Saturday, July 7, 2012

Málaga and Barcelona!!

Surprise... I didn't think I would have time to post but I do actually! Yesterday, while on the airplane, I was able to type up a lot of stuff! There are no pictures, but you get a very detailed account of final Granda details, and traveling to Barcelona! Spoiler alert: I am in love with Barcelona, and today (Saturday) was beyond epic! We literally went from 9am until midnight nonstop!!  The only downside of this post is that there are not yet pictures! I actually took 658 pictures... in one day! (I calculated, and that was almost a picture every minute!) That is a new record!! So enjoy, I know none of it actually involves Barcelona YET, but it will come!


Hello! Today (this is actually Friday) we began the 10 Day Adventure!  And while I said in my video blog post that I wasn’t really going to post much, I know realize it will be easy to keep up, since I am typing all of this up on the plane! It’s crazy to me that we haven’t even done anything yet, and I am still having so much fun! Kelley, Elle and I just planned out what we will do over the upcoming days in Barcelona and it will be so cool!

Last night we had our farewell dinner in Granada with our program, which consisted of some hot and cold appetizers, a vegetarian pasta dish for me, followed by a cheesecake sampler platter, with small pieces of original, berry, banana, and possibly a crème brulee or something flavored cheesecake! The dinner finished around midnight, and everyone was saying goodbye to each other. It was actually quite sad, and everyone was amazed by how fast the program had gone by. I was not expecting it, but I started crying when I was hugging and saying goodbye to Nerea (my composition teacher) and Miguel Angel (the resident director of the program).  (Side note: they are married and also the cutest couple ever!).  Then, Kelley, my friend Emily, and I started walking home!  We had some great conversation while we took the view in, although it was surreal that this was the last time we would see these sights, at least for a while.  I got home around 1am, and then it was time to pack! It took a little bit longer than expected, but I had packed everything by 3:30am and then wrote a thank you note/letter to Carmen. Then I went to bed, woke up at 7, and got ready for our bus!

Saying goodbye to Carmen was very difficult, since she has been so great and we were so close. I was actually happy we parted ways in the morning rather than later in the day, since we cried four times while I was getting my things together. Also, there were soo many hugs and lots of kisses on the cheeks. She kept having to wipe off her lipstick.  Carmen walked with me to the bus stop, where we met up with Kelley and Pepe. When the bus came, there were lots of hugs and final goodbyes. I really hope Carmen is okay, since she kept saying that she will miss me so much, and needed to make lots of plans this weekend with Jorge or her friends so she doesn’t have to be home alone. Such a wonderful woman!

Kelley and I took the bus to the main bus station in Granada, and met up with Elle! We took a bus to Málaga, which is a city along the southern coast of Spain. They have the largest airport in the Andalucia region, and therefore the cheapest flights!  We got to the airport quite early, but then got checked in and went through security! Everyone was very nice! Then we waited some more and boarded our flight!  Smooth travels so far on our way to Barcelona!  Some fun stories from the trip so far included us sitting on the floor by this giant pillar to have a picnic lunch, and using the scale to see how heavy our bags were. It was hilarious since Kelley went first and chose the English option, which told her that her bag weighed three stones and 7 pounds! None of us had ever even heard of stones before, so she weighed it again in Spanish to get kilograms!  And, none of us were over the limit! To prepare, we had put more stuff in our backpacks, carried a purse with us, and personally, I was wearing 6 shirts (well, 4 of them were tank tops), jeans, and sneakers! It was quite fun!

Epic side note about Málaga: When Carmen was younger and Jorge was just a baby, the family would spend summers in Málaga, and their next door neighbors happened to be the Iglesias family. Yes, as in Enrique and Julio Iglesias, who is just a little older than Jorge.  She showed me photos of Jorge and Enrique playing by the pool!  Also, Enrique’s father, Julio, was famous and well known in Spain at this time, which is even more cool that they were able to live next door.

Adios!!

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