Muchos fotos!! (San Sebastian)

Jamil chilling on the left, Erica in the middle and me on the right. Erica made a comment that we look like super heroes... I thought that was funny.

All four of us at the top, Jamil, Gloria, me and Erica.
Gloria copied my idea!
Just me goofing off at the edge of the castle.
Wouldn´t this make a pretty picture, that is also at one of the edges of the castle that we climbed forever to get to.
There´s nothing behind her, but I was standing over a big gigantic hole to take this shot. Too bad she didn´t smile before I lost my balance and had to jump off. LoL.

the basque flag.
Erica and I enjoying the very narrow, and many more steps to the top.
I tried to get a shot of me with Jesus here but I couldn´t smile because the sun was in my face. :)
The sign once you reach the top.
The church inside the old fort/castle.

The cannon out front. We weren´t aloud to climb on it, I tried and got yelled at. :)
We were aloud to try on the hats inside though.
I think she looks cute don´t you?
Jamil doesn´t like to smile for pictures.
She wouldn´t put it on, everyone else did but Gloria was being super stubborn so I told her to just hold the thing then.

You wouldn´t know it but she´s standing on one of the leges of the castle. Nice background though huh.
This is the ocean that seperates us all right now... just thought you should know.
My feet... and the remenents of something they used in battle forgot what they called it though.
group shot about half way up the mountain.
Gloria did not like the narrow steps.

View from the top San Sebastian part 1
2
3
4
erica and I taking a rest after all those stairs.

Jamil and Gloria at church, this is when I decided to try catcholic mass.
Jamil and Gloria at the beginning of our journey. gloria still hadn´t finished her ice cream and was having a hard time climbing and eating at the same time.
The signs pointing us in the right/wrong way.
the steps of doom. Our discovered short cut.

The church near my new apartment.
Erica and I at the film festival.
The inside of the Buen Pastor church.
The HUGE organ in the church.
I thought the colors were pretty.

Surfing class. I´m of course the only girl next to me is Tom (my roomate), next to him is Markus (from Swedan), and Will.
This was Toms idea.
Picture of the sunset on the beach after lessons... so pretty.
The big lollipop sign that was the symbol for this years film festival.
This is the building where the awards ceramony took place.

Vieje Grande

Este fin de semana incluye una gran vieja de dos ciudades diferentes. Or in English, this weekend included a huge trip to two different cities. When I finished last weeks blog I had said there were plans for adventures of enormous proportions but who would´ve ever thought they could´ve turned out to be so big...

Once the tests were over and done with a sense of relief and fear filled me. Relief that both were over but fear that because of having had two back to back tests I´d not studied enough to make the grades I desired. There is truth to the saying, you can´t always get what you want, as I have well learned many a times. This time was no different, I wanted more time to study, but the amount of time in a day didn´t allow for it. Friday came round and almost all of the USAC students studying in San Sebastian laoded onto a bus and headed off to the city of Bilbao for the day. It was raining... pouring would even be an understatement of the weather we experienced, but we made the trek to the Bizcaou (I´m sure my spelling is horrinle) province where we witnessed a very important building and an enormous oak tree with an even bigger history. The Spanish aren´t keen to talk about this since it´s a wound not yet healed but we did learn that during the time of World War 2 when Franco was dictator the basques (the people living in the basque country, where I currently reside, Bilbao being one of the bigger cities of course) were a hated people. Franco wanted uniformity, he also wanted to demolish everything that stood in his way which was the principles, and everything that the basque people stood for. Thus there was a very important date in history of which I have forgotten in which Franco decided to receive aid from Germany in order to comit a genicide of different proportions. Franco bombed the city we were visiting that morning killing thousands of basque people but the tree which was the symbol of these people, the one thing he had set out to destroy was the one thing he missed. This oak tree was where in historical times the rulers of the different provinces of Spain would come to swear their allegiance to the basque country before becoming ruler. That´s a short version of the history to say the least. So we got to see this symbol of hope (or what was left of it anyways) and the many other oak trees that had grown to replace the old oak.

