Spoke-tactular

Before moving to Portland we already knew one big thing about it - it is incredibly bike-friendly.  Listed as the city that has the most bike commuters (people who use their bike as their transport to and from work) in the nation. 

When we first got the the States we came down to Portland to check our new town out.  And it was true - bikes were everywhere!  And not little 'I'm going on an afternoon ride' models, but serious 'i'm riding across town and maybe further' bikes.  There were bike lines on the streets and where there weren't the cars cooperated easily with the bikers.  Crossing bridges there were lanes designated just for bikes!  In the end it seemed maybe the bikes even went faster as we saw in traffic in our gas-guzzling vehicle. 

We knew that we just had to buy bikes and put it at the top of our list right next to a couch and bed.  Really.  Since we weren't sure if we were going to be among the bike commuters, we wanted to start out with some nice bikes that were more for cruising than serious pedaling.  We became avid Craigslist searchers and found 2 gorgeous vintage bikes. 

 Joseba's is a Vintage Montgomery Ward men's cycle in green and mine a Vintage Woman's Huffy in a brown.  They are both 3-speeds, which requires us to stop to change gears, but they are awesome and pretty retro.  The owner was a biker himself and when he passed them over to us said he even thought everything was original, down to the brakes, which is cute but also a bit scary!  Regardless, we got the pair for $90, a steal! 

Between moving and setting up the house we didn't get to use the bikes til the end of our first week as Portlanders and then we finally made ourselves real locals when we pulled the bikes out of the basement and headed out on the town with them. 

We coasted down Vancouver Avenue in our bike lane and then shared the road for two blocks before we got off on a multi-use path (for bikers, runners, etc) and crossed the Burnside Bridge to West Portland.  We rode along the river on a beautiful sunny day, taking in the greenery along the river and passing a few bike shops (I need a fancy bell).  We managed to ride into Downtown which was originally a bit intimidating - we didn't want to get eaten by a street car or mowed over by a truck, but Downtown Portland is incredibly laid-back and calm.  It didn't seem like a city center at all and we were able to easily cruise til we got some grub.

We made our way back to our side of the river by crossing the Hawthorne Bridge (you will learn Portland is a town of many bridges) and again along the river.  The pathway goes literally along the river, about a foot above river level and so many people were out being active on the sunny day. 

Besides a hard bike seat making my bum a bit sore, the day was fantastic and a first of many bike days.  Rain is forecasted to come soon, but after our first ride, I am sure that we will be happy to go out for a ride, even if it's sprinkling.

You May Pass Go

This driving stuff has been nice since I have been home.  I hadn't driven a car in The Basque Country the entire time I lived there, so after having visited the US the last time, it had been over 3 years since I sat in the driver's side of the car.  Now I'm back at it like a champ thanks to Grammy loaning us her car while we look for our own - the Buick.

The only catch though, is that now that I am an Oregon resident, I am required to get an Oregon license to drive here.  I think it is something like after 30 days of being a resident you must have the license of this state.  And although I have technically only been an Oregon resident since move-in day, October 1st, I figured I'd get it out of the way early.

Being licensed in Arizona, it was quite easy for me to get an Oregon license.  I didn't need to worry about the whole practical exam where you take our your car for a spin with the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) and show him how bad you parellel park or anything.  However, I did need to pass the written part of the exam - something I haven't studied for since I got my license when I was 16.  That is where it was a bit tricky.

So on this lovely morning, I headed down to the DMV about 10 minutes from my house, expecting massive lines.  In every DMV I have ever been in, the wait time is something ridiculous like an hour minimum.  Here though, my number was called in about 5-10 minutes which allowed me a few minutes to leaf through the Oregon State Driver's Manual. Check out the link for some entertaining reading.  It's about 100 pages and a lot of common sense, so my strategy, if you could call it that, was to just take the test and see if I passed or not and if I didn't pass atleast I would know what I needed to study,  because I wasn't in the mood to read a 100-page manual.

In the time I paged through it, I learned that expert drivers scan the driving scene 12 seconds ahead.  Didn't know that.  Also found out that the yellow lights that I have always known and loved are not called yellow, but in fact they are deemed amber.

