Week Six

Monday: I allowed myself to sleep until 10a today to recover a bit from the fabulous but tiring weekend. I had breakfast by myself but it didn't bother me one bit. I enjoy the soft, scrumptious bread smothered with Nutella or butter and preserves and my big cup of coffee too much to care about eating alone. :) The sun was out today and it was an absolutely glorious day! Unfortunately, though, this made getting my reading for Business in the EU done nearly impossible- I just wanted to go outside and forget about school! Somehow I managed to get myself dressed and ready for the day in time for lunch with the family. We started off with julienned carrots and then Christine brought out a Heavenly-smelling baked pork that was drowning in its own aromatic juices. With this we had those white long-bean things that one usually finds in chow mein, but they were simply mixed with some herbs and olive oil and served. Also on the side was a big scoop of pasta noodles dressed with salt, parmesan, olive oil, and a little pimentel spice. We topped lunch off with some more homemade bread, fruit (I had a big juicy orange), coffee, and Lindt chocolates. I struggled through the rest of my reading after this until it was time to head to the university. The day was too beautiful to take the yucky bus so I happily strolled through the streets and parks for half an hour on my way to class, praying I would get even the tiniest bit of a sunburn. :) I stayed after class for a little while to use the university's internet to talk to my brother. I texted Christine that I would be home late and she said not to worry, she would hold my dinner for me. :)
Dinner was late for both Guilhem and myself (he had done something with a friend after school) but it was delectable just the same. We started off with a soup that Christine was extremely proud of: a blend of carrots, cauliflower, milk, cream, chicken bouillon, salt, water, and ginger. It was SO good; and that with fresh homemade bread? Forget about it! Guilhem boiled up some very tasty noodles for the two of us to split. I put olive oil, salt, pepper, pimentel, and parmesan on mine. We had our protein with slices of french lunchmeat-type ham (which I am slowly growing very fond of), and we had our veggies in the form of another apple and endive salad. Dessert was the usual goodness: natural yogurt with raspberry preserves. Ahhhhh.....

Tuesday: Nothing incredibly spectacular happened today; I know this because I've been writing short excerpts about each day in a journal right before bed (which I use for the blog) and the only thing I wrote for today was what we had for dinner. haha If you hadn't already figured out what my favorite part of the day is, you should now be able to at least guess. ;)
Dinner tonight was the rest of Christine's incredible cauliflower, carrot, and ginger soup with bread. We then had the rest of Guilhem's noodles dressed however we wanted. The real main course was perfect, fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth fried eggs with a spinach salad. And we topped this loveliness off with the typical yummy dessert. Gosh I love French food.

Wednesday: Yet another day where all I cared to write about in my journal was what I had for dinner. haha I do remember, though, that I had my second english lesson with Lucille and Emile downtown after class. That went well because today I brought Disney songs for them to listen to in English and I could tell that that was way more intriguing for the both of them. Afterwards, I enjoyed a really nice walk all by myself out in the sunshine along the Boulevard des Pyrenées. I walked all the way from the Palais Beaumont (at one end) to the château (at the other) where I bought some more gifts for my family. It was a great couple of hours of alone time to just enjoy the beauty of the day, and I got to practice my French with the shopkeepers where I bought those gifts. :)

A beautiful day in Pau!

Nothing like celebrating the sunshine with a train ride! :)

The Palais Beaumont covered in sunshine

The mountains are hidden but that's the city down there! And you can also see the big red tower that has the pole at its top that points to different peaks as your perspective moves walking down the Boulevard. There are plaques along the street at the exact points where the tip of that pole moves in perfect alignment with a peak; the plaques give you the name and height of that particular peak you are seeing.

