Snow in San Sebastian!

Hello, all! The past few days have been very busy! The pinxtos tour was so much fun. As I mentioned in my last blog, San Sebastian is famous for it's 'pinxtos'. Basically, they are very fancy, elaborate appetizers. It is considered a very highly regarded form of art here. We went to 5 different bars on the tour and had one pinxto at each bar. It's also customary to have a 'small' glass of white wine with each pinxto (dangerous for a lightweight like me...). We started off the tour with a pinxto called Foie. Foie means duck liver.... it was....interesting.... I'm glad that I tried it, because it is definitely a delicacy here. It was a little much. The texture totally threw me off. And it was very greasy. But it also had very good flavor. Then we continued on to other famous bars and all the other ones were really delicious. We ended the tour with a piece of cheese cake! It was so incredible. I am such a cheese cake lover and this cheese cake was special! It was super creamy inside and the outer parts were a little bit more cooked and there was this sweet syrup over it that tasted like it was some sort of vanilla mixture - Mmmmm! Delicioso!

At the beginning of the tour, 2 girls that I had never met before walked up just as we were leaving. Their names are Maalia and Cristi. Maalia is from Greenland and Cristy is from California! It was so exciting to meet them. Since then I have pretty much been hanging out with them every day; they are a lot of fun!

After the tour that night, everyone went out to go dancing at one of the local bars called Tas Tas. It was so much fun! (Until we had to wake up for class the next morning!) That night I also met 2 guys from the U.S. who are living here in San Sebastian. One of them is from California and the other is from, guess where....SEATTLE! Such a small world! He's actually the owner of one of my favorite restaurants. So it's been fun getting to hang out with them a bit as well. The night after our tour, they cooked an amazing meal for us girls (there is a picture of my enchiladas on facebook). Everyone here is very friendly. Every time we go out to eat or out for drinks or to go dancing, we end up making new friends.

This past Saturday I went on a little excursion with my school to (even more) Northern Spain and then to France! It was really fun. It only takes about an hour to get there. We took a little tour through a really pretty old town in Northern Spain and we came upon a really cool wedding ceremony. There were all these people dressed up in these traditional costumes and they started doing this really cool dance together for the bride and groom when they came out of the church. It was really cool to see! (And the bride had a gorgeous dress!!!)

After the little tour we had a fabulous lunch outside in the sun and then hopped on a boat to France! We played on a nude beach there (even though it was pretty cold!) It was so much fun. However, it was way to cold for anyone to be nude!!! Then we walked through a really cute little town and took a tram back to San Sebastian. I'm happy that I can say that i've been to France now, but I still want to see more of that country!

Yesterday I went to a soccer game! San Sebastian has a soccer team called Real Sociedad. I went with a bunch of friends and we had great seats! Really close to the field. It was so much fun! And Real Sociedad won 2-1. The fans were going crazy and it was packed! It's such a huge part of the culture here; I'm so glad that I got to experience a fútbol game in Spain!

Then later on that evening it started snowing!!! It was absolutely beautiful, however I definitely was not dressed for snow! It has been snowing off and on today as well. Just when I thought this city couldn't get any more beautiful, I see it snow. Yet again, I have to pinch myself to make sure it's not just all a dream!

Miss you all! Besitos y abrazos,

Eli ;)