With this little knowledge, my number was called and I was ushered off to the testing area, where it was all done on a touch-screen computer.  In a test of 35 questions, I had to answer atleast 80% correct, meaning I could only get seven wrong.  Eight meant fail and I'd have to pay the $5 fee again and come back tomorrow to press my luck and maybe even study some.  The questions were all multiple choice with four options and I was banking on the fact that I was a good driver but when the first few questions were toughies and by question 12 I was already not doing so hot.

Here were the ones I 1) didn't know or 2) didn't remember from my driver's education class when I was 15.  Did you know that a blind person (well, a person carrying a white cane) has the right of way at an intersection even if you have a green light?!  I thought the driver did, so got that one wrong.  Thinking back, I guess it does make sense.  Another miss was the most likely way to injure a motorcylist while driving a car.  I didn't know and guessed that following too closely would be the money maker, but turns out it is turning left in front of them.  I also didn't know that if you are being tailed by someone who obviously wants to pass you and you're going the speed limit that instead of mainting your correct speed that you should slow down even more (which I bet would make the driver behind you even more annoyed) and encourage him to pass.  How do you encourage someone in another car to pass?  These were 3 wrongs I got right off the bat.

Then it seemed to turn easy.  One question showed this sign and said what does this mean.  Ummmm, I think even if you never studied you would know that is a no U-turn sign.  Easy question.  There were a few more like that - what should you do at a yellow light?  Speed through it?  Slam on your brakes? Stop if you can otherwise continue.  Obviously!

Anyways, I had 7 wrong anwers (chalk it up to not studying for 10 years) and still had 10 questions left, none of which I could get wrong!  I passed through and happily returned to the desk where they checked my eye sight and then took my beautiful photo, my check for $60 and then handed me a temporary paper license.  The whole thing took about an hour, which is what I was expecting just to wait for my number to be called.  All in all, my new license picture with bangs officially makes me an Oregonian!

Everything is BIG!

One of the first things that Joseba noticed about America when we arrived and that still catches his eye is the massive size of everything comparing with Europe.  When we deboarded the plane you don't notice it so much in the Sea-Tac airport, and going through Customs or Immigration either.  But when we hit the road it became very apparent and for his first sight of the continental US, he was shocked.

It started with my mom's car - a big Chevy Astro van (I think).  It has seating for 8 or you can fold down the seats and throw a mattress in it.  She loves it because she can cart around the whole family, grandkids and all, but to Joseba it was bigger than he ever imagined a regular passenger vehicle to be.  We had just been camping in the South of Spain in a van of similar size and here we had lived in it for a week!  Motor-homes the size of our apartment just don't exist in Europe, so the camping van is about as big as they get there.

Once belted in, we whizzed down the freeway, passing massive billboards and store signs.  Again, a practice that is quite uncommon where he is from, he said 'it's just like the movies' and I guess it is.

We stopped off for dinner and proceeded to order.  Being very American, I went ahead and ordered a strawberry lemonade, something I hadn't had for years and felt I should try it out again.  Joseba did the euro-thing and ordered water.  When the glass came, it was quite big comparing to what we are used to.  In Europe, if you order say a Coke or something, you get the amount that fits in the can or little bottle it is manufactured in.  After we finished my lemonade, he was confused as to why the waiter just brought out another one - free refills.  Essentially, I could drink as much as I wanted - 32oz, 64oz, even more!  Is bigger better?  I only managed to polish off the first drink with his help and sadly we left the entire second cup full when we left.

The bigness continued when we arrived at Grammy's where the first thing he noticed was how big the toilet paper was.  I know, it seems like a funny thing to notice, but leave it to a foreigner to think of something that probably has never crossed your mind...your bum yes.  With a plethora of toilet paper options - 2-ply, 1-ply, quilted, extra soft and more - Joseba was mostly confused as to why the sheets were so WIDE?  This one still gives him a kick today. 

