"I thought they wouldn't notice!"

(ANGELA WROTE THIS, NOT MS. GRUNER. SO THIS IS A STUDENT SPEAKING. EXCEPT WITH MS. GRUNER'S APPROVAL. AND THIS IS THE RESPONSIBLE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT TOO.)

Today, we set off to the beach town of San Sebastian, or Donostia as it's called by the Basque locals. We had amazing views of the water, the beach, and the surrounding city (after our guide Roberto figured out which way we were supposed to look and not look. "Don't look right! Don't look right! Wait, we turned around... DON'T LOOK LEFT! LOOK DOWN ~~ Okay, now you can look... isn't it pretty :D?") In the morning, we stopped by Mount Igueldo amusement park, which was on top of a mountain by the Playa de la Concha, where we spent the afternoon.

For lunch, we ate some really amazing pintxos, a famous local dish, in the old part of the city. Pintxos (or pinchos as they're spelled in Spanish) are little bits of food like hors d'oeuvres, or canapés, except that they're bigger, more filling, and with with more interesting ingredients. Oh, and cheaper*! Two or three of those were enough for a solid meal (really. They're pretty big.) They're hard to explain... but they're really good!

In the afternoon, we went to the beach and spent a few hours there, after we managed to a) buy some towels (yeah. um. We all forgot those...), b) find the beach (great job, Señora! "I thought they wouldn't notice!"**) and c) find some shade (a toldo, awning, is not the same as a beach umbrella, a mistake I will never make again). It was sunny, the sand was hot, the water was cold, and we had some sodas and ice cream. It was great!

And now we're back at the hotel. Dinner is in a few hours, at the same time as the US v. Ghana fútbol soccer match... we'll brave the wrath of the waitresses to go run out to the TV between courses! (The waitresses are.... very controlling.... "No! You must all sit together! No, you must all come down to breakfast at the same time! No, YOU MAY NOT GET UP TO GO WATCH THE GAME!" and so on and so forth.)

*The per unit price of pintxos is higher than that of hors d'oeuvres or canapés, but the per meal price is lower, since you don't need to eat that many for a full meal.

**Ms. Gruner decided to lead us the long way to the beach around the coast instead of cutting back through the city center, wanting to avoid the students' complaints and "Hey We've Gone This Way Before What Are You Doing?". The "long way" ended up meaning "around the mountain", half an hour longer, and ended in the inevitable "Wait! That was the cathedral we saw in the city! Do you mean we could have just gone that way instead of all the way around!?" So much for not noticing...***

***Most of us wouldn't have noticed, except one student noticed... and that was the end of that. We noticed.