La Primer Fin de Semana

The first weekend spent in San Sebastian. It started off with having absolutely no plans what so ever but turned out to be quite fun... and red...

Friday was a free day as is all Fridays from now on seeing as I don't have classes on Fridays, which is a first and a blessing for me, especially in the fields of travel and what not. I wasn't obligated to do mch of anything but I did make an appointment with the computer department here to configure my computer to work with the internet at the school. That wasn't until 2 though. So I slept in, spent the morning on a long run around the city where I met a group half way through my run that asked me to join them. Unfortunately they ran faster then me and I was only able to keep up with them for about half a mile or so, had I just started as they had I would've been fine, but I was slowly growing more and more tired having already ran 3 miles, then doing another half at a faster pace. It was fine while it lasted and they joked and laughed with me in Spanish, asking me questions about America and what not. It was an interesting interaction and before I left they told me what time they run and I was welcome to join them. Will have to take them up on that offer once more later on this week. After my run it was nothing too exciting. Just the usual things we start our days with, food, shower, and some homework. I was trying to get all my massive amounts of homework done before the weekend truly started so I could spend it having fun instead of being stuck in my house doing homework. And I managed a very large portion of it before eating lunch and heading out to the school where I met up with a few friends, Gloria, Robin, and Erica and we made plans to go out that night. We started off at the Cathedral a very central point and meeting place and the girls and I went out to eat. I'd already eaten dinner at my host families house but went out all the same. They ate, I had a beer and we chatted. Just as dinner was finishing another USAC homestay student, Jessica, passed by our table and we wound up walking with her to some other students' apartment nearby. We sat around there for a while talking and waiting for them to get ready before we headed out once more searching for a free night club we'd heard about on the radio. And on our way we were seperated by the rain. Wet, and cold, Gloria, Robin, Erica and I, walked into the nearest bar/cafe we could find to try and wait out the storm. By this time it'd already been around midnight and we sat around chatting some more before we decided to hit the hay around 2 am as the bar was closing, putting a closer to my first week night in San Sebastian.

Saturday proved relatively slow. Waking up and finishing some homework, then lunch with the host family and their 40 year old daughter. The only word to describe the lunch was... odd. Or just not what I thought it was going to be. We won't get into the boring details but just know it was nothing exciting. Afterwards Gloria called me asking if I wanted to go shoe shopping and I couldn't resist shopping in Europe so we spent much of the evening dodging in and out of shoe and clothing stores and I decided it is very difficult to find my size foot over here. The shop keepers said it was a very common size and they had run out fast with all the sales that had been going on in honor of the festivities that weekend. It appeared that there was some sort of cider fest going on that Saturday... an excuse for tourists to get drunk in the middle of the day. Cider here is alcoholic, sour tasting, and not like the sweet apple cider we American's are so used to. But Gloria and I avoided that festival, Gloria doesn't drink, and I just don't like the cider here and didn't see a point going to a festival in honor of a drink I don't like. After shopping we split to go home around 8 to eat, thinking that was usually the time my family ate. While no one was home and I'd promised to meet back up with the other three again that night to go searching for a Latin American dance club to learn to salsa, I ate alone. After about two hours or so the girls called and we hit the streets in search of the club. We found it but agreed that no one wanted to pay 9 euros to get in ($14) so we headed up to a part of town called Parte Vieja or the "New Part" where we'd been told all the night life existed. We walked around from bar to bar not staying too long in one place and just checking out the options until we spotted an ice cream store that was still open at 1am. And of course we got ice cream!!! For just under 2 euros I got a HEAPING gob of ice cream... and it was delicious, especially at 1am. After ice cream we once again parted with plans of seeing the big local boat race the next day.

Waking up early on a Sunday morning after spending two late nights out was difficult to say the least but we did and we spent the WHOLE day at the beach. First watching the locals rowing race, then a picnic on the beach, and then just tanning. This is why I say the weekend was red... I won't, but if I did take a picture of myself you'd understand... I might just make my goal of looking like a Mexican (Gloria!!) before I leave here!!

And now it's Monday. Classes have ended for me but I'm doing the routine checking of emails, facebooking, chatting on IM's all that I can before I head home for dinner and homework. This week will be a hectic one, and time is already starting to fly by so quickly... so like the rain here I as well as these posts will come with little to no notice, look forward to it!!