Archive
July 1, 2008
The lady at the local cycling federation office was nice and got me connected with a local rider when I was in there talking. His name is Juan Pablo, and yesterday he picked me up with his mother and girlfriend in tow and we drove to a local race. I got to ride in the team car during the race with the team director Alex. Alex was fun to ride along with, the race started out pretty chill, but then we took a round-a-bout at around 50mph and one of the coolers in the back seat shot across the car and spilt water everywhere, quickly I was enlisted to clean it up, and for the rest of the day I was Alex’s personal water lackey, fetching bottles whenever he needed to hand off some cold ones to the riders on the road. The race was in a town called Lerin, over in the next province of Navarra. The town its self was perched on top of a cliff, the race ascended a road etched out of the cliff multiple times. In the end, Juan Pablo got third place. It was a good time meeting some of his team mates and family. Today, Juan Pablo and I rode out to another race that was happening close to town, he was just spectating today. On the ride out who should we come across.. none other than Joseba Beloki (for those who are not cycling fans, Joseba was one of the few who was able to challenge Lance Armstrong for a few years, he ended up third twice and second once in the Tour) apparently Juan Pablo and Joseba are old friends, and we stopped and Juan Pablo introduced me to Joseba. We rode along with Joseba a bit and watched the race pass by with him. Soon thereafter an Euskaltel rider came along, this being Koldo Fernandez, he won a stage in Tirreno-Adriatico. We chatted a bit with him and road back into town together, I was able to talk a bit with him also. Even though my Spanish is limited, and I know sometimes people are amused when I talk, you can tell they appreciate that you at least try and are not afraid to make mistakes. Tomorrow I start classes, I am excited! I think you learn the most using the language with people outside of a class setting, but you still learn a lot in the classroom faster than you may be able to learn from simply speaking, such as subtle points in the grammar that would be extremely hard to pickup in a rapidly developing conversation
July 3, 2008
I have been here for almost a week, and I had not really experienced many side effects of the 9 hour time change, sure I was waking up at odd times, but I really wasnt all that tired during the day. Today, was different. Exhaustion hit me like a brick. I was falling asleep in class, after class I went with my teacher to buy a SIM card for my cell phone, I couldn’t even track the conversation that was going on in front of me. I was a zombie. But after a nice lunch and typical Spanish siesta I was ready to go in the afternoon.
About class.. as of now, its just me and one other person - that one other person being a 65 year old Japanese guy. He seems like an interesting guy, he has been to Spain around 30 times or something crazy like that, I don’t know what his story is. Its nice only having 2 people in class, the class is primarily conversation, which is nice. I expect more people to arrive later on in the summer, but right now 2 is just right!!
This afternoon I hung out with Juan Pablo, he came and picked me up and we drove and picked up one of his friends Javi and his girlfriend. Anyways, we drove out to this shopping center and walked around did some window shopping etc.. We then drove back into town and Juan Pablo gave me a tour by car which was nice, I was able to take in a lot of stuff rapidly and had someone there to explain. We then stopped by his house where I met one of his brothers, we hung out for a bit talking about cycling and sharing photos.
When I got back to my apartment, one of my roommates, Paula the one who works in a TV station, proposed that I go on Spanish TV tomorrow for an interview. I guess they want to do an interview or something about Independence Day in America and Paula immediately thought of me. I explained that my confidence in Spanish is nowhere close to being able to do an interview. She was like “oh dont worry, its only a local channel” I told her I really didn’t care if it were national, local, or only a broadcast to our apartment block! It turns out that it’s only like a 4 question interview, and it’s NOT live, once these details came to light it sounded more like something I could handle. So in the end Paula talked me into it. I think it’s going down tomorrow sometime, not quite sure. Paula did a mock interview, and I just told her that everyone spends time with friends and family, barbecue is a given, lots of hot dogs and hamburgers are consumed, and big firework shows cap off a night of fun.
We will see how it goes!
