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