the chicken. I always confuse the words vacilar (to tease) with vaciar (to empty). As you can imagine, I asked him to taunt the chicken. Once I corrected myself, he made fun of me for being "preppy" and then he realized the chicken came empty. Lucky break. I put the mushy stuffing in the bird myself --so much for being preppy!

The rest of our friends who came with desserts, wine, and good spirits. We ate by 10:30, and since dinner here is usually a smaller meal, everyone was thoroughly stuffed. Not to mention desserts (my new favorite is the Brazilian brigadeiros) Success! I was proud of myself for preparing the mashed potatoes, stuffing, and corn myself. Ok, frozen corn is not that difficult. But I'm starting to cook for people. Lauren and I are getting pretty good at hosting Thanksgiving...maybe next year we'll charge to get in. ;)