July 5, 2008
The interview went well, it was on tv at around 10:15 pm local time. They opened the show with a little clip of me yelling out (in English) “CELEBRATE INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!” The people at the studio kept comparing me to some guy in the movie Independence Day, as I guess he does something similar in the movie. They all seemed to have this movie completely memorized and knew all the actors in it. In the interview I basically said that people spend time together, go to parks and beaches, eat hotdogs and hamburgers, and that people wear a lot of patriotic colored clothing and that it’s a pretty special day in America in general. The interview might be available online sometime, I will see if I can find it on the website, or they also said they would give me a cd with the video, if I do get it I will try to put it up online sometime. Anyways, it was fun and I am happy I did it. My roommates say that when there was an Italian girl living here she did an interview also, and then later people in our apartment building and out on the street would recognize her. We will see if that happens to me! On the way back from the studio, the first thing the taxi driver asked me was if I practice any sports, I said I am a cyclist and then we talked the entire way back about cycling. It turns out the taxi driver, Benito, was the 5 time Spanish national champion of cyclocross and rode at the world champs 10 times. And his son is now a professional. He was very proud of his son, he talked at length about how people think a pro cyclists life would be fun and glamorous, but really its just a lot of hard work for little pay.
Also, I think I am going to buy a BBQ, in the little store in my building they are selling BBQs for 10 euro. I saw charcoal someplace the other day, I just dont remember where. We have a nice rooftop deck that would be perfect for a barbecue.
July 7, 2008
'Today in the old part of Vitoria there was a Little market called El Mercado de la Almendra. It happens every first Saturday of the month and is a lot like farmers markets back home. The granddaddy of them all happens in September when along with the market the town hosts a medieval fair. Anyways, I checked it out and tried a lot of different foods - Cheeses, cured meats, pate of duck and goose liver, various egg cakes, etc. I ended up taking home some very nice looking tomatoes, a massive loaf of bread, some delicious honey made in a nearby pueblo and some delightfully sugary and buttery cookies. I wish it happened more than once a month, but in reality, there are fresh markets like these all over town every day, something I definitely have to look into more.
The other night the street I live on was in the news. The street its self is pretty insignificant, just some apartments, one bar, an auto shop. The story was about how if you are coming into town from the north and want to get to the street, it is possible to drive within literally 30 feet of the street, but then you are blocked from turning down the street and are forced to go on a 1km+ detour to get back into a suitable position to be able to turn down the street. The story on the news reported that the neighbors association of the street collected signatures and presented them to the local city government. I don’t know what’s going to come of it, probably nothing, but it will be interesting to see.
July 11, 2008
I don’t know what it is, but it seems like every time I am at the store SOMEONE wants to talk to me about something. The other day I was studying what types of mustard was on offer at the local grocery store (3 types of yellow, 2 types Dijon) when from behind me I hear someone call out “Youth!! Come here, your eyes are better than mine! Sensing that I was the only other person in the aisle, I turn around and find myself face to face with an old Spanish guy, probably standing no more than five and a half feet tall, as I recall he was one of those individuals who didn’t really have much of a neck to speak of, his head more or less morphed out of his shoulders. He beckoned me over to the spice rack, and carried on “My Eyes are bad, tell me where the white pepper is!!” I looked around a bit, but there was no white pepper, I told him this, but he kept on insisting that there HAD to be white pepper, he started to claim that the Garlic Salt was white pepper only on the account that it was the only other white substance on the rack. Anyways, we finally concluded that there was no white pepper and he sent me on my way.
I was surprised that I could understand all of what he said, as he seriously sounded like he was trying to gargle a mouthful of saltwater and talk to me at the same time. A few days later I was in the dairy aisle trying to determine what, if any, was the difference between two types of yogurt, made by the same brand, both non-fat, both natural flavor, however they appeared on opposite ends of the refrigerator case and the only discernable difference was a single word on the packaging. Since I didn’t know this word I was out of luck. While I am trying to decide which yogurt to buy, some lady comes along and starts chattering away to me at 100mph, she is wildly gesturing with a package of little yogurt/breakfast drinks in her hand. I got her introductory phrase, something about if I had seen the new commercial on TV for these types of drinks, but then the rest was lost. It becomes evident that she wants to enlist my help with something, not knowing what I begin to search through the refrigerator case aimlessly hoping that she will eventually just disappear and I can continue on my way. It ends up that she wanted to compare them with another product or something, in the end we have a little conversation about how expensive they are.