After our oak exhibition we moved on to the city of Bilbao and ate lunch at this adorable place called the Iruña cafe. Which is funny because Iruña is a city in France, but anyways, we ate lunch and then it was off to the Guggenheim Museum for the afternoon. The most exciting part of the Guggenheim is what you can see from the outside in complete honesty, but I did not pay for this trip so I can not complain. We were not allowed to take photographs inside the museum but I was able to swipe a few anyways, I´m not one for rules in museums as we well know. The Guggenheim ended our day long trip and a good majority of our Friday as the rest was spent on buses. We arrived back in around 7 in the evening in which I made a quick dinner, packed and then went to Gloria´s where we waited until the time finally arrived for us to catch the midnight bus to BARCELONA!!!

Saturday morning we arrived in Barcelona bus lagged but excited none the less. We bought two day special metro passes and made our way to the hostel I´d booked at the edge of town in seemingly the middle of no where... oh well what do you expect for 12 euros. The place was very pretty though (scenery wise) and very clean, and the staff was extremely nice and helpful and when asked actually spoke to me in Spanish. (The one´s in Madrid just spoke English) So I got to practice more Spanish, just what I needed. After dropping off our stuff we headed out to get some food. Luckily one of the three other girls I´d traveled with had gone to Barcelona once before and remembered this awsome little (not little) farmers market fresh everything market in the middle of town near all the shopping. And this is where we ate breakfast. We grabbed some fresh fruits, stared at the wonderous foods surrounding us, and took our fruits over to the Dunkin Coffee next door to have a café and some breakfast. (Dunkin Coffee is a Spanish version of Dunkin Donuts in case you were wondering.) It was here I tried several new fruits for the first time. Papaya, fig, and something called Aragon. All were delicious but my favorite was the Aragon. It tasted like a cross between a strawberry and a kiwi. After food the afternoon was spent sight seeing and shopping for souveniers and what not. I bought several presents for several different people who will just have to wait and see what they got. And we all purchased T-shirts for the event that was to take place that night and the sole reason we´d gone to Barcelona in the first place. After wearing ourselves out looking at pretty cathedrals, and famous buildings, and every sort of souvenier known to man we went back to the hostel to take a much needed nap before dinner.

Around 6 in the evening we woke up and started getting ready for the night life. We took the metro from the hostel to a very nice part of town where lots of action was to take place. We ate dinner at an authentic chinese retaurant because earlier that day we´d seen some people eating chinese food and all began to crave it. I ate Chinese meat buns and a sort of stir fry and we all shared pretty much everything so I also ate a little bit of curry, chicken, sweat and sour chicken, wonton soup, and much more. Needless to say we were all stuffed! And after dinner it was GAME TIME!! We´d bought tickets to what had been hailed for weeks as the game of the year FC Barcelona versus Madrid Atletico. Two of the best teams in the league and not only did we buy tickets we bought great seats and a memory that will last for a life time. Even now as I sit here typing this I can´t help but smile and hum the tunes to the many cheers that I learned that night. What was hailed to be the game of the year two of the best teams in the league pitted against one another in a winner takes all battle to the finish did not disappoint. Of course we were routing for the home team with our Red and Blue shirts and me singing and dancing along with the guys seated next to me who (on a side note) actually thought I was from Spain. So we sang, we cheered, we yelled, we jumped and had an awsome time as Barcelona scored one goal after the other. There were times that the score told us there wasn´t even a team on the other side of the field but anyone who´d been there could tell that Atletico was putting up a brilliant fight Barcelona just laid out all the skills. The final score was 6-1 Atletico having had several more shots on goal then Barcelona but FC´s goal keeper was an amazing flexible little man that let almost nothing by. And the refs were amazing... yes amazing. It was almost a no holds bar until someone pulled a move very similar to the Kish of death on one of atletico´s players. The man was flattened and bleeding and removed from the game and a yellow card was pulled. But no one could dispute it all we could do was cringe and think about how the other player was going to be feeling that in the morning. The crowd was amazing, the seats were amazing (especially for their price) and the whole night in general was just simply amazing. And after the game we hung around the stadium and watched a band of sorts and danced with the crowd in celebration of the amazing win that had just taken place before turning in for the night back at the hostel.