Lionel made tonight's soup and I actually got to watch this one being prepared. He had set a pot on the stove to simmer earlier in the day with big chunks of carrots and halves of onions slowly turning to pulp inside. Before dinner, he took the pot with the thoroughly boiled veggies and added two slices of his homemade wheat bread, some seasoning, and a spoon of crème fraïche and blended it all into velvet. Every night since I've been here, I've been asking what's in the soup; and it's almost always the same sort of ingredients- some sort of vegetable base, milk or creme, and bread. But when I've gotten the answer, it never occurred to me that bread was in the soup... I thought they were always talking about the bread we eat with our soup! Well, you learn something new every day. After soup, we had a simply divine homemade pizza. Mmmm my mouth is watering again! The pizza was a super then, crispy, flatbread with small chunks of ham, black olives, mushrooms, tomato sauce, and shredded cheese on top. Oh this was just so so good; you're going to have to take my word for it. We had a spinach salad with this and I nearly giggled when they brought out my favorite dessert after. I was one happy girl that evening.
I wish I could say the happiness lasted, though. After spending a little time downstairs with the family, I said goodnight and headed up to talk to my family at home on ichat. I talked with them for a good hour or so and then started getting ready for bed, when I realized that I didn't feel so well. My throat had started hurting and I thought I felt a fever coming on. By the time I had gotten myself all ready to sleep, I was dragging myself to bed and I could feel that I had a fever. Needless to say, I took some Ibuprofen, wrote my host family a note explaining that I wasn't well, texted Rosie that I wasn't coming to class in the morning and might show up in the afternoon, turned off my alarm, and gave myself a good night's sleep. I was actually very worried that I had gotten so sick so fast and was truly nervous to have a fever; I don't think I've had one in about 5 years.

Thursday: I woke up around 10:30a this morning feeling slightly better. I could tell that my fever was gone (at least for the moment) but my body felt like it had been hit by a train. The back of my neck was beaten with a baseball bat in the middle of the night and someone had been kicking my calves too. I was just really achy and sore all over and could tell pretty quickly that I would not be making it to class in the afternoon; I needed at least a day to rest.
I went down to breakfast and filled my stomach as much as I could to cushion the incoming load of medication (if you know my mother, you probably understand that I have my own little pharmacie in my room). I used the time until lunch to lie in bed, write my parents so they could know what was going on, and do a little blogging. When I heard Lionel rummaging around downstairs, I decided I could probably eat a little lunch too. The strange thing is, I didn't have any issues with my stomach- my appetite never went away and never really increased either. I'm still not sure exactly what I had, but I hope it doesn't come back!
Lionel was the only one home for lunch today and he had finished his by the time I got downstairs. He could tell I didn't feel well so he offered to make me something. In his words, "my daughter is sick; of course I will do things for her!" :) I had a spinach salad first and then he heated up a frozen fish filet that was covered in a tomato sauce. He also reheated some leftover white rice and potato slices so I mixed the rice, sauce and fish together for a pretty full, good lunch. He had to go to work after that and I wanted to go back to resting and whatnot, so that's pretty much how the rest of the day went until the evening. When Christine got home, she apologized profusely for leaving me home alone all day when I didn't feel well. She was also really concerned when I told her my neck was hurting; she thought I might have meningitis and she told me that if my neck was still hurting in the morning, I needed to tell her so she could take me to the hospital. I was also instructed to tell my parents not to worry, that I am in good hands here. Oh how true this is...
For dinner, we had the rest of Lionel's carrot soup and then had a very interesting course, which I am proud to say I ate all of: whole filets of raw, smoked salmon. With this we had another great corn, rice, green olive, greek cheese, tomato, mushroom, red bell pepper, cucumber salad. I switched things up at dessert and had cassis preserves instead of raspberry with my yogurt: an excellent choice!
I was feeling okay after dinner but not great; I had a touch of a fever during the afternoon and I had to drag my bones up to bed. I know I can't make it to class in the morning but I'm holding out hope that I'll make it in the afternoon. Fingers crossed!

