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Published: March 16th 2008
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Some updates:
My friend Tiffany is no longer in my Literature class, I am now alone. However, I have found comfort in knowing that the professor is very understanding. I also have my friend Fran who helps me when I don't understand something in class. He's my partner for our group presentation and we met outside of class to put it together. We finished the whole thing even though we kept getting distracted by talking about more interesting things like our travels and Semana Santa plans... I ended up talking to the professor and he agreed to let me write a paper in place of speaking in front of the class. So I didn't really have to work on the presentation but it was a good learning experience anyways.
This week is Semana Santa, which is basically the spring break in Spain. A big part of central Malaga gets closed down for the parades/processions to take place so my bus to the city takes a different route. But my bus still drops me off right by the beach, which is excellent because that is what I have planned for the whole week. Normally, I see the horse carriage ride into
town to cart around the tourists early every morning. I like seeing the horses in the mornings before they get tired out... but I won't see them this week because I don't have to walk to school!
Semana Santa began on Friday the 14th of March so naturally I went to the beach all day. The weather was gorgeous and it's so peaceful to just listen to the waves and feel the warmth of the sun. It was a true day of vacation. I even got to see my first procession because we randomly ran into one... it was impressive how many people it takes to lift and carry the huge float - they all looked very solemn and serious. That night a couple of us went downtown to find a cute cafe to sit at and just relax and enjoy the evening... which we did and I lost track of time and missed the last bus (1 am night bus) back home. So I had to take a taxi, which I was not happy about. It's puzzling to me that the last night bus runs at 1 am when most people stay out until at least 5 or
6 in the morning.
Saturday I spent the whole day with my host mom, Carolina. She taught me how to cook Paella (which is my favorite Spanish food) and we cooked and chatted until her 2 friends came over to join us for lunch. Before they came she told me that they are the best dressed, most educated and friendly men I will ever meet in my life. One of them being her best guy friend, I took this 'warning' with a grain of salt... But they ended up being really nice guys and we had a good time talking over lunch and sitting and relaxing with some Moroccan tea and sweets afterwards. We were talking about how I was looking for a job, maybe tutoring kids in English or German and one of them offered to pay me for English lessons! We watched a movie and chatted and before I knew it, it was nine o'clock.
The guys left to go to the supermarket before it closed and I called my intercambio guy since he hadn't called me yet. We were supposed to get together on Friday night but he had a birthday or something to go to.
My intercambio guy is Cote, a friend of Carolina's, and he wants to practice his English so we're getting together to chat in both languages. So I called him and he told me that him and his friends were going to a Celtic music concert at some bar and I thought it might be fun so he offered to come pick me up.
We got to talk a little before we got to the loud bar and we actually have a lot in common, so having conversations with him won't be forced. He likes the same music as I do so I'm excited to get some Spanish band recommendations from him. He's a really fun guy and has random interests, like SCUBA diving as I discovered, that match mine. He's 31 and his friends that we were meeting at the bar all seemed to be in their thirties. It didn't feel like they were much older than I am... but Cote is 11 years older than me! People stay young here... I feel like Carolina and Cote and their friends live their life like I do at my age. It's interesting to see and I'm sure living with your parents
for so long has something to do with it. I think Spaniards mature slower, or rather Americans are forced to mature faster by moving out on their own at 18 and going away to college and such.
Cote and his friends were all really friendly and we had a good time talking and watching the Celtic musicians. There were even some Irish people that broke into a nice jig... After that bar closed we went back to the center (from where the Irish bar was - way down on the east side of the beach) to go to a different bar that they always go to. We drove up through the Alcazaba (the old stone wall) to park the car... while zipping through the winding curves, they explained to me that this path is where people come to 'fornicate' or 'make love' as they put it. Amused by their eloquence they started counting the number of parked cars. When we were done parallel parking and watching someone try to reverse uphill (this guy was having a hard time and even crashed into a car at one point... just kept going) we walked down to the center. The bar we arrived
at was called "the attic" and they played really good music there. We stayed until they closed... which was about 5:30 in the morning. My bus doesn't run until 6:30am so I was planning on just waiting at the bus stop or on the beach for an hour so I wouldn't have to pay for another taxi ride home. But one of Cote's friends, Ignacio, offered to drive me home and after he insisted I accepted to take the ride in his smart car. He works in Madrid and his accent was SO much easier to understand than the Andalusian accent. His parents live in Malaga and he's here for Semana Santa, and usually he helps carry the throne of the Virgin Mary but he tore something in his heel playing rugby so he couldn't shuffle in the procession this year. He was explaining to me which Church was his as we drove by it and I realized that the procession I saw the night before was the one from his church!
My friend Jamie is having her grandparents and her mom visit during part of Semana Santa, so we've been meeting up with them. They're great... really funny
and super open and friendly. They took us out to eat and even invited us to come visit them on their ranch in Tennessee! I like spending time with them because it's family time and it's also really fun to take them around and show them Malaga. It's giving me ideas for what to do when I have my family visit...
For St. Patrick's Day we went to our favorite irish bar, Morrissey's, to celebrate. We had a Guinness with Jamie and her mom and ran into the bartender that we had gotten to know. He was off work and invited us to leave the bar and join him and his friends at one of their houses. So Amanda and I went, chatting on the way there and getting to know his friends a little more. We had some Sangria and later on played Wii tennis and drank wine. It was good to practice our spanish and the guys were really fun and friendly. We knew we could trust Diego (the bartender) because he's a genuinely nice guy. His two friends were from Argentina and they said all their double ll's and y's with a 'shya' sound....hard to explain
without making the sound but it was funny. They all had either a mom or a dad from Italy! The random things in life...
My friend May from my psychology class at the University invited me to watch the processions with her. It was fun hanging out and watching the parade from a spaniards viewpoint... she explained some of the history and traditions to me.
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