Wrapping up...

So here I go, continuing to compile the journal entries I wrote randomly in different notebooks…Sorry, none of this has been reread or edited! Just wanted to get it in one place before I forget it all :)

Bday party!

So Leigh, Cristina and our other friend Encarni (in English class with Cristina) all had a birthday around the same time. Laigh and I wanted to do something and we wanted to have a birthday cake for Leigh anyway so I ended up ordering one with all their names on it (all chocolate, for Leigh) Leigh, little miss art major, crafted three birthday hats and we met them at a bar. We surprised them with the hats and cake. Encarni and Cristina ar so much fun, they were excited and put the hats on right away (Cristina even walked up to the bar to order with hers on!) Then, because we couldn’t eat food we brought in the bar, after a drink and a few tapas we went to find a place to eat the cake. We decided beside the third biggest cathedral in the world would be a good place! :) So we chose a bench in the plaza right behind “la cathedral” and lit the candles and sang right there! The cake was delicious and we had a lot of fun.

Granada

We had a weekend trip to Granada that was included with my program. It was pretty cool, and it had quite an interesting start. We got there and had some free time to eat our bocadillos (sandwiches, Spanish style) from home. A few friends and I ate in a park and then were just goofing around dancing Sevillanas and stuff. Then one of my friends told us to all stand by the lampposts and take a picture. I stood by the first on and then looked back and everyone else was climbing up the lamp posts. So I decide to do the same. Now I was wearing my favorite, most comfortable pair of jeans, which are basically threadbare at the point. So hiking my leg in the air was not a good idea. The pants ripped in a not good place! And unfortunately, we were just there for the weekend so that was the only pair of jeans I brought! They held up just long enough for us to run to Corte Ingles, which praise the Lord was open even though everything else was closed for siesta, because we only had like 30 minutes until we needed to meet up with our group (and meanwhile the hole was getting worse!) My friends helped run around the store and fin dpants for me to try on. We finally found a pair that fit pretty well and they were all like “Yeah, yeah those are super cute, let’s go!!” So I bought them (paid a bit more than I would’ve liked but had no choice) and then we literally ran back to the hotel to meet our group.

The rest of the trip was ok, the Alhambra was cool but it was freezing cold and ugly out so it wasn’t ideal. I really loved the old Moorish part of town. It is up a hill, with winding narrow streets and an amazing view of the Alhambra and the city. It was super windy when we were out there but it was still really neat.

Hanging out with Cristina….

One day Cristina invited me to go to the beach with her, her boyfriend and some of his friends from work. It was really fun and really different, because I was the only American! So some times it was embarrassing when I couldn’t understand stuff or didn’t know what was going on. But I never had much problem when they addressed me, I normally could understand and answer. We all piled in his friend’s little car, five of us, and got stuck in traffic…me and Cristina reviewed Spanish vocabulary :) When we got there we went to meet their friend at his condo, oh and they were also all much older than me…funny…we had some tapas and then went to the beach…hung out there for a while…I started eating my bocadillo from Magdalena, and they were like what are you doing? It’s too early for lunch! (it was after 2 at least) And the guy who drove us up there had already made everyone sandwiches, including me, which was really nice. So I ate some of both. We didn’t swim, I didn’t want to and cristina didn’t either, so we just laid out and then took a walk on the beach. Afterward we went to see their friend’s new apartment that he just bought, and then went out to eat. They told me it was all food from “the pueblo”, because we were kinda out in the country. So they said the food was all natural and better. It was kinda a joke though because whenever something new would be brought out they would be like look Laura, this is bread from the pueblo!! Or whatever it was… I ate so much. The were all so nice because they paid for it and made sure I tried everything. Kinda looked at me weird when I didn’t actually drink the shot they had gotten for everyone, but they didn’t give me a hard time. We were tired on the way back, but still sang to some music in the car :)

Then, Cristina and Encarni invited Leigh and I to go to the Feria in Jerez (another city close by) with them. It was so fun! First we went to Cadiz, a city a little past Jerez on the beach where Cristina is from. Leigh and I took the train and met them and Cristina’s aunt and cousins and we toured around the city—went to the cathedral and saw Christina’s university and the beach…it was beautiful. Then that night we went to the Feria! I actually might have liked it better than the one in Seville because all the casetas were public, you could go in any of them, and they were all decorated differently. So we walked around and went in a few. We tried some of Jerez’s famous wine (too sweet for me) and danced Sevillanas. There was this guy who was like this professional dancer, very serious, seemed interested in Cristina. We made fun of her because when he left he had to come up to her and tell her “Nos vamos” (we’re leaving) in a very serious way…so then we all copied his intense dancing style after he was gone. It was funny. You’d kinda have to be there I guess.

At about 3 am Cristina’s cousin was still going strong but Leigh and I were getting tired, so we left. Encarni had invited us to stay at a cabin with her friend who lived outside the city (Cristina didn’t have enough room for the both of us) so we went with her. Really super random…ended up in a little cabin in the middle of the Spanish countryside…now keep in mind, Encarni is basically a hippie… so we were there with her and her boyfriend and their friend (who had a mullet, though that’s not as uncommon in Spain) and we just kinda hung out the next day because the weather wasn’t really good enough to go to the beach. They cooked us a delicious lunch…then the guys smoked something questionable…but ya know, what can you do? They were very hospitable.

Then Cristina came and picked us up and took us back to Seville!

A few weeks later my friend from high school, Amber, came to stay in Seville for a few days before we traveled together. She stayed with me and my host mom. She was kinda shocked at the amount of food Magdalena tried to make her eat. During this time there was also a traditional pilgrimage to the “Rosario” I think she was called, she is a very famous virgin Mary and everyone travels with carts and horses and traditional dress and music to see her. A group from every church is sent to see it and it is quite an ordeal. Amber got to see some of it with me and then another night I was really tired and busy so Magdalena took Amber to see the processions coming back into Seville and basically dragged her all around the city speaking really fast so Amber with her limited Spanish knowledge was clueless. It was funny :)

The last night was fun, we had a party at CC-CS and I had to tell Cristina bye…almost cried…she gave me some earrings from a ceramics place we had visited together and a book with a really nice note in it… After we left the party a group of us Americans went and had churros and chocolate for the last time at the churros stand, stepped into a local bar for a little bit, and then walked around town one last time and took lots of crazy pictures, like at the river, the cathedral, and in front of the bullring. It was a really fun but virtually sleepless night. And Amber and I were off to Madrid the next day! I have all of the stories of our 2-week gallivant around Spain and some of Europe written in another notebook. If you want to hear about it let me know because I don’t think I will get around to typing it!

So, as far as I know, this is it. Spain was the time of my life, the Lord blessed me beyond measure. I would give anything to be back there!