The next day was a slow ease back into regular life as nothing can live up to such excitement that we´d experienced at the game. We woke up, checked out of the hostel, went and changed our bus tickets to an earlier time (long story short the game was supposed to be Sunday night not Saturday so we´d planned for that and had lots of extra time in Barcelona) Locked away all our stuff in the airport/train station and headed out to see the things we´d missed the day before. Our first sight consisted of a very famous church called Sangrada Familia. Known for it´s association with the knights templar as I had been urged by my art teacher here to go see it. Unfortunately it´s not as beautiful as it once was with the ongoing construction and restoration but amazing to see none the less. Afterwards we went to go to the Picasso Museum as it was free that day but once we saw the line we skipped out and headed to grab lunch at a Place called Pleasure. Strange name but really good food. We split this towering thing of nachos between the four of us and then I had a salad on the side. With real dressing for once. The spaniards love their greens but as much as they love their greens they love to drench them in olive oil and sea salt or just salt as their dressing. Delicious to begin with but after a while you just start to crave some ranch or italian. The dressing on mine was a lemon vinagerette not great but better then olive oil. After lunch there wasn´t much time left as we were scheduled to leave at 3 in the afternoon so we eased our way casually back to the bus station to get on the bus and head back to San Sebastian ending a grand weekend. And Monday started with full swing, my tired body lagging from the weekends expositions. It was just another manic Monday as I received my test scores from the previous week only to find the grade I´d expected but didn´t allow that to disappoint as news of a job caught my attention. And as of tonight I will be teaching an eight year old boy english and getting paid ten euros an hour to do so. For now it´s only one night a week and two to three hours that night but it can change and I´m very excited to begin the tutoring as I´d enjoyed it last semester and just know I will thoroughly enjoy it this semester.

On a side topic, the other day as I was riding my bike back to the apartment I ran into my old host family¨"mom" on the street. She´d called out my name and I´d stopped as per instinct dragging myself into one of the most awkward moments of my life. Why she´d called out and still wanted anything to do with me was beyond me, but the look on her face was not that of anger, or happiness or any emotions I can place at this point in time. It was almost a sad and lonely look as she mentioned that she was glad I was doing better and sorry things didn´t work out... and of course being the person I am, it hit me. Guilt. I´d actually felt guilty. No I´ve done nothing wrong, and things didn´t work out health wise and the apartment has been the greatest move ever but why then, why is there a sudden sinking feeling of guilt that welled for that short moment in the pit of my stomach... an answer unknown. But shaking it off and moving on with life I focused my attention on school and more important matters like taking care of my sick roomate and getting ready for my tutoring tonight. I´ve already planned out a game with these ery inexpensive lollipops that I bought for myself as a test distraction for the whole bad test taker/anxiety thing. Here they´re called chupachups, and kids love their sweets so it should be an overall fun night.

Plans for the weekend are scarce as they usually are a last minute detail, but I doubt anything we do could live up to the excitement and utter ecstacy of this past weekend. But we shall see because we never know what the tides on the beach of concha will bring us, the future is as well, unknown...

La Loca Loca ^_^

One whole month has already passed and I still have that nostalgic feeling like I just arrived and it's still hard sometimes to believe that I'm actually here... all I can say to that is WOW, just WOW!

