dear sangria, i love u

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so... in spain now! after an emotional farewell from the amazing hostel in split, the irish girls and i jumped on a bus and headed for dubrovnik... another little croatian gem. we had decided to not stay in a hostel this time and stay in an apartment from one of the millions of ladies who try and entice u to their apartments any time u get off any sort of public transit. we headed to the old town, which is exactly what it sounds like, the (very) old part of dubrovnik, and definitely the best part. we landed a cute little place smack in the middle of the action.. just a few steps away from all the shops, bars, and restaurants and excitement. the old town is beautiful, it´s all pedestrian so even the millions of restaurants need to haul in their goods on wagon things or in little motorized scooter things... the weirdest thing about this place tho is that there are zillions of places to eat, but they all have literally the exact same menu... true story. u can have pizza or pasta, or three kinds of salad, with the exception of an irish bar or two that has other stuff. to be fair, the pizza and the pasta are both fairly delicious, so it´s okay... and there is delicious ice cream everywhere, which along with beer is the only thing that is consistantly cheap. we had a good time here, found a beach so had one last day of swimming and sunning... and did a little exploring of all the old little stone walkways. we had a pretty good night out that night, went for a few drinks at said irish bar (cider craving), and ended up at a flamenco bar which was actually a rockin time. en route to the bar, there is this awkwardly placed stone thing on a wall, and if u can jump up on it and stay on it it´s some sort of test... so we spent a good few minutes taking turns jumping, socks came off and shoes came off but nobody was very good. i forget what the test is, but back in the day dudes used to do it and it proved something or other... i will get back to u on what exactly that was.

so the next morning, i had to leave to catch my flight to madrid... and of course, on the only day when i actually had anything important to do, i had a vicious hangover. i also had five hours in the barcelona airport, and almost missed my flight since my boarding pass said gate 14 but it actually meant 13 and i was wondering why the hell my flight hadn´t boarded and then finally someone told me i was at the wrong gate... so i was that annoying girl who stumbles onto the plane right before take off. awesome. i arrived in madrid around 10pm, i had a couchsurfing host lined up, so braved the public transport and made my way there... the guy was really nice, i stayed up for as long as i could before i had to sleep. the next day, i had a welcome lunch for the camp i am volunteering at, so went there for a delicious lunch of paella and of course wine... met some cool people and ended up going for a few drinks after the luncheon, which included a massive four litre cylinder of sangria and four bottles of wine... i don´t know how i managed to sit beside the raging alcoholics in the group, but it was good fun anyways.

the next morning, i had to get up at the crack of dawn and get on a bus to valdelevilla, which is where this camp is... i am here now and have just finished day one. and what a day. this place is basically an english emersion camp for spaniards to practice their english... there is no spanish allowed, and basically these poor people have to speak hours and hours of english every day... it´s actually an amazing way to learn and we do fun things and group activities, but it´s soooo hard for them. there´s a lot of business people here, lawyers and things like that, and younger people who have just finished school who want to speak better english so they can get jobs and stuff... my days go a little something like this:

9:00 is breakfast, an amazing delicious buffet of all kinds of food.
10-11 is a one-to-one with a spanish person
11-12 is another one-to-one
12-1 is another
1-2 and another

2 is lunch, which is a 3-course meal which includes desert and unlimited wine. today i had some sort of fish thing for lunch with broccoli, and a white bean, bacon and mushroom salad... and desert. and wine. and bread.

after lunch is glorious, glorious siesta, which i spent in proper spanish fashion sleeping... at 5 we have to get up and go have our first group activity for an hour, which today was making up a commerical and presenting it... super fun and hilarious.

6-7 is another one-to-one
7-8 is ANOTHER one

at 8 is group activity time again, so one of the ladies presented something and we told a couple jokes... everyone at some point this week has to provide some entertainment, and luckily a girl here knows the thriller dance, so we are working on perfecting that... i told my two favorite jokes today, which of course all the english speakers understood, and none of the spanish people did.

then at 9 is dinner... which is ANOTHER three-course meal with wine and desert. the food is amazing and my wine glass is never empty, and i leave each meal being the most full i have ever been in my life... at dinner we have to sit at a table with two anglos (thats us, the english speakers), and two spaniards... it´s pretty interesting and there´s 38 people here, so u are meeting and chatting with new people all the time. very cool... and so far, i haven´t run out of things to talk about, but one of my one-to-ones today told me that a bunch of the spaniards heard me talking to another anglos yesterday and none of them could understand anything i was saying and they were all scared for their one-to-one´s with me... but apparently i speak slower and clearer when it is just me and a spaniard, so that is good news. i told him to spread the word that i am nice and not scary.

so all this ridiculous food and wine led me to start a boot camp... tomorrow will be day two of jaime´s ass kicking bootcamp. we wake up before breakfast and excerise, which is going to save my life and waistline. this place is beautiful, it´s in the middle of nowhere and there are tons of hills and stairs and benches and grassy noles to utilize, so that is what we are doing... this morning there was only two of us, but other people claim to be on the train for tomorrow, and by the end of the week (and a few more days of double deserts), i imagine everyone will want to be on it. the worst part of this double desert is that there are not one, not two, but three people´s birthdays this week, which means extra cake on top of all the other stuff! it´s madness.

i am really glad to be here, i think it´s going to be a long, long week, but it already feels like home... everyone has their own room and i got to UNPACK and hang things up and put them in drawers and there is laundry... and it´s really interesting talking to all these new people. for the one-to-one´s, all u have to do is talk! and listen. and i try and get them to walk, but with all the hills some people just like to sit. but it´s cool, i imagine by the end of this i will have 37 new friends and a million places to stay in spain... i love it here, i wish i had more time to spend here... i can´t belive i missed barcelona, but i will have to come back. madrid was amazing, at nearly every bar when u order drinks, they bring u delicious tapas to nibble on! and the sangria is alllllll kinds of amazing. 😊

so i have this week here, then i am back to madrid on friday for the night, and i have already had an invite from one of the spaniards here for an authentic night on the town, which i might as well do, and then home on sunday morning... crazy!!! i thought seven weeks was no time at all, but i have seen so much and met some amazing people and done a lot of really cool shit. europe is rad... but there really is no place like home. 😊

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