Segovia and our first day in San Sebastian

The whole San Sebastian 2009 Group in Segovia

Today, we went to a town called Segovia on our way to San Sebastian. In Segovia, we saw a maginificent castle, which Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty's castle was inspired by. It was amazing and the views were stunning.

Me at the top of the Castle

Also in Segovia, we saw a 2000 year old aqueduct. Segovia was a Roman military base where they needed water, so they construct ed a 9 mile aqueduct. They used nothing but stone to create this, and it is still standing!!

Roman Aqueduct in Segovia

After Segovia we started driving towards San Sebastian. We stopped at a "self service cafeteria" and Kelly and I got pasta which was pretty nasty. It was 6 euros and tasted like spaghetti-o's but worse. NASTY!

Anyways so then we drove a lot more and finally (after the huge hail storm) got to San Sebastian.We stayed in a super nice hotel and had dinner at a neighboring restaruant and we got really yummy ice cream for dessert. Here is where we met the rest of the kids in our group for the summer.

Today we had an orientation and took a spanish placement exam. Then we found our apartment! We are living right in the center of town which is very nice in a cute little apartment. It has cherry wood floors throughout and is tiny but well kept. The craziest part is the way you dry clothes. There's a window in the kitchen that has this greenhouse type courtyard that is just for clotheslines. We did a load of laundry and were amazed.We took a walking tour of town and made a small stop at the grocery store. We had to carry our food back so we didn't buy much!

Our roommate is Spanish and her name is Marta. She is very, very nice and speaks perfect english. She has hopes to become and English teacher and is going to Los Angeles in the fall. We like her a lot. Tonight we just unpacked and got settled in and now it's about to be midnight and we have classes tomorrow so we may go to bed soon. We will update on how classes go later. OH! I almost forgot .... since Marta lives here permantely, we have the internet which is very uncommon for USAC students! So awesome!

I forgot another great thing! Kelly and I tried this little cafe by the cathedral in the center of our side of town and we got AMAZING hamburgers. We both agreed it was one of the best burgers ever. Also, an interesting thing is that when a menu says chips or potatoes it really means french fries. WEIRD!

Here's my mailing address:

• Katie DiCostanzo
• USAC Edificio Ignacio M^a Barriola
• Universidad del Pais Vasco/EHU
• Plaza Elhuyar 1
• 20018 Donostia-San Sebastian, Gipuzcoa, Spain