When I decided to do the Study Abroad Program to San Sebastian I couldn’t believe that I got accepted, for me this whole process would be complicated which it turns out that it wasn’t at all. I remember looking up everyday the city San Sebastian on social media, and most of all I always got Monte Igueldo, where the view of the city is amazing, exciting to actually go there myself and enjoy the beautiful views. Our professor Julian after class took us to the San Telmon Museum, which is a museum that explains the history of the city and the most important people that somehow had an impact on the city. We went inside the museum and our first stop was this room with an orange wall and a bunch of print series by Francisco de Goya. His work was a reflection of the Peninsular War that happened in 1813, this is the reason why he named this series “The Disaster Of War”.

The were a lot of of interesting drawings/ painting, but there was a specific one that caught my attention that one was the piece that closely resembles “Iberia”, this was an oil on canvas painting by Robert Motherwell, this piece even thought it look simple it has a lot of hiding meaning behind it. After doing some research about this piece I found out some historical and political meaning behind it. The whole painting is connected to the Peninsular War between Spain and Portugal, it reflects the somber atmosphere, political oppression, and the emotional weight of Spanish people under the Francos dictatorship. Another part of the same piece that catches my attention was the missed corner on the left side of the painting which emphasizes the weight and density of the black paint making it look less shadow consuming the light, which if we connected to the history it can represents the struggle between light and darkness, and also from my point of view its representing upcoming hope or peace after the disaster.

We couldn’t finish the whole tour because we were running late to go to Monte Igueldo. For this reason we left the museum a little bit early, we had to take a bus to Monte Igueldo so we were forced to speedwalk to be able to make it on time. Although it was pouring rain the whole day  luck was on our side, the sky cleared up and we were able to go all the way to the top and enjoy the beautiful view. Once we arrived at the top I couldn’t believe what my eyes were seeing, what one day I saw through a screen was right in front of me. Julian told us a little history behind how old the place was, yet they were able to build an attraction park, it was amazing. My friend Gaby and I didn’t hesitate to take a bunch of pictures not only of the view but also ourselves with the beautiful beach behind it.

Lastly we did like a ten minute walk to this place that is called Peine del Viento that in English is translated to The Comb of the Wind, the view here was amazing too. What catched my attention was the meaning behind the three comb, the first one represents the past, the second one which is where we were standing represents the present, and the last one represents the future. It is crazy how the professor asked us what we thought it meant and none of us thought it would be this simple, which is something I really like about this city is how the most simple things have the greatest meaning behind it. I never thought of actually leaving one of my biggest dreams, which was studying abroad. I always wanted to do it but never actually realized how close that dream was. We been only here for three days and I already fall in love with the city, its uniqueness, the wonderful places all around it, the music, and specially the ice cream which they are delicious, I treat myself with a little ice cream most of the time after finishing our tour around the city, as a reward for all the walk.