Classes have been crazy. Especially since one of my extra one credit courses just began on Wednesday. It's called Elvis to rap, a music history course which I can hopefully pass off as a music credit when I get back to MUC, but even if I can't I still get Spanish credits for it, though I’m not sure whether or not I will stick with it as I see the hour as time I could be using for more useful studying... Along with the other 17 credits I'm taking out of 18 possible it makes for a busy week Monday through Thursday. (No classes Friday of course!) It's tough work sometimes especially when you throw in the random surfing lessons. But tough doesn't necessarily mean horrible, nope, it's a good busy, as it never get's boring.

As for new and exciting adventures, those are in abundance this week it would appear. We'll start with last weekend's charades...

Friday evening was quite interesting night to say the least. After dinner I headed over to Gloria's house and mentioned that there was an awards ceremony going on that evening for the film festival that has been going on this past week and will continue on until its last day on Saturday September 27. So we decided to go take a look. Apparently we didn't get the memo that the custom was to line up real early and wait seeing as there were going to be some big names. But even without that memo we were still able to see Woody Allen, Meryl Streep and even Antonio Banderas as they walked down the pink carpet like thing to the ceremony. I was in utter shock that it took me a moment before I decided to whip out my camera and try to take a picture as he waved at us. Unfortunately just as I was to snap the picture this crazed fan girl jumped on my foot causing me to blur the picture forever missing any chance I'd had at a photo of someone famous... and it was Antonio Banderas of all people as well... que triste! (So sad!) That had been the major event of the night as the rest was spent clubbing, a usual weekend activity, and I watched as several American pals got themselves drunk beyond words, which came with several consequences as you can well imagine.

Saturday I spent the day traversing the city in search of some shopping. Alas it was a day of window shopping as nothing was found. The night was spent inside watching a movie with friends. Nothing to exciting but not every day of the week can be of excitement.

Sunday has been and will always be a day of homework. The day was spent doing homework and preparing for the beginning of the next week. And from there things sped off at high speeds. After having complained once more to USAC about the family situation, long story short for those who don’t know things didn’t work out as had been expected and it wasn’t worth the large sum of money I’d paid to put it nicely, so I was told I’d be aloud to move out and that they wanted me out by the end of the week. And so began my search for a new place to stay. My first plan had been to stay with Gloria as she’d had a room that was actually meant for two people. That didn’t work out so the next option was to move in with Gloria’s intercambio who lived right across the street and had said she’d be willing to rent her extra room out to me. Confusion with USAC (if that’s what we can call it) shut that option down rather quickly. But all hope was not lost as there were two guys who’d been waiting for a Spanish roommate to move in, but it had turned out that after several times of trying to contact the guy he’d not even registered at the University thus he was most likely not going to show up. So they, having a co-ed dorm, said they were willing to share the apartment with me. I’d had mixed feelings about the move in the beginning and even still have mixed feelings. Living with guys is much different and even having two younger brothers can not prepare one for such an experience. They’re both really nice guys, Tom and Matt, and they were very welcoming when they’d found out I was going to be their new roommate. Tom had asked if I cooked and I said yea, I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone so excited to hear those words. So it had been decided that I would rent out the room in their place and be living in a very nice part of the town near the surfing beach.

On top of that Monday had just been a relatively over all good day. Tuesday (September 23) was nothing out of the usual, had the second to last surfing lesson with my favorite instructor Arix. And I’m proud to say I actually made it up on the board and surfed a wave... that was of course until the wave broke on my back throwing me forwards to enjoy a salt water special, yummy! But Arix couldn’t have been happier that I’d made it up. The second time around I went to get up on the board and slipped pulling a muscle causing a severe pain in my ankle area. Or so I thought, the next day it turned out just to be a really bad charley horse and the shock of the pain ended that lesson. But Arix was all smiles afterwards and gave me a hug and a high five as he helped me limp off the beach telling me that I’d done good and to remember that for the next lesson.

