Special Update: Nick

Hola everyone! I know I haven’t been keeping up with this at all, but in light of the past few nights, I feel as though a mass explanation would be better than lots of little ones.

Nick started feeling bad very early yesterday morning. He woke up about 3am quite sick. He texted me to let me know that he was going to skip our first class to rest because he’d been up for a few hours that morning sick and hadn’t gotten much sleep. I had to go to the hospital after class, but as soon as I got out, I called him and brought him some Coke (the program director told me that people drink the Coke here rather than Sprite for an upset stomach) and some bread, hoping he’d be able to get and keep some of it down. He stayed in bed the rest of the day and around 8pm, he texted me asking me to contact someone to take him to the hospital. After calling around, our boss came and picked us up around 9:30 and took us to the ER. We waited for a very, very long time, but after a while they called us back. By then, our ISA director got there and our boss left. They took Nick’s temp (103.1! he was a very sick boy) and told us that if we had told them when we arrived that he had a temp that they would have let him back earlier. I guess I’ll file that away for next time…but anyway! They got an IV going and after about 30 minutes, he was already looking way way better. They did some tests and told us he could probably go home once they finished checking out the other patients in front of him. About 3am, they decided they needed to keep him for the night so that they could run a few more precautionary tests. I had to go back the next AM to get my test results, so I went and checked on him. He had gotten sick a few more times that morning right after the doctor had seen him. I had a midterm this afternoon, but after class, I went over and stayed 8ish hours with him.

Just in those 8 hours, he went from doing pretty well to not doing so great during. He’s had some sort of IV in him nonstop since we took him to the ER last night. I’m gathering up some things tonight to take over to him in the morning, so hopefully we will know soon what’s going on with him! Until then, I would ask for your continued thoughts and prayers to go towards him at this time. We know that God’s ways are not always our ways, and we have to trust that this is all God’s plan. Thank you all for your kind messages and support.  Vos amo!

we're finally here!

Well, we made it to San Sebastian! Whoo! I’ve been so excited, that I haven’t gotten around to doing this. So here goes!

The bus ride was quite long. Almost as long as it took to fly from D.C. to Madrid! But it was good. I sat next to Nick while he edited pictures…I fell asleep. It was very cool driving through such a huge part of the country (about 330 miles). Not only did I not get car sick, I didn’t have to drug myself (it would have just been Dramamine, folks) to not get sick! Muy bueno. :)

As soon as we got off the interstate, I immediately got super, super excited. If you had told me last year that I was coming back to this amazing place, I would not have believed you. I was literally bouncing off my seat, probably embarrassing Nick to death. :) We dropped off the Homestay kids at the train stop and then we finally went to the Resedencia! More than anything, I was just so ready to unpack. So I did! It’s been so nice not living out of my suitcase. I kind of miss having a roommate, but it’s still nice to have my own place where I can put things and not worry about packing them up anytime soon. Yay!

Nick and I went over to the Chat Room to say hey, but they were just on their way out. We’ll be working on getting schedules together soon! After we went back up and a tour of the Resedencia, Nick and I led (only got lost a little) to La Vaca for dinner! We went there a bunch last year, so it was very cool being back. It’s basically a hamburger place, which isn’t very Basque…but it was good and cheap, which is always fun! After that, I headed back to the Resedencia for some shut eye. My hotel roomie and I had stayed up late talking, so I needed a good night’s rest.

The next morning, we got up to meet our ISA directors for a guided tour of the city…which would have been really exciting if it HADN’T been in the low 50s and pouring rain. Ha ha :) It wasn’t too bad…although I think I could’ve ruined my lovely Toms. But alas, we walked around downtown and learned a little bit more about the Basque country. We got bus passes and then promptly used them to get home so that we could dry off and warm up! That night we went pintxos hopping! Pintxos are essentially tapas, but in San Sebastian, they are very, very good and San Sebastian is basically known for them. A very common practice in Spain is to go “hopping” around from place to place to get one or two pintxos at a time as your dinner. Here, lunch is the biggest meal of the day, so dinner is very light. Nick, Presten, Marc, and I went to three different ones and then got some gelado! We all know which one was my favorite… :) We decided to make the long trek home, rather than take the bus, and took the long route to go see the wind combs. It was very, very beautiful!

Today was our first day at the university! We got a tour of the campus (very small, about 1,900 students, I believe) and received our schedules.  There are 3 class offerings, and I got a very good schedule that will hopefully leave me lots of time to get back across town afterwards and work at the Chat Room/go to the beach/do homework. I only had one class today, and it’s the smallest one (I think only 10ish of us). My teacher seems very cool…after about 10 minutes, she said she was considering letting us out early (it’s supposed to be an hour and 15 minute class, ha!) and then asked if we were tired. After someone told her we had spent yesterday walking around in the rain, she let us out early! It was great! :) After piddling around this afternoon, Nick and I ate Telepizza (once again, not very Basque, but super yummy) and then I headed back to the Resedencia. Most of the group went to the Kursaal for a concert, however I’m not feeling so great tonight, so I decided to stay in and take it easy.

It’s been a whirlwind of a few days! I’m looking forward to getting into these classes. They seem like they’ll be very interesting. I’m also really looking forward to getting my work schedule for the Chat Room!! :)

Vos amos!