Hola chicas y chicos!
Sunday, May 26 (PS- Happy anniversary Mom and Dad!) – I got to explore a little bit of the city of San Sebastián where I will be living for the next five weeks! And from the small area I have seen so far it is beautiful! Shayne and I explored el centro (the center of the city) and then I took a nice 2-hour nap on the beach! Even though it is still cold here, the sun was out and shining and it was a gorgeous day. I even managed to get a sunburn!
Sunday night we finally got to meet our USAC study abroad group!!! I was so excited, but I was also a little nervous to meet about 45 other students who I didn’t know. We all went out to dinner together at a restaurant near our hotel where we got a 3 course meal of spaghetti, pollo y papas fritas (chicken & french fries) and flan (a traditional spanish dessert).
After dinner we had our first meeting as a group and we got a ton of boring (aka important) information about the rules and what not to do. The exciting part came once we got our keys to our apartment and found out who our roommates were going to be!
The next day (Monday) was the big day! Our first day at the new school! We all ate breakfast together and walked over to the college here in San Sebastián for our orientation! We got a ton of handouts, more important (and boring) information, and a map of the city! We learned about all of the sites, where the school is in relation to everything else, and where the beaches and bars are (of course the most important)! After orientation we had to take a spanish placement test comprised of a multiple choice part and an oral part in order to place us into the correct class. It was weird taking an exam again considering my brain has been shut off since May 1.
Later in the afternoon we FINALLY got to move into our apartment! Ours is AWESOME! Shayne and I are living with a third roommate, Ali from Wisconsin! We have a great 3-bedroom 2-bath apartment two blocks from the surfing beach which is totally cool! We also have a full living room and kitchen. (It’s bigger than my apartment at home!) But personally my favorite part is the balcony! You can see the ocean from it. I feel like I am living in a beachfront hotel, except it’s my home for five weeks. It’s perfect!!
Some fun facts I learned about ways of living in Spain so far:
1. They don’t own dryers anywhere here, so all my clothes have to be hung dry. Normally this would be fine living in Florida, but since it is cold here the clothes took the better half of two days to completely dry!
2. They also don’t believe in heaters here, which again would be fine except it is FREEZING at night. I have actually learned how to correctly swaddle a baby due to the fact that I have to swaddle myself with my blankets so I don’t freeze at night.
Anyway, despite a few minor things we need to get used to, the apartment and everything else about spain is AMAZING! My spanish is already getting so much better in only a few days and San Sebastián is just a gorgeous city in general.
All for now,
Adios!
☮♥Fashion 