The next lesson was supposed to be Wednesday evening, Tom (my roommate and surfing classmate) and I both had the Elvis to Rap class and the lesson was to begin 20 minutes afterwards. Needless to say it was a tight squeeze but if we caught the right bus we’d be able to make it just in time. Well as we were walking out of the building after class (speed walking mind you) we watched in horror as the bus we needed was just leaving the stop and the next one wasn’t to arrive for another 30 minutes. Needless to say we didn’t make it to surfing lessons that night, but Tom had called Arix to let him know and Arix told him he’d let us know when the last lesson was to be.

Surprise! The lesson was to be the next evening! When Cecelia from the USAC office called to tell me this I was like OH... and assured her that I would be in attendance that evening. And so I was. I made it up on the board two more times before losing all strength in my upper body and body surfed the rest of the evening. As we all said our goodbyes we were told not to give up on surfing and to stop by Arix surf shop later and he’d help us to get the stuff we needed to continue. Surfing is such an amazing feeling, it’s like fighting with the forces of nature and sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but all those times you have fun. And thus I’d hate to give it up, but to rent a board is an hourly fee and an expensive one at that, and I need to purchase a wet suit as well. It could be a costly venture, but one that may be well worth it once I get to Mexico and finally go pro in order to raise some extra money in order to pay for college, until of course I leave ending my short career as a pro surfer... sad... Just kidding. I need to be able to make it up on the board every time before I start thinking about going pro anytime soon... but alas surfing in Ohio does not exist and I fear I will forever lose this new found ability after this year...

So anyways, after surfing lessons Thursday (September 24) evening I received a call from Gloria telling me to come over to Erica’s apartment for dinner. Erica had made this amazing veggie stew that she called rat-ta-stewy, cute I know, I guess she got it from Rachel Ray or something. So Thursday night was spent at Erica’s eating the yummy stewy and for desert nutella and cookie cracker things, let me just say YUMMY!! Afterwards we watched Pride and Prejudice which has now become one of my new favorite romance movies of all time and I vow to purchase it and watch it as many times as Erica has. That number is almost 20 for those wondering. And that ended Thursday officially beginning the weekend.

Friday (September 25) we’d made plans for lunch at Gloria’s and I was to cook dinner that evening, my first meal at my new place, first time cooking for just myself, first time grocery shopping for myself, and first time having my own place. This apartment has oddly enough given me a sense of accomplishment and sense of independence. I mean I’ve always been relatively independent having held a steady job since babysitting at 12, and cooking for myself, my laundry etc. But this time it’s for real, call me strange but it makes me happy.

Gloria ironically enough made spaghetti with ground beef, and a lovely salad. I’d gone grocery shopping before heading to her place and had also purchased the same thing only with the intention of making alfredo as I’d seen crab meat at the store and it’d been really cheap and I had wanted to make a seafood linguini with alfredo sauce. But I decided to save that idea for another time and instead (not having purchased all the ingredients) purchased some shrimp and snow peas and made popcorn shrimp and sautéed snow peas. It was a huge hit and Erica took a picture of it, noting it as my first ever meal in my own place. It was Gloria’s idea so they’re both rather silly but we have fun anyways. The rest of the day had been spent just traversing the city once more and actually shopping. I purchased a pair of shoes, a cute hat, and a shirt to go with it put them all together and I’ve almost got a European outfit. Yes the clothing here is much different, casual doesn’t exist and you feel strangely out of place wearing a T-Shirt and jeans, but I do it anyways since they can all tell I’m American regardless. (And that’s before I even speak).

Friday night was spent crashing on Gloria’s couch as her roommates had both decided to travel that weekend leaving her alone in her apartment.