Living at Grammy's house for a bit was a lesson in BIG sizes.  As a Costco member (a wholesale club store where you can buy things in large quantaties and get big savings) she is able to get big things at a small price.  For example, soy sauce - while the only size available that we have ever seen in the Basque Country is the typical 8.5 or 10oz (240g or 283g) one, my Grammy has it is a 40oz container (1133g)!  I mean, if you know you're going to use it, what's the harm?  While Joseba's eyes bugged out when he saw that, he too fell victim to the 'it's a better price if I buy a lot of it at the same time' syndrome when we bought all of our toiletries and came home with a bottle of body lotion that will probably last us a year.  To top it off, Grammy even has a gigantic coffee mug that she drinks from each morning, stating that she only has 1 cup a day!  Now that is bigger = better at its best!

While speaking about food we can segway into two more big things that affect each other - the portion sizes and the people sizes here.  On our first day in Seattle we stopped of at a quick-serve Chinese restaurant to order some chow-mein and be on our touristy way.  When we saw the portion size, we decided that splitting one was probably the best way to go and got full from 1 serving portion together.  As many of you are well aware, the portion sizes in America are ever expanding, while in Europe it seems that they are staying close to the same.  Save for big cities like London, Berlin and other capitals, it seems that if you order something for dinner, you won't get even close to half as much as if you were ordered in the States.  This has a direct effect on the waist lines of our citizens. This obesity business with be a whole different blog someday, so I'll move on.

From semi-truck cabs (lorry) and pick-up trucks to stores and parking lots, Joseba has noticed that in America, everything seems to run size L.  Partially that is influenced by the fact that we live in the West, a vast part of the country that when settled was not built in the likes of the East Coast's NYC, Boston or Philly.  Here, our streets are wide and lined by old massive trees.  With so much space we have been able to build stores that wouldn't even be thought about in The Basque Country - with 2 or three floors of selection.  The list goes on and on.  But we have to remember that our country is pretty much the same size as the entire continent of Europe (3.5 million square miles vs. 3.9).  In the land where bigger is often considered better, Joseba is having a lot of laughs and suprised moments discovering the big differences. 

More to come soon!

Everyone knows about my alien!

Just a quick blog to let you know that I published my immigration in The Daily News today.  It's a bit reminiscent of the blog I wrote on here, but check it out anyways HERE.  It's also in my Travel Columns page here on the blog. 

Thanks for reading!
Amanda

The New Place in this New Place

After having been here for 3 weeks, we were overjoyed to sign the apartment lease papers for our first apartment in Portland!  We had done lots of searching while still in the Basque Country but ran into the problem that all of the apartments were available for move in NOW, which isn't so good when you're still an ocean away.  So, when we arrived we hit the road running and head to Portland, Oregon to search for our perfect place. 

The first place was nice, but small and the windows looked right into the neighbor's windows. I mean, I could just ask the neighbor to make me a coffee and pass it over.  Not my cup of tea...err coffee.  It was dubbed a 'vintage' place which in my thinking means old but fashionable and nice.  Apparently, 'vintage' as we learned at this place just meant old.  We passed.

The next place we looked at was a place we didn't even get the chance to look at!  We were pretty hyped about it and the listing said there would be an Open House, where you can do a walk-through of the apartment, at 1pm on the day we happened to be in town.  We arrived about 15 minutes early and the open house had already started and 2 applications had already been received from the 20-something people that were there.  The owner stated that it was basically already rented but if we wanted to take a gander we were welcome.  We figured there was no use in wasting time seeing a place we weren't going to get so we headed to have lunch and prep ourselves for the next place in this cut-throat renting market!

Having lived in NYC I knew that renting a good place could be pretty brutal but in laid-back Portland I wouldn't have expected it.  The third place that we saw was the place we eventually signed the paperwork on, but it took a bit of skill to get it!  We arrived early for the Open House and saw two other couples (one married and the other two friends) that had happened to be at the previous Open House.  We knew they were obviously interested and this was our cash cow - the one we really wanted!

We had chosen to look in the NorthEast part of Portland thanks to some tips from some high school friends I have that said that it is the 'it' spot right now.  Areas like Mississippi and Alberta are adorable up-and-coming areas that used to be a bit dodgy but now people are really working on making them more invitable and exciting.  With hip bars, concert venues, tasty restaurants and lots of parks and an equal amount of shops, it reminded us a lot of the Kreuzberg neighborhood in Berlin that we so fell in love with.  Our first day in the US (after a long sleep) we came down to Portland wandered around the neighborhood and just agreed that it was the place for us.   

