Some time ago some of the nuns in the order decided that they should be a little open to the world instead of being completely closed off from it. This caused a split in the ranks and those that wanted some openness went one way while the others went another. The convent we visited is now one of the 'little bit open' ones. They have the internet and TV for 'certain things' but unfortunately I didn't find out what these 'certain things' are. Nerea gave Miren's sister her phone to see photos of her nephews and she knew how to use it, no question, therefore I guess they have mobile phones, too.Well, at least one, there are only 16 nuns in this convent so it's possible that they have one phone for all of them.
Where we were sitting used to have a double mesh grill between outsiders and the nuns and when Miren's sister first went there her visitors could only fit 2 fingers through the mesh to touch her. Now, as seen in the photos, that mesh is no longer there and there was kissing and hugging from all of them however there was definitely 'their space' and 'visitors space', and no crossing over between the two. Before we left the convent Miren's sister opened the door into the convent, we'd been in the visitors part, and we went in as far as just around the corner into the main corridor where there were statues, icons and candles and also one of the mesh barriers was hanging on the wall. It was a pretty substantial piece of construction of black metal. I certainly felt very privileged to be inside and able to see it and get an idea of how visitors were received before.
The nuns spend between 5 - 7 hours a day praying, they grow vegetables and fruit and are book-menders. Miren, Narea and myself left the convent with a bag each of kiwi fruit and apples grown there and jam made from their fruit.
And that's it about that day, I just thought I'd share this bit of information. They told me that I could ask them questions about anything but I didn't get much of a chance because a lot of the time they were talking with Miren and Narea.
On the 19th/20th January it was San Sebastion Day which is celebrated in San Sebastian, of course and in one other town - Azpeitia. It is celebrated with a Tamborrada which was a very interesting event which started at 10pm on the 19th and finished at mid-day on the 20th and basically consisted of a lot of people drumming as they walked around the streets and gathered outside the church close to my apartment and then in the town square where the Civic Band joined them. Miren's friend, Narea, plays the clarinet in the Civic Band so she was there, too, and also her sister, Maite, is a drummer, and she was in the last group. We saw each other, her drumming and me standing on the side of the street watching, which was really nice for me and a surprise for her. It was really cold and at around 12.30am I finally left the town square because I was freezing, my feet were so cold they'd gone numb.
There were about 25 groups of between 50 - 70 people in each group and each group has it's own costume which everyone in the group wears. As well as the drummers, each group is led by a young woman carrying the group's banner and behind her are 2 more young women kind of marching/prancing on either side and a little behind, and the group of drummers come behind them. First, at night, the adults were drumming and then at 10am the next day children up to 9 years old took over. I didn't see the children because it was a very wet and miserable day and I figured that my time of obligatory watching children perform has long gone so I stayed in out of the weather.
What impressed me was that all the drummers in all the groups kept time with each other, and all the groups, wherever they were, and everyone looked happy and enjoying themselves. Lots of people were out watching even though it was damned cold.
For the local people there's lots of feasting and drinking Here's some photos of that night so there's more to this celebration than walking around the streets drumming. I was told that they practice for months and months before so feasting and drinking is a just reward for some hard work.
Here's some photos of some of what I saw.
Oh, I almost forgot - the bull running! Azpeitia is very staunchly into 'bulls' which means that there is very little opposition to both bull running and bull fighting, and lots of opportunities for people, both children and adults to take part. I'm not sure about how much bull fighting is done here but bull running has happened about 4 or 5 times since I've been here. The first indication to me that there is going to be bull running is that the barriers go up, along the bull running route, during the week.
As well as the barriers going along the streets they also board up shop windows. Sorry, I don't have a photo of boarded up shop windows but these guys are putting up the posts that the wooden barriers slot into.
I was standing on the side of the street, remember these streets are very narrow, wondering why all the people were gathering when, suddenly, people began moving in all directions and then THERE WAS THE FRIGGING BULL, right in front of me, maybe a close as from our front door, in Aroha Avenue, to the road, maybe 4 - 5 meters. I dived for an open doorway and a guy grabbed me and shoved me inside. Where I was standing there were no barriers and there were a lot of people standing there so I had no reason to suspect that a freaking big bull would suddenly appear. And, No, I didn't understand what people were saying because I don't understand Basque! This was a fully grown bull, not a calf like we saw when we first got here, so its horns were enormous - so no photos of the bull!
After that I went and had a beer and then went home until it was time to go out to see the Tamborrada.
Not much else happened over the next couple of weeks. I'm still waiting for my NIE which is the card showing that I have official approval to be here until whatever they decide to put as the end date, sometime after May 31st when my job finishes. I got yet another letter from the government saying that I had to go to the police station in San Sebastian with yet more papers, or rather, more copies of what they already have plus a couple more. It was written in Spanish and I could understand the words but I couldn't make sense of it. One the one hand it seemed to be saying that I would be issued with my NIE but on the other hand I had to go back with more papers. One of the teachers phoned and it turned out that that my application for the renewal of my last year's NIE has been approved and that I then had to go in and apply for the actual card to be issued - same building, different door. I was also told that it would be 40 days before I could go in and pick it up. I couldn't believe it and neither could anyone else but there was nothing to be done although Maitere suggested phoning after a while to see if it had been done quicker.
My kiwi friend, Bri, came to stay the first weekend in February, she came on Saturday and went back to her town, Eibar where she is now living, on Sunday afternoon. We didn't do a lot - walk about and then chill out at home on Saturday and Saturday night. On Sunday we got on a bus which took us to a town called Zumarraga. We went there because neither of us had been there and that's where the bus went. Not a lot to say about our visit to Zumarraga really - we went there, had something to eat and then got the next bus back to Azpeitia. The bus trip, which is about 35 minutes, wound through a narrow gorge for most of the way and it was quite interesting to see more of the local countryside however at some point we realised that neither of us had any idea of how big a town Zumarraga is nor where to get off the bus. After going past the first stop in a town that we figured was probably it we got off at the next stop and then had quite a walk to try to find the town center. We didn't actually find this but came to a bar so decided that we'd have some food and then find the bus stop to get us back to Azpeitia rather than walk around a very, very quiet town not knowing where we were going. Fortunately, we found the bus stop ok and a bus came along soon after so back to Azpeitia we went.
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