Saturday I spent the day with Erica and Gloria once more as lunch was at Gloria’s place where she’d made this awesome seafood soup a Mexican dish, that didn’t seem so Mexican, but was delicious all the same. Later on in the evening Erica and I were set to see a movie called the house of mirth, but being that it was part of the festival you weren’t aloud to be late and not having taken the buses often enough Erica and I wound up being late. But luckily they were nice enough to allow us into another movie at the premiere so we opted for the only Spanish one on the list... boy were we in for a big surprise. A film festival is described as a time for up and coming directors, novices and professionals alike, to try new things, take risks, make mistakes and get messy... that’s putting it lightly. There are films that you scoff at and say to yourself, give me a three hundred dollar camera and let me use my Sony Vegas Studios software and I could do a better job then this piece of junk, there are others that you walk out of full of emotion thinking that the director and producer and all the other staff included in the making of the film are absolutely brilliant people and deserve some sort of award for the amazing work they’ve done... and then there’s the films you leave behind shaking your head, emotions indescribable but unsure of whether or not to be outraged, appalled, or just dumb founded by what you saw. The latter of the three is the main feelings that both Erica and I shared after finishing our replacement movie. I’m not even sure of the title or the director or anything, but the majority of the movie was nearly silent. It was about this man who worked for a really rich woman by taking care of one of the mansions she owned while her daughter worked to sell the house before her mother passed away of old age. The man lived in solitude for over ten years working for this woman when one day the house is sold and he no longer knows what to do with himself. He asks if anyone knows of a place he can work and or stay, having lived nothing but his solitary life for so long he goes slightly crazy and when the woman dies of old age he does a very grotesque and surprising act in order to make it look like murder, thus finding himself a place to stay... stranger then it sounds, it’s one of those you’d have to see it to believe it.

After that we went back to Erica’s for left over stewy chatting the night away with Erica and her house mate Marta. Sunday was a day that will knock your socks off. For those who know me, and even those who don’t, know that it has been a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time since I’ve stepped inside the confines of a religious place of any sort what so ever, but for the first time in what has to have been over two and a half years I went to church. And not just any church, getting the sudden urge to try something new and do as the Spaniards do I went to a catholic mass... needless to say I was completely lost the whole time and looking to Gloria to tell me what to do and when to do it. I never realized how much work is involved in a Catholic service. Stand up, kneel down, sit down, stand up again, make the cross symbol over your chest, spin around and tap your head while patting your stomach. Just kidding. It was an interesting experience none the less but I think I’ll stick to going to churches in English when trying out new religions for the first time, THEN maybe go test it out in another language. As for what I thought... I didn’t think, it hurt too much, thus I still have no opinion of the catholic religion.

After church we ate lunch as what was to be the best burger joint in all of San Sebastian. It lived up to its name that’s for sure. The burger was absolutely amazing, different too seeing as they like to put eggs on just about everything here, and there was quite a bit of mayonnaise on top. Gloria and Jamiel both complained that they couldn’t enjoy a burger that they had to eat with a fork and knife, so American... actually they’re both Latin American, strange. But anyways, that was lunch. After that we met up with Erica and decided to take a trek up the “mountain” to the Jesús de la Corazon or Jesus of the heart. There is a picture posted of it but I have new and better ones to post as well. The trek is straight upwards at an interval of inclines and it was an over all great work out and exciting adventure. At the top we were able to go inside the rarely opened castle/ old fort from the beginnings of San Sebastian and learn of the different festivals, and history of Donostia (aka San Sebastian). And if the day hadn’t been exciting enough we decided to eat at an amazing Italian restaurant called Mama Mia, funny I know. I had a delicious pizza, that only made me miss American pizza... just a little. For some reason Spaniards aren’t big on spices and pizza just doesn’t taste the same, it was still delicious, but the best part was desert. Erica had a chocolate crepe, Jamiel had flan, and Gloria and I had milkshakes. Mine was fresa y chocolate (strawberry and chocolate) and hers was fresa y plantano (strawberry banana). And afterwards we parted for a long night of homework.

