The Adventure Continues...

Hi Folks,
Where to begin? Hmmm, alot has happened in the last three days. How
about if I start with the weather.

Well, overcast has been the word, but that hasn't been a terrible
thing. The climate here is very comfortable. It doesn't get too cold at
night and it doesn't get too hot during the day. The overcast, however, did
clear today. Today is a beautiful sunny day. Thus, you may be wondering
why I am posting to the blog, and perhaps that is a good question, but I am
committed to submitting ongoing reports of my travels. In any event, even
if it is overcast the city is still beautiful. I must admit though, the
city is even more beautiful when the sun is out, truly gorgeous.

Okay, how about if I tell you all abou the school. The name of the
school is Lacunza. You can look it up online. It has been a really
enjoyable experience thus far. I feel like I have learned a ton in just
three days. It is Spanish all of the time in the classroom. You just fight
through the misunderstandings...the teachers are very good at helping you
along. My class has 11 or 12 students in it. The students are from all
over the world and a wide variety of ages. For examples, there is a 66 year
old man from New Orleans in my class and a 20 year from Suny Brockport as
well. There is also a 32 year old (one of my roomates as well) from Sweden
and a couple from Holland and they are in their mid forties. The classes
move fast, and believe it or not I study at night, but it is good thus far.
My class times are from 9:30am-11am and then 11:30am-1pm and we have two
different teachers for the sessions. My teachers' names are Carmen and Rosa,
they are lively, fun, and creative. After one we are free for the day. The
school organizes countless activities. For examples, there is Kayaking,
paintball, afternoon trips, a trip to the Guggenheim in Bilbao (I will be
going this Saturday) and, of course, surfing...

Speaking of surfing, mark the calendars I stood up on the board today
for the first time (06/22/06), pretty impressive, right? My surfing
instructor is Paolo. He is from San Sebastian and is a really nice guy.
There are six to eight people in the group everyday and we surf (or some
apporximation thereof) for about two hours everyday. The first day was
pretty unspectacular. The waves were breaking too close to shore. The
second day the waves were enormous and we all had a very hard time of it.
Today, with a beach packed with people, the waves were nice and we all had a
go at it. It�s fun, but it really requires a lot of practice and your get
thrown around quite a bit. Oh yeah...one last thing...it is really hard
work after awhile. You use a lot of muscles you don't usually use.

Hmmm, so let me tell you all abou the beaches. Here is San Sebastian
there are three beaches. Playa de Ondarreta, Playa De La Concha, and Playa
de la Zurriola. We surf on Playa de la Zurriola. I guess Autumn in better
for surfing, but just like in California there are always surfers and always
waves rolling in...sometimes really large waves. Anyway, the coastline
reminds me of California with the mountain/hills running right up to the
water. East and west of San Sebastian it is cliffs and then ocean. In fact
the climate feels like Southern California only the water is warmer, the air
is cooler, and there is more humidity...but it looks a lot like So Cal and
it feels similar.

Alright, let me talk of food and drink. Food, food, food...no shortage
of food. I have been eating a lot...but it is no big deal between walking a
ton and surfing I am fairly convinced I have lost weight since I have been
here. The most important thing to tell about is the Pintxos. Pintxos are
the Basque word for tapas. There are more bars per capita here in San
Sebastian than anywhere elese in the world and they all serve Pintxos
(pronounced Pincho). Pintxos are essentially Hors d'ouevres (sp?), except
they are truly taken to a higher art form here. One day I at Pintxos for
lunch, and another day I had them for dinner...they are Basque fast food.
By the way, only one actually fast food place here...I saw one McDonalds,
but they can't compete with Pintxos. Okay, so how it works is, every bar
puts out plates and plates and plates of Pintxos. Each plate has something
different on it. Sometimes there are little sandwiches, sometimes it is
toasted bread with pimento, and some kind of tuna or seafood salad on top,
sometimes it is fried sardines, or anchovies, shrimp. The Pintxos are
large, cost about a Euro to 1.5 euro a piece and you can get a full meal for
about 10 Euro (they say Euro, not Euros, here in Europe). Since there is a
bar every where you turn, there are Pintxos everywhere you turn. It is
pretty amazing stuff and they are truly delectable. Of course, being Europe
there are lots of stores with good meats, cheeses, bread, pastries, etc.

Well, before I lose out on anymore sun I am going to go back out now.
I am going back to the beach where I plan to walk to the top of this big
hill top and take some pictures, given the beautiful day. There are few of
these hikes, but the one I am going to do is the one with the Christ like
figure on top...think Rio de Janeiro. Okay, Hasta Luego.

Justin