Built in 1910, this Craftsman house had been divided into a top and ground floor units.  We were looking at the top floor unit which had lots of windows and a private entrance.  The 14 steep steps to the top were a bit to make us catch our breath, but when we got in the apartment, Joseba and I just fell in love with it.  The living area was combined with the dining area which connected to the robin's egg blue kitchen with new appliances.  The bathroom was nice-sized and had a great shower head and tons of storage space.  The bedrooms, there were two, were great and perfect for what we were looking to use them for - one for sleeping and one for Joseba's music studio.  The heating was gas and heck there was even a washer and dryer, which we didn't seem to have much luck finding included in the price in other places we'd searched out.

Seeing as we weren't the only people seeing the place, and figuring everyone else was liking it as much as we were, I slyly asked the landlord if she could show me the washer and dryer and where they were located.  I wasn't SO concerned with seeing if it was a front-loading or top-loading washer, but really just wanted to get the landlord to ourselves so we could tell her that we wanted it!  She took us down the scarily vertical stairs again to our own basement with ample storage and the W/D units.  I saw them real quick and then went out to the driveway with her as the other people peered in the basement.  It was then that Joseba and I made eyes, speaking without words that we HAD TO have this place, and I told her we'd like to start the application process!  We'd done it!  The other people looked a bit deflated that we had gotten our interest in first and headed out and we headed back upstairs to do a mountain of paperwork to get the renting process started.

Here, to rent, they do criminal checks and background checks - a process the landlord can charge anywhere from $25 to $50 per application (aka $100 for us together) to check into all this stuff.  We even had to give our past landlord references and our landlord called them in Basque Country to confirm that we were the amazing tenants we promised her that we were! 

We were so excited about submitting the application that we went to a bar down the street for a celebratory beer at a place called Kenny & Zuke's, just a stone's throw from our place.  We fell in love with the neighborhood right away.  So many little cafes and restaurants dotted the streets that were lined with massive maple and oak trees.  The leaves had just started falling and although it was sunny you could feel the crisp air coming in.  The waitress was incredibly friendly, people whizzed by on bicycles and we toasted to hoping this became our everyday.  

When we finally got the ok that we got the apartment we were in Seattle (another blog about that another time) and celebrated with my Dad, Stepmom and Bro with a glass of wine - well my  brother didn't have a glass but he celebrated with us anyways.  We were so relieved!  The funny thing is that this apartment is one that we fell in love with when we were still abroad and actually emailed our landlord stating our extreme interest.  We basically told her, we would take it sight unseen, but she responded saying there was too much interest and it wouldn't be available by time we made it to Portland.  Luck have it, when we arrived in Kelso we saw the ad posted again and forwarded her our previous email saying that we still were interested in the place.  Turns out that guy who was going to rent it didn't work out in the end and the place was available!  The landlord told us that she thought that our previous email was a scam - one of those, oh my business associate will collect the money because I happen to be overseas sham.  It wasn't, just us :)

We got the keys about a week later and started Operation Furniture.  In the Basque Country apartments come relatively if not completely furnished a lot of times.  Here that is pretty much out of the question unless you're looking to pay a hefty extra fee.  So, IKEA, Target and even Wal-Mart became our destinations of place after some serious second-hand shopping on Craigslist.com.

IKEA is always a blast until you get to the checkout but we ended up getting everything we needed and shoved it all in the basement and headed off to Ashland, OR (again, another blog to come) for our last week before becoming official Portland residents.  

And here we are!  Every house has it's weird things though.  Our house seems to slant in a U - like in the kitchen the wine bottles roll east but in the living room the table tilts west.  But, the light that flows in the windows, the wine boxes with flowers falling out of them and the lovely group of girl neighbors downstairs more than makes up for it. 

