I´m a college student & am being told I need to sleep more! Ironic?

Last week is kind of a blur. I didn’t really do much, but class is getting more difficult so that consumed more time than it has been. It’s good though because we’re learning more verb tenses so I can pick up a lot more walking around than I could before. I’m not good enough to use them without thinking about it for awhile before hand but I understand more. It’s cool to see how much has changed in the month we’ve been here.

But anyways, last week I didn’t really do much. We didn’t have class Friday because we had our first excursion. (i´ll add a few more pictures later) We went around the province of Guipuzkoa which is the province that San Sebastian is in. It’s one of 7 or so Basque provinces. So we rode the bus about an hour away to a Basque farmhouse – Caserío Igartubeiti. We walked through a boring museum thing and then looked at the actual farmhouse. The farmhouse is a very important part of Basque history and their life. After that we rode to Aránzazu and saw a modern church. It was kind of weird. This guy wanted to have 14 disciples on the outside, and then inside was just kind of creepy. Our leader said “you couldn’t help but get a very spiritual feeling” but Kelly, Tiffany and I all agreed we were a little creeped out more than anything. But then we had lunch at what I think was a hotel up the road from the church. We had paella which I would consider enough for a whole meal especially with the helpings they gave us and then chicken (of course on the bone so I couldn’t eat much of it) with french fries and flan for dessert – so of course we were all stuffed. The flan was really good though, the last kind I tried was super eggy so this wasn’t as bad. But then we were all in somewhat of a food coma so most everyone slept until the next town. Our last stop was Zumaia, less than an hour from San Sebastian along the coast. Supposedly the cliffs are famous because a meteorite fell to the Earth 65 million years ago and there’s erosion from the sea that uncovered a layer of iridium.

The view from the cliff we hiked up


So we had a guide the whole time – we went out on the boat to look at the shore and see the side of the cliff from there, then we got off the boat and hiked up to it. It was pretty cool to see but basically just a big science lesson so not all that interesting to me. Then we had a few minutes to get coffee or whatever before we headed back to San Sebastian. We got back around 7:30, so it was a nice little day trip, and I got back and just ate dinner at my apartment and had a relaxing night in.

Saturday I couldn’t sleep, I’m learning more and more I’m not a typical college kid, which apparently disturbs my host mom. And she thinks something is wrong with me because the other students she’s had sleep all the time and I don’t. I’m usually awake before her – because I have class all afternoon and if I want to do anything – gym, shopping, etc. – then I have to actually wake up. But she asked me about it on Saturday and I just simply say I can’t sleep so she goes on and on about how the others slept a lot more and if something is wrong and she ended up showing me these, I think, sleeping pills that she has. And she told me I need to go to the pharmacy and ask for them so that I can sleep, ha. And she always asks me if I drink coffee at night – which I don’t I’m not stupid, and that wouldn’t cause me to wake up early anyways! I also don’t think she realizes I’ve been going to bed kind of early so it’d be weird if I slept til 11 every day. But whatever, she can think something is wrong with me haha. But anyways, we get these e-mails that tell us fun stuff that’s happening every weekend and one thing was a secondhand market so I went and looked around there for a little bit. There wasn’t really anything worth buying for the price in my mind, but there were some clothes, I looked at some books, cds, records, paintings. I probably could’ve found some good souvenirs but I want to look at the market-type thing that is there every Friday, and I’m sure there will be another one of these in a month or so. But then I just ended up going to a café and getting wifi for a little bit.

I came home and watched tv and hung out with my host mom for awhile. That was some nice Spanish practice for me. We had a humorous discussion about Valentine’s Day too. She basically said that every day should be “el Día de enamorados”, she has been divorced for 15 years after being married for 30, she loves herself – well and of course her children and grandchildren, and she just loves the fact that my parents are still together, living together and still love each other.

Then I got ready and Kelly and I went out to dinner. We wanted to try this Mexican restaurant our teacher told us about – cause we both seem to be desperately craving Mexican but she only told us the bus to take and not the stop to get off. So we walked around and tried to find something else within our price range in El Centro – everywhere seemed to be having Valentine’s Day specials, but we ended up going to this restaurant on the bottom of the mall and having pizza – I had tropical, yum! Then we went back to her apartment, I got to skype for a little bit (oh, and of course kept updated with the ku-kstate score, what a good valentines day present), and we made crepes to have in the morning!

Sunday morning we went back to the Evangelical church in our area. I think Wednesday night and next Sunday I’m going to try going to the other one that’s farther away with my friend Tiffany. There are more young people there and they actually have a college group where Tiffany has made friends and hangs out with them all the time – which is what Kelly and I are both really looking for. But other than church I took a nap, met up with Tiffany in a café to do some homework, and then went to another café for wifi and skyped for a couple hours. Kelly let me borrow a couple discs of The Office so when I got back to my apartment, and had finished my homework, I watched a few, they’re pretty addicting so I ended up being up later than I was planning but that made it possible for me to stay awake and watch the beginning of the All-Star game!

We haven’t had rain for a good 4 days which is something to get excited about, but to compensate its a few degrees colder. I’ve decided though I can definitely handle the cold if it isn’t raining – or super super windy. This week is halfway through my 2nd section so we have a test on Friday which will be really hard. I’m probably going to be studying every single day to prepare. Also, we have a 4-day weekend so we don’t have school Monday or Tuesday because of Carnavales, I’ll explain once I find out what that actually is, haha. But most people are traveling so I’m going to have to find a mini trip to take or something else to occupy my time.