La Tomborrada, etc.

Wow, I have not been able to write in such a long time. Whenever I get on the internet I have too many things I need to do all at once – and if I’m on skype then I’d rather talk to people then blog so I apologize. I am now sitting downstairs in Bar Ondarra listening to techno music & failing at getting good internet. I learned today one of my friend’s has it in her homestay – I’m jealous. I have definitely tried and cannot pick it up anywhere in my apartment so I just go to Kelly & Maria’s and lay by the window.

Sunday the three of us tried to get up and go to church – we had directions from the USAC office but I think we were a couple minutes late for the bus (on time by our phone time though). So we wandered over to a catholic church nearby but the bilingual service had already started, the next one was Basque in about an hour and then the Spanish one. None of us wanted to walk in late to a service and be those dumb Americans so we remembered times for next week and just went to a café for a little while. We looked at the newspaper and some Spanish magazine that Maria helped us translate about famous people (kind of like People in the US I guess) and she showed us the royalty in Norway and we talked a lot about politics. The rest of Sunday was pretty boring – I did homework, read, listened to music, sat around a lot. I hate that dead time that I have. My host mom wasn’t even home but I was just bored out of my mind – but it was cold and rainy so you can’t really just go wander around. I ended up calling Kelly & Maria that night & they were going to a movie so I met up with them. We saw “Cuando Ella me encontró” which had Bette Midler, Helen Hunt, Matthew Broderick and Colin Firth. I’d never heard of it but it was dubbed with Spanish voices so we couldn’t read lips and Maria had to tell us most that was going on – definitely missed the little jokes. It was also funny because, maybe it’s a Sunday night thing, but we were definitely the youngest in there by like 40 years – and one man was snoring during the movie (ahem – mom, grandma, haha). But it was a good experience. But that was the fun event for the night.


The Plaza de la Constitution - it just turned midnight so the festivities have begun!


Monday in class we got to learn about La Tamborrada which is the HUGE festival for El Día de San Sebastian (the 20th). I don’t know all the background info but basically they play drums for 24 hours and it’s like soldiers vs. chefs. The chefs have their aprons & big white hats and are very disorganized playing with sticks and canisters. The soldiers are much neater – in very straight lines with their drums and red coats and soldiers’ hats. Some famous guy gets to lead the soldiers – they play the same song OVER AND OVER for 24 hours – the song for San Sebastian or whatever. The words are in Basque though so we didn’t understand. But for dinner Monday, Kelly, Maria & I got groceries and made pasta & salad. Then we went to our other friends’ apartment to hang out for awhile. A group of like 6 of us decided to go to Plaza de la Constitucion for the big event. It all starts at midnight & the plaza is PACKED and everyone is jumping around and singing and going crazy. It was quite the sight to see; definitely a once in a lifetime cultural experience. Most people stayed out until at least 7am, but Kelly, Maria, Tiffany (another friend) and I still can’t do that so we went to bed at like 2, haha. It was pretty fun and crazy though – EVERYONE in San Sebastian is out.

Me with one of the chefs!


Tuesday morning is actually El Día de San Sebastian and there’s the largest kids parade in the world (I think) – with like 5000 kids. They parade around in their chef or soldier outfit and all bang their drums. They were pretty organized and impressive. The sad thing though is that on Monday and Tuesday it was definitely cold and rainy. (Parents – good thing I packed my rain boots I’ve definitely worn them a lot, including Monday & Tuesday) But Maria, Kelly & I got up Tuesday and went and watched a little bit of the parade – soo cute. I took tons of pictures but internet is slow like always so I can’t really upload them now. We slept til noon so that was nice, and went to the parade for like 30mins or an hour – I couldn’t really handle it and then came home. I relaxed the rest of that day – nothing is open and the drums are playing the whole day – literally NONSTOP. But I ended up going to Maria & Kelly’s cause they don’t live on a big main street like I do so the drums weren’t as loud. But I got on internet for awhile, chatted with Mom Dad & Sara and did some homework. I went back to my apartment around 9 and my host mom had a bunch of her divorced girl friends over – I guess they all cook and have a big dinner to hang out and celebrate. One of them invited me to eat with them but that was way too overwhelming for me. So I just worked on homework and pictures. I finished my first book and am almost done with the Nicholas Sparks one that I brought!

The kids parade


Then finally, today I had class at 2 – I had dropped my phone and broken it (of course, with my luck) so I had to go get it fixed – and since it’s the day after El Día de San Sebastian nothing opens til 11 so I had to wait around for that. But then we had class – always a fun time and now I’m just hanging out in this bar with wifi. OH and Kelly & I rode our bikes to class today but it started raining on us halfway there which was miserable but it wasn’t raining on the way home so it was fine. And I haven’t done laundry since I’ve been to Spain – hopefully my host mom did it today like she told me she would – so I left my jeans at home and am wearing tights & a skirt. Not the best outfit for a cold bike ride. But Kelly & I are planning on getting gym memberships tomorrow or Friday. And tomorrow night Elizabeth (my roommate from last semester who is in Barcelona now) is coming to visit for the weekend. And Kelly & I are planning on shopping tomorrow before class – I need a much warmer coat & they have some for like 30 euros.

But that’s it for now. Hopefully more before too long. Sorry for the super long post!

Miss you all.
Love, Jill.