Weekly observations

We sat on a bench having lunch by the beach when Sean spilled salsa all over himself while prepping his bocadillo. I laughed but the French guy next to us offered us some tissue. It was one of those random acts of kindness that makes me love people and I hope I would be thoughtful enough if rolls were reversed.

A tiny, blond girl, who couldn't have been more than 12 years old ripping, shredding, killing it, or whatever you want to call it in the water... She was one of the best surfers out there, also the smallest. I almost felt like a proud parent, and wanted to jump up and start cheering her on.

Weird, or cute? The parents here dress all their adorable little children in matching outfits. At first I thought, "oh, cute, all those kids are dressed in the same outfits", like something out of The Sound of Music. But then I started noticing that ALL parents do this, all the time. And all ages of kids from 0-13 years old, boy or girl, they have the same exact matching outfits on. Is this to make sure you can always identify them in a crowd? So you know who they belong to? I personally think it would create identity issues. Especially when I see a 10-year old boy wearing the same outfit as his 5-year old sister. Seriously, I think unless you are taking a family portrait, let your kids wear what they want. On a side note, all the kids are dressed immaculately here too. Their little Mary Janes and neat little hair bows always match their pretty little dresses. It's very cute and sweet, but what happens when they want to roll around in the grass or something?

Since moving to the the lovely beaches of Spain, we have seen our fair share of topless women. It's almost becoming normal to us, but frolicking on the beach naked really isn't cute after the age of 3. We have now seen a couple men hanging out on the beach completely naked, on different occasions. This doesn't even raise eyebrows here, except for the tourists, who gape and take photos. Although we try to act normal and mature about this, Sean usually turns away as I stare and giggle.

Although San Sebastian is considered a city of Spain, the people who actually live here believe it to to be separate. Being in The Basque Region, the locals even speak a different language, called "Euskara" or "Basque", which sounds completely different than Spanish. Everyone who speaks Basque, usually also speak Spanish, but all road signs, street signs, restaurant or bar signs, etc. are in Basque. Reading it is even more strange than hearing it because the pronunciation of certain letters is totally different - for example a "tx" makes a "ch" sound. It's very confusing. I have even found myself watching cartoons or something on TV, and Sean will walk in and say, "Do you understand this, because they are speaking Basque." The locals are trying to preserve their Basque traditions and cultures. We even read a sign that said, "You are in the Basque country, this is neither Spain or France."

Last one, mullets are back and in full force here. No joke either, everyone has one - guys, girls, kids, parents, elderly - long ones, short ones, dreadlock ones, little rat-tail ones, blond ones, brown ones, dyed funky color ones, you name it, they got it. People wear them proudly. Sean and I are the only ones who chuckle at this about a hundred times a day. "Business in the front, party in the back"...it's really not a good look for anyone.