Spanish city

Iberian Ham is a specialty of my current country.  It functions along the same line as Fruit Cake where relatives send them to each other over the holidays when they have no better ideas.  There are many differences between the two gifts, for one, Iberian Ham is food.  But it is unlike any edible I have ever seen before.  First of all I don't know how anyone affords to send the damn thing every year.  It appears to be the rear leg and hip of the most physcially fit pigs in history.  It would be like sending a small child across the country via fedex, or at least it would be if every one of your distant family members sent you a child every year.  Apparently for Christmas last year my host family recieved ten of these ham legs.  When I arrived in September they had given away nine to local friends and still had a quarter of a leg left.  I know how much they had left because of how the meat is stored.  Storing the leg in a fridge would be as impractical as storing your small children there.  Sure you could, but it is much easier to just mount it on a spike and leave it on the counter (The ham, not your small children).  This is because the meat is so salty it does not need to be kept cold, instead it is kept out on the counter and covered with a cloth, everyone knows that when bacteria encounter a cotton blanket they just shrug their shoulders and turn around.

Since the ham is a speciality it is sold just about everywhere, from supermarkets to bars there are many, many, pig legs hanging from the ceiling.  Many bars also have smaller sandwhiches made with the meat that are available to anyone dining on topas, which happen to be another great Spanish concept.  Topas are small platters covered with food that line the counter of every bar I have seen in San Sebastian.  During dinner time or after work people will go from place to place eating a little bit at every location and having a couple drinks.  Beers are extremely popular here but I think they would be very expensive.  I do not know for sure because Rotary rules forbid me from drinking but I'm basing this guess on what every other drink costs here.  If you order coke at a bar or restaurant it will be about half the size of an American one (355mL compared to 220mL) and more than twice the price.  Well that's not a huge deal, I mean coke has to be imported so it makes sense it would be more expensive, you could always just stick with water, that can't be too hard to get so it would make sense that it would be cheaper, right?   Wrong.  If you do order water be prepared to pay one hundred million billion times more than what you would pay in an American restaurant.  The difference here is that restaurants serve a bottle, of variying quantity, with a glass for a price of about €2, this is being compared to in the U.S where it is approximately, and I'll be general here, free.  Even in Las Vegas, the middle of the desert, water is free, I'm pretty sure because H2O happens to be necessary to life itself (H2O the liquid, not the show, I'm pretty sure that the show actually reduces life expectancy by inundating the brain with stupidness and shutting down mental capacity).  Never the less Spain charges for its drinks, and it's not like there is a shortage, it rained 28 of the thirty days in November.  In any case the high drink prices actually make a large number of people eat their meals without any form of liquid, something I'm having trouble adjusting to.

Well they usually don't drink water is what I should say.  Water and soda they seem to be pretty shy about, and fruit drinks, yeah fruit drinks.  They tend to avoid almost any liquid when eating out, well except for one.   I think it would be correct to say that the beverage of choice in this city could be properly described as: Anything that contains alcohol.  My host family does not follow these guide lines but on the whole I would say that anything a Spainyard is doing, from relaxing after work, to taking their child out for a walk, they will almost always have some booze.  But, if by some freak of nature they are not drinking, they will be smoking.  Again my family is the exception but if any stranger asks another for a light or a cigarette they will usually be met with success.  Now I'm not going to argue that smoking is not extremely dangerous, but before you judge these people think of the number of obese and overweight people in the United States.  Many people have vices, and it is not for me to judge someone for a life style choice that they might regret and wish they could change.  Let that deepness sink in for a moment.  Okay you can continue.  The smoke gets annoying in restaurants and bars because it is not banned in public places but after a while I've gotten used to the smell.  All in all I'm enjoying my life in the city and I think that after a few months living here I've adjusted fairly well.  I could see myself living in NYC or Toronto or Philidalphia after this year, although I might miss the sight of Iberian ham.