And Monday strolled around to begin another maniac week filled with tests, homework, and scholastic adventures. Today is Tuesday and I’m currently studying for two tests one tomorrow in History of Literature, the other in the Advanced/Intensive language course. But this weekend includes plans of enormous sizes and of course more pictures to be taken. Exciting adventures are always just around the corner.

La Vida Loca

Living La Vida Loca should be the title of my life right now as things seem to have gotten so crazy out of hand lately that I barely have time to stop and think. Time here seems to move by so quickly. I began the week Monday going "Great another Monday!" And before I knew it Friday is already half over. And I think to myself what have I done this past week and some odd days since this was updated. We´ll start with the weekend. It was a crazy blast of a weekend.

Friday I spent the day traversing around the city, enjoying the beach and the random rain falls that occured every other hour or so. I had originally made plans to take a trip to a city very close to San Sebastian called Zarautz (pronounced Zer- ou-ths crazy I know) where a surfing competition was being held but with the crazy weather no one was even sure the competition was still taking place. The last update I´d had was that the city Zarautz was having more storms then here and was in no condition for the competition as tents we´re being blown away like balloons. it was better not to chance it, spend the money on the bus ticket only to find there was no competition and be stuck in a stormy city, so instead we enjoyed the lovely storms that were occuring here. That evening was spent inside enjoying some cocoa and a movie with Gloria. "Failure to Launch" was the selection of choice. I´d seen most of the movie before but Gloria hadn´t and I had been interested in finishing it since the last time I´d never gotten to see the ending. So we cracked up at this hysterical love story with the hunky Matt M. and Sara J. Parker, and before we knew it, it was long past bed time.

Saturday was another slow day as the weather didn´t permit much. There had been the option of watching the women´s rowing competition at the Concha beach where we´d watched the men´s the previous weekend but again storms plus ocean equals bad idea. So we avoided that and instead the day was spent mozing around. Around 6 pm or so we decided to head over to this place in a part of town near the school called Antigua where they were offering a free dance lesson as part of a promotion to take dance classes at this place. So we got ready and took up the offer of free lessons. That turned out to be a great idea and some of the girls actually signed up to take lessons every Wednesday for the next two monthes, for the same cost as my surfing lessons. I on the other discovered that my hips don´t move quite right for the latino rythms required in these hispanic dances and decided to stick with my surfing lessons instead. After that we seperated quickly for dinner before reconvening and hitting the town´s clubs. Parte Vieje (new part) is a part of the town where there is almost nothing but bars, restaurants, clubs, and fun all night long. We´d gone there last week and had our gigantic ice cream cones, but this week we went to test out our new dance moves at some real clubs. It took a while and we hopped from place to place and around 2 am we found a club near the beach that was the hot spot. Girls got in free and the music was awsome. And we danced until we could dance no more before Robin and I returned home around 4 in the morning making for a very looooooong night.

Sunday was catch up on sleep day, and homework day as well. There were options to go see the finals of the men´s rowing competition and join the party in Parte Vieja afterwards but I was glad I´d steared clear of that party as later that evening on the news I´d heard of several fights breaking out and just mass chaos. Instead I spent the day preparing for the week ahead as it was sure to prove fierce...

