Spanish Election Day - 28A

We live in interesting times in an interesting place – especially in terms of politics. Since we arrived here, Spain has experienced a constitutional crisis with the Rajoy government suspending Catalunya’s autonomy in October 2017; and then in June 2018 with Rajoy’s government succumbing to the first ever no-confidence vote after a massive corruption scandal. Today is a “snap election” called by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez after his Socialist party led government could not get majority support for the proposed budget. Spain’s political situation is extremely fragmented like everywhere else. We’ve been following the campaign and thought we’d share a few observations about how the system works here.

First some basics: Spain has a parliamentary system like many democracies. There are several different political parties. Initially, the two biggest political parties dominated the post-Franco democracy – (1) Partido Popular (PP), the more conservative party, and (2) Partido Socialista Obrero Espanol (PSOE), the more liberal party. But more recently, neither party has been able to achieve a majority in the Legislature and therefore must seek to form a coalition.

Second, the concept of a “campaign” here is entirely different. Unlike in the US, where the 2020 campaign for President is underway, there was only a one-month period of actual campaign activity. And overall, the amount of in-your-face campaigning was quite limited. A few bus-stop and other posters. Some newspaper and nightly news coverage, but nothing like the US.

Today, I went to observe the voting process. Once again, I relied on the kindness of our friend, neighbor, and former teacher Begona. I asked if I could tag along to witness first-hand how the Spaniards cast their votes. We walked over to the local school where their designated polling station was set up. Rather than receiving a ballot and entering a voting booth, voters selected the slip of their preferred political party to place in an envelope for the main Congressional vote. (This is the vote that will decide who gets the opportunity to form the government.) It reminded me of the Israeli election process, which I witnessed with my first-cousin 2 decades ago. Here are 4 samples of many of the slips used:

Voters also completed the ballot for the Senate, the upper house, in which you can select up to three candidates who do not have to belong to the same party. Each province elects four senators, and this is the only time that Spaniards vote for individuals instead of a party list. Once marked the ballot is put into a separate envelope. This ballot sheet shows that there were candidates from 12 different political parties here in Gipuzkoa:

So, the first thing that’s interesting is that I easily picked up these voting materials even though I have no right to vote here. In California, where we voted for most of our lives, to get your ballot when voting in person, a poll worker confirms your name and address. In Washington, where everyone votes by mail, you received your ballot by mail. Here, you take your envelopes to your designated table (based on mailing address) and present your identification. Once they confirm that you are on the voter list, and cross you off the list, you place your envelopes in the designated ballot boxes. It was quick and easy.

Most interesting to me is that the entire process is manual. There are no machines involved – either in the marking or counting of the ballots. When the polls close at 8 p.m., each table’s designated team of three people will count the votes from the two ballot boxes by hand.

Also, of note, each table’s officials are citizens who have been randomly selected and have an obligation to serve as electoral officials. It is similar to jury duty in the US, but there are very few acceptable excuses. In addition, officials from the various political parties have the right to be present during the day and during the counting process.

As I write this post, the level of participation in this election has been high - at least 10% higher than the 2016 election. For the first time, a far-right party, Vox, is going to earn seats in the Legislature.

The good news is that this evening we have been able to understand the reporting on the election results as they are being provided. Big points for our Spanish language education.

We’ll see where this all ends up in the coming days. But overall, democracy is a messy process. 

Hasta pronto, 

Shana and Jeff

Definitely not the NBA

While we knew from reading the newspaper that there was a professional basketball (baloncesto) team in San Sebastian, we really did not know much else about the team or the league. That changed  Saturday night (April 6) when we used tickets given to us by Shana's friend Isabel to attend the game between our local team, Delteco GBC (Gipuzkoa Baloncesto Club), and the visiting Movistar Estudiantes (Madrid). Because basketball is not a huge sport here, in many cases the teams are actually named after their sponsors. A little weird.

Another difference is that, like in soccer, there are multiple leagues (or at least two). Each year, the worst two teams in the top league, which has 18 teams, are relegated (i.e. demoted) to the lower league, while the top two teams from that league are promoted. It seems that GBC has been about the 18th or 19th best team in Spain the last few years because in 2017 they finished at the bottom of the league and were relegated, but in 2018 they won the lower league and were promoted. This year, they are currently in last place and in danger of relegation again.

And, on Saturday night, they showed why. Playing the 15th place team, they looked terrible in the first half (the game consists of four 10-minute quarters). After being down by seven at the end of the first quarter, they did not play any perimeter defense in the second, and Movistar rained threes to take a 22-point halftime lead. We are not sure exactly what the coach said in the locker room, but it worked.  They looked like a completely different team in the second half. They actually looked good and proceeded to cut the lead to eight by the end of the third quarter, and then took a two point lead with about four minutes left in the game. What was much more exciting than basketball in the US (college and pro) is that the coaches let their players play coming down the stretch without calling an interminable string of timeouts. And, with GBC leading 93-92, they needed one last stop to cap an amazing comeback. Playing some of the best defense we had seen all day, they did it:

It was actually one of the best comebacks in basketball we have ever seen live, and the few fans that were there were really into it:

The stadium, which is about a 30-minute walk from our apartment, seats 11,000 people, but those white curtains cover much of the upper bowl, and we suspect there were about 3,000 people at the game, but at least we all got to see a good show.