I enjoy encounters like this a lot it forces me to think fast and try and converse with people on subjects that I often haven’t the slightest clue about.
July 13, 2008
On Wednesday I went to Pamplona with some friends to check out the San Fermin festival. This is the renowned festival of the running of the bulls. We only went for the afternoon, so we weren’t there for the actual bull run (it’s at 8am every morning) we were able to take in the crowds and walk around the town. There were a lot of people there all wearing white pants, shirt, and red bandanna tied around their neck.
Every night there is a bullfight at the Plaza de Toros against the bulls that had just previously ran that morning. We got a good position outside of the ring right at the end of the bullfight. When the bullfight is over, big social clubs/groups of friends, each with their own banner, etc.. march out of the ring amongst massive throngs of cheering people. We watched the groups march past for a bit then headed off to walk around the city some more. We ended the evening in a park with a ton of other people and watched a firework show.
Here is a video I took of the people marching out of the bull right, I was not able to get the video to embed properly so just follow the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl-WxHqIcq4
I am sort of glad I wasn’t there for the bull run, I would never do it myself. The day after we were there 7 people were gored and numerous others were trampled. No one died, but some of the injuries were serious. Since 1924 only 13 people have died. Which is mildly surprising, I would have thought more, especially if you consider the circumstances.
Anyways, that same day in the morning, I took morning off class and went out and had a nice bike ride with a big group of guys. It was a lot of fun, they are all quite nice and fun to talk with.
July 14, 2008
Today I contested my first race. It was the XXIII Premio Nuestra Senora De Oro, only 108 km (67 mi) in length, it was a generally rolling terrain with a number of significant climbs, it finished up a 4km climb with sections of around 20%. Oh and it was quite windy indeed.
Registering for the race was easy, I just showed up and handed them my papers.. and that was it!! All the race officials were hanging out enjoying a nice mid morning meal of tortilla Espanola and some crusty bread. They were even cracking open a bottle of wine.
Anyways, about 130 people started the race and it was fast from the gun, I think the first attack came at around 50 meters, and they didn’t let up for a while. Despite all the activity, no significant group got away. And it was all together more or less until we hit one of the more significant climbs when the field then broke up. Anyways, it was descending down from the climb that I had a little mishap. Those who wear contacts will know that sometimes they get a bit dry and they can kind of get disoriented in your eye, but just blinking rapidly usually fixes the problem. Wellllll, as we were descending down this hill, I was experiencing said sensation, I started to blink rapidly, and then the next thing I know I am missing the contact in my left eye! Terrific! unphased, I soldiered on. I thought about pulling out because it was kind of disorienting at first, but then eventually I got used to the sensation. Whenever the race had to navigate a sharp corner, I would go into Cyclops mode, and only use one eye at the detriment of my peripheral vision, however everything was a lot more clear and lucid.
Anyways, the race carried on and I had no idea what group I was in, I got into a small group and we were going along nicely and then started to climb up this one climb, at the TOP of the climb there was a race official there to greet us with the wonderful news that we were no longer in the race. There was a rather animated discussion between a number of the other racers and the official. It turns out they decided to DQ anyone who was more than 2 min behind the lead group. It turned out that this was by far the majority of the race. Around 130 people started, only 25 were classified at the end. I don’t know if this is normal or it the race officials were just feeling frisky today or what.
Anyways, it was a ton of fun I was pleased to find out that I was not the slowest guy out there the guys who were in the lead group and who eventually won they are on a totally another level. But the vast majority of the other races out there, sure they are fast and strong, but it wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be.