We have only been in the house about five days and have mostly everything set up.  The stairs make for a workout bringing things up to our apartment, but it's great to watch our first place come together.  Unpacking the massive boxes I saved at my Grammy's house while having lived abroad, it is quite comical the things that I felt were super important to save for my return.  I have DVDs that I have no desire to see again, lots of sheets but not so many pillow cases, a George Foreman grill that I could probably buy for something like $10 now, scrapobooking stuff for a hobby that never took off and probably never will, and more. 

We've made it to the knick-knack stage, having passed the big furniture stuff already.  It's all in the details!  And, we have an air mattress already, so are happily accepting guests in Hotel Amanda & Joseba - Portlandiapartment.  Free locally brewed beer (another blog, lots to come) and live jam sessions byJoseba included and maybe a banana bread by Amanda if you're lucky!

If you want our address, shoot me an email and I'll send it over!  Will post more pics once we have become a bit more organized.  We are so excited to have a homebase to share our new experiences in this gorgeous city with you.  

Amanda

Sorry for no blogs!

Hi everyone!  I know I have been quite MIA lately, but don't think I have forgotten about you!  Joseba and I have been in the country almost 3 weeks to the day and in that short amount of time we have travelled to Seattle for some glorious sunshine, poked around our new city of Portland while trying to figure out why everyone says its so weird (we love it just the way it is), did a week-long trip in Ashland, OR where we saw Shakespeare at its best, hiked the gorgeous Crater Lake and wine-tasted and successfully found a place to live and furnished it!  It's been a whirlwind and we haven't really stopped since we arrived.  Apart from my book club meeting the first week of being here, I haven't read a single page of my Kindle for weeks - a shocking fact if you know me.

I just wanted to let everyone know that we ARE ok and enjoying life to the fullest.  While it is normally getting a bit misty and gray here we have been so lucky to have sunny skies since we arrived and just bought some bikes and hopefully will get out and enjoy them soon! 

I have put a youtube video of Portland, OR below so you can have a little taste of this new place I call home. 



If you want my address, shoot me an email at amanda.gonser@gmail.com and I will give it to you.  Upcoming blogs will feature:  entering the US with my alien husbana, excursion to Seattle, Craiglisting my life away, our new place, everything Ashland, our first trip to the grocery store (they ARE as big as everyone says they are),  the job search, shocking American things for Joseba, beer and more. 

More to come soon!


Amanda

Last Post as an Expat

When I left NYC to come here, the plan was to stay for one school year.  I loved it immediately.  I won’t say that it wasn’t hard – making friends in a new place, adjusting to everything different about a new culture, learning the ropes of a different job, daring to try scary looking foods and seeing new places (ok, that wasn’t so taxing); but I adored it!  I spent my first months wandering without a destination, just exploring and soaking up this new place. 

 I liked it so much here, I couldn’t actually convince myself to go back to the US except for a summer visit.  Then, it was back here for another one year stint.  We all know how that worked out though – one more year turned into three and here I am, four years later! 

I had always wanted to live abroad – travel around, meet new people and experience different cultures.  I never dreamed that my 9 month ‘working vacation’ would turn into a real life step.  I can’t begin to describe how much I delight in living here.  It’s like part of my soul was originally European or something – I adore buying fresh bread, I love looking out over the rooftops and seeing towering church spires, I relish sitting on a terrace sipping a wine or café con leche and listening to a street performer, I enjoy the challenge of trying to master a new language and I appreciate the respect that people have for customs that are older than my country.  Living in the Basque Country opened my eyes much more than I could have ever imagined.  The funny thing is, is that after being here so long, I actually know I will be ‘home-sick’ from Donostia when I go back ‘home’ to the States.  How did that happen?!

It has been an amazing four years but I am so thrilled for the next step in this adventure of life.  I couldn’t have guessed in a million years that I would come back to my country with a husband in tow but alas, I am, and am more excited than ever.   I will continue writing in the blog, but it will no longer be me sharing my expat ideas and experiences, but instead will trail our new journey in Portland, OR – a place we both have never lived.  It will be new for both of us, in different ways of course.  I hope to share some upcoming blogs with you about what Joseba finds particularly weird about the USA and our culture.  The past two years he has heard me remark ‘what are they DOING?’ and ‘why are they doing it like THAT?’ and now the tables will turn and things that I find mundane or don’t even notice will catch his attention.  It will be something that makes each day entertaining and new. 

