Santander-I finally settled in!

This is the view from my room. I can actually see more of the ocean too.

Sorry that it has taken me so long to write about where I have been living the past week. I have just finally settled in and now I can share all about my new city with you. Santander is the farthest north you can get in Spain and it is right on top of the beach. It sounds great, no? Yes, I love being able to open up my window and look out onto the beach. Unfortunately, it rains a lot in Santander. This part is not so much fun when you have to walk to school without an umbrella (I finally got one though)! We have been pretty lucky with the weather. It has only rained 2 1/2 days and the rest have been sunny, but with Santander you never know what kind of weather you can have.

Santander is considered a small city although it is very spread out. There are a little less than 200,000 inhabitants in the city. I was one of the lucky students to live right across (I mean like 10 feet) from the beach. Along the beach there are walkways and beautiful gardens and benches everywhere to enjoy the view. I plan on using these areas to read and get some good walking in when the weather is good.

Here's my living/studying situation. Host Family: I'm living with Naomi, who is from Japan, but studying in the states. I have my own room because Naomi paid for her own. At first I really wanted to be with a roommate, but I do like having my own space even if it is ridiculously small. Look below.


The couch you see in the picture is actually my bed. Every night I take off all the pillows and pull the sheets back to sleep under them. My pillow is on a shelf under the little table in my room and there is an extra blanket there, too. This experience in Santander is truly helping me to learn how to adjust to completely new settings.

My host family consists of a 68 yr old woman who is a mother of four, who all have their own families. She is a very nice woman and cooks very healthy (unlike other families), but she is a very modern woman because she is NEVER in the house. It makes me a little sad that I never have the opportunity to sit down with her and talk to her about her life or Spain in general. Naomi and I usually eat alone or I'll eat by myself because Naomi likes to eat early. Oh well, just a new situation to try to adjust to. The house is nice and from my window I can see the ocean, which is beautiful!

Emily and me at the beach.

La Universidad Internacional de Menendez Pelayo: The school is a 15 min. walk from my piso(flat). It is a very small language school, but I really like it. They have very good professors who are very friendly and informal with us, but really try to help us. When I first took the placement test for grammar, I was placed in superior which is great, but I really needed the review and practice so I decided to be in advanced and that actually was a great decision. I'm also taking Literatura Espanola and Cultura Espanola. Both classes are interesting. Culture is fun because all we do is talk about the culture and observations we have. I think Literature will be good, but right now it is difficult, hopefully it will get easier. I have to read a famous Spanish piece by the end of the 3 months.

Other than that I've just been trying to get acquainted with the city. The center of the city is far from my piso, but there's a tunnel I can take or a bus to get to the center. I'm really happy with everyone in my group. Everyone gets along together and we do a lot of things together while trying to practice our Spanish. Oh, and last Wednesday we had intercambios (exhange) with Spanish students who are learning English. The point of the intercambio was for us to meet some people from the town to hang out with, but also for us to practice our Spanish and for the Spaniards to practice their English. Well, I met 3 people that I really liked, who are really easy going and fun to talk to. They are Pilar-22, David-22 and Andrea-24. My friend, Emily, and I went with the three of them to a bar/cafe just to talk and get to know each other. So we plan on getting together again next week sometime. I'm very excited about having Spanish friends again!

Well, that's all for now. I hope all of you are well back at home. Besos! Celeste