Camino de Santiago

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Look it up!
Anywho, I hiked a part of it with my host family today along the coast and it was beautiful to say the least. We came across this religious community who makes bread and sells it in a store here in San Sebastian in la Parte Vieja. They were so welcoming and we bought a few loaves of bread from them and stayed to chat a while drinking a mix of Mate tea (from South America) and orange juice, and eating raspberry muffins that they'd made. After resting a little there, we hiked back down to our car which we'd left in the pueblo at the base of the mountain.
Last weekend was really fun as well. Some girls in my program and I took the funicular up to the top of a mountain where we got the best views of the city, the ocean, and the countryside. Mary and I also went to Pamplona (Running of the Bulls) with her host mom and she gave us a tour of the city and surrounding area. We stopped in "Hemingway's bar" and had a snack of fried calamari and a beer before we went on to eat a Chinese restaurant.... not sure how I felt about that... we'll just say that my stomach has seen better days. After 2 months of fish, veal, veggies and BREAD, a heavy & greasy meal like that-Bffffft (as they say here).
I feel like I had more to update on here... but nothing is calling my attention.... I CANNOT believe it's already been 2 months since I left the U.S.-it seems like another lifetime ago that I was excitedly boarding the plane in Reno on my way to bigger and better things. Some of my friends and I have talked about how while we don't feel completely DIFFERENT really, in some ways, yeah, we do feel like different people than we were 2 months ago. It's something that's really hard to explain or put into words... but I don't know, like my way of viewing things and my perspective has changed; I've analyzed certain situations and aspects of my life that I hadn't before. If anything, traveling has made me realize how insignificant everything really is and how our own little world that we live in doesn't really mean anything in comparison to everything else that's out there in the world, but that fact is reassuring to me for some reason and I'm perfectly content with it.
All in all, over this journey I feel like I have, as cliche as it sounds, more or less found myself. I've grown so much as a person and I am proud of what I've accomplished.
So that's all I have to ramble about for now. A group of us are going out to the bars tonight for one of the local's birthday that I've met here. Until next time! xoxoxo

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Photos

View
of the port from the hike

Burros
came across these sad looking donkeys =(

El faro de pata
the lighthouse along the hike. Sadly the walk up to it was closed we were pretty sure.

Karmele & Mikel
These are my host parents! I realllly am going to miss them

Camino de Santiago
One day, I'd like to do at least one fourth of the whole thing...

Pamplona
the street where they do the Running of the Bulls

Hemingway
Drinking a Daiquiri with the one and only ;-)