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

Spanish Playing Cards

Yes, this is actually a post about playing cards. Did you know there are different types of playing cards throughout the world? We didn't. (We admit, this shows our ignorance. But that's partly why we're here -- to learn new things.) Although Spaniards play games such as Poker and Bridge with a standard 52-card deck, Spain also has its own 40-card deck that is categorized as a Latin-suited deck. There are also related Italian and French decks. The Spanish deck, which was derived from earlier Moorish cards, was apparently exported by Spain in its conquests and today is used in Southern Italy, parts of France, Hispanic America, North Africa and the Philippines. In the description that follows, I will give the Spanish words for various things in parentheses.

Like a regular deck of cards, the Spanish 40-card deck (una baraja de naipes) is made up of 4 suits (los palos), but they are not the same suits.  Instead of diamonds, hearts, spades and clubs, la baraja gives us golds (los oros), cups (las copas), swords (las espadas) and clubs (los bastos). Each suit contains only 10 cards, rather than the 13 in a standard deck. The cards are the numbers one through seven along with three picture cards: the jack/knave (la sota), the horse/knight (el caballo) and the king (el rey). The #1 card is still called the ace, but spelled As. Note that some decks add cards for eight and nine in each suit and thus have 48 cards. Here is how they are portrayed:

The naming convention for cards is exactly the same as in English. For example, the number six card in golds is "el seis de oros," the jack of cups is "la sota de copas," and the king of swords is "el rey de espadas."

What games can you play with a Spanish baraja? The internet tells me that there is a complicated trick-taking game called Ombre (from the Spanish word for man (hombre)) that swept Europe in the 17th Century, but we did not tackle this game. We learned a game called Chinchon, which is basically a 2-4 player version of gin rummy using 7 cards per hand. When someone goes out, they receive -10 points while everyone else receives the points in their hand (with each picture card worth 10). If you reach +100 points, you are eliminated and the game continues with the remaining players until only one player is left. You can also win by reaching -100 points (which seems less likely). In addition, there is also kind of a nuclear victory option called a Chinchon. A Chinchon is a run of seven cards (all in the same suit), and if you complete this difficult hand, you immediately win the game regardless of how many points anyone had before that deal.

So, if you come visit us in Spain, not only do you get to visit a beautiful city and eat great food, but we can play a rousing round of Chinchon!

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana

Springtime in San Sebastian

Spring has sprung. The trees are blooming, and the sun has been out most days. Last year we missed out on Spring entirely with the constant rain that lasted into June. So, we are trying to get outside as much as we can to enjoy the pretty days.

This weekend we enjoyed two traditional San Sebastian pastimes. On Friday night we went to a sidreria in nearby Astigarraga. The cider season lasts from January through April, although some of the sidrerias are open all year long. Last year we visited the local cider museum and a sidreria in January and enjoyed the experience so much we knew we would have to do it again. The standard sidreria menu includes all the cider you can drink (served directly from the barrels), tortilla de bacalao (omelet with cod), bacalao with peppers, txuleta (grilled beef rib chop), and Idiazabal cheese with quince paste and walnuts for dessert. It is a lot of food! We were still full when we woke up Saturday morning!

What made this visit even better is that we went with three Basques, Andoni, Arantza, and Itziar, plus Connie, a friend from school. Arantza lives in Astigarraga and has visited every sidreria in the area. During the season, most of her friends dine at a sidreria once a week! Our Basque friends are studying English at the local official language school and we spent the evening helping them with their English and practicing our Spanish. It was fun to compare notes about the things that frustrate us most about each  language. After so much time in school, we have a new appreciation for how difficult the process of learning a language can be. We really enjoyed the evening, both because of the great company and food, but also because we can finally see how much Spanish we’ve learned and how we are much more comfortable speaking now – finally!! What a difference a year makes. Here’s our group:

Today we took our favorite walk along the San Sebastian coastline and La Concha and Ondarreta beaches. Most of the city seemed to have the same idea – it’s not just our favorite walk. We timed it just right for low tide and enjoyed walking along the sand with all the dogs that can be there during the fall, winter, and spring months. With the water at its lowest point we walked out on the rocky tide pool area and snapped some photos of the city and the Peine del Viento from an area that is usually submerged. We thought you’d enjoy the vistas from there as much as we did:

We are in the home stretch now. Only 1 more week of Spanish school to go!

Hasta luego,

Shana & Jeff 

Pasapalabra

Pasapalabra is a Spanish game show (the title means "pass (the) word" and functions on the show as meaning "pass") to which Shana and I have become a bit addicted.

We first saw part of Pasapalabra while in a restaurant when we had only lived here for about 4 or 5 months. At that time, we had no chance of following what was going on because of our rudimentary Spanish. Now, with much-improved language skills, we can watch the whole show but the main prize-winning round (El Rosco) is still difficult because the presenter reads the questions incredibly fast.

The game is about words, which is really great for continuing to improve our vocabulary. Here is how the game works: first, there is a quick game between the loser from the previous show and a new contestant to see who will play against the winner from the previous show. Each contestant is asked questions whose answers are a single word starting with a particular letter. First person to miss two is done.

Because the loser from the previous show can win this initial game, the same two people can compete several days in a row, as we have already seen. Once the contestants are decided, each is teamed-up with two celebrities forming a team of three. (We have no idea who these B-list celebrities are though.) The two teams compete in a series of challenges whose goal is to accumulate time for their contestant during El Rosco. The challenges are: a series of questions (usually about people) with four possible responses shown on the screen (we tend to do well at this, especially when it is about famous Americans) or movies; a strange name-that-tune type game that feels like amateur hour with the teams often being given credit for a correct answer by being able to sing some of the lyrics; a word search game where a 5x5 letter box (a "sopa de letras") contains three words related to a theme (we have improved at this game); and, finally, a really tough memory game in which each team is shown nine words behind the numbers 1-9 for 2 seconds and then tries to identify the number behind which each given word is located within 90 seconds (every miss covers up all the words again).

All of this leads to El Rosco where the contestants generally have between 125 and 165 seconds to try to provide one-word answers to 25 questions using the letters of the Spanish alphabet (26 plus the en-yay, but not including K or W). Mostly the answers start with the letter indicated although for some (especially en-yay, Q and X) the answer simply contains the letter. The winner from the previous show starts and continues until he either misses a word or, more likely, says "pasapalabra", which then switches the turn to his opponent. The winner is the person who gets more correct, but to win the big money (now 184,000 Euros) you have to get all 25 right, which we have not seen happen yet. (A rosco, by the way, is a traditional round cake eaten at Christmas time. The 25 letters are displayed in a circle around the contestant's face during this round. Hence the name.)

We have been watching for about a week during which a guy named Jero has been easily dispatching his opponent each night and getting close to the big prize, usually getting 22 or 23 of the 25 he needs. He has been on for 20 or so days (winning around 20,000 Euros), which we thought was impressive and very Ken-Jennings-like) until we found on the internet that the record is 128 days. Amazingly, it doesn't appear that the owner of that record actually solved El Rosco and won the big prize.

In any event, we continue to enjoy the show, and consider it our Spanish "Jeopardy," although I am worried that I am going to start hearing "pasapalabra" in my dreams.

Hasta luego,

Jeff and Shana