Jazzaldia 2021

 

If it’s July in San Sebastian, then it’s time for Jazzaldia, the annual jazz festival. Despite the rampant spread of the delta variant, the show did go on with similar COVID safety protocols to last year's event. We saw two great shows, both in outdoor settings.

The first concert was a solo piano recital by Marcin Masecki, a Polish pianist, who performed ragtime music. Jeff chose this concert, and it was a real winner. Unlike last year’s soloist, Masecki spoke to the audience (in Spanish) before each piece, providing a bit of information and history about the artist. Most fascinating was how he got into performing ragtime in the first place:  he was inspired by the ragtime music he heard at Disneyland as a child. Ragtime became his passion and he started focusing on it more and more, including composing original pieces. It was easy to know that the music brings him great joy because we could watch his feet energetically dance under the piano while he played – we had a great view from our first-row seats in the cloister of the San Telmo Museum (a former monastery).

The second concert was Noa & Gil Dor, an Israeli duo, who performed with Inaki Salvador, a local pianist. There was an opening performance by Naissam Jalal & Rhythms of Resistance. Jalal is a Syrian flutist who lives in Paris. Her performance was enjoyable but not as dynamic as the main act.

Noa has a captivating voice and knows how to connect with her audience. She spoke almost exclusively in Spanish, while singing in English, Hebrew, Spanish, and even Basque. The selections played from her 2019 album “Letters to Bach” were marvelous – it is worth checking out her unique tribute to J.S. Bach. But the most special moment was when she sang as her final encore “Txoria Txori,” a Basque song that is considered a piece of resistance against the Franco regime’s prohibition of the Basque language, and a current symbolic yearning for independence. It is based on a poem about a how a caged bird loses its essence and can no longer be considered a bird. Listening to the audience sing along was incredibly moving. She truly held the crowd in the palm of her hand.

We are already looking forward to next year’s festival. Hopefully COVID security measures will be a thing of the past by then.

Hasta pronto,

Shana & Jeff 

A Return to Travelling

Since the beginning of the pandemic in Europe (basically March 2020), we have been "stuck" here in San Sebastian. With the exception of a two-night "stay-cation" at a local hotel by the beach in June 2020, five nights in Paris in July 2020 during a significant lull in Covid-19 cases, and a week hiking in the Pyrenees, we have not traveled at all. Given the break-neck pace of our travels during 2018 and 2019 (84 and 79 nights on the road, respectively), it has been a big change.

Now that we have been vaccinated, we hope to begin travelling again. We have planned trips to Ireland for two-and-a-half weeks in August, and California (and Hawaii!) for three weeks in September/October. But, first, we decided on a quick, two-night jaunt to Bilbao.

Bilbao is just a 75 minute bus ride away, so we donned our FFP2 masks (the European equivalent of an N-95) and hopped on the bus last Monday morning. The plan was to arrive in Bilbao in time to drop our stuff at the hotel and make it to our 2:30 lunch reservation. Our hotel, The Hotel Ercilla, was lovely, and we got upgraded to a large room with a sitting area and a giant shower. Lunch at El Informal was delicious and we decided to brave sitting outdoors even though there was a risk of rain, which fortunately did not materialize. Seven courses later (four appetizers, a fish course, meat course and dessert, plus wine) we were truly stuffed and decided to just relax at the hotel for the late afternoon/evening. As you can imagine, after that lunch, no dinner was needed.

The next day, we visited our old friend the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. The museum was surprisingly busy, especially since it was a Tuesday. While none of the current exhibits were super exciting, it was nice to be back there to see what is currently going on, and just to do something that feels "normal". There were some pandemic-induced changes in the museum, including the lack of a place to check your bags/coats, and an attempt to move foot traffic in one direction through the museum. But, for us, the worse part was that our favorite permanent exhibit The Matter of Time, which is a group of large sculptures by American artist Richard Serra that you can walk through and be part of the art, were only partially open. You could not, in fact, walk through all the sculptures. We hope this restriction will eventually be lifted as we enjoy experiencing this exhibit every time we are at the Guggenheim.

