I can remember a couple months ago when I was talking to them that I joked about making a trip to come and visit me. Well, they took me seriously and a few weeks later, the tickets were booked! They found a really good deal on airline tickets, so they bit the bullet and booked them.
On Wedesday, May 18th, Patrick and Sara graced the country of Spain with their presence as they arrived around 6:00 that evening. I was like a little kid waiting for Santa to come and bring presents Christmas morning, just being happy and excited allllll day! I had Spanish class until 6 and after I was supposed to meet them at the stop where the bus left them off, just a little walk away from my apartment. I don't think I've ever power walked so fast in my life. I saw them sitting on a bench waiting for me and I about broke into a full out sprint. Screaming, yelling, smiles, and may hugs were given in the following minutes. You couldn't wipe the smile off of my face because this was the first set of visitors I've had since we arrived here in February. I walked them to my apartment, showed them around, and we went out for tapas that evening, talking, laughing, and just catching up life.
The next few days, I took them around to various places, hoping to give them a good Granada culture experience. They picked me up at my sports clinic on Thursday evening and met all those I had been working with at Clinica Deportiva Campoy. On Friday, we all walked up to the Albayzin and had some great Spanish food at the top in the Plaza of San Nicolaus. Lamb cooked in various sauces with olive oil, raisins, nuts, prunes, etc. It was delicious! I brought them to the first round of the indoor futbol play-offs game--they won! The team plays again in two weeks, I hope I can go! Sunday was a relaxing day, filled with a walk in the park and showing Patrick and Sara the chocolate con churros experience!
Sunday also marked a unique landmark in our stay here. As of May 22nd, we had officially been in Spain for 100 days! It still seems surreal to me.
Monday morning all of us got up early to go to Biomechanics class, even Patrick and Sara came! I thought it might be a fun experience to sit in on a true traditional college class in Spain. They said it was good, or at least they lied well. :) The beginning of the week also brought us yet another visitor, Karrie's best friend from high school, Kristin. It was funny because our friend Petra came over and asked to take a picture of our group including her friend Audrey from Chicago who was staying with her, because she had never seen so many Americans in one place, haha! It was fun to humor her and give her a little bit of grief about being so enthralled with Americans and the USA.
The next day I went to class at 12:30 and then I took Sara and Patrick put to Petra's apartment. She lives about 30 minutes out of the city center, so I thought it'd be a good thing for them to see a different dynamic of Spain, apart from the hustle and bustle of city life. We laid outside on her terrace and relaxed, just talking and having a good time.
Wednesday I had to cram- I had the final for my Spanish class that afternoon! I sad this class is over because I liked The Europeans I took it with and it really helped me with my Spanish. It's hard to believe that I'm finishing up a class already, where did the time go?!
Thursday Kristin, Karrie, Sara, Patrick and I took a bus down to Selobrena soak up some rays so our visitors could say they'd been to the Mediterranean. The weather wasn't as nice as we wanted it to be, but I did get some color so I consider the day a success! We had some lunch in the beach then walked back to he bus station to catch the bus, which ended up being 50 minutes late (some things in Spain never change). Before we left we bought an open ended bus ticket which meant that we got to choose what time/bus to return to Granada. What we didn't know, however, was that we supposed to go to the bus clerk at the station to confirm what time we wanted to officially book. So after waiting 50 minutes, they tried telling us that we couldn't get on the bus because we hadn't confirmed our open ended ticket, even though the bus only had about 5 people on it. The bus driver came to our rescue though, and talked to the clerk, allowing us time and permission to get everything figured out. We also had a nice guy from Barcelona who was waiting with us that stood build us ready to jump in and help at any moment. Thank God for good people! We got back to Granada sage and sound.
Earlier that week, Sara had tossed around the idea of going to Madrid for the weekend. We just decided to go for it, and within a few days had everything from the bus tickets to the hostel booked and ready to go! There was a lot that went on that weekend in addition to all the fun that was had, so I'm saving that little adventure for a separate blog (lucky you, two more blogs in ONE week!) Please try to contain your excitement.
Today (Monday, May 30th), my lovely guests are headed to see the Alhambra while I go to class and work at my internship. I plan on visiting the palace when my family comes to visit, so rest assured you will get a blog entry about that as well (I know you were worried you might miss out on something). Then we'll hang out and have one last night together before they head out tomorrow morning to get on a bus o Malaga to begin their journey back home.
I am so so happy that these two took the time and money to come and visit me. It was just the refresher I needed and I couldn't have picked any better friends (well, Brooke Kuster should have been added into the mix) to spend my time with. I am very grateful to have the friends I met during my freshman year of college and to be able to experience something like this overseas with them! As you can see, I have been all smiles throughout their stay. :)
First night in Spain!
We European-ized Patrick.
I took them to Petra's countryside apartment. What a view!
Beach day. Patrick's clearly lovin' it.
Relaxing!
Beach in Salobrena.
SO FUN! It's great they got the chance to come visit you!! Looks amazing :)
ReplyDelete