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!