To the right is a picture of me with a few friends during the beginning of Dia de San Sebastian (San Sebastian Day).  I have several more pictures and videos taken during this day but of course I am not able to post them yet.  I will give a brief overview of what happens on San Sebastian Day and what it represents.  El Dia de San Sebastian only happens once a year, on January 20th.  This is by far the biggest "fiesta" in San Sebastian and the one that is celebrated with the most excitement.  The day starts at Midnight when the Mayor raises a flag in the center of Parte Viaje (the main city square).  The fiesta lasts for 24 hours until the mayor lowers the same flag.  When the day begins at midnight all of the local citizens and local workers are dressed up as either Chefs or Soldiers.  The reason for dressing up as a chef is to show pride for the food that San Sebastian offers.  The reason for the soldiers to dress up is a little bit more of a history lesson, I'll keep it to what I learned in my culture class.  Basically, Napoleon came through Spain trying to take control of Portugal which is on the South/West coast of Spain.  After losing a few battles in Spain and Portugal, Napoleon began to retreat.  The last battle took place in San Sebastian which is 15 miles West of France.  After this battle Napoleon never tried starting another war on Spanish land.  All of Spain respects this day for that reason and the people of San Sebastian are proud of their accomplishment. This war took place sometime around the 18th century and they still celebrate this like it was yesterday.  So these Chefs and Soldiers parade around the city and all spectators and marchers carry drums.  For the entire 24 hours, everybody is playing 1 of 5 different songs, depending on where you live within San Sebastian.  Every person in the town is out, young and old, to celebrate this day.  It was one of those things where I could never really appreciate and fully understand this celebration like they do.  Imagine a Spaniard coming to the U.S. and getting goose bumps on the 4th of July.  It just does not work that way.  I had a great time during the entire day and it will be something that I never forget but the meaning of the day didn't settle deep in my skin.  I'm sure it would be much different if the history of America was celebrated in the streets with family and friends rather than asking for a day out of school.  

We have had rain in the forecast for the last few days and it looks to be the same for the remainder of the week.  I am not somebody that minds having rain so it has been completely fine with me.  Actually, the locals reaction to rain has caught my attention and I find it to be fascinating.  Like I said, rain is in the forecast almost everyday because of our location to the sea.  It has not rained for more than 3o minutes at one time but it might rain for 10 minutes 15 times a day.  Since rain is so common, nobody leaves their house or apartment without their umbrella.  They usually walk with their umbrella using it as a cain.   Before the first rain drop hits the ground, everybody already has their umbrella out.  Some people don't close their umbrella even if it stops raining because they know that it will only be a matter of time until they have to open up the shield once again.  

I expected to go out tonight with a few friends but everybody seems to be catching colds.  I'm sure my peer pressure will convince somebody to go against their instinct.  

I will have internet in my apartment by Friday or maybe the beginning of next week.  I can not wait to re-connect with the world.

Thanks for all of your posts!

I am alive, but don´t have internet. I will explain all about my apartment later in the post but first I am going to vent about my frustrations with internet access.

I am optimistic that I will have full wireless internet in my apartment within the next few days. This whole internet situation has been pretty frustrating. I arrived in San Sebastian coming from Madrid on Sunday night. We stayed at a hotel that night that had wireless internet but it was a slow connection. I tried calling my parents and Emily, but I could barely hold a conversation. After moving into my apartment on Monday and meeting with our land lord, it sounded like we could get access right away for a very low cost. We tried that option and it was impossible to bring up a website. Fortunately, we found out that we could get the telephone company to set up a line for internet in our apartment for 30-50 Euros a month. Divided amongst three people, that is not too bad. The only problem is that the people that we have to deal with to get this internet up and running will not understand that Americans pay for convenience. Every adjustment to our apartment has to be approved through the housing coordinator of USAC (the study abroad program), his name is TITO. He explained how we can use the wi-fi (in Spain it is pronounced ¨weee-feee¨) internet on campus. Fantastic....but for me campus is a 45 minute walk away and you have to attend a seminar so that they can teach us Americans how to use the internet. Of course we all know how to do this very well but they dont fully comprehend that. Than Tito had to ´teach´ us how they would set up internet in our apartment and he got a little flustered by this so eventually we will have to do this on our own.

Please do not get the wrong impression, in no way at all is this making me home sick. Of course, I miss family and friends but in no small amount is the internet making me want to come home. I just feel like I am naked without connection to the world.