Overall, the game looked more like a US college game than the NBA. GBC's roster even includes two Americans who played at the college level. There was a lot of screening and passing, and not a lot of isolation and single-player dominated play. The level of play seemed to be low-division 1-A or maybe division 1-AA. These teams would get destroyed by the top level teams in college (Duke, NC, etc.), but might hold their own against weaker teams. Obviously, we don't know how good the better teams in the league are.

All-in-all, we really enjoyed the game. The fans, including a ton of kids of all ages, really got into the home team's comeback and left the arena jubilant. I am not sure if we will be going back any time soon, but there are definitely worse ways to spend a couple of hours on a Saturday evening.

Hasta luego,

Jeff and Shana

A Short Walk Along the Basque Coast – Zarautz to Getaria

One of the best ways to spend a Sunday afternoon is a walk along the Basque coast, whether it’s our favorite local stroll along the San Sebastian beaches, or something more ambitious like the hike we did between Deba and Zumaia in October 2017. The views are always stunning and the ocean breezes refreshing. Recently (March 31), we took a nice easy walk between Zarautz and Getaria, two nearby towns.

To start, we walked 5 minutes to the local train station that is close to our apartment. We hopped on the train and rode about 30 minutes to the center of Zarautz. We then headed to walk along the wide beach promenade. San Sebastian’s main beaches are in a semi-circular bay protected by a small island. Zarautz has a long, unprotected beach that is popular with surfers. Here are the views looking east and west from the beach:

The beach has several art installations. This one was a favorite:

We walked into town to grab a snack before taking the coastal path to Getaria and found the scenic narrow alleyways enchanting:

We left Zarautz going west and enjoyed the views of the surfers and the rock and flysch formations along the shoreline:

Here we are at the mid-point (Shana with our departure point in the background and Jeff with our destination):

This is an easy walk on a paved path along the road that goes between the two cities. Note the road has been built right along the cliffs in some cases with cutouts for the cars to pass through:

Getaria also has a lovely, but smaller and protected beach, somewhat like San Sebastian:

We even caught a glimpse of an adventurous local who was headed out to go spearfishing:

Getaria is well-known as a fishing village and it naturally has some fabulous restaurants that specialize in grilled fish. It is also known for being the birthplace of Juan Sebastián Elkano, who completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth (after Magellan's death in the Philippines, Elkano took command and completed the journey). Portugal and Spain are commemorating the 500-year anniversary of the Magellan-organized and Spanish-sponsored expedition this year. The celebration will continue into 2022, as the journey took three years to complete. The Basques are very proud of their contribution to this momentous feat.

The walk from the Zarautz train stop to the center of Getaria is about 4 miles. So you can work up an appetite for that grilled fish lunch by taking this route. Since the train does not run through Getaria we hopped on a bus back to San Sebastian.

Never a dull moment,

Shana & Jeff

School's Out

As of March 29 we are finished with our Spanish classes at Lacunza. After 55 weeks of classes (about 800 hours of instruction) spread over 20 months, we reached our limit. We felt we had learned virtually all of the important concepts of Spanish grammar and we were spending most of our time learning new vocabulary. While this is important, we felt that classes were getting a bit repetitive and because the classes are quite expensive it seemed like a good time to stop our "formal" education. So, you may ask, does that mean you are fluent in Spanish? Well...not exactly.

As we have talked about in previous posts, learning Spanish has been an interesting and humbling experience. We are very proud of the progress we have made and are happy to be able to call ourselves "bilingual." Although we are very comfortable with Spanish now, I don't think you can say we are fluent. We remain better at understanding what we hear and read than we are at speaking. And we still make a lot of mistakes when speaking and writing. But we hope with more time and practice (also known as living in Spain) we will continue to improve. 

We do plan to enroll in the Official Language School in the fall as a way to continue the formal learning process. While it clearly will not be the same intensive learning experience, with much larger classes and many fewer hours of instruction (just 4 hours per week), it also only costs $25 each for the year (!). You can't beat the price.

So, what are we going to do with the abundant free time we have now that we do not have to go to class every day? We are not worried about filling the hours with interesting opportunities -- for example, this week there is a small film festival focused on human rights. The spring and summer months once again include significant travel plans that will take us to France (twice), England, Croatia and Montenegro. There is also the Jazz Festival in July and, of course, the Film Festival in September. We hope to read a lot more books (in both English and Spanish), read the newspaper in Spanish most days and see more movies in Spanish (or at least with Spanish subtitles). All-in-all we don't expect to be bored.

And, of course, we will continue to blog about our many adventures here in San Sebastian starting with a day trip to a couple of nearby villages and attending a professional basketball game. So, stay tuned.

Hasta luego,

Jeff and Shana