American in Spain » Spain

What’s in a name?

erik — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:44:22 +0000

In preparation for her entrance into the school system in September, we recently began teaching Nora that her name is longer than just “Nora”. A lot longer, in fact. I would be very, very surprised if there existed another person on the planet with Nora’s two surnames. In Spain, you see, people have two last names, the first from the father, and the second from the mother. Her first is Rasmussen, which is both difficult to spell and pronounce. Her second last name is Matamoros – a fairly rare surname in Spain – that probably originated from a myth about Saint James slaying moors.

Not surprisingly, she pronounces her Spanish surname better than her Scandinavian one, but she’s just started learning them.

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Why does do church bells chime every fifteen minutes?

erik — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:36:28 +0000

Where I grew up, there weren’t any church bells that I could hear from my house, but there was one in the center of town near the municipal recreation center, where I spent many hours of my youth. As a kid, I became quite fond of that Big Ben tune that preceded the hourly chimes.

Now I live in a small town in Spain, so small that there is only one church, but I live in the building right across the street from the church, although luckily on the opposite side of the building. Still, the sound waves bounce very efficiently around the surrounding structures and are quite potent when they reach my abode. Several times I have had to pause business calls from my home office to wait for the church bells to quiet down.

It’s more about piety than punctuality.

Our town church doesn’t play that Big Ben tune, but it does chime once at the quarter hour, twice at the half hour, thrice at three quarters of an hour, and four times on the hour, followed by a longer note played a certain number of times to indicate what hour of the day it is (five times for 5 o’clock, etc.). There are more noisy displays when it’s time for Sunday mass.

I used to think that this was somewhat handy to be aurally reminded of the time throughout the day, sort of a service to keep the townsfolk on their schedules. I still do, but I thought that was really the only purpose the hourly chimes served. Then I watched a TED Talk…

In his talk, Atheism 2.0, Alain de Botton suggests that, by rejecting superstitious dogma, atheists have historically been throwing the baby out with the bathwater. He makes some interesting points, and I’m not sure I agree with all of it, but it did get me thinking, particularly his reference to church calendars. At various times of the year, church sermons discuss different Biblical stories, and a good priest will explain how the ancient story applies to modern life. Clearly the same could be done in a secular environment very easily, e.g. “It’s autumn again, so let’s reread The Ant and the Grasshopper.” What religion accomplishes by assigning lessons to specific dates of the calendar is that, for a regular church attendee, the memories of all the teachings are less than a year old. It’s a bit like taking the same course every single semester for your entire life. You will learn it!

Religions, in general, are experts of sociology and psychology; they must be to have survived millennia into our present-day meme pool. They are clearly providing something that humans desire. If we’re going to make it past the first verse of John Lennon’s Imagine, we’ve got to figure out how to fill those needs another way, and we still have a lot to learn about how to push those psychosocial buttons.

DING! Back to the church bells. DONG!

Historically, Christian churches have had bells to inform monks and the general townsfolk when it was time to come and worship. This was back before we all had mobile phones with push notifications, mind you. In medieval times, it’s pretty easy to imagine that the church bells telling the monks when to pray could be quite handy to remind the other residents of the time of day, e.g. when to get up, or come in from the field, or whatever. Now, however, we have more advanced technology for that purpose.

When followers of more oriental religions are meditating, they will sometimes use what is called a mindfulness bell, which will ring every so often to remind the meditator to focus. If you’ve ever attempted meditation, you’ll understand why a bell could be useful – yes, there’s an app for that.

So why do church bells chime every hour or sometimes every fifteen minutes?

Part of it is tradition and fondness of said tradition, but I’d like to propose that one of the reasons is to remind everyone, especially subconsciously, that God is there, not necessarily in a “Big Brother is watching!” sort of way, but just to remind the public of church teachings, doctrinal and otherwise, like a mindfulness bell. It’s more about piety than punctuality.

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A Basque Christmas

erik — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 15:07:47 +0000

We spent Christmas in Mondragón, in the Basque Country, this year like we have every year for a while now. This year was a little more somber than most because of the recent death of the family patriarch, but I think we did a pretty good job of being respectful but not wallowing in our sorrow too much. The best part was catching a glimpse of the wonder of Christmas through the eyes of my two year old daughter.