There was a cool, new suspended neon sculpture at the museum that presented an opportunity for some good pictures (notice especially the reflection of the sculpture in the outside wall of the museum in the second picture): 

And, once outside the museum, we became part of another of the permanent exhibits, Fujiko Nakaya's F.O.G. Sculpture #08025:

After the museum, of course, it was time for another Spanish lunch (that time being 2:30 p.m.). Although not as huge as the previous day, our lunch at Lar was very impressive, and we enjoyed trying a new-to-us white wine grape from Galicia called Godello. It was exactly the type of minerally white wine that we enjoy, and paired perfectly with our mostly-fish lunch.

Finally, on Wednesday morning, we visited Bilbao's other art museum, the Bellas Artes, which we had never done despite multiple visits to the city. Although the museum has a number of pieces by very famous artists (El Greco and Goya among others), we were somewhat underwhelmed by the overall offering. The most interesting part of the current offering is that they have organized the art in the permanent collection by theme, with each room representing a theme of one letter of the alphabet (with a little bit of cheating, since the rooms use words from Spanish, Basque and English as themes). This presentation often put art from very different time periods in the same room, which is not something you see often, and did present some interesting juxtapositions.

Finally, after two days of eating and art, we caught a bus back to San Sebastian. And, while it was good to get away, we were surprisingly tired after our brief trip. I guess we have to get our travel legs back before we venture to Ireland in August -- Covid willing.

Hasta luego,

Jeff and Shana

Reading Books in Spanish

Since starting this blog, we tend to give semi-regular updates on how our Spanish skills are progressing. I thought I’d take the opportunity to give another based on a recent achievement – I read my first book in Spanish. A real book bought from a real bookstore; not something you might read as part of your studies (i.e., a book with a particular skill level in mind – these exist, and I did read one a while back). Here’s how it happened.

We read the local paper, the Diario Vasco, about four times a week. Both to keep informed about local and national events and to keep our Spanish skills sharp. Overall, its level of writing is closer to USA Today than the NY Times. We can read it cover to cover but still have issues with articles about politics and the economy – more on a conceptual level than a linguistic one because there are significant differences between various aspects of the systems here and in the US. The editorial pages can be difficult, but we don’t focus on them much other than letters to the editor.

A few months back there was an article about a new book written by a Basque journalist, Mikel Ayestaran, who is a Middle East correspondent living in Jerusalem. I read the article and was intrigued to see if I could read and enjoy the book, Jerusalén, santa y cautiva – Desde el corazón de la Ciudad Vieja a la eternidad (Capitalization in Spanish has odd rules. “Jerusalem, Holy and Captivating – From the Heart of the Old City to Eternity”). Having lived in Jerusalem for a year (1989-1990) and visited many times, the topic is familiar territory, and I thought it would be interesting to get a totally different perspective on the city.

I downloaded a sample of the book on my Kindle to see if the writing was manageable and it was. I then went and bought a copy from a wonderful local bookshop. The book recounts the author’s experiences and focuses on each quarter of the Old City, its holy sites and history. It was broken up into brief chapters and sections. I gave myself two months to finish it. Lo and behold I finished sooner.

I enjoyed the book for many reasons. As expected, a Spanish, non-Jewish writer (who has not been indoctrinated about Israel in the manner that Jewish-American youth are) provided a distinct viewpoint that was edifying and candid. The writing was clean and easy to follow, an obvious benefit of a journalist author. His anecdotes were entertaining and the details intriguing. His experiences were both familiar and foreign. I had to use my dictionary plenty of times, but less often than I might have expected because the subject matter was known to me. I laughed at some of the Spanish vocabulary – he used “sequéles” for shekels, which confused me momentarily because I read it is sequels.

It was such a positive experience that I wanted to get another book; but how to choose? Non-fiction is the easier option due to a more direct writing style, yet I wasn’t sure in what direction I wanted to go. I went back to that charming bookstore to ask for a recommendation. My new friend, Santi, one of the managers, remembered me and was more than happy to help. He recommended Los senderos del mar, Un viaje a pie (Paths by the Sea, a Journey on Foot) by Maria Belmonte, about the author’s experience hiking the Basque coast and I thought it would be perfect. Once again, a familiar and interesting topic. I’m working my way through it now.

We can read certain books, we can watch some television without subtitles, and recently we have navigated some more complex medical appointments. After nearly four years here, our Spanish is getting there!