Friday: This morning went about the same as yesterday- breakfast around 10:30a, a concoction of medication, and lazing around feeling exhausted. I figured out by lunch that my body was still too tired to go all the way to the university, sit through class, and come back but at least I hadn't had a fever since yesterday! I spent the day doing a lot of sitting, relaxing, blogging, uploading pictures, etc. I did finally get myself in the shower to at least be presentable for my family at lunch- I feel bad for what they had to see yesterday. ;)
Lunch was with all four of us today and I loved the whole thing terribly. It started off with a plate of nothing more than sliced mushrooms tossed with olive oil and herbs. Yum! The main course was, you'll never guess...... chicken nuggets! I don't know if they were home made or frozen but they were good! I think they were pan-fried because they were really crispy and super juicy when you went to cut them. There was a pile of warm, soft, slightly buttery broccoli on the side and Piccalilli sauce to put on our chicken nuggets. We had a round of cheese and bread and then Lionel made me an infusion of leaves that I forget the name of (vervin possibly?).
We decided to live dangerously at dinner tonight by having a very good but very spicy Chinese noodle soup to start. *FYI, the French do not love spicy things. And "spicy" to them is much milder than "spicy" in the States.* This soup was actually pretty hot and it had us all losing our cool a few bites in. Being sick, I was a veritable waterfall of tears and snot- something I was very proud to display in front of Lionel and Christine. haha I choked down the last tasty, painful bites and washed it down with water and bread. Luckily there was the ever mild and delicious tomato, cucumber, greek cheese, white raison, mint, green olive, crab, mushroom, couscous salad to soothe my mouth and throat. After this great main course, we had a truly epic dessert: *you might want to sit down* soft pear halves, covered in super creamy vanilla bourbon ice cream, topped with homemade dark chocolate sauce (as in, a crushed up dark chocolate bar melted to molten goodness and thickened with milk) and a cinnamon cookie. I die!
I went to bed feeling much better, and not just because my soul was tingling with happiness from this meal. My energy was coming back little by little and that "icky" feeling was gone. It's a good thing that I don't have anything planned for this weekend because I'd be dead weight by Sunday.

Bonne nuit!

The Most Fabulous of Weekends: Weekend 4

Sunday: We got ourselves, up, packed, and out today by 10a. Kati and her husband allowed us to leave our bags in their hallway for the day so we could go out and walk around for a few hours without all our stuff. We started the day off with an absolutely stunning breakfast at a little café table under the glorious sunshine. The food is still getting my mouth watering when I look at the pictures: Spanish café con leche and two sweet, pastry-type treats. The first was a doughnut that had a crunchy and sweet apple glaze on top and pieces of caramelized apple inside. The second was a soft, slightly sweet warm bread with hardened chocolate on each end, sugar sprinkled on top, and a strip of thick chocolate inside. OH- MON- DIEU!!

I remember eating this, but it feels like it never actually happened because of how much I crave the food in this picture!

After breakfast ( = after tearing ourselves away from this Heavenly spot!) the three of us headed to San Sebastián's Aquarium. Erin wasn't really interested in the Aquarium so she headed off for a walk or whatnot around the beach. But Rosie and I definitely like doing some of the touristy stuff when we're visiting all of these foreign places, so we paid the 8 euros to go inside. Since it was Sunday, there were probably two or three other parties in the whole Aquarium for the two hours we were in there. We had such a great experience strolling through, taking our time, admiring the view of the ocean out of every window, and watching the fish in the tanks but I am really really sad to tell you that my camera died while we were inside. :( I got a couple of good pics of old ships, tools, and expositions from San Sebastián's whaling history while walking through the history-based section, but the highlight of the Aquarium is its underwater tunnel. And this is exactly where my camera died! I had brought my charger with me to San Sebastián but I hadn't thought to grab a different sized plug-adapter for traveling into "Southern Europe."Though this and my "Northern Europe" adapter look exactly the same, apparently they are different. Basically, I was never able to plug in my camera during the weekend. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to go back. ;)

Notice the whale that was caught, off to the right?

The skeleton of a baby whale

I didn't like this picture at first because it's so dark that you can't see my face; but now I realize that the background makes this picture fantastic and the fact that I am just in it is a bonus.