The Basques have the Christmas legend of the Olentzero, a giant pipe-smoking beret-wearing coal miner (or charcoal burner, depending on who you ask) who lives in the Basque mountains and comes down on Christmas Eve night to leave presents for the good boys and girls, and coal – which his profession gives him easy access to – for the bad boys and girls. Some say he’s the sole survivor of the jentilak, a race of giants that used to live side by side with the Basques. Apparently the jentilak saw a cloud or star one day and decided it was an omen that Baby Jesus had been born and that they all had to die, so they marched into a dolmen and were never heard from again. Olentzero was left behind to give the Basques the good (?) news. It seems he wasn’t a very good communicator, though, since it took Christianity between 500 to 1200 years (depending on who you ask) to gain a foothold in the Basque Country. Most of the Christmas traditions surrounding the Olentzero are fairly new and are clearly adapted from – and intended to compete directly with – Papa Noel (Santa Claus) and the Three Wise Men. They came back with special vigor in the last few decades after being brutally suppressed under Franco.

I have witnessed the festivities in Mondragón for several years. There is a parade through town with the jolly old Olentzero tossing hard candy into the crowd. The parade ends in the main town square, where children dance, songs are sung, and the Olentzero continues giving out candy to the crowds. Young people who have carried torches during the parade then light a big bonfire in the middle of the square. In some parts of the Basque Country, they actually burn an effigy of the Olentzero. From what I can tell, the bonfire is an old pagan solstice practice of rebirth.

A little complimentary plate of beans, with blood sausage, to go with my Rioja.

Nora and her Tía Marga serve a champagne sorbet that Tía Marga makes.

It looks like the party’s gotten out of hand, but really it was just me demonstrating the proper amount of brandy to put in a snifter. It should just reach the lip of the glass when it’s set on its side. Nora said, “Poppy’s wine fell over!”

Chocolates after dinner.

Nora was delighted to receive a toy ironing board and iron from the Olentzero for Christmas.

While I an generally against gender stereotyping and am 100% sure that there’s no way this would’ve been the present if she were a boy, I cannot deny that she really and truly loves her ironing board.

She kept asking people to give her some item of clothing that needed ironing.

She also got a sleeping bag and some mittens.

After going to bed at 2 AM on Christmas Eve and having an exciting Christmas morning of presents, Nora was exhausted.

Later we met up with the rest of the family for even more presents! Here she is opening a Hello Kitty dollhouse.

Playing with her Hello Kitty dollhouse.

Life is not peaceful for Hello Kitty in her house, as it is rocked by furniture-rearranging earthquakes every few minutes.

We had a great time eating, drinking and playing with our family in Mondragón.

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Semana del Pincho 4 – Laredo

erik — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 00:10:52 +0000

It’s pincho time again! Every year just before Christmas, bars and restaurants in the local town of Laredo hold a competition to create the best tapas (called pinchos). It’s one of my favorite events of the year for reasons I described here. Unfortunately, this year the weather has been absolutely terrible. Last weekend, when it started, we had steady downpours with heavy winds that kept us at home all weekend. Of the eighteen pinchos competing, I was only able to sample six this year. For that, I apologize, dear readers. I’ll try to do better next year.

The full brochure.

The first pincho we tried was at La Marina Company. It was by far the most elaborate and special in a “you’re not going to ever make this at home” sort of way.

La Marina Company: Panacota de frambuesa con anchoas – That’s a cooked cream of raspberries with anchovies.

The presentation was gorgeous, but the combination of flavors was a little too bizarre for our philistine tastes. It came with a little dropper of Modena olive oil. There were too many flavors for my wife’s expertise in anchovy quality to gain any purchase.

A close-up of La Marina Company’s pincho. In general we were pretty displeased not only with the pincho, but also by the service. It took about ten minutes for the pincho to make its way down from the upstairs kitchen. By that time, we’d almost finished our wines.

La Casona: Suprema de buey – This “Ox Supreme” was described in the brochure as “Hamburger of ox meat with onion, egg and cheese”. After La Marina Company, our eyes were immensely disappointed when the tiny little burger rolls were plopped down before us. But wow, had hour eyes deceived us! The first bite had us both moaning with pleasure. The grainy bread, the tender meat, the sweet caramelized onions and the cheese made an excellent combination. Supreme, indeed!

It’s really not much to look at, but I could happily eat a dozen of these little treats.

Cafetería Colón: Hamburguesa de potro a la barbacoa – “What’s potro?”, I asked my wife. “Baby horse”, she replied. Whoa! Well, this is the place that had kangaroo meat in 2009. The ingredients listed were: sweet roll, colt meat, tomato, onion, garlic, pepper, parsley and barbecue sauce.