Hasta pronto,

Shana 

Officially Traded from Team Placebo to Team Pfizer

Good news: we received our second dose of the Pfizer vaccine on 24 June, so we’ll be “fully vaccinated” as of 8 July. It seems like it took forever to happen, but ultimately it happened much faster than expected. We fully admit to having vaccine envy, especially as all our nephews (even the 12-year-old) got vaccinated before we did. Although the vaccination campaign here got off to a slow start, the pace has definitely picked up, and the national and regional governments get full kudos for getting the job done. We expect that Spain will reach the theoretical 70% herd immunity before the US (on a national basis). So here are a few details of how it all happened.

Because I was participating in the Curevac Herald Study it was initially unclear what would happen if our age group became eligible before that vaccine got approval. The press had been positive on Curevac’s early results and there was a lot of optimism. But our turn came before approval, and now we know that Curevac may not get approval at all. More on that in a moment.

We monitored the news as the Basque health service started vaccinating the 50-59 age range. After vaccinating the elderly, healthcare workers and other high-risk groups, Spain is using an age-based approach. My discussions with friends indicated we would be eligible as May ended. On Monday (31 May), I called the vaccine “hotline” for those having trouble using the electronic appointment system. Because we are not eligible for the public health system, we us private health insurance. However, the entire vaccination process is being run through the public health system, so we needed help. When I finally got through, I learned that we needed to go to the local clinic to have a profile created in the public health system first. That afternoon an extremely helpful clerk not only set us up, but also called and got us appointments to get our first shots on 3 June. We were so grateful.

In San Sebastian, most vaccinations are being done at the former bullring/current basketball stadium. We arrived and were stunned at how quickly it transpired – we were in an out in just over 15 minutes (including the mandatory waiting time after the shot). The second appointment is automatically set for the same time three weeks later. Here’s a look at how the arena has been transformed.

Thankfully, the side effects after both shots have been minimal.

Before the first appointment I contacted the study to confirm that I had been given the placebo, and as I suspected I was on “Team Placebo.” Because our area was still experiencing a high number of cases, I was released from the study to be vaccinated. While receiving the placebo seemed disappointing back in February/March, things sure have changed. First, the expected approval in late May/early June did not occur as anticipated. Second, on June 16 Curevac announced disappointing preliminary results – a 47% effective rate at preventing the virus, far below the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines. As a result, tt now appears that the vaccine may not get approval at all. Although the new variants may have played a role in the poor results, some believe it could be the dose or the fact that Curevac relied on natural mRNA. (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01661-0) All in all, getting the placebo was the lucky hand in this game of chance. My friend who received the vaccine has since gotten a first Pfizer dose, but it is unclear whether a second dose will be given as well. That kind of uncertainty and the mixing and matching of vaccines, even of an ineffective one, seems potentially risky.

Having now been vaccinated with an established vaccine has been a relief and we are starting to make plans to travel again, which could lead to more blog posts in the future.

That’s it for now.

Shana & Jeff

May 2021 Update: The Proverbial Light at the End of the Tunnel?

Well, May is almost gone, and overall things have not changed much here. While the “state of alarm” ended on May 9, allowing us to move more freely throughout the city, province, and country, ultimately that hasn’t impacted us much. We can stay out past 10 p.m. and travel anywhere we want within Spain, but we are not “painting the town red” just yet because we haven’t been vaccinated, and while the case numbers have gone down, they still aren’t great. There is however light at the end of the tunnel as we expect to be vaccinated early next month. (If I really am on Team Placebo, I’ll drop out of the study and get one of the approved vaccines.)

We’ve started making plans despite the fact that disappointment is still looming large. We’ll be celebrating our 25^th wedding anniversary on June 2^nd and we planned a little getaway to “exotic” Hondarribia, the coastal town that is across the border from France (about 10 miles from here). We have reservations to stay at the Parador Hondarribia, which is a former 10^th century castle converted into a hotel. The Spanish and Portuguese governments have repurposed these types of medieval and other vintage castles and forts to luxury hotels, and we’ve always wanted to stay in one. We figured this was a great chance as it is before the high summer season making the prices affordable. Unfortunately, many of the things we want to do next week may not be available at all. The best restaurants are not open mid-week currently and the small boat that runs between Hondarribia and Hendaye, the first French town across the border, is not operating due to COVID related border restrictions. We were hoping to rent bikes in Hendaye and cycle north perhaps as far as Biarritz. Knowing that we can’t take the easiest and most charming route to Hendaye and that the restaurants we wanted to reserve were going to be closed, we are seriously considering canceling and rescheduling for another time. While it would be nice to get away, if you can’t do the things you want, what is the point? Instead, we would go out to a nice lunch in San Sebastian to commemorate the special occasion. We’ll plan to make a few other local excursions once we’re fully vaccinated. 