So like I said, I moved into my apartment on Monday. Spectacular location. There are two beaches in San Sebastian. La playa de Conxta and La playa Zurriola. They are very close together but a peak of a mountain and a river seperates the two sandy beaches. My apartment is across the street of La Playa Zurriola. When I say across the street, I mean that the balcony in my bedroom overlooks the Bay of Biscay. This beach is the only beach that you can surf on and boasts the best surf in all of Europe. In the Spring there is a huge surfing competition here. Like I said, my bedroom has a balcony that is perfect for great scenic pictures. I have videos and pictures that I will post on here eventually but I am currently using a random computer at a internet cafe so I can not upload them. My two room mates, Dave (Xavier University) and Alex (Indiana University) agreed that the room that I am currently sleeping needs to be switched during the semester. I will be living in this room for the first 1/3 of the semester. The other two rooms are nice but do not have a balcony and a sea front view. The down side to a room with a balcony is the loud crashing of waves.....I will get very used to this....please dont worry ha!! So the view is awesome, my room mates are fun, and the apartment is well furnished, it sounds perfect but it is about a 45 minute walk to class. Well when you live in Rome you do as the Romans do, so what did I do, I bought a long board. I have never rode a skate board or anything like that but they are popular with U.S. students and very popular with all the surfers. It looks like a surfboard but it is only about 2-3 feet long and has wheels. It cuts my 45 minute walk into a 20 minute ride on the sidewalk along the beaches. My legs are sore and I look like I belong on a YouTube bloopers video but I am slowly learning.

I have soooo much more to talk about, and I will, but right now I have to go finish my ride to class. I will post pictures, videos, and more info as soon as I get more access to this thing they call internet.

Rob, Jake and Derek...thanks for the posts on facebook and here. Sorry I have not responded to them, I have read them and I appreciate them, a lot.

¡Hasta Pronto!

Luke

Ok, I have this started up and now have a few minutes to write some thoughts.

I'll start off with my first impressions of Spain as a whole.  I am still in the awestruck stage where everything still feels like I'm watching a movie.  Truthfully, the entire package of this culture combined with the people who create the culture really fascinates me.  The cities are old and filled with hundreds of years of incredible history.  Buildings are made out of brick and stone, never glass.  Every street corner you can find a statue immortalizing a king, queen, artist, or warrior.  The people are generally friendly to me and the other students but I can tell that they do get frustrated at times with our broken Spanish.  This is totally fair for them to feel this way about us because after all we are in their country so shouldn't we know how to speaktheir language.  I hope they understand that this is the reason why the majority of us are here, to learn their language and experience their culture.  One thing that I  have not adjusted to is the restaurant and bar service.  In restaurants, there really is not much service at all.  The servers take your drink order, bring your drinks out and at the same time order your meals.  After they bring out your food, there is no more interaction between server and guest.  From the first few meals here I have only been served one round of drinks and one round of drinks only before we have to request the check (because they don't just bring it out to you).  In my opinion, this is the result of two things: 1) they take much more time for meals, Spaniards view meal time as a time to socialize and not just eat and 2) they don't expect to be tipped.  If a meal is 9.80 Euros, you leave 10.  From what I have been told to do, you just round off to the nearest dollar.  This explains why they don't "serve" you during your meal.  Ill talk more about all the fascinating things about the everyday life in later blogs but I will only focus on one or two each time.

On Thursday 60 students and myself began a "Madrid Tour" where we are taken by guides to museums, buildings, and neighboring cities.  Our first two places that we visited on Thursday were Palacio Real de Madrid (Royal Palace) and the Prado Museum of Art.  

The Palacio Real, a video is posted above, has been one of the most amazing things I have ever been able to witness.  This breath taking palace has more than 2,800 rooms that were used for the King and Queen, guests, soldiers, and servants.  I was able to see the thrown for the king and queen.  They do not live here on a daily basis but everytime they are in Madrid they stay here.  The rooms they we were able to go through were filled with gold, beautiful paintings and marvelous clocks.  Every thing inside the palace was so fascinating.

The Prado Museum of Art was also beautiful.  I usually do not get too excited about art work and art museums but this one is difficult not to appreciate.  Hundreds of pieces of art from Spanish artists filled the walls.  Many paintings depicted the Christian religion.  The pride and joy of the Prado Museum was a painting by a Spanish painter, Diego Velazquez.  Velazaquez was the personal painter for the King and Queen of Spain around the 17th century. This is the painting "Menina":

It is a picture of the royal family with Velazquez in the image painting.  It was interesting to learn about all of the deep meaning behind this art but I will not bore you, or myself with this.  

I am heading out with a few friends to a "Tapas" restaurant where we will begin our night.  Ill try to get some Spanish speaking in, while having some wine and tapas.  Tapas are a huge meal in all of Spain.  It is kind of like a cracker or piece of bread with different meat and vegetable toppings. Who knows if I will like it but I promised myself I will do the best I can with trying native foods.

Hasta luego amigos!

  

This is inside the walls of the "Palacio Real" (Royal Palace) in Madrid, Spain.  It is the last remaining active palace in Spain.