Like most foods with barbecue sauce, the sauce completely overwhelmed any other flavors, making this a very boring pincho to eat. The potato chips on the side did little to make it any more special. I’d certainly never have guessed that it was foal meat. It was a big let down after the previous hamburger in La Casona.

La Abadía: Destinos Pejinos – Apparently pejino is a local word meaning “a humble resident of coastal Cantabria”, so the title translates to “humble Cantabrian destinations”. Indeed, the primary ingredient was respigos, a local winter delicacy. The ingredients were listed as: pastry toast with cumin and respigos.

Visually, it looks like something your sick cat might leave on the carpet, but it was quite tasty in a humble, healthy sort of way. I didn’t care much for the “pastry toast” on the bottom; it reminded me of a bland granola bar.

The second night, we went to El Concept, but they were out of pinchos, and had enough business so that they didn’t really give a damn. Boo!

El Somera: Guiso de jabalí al chocolate – The name means “wild boar stew with chocolate”, and sure enough, that’s what it was. Unfortunately, for cost saving motives, there were a lot of potatoes, and very few chunks of boar meat. I must say, however, that I was impressed.

The little bowls were lovely. It definitely took second place away from La Albadía’s respigos.

A bore eating boar.

El Guti: Hamburguesita de ternera con salsa de queso y su guarnición – The title means “Little beef hamburger with cheese sauce and garnish”. The meat was fantastic, and the potatoes were fresh out of the frying pan.

The little burger looks insignificant, but the taste was powerful. I think it just barely edged out El Somera for second place.

Conclusion

Of the six pinchos we tried, I would rank them as follows:

La Casona – Definitely the best tasting pincho of all, despite presentation.
El Guti – Excellent flavor, though simple presentation.
El Somera – Wonderfully warm stew, with a slightly sweet chocolate tone.
La Albadía – Very hearty and healthy, but nothing spectacular.
Cafetería Colón – Too much sauce, but a decent snack.
La Marina Company – A lot of work put into preparation, but a very eccentric taste.

So concludes this year’s Pincho Week. I hope to do much better than a 33.3% sample size next year. ¡Hasta entonces! Until then!

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Nativity Shepherds

erik — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:32:47 +0000

Today Nora’s daycare had a special Christmas party in which one of the activities is dressing like shepherds and making the 200 meter trek from daycare to the town church where they have an amazing nativity scene set up, called a belén, which also means Bethlehem and is the name of my sister-in-law. I finally understand the enormous banner they put outside the church every Christmas saying “¡Tu belén está aquí!” (Your Bethlehem is here!). It was amazing!

I have decided to respect the Spanish law prohibiting the publication of photos of minors on this post. The other children do have faces, I’ve just blurred them.

The immense irony of the situation being that they are dressed as shepherds and need shepherding themselves.

It took me a while to spot my daughter. She’s the one at the back with the grandma scarf on.

That one.

The “everyone hold onto a rope with loops tied in it” trick is what makes such an excursion remotely feasible.

My little old lady.

The Nativity Scene

I encourage you to check out the detail in the large version.

There was a “moon” in the sky. Also, sometimes there was lightning and thunder.

Many of the characters were animatronic, the fires were flickering, the water flowed, the windmill spun, and one house had smoke emanating from the chimney.

The star of the show.

The magi arrive from the east, one on camel, one on an elephant, and one on a horse.

The house with the smoke had lamps inside, a kitty on the deck, and a sow nursing piglets in the yard. You can see the blurred windmill in the background.

I struggle to imagine the number of hours of detailed work that went into this nativity scene. I was very impressed.

A group photo. Nora seemed content walking to the church with her friends, but as soon as she saw me, the balance of desires swung hard towards her needing to be with me holding my hand at all times. I was the only parent there, and she was the only child crying.

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Civil Baptisms

erik — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:59:16 +0000

I recently came across this tidbit of local news. The conservative political party in my small town is up in arms because the ruling liberal political party is allowing the practice of “civil baptism”. Of course they are not arguing the reasonable point that the term is self contradictory; they are more concerned that the practice is offensive to The Church. I don’t think it’s offensive so much as it’s a reminder of the decline The Church is suffering in Spain.

It’s easy to imagine how someone came up with the idea for a “civil baptism”. Spanish baptisms are very much like Spanish weddings; they are huge parties with lots of family and friends and good food and wine. It’s great and healthy to celebrate the good events in your life with family and friends.

It is becoming more and more popular for marriages in Spain to be “civil”, done at the town hall, rather than religious, done in the church. Starting in 2009, the majority of Spanish weddings have been non-religious town hall ceremonies.