July 18, 2008
I am somewhat of an oddity here for a few reasons, primarily due to the fact that not many Americans come to this town. A lot of people have asked me why I would want to come to Vitoria-Gasteiz and why did I not go to some other city like, Madrid, Barcelona, Salamanca, Granada places known for their foreign student populations. Even after explaining that I came to Vitoria precisely for its lack of tourism, a lot of people still seem skeptical and amused. So far in my explorations around town I have only come across one place where I know to buy postcards, I am sure there are more, but this is massively different than Granada. Albeit Granada is an amazing city, and its totally understandable why people would flock there. However the lack of postcard buying opportunities in Vitoria is not a representation of how nice of a city it is or how many historical sites it may or may not have to offer. The city has a lot of history, plenty of very nice sights however none quite like the veritable blockbuster that is the Alhambra, but still there is a lot to see. In the future I plan to go into depth about the city I am in and cover its main points, some of its history.
The second point that people find curious mainly has to do with the bike. When I first meet people out biking, its kind of surprise x2 an American here studying, and he is a cyclist, how odd. They all ask where I am from. For the most part they know OF Seattle, not always where it is. A LOT of people know of the Seattle Super Sonics. Basketball is huge here, which may surprise a lot of you back home. You may recall that upon my arrival to Granada, when Guillermo found out that I was from Seattle the first thing he said to me was “YES!! SHAWN KEMP!!” Like I said, second to Soccer, basketball might be the next biggest sport. Vitoria has a very very good basketball team. TAU Ceramica (also called in Spain: Saski Baskonia SAD) the past few years the team has reached the Euro league final four, won the Spanish Cup 4 times in the past 10 years, etc. Their best player recently signed a deal with the Houston Rockets, there is a joke in town that goes like this “Houston, We have a problem.”
I read in the paper yesterday that the team just signed an American guy to come play. There are a lot of Americans playing basketball over here in the euro leagues, take a look at most any team roster and you will see at least one American.
Vitoria also has a soccer team: Deportivo Alaves. It was in the Spanish Premier league, but then was relegated to the second division. Until 2 days ago it was majority owned by a Ukrainian fellow, who wasn’t liked by too many people in town. He sold off his stake in the team. I have been told the cause of the teams demise was the former owner. There have been street demonstrations here in town about the performance of the team.
July 21, 2008
'Learning a language is hard. There is no way to get around this. My history of learning languages stretches back to grade school at Villa Academy, where French was compulsory from the tender age of first grade. What do I remember from these classes? Nothing, other than being introduced to the world of French Rap and MC Solar in about the 4th grade. In 6th grade French was ditched for Latin. Why the rather abrupt change of course from French to Latin, I am not sure. And it wasn’t the type of Latin class with the hope the goal of helping us improve our English syntax..etc. We were learning the language as if we were going to go have a conversation with the Pope in Latin.. In this class my memory serves me better. I distinctly remember two phrases:
Salvete discipulus (Hello Students)
Salvete magister (Hello Teacher)
That’s about all I can recall, this may be due to the fact that the teacher had it out for me and I spent the vast majority of the class out in the hall. Luckily about halfway through the year I was given the option to leave the class for an elective class needless to say I high-tailed it out of there. Fast-forward to high school, and I need to decide what language to study, the options are: Spanish, French, German, Japanese. I picked Spanish, as out of the 4 it seemed the easiest and most practical. I was privileged to have Senora Rodriguez as my teacher. Privileged is a relative word, if Senora Rodriguez was your teacher you may consider yourself privileged because she was by far the easiest of the 3 Spanish teachers, however you were guaranteed to learning next to nothing. I spent 2 years in Spanish with Senora, and I am not confident I learned a whole lot.
