Kate and Alex at an overlook on Monte Urgull in San Sebastian. Our neighborhood is just to the left of Kate's shoulder.

Kaixo is Basque for hello! We welcome you to this website, a personal site for family and friends who are curious about our life in Spain.

The Mensing family left Reno at the end of 2001 to live in San Sebastian, Spain, for seven months. This website is a rough chronicle of our adventures, a public journal to record our travels, impressions and snapshots.

While here in San Sebastian, Donica is teaching two courses for college students studying abroad, and Scott is on sabbatical, doing research on climate change and environmental history. Hannah, Alex and Kate are attending a loosely disorganized cooperative school that provides tri-lingual education (Spanish, Basque and English).

Donostia (the Basque name for San Sebastian) is on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, just 10 miles south of the French border, in the heart of Basque country. It has a long interesting history as a Basque fishing village, military fortress, successful port city and fashionable summer resort for Spanish royalty.

The view from our apartment balcony, looking west toward Plaza de Guipuzcoa.

We are living on the fourth floor of an apartment building on a beautiful pedestrian street in El Centro, the heart of the shopping district. We are a 5-minute walk from two beautiful beaches, and a half-block from the historic old section with narrow streets and the densest collection of bars on the planet.

We have settled into a comfortable routine that makes life feel quite ordinary. It rains frequently, so we have spent many hours in our television-radio-stereo-free apartment, reading, working, cooking and hanging out. Inbetween, we travel. So far we've been to Amsterdam, Strasbourg, London, Madrid, Biarritz, Bilbao, Victoria, Toledo, Granada, Sevilla, Lisbon, Paris and a variety of places inbetween.

These notes describe our travel adventures, as well as some of the more mundane activities that we've discovered in this beautiful city. We love to hear from our friends, so please write when you can:

dmensing@unr.edu (Donica)

smensing@unr.edu (Scott)

greengryn@hotmail.com (Hannah)

lazy2000@hotmail.com (Kate)

Calle Elcano 3, 3 derecha

20004, San Sebastian, SPAIN

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Alex | Amsterdam | Strasbourg | Montpellier | Lisbon | London | Desserts | Bilbao | Segovia | Vitoria | Intercambios | Road van | Snapshots |

Donica and Hannah Mensing
dmensing@unr.edu
Last updated June 20, 2002