20 Adventures from my 20s: #3

As if it wasn't crazy amazing living in Bordeaux, France (in the most dreamy, storybook apartment in the centre-ville above a flower shoppe, across the street from a patisserie, with rooftops and church bells out my windows next to the fireplace in my bedroom), every day in France was a new adventure. I spent almost every waking hour interacting with non-Americans and traveling throughout Europe. The chance to integrate into a culture rather than pass through on vacation truly changes your life, your perspective, the way you see the world and see humanity and shifts your decision-making process. Or at least, it has the ability to, and I think it did for me. (I watched some very stubborn and arrogant Americans stomp through that year unhappy and irritable and return home in a huff). However, the next adventure was when it really hit me that I was LIVING IN EUROPE and that was due to the...

ROAD TRIP TO SAN SEBASTIAN, SPAIN

A German friend had driven to Bordeaux for the year, and therefore, had his car with him. My roommate Katie and I threw a small housewarming party one night, and I got pulled aside and asked if I would like to join two Germans and another American girl on a quick weekend jaunt to San Sebastian for the weekend, and I immediately accepted.

We left first thing in the morning, and we drove down the French coast, into Basque territory. Crossing into Spain was a little uneventful, but I remember coming into the San Sebastian area and just how mesmerizing it was, because it was so distinctly different from the dreamy, classical France. We wandered about the town for a little bit: checking out sites and restaurants, and I'll never forget passing through a small square on what was clearly siesta - a couple laid down passed out together on the grass, right next to their stroller, with the baby sleeping soundly as well. Adorable!

San Sebastian is famous for something like having the most bars and clubs within a square mile, and it was no joke. We found a hostel right in the thick of it. We took our own siestas and went and hit the clubs, however, Patrick and Kirsten ended up calling it a night early on. That was the night that Jens and I stayed up until the sunrise, bar hopping and partying with all of Europe that was there, me having to do to the bathroom so bad that he guarded me while I peed on the beach. I remember that while Jens and I were teaching each other to count to 10 in German and Romanian, and watching the sun rise over the bay and seeing a double rainbow come out, that it totally hit me like a brick to the face: I AM LIVING IN EUROPE. My weekdays and weekends will be filled with European things and visiting European places and speaking European languages! I was LIVING here, here where I spent my whole life learning about in history, seeing in the movies, studying in my textbooks! I like to believe that I didn't take a single thing for granted from that moment on.

When the sun was fully up, Jens and I went back to the hostel, stopping for pastries for breakfast, and getting a good 2 hours of sleep before we had to wake up, check out, explore the city some more and then head back up to Bordeaux. I was actually living my dream, and from that very specific moment, it could actually grasp that concept too.