Oddly enough I find myself living in a Spanish speaking country for the second time in my life. When I arrived in Spain for the first time back in 2005, really didn’t speak Spanish at all. I could only say the absolute basics. I distinctly recall being absolutely freaked out the first few days, soon I was accustomed to not being aware of anything going on around me and I ended up getting along just fine. In those 4 months I learned A LOT. In 4 months, I learned more than what some people I knew had learned in 2 years at university. Learning languages is funny, some days go by where I understand a lot, other days when I understand little. The days where you understand a lot are nice, I get a feeling of “YES, I have arrived..” but then, usually the very next day, you are quickly reminded with a swift kick to the confidence that you have a long long ways to go and that languages are insanely nuanced in ways that are almost impossible for a non native speaker to conceive. For those who have managed to achieve “advanced proficiency” , in a second language I am impressed and envious - I hope to be there someday.
I kind of wish sometimes there was a nice checklist, or at least a clear and present system in language progression, where you could actively track just how well you were progressing. I suppose non explicit forms exist, how much you understand from TV, speed of conversations you are able to carry on, etc.. However it would be nice to be able to before bed every night pull out your checklist and tick off what you have learned and see just how far you are from your goal.
So like I said, the good days when you comprehend a lot are great, and then there are those not so good days on the language front. But still - they are pretty dang fun and always a blast!
July 24, 2008
'Tomorrow I will go to the Tour de France. I am going with none other than the man himself, Joseba Beloki. Its the last big mountain stage, as far as I know we plan to drive to the foot of the final climb the Col d'Aubisque, and then ride up the climb and watch the riders come by. However like most everything I do here in Spain, I am not confident of what exactly is going on. For example, yesterday my friend Juan Pablo’s brother shows up my apartment and calls me and tells me to come downstairs because he has a bike for me to ride at the tour. I told him I already had a bike, he then informed me that we would be using mountain bikes and that he had a mountain bike for me. It wasn’t until today when I talked with Joseba that be became clear why we were using mountain bikes, Joseba said that when you ride up the mountain and after the riders come by, the police don’t let you go anywhere until the riders are off the summit, then they release the public to descend the col. He says that with mountain bike we might be able to ride on the other side of the cars in the grass or something like that, I really have no idea what he was talking about. However I will defer to Beloki on this one as I consider him the authority on stuff like this. I am quite honored to be going to the Tour with Beloki, but he is really just a normal guy who happens to ride his bike very fast. His birthday is 12 August, a day before mine, he says he wants to have a big party for us.
So keep an eye out for me on the TV, its probably going to be a mob up there on the mountain, but I will be in my normal kit.
July 26, 2008
I went to the Tour de France yesterday. Our group, 9 in all, headed out from Vitoria-Gasteiz at 5am, drove up into France via Bayonne, then headed East until Pau where we turned south and parked just short of town of Laruns, which sits right at the foot of some incredibly massive mountains, and the finishing climb of that day’s stage. We mounted our bikes and started the grand procession up the mountain. There were a LOT of people out there on the roads, this is obvious if you just watch one stage on TV, but to experience it in person was something else. We didn’t go up to the upper slopes but rather opted for a nice spot 6km from the line. We found a nice place in the shade and just spent a nice day relaxing and hanging out waiting for the race.
About an hour and a half before the race came along, I hear a LOT of cheering and see this guy sprinting up the road pushing his bike (by now the police had long closed the roads and you could only move on foot) the guy stops RIGHT next to me, and I quickly realize who it is. Yes it was that guy who you have probably seen running next to the peloton with the Football helmet and MASSIVE longhorns, or eagle wings or a huge deer antler rack. He wasn’t running with the helmet quite yet, but was just running up the side of the mountain like a mad man. Anyways we start talking and quickly are joined by another guy from Montana. We three chatted it up for a while and then the Montana guy took off
Antlers and flag clearly visible in the background.
Anyways, the Antler dude (His name escapes me, sorry!) is actually from Seattle and had lived for a while on South Whidbey Island, which was quite surprising. We hit it off when he found I was from Seattle and have spent a good amount of time on South Whidbey. We spent the better part of the next hour chatting. It turns out he has been doing this since 2002. He had his massive American flag and helmet with huge deer antlers strapped to the back of his bike. As he started to get ready EVERYONE including the police standing on the side of the road gathered around to check him out. My Spanish friends were like “Scott, we don’t know how it’s done in your country, but this is kind of strange!” Everyone loved it, tons of people lined up to get a picture with him.