When you add these two things together, the fact that people are accustomed to and love to have parties to celebrate the birth of a child, and the fact that many people don’t see what a celibate man in robes who actually thinks he can, and should, turn wine into blood by uttering magic words has to do with celebrating family events…you get somebody suggesting that a government official should say some inspiring words to a crowd of a newborn’s family members.

I wonder if they use official government water? No I’m kidding. I looked it up. Apparently a civil baptism is a ceremony to celebrate a new Spaniard getting citizenship. The ceremony usually includes a reading of several articles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child adopted by the UN in November 1989:

Article 6 – 1: States Parties recognize that every child has the inherent right to life.

Article 6 – 2: States Parties shall ensure to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child.

Article 12 – 1: States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child.

Article 12 – 2: For this purpose, the child shall in particular be provided the opportunity to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings affecting the child, either directly, or through a representative or an appropriate body, in a manner consistent with the procedural rules of national law.

Article 27 – 1: States Parties recognize the right of every child to a standard of living adequate for the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development.

Article 27 – 2: The parent(s) or others responsible for the child have the primary responsibility to secure, within their abilities and financial capacities, the conditions of living necessary for the child’s development.

Article 27 – 3: States Parties, in accordance with national conditions and within their means, shall take appropriate measures to assist parents and others responsible for the child to implement this right and shall in case of need provide material assistance and support programmes, particularly with regard to nutrition, clothing and housing.

Article 27 – 4: States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to secure the recovery of maintenance for the child from the parents or other persons having financial responsibility for the child, both within the State Party and from abroad. In particular, where the person having financial responsibility for the child lives in a State different from that of the child, States Parties shall promote the accession to international agreements or the conclusion of such agreements, as well as the making of other appropriate arrangements.

I remember the mountain of paperwork I had to fill out and drive to various government offices around my province after my daughter was born to get her “into the system” so she could suckle the socialist teat. It’s a big hassle, one worthy of a glass of champagne upon completion.

To me, a civil baptism deciding what country a human has allegiance to, before he is able to think for himself, based solely on the geography where he escaped the womb and allegiances of his parents is just as immoral as deciding what religious beliefs he should hold based on the same criteria. But most people don’t really put that much meaning into it. It’s really just a party for a happy reason, which is something I can get behind.

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Putting Up The Christmas Tree – 2011

erik — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 13:32:10 +0000

In the United States, the existence of the Thanksgiving holiday does a pretty good job of preventing the Christmas celebration and capitalism from encroaching too far into November like it can do in other countries. Of course, like any pent up desire, when it’s released, it’s extreme, resulting in the consumerism orgy that is Black Friday. Aside from shopping, the weekend after Thanksgiving is when many Americans put up their Christmas tree and other yuletide decor. Since my parents were visiting, I decided to partake in this tradition as well and put up our tree on Black Friday.

In Spain, most people do their decorations this week, taking advantage of the double holidays. Of course, in Spain, the tree must remain up until at least January 6th, the traditional gift giving day of the season, because if you take the star down from the top of the tree, how else will the wise men find you to give you your gifts? In the US, they never last that long. The folks that have had real firs dying in their houses since Black Friday usually have them out by the end of the year.

Another difference between the two cultures is that Spaniards don’t put presents under the tree. The presents are all saved, hidden, until either Epiphany on January 6, or Christmas Day for families that have been influenced by foreign cultures. Personally, I think one of the best parts of Christmas is the anticipation and mystery involved in having to look at your gift for weeks before you get to open it. If that’s not the whole point of wrapping paper, I don’t know what is.

My two-year-old daughter, Nora, doesn’t quite understand Christmas yet. The idea of waiting to receive and open presents, and certainly any threats of them being dependent on behavior don’t sink in. But she did enjoy the novelty of setting up a plastic tree in the living room and decorating it with ornaments.

Every tree needs a good base. Wow, that’s profound.

Separating every sprig is the secret to making an artificial tree appear full.

My apprentice observed my work very closely.

Every year I’m surprised at just how tall our tree is. I always remember it as being tiny.

First the lights!

All this tree preparation is exhausting!

My little tree decorator.

It occurred to me the other day that families with toddlers who don’t yet understand the lust of consumerism should just pair up and exchange toys between households rather than buy new plastic crap. In the face of novel toys, the kids probably won’t even notice some of the old toys are missing.

May your solstice celebrations be jolly.