We also made plans to return to the US in late September. 22 months will have passed since our last visit in November 2019. We’ll be in California and will also get to Kauai, one of our favorite places in the world. It will be good to see family and friends in person. Zoom and Skype have proven their value, but let’s face it, there’s nothing like a nice warm hug from the people you love.

We’ll keep you posted as things evolve.

Hasta pronto,

Shana & Jeff 

Team Placebo

To put it politely, Europe is struggling to get its population vaccinated. So, when the opportunity to participate in a vaccine study came along at the end of January, I thought it might be worth pursuing. If you had asked me six months before that to participate in such a study, I would had said “no way, Jose!” But with the success of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, I figured that this could be one way to get vaccinated before I might otherwise, and well, “for the science,” and all that.

I signed up for the trial and initially didn’t hear anything. It turns out that many people were willing to participate, and they had more than 1,500 volunteers for 1,000 spots here. In the end, everyone was invited to participate because enough people were disqualified or chose to not to enroll after all. The study will last for two years and requires five in-person appointments, plus three telephonic follow-up calls within the first year, and four more the following year. Participants who receive the placebo will be entitled to receive the vaccine if it is approved. I knew going in that the proposed vaccine is an mRNA project (like Pfizer and Moderna) by a German company called Curevac.

I was excited, and then I was a bit intimidated. First, because I had never done anything remotely similar, and second because I would be doing this all in Spanish. I admit I was nervous, but I was lucky that my friend Carol had her first appointment the day before mine, so her description of what would happen and where to be was super helpful. I carefully reviewed the 15-page informed consent and description of the study, which took a long time to review in Spanish!

At the first appointment (February 24), I checked in and was promptly asked to take a pregnancy test because pregnant women are excluded from the trial. While I explained that I knew with absolute certainty that I was not and could not be pregnant, I still had to take the test. It was negative. I then met with a doctor who reviewed the consent form with me, which we then signed. The next step was a blood draw. After that, a nurse took my vital signs, and I received an injection. As this is a “gold standard,” stage three, double-blind study, no one knew what I received. I then had to wait 30 minutes to see if I had any adverse reaction, after which I met with the nurse and had my vital signs taken again. While I was waiting, I was given instructions on how to use the study’s “app” and provided an oral thermometer as we need to monitor our temperature and report it, along with any symptoms, twice a week. After all that, which took about two hours, I was free to go.

I had no symptoms or adverse effects from my first shot, not even a sore arm. This was disappointing, but not unexpected since everyone had a 50% chance of receiving the placebo or vaccine. But since many people have no effects after a first vaccine shot, I could not be sure what I had received. I dutifully recorded my lack of symptoms and my temperature using the app twice a week. I have now taken my temperature more times in the past several weeks than I have in my lifetime. It is somewhat interesting how it varies from day to day.

The second appointment (March 25) was practically identical to the first, only there was no blood draw. The physician meeting focused on my lack of any reaction to the injection and lack of any COVID symptoms. I received my second injection, dutifully waited, and went home hoping I would soon feel like I got hit by a truck – a sure sign that I got the vaccine. Only I felt fine – perfectly fine. Again, not even a sore arm. Thus, I’m nearly certain that I am on “Team Placebo.” How disappointing. But that was obviously possible and is part of the process.

My third appointment (April 8) was a quick and easy follow up in which a nurse took my vitals, I again explained to a doctor that I had no adverse effects after the second shot and no COVID symptoms, and had my blood drawn. The next follow-ups will be in June and September. In the interim, I’ll keep monitoring for symptoms and taking my temperature twice a week.

