Okay, sooooooooo it's been about a week and a half since I left the wonderful city of San Sebastian, and frankly I don't know how I feel about being back! Of course I'm SO happy to see my family who I missed like crazy, and while it is very good to be HOME, it's also very sad. Saying goodbye to everyone was very hard and saying goodbye to my host family was probably one of the hardests goodbyes I've ever had to do. We had a very special relationship that was better than I'd ever expected, and I felt, and still feel, like I am a part of their family forever-everything I wished for with a host family. It's interesting coming back to the US; we got a letter from the study abroad program warning us ... read more

Damn this weather, it's almost as bad as Nevada! Last week I skipped class to go lay on the beach... and today it's raining and freezing! Oh well, off to the cafe for cafe con leche (essentially a tiny latte... but way better than anything Starbucks offers-which by the way I haven't had in 4+ months) y bombas con crema (a wonderful fried donut filled with custard) I guess... darn... haha Last weekend USAC went on an overnight group field trip to the city of Burgos: we saw the cathedral (one of the 3 best in Spain) and went to an archeological site right outside of the city where the oldest human fossils in Europe were found like 10 years ago. We went out to tapas where I had my first blood sausage.... SWEET BABY JESUS ... read more

Okay-I am finally sitting down to do my entry for Spring Break. I've been putting it off.... but here it is. Sooooo, I'll start from the beginning: We left on a thursday night and took an overnight bus from San Seb to Barcelona (the second time we did this in 2 weeks... not fun, let me tell you). We flew from there to Venice where we met up with Mary's parents. It was so good to see them! It was allllmost like I was seeing my own family after a long time, a little taste of home! Then her brother and his two friends flew in from the States and we all went to our hotel which was RIGHT on one of the canals in Venice, which by the way, is JUST like I imagined it ... read more

This is how my friends and I felt while in Barcelona over the weekend! And not only so much English, but so much "Americano" at that. It felt very odd to hear and be able to understand everything around us, and to be honest, we didn't much like it haha. We had a 4 day weekend last week for St. Joseph so a few girls and I went to Barcelona. We stayed in a hostel right off Las Ramblas and had SUCH a great time. We arrived Thursday afternoon and spent that night exploring Las Ramblas. Friday morning we woke up early to catch the metro to La Sagrada Familia which took my breath away. Everyone says that it's not worth paying to enter... but I beg to differ. We paid to get in and for ... read more

because it's such a GORGEOUS day today! After red warnings yesterday about crazy winds and a storm, today is calm and beautiful; I just got back from spending a good chunk of my day in the sun but sadly, I have a 10 pg. paper to write (in Spanish of course) about Velazquez and the Gold Centuries in Spain... boo... this week is actually feeling very school-like, imagine that haha. Thursday I did something very authentically Basque-I went to a sideria (cider house). Sidra (sEE-drah) is alcoholic apple cider and is especially popular in the north. The season for sidra is from about the beginning of Feb. to April. We went with a few locals around 9:30pm to one which was a 10-15 min walk from the university. The first thing you do when you walk ... read more