I couldn´t have been more right about that either. Monday rolled in and I was still lagging slightly from the seemingly slow, but long fun and excitement filled weekend I´d had. Classes were nothing out of the norm. Fast paced, Spanish, Spanish and more Spanish, but that´s what I came for. That and to party... just kidding. I´m here to study and experience the world during my short stay here in Europe. Monday evening though was interesting to say the least. It was the first day of surfing lessons and I was pumped up until the point of arrival. After classes I made a mad 45 minute dash to the other side of town so as not to be late for lessons, got lost, found one of the other guys in the lessons, got lost togther and then finally found the place making us 15 minutes late. When we arrived I discovered I was the only girl in a class of 5 people including the surfing instructor Arix (basque name pronounced Are-ri-t-su). After introductions, and the dos besos (two kisses) that are all part of a formal European greeting, we geared up in wet suits grabbed beginners boards and headed to the beach. The first lesson was spent mostly on the sand, learning the right form for standing on the board, positioning when laying on the board so you don´t flip over, the form for paddling, and how to jump up on the board to actaully catch a wave. At the very end of the lesson he took us into the water to begin practicing rowing and said if we could to go ahead and try to jump and catch a wave... boy did I look silly. I wish someone would´ve photographed me trying to paddle and surf... surf isn´t quite the right word, more like stay balanced so as not to flip myself over and wind up with a mouth full of salt water. My first lessons was spent gargling salt water a good 70% of the time. But towards the end I started getting the hang of it and got to body surf my way back to the beach, trying once to jump and failing miserably as my arms were ready to fall off from the hard work of paddling my heavy butt out to sea against the waves of high tide. High tide= Not beginner´s waves!

So Monday´s surf lesson ended with the lovely taste of salt water in my mouth and a hug and high five from Arix who said I did great. I don´t know which girl he was watching but it definitely wasn´t me. We planned the next lesson for the next day. That lesson proved a little better as I finally got the whole staying on the board part, and even learned how to paddle better so that I actually got further out to sea faster (using what little strength I had left in my arms) This lesson was spent practicing the paddle and at the end we were once again encouraged to try catching a wave, and this time I almost did it. Having almsot NO upper body strength left I wasn´t able to push myself up hard enough to jump and land on my feet instead I surfed on my knees and as I tried to stand the wave thought it would be rather comical to break on me and laugh as I took another dive and another gargle of salt water. I think for next time I´ll remember to shut my mouth for once... it´ll be tough to scream with a closed mouth though... I´ll find a way though I´m sure.

We were to have a third lesson the next day but my arms and my Spanish professor just wouldn´t allow it as I had a huge test Thursday in which I needed all of Wednesday evening to study for. I love surprises like date changes at the last minute don´t you? Well I´ll be better prepared next time for sure as I´ll be continually looking over my notes each day so as not to have to cram should that happen again.

As today is Friday my weekend has begun seeing as I have no classes to attend to today. But I have a feeling a good portion of my day will be spent working on homework so that I may enjoy the rest of the events going on this weekend. The only plans are to attend the grand international film festival taking place this weekend as well as the awards ceramony for Antonio Banderas (whose staying in a hotel near my house) and Meryl Streep as well as a conference/interview session with Woody Allen. Hopefull I´ll be able to make them all as well as one or two of the films premeiring at the festival as there´s so many to chose from. Two more surfing lessons left before I go pro! Chao!

Fotographias de San Sebastian

This boat was out there at the end of the race spouting off water and just making a rather cool show.
Same boat, different picture.
That's my gigantic ice cream I told you about. I had to lick quite a bit of it cause it was very mishapen but I wanted you to see how much they gave you. Big right?

Jesus de la Corazon (Jesus of the Heart) It's a huge statue that stand at the top of one of the hills here in San Sebastian. Haven't ventured up to it yet, but it's easier to get pictures when you're further away.
I'm not quite sure what this it. You can see it from the beach, but I'm prolly going to venture up there by bike this weekend or something to find out. It's a part of San Sebastian I've yet to visit. :)
One of the row boats as it was coming in. The purple colored is another one.
Same picture, don't know how to delete it though. Oops!! :)
That's that boat again, but this was in the beginning when it only had one going off instead of two.

This is my house where I'm living. My family owns the whole thing if I'm not mistaken. And there's a little business down stairs run by friends of theres, haven't been down to it though.
This is the view of the catedral del buen pastor (cathedral of the good pastor) from my balcony.
The view of the street below from my balcony.
this is my room before I unpacked
And this is my balcony... I love sitting out there and people watching... I do it a lot, when I'm supposed to be doing homework... tehe. J/k!!

Enjoy these pictures of San Sebastian and the MANY more that are to come!!