Style & Grace

1. Buy the first train ticket to the Chocolate Capital of France with no prior knowledge of what you will do there 2.Be amazed when you get off the train, that it is actually very beautiful 3. Walk in and out of the stores, marveling at how cute the flags above all the streets are. 4. Stop to listen to the accordion player or watch artists 5. Walk inside the random cathedral and sit for a moment to take it all in 6. Try to read french, or just look at it because it is such a pretty language 7. This is an important one...Eat Chocolate! 8. More Chocolate, in liquid form!  9. Forget how much chocolate you just had and try to communicate with the kind waiter, chat with your friends, take a load off your feet 10. Get lost in the city 11. Realize you are France ( How cool is that!) 12. Almost miss your train by 1 minute, but end up catching a train that looks like the Hogwarts Express 13. Realize when you get back to San Sebastian that you have been sitting on a stopped trai...

Excursion to the Pyrenees  Through the USAC program, you go on two excursions throughout your program, our first one was to the Pyrenees. We took a bus to this location, but the bus ride was hilarious. Our program director, Patricia, can literally talk forever. So she began with "this is only going to be 5 minutes".  After telling us the history of the Akklarre and the witches caves we were going to be visiting later that day, she talked about the Pyrenees and all about the train we were going to take that morning. Needless to say, after 45 minutes of her talking, we were there :) We loaded onto "Le Petit Train de la Rhune" This train goes up almost 1000 meters and you can see all of the basque country. Our train was very quaint and provided amazing views. We spotted some horses freely grazing as we were on the train Our conductor on the train, sometimes it was a little scary because we were at a sharp angle on this little train and we weren't sure this li...

On October 11th, Sarah, Michelle and I went on a hike near Gros about 5 minutes from my apartment It is really great that I live so close to a forest, you could walk all the way to the next town over  This is Michelle and Sarah's hiking pose It was a perfect day out because it was a little cloudy, and a sunday so everything in town is closed, so we decided to go for a little outdoor time. The first part of the hike was paved but then it turned into all dirt.  This is the view of my beautiful city, The closest beach is in front of Gros called Zurriola, where all the surfers go. ( The funny thing is, I just did a presentation on this hike, so in my head I am narrating the story in spanish) Anyways, a lot days are like this in San Sebastian, but this was the first overcast day. It was still beautiful! (Me in front of San Sebastian) During the hike, we found this weird hole in the ground that seemed to be an old structure, but we were not sure what it was. Michelle went in ...

Things to remember: Never wear flip flops in the rain  Bon Iver is great running music The back of Gros is scary at night because all you can see are stars The candy store lady from across the street knows me :) Walking with a huge smile singing along with music  (This is when you know you live in a surf town) ("The filthy five" at their finest) Our USAC boys are indescribable  The street performers on the 1st bridge, Later we saw him taking a lunch break with bocadillo in hand :)