Crazy Carnavales

So Wednesday night I went to church with Tiffany & Kelly. We watched kung-fu panda in spanish so I didn't really understand anything. But then I needed to do homework so I left early. But the guy from Tulsa that's studying at the engineering school here was there as well so it was good to finally get to talk to him in person.

Thursday I had to study for my exam. We had our midterm (examen parcial) for this section on Friday. But ah, another beautiful day in San Sebastian so I had to walk around in the morning some. I bought another backpack - bigger, sturdier and should be good for traveling. I've used it alot already to carry my laptop and am planning on using it to travel to Barcelona next weekend. But Thursday after class - we reviewed the whole class period - I had to relax a little so I skyped and looked into traveling stuff before I went and studied for a couple hours or so.

Friday morning we had our exam. I was drained, but I think I did well. My friend Tiffany stayed after to skype and our teacher had graded our exams already & she got an A! So I'm hopeful - the test ended up being easier than I was expecting. Probably because we reviewed so much! After the exam I met my "intercambio" - that is basically a way for us to get to know spaniards our age so we fill out an interest sheet or whatever & they match us with a student. She couldn't handle speaking english cause she just wanted to talk so much so that was interesting. I doubt we'll become best friends or anything but it was fun. Then, after that little meeting I rode my bike back home to have lunch at my apartment.

Then, I was just planning on relaxing or whatever until finding something to do that night but Tiffany called and she was planning on going out to Zarautz because her friend Macarena (from church) lives out there. I was soo excited to have something like that to do it was great! So Tiffany, another USAC student - Aimee, and another woman named Yardena and I took the train to Zarautz to meet up with Macarena. Macarena is from Chile, most people at church are from South America, and so her family was super warm and welcoming which is alot different than what we've gotten used to here with the Basques. So we hung out at Maca's house for a little bit and then decided to walk towards some mountain that Tiffany likes the view from. We walked from Zarautz to a town called Gittoria (I'm not sure on the spelling but its in between Zarautz and Zumaia). But the walk was super long and exhausting so we stopped at Maca's work - a restaurant/bar - and had some coffee and her boss made us calamari that was really good. Then we realized it was kind of foggy so we decided not to go up the mountain and just hung out and then caught at bus back to her house. Her parents made us some pizza for dinner & we had coffee & tea for dessert! Then us 4 girls (Yardena went back to San Sebastian) and Johnny (he's from chicago but has been living with Maca's family for a few months) watched a movie. It was Rendition which I've never heard of but was really really good (Grandma & Grandpa you would definitely like this movie if you haven't seen it yet). Then we stayed the night there.

The next morning her family had basically a feast for us, or I guess compared to what I'm used to, ha. But I had granola, warm bread (not hard like usual!), real coffee and a banana! It was delicious! But then we just hung around the house for a little bit and Tiffany and I finally headed back to San Sebastian around 1. When we got back we decided to find some ice cream because it was soo nice and finally warm enough to enjoy some! Oh, and everyone around town was in their costumes for Carnavales so we just wanted to go sit and watch. So we went into this little shop & ended up talking to this woman from California & her husband and her wanted to know all about San Sebastian, the area, and basques in general. So we talked to them for awhile - they're on a 2 week trip through France & Spain. It was cool being the people that knew what was going on and explaining to other people.

After that I just went back to my apartment and showered so I could go skype my sister. Sara is coming to see me & I can't even explain in words how ecstatic I am!!!! She's coming for a week in May and we'll probably go to South Spain for the weekend and then hang out in San Sebastian for the next few days! But anyways, after I skyped her I met up with Tiffany to go to this church thing - a bunch of other churches in the area came for this worship service at our church. Then, a bunch of us went to this mall - we ate in this food court, haha, and hung out for awhile. I had a kebab - I'll have to find a picture or something to show because it was super interesting. Tiffany & I were exhausted by this time so we just headed home & I was in bed by 1230.

BUT Saturday & Sunday are the big days for Carnavales and everyone wears costumes. So Saturday I saw tons of cows, gypsies, hippies, sports players, etc. It was just like Halloween except I'm not really sure what they do in their costumes. But most people have two costumes - one for Saturday & one for Sunday. But also Saturday night was a huge parade - I don't even know how to explain it. But each float has a different theme & basically half the streets in town are shut down for it and then a group of like 20 girls are doing a dance in front of it every once in awhile. For example, one of them is Pirates so the float was a pirate ship w/pirates on it, then another smaller float behind it had speakers play pirates of the caribbean music, and then all the people dancing had this memorized dance they stopped and would perform every once in awhile - like Macy's Thanksgiving Parade?

But anyways today I woke up and went to church, back to my apartment for lunch and a nap, and now I'm at a cafe skyping. There was another parade like that one this afternoon - I just don't understand! But tomorrow I'm going to Tolosa with some friends so that should be fun. This is quite the experience. But oh yeah, Carnavales is like the kick off for lent I think. But only students do stuff Monday and Tuesday - we don't have class but I guess all businesses are open and everyone else has their lives as normal. I think they just wanted to give us a chance to travel (lots of USAC students are in Amsterdam, a couple in Prague, Kelly's in Germany, some others in South Spain).

But I'll probably be learning even more about it so hopefully I can inform all of you! Sorry for the long post as always but I will update again sometime this week! Hope to hear from some of you!

Love, Jill