The view out every single window in the Aquarium.... ahhhhhhh. :)

This was a splendid way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday. Afterwards, Rosie and I met back up with Erin and the three of us walked across the way to a bizarre that was selling San Sebastián and Donostia (the Basque name for the city) merchandise. I bought a few gifts for my family and for a couple of friends and then we headed out to find lunch. Our last meal in Spain was more of the typical fare: I had the same type of ham as yesterday, some fries, a rather bland salad, and two croquettes. Besides the salad, it was bliss. :) When we were good and full, we headed back to our hostel to gather our things and then head to the tram station. We took the tram the 45 minutes back to Hendaye and then had a good half an hour to kill before our train to Pau arrived. We bought some pick-me-ups at a café across the street (I had a cappuccino that tasted more like coffee flavored hot chocolate) and then we had a leisurely train ride to Pau. We switched trains one time in Bayonne but on both trains we had our own empty compartment. It was a very nice, relaxing ride. 

At the train station, Lionel AND Christine were there to welcome me home. :) They offered rides to both of my friends, because they are just that cool, so the five of us packed into their little van. Once back at home, we settled into an apéritif courtesy of Maÿlis. She was leaving in the morning so she wanted to celebrate her last night with us. We had some more of Lionel's Spanish wine, cassis liquor and water, tortilla chips, and barbecue flavored Pringles. As un-fancy as the snacks sound, they were (and always are) served in nice ceramic bowls. We started dinner off with a carrot soup and then moved onto the main course of yummy pasta salad. The salad consisted of those twisty pasta noodles, tomatoes, Greek cheese cubes, cucumber, and green olives. With that we had some more bread and a spinach salad. For desert, a pineapple, apple, and banana salad- it was a salad bar kind of night! 

This was a very excellent weekend for me; I enjoyed my experience in Spain immensely and would love to go back to San Sebastián one day. I ate well, felt the sun on my skin, and saw many beautiful things- I go to bed as happy as can be!

Bonne nuit!

The Most Fabulous of Weekends: Weekend 4

The second half of Saturday: We found another typical Spanish/Basque joint for lunch and I order something that Erin said is truly classic Spanish food: ham, fries, peppers, and a fried egg. It was so good! The ham was super thin and had been fried so it was dry and juicy at the same time. It was truly very tasty and everything tasted good mixed together; especially eating each separate part with a bite of the marinated peppers.

I'm hoping you know what came after lunch. No? Oh come on; what do they do in Spain in the afternoon right after lunch?! Of course, siesta! Rosie and I were totally beat after last night's philandering so we were definitely up for an hour-long nap. Erin had really wanted a siesta too but she decided to walk down to the beach for a little bit instead. She spends a lot of time by herself so I think we were cramping her style a bit; she probably just needed a little alone time. I felt oh so refreshed after my nap and was ready for the evening. Roshanna, on the other hand, hadn't worn good shoes for our walk earlier so her feet were killing her. She wasn't up for going out at all before dinner time. So it was just Erin and I for a little shopping and the short uphill trek to the big statue of Jesus. I bought a really sassy redish-brown purse for 10 euros and got some San Sebastián postcards from some shops near the hostel. On our way to the path that takes you up to Jesus, we saw a parade of people dressed in traditional Basque gypsy costumes singing and banging on instruments. It got us really excited because we had heard about a Basque festival happening somewhere in the city... that evening! 

