My experience in Madrid ended with Javier treating me to VIPS, an American style breakfast place close to his home. We ordered the “Americana,” consisting of pancakes, eggs, bacon, and French fries. I know, you are thinking, French fries for breakfast? Yes, and lunch, and yes, for dinner as well. It makes sense; the French are crazy folks. Additionally, I ordered a café cortado, an expresso, while he sipped a café con leche. I have to admit that the pancakes hit the spot-especially with the homemade whip cream and thick chocolate and caramel topping the load of carbs. I watched my watch that I now have handily on my arm because I haven’t bought a cell phone yet; I was feeling just a bit nervous about not making the bus to San Sebastián. However, as we left and drove to the Avenida de las Américas bus station, we quickly found a place to park and thank goodness for Javi, helping me with my luggage. I for sure would have been a disaster on my own, and probably would have boarded a different bus.
After settling in nicely and being reminded that just yesterday I was sitting for about 15 hours because my tailbone immediately started to hurt again, my goal was to see the countryside on the way to my destination. However, I know myself better than that, and as soon as my head rested on the seatback, like a switch had been flipped, my eyes were closed. I slept the majority of the way to San Sebastián (SS) but was awake long enough to know that everything was covered in snow all the way to Bilbao. We stopped at the bus station at Bilbao, and I immediately wondered what I had gotten myself into. Bilbao is located about an hour west of SS, and it was covered in about 3 feet of snow. I did not sign up for snow was my first thought; I signed up for beach and nice weather. Light sprinkles I could handle, snow I did not prefer. After the discovery, I anxiously awaited our arrival to SS and did not sleep the rest of the way wondering if SS was going to be blanketed in snow as well. Snow sprinkled the green countryside on the way, but succeeded upon arrival to SS. Pulling into the bus station, I started to get excited-here I was-in MY new city. Throwing my hikers backpack on my back, and dragging the rest of the luggage through the melted snow, I slowly made my way to an awaiting taxi, and asked him to take me to Hotel Codina. I had promised myself to speak Spanish when I arrived, but this was one of those akwkard-I’m sitting right next to you but don’t want to bother trying to carry on a conversation-stupid Americana. And I was too tired to force the conversation, so we settled on silence for the ten minute ride to the hotel.
I checked in no problem, and upon arriving to my third floor room, realized that I had no freakin’ idea how to open the hotel door, and certainly didn’t have the patience to try to decipher what the picture on the back of the key was trying to tell me. I couldn’t believe I’d made my way all the way across the world, reached my destination, and couldn’t figure out how to open a hotel room door. Luckily, my roomie for the night, Jillian from Nevada, came to the rescue and let me in. After dropping my baggage, I looked at the information sheet I was handed and the front desk and discovered that we had a meeting in ten minutes. Nice. Nothing like being informed ahead of time. At the meeting, Tito, the USAC coordinator, met with each of us as we signed our housing contract and received our key. The mystery was just about over….our fate for the next five months was about to be decided. In the group of five called to the table with me, Tito addressed me and a tall blonde girl named Maggie and excitedly told us that we were going to LOVE our apartment; it is in a great location en el Centro, right where all of the shopping, bars, and restaurants are located. He also said that our roommates are two very likeable Spanish girls that are medical students, but "don’t seem like it", which I took as that they were not nerdy, such a stereotype, I know, yet “cool” like us.
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