Just before the race came by he started to get warmed up by jogging in place and making strange high pitched screeching noises, which attracted the attention of everyone who had not already become fixated on this spectacle. I was just cracking up, he truly was enjoying himself. He had told me that you only live once so its good to go out there on a limb every so often!! When the race came by he took off and started running, for every group that would pass by he would run - Big helmet with huge antler rack and a very large American flag. He said he had another flag, a Lance Armstrong ˜Live Strong” flag, he asked which I thought he should use, that or the Stars and Stripes. I told him that he comes this far he has got to represent the country, so no doubt use the Stars and Stripes.
He said he was going to the start line of today’s stage in Pau to sing the National Anthem “uninvited.” He said he did this a number of years ago back when Lance was still racing. He just walks as close as he can to the start where the rides are waiting to start and just BELTS OUT the national anthem. He said that he was right next to Lance and that lance didn’t acknowledge him, but all the other foreign riders took some interested and treated the anthem as some form of pre-race entertainment.
A quick aside: If you, the Antler/Longhorn guy, happen to read/find my website somehow, I would love to remain intouch with you, please send me an email scootermclean [at] gmail [dot] com and we can get intouch.
As for the race, it was cool seeing the riders go by. It was just about as I had imagined you see them approaching through a massive flotilla of motorcycles, and then they are right there in front of you for 2 seconds, and then you watch them ride off into an uncertain future. Some riders looked to be in a lot of pain, others looked very calm and collect. Thomas Dekker of Rabobank was laughing.
Yellow Jersey.
The race came and went, and then it was time for the many thousands of people to all try to get off the mountain at the same time. This becomes difficult when there is only one very small road. We bombed down the hill on our bikes and quickly ended up in a traffic jam of bicycles, but it was definitely far superior than to be waiting in a car for who knows how long. The experience of watching the tour was great. I don’t know if it’s something I could do EVERY year and for every mountain stage (let alone every stage) like some people do. I would rather be off riding and enjoying the next valley over, but it was a lot of fun and something I would definitely like to do again
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottmclean/sets/72157601024723377
Check out some Photos on my Flickr page
July 29, 2008
There are only 63 Starbucks retail locations spread out over three cities in Spain (Madrid, Barcelona and Seville). There are 192 Starbucks stores within a 10 mile radius of my house in Seattle (according to starbucks.com. Madrid alone is host to 3 T.G.I. Friday's and 10 Tony Roma's franchises (21 nationwide). I have been to the Tony Roma's in Malaga. It’s what you would expect - Ribs, Meat, and Chocolate Cake.
There is a single McDonalds in my City - its outside of town at a big shopping mall/area. I have only been in a McDonalds once here in Spain, which was in Granada - with the express intent of scoping out the menu and nothing else. The McDonalds menu in Spain is pretty standard. You can, however, order a nice plastic cup of chilled gazpacho.
There are a handful of Chinese restaurants in Vitoria, I have been told there is a Mexican restaurant somewhere. There are no Vietnamese or Thai restaurants, my teacher complained that for good Thai food you have to go to London or Paris. I told her that Seattle is overloaded with Vietnamese and Thai establishments.
Picking up on immigration patterns through restaurant pervasiveness is simple, but an interesting activity. In Granada there is an abundance of North-African styled Shawarma eateries. While these places are frequented by all types, it does reflect the high population of North African immigrants in Granada. The shawarma places were open all night catering to those returning home at 6.00am after an all night bar crawl. There were a number of such locations very close to my apartment, and I recall walking out to the bus station one very early morning and the places were full of people eating. In Vitoria, there exists a good number of similar establishments. The greatest immigrant populations in Vitoria are of <strike>North African extraction</strike>. (Edit: it occurred to me later that this statement is probably not true. I believe that the greatest immigrant population in Vitoria are originally from Central America, followed by North Africa)