The Holidaze Has Started

We realized that three months from TODAY we will be home – we have officially begun the portion of our adventure that leads us back to State College.



We hope you all had a safe and happy Thanksgiving surrounded by family and friends. We are writing to you after having our modified Thanksgiving pseudo-feast a day late. The Linzell’s were forced to conform to the local schedule, which required that yesterday the girls attend school (Audrey actually had a field trip) and that Dan teach (don’t worry – his first topic of discussion was “what is Thanksgiving” – (1) family, (2) fattening food, (3) plentiful libations to help with (1), and (4) watching the Lions (relax, DETROIT Lions) lose). Today the girls did not have school. It was the day when the Patron Saint of Youth Education – San Jose de Calasanz – is recognized, ironically, by giving all of the youth a day off from school. Dan still had to do his song and dance – more about that in a few. So, we ate our meal this afternoon after he got home.



Our modified Thanksgiving pseudo-feast was great – we certainly missed having family but, as the picture shows, we had a great spread. Cindy, as usual, did an excellent job cooking and Dan, as usual, did a fair job listening. The girls were great helpers too. The turkey was substituted with two smaller birds that you may have heard of – we’ll use the common phonetic spelling – chikin (thanks Chick-fil-A). Turkey is available here however it’s (a) expensive and (b) provided with a lot of undesirable “extras” (such as feet and a neck – we forgot to pack an axe in our carry-on bags). So chicken it was – we did however have stuffing, mashed potatoes, veggies, fruit and a WICKED pie/cake dessert thing that we purchased from our favorite bakery and coffee hangout (called Ogi Berri, see second photo – we have no idea what it was made of but you CANNOT go wrong if the ad on the cake is made out of chocolate). We plan on following the other important Thanksgiving tradition of having leftovers tomorrow.







In addition to initiating the holiday season in Spain we recently have had an upswing in “playdate” events. Dan has been lucky enough to have his b-ball playdates with the boys every week but, until this week, they have been nonexistent for the ladies. The Spanish are VERY family oriented, especially in the north, and it is interesting how uncomfortable socializing with someone they do not “know” in a one-on-one situation can be (invitations into someone else’s home appear to be very rare). Do not get us wrong, they ARE wonderful people, but there is definitely a “get to know you” period that we are still figuring out. Cindy had coffee this past Tuesday with a mom she met at a school b-day party/insanity/anarchy event involving Audrey a few weeks ago (flash on 24 6 year olds amped up on sugar in a SMALL and LOUD room with a couple of “problem children” and some parents and you’ve got it – pics provided, one of Audrey with her best chica-friend Ana - in case you did not). Kelsey is playing with one of her best school chica-friends –Maria – this “afternoon” (afternoon in Spain starts at 4 and ends at about 8). The coffee went well – Kelsey’s report had not been received as of press time. More invitations to socialize are starting to trickle in – could be due to the holidays, we are not sure. They are welcome.










The “get to know you” period did not exist between Dan and his students, however. They were very welcoming from the start, even though confidence with their English skills was lacking (they are actually quite good). The ease with which Dan interacted with his students is probably due to a number of factors, including their age, the class size (only 8), he assigns the grades and the fact that they quickly recognized that Dan is a freak. A picture of Dan with his class after they completed a laboratory test assignment is shown here (OK, if you MUST ask the lab involved completing modal analysis of a tubular space truss).


This reminds us that we have not said much about the university facility Dan ventures to during the week. You know what it is called (Tecnun) but not much else. There are about 1500 students and 100 faculty/research associates at the campus (one of about 4 for the University of Navarra) and it consists of 6 buildings (MUCH different than Penn State – aerial pic of most of campus shown). It is supposedly the best private engineering school in Spain and 3rd or 4th among all engineering schools. It is about a 15-20 minute walk from our apartment and the University has been gracious enough to provide Dan with an office, computer and access to their structural engineering software suite and structural testing laboratories (NERVE CENTER photos shown – office and lab areas – Ikea is again the theme). He really has a great set-up that is comparable to what exists at Penn State. There are 4 faculty that teach in Dan’s area and about a half dozen graduate students from Spain and South America. They are a great bunch of people and Dan goes to coffee at the campus bar with them at 11ish everyday to ask and be asked questions related to differences between the U.S. and Spain. Research collaborations are being explored and, given the situation he is in, he thinks some good work will be done once he finishes teaching in December.

Enough with the geek stuff. We will provide a report on some more exciting items soon (such as the impending loss of one of Audrey’s front teeth – she gets EUROS from the tooth fairy) and on the Christmas season in San Sebastian soon.

Happy Holidays.