Since my first appointment I’ve done a bit of research on Curevac and am keeping track of its progress in the approval process as much as possible. The good news is that so far things are looking promising and that the company has been submitting data on a rolling basis to the European approval authorities to speed things up. It is unclear when the approval process will finish, but this week they confirmed that they hope to be approved by May or June. If you’re curious about the company, which happens to be the one that Trump supposedly wanted to buy, here’s a link to the best article I’ve read so far:  https://www.irishtimes.com/business/health-pharma/how-vaccine-laggard-curevac-hopes-to-come-out-on-top-1.4493799

While it is possible that we could be “eligible” to be vaccinated before the vaccine is approved, perhaps at the earliest late May (although there seem to be new delays on a daily basis), my plan is to stick with the study. Because we are not part of the Spanish national health system, getting vaccinated is going to be one of those “fun” challenges as the regional health services are responsible for administering the entire vaccination program and we are not on their radar. I’ve checked with our private insurance carrier, which is a Spanish company, who confirmed that are not involved and have no control over the vaccination process. We’ll be figuring it out for Jeff when the time comes. I’m sure it will make for an interesting future blog post.

Hasta luego,

Shana

La Copa Del Rey

European soccer (futbol) is weird. Each country has multiple leagues with the top teams in lower leagues moving up (promotion) and bottom teams moving down (relegation) each year. In addition, there are European-wide leagues (Europa League and Champions League) that teams in the top national leagues qualify for each year. For example, each year Spain's top league, La Liga, sends its best four finishers to the Champions League, while its fifth and sixth place finishers go to the Europa League. In essence its wall-to-wall futbol.

In Spain (and perhaps in other countries as well), there is also a national tournament, El Campeonato de Espana-Copa de Su Majestad El Rey or La Copa del Rey. This tournament allows all of the professional teams in Spain (all 126 of them) to compete regardless of the level of their league. Of course, the teams from La Liga dominate the tournament, but there can be interesting upsets by teams from lower-ranked leagues.

So, why are we writing about this now? Well, tonight is the final of La Copa 2020, which was delayed a year due to Covid, and not only is the team from San Sebastian, La Real Sociedad, in the final, but they will be playing their arch rivals Athletico Bilbao in the first-ever final meeting for these teams in almost 120 years of La Copa.

To say this is a big deal in the Basque Region would be an understatement. News coverage has been extensive for several weeks, but the last few days have been crazy. In yesterday's paper (no paper today because of Semana Santa (holy week)), the first 40 pages were dedicated to the game, with additional articles in each major section of the paper -- politics, economics, culture. And, this was the day after they published a 62-page (!) special insert. It is like the Super Bowl on steroids.

Frankly, we really did not understand why this was such a big deal. And, since we are not huge soccer fans we had not been following the build-up closely, although we were aware that Real was in the final. But then, yesterday, The Guardian newspaper out of England published an article that explained why this is such a big deal, so we decided to write about it.

It turns out that the Basque Derby (which is what the Real-Athletico rivalry is called), is more than just a rivalry. Up until 1989, both teams maintained an unwritten policy of not signing non-Basque players. Athletico continues that policy to today. Of the 25 players to appear in La Liga for Athletico this year, 21 are Basque and four are from Navarre, which was historically a Basque territory although not part of the modern Basque Region of Spain. The numbers for Real are 17 Basque players and two from Navarre of 28 who have appeared. In essence, this final is like a civil war. However, it turns out, it is a very friendly civil war with fans of the two teams mixing both in the stadium (normally) and among the population. In the end, the people put their Basque identity above the rivalry.

At the 1976 final, which took place less than one year after the death of the dictator Francisco Franco, and during a time when the Basque flag was still illegal, the captains of Real and Athletico (which won the game against a team from Sevilla) carried the flag into the stadium:

As you can imagine, this relationship goes well beyond futbol.

Given the nature of this rivalry, both teams agree that having their fans present for the game is of utmost importance. So, when the final was first delayed because of Covid, the teams agreed that they wanted to wait to play the game until they could do so in front of their fans (the game is played at a pre-determined site, this one in Sevilla). Unfortunately, the final for the 2021 Copa is scheduled for two weeks from today (Athletico is in that one as well against Barcelona, the most successful Copa team of all time with 30 titles), and the people who organize the tournament said they would not allow the 2021 final to happen before the 2020 final. So, the game will have to go on without fans in the stadium. But, you can bet that almost every TV in the Basque Region, including ours, will be tuned in to the game at 9:30 pm tonight.

We can't wait to see what the post-game news coverage looks like. Especially if Real Sociedad wins!

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana