It was probably not the best idea ever to bring an 8-year-old American child on a European walking holiday. We manage 10-12 km a day but then she gets tired and wants to go home.

On the positive side, San Sebastián is peppered with playgrounds. There’s a playground every couple of blocks.

Also, we saw a Palestinian flag on a Catholic church, which is one of the most ludicrous things I have seen on this trip. What else can possibly be in the running? you’ll ask. Well, today the waves are big and the tide has started to come in. Everybody who wants to swim and not surf is relegated by the lifeguards to the smallest stretch of the beach next to enormous green boulders. An older gentleman planted himself in that spot, stripped naked and strutted around. Every once in a while, he’d wrap himself in a towel, then strip off again, and so on. A resigned elderly wife picked up the towel whenever the old dude dropped it.

These aren’t homeless people. These are very well-groomed, well-heeled tourists. Their eccentricity isn’t completely out of place but one doesn’t necessarily want that around one’s child.

NPR's Ira Glass got a pit and it constantly bit CHILDREN, him & wife & more ppl. So they gave it prozac and exotic meats to "cure" it and it STILL had to be muzzled 24/7. They stopped having guests over. He says the dog is the victim.

Encapsulates an unfortunate liberal mindset https://t.co/tYGZvWgIB6 pic.twitter.com/UDLryvxoAd

— Simon Sarris (@simonsarris) June 22, 2024

There is no better description of the type of people who put up Palestinian flags all over Spain. They believe that condescending to something scary will make it less dangerous. Because it’s all about words. It’s all about positioning. You can conjure reality with rituals.

N was doing so great with his Duolingo that I felt it would be great also to have something to do during breaks. Of course, I could choose any of the languages on offer but I already learned German back in college, and I remember a lot.

Based on the last names of my Jewish ancestors, they trudged through what today is Germany after the expulsion from Spain. As a result, I feel some affinity for the country and the culture. Learning a language with no particular goal is enjoyable, relaxing and fun. I highly recommend.

Trump: If you graduate from a college you should get automatically as part of your diploma a Green card to be able to stay in the United States

— NewsWire (@NewsWire_US) June 20, 2024

The situation at my university’s grad school is this. State funding has collapsed. Inflation has eaten into whatever is left. Nobody gets hired to substitute people who retire or leave. Equipment that breaks down isn’t fixed. We can no longer offer teaching assistantships. Classrooms are crammed full. Course offerings are pared down to the bare minimum.

As a result of all this, grad school applications from domestic students drop off a cliff. To make up admission numbers – and it’s all about numbers, of course – we start admitting foreign applicants whose English is at the level of my German and other qualifications are non-existent. The reason they apply is because they want to immigrate.

This is a convenient scam. Turn graduate programs in schools like mine into transportation hubs for humans and create yet another bypass for the immigration system.

Typical San Sebastián, a pricey restaurant with a line of washing over the entrance:

The waitress is from Ukraine and has worked at this restaurant for 16 years. She’s from the Carpathians, so her Ukrainian is somewhat different from mine but it was still great to chat for a bit.

The Basques are the only Spaniards who can show restraint while cooking. We had the neck of hake that comes with a few tiny potatoes, a bit of garlic and olive oil, and a few hot peppers for flavor. Nothing else, and it’s delightful. I’ll try to remember to take a picture next time but believe me, it’s excellent.

San Sebastián is plastered with Palestinian flags and “save Palestine” slogans. I kind of started to feel bad for Palestinians after observing this for a day and a half. Mannequins in fancy clothing stores are decked in Palestinian flags. Palestine-themed beach towels and grocery totes are on sale. We went into a candy store and at the cash register there were chocolate gift sets in the form of the Palestinian flag and the words “free Palestine” made out of candies. Clearly, nobody takes the idea that there’s a genocide in Palestine seriously, or they wouldn’t make such a mockery of it.

With the help of the very kind and generous Spanish people, the phone was restored to me.

Which is just as well because this is a working trip and I need access to my stuff.

It’s not hard to have a great view in San Sebastian. One would have to try their darndest to avoid having a view. The whole place is one gigantic panorama of views.

The building between me and the view is a school, proving that making schools as ugly as possible is a truly global phenomenon.

Here in Spain, what I miss most bitterly from back home in America isn’t even being in a shower larger than a shoebox or having people not react to a child like a harbinger of plague.

What I miss is radishes. Nobody seems to be aware of the existence of radishes. Six days sans radishes, and I’m in deep withdrawal.

Only in the Basque country does a clothing store mask as a bookstore and offer free books to lure customers.

In other news, the apartment we are renting has a washer but no drier and we had to dust off old memories of clotheslines and the thingies you use to attach clothes to them. It’s mega cute.