After watching the parade for a few minutes we walked back out to the walkway around the bay and went in the other direction from this morning to head up to Jesus. He sits in the center of a château-type building/fortress overlooking the city and it just so happens that the sun was setting as we made our way up to the top. I feel very certain that He or He and God together painted the sunset just for us because it was too perfect to be mere coincidence. I found the whole experience of hiking up a steep path, climbing up a lot of stairs, and having to look straight up to look at the statue extraordinarily powerful and moving. The whole thing is very symbolic of one's relationship with Jesus, Biblically and literally. The upward direction to get to Him and the looking up to see Him- it all moved me. I was blown away by the statue too- it is so huge! And He is so high up that when you look up at His face, you notice that there is NOTHING but the sky around Him; like the statue is literally in the sky- another very symbolic thing. And if that isn't enough to touch you, while you're staring at Jesus' face, you realize that He is not looking at you but is looking past you. When you finally wonder, "what is He looking at?" and turn around, the view of the city, the sea, and the sunset nearly knock you off of your feet. It was something beyond my imagination; I'm sorry the pictures don't do this experience justice. I encourage all of you to do this very same thing one day, if only just to know what I am talking about.

On our way up!

There He is

His view

See what I mean about this being created just for us?

The other side:

If I wasn't thoroughly in awe of San Sebastián and the beauty that exists in our world from our walk earlier today, I certainly was after my experience up on the hill. My heart was light and my spirit was soaring. It almost wasn't fair to think that I had nothing to do for the rest of the evening but to go eat more incredible food and have more unforgettable cultural experiences- like seeing a Basque festival! We decided not to sit down to a full meal for dinner tonight, but instead we went truly Spanish and had tapas: small plates of one or two snacks that usually come free or included in the price of a drink from a bar. When Erin studied in Spain last semester, she used to go out for tapas with her friends multiple times a week. We were all so excited for this because tapas allow you to try 5 or 6 different things before you are truly full. We picked up Roshanna at the hostel and then headed to our first place for the evening where got a round of beers and our first two or three tapas. I had a bocadillo that was simply a tiny baguette with a Spanish bacon inside; Roshanna had a small round of bread topped with a pepper, small piece of egg, and sausage and another round of bread topped with a sweet and savory crab salad; Erin had two fried "meatballs." I put that in quotes because it was more like a meat sauce, it was so soft! Roshanna and I also split two pieces of one of the most amazing fried foods I have ever tasted: croquettes! This epic snack is nothing more than an insanely thick mixture of cream, creamed potatoes, melty cheese, and small bits of ham. It's so crispy on the outside that you are surprised when you go to cut it and the whole thing collapses in a melting, creamy, potato Heaven. I have to stop there; I'm going crazy thinking about them!

My bocadillo and beer, and Roshanna's two tapas

The round things are Erin's meat balls, and the things that look like mozzarella sticks? Croquettes :) 

This was certainly not a terribly way to start the evening. We headed to another bar soon after enjoying this delicious dinner-time snack to have more. We got another round of beers there and another round of tapas. Believe it or not, I was actually getting pretty full at this point- those croquettes are dense! I decided to go with another croquette (because it was THAT good) and a slice of baguette topped with marinated peppers and onions, a small piece of smoked salmon, and a to-die-for piece of thick, creamy Spanish cheese. The whole thing was drizzled with a little vinegar. I may have shed a tear or two when I realized I didn't have room for another one. 

Mine and Erin's baguette, pepper, cheese bliss and Roshanna's baguette with a creamy, tangy veggie salad

The bar of tapas

Sorry, I think I may have mislead you. I was getting full of tapas at this point, but I still had plenty of room for dessert! We found a crêperie nearby where an English, French, and Spanish speaking Canadian guy was happy to talk to us in English- a first in Spain! I ordered a warm and melty Nutella and banana crêpe. I think there is no need for me to say anything more. :)

To complete this incredible Saturday in San Sebastián, Spain we found the Basque festival. It wasn't hard really, we just followed the music! I think we are three very lucky girls to have been here while this festival was happening because it was quite simply a celebration of being Basque. When and where else am I ever going to see something like that? The celebration was held in a big square that was surrounded on all sides by apartment buildings. There was a band up on the stage, a group of probably 200 singers/dancers/performers standing in front of the stage, and all were dressed in the Basque gypsy garb. They played traditional Basque music and for most of it, the entire audience- I'm talking thousands of people- were singing along, celebrating their heritage. I think there were at least 50 people who came out of their apartments to watch from above too. It was an amazing thing to see and it made me proud of my heritage as well.