Thank you for having read my chronologies of the past four years; I have loved sharing them.  I hope that the next phase of this journey is equally as interesting and fun to share and hopefully let you see our home through new eyes.

My last muxu,

Amanda  

A hairy situation

After having lived here for four years, the unthinkable finally happened – Basque hair.  I have been going to the same hair cut place for over a year now and really have felt comfortable there.  The staff is very friendly and they always do my hair just like I want it – which is always just a repeat from the previous time, aka a trim.  So, living at my mother-in-law’s house in Orio, about 30 minutes away from Donostia where I used to get my hair cut, I decided that for my last haircut here before coming home, I should go to my regular place.  My logic was that they knew my cut and would whip it out real quick and just how I like it.  Wrong. 

Ever since I got bangs on my 25^th birthday, I have been terrified, literally shaking in my boots, every time I go to the hair salon.  Why?  Because I have feared with my soul, the Basque hair.  Here, the mullet still is going strong and rat tails also decorate many a head.  The pony-tail with the shaved sides of the head is currently becoming popular.  But worst of all are the bangs – Basque bangs as I have appropriately dubbed them.  These bangs are even in the bangs category in my opinion because they practically don’t even cover your forehead!  They are cut so short that it was like you were a 7-year old girl who made a mistake with the scissors.  But people actually ASK for this!  How is it possible? 

Each time I have gotten a haircut I adamantly show with my finger WHERE I want my bangs to fall.  None of this half a centimeter of my forehead business; no no, I normally want them a little bit above my eyebrows that I’m a happy camper. The worst is when you get a hairdresser who actually has this style, I use the word loosely, of bangs, and you basically have to say, I specifically do NOT want your hair.   I say PLEASE PLEASE don’t cut them short and in almost 3 years, I have been relieved each time I have walked out of the salon. 

Much to my surprise, my regular hair dresser this time, pulled a fast one and seemed to forget how I have been getting my hair cut for over a year.  While he was chopping away, he got all Edward Scissorhands on me, and hair was flying around so much that I had to close my eyes to shield them – BIG mistake.  When I opened them I saw that he had given me not only a partial mullet (I believe his words were ‘I like the lengthy but we are going to make the top a bit more playful’) but also the dreaded Basque bangs.  I said ‘do NOT cut more’ and he proceeded to trim and then blow dried like one blow dries a dog.

I was horrified when I saw the final product but paid anyways, thinking that I could always fix it at home by blow-drying it how I wanted it done (not how they dry it like I’m a 1950s housewife and put a bunch of product in it).  I was sadly incorrect.  I guess this sort of slip had to happen at some point, and I guess I’m impressed it took so long.

 But, take this blog as a warning – when you see me, please do not gawk or gasp.  I have a mullet and practically no bangs, I’m aware.  I am just waiting for it to grow out so I can go back to regular Amanda hair. 

In a sense, I guess you could say that I have truly become Basque with this haircut – no easy feat.  No souvenirs are needed for me – I have it on my head! 

Muxu!

Amanda

PS – This pic was taken a couple of days after the initial shockingly bad haircut.  It isn’t exactly my favorite hair do but I will admit that after all that ranting above…it’s not SO bad.  It’s already growing!

Everything I know I learned in the Basque Country...not totally but some stuff!

As I near the end of my time here, I was looking back at my experience and what a ride it has been.  It is true that travelling alone, or moving to a different country alone in my case, really opens you up and teaches you so much about yourself.  Besides the amazing self-discovery aspect of this journey, there are also concrete things that I have learned of or about while here that I can only attribute to my time here.  Some things silly, some things useful, whenever I reference them, they will always be planted here in the Basque Country.  Here are a couple examples:

-      *   The word archipelago.  It sounds ridiculous, but I didn’t know this word existed until I moved here.  It was in my Spanish class that it came up and I couldn’t figure out what it meant.  I looked it up in the Spanish-English dictionary and there it stood, staring at me – the same word!  My teacher tried helping me by pronouncing it different ways thinking that maybe it would jar my memory about what this word was.  No dice.  Now that I know the word, it does come in very handy – talking about our trip to Sweden especially!  However, because I learned it in Spanish class and have never heard it in English, I truly don’t know how it is pronounced in my native tongue.  Hopefully, if it comes up in a conversation when I go home, I can commit the English one to memory!

