oh the south...

---

so due to our experience (and just fyi, now i generally use this word when referring to something bad, just so i can get in a little more sarcasm haha) in málaga, i thought it was worth a new entry even though it has not been a week yet. and it wasn't all bad, and if i can say this: to anyone who I am sending this to and is female, if you are ever feeling bad about yourself, go to spain. read on, you will understand.


so friday cameron oddone ( I MISS YOU ALREADY AND HOPE YOU READ THIS) and I left for málaga. cameron is a friend of mine from high school and is studying abroad this semester in salamanca.

so cameron had to catch the 7am bus from salamanca to madrid (sorry girl), and i met her at the bus station. we then travelled by metro to the train station where we caught the ave (alta velocidad españa, basically a super-fast train, it goes like 190 km/hr) to málaga. while we were at the train station our adventure really began. we were just sitting there waiting for them to choose a track for our train and an asian man walked up beside us and sort-of-said "do you speak english?". thinking that of course he needed help traversing this spanish-infused train station we smiled and said "of course!". then the shocker, asian man: "you are very beautiful," not the shocking part haha, "can i take a picture of you?". he seriously had his camera out and everything. we stared at each other quizzically for a moment and then i said "um, no thanks, we are okay". well apparently all he understood was "okay" because he stepped back and snapped a photo of us. AWKWARD. then we got on the ave and went to málaga (about 2.5 hrs). i fell asleep (surprise, surprise) on the train and woke up to find my tray COVERED with these delicious little candies, most of which cameron and I ate. yeah, they were really good.

so friday the weather was actually wonderful and as soon as we arrived and checked into our hotel (which was very nice, props to cameron), we went to the beach. just for comparisons sake, this is NOT a north carolina beach. it was decently nasty and dark/rocky "sand". so we laid in the grass and looked at the freezing mediterranean sea. we actually got some color and only a few creepers stared at us. on the way back to our hotel we found a really cool open-air market where we shopped entirely too much, but se la vie.

we woke up saturday to find rain. and seriously it never rains in málaga. even though i am a fervent believer in luck (as most of you know/ are annoyed by constantly), my travel luck SUCKS. even if it never rains there, it will when i go. so i am thinking we are going to have a huge snow storm in madrid this year since i am here, even though it never snows. anyway back to rainy málaga... so I had read in one of my travel books that there was an aquarium in torremolinos (the town next to málaga) and given the crappy weather, we decided to go. we hopped on a bus and when we got off in torremolinos not only could we not find food, and had not eaten breakfast (and you all know how important food is to me), but no one seemed to know that there WAS an aquarium there. BLACKBERRY TO THE RESCUE! on my blackberry internet i found that the aquarium was actually farther down the coast in something-like la costa blaheihovadlhefov-something, so we got back on the bus, sweet-talked our way out of paying for a second ticket (yes we are THAT hot) and were on our way to the aquarium. we got to the aquarium and it was very crowded but really cool, and they had just opened a new jellyfish exhibit, and I LOVE jellyfish! then we grabbed lunch at the marina and took the bus back to málaga. being girls we then went to the HUGE mall in málaga which is at the train station, and got into a lot of trouble (don't worry, just potential trouble with the credit-card company). we ate dinner and went back home.

sunday was also rainy and cold, so we woke up, checked out of the hotel and headed toward the museo picasso. here in an old, historical building is a donated (from his daughter-in-law and grandson) collection of some of picasso's lesser-known works: sketches, paintings, sculptures. it was weird. i am pretty sure that picasso was on drugs and attempted to recreate his drug-induced visions, and to top it off wasn't a very good painter. or that's my opinion. they were also having a max ernst exhibit at the museum which we went and saw. now that guy I KNOW was on drugs. seriously, surrealism? does not exisht. drug-induced drawing-fits, however, do exist. and they made max ernst famous. it was so gross outside that after the museum we decided to take a LONG lunch of coke and pizza before heading back to the train station and eventually madrid.

so málaga general notes: we were just two american white girls who through awkward (REALLY AWKWARD) events and insane amounts of heckling (borderline more than in the shop-jrm-style for those of you who get that reference) were made to feel like the two hottest girls alive. also interesting to note was our addiction (underline that, ADDICTION) to cnn because it was broadcast in english at the hotel. i have never listened to so much political crap in my life and actually looked forward to and enjoyed it. no lies.


so next on the agenda is class this week (I actually just finished one) and hopefully another adventure this weekend. actually, come to think of it we are going to segovia friday with the program. who knows, it could turn into something.

until next time, love, love, love,
meredith

ps. yes. i am computer illiterate. i cannot figure out how to upload photos but when i figure it out i will let you know!
pps. feel free (ie, this is not a choice, i am mandating it) to email /text / call/ smoke signal/ morse code/ carrier pigeon me and let me know how YOUR life is. here you are reading about and staying abreast of mine and i know NOTHING about yours. not okay. communicate now.

---