The Friday after I returned home from Israel, our second class’s module ended with two final exams: one theoretical and one practical. The theoretical exam asked us to discuss themes present throughout our studies of judicial cooperation. The practical exam consisted of two hypothetical questions and was closer to an American law school exam, but still distinctly European. Throughout my studies here, I’ve noticed that instead of “argue a case”, professors say “solve a case”. At first, I thought this was just a strange translation, but, especially after completing the practical exam, I now think it's an intentional word choice reflecting the difference between a civil law system and a common law system. In a civil law system, cases are decided solely around statutory interpretation. This means that answers to cases lie in legislation and you can actually “solve” a case by applying the statute. It’s akin to a mathematical equation, rather than the romantic diatribe of the common law system, where winning a case is dependent on finding the most authoritative and similar case law and then, convincing a judge your legal precedent and interpretation is best. I finally, truly understood this difference as I diligently “solved” the cases on our final, letting my common law head spin as I tried to juggle the various statutes defining the multiple slivers of the hypothetical.
The rest of the weekend passed by slowly, and I spent a lot of time relaxing and enjoying being in one place. It was actually Restaurant Week in Bilbao, so on Monday night, Jess, Jenny, Neal and I decided to try an upscale, traditional Basque restaurant. Before I left for Spain, I was repeatedly told that Basque country has amazing food. But, especially after my time in Israel, I can't quite figure out where this amazing food is. So, I eagerly went to this upscale restaurant in hopes of finding it. Armed with high hopes, and picky only when it comes to meat, I joined my friends for dinner.
I ended up eating pigeon. Yep, that’s right. I ate pigeon – on purpose. The menu – and I’m not sure why I hadn’t learned this lesson yet – was heavy on the ham, with some rabbit, dove and pigeon mixed in. Spaniards love their ham. Oftentimes the only sandwich offerings are (1) ham (2) ham with cheese (3) ham with egg and (4) red meat. I recently read that this cultural love of pig parts is a historical result. When the Spanish monarchy was forcing all Jews and Muslims to convert to Christianity or leave, many who converted were suspected to continue practicing in secret. So, the converts would take to the streets on their former Sabbath day and eat pig in public - hoping to indicate their loyalty to their new religion. And so even today, ham is literally everywhere and in everything. It’s thrown on top of tuna sandwiches, mixed in salads, hanging from walls of restaurants, and available at grocery stores where you can buy an entire pig leg, including the hoof. I don’t like red meat nor pork products, but ham is so omnipresent here that I’ve come to terms with the fact that if I order something, it might come with ham mixed in. And, if that's the case, I’m probably just going to eat it because it’s just too hard to avoid. Once, I tried to tell a waiter at a café I frequent that I don’t like ham. “Que pena!” he declared. “What a shame!” and looked at me as if my lot in life must be rather unfortunate. This love of ham was particularly interesting on my flight from Madrid to Tel Aviv - from a pig guzzling country to a pig abstaining country. They served us a meal on the flight and it in there was a little card with a cartoon pig on it that said "No hay cerdo" - there's no pig.
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| Typical Menu |
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| Pig ads on a truck |
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| Close up - above the little piggy's head it says "meat of the pig with out coloring or preservatives, flavor winner 2010" |
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| A very common market item - leg of pig, including hoof. |
Luckily, I could avoid ham at the fancy basque restaurant. Optimistically and adventurously, I ordered the pigeon, figuring it couldn’t be too far from chicken. Sadly, I was wrong. Very, very wrong. The pigeon was dark, gray colored and gamey. The sauce on top was sweet with port and thick like gravy, which was just all too much – too heavy, too earthy, too sickly sweet. And so, the search for amazing Basque food continues.
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| Jess got adventurous with pheasant |
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| I lost some optimism when my pigeon arrived... |
