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Geez, I have been slow about documenting my spring break. Just so you know, I was in Malaga in late March and early April.
Malaga was the least famous place on the list of my continental destinations, but it ended up being my favorite. In case some of you have never heard of Malaga, it is a city on the southern coast of Spain in the area where Spain almost touches Morocco. The city itself wasn't really that beautiful--a lot of not so elegant high rises-- and the beach that I went to wasn't the best ever, either, but the atmosphere of Malaga is excellent. I'm not sure if everyone would have as good a time in Malaga as I did, though, because this excellent atmosphere was mostly the creation of one Leslie Crain. Some of you may be acquainted with Leslie, but for those of you who aren't I will tell you that she is a very very smart, pretty, and sweet girl who graduated from the U of A last year and then promptly took a job teaching English in Spain. Leslie spent a year in Malaga two years ago while I was in Rome and she totally
kids at fountain
this was another picture that i felt creepy taking, but i swear, my intentions were pure. fell in love with Malaga and Spain. As it is her second year living in Malaga, she has a very strong base of friends there, both Spanish and international, and she was nice enough to share these friends with me, making my time in Andalucia very entertaining.
Leslie lives in a really awesome apartment. She lives on the 10th floor of a building that is so positioned that if you look out the window of her kitchen, you can see the big, crumply sage green Andalusian mountains, and if you look out the windows in her bedroom you can see the Mediterranean! Fabulous. She's about a 10 minute walk from the beach, so most everyday we would go lay out in the warm sun and work on our tans. I tried to do some reading during these sunning sessions, but usually there was a whole gaggle of Leslie's fellow teachers hanging out and we all just gossiped. It was pleasant. Also, Spanish beaches are very boob friendly. I definitely kept my top on, though. My Protestant blood can't allow for such things.
Nightlife in Malaga is much more limited than in the larger cities, but I had a
fantastic time going out. I even managed to stay up till 6 in the morning one night--just like a real spaniard! My poor thighs hurt the whole time I was in Malaga, though, from all the dancing, which made the 10 minute walk to the beach more uncomfortable than it should have been. O, the high cost of having fun.
On one of the first nights in Malaga I went to a house party in a belated celebration of Leslie's friend Emily's birthday. You may recall Emily from my Paris entry, which was when her real birthday was. According to Leslie, usually when the English teachers have parties most everyone in attendance speaks English except for maybe one or two odd Spanish-only speakers, but on this evening everybody else spoke Spanish fluently and I was the lone English-only speaker. This was kind of fun, though, b/c I discovered that I can speak Spanish better than I expected, especially considering that I haven't studied it at all in two years, and I had Leslie there to translate for me anyway. Leslie's translating skills are PHENOMENAL!!! She can simulataneously translate!
The Spanish food I tried in Malaga was very good.
We went out for tapas one night, which is where you get little portions of a whole variety of foods. In particular I enjoyed the Ensalda Russa (o?), which is Russian potato salad. Spain also has excellent ice cream. Me encanta helado, si. Seafood is a big deal in Malaga, as it is on the coast, and accordingly LiLi and I tried some of the local fare one day. We went to a seafood restaurant that was wedged in between two other seafood restaurants on this little alley of nothing but seafood restaurants. Fittingly, the one we went to was called "The One in the Middle." Heh. I think the best thing I had in Malaga though was doner kebabs. There are doner kebabs all over Europe and we even have them here in England, but they are quite unfortunately AWFUL in England and DELICIOUS in malaga. So good. So, so good. Also, at Emily's belated bday party, Leslie and I brought deviled eggs (huevos del diablo en espanol) and mashed potatoes. There were some Argentinians in attendance, and they brought deviled eggs, too! They put corn in theirs, and I think ours were better (making deviled eggs is one
of my many, many skills), but I thought it was funny that deviled eggs are an international party food. Oh, and there is a pizzeria in Malaga that is goth themed, and we went there one night for dinner. The walls were painted black and there were chain saws and other scary things being used as decorations. The pizza was good.
Here's another funny coincidence. When I first got into Malaga, Leslie was telling me how we had to walk the long way to her apartment b/c she was avoiding walking by a certain store. You see, she had been helping the proprietor of this store keep up some internet correspondence that required him to write in English, but for the past few weeks she had been really busy and couldn't stop by to help him. She was afraid, though, that he thought she was avoiding him, even though she really had been busy, but b/c she thought that he thought she was avoiding him, the awkwardness of the situation made her want to avoid him for real. Anyway, one day I was walking around the city while Leslie was at work. I was desperately searching for a diet
coke. I see a little store, I go in and get my DC, I look for the store attendant, but he seems to be busy reading his email on a laptop behind the counter. He sees me and say, "Do you speak English?!?" (It's really easy to pick out English speakers in Spain b/c Spaniards are all dark skinned, dark haired, and generally kind of short. Only one of those descriptors applies to me). I say yes, and he has me come behind the counter where he dictates to me an email that was somehow connected with buying medicines for diabetes, I think? The guy spoke pretty good English, but apparently his writing skills aren't so hot. He was super super grateful for my assistance, and after thanking me about a million times he explained "oh, my friend Leslie usually help me with this, but I don't know where she is." I explained that I was Leslie's friend and then tried to help her out by telling this guy that oh, yes, Leslie was SOOOO busy and that's why she hadn't been by. He then tried to enlist me as a more regular helper, but I explained to him that
this could not be as I was leaving Malaga in a few days. But I got my diet coke for free!
Leslie has a Spanish boyfriend who lives in the nearby town of benalmarina (i think?), and one night we went to this town to have dinner and drinks. Elias (the boyfriend) was accosted by one of those annoying rose vendor guys and was pushed into buying roses for both Leslie and me. I think that's the first time I've been given flowers by anyone other than my grandma since 10th grade. How sweet.
I also got to meet up with my friend Kelly while in Malaga. She's the girl from TX who is also at York right now. She flew over to Paris with me, then went and travelled around Spain with one of her friends from high school, and then met up with me in Malaga. So that was nice.
Anyway, I LOVED my time in Malaga. The weather was awesome, the people were really nice, the food was good. What more could you want?
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Megan
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Boy howdy!
You look like you're having so much fun! Soy mucho jealouso.