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Suspension Bridge Week

erik — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:40:58 +0000

In Spain, when a holiday falls on either Tuesday or Thursday, it’s a regular custom to take the Monday or Friday off to create a four day weekend. This is called a puente or bridge, since one is crossing over the fiery lava pit that is a day of honest labor to escape safely to the weekend. Of course any employee can take that as a vacation day, but the some corporations and government offices often will just shut down that day. The best equivalent in the United States is how most government, and some corporate, employees don’t work on the day after Thanksgiving.

Every December, Spain has two holidays that fall two days apart, Constitution Day on December 6, and the Immaculate Conception on December 8. This year, they just so happen to fall on a Tuesday and a Thursday, thus creating two possible bridge days to the weekend on Monday and Friday, and even a possible bridge day between them on Wednesday. In other words, the Spanish work week this week looks something like this:

It brought to mind the image of a suspension bridge with two towering pillars holding up a span allowing people to cross from one weekend to the other.

Of course, I’m employed in the US, so I’m slogging through the lava like any other week.

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Spanish Thanksgiving – Tapas in Castro Urdiales

erik — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:09:36 +0000

My parents are visiting us in Spain this week. When it came time to make Thanksgiving plans, my first thought would be to make a turkey pizza to eat, and then lie around the house in a digestive stupor as is American tradition on this holiday. My wife suggested that we take advantage of my day off work go to Santander after she got off work (it’s not a holiday in Spain, of course) to see the penguins and sea lions at the Palacio de la Magdalena. This was, as usual, a superior idea to mine, so we decided to do that. Then, at the last minute, she suggested that, if we wanted to, my folks and I could take the entire day to go to the nearby town of Castro Urdiales to see the beach and church there, rather than wait most of the day for her to get off work. In the end, this plan won out. We spent Thanksgiving walking around and eating tapas in Castro Urdiales.

We started the morning with Erik’s Homemade Thanksgiving Apple Harvest™ scones.

Castro Urdiales is the eastern most town of any interest in Cantabria, close to the border with the Basque Country. The town dates back to Roman times, mainly as a port and fishing village. The French destroyed the town in 1813, but many of the residents were able to escape to sea with English ships.

My parents and daughter in Castro Urdiales.

The town is nothing if not photogenic. The fact that I accidentally left my good camera at home was very painful.

See that taller white building on the left? That’s where we had lunch.

The medieval Santa Maria church is a gorgeous bit of gothic architecture.

In the shade of an olive tree.

I loved these stairs that go nowhere.

Yes, I was in short sleeves. It was chilly, but more comfortable than with my sweater on.

Enough walking, let’s have some tapas!!

Goat cheese on ham and a tomato, sprinkled with balsamic vinegar.

Bacon and quail eggs.

This place, La Marinera, was quite nice.

My mother switched to coffee for a few of the wine rounds. Nora was happy to finish the last bit for her.

My parents love going bar to bar almost as much as their granddaughter does. Those are glasses of vegetable broth they gave us with our wines.

God, I love Spain!

Oh, yeah!

After lunch we continued our long walk back to the car, having fun along the way, of course.

And resting some.

The beach was very finely raked, but also had these bizarre footprints walking in parallel lines away from the water. WTF?

Nora, Poppy and Grandma.

Cool tiles!

We had a good time in Castro Urdiales. This is a very rare well-framed photo by a stranger.

In the evening, after yet more walking around Colindres, I did make my famous turkey pizza to celebrate the American holiday of being thankful for what we have.

My Thanksgiving was far from typical, but I ate too much and had a wonderful time with my family, so I guess I did pretty well.

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Viento Sur

erik — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 15:05:53 +0000

In October and November, it’s very typical here to get strong winds coming from the south blowing warm African air over the Iberian peninsula. The Spaniards call it viento sur (south wind), and there is a mythology similar to that of full moons where the wind from the south makes odd people just a little more crazy. I have a love/hate relationship with viento sur.

On the one hand, it provides pleasant temperate weather (20ºC this week!) to hold Old Man Winter at bay for a little longer. It also generates some fantastic cloud textures ripe for photography. However, I live on the sixth floor with little protection from the wind, so it makes the shutters on our windows vibrate very loudly at night. We bought our house in late September 2005, and that October we were seriously questioning our decision as we sat awake at night listening to our building whistle and vibrate. The viento sur keeps both my camera and window shutters moving.

Last week I set up my DSLR to capture a timelapse of the clouds to see them swirl, but they were blowing by so fast that it wasn’t worth publishing the video.

Here are some photos I captured with my iPhone camera on my midday walk today.

You may remember these street lights from last week.

See how the striations zigzag back and forth? Odd!

Crazy November skies!