Gran Canaries

This was our last trip as a group and it was awesome. We stayed at these bungalows that were pretty much across the street from the beach and the sand dunes. We had to walk about 200-300 yards through sand dunes to get to the ocean. The Canary Islands are off the west coast of Africa. The first day at the beach it was windy so sand was getting every and it hurt when it pelted us. The wind kind of sucked, but we just went swimming in the ocean and made the most of it. We all went out later that night to a club and had a great time dancing and drinking. The next day we made breakfast at our bungalows and headed back to the beach and there was no wind this day so it was much nicer. The beach was a nude beach, so we saw some stuff that we probably wish we wouldnt have. The part of the island we were at had a lot of draw for retired people on vacation and gay people. There were also a lot of swinger clubs. There were probably at least 100 miniture golf courses with-in a 5 mile radius and a lot of the buildings and shopping centers were build to look like miniture golf courses. It was pretty weird. We pretty much just hung out the whole time at the beach and at the pool at our bungalows other than the one night we went out. The weather was great and all of us got burnt. I probably got 14 hours of sleep the whole weekend so when we got back on Monday I was beat. I slept for 12 hrs and it took me all weekend to catch back up on my sleep. It was an awesome last trip with all my new friends and now I have my last week at school and finals. Today is my last Sunday in Madrid. Im starting to get bummed out, but it has been such an awesome experience and I am definitely fortunate and blessed to be able to have had the opportunity.

San Sebastian

I went to San Sebastian this last weekend, and so far it is my favorite place I have been to in Spain and possibly out of the other places as well. San Sebastian is in the north of Spain and its just this smaller town that is right on the ocean and has two different beaches. One is more for surfing than the other. There are 2 mountains on either side of the cove/beach that have amazing views of the city and the countryside. The weather the first day was cloudy and it lightly rained, but the next day we go lucky and the weather cleared out so for the afternoon we had sunny blue skies and went to the beach and jumped in the ocean. The water was freezing, but refreshing. San Sebastian is pretty well known for its pinchos or tapas. At pretty much at all of the bars there is just trays of tons of different types of pinchos or tapas sitting on top of the bar. You just grab 1 or 2 and eat it standing there at the bar. It is a really cool setting. On saturday the town came alive and there were people everywhere on the streets and tons of soccer games going on on the beach. There were also a lot of crew teams out in the ocean. This is the first place that I have thought that I could actually live. Northern Spain is much more green and has way more trees and you could live in the country and have a 15 or 20min drive to San Sebastian. Awesome weekend.

Salamanca

I have not been good about keeping this updated so im going to try to catch you up. Two weeks ago I went to Salamanca with the school. Salamanca has the oldest university in Spain and is a fairly big college town. It is not a huge city, but it is very authentic. There are many tapas bars, the plaza mayor, the university, and the big cathedral that has influence from both the gothic and roman era. There is also a river that runs through the town. Salamanca was cool, but i was told that it is better to stay the night to get the experience with it being a college town, but i did not do that cause I went only for a day trip with the school. The university was cool because after you received your Phd your name would get written on the wall with some kind of blood and after so many years there was faded writing on the walls of blood. Also there used to be a saint named, Padre Lucero, i believe, and he taught at the university and was know to be very intelligent. After he died they put a statue of him in the cathedral and you can sit in a chair and put your feet on his statue and it is a superstition that you will receive his knowledge. I guess many students do this even to this day before finals and exams.