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Hola mis amigos! 😊
Well, Jana’s wedding marked my last overnight trip until my parents arrive. As of the 19
th of May I only have one month left here in Cádiz and two months left until I arrive back in the United States. It’s been nearly a year of crazy adventures, new experiences, and definitely testing my limits. I really thought that after Jana’s wedding the excitement would die down and that things would be rather calm here in Spain with just papers and tests left as my “exciting” things to do, but Giorgio (my Sicilian geology professor) and his “field trip” added themselves to my long list of things that did not turn out how I expected. The only way to describe it is what I said at our last stop of the day, “Esta es la excursión más rara de mi vida.” (This is the weirdest field trip of my life).
My friends Nadine, Alessandra and I set off on our bikes to meet the bus and the other students for the morning. Of course, this would be the one day in the last two or so weeks to be cold, and cloudy
and threatening of rain. To make things better I forgot to pump up Marcos’ tires (Marcos is my bike by the way) and I ran over a plastic bag which got all tangled up in his chain and gears. We got it fixed, but it’s never a good way to start the day.
Nadine and I were pretty convinced this day was going to be a real “rollo” or a drag. At our first stop just outside Cádiz it was still windy, and cold and cloudy and we were listening to Giorgio lecture on and on about plants on sand dunes, and we were being held up by a group of elementary school kids on the same boardwalk as us. Suddenly in the middle of Giorgio’s lecture he stops looks at that back of the group and says “What? You guys are having a beer and didn’t invite me?” A group of kids in our class had brought coolers of beer along and were drinking them, at 11 o’clock in the morning, mind you. Just a side note, there are probably about 15 of us that come to class somewhat regularly and there were about 45 people
on this trip. About 30 seconds after Giorgio’s comment a can of beer comes up from the back of the pack and is handed up to Giorgio. “Oh, thank you.” So there is Giorgio, standing on the railing of a boardwalk, talking about plants on sand dunes and drinking a beer.
Our next stop was Conil, and thankfully the sun had come out and the wind had died down. What we needed to see was a ways down the beach, but it was high tide so we had to take off our shoes and jump over rocks to get to the ledge where we stood in the brisk water and again, listened to Giorgio talk about water buildup in the cliffs nearby…while sipping on a beer. So far it was odd, but not entirely strange.
The strange started to happen when we stopped at the grocery store for lunch where Giorgio paid for
everyone’s snacks (and beer) which came to a total of just over 50 euros; had I known he was paying I would have bought something! We then drove to the main beach to eat our lunch for about an hour and
a half. Apparently lots of kids brought their swimsuits, and it really didn’t occur to me that we would have time to go swimming on a university sponsored excursion, but it did to Giorgio because he brought his suit too! So, there was my Sicilian professor, drinkin’ a beer and swimming in the ocean with his students. Nadine brought volleyball so the rest of us took part in a (pretty pathetic) sand volleyball game. I’m no volleyball prodigy, but my Nebraska friends would have been pretty disappointed in the talent. It was really fun though! One of my friends, Irlanda (which actually means Ireland in Spanish) is from Mexico and is always fairly quiet, get her in a volleyball game though, and dang, she can scream and cheer pretty loud! It’s always the quiet ones.
We headed off to our final destination La Paloma which is down near Tarifa, the city at the southernmost point of Europe and the strait of Gibraltar. We were here for the soul purpose of looking at a giant sand dune. It was a pretty giant sand dune. We walked to the base of the dune next to the signs that said
“Please do not walk on the sand dunes” where Giorgio talked more about sand dune plants and restoration of beaches and how people move sand and so on and so on. This time the kids in my class had actually brought out their coolers and were carrying them along, it was a good choice since Giorgio walked right past the “Please do not walk on the sand dunes” sign and headed up the dune. “It’s ok! It’s for science!” It took the kids with the coolers a while to make it up to the top.
Once at the top I thought we would probably have more lectures, but no, no it was a party on top of a sand dune at the southernmost point of Europe looking at the coast of Morocco. The sort of thing you do on every field trip, of course! We went up the gently sloping part of the dune but on the other side was a steep slope that, I have to admit, I thought “Wow that would be really fun to slide down. Too bad that is probably illegal.” Or maybe not, our entire class slid down that thing! Everyone flipping
and tumbling down a giant sand dune while drinking beer and smoking cigarettes; that doesn't happen in the States…ever. My friend Barbara and I took our turn running down the dune, no beer or cigarettes but still fun.
We headed down the sand dune, but Giorgio started heading off in another direction. “Giorgio! Where are you going!?”
“Ima goinga to take-a little swima!” (In Spanish of course, but still with the Italian accent.)
So, we all headed back down to the beach and everyone that brought suits went out swimming…again! I, and none of my friends, brought anything to go swimming in so we hung out on the beach and Irlanda and Elsa (the two girls from Mexico) taught us that chili powder mixed with salt and limes is super delicious on top of carrots. Also, chili powder and oranges is super delicious. Who knew? Well, the Mexicans did.
Coolers empty, we packed up and headed back to Cádiz. Nadine (who is from Germany) and I were most definitely in awe of what we had just witnessed. Our friends who are regular students here in Cádiz also admitted it was a pretty
unorthodox excursion. Alessandra who is also from Sicilia was sort of surprised, too. I mean, somehow we were able to have our lectures and learn but also jump off sand dunes and play sand volleyball. It’s been a few days and I’m still pretty perplexed how exactly Friday happened. The things we do…for science. 😊
Love and miss you!
Love always,
Devin 😊
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