-       *   Forks are used for many things we eat with our hands.  Here it is customary to eat the following with a fork and knife – hamburger, pizza and French fries.  Growing up in the States, this option would never have crossed my mind!  How much more difficult dipping your fry in ketchup is if you have it poked on the end of your fork!  And hamburgers?!  It almost has the word HAND in it!  I mean, if it is a massive-too-big-to-fit-in-your-mouth burger then maybe, but a little one that your hands can easily grip?  Come on!  

-      *    Lack of dryers.  When I moved here I was shocked at the fact that my apartment didn’t have a dryer.  How were my clothes to dry in the humid and rainy weather?  Four years later, it is still something I really miss about the States.  I know NO ONE here with a dryer.  Everyone either hangs their clothes outside on a line, in an internal patio on a line or inside on a clothes drying contraption.  No warm towels when you get out of the shower.  No warm sheets to put on your bed.  No instant wrinkle-disappearing (I still manage to never iron though, touché.)  None of that good stuff.  While overly excited to get home and throw everything in the dryer, I am now afraid of how much stuff will shrink…at least it will be toasty!

-        *   Kilos and Meters.  Apparently, I weigh 50 kilos and measure 155 cm.  This means nothing to me.  I have no concept in my head of these scales.  Even after four years I can’t guess how much someone weighs or how tall they are.  The same goes for kilometers.  This morning I did a hike – 7km!  Which to mean sounds like a marathon, but it’s only something like 3 miles – nothin’.  When we go on a trip, the road signs are of course with kilometers so when a sign comes up saying how close (or far away) we are from the destination, I can’t gauge how long 200km is going to take.  This is due in part to the fact that I also can grasp km per hour.  The regular highway speed here is 120km/hr.  If I really take time to think about it, I can process it, but I always think in pounds, feet, inches and miles.  Don’t even get me started on cooking with their grams and our ounces!  Constant internet conversions are involved in each thing I bake.

-         * Ham is delicious.  When I told everyone I was moving here they all told me – oh wow, you’re going to eat ham all the time.  I don’t like particularly love ham.  Easter dinner – meh, I’m fine with potatoes.  But, to my amazing surprise, there are different kinds of ham than that here!  The ham that everyone spoke of was not these hams that you throw in the oven (called Jamón York here) but instead the delicious Jamón Serrano which is a cured ham that I happened to love, probably a bit too much.  Now that I have become a fan of ‘ham’ in this sense of the word, I probably will scarcely be able to find it in the States let alone for less than an arm and a leg.  Shame.  Here I dreaded it upon my arrival and although I haven’t even left I know I will miss it dearly.  

-       *   First name basis.  Here student do not call their teachers Mr. or Mrs.  This floored me when I got here.  Here they just call you by your first name.  Heck, I don’t even KNOW the first names of many of my teachers throughout school!  I got used to it and now think it would be strange to hear Ms. Gonser, but still find it odd that they get away with it.  

-       *   The floor = the trash bin.  My first ventures in the pintxo bars shocked me.  Extra bread, dirty paper napkins, used toothpicks – all scattered over the floor.  According to the guide book I had, the more garbage on the floor the better the bar (apparently they figure that the more garbage thing means there have been more customers).  My first napkin throw to the floor felt taboo and like I was going to get slapped on the hand, but I quickly picked it up.  Now it’s second nature.  I definitely need to keep that in check though at home – don’t think any American restaurant would appreciate me throwing my trash on the floor.    

-         *  Hello vs. Goodbye.  In the States if you see someone on the street that you know as you pass, what do you say?  ‘Hello’ or ‘Hi’ or something of the opening greeting form.  Here though, everyone says ‘goodbye’ or ‘see you later’.  Now that I am finally catching on, we are leaving.  At least now that I have mastered the ‘gero arte – see you later in Basque’ I know that when I say it, I WILL come back to this lovely place.  

Muxu!
Amanda