Poco y Poco

After long last I´ve finally broke down and decided to update my blog! I´m sorry it took me so long I´ve just been getting settled in and have not really had the time to sit down and spend an hour trying to learn how to do this again.  My student ID card has not been published yet so I´m writting this at an internet cafe (only 1 euro for an hour) but once I get my card I should have more updates and be able to put up more pictures that are actually  my own.  But for now, I´m going to show yall some pictures my friends have taken and give you a rundown of my first full week in Santander.

This is the group of people I´m traveling with, there are 20 of us and I really like everyone!  I was talking to a few people and everyone thinks it weird how close we have gotten in only 7 days.  I think its because we are all going thru a new experience.

These pictures are all from Jason and were takin on a tour of the city we did the first few days we were in Santander.  La Universidad de Cantabria has tons of exchange students from all over the world and so they set up tours for students who arnt from the area to learn a little more about the city and see the sites.  The first picture is of a famous house and without getting into boring details is pretty much the signature spot in Santander.  The other pictures are of the beach, obvously a big part of life here, where most people have some connection to the water in there daily lives.  The region is pretty much built around tourism and fishing so I thought I would show yall what you are missing out on!.  The water is freezing by the way, I´ve never been to the pacific but I assume thats what its like, almost too cold to swim in!

My Madre I´m living with is really cool but literally does not speak a WORD of English.  I gave this post the title poco y poco because I guess its like a spanish saying: little by little and thats def. how my language is coming.  I´m feeling more and more comfortable talking to her and even tho she is speaking slow I feel proud when I can hold a conversation with her for any amount of time!  My house is in the perfect location- la calle de Generial Davilla and is about 10 min. to the city center and 10 mins to the university.  My room is small and the whole house smells like smoke because my madre smokes like a chemney but I was honestly pleasantly suprised (I´ve got pictures on my I touch of my room AND of my cookies and milk that I´ll show you soon) The food on the other hand is a different story!  I am constantly hungry in this freaking city! for breakfast I literally eat cookies, a glass of milk (usually with nesquick) and an apple or banana yummmmm talk about filling! In Spain, lunch is the biggest meal of the day and I will end up eating some sort of soup (I had one the other day with noodles like in spaghetti with a chopped up hard boiled egg in it) and than a meat dish of like pork chops and fries. The pan gets me thru it tho I´m a big fan of the bread here.  For dinner more of the same: bread, soup, pasta usually and maybe fruit.  I´ve got a feeling i´m going to lose weight!

Another shot of the harbor

Most of us at a club, yes I realize I´m cheesing it.  Without going into much detail I´ve been living it up here and plan to settle down a little once school starts monday.  We have been going out at about 11 30 and I literally havnt been getting home till 5 30 or 6.  The birds are out and everything so wierd!  The sad thing is, that doesnt even make me a BA because in Spain its completely normal and usually I´m walking home earlier than other people.

Thats all for now! Next time I promise I´ll update earlier so the post wont be so long!