One of many videos from this night. I have more on my 

online gallery: gallery.me.com/ranthy

We walked around a little after the festival, sort of following the band as they marched up and down streets singing and banging away at their make shift instruments. We got a couple of pictures with the Basque mascots too- two giant figures (one and old man, the other an old woman) that were both open on the bottom for someone to go underneath, pick them up, and walk around with them. It was rather entertaining to see a huge figure moving down the street on comparably tiny legs. 

Me, after the festival

Rosie and I with the Basque mascots. Kinda creepy huh?

We were pretty tired after this long and magical day, but I agreed to go out for an hour or so with Erin since it was saturday and we were in Spain and all (Roshanna just wasn't up for it). However, "going out" tonight meant the two of us standing against the wall in a crowded bar talking, yawning, and not bothering to order any drinks. Needless to say, we came back to the hostel after 45 minutes or so of that- too tired to carry on. haha Erin probably could have hung out longer but I wasn't cut out for it. I don't have the stamina built up like she does! This was an absolutely miraculous day: I don't think I will ever forget that walk around the bay and my trip up to see Jesus. There was so much about this day that touched my heart and made my spirit soar. I would love to bring everyone I care about to that promenade along the water some day. :)

Goodnight!

The Most Fabulous of Weekends: Weekend 4

Saturday: Today was an absolutely spectacular day. I got up around 8:45a, took a shower, and then we got ourselves ready and ate a small breakfast (coffee and some packaged treats like croissants and mini muffins) courtesy of Kati. After that we headed out for the day. We went on a little walk to start and it was just beautiful. After the constant chill and grayness of Pau, the glorious sunshine and warmth of San Sebastián was like a much needed summer vacation. We saw a couple of churches that just kinda popped up unexpectedly on busy commercial streets. We found one church whose facade took my breath away.

As we were standing admiring this church, we noticed that just off to the left the street ended and there was a view of the ocean. We looked at each other, took a breath, and walked out to the railing. What- a- view!

The grand, glorious, massive statue of Jesus Christ that can be seen from almost any part of the city at any time of day. I tried to get a picture of it at night but they wouldn't come out. He is absolutely magnificent though; at night, spotlights shine from underneath onto Him and one level down on the base of the hill. The dark space in between the two makes Him look like He is floating gloriously in mid-air, watching over the entire city.

We knew instantly that we had come to the right place at the right time and that this was going to be a spectacular day. We were starting to get a little hungry at this point but it wasn't really breakfast or lunch time yet. However, we found a little café where we could order coffee and pastry-type treats. I got a cup of café con leche and selected a truly marvelous little glazed covered, chocolate drizzled doughnut treat. It had a stripe of solid chocolate all the way through the inside. Oooooo hooooooo is all I can say. :)

Once we felt tingly all over, we decided it was time to go out and enjoy more of the majesty and sunshine of the bay. 

We decided that this is why Spanish people are so good at soccer: they get to play it on the beach.

We slowly but surely made our way all the way around the bay. If you simply walk from one end to the other without stopping it is only 25 minutes, but we took our time and stopped to take lots of pictures. It was one of the most peaceful, beautiful, and soothing walks in my life. The sun was like a warm friendly hug the whole way, the view took my breath away, and I was in the company of friends (not to mention that I had my family and loved ones on my mind the entire way. Trust me, you were all walking with me the whole way around in spirit.) We made it to the other side as the tide was rushing in, so the waves and spray were incredible. We saw these modern art statues at the very end that have adopted the nickname "Wind Combs." I don't think this is actually what they are called because every french person I've talked to hasn't understood a world I'm saying when I translate that phrase into french. 

Wind Combs

At this point we were feeling extremely light-hearted and thought we'd kick our incredible day into overdrive by having lunch. I won't say that we were hungry and it was time for lunch; that doesn't do the good feelings I had in my heart any justice. :)