Mt. Climbing and "going out"

Hola el mundo!

So, I made it through my first week of school without dropping out! Okay, una broma, but school is so awesome so far!

As a group, we have traveled around the old town of Santander, and gone to the Picos de Europa, a mountain range about 120 km from the city. During the trip to Picos, we took a gondola 800 meters up the side of the mountains and then had an hour and a half to be free. I, of course, wanted to go hiking, so I ended up walking WAY too far into this high altitude valley (SO beautiful) and I almost missed the gondola on the way back down. I ended up covering 7 KM in about 50 minutes overall...not too bad, especially since I was running slow due to my backpack and the altitude (2500meters roughly.) So I ended up going on a nice run (I am SO sore today) instead of a hike!

I also had the opportunity to touch a piece of the Cross that Jesus died on...that was REALLY cool, and unexpected because I didn't bother reading the trip itinerary. It is supposed to be the largest remaining piece of the Cross in the world. Whether it is, or not, it was WAY awesome! I also read some 1000 year old books (not made of paper, but rather cow stomach) and I was also inside of a 1000 year old church. That trip was super awesome but prevented me from going out last night, so I slept 14 hours instead. It was a nice trade off!

Tonight, I am heading out to grab some coffee with "some people" (meaning 7 girls) and then out to a club called "Aguafuego." If you can figure out the translation, you can probably figure out what drinks they specialize in! But of course, I am not drinking here in Spain because I am being a good roll model for my students :-) Only wine with all my meals, and home-made Sangria on the weekends...;-)

That is life! I hope you all are well. Go Beavers, good luck beating UCLA! Congrats to Dale (yes, RA Dale) for going to the game!!!

Con amor,

Sr. Esteban Hodges III