Bunch of Butterflies

Of the social variety, that is.

As alluded to in our earlier post, our social calendars, while not yet filled to capacity, are starting to take on a little bit of weight. We thought we’d summarize some of our recent activities.

We’ll start with our first European professional sport experience. When you think European sports, you think of the history, the pure technical skills and subtle aspects of the game that are so appreciated by the fans, and of course you can’t help but think of those fans and their loyalty to a club that goes back for generations. So that we could experience some of this history and atmosphere we went to a… basketball game (thanks Dr. Naismith and sorry to anyone that expected more from us – remember they play basketball INDOORS which is a major plus). We were able to go watch the Bruesa-Guipuzcoa Fightin’ Frogs (1st 2 words are REAL, 2nd 2 we made up, see mascot/chicas pic - Kermit on HGH) of the Spanish ACB League (the top league in Spain, unfortunately the F-Fs are NOT one of the top teams in the league) a week ago. One of Dan’s weekly basketball buds offered him 3 tickets , we purchased a 4th, followed the rules of self-improvement that are often applied at sparsely attended sporting events and sat together in reasonably decent seats. Below is a list of SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES WE NOTICED BETWEEN EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN BBALL GAMES:

• Arenas are multiuse (SIMLIARITY) but multiuse in Spain means basketball and bullfighting (DIFFERENCE - see the red bullring around the court in the pic above).
  
• Crowds are loud (SIMILARITY) but in Spain loud is CONSTANT AND LOUD (we’re talking “11, 11, 11 all the way across the board…” the whole game, freethrows, timeouts, you name it) involving a "pep" band that never stops playing (they even busted out the Looney Toons theme song), techno (Dan busted out the robot), horns and, when the team is playing badly or a ref blows a call, the requisite Euro-whistles (DIFFERENCE).
  
  
  
  
• Dance teams fill in the gaps during timeouts (SIMILARITY) but the requirements that you have rhythm, not be a nicotine fiend and that your torso stops moving when the music (which ranges from the aforementioned techno to classical) stops are definitely NOT in effect (DIFFERENCE - again, see pic).
  
  

• Showing support for your team by sporting some of their paraphernalia is popular (SIMILARITY) and, even when indoors and watching a game invented in Massachusetts, the best article to do this with is a scarf emblazed with the team name and colors (DIFFERENCE - see chicas in pic - scarves were supplied by the gracious host that Dan is chatting up in the background).

OK, OK – enough of the list. It was a good game, with each team holding and losing a lead (B-G was playing a team from Menorca led by Pooh Jeter, you know Pooh, formally of the University of Portland??). Unfortunately, both B-G bigs fouled out and their leading scorer (Andy Panko – formally of Bishop McDevitt in Harrisburg and Lebanon Valley College – he is a legitimate player in a league that includes some college names of reasonable renown - Shammond Williams/Bracey Wright/Luke Recker to name a few) was on the bench at the end nursing an injury and they lost by a point.

We’ll now move onto recent social activities taken by the leaders, nay, the ICONS of the Linzell family – the proud parents. The ‘rents actually had TWO, count ‘em, TWO semi-dates during the past few weeks. One involved eating Pintxos (pronounced PINCH-os) during an afternoon while the girls were in school and the second involved attending a Txoko (pronounced CHOKE-o) another evening while a sitter “recruited” from Dan’s class watched the chicas (don’t worry, we were told its common to use students to watch your kids, she was well paid and she and the girls really enjoyed each other). Pintxos are the Basque equivalent of Tapas (sorry but we have to go to the “Wiki well” for a definition and some pics - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pincho) and just about every bar in San Sebastian offers them to customers between about 11 and 3 each day. We had tried to do Pintxos with the kids but had a bad experience (rude bartender – we found out later that they are all rude and it wasn’t just due to Dan’s cologne, Jai Karate) so this was our second official attempt since we’ve been here. We were accompanied by two friends of Dan’s from Tecnun – Jose and Susan. Jose is a younger faculty member from Venezuela that Dan also plays bball with and who, believe it or not, received his undergrad degree from Penn State. Susan is an Irish woman and friend of Jose's that teaches English to faculty and consults to the University (she is married to a Spanish Basque but their family lives in France). They are both wonderful people and Jose walked us through the whole Pintxos thing at his favorite bar – after a lot of rich food and some good wine Cindy went grocery shopping and Dan went back to work (any idea how successful those tasks were???).

A Txoko is also another eating-centered event but it typically occurs in the evening at one of the many gastronomic societies located in San Sebastian (Txoko means "cozy place" in Basque) . They act as private clubs (members pay fees + expenses), complete with kitchen, stocked bar, and dining facilities. Txoko members sign out the club for a given event and host their invitees for a meal that they or they + their guests help prepare. The emphasis is on socialization – this + Pintxos appear to be the main sources of socialization for the family-centered Basques – so we mingled with many nice people, many from Tecnun, and then had IRISH food (the aforementioned Susan held the Txoko – she wanted us to experience one - and she stayed true to her heritage). Once again, it was a great time and, as you can see from the kitchen and table photos, much food/drink was prepared and consumed and the place (actually located on the Tecnun campus) was very nice.

Enough with the folks, the MOST important social event during the past few weeks occurred last nite and focused on the chicas. They participated in Eskibel’s “La Fiesta de Navidad." Each year the school puts together a show that all students 3 or over participate in – it involves singing, dancing and acting in Spanish, Basque and English with everything focusing on the meaning of Christmas (see pic for their outfits). Kelsey was is part of a story focused on the 3 Wise Men - she was one of a group of “astronomers” looking for the Star of David and sang a song in Spanish (Kelsey is standing in next to her good friend Maria - in light blue - in the 2nd pic - sorry about the heads). Audrey, meanwhile, dressed in traditional Basque clothes (that were nicely loaned to us by another mom) and danced and sang a traditional Basque, yep Basque, holiday song (she proudly displayed her central PA "riddim" - 3rd pic). We were very proud of both of them and the entire show was great (the older students even belted out Lennon’s “Happy Christmas” - we welled up). We think their participating in this show will be one of the memories of our time here that they carry with them forever – it really was cool.

That’s it for now – we will have many things to report on over the next few weeks (including a certain blonde-girls B-day, Xmas in the Pyrenees, and some travels). We hope you all also have great holiday adventures and, as always, we miss you one and all.