siempre buscando

El fin de semana.

Wow, just what. a. weekend. I just had one of those weekends that makes me 1. love my life, 2. appreciate the friendships I have found here, and 3. never want to leave Spain.
I guess I can start at the most logical place, the beginning: Friday. Friday we went on a CEA planned trip to Málaga and Puerto Banus. We got up early to take the three hour bus ride to Málaga, and it was nice because a lot of people from our program ended up not going so it was a smaller group than normal. Our apartment in itself probably made up a good portion of the people there actually (naturally). Our time in Málaga was short (actually like three hours), but included a silly tour around the city with the most FABULOUS little man named Jose. He had a pink sweater and some fierce eyebrows, and casually smoked a cig while parading us around Málaga like he didn’t give a joder.

After Málaga, we drove another 45 minutes to a small beach town (or more like harbor town) in Marbella called Puerto Banus….. like woaaaah. Definitely the Hamptons of Spain. Beautiful cars, restaurants, stores, and people ev-er-y-where. I felttt like I stepped into a Madewell catalogue, no joke. But we had a good amount of free time here, so we ended up walking around and stumbling into a random restaurant off of the main marina road called Grillbox. A German couple (we later found out named Ingrid and Linus) invited us to sit with them (because we had a big group and they had a big table). It turnsss outtt that Ingrid and Linus have been coming to Puerto Banus for 32 YEARS, spending half their years in Germany and half in Spain, and frequent this restaurant so often they have a storage space for their dog beds and bowls for their two English bulldogs (who joined us under the table). They were HYSTERICAL and so kind and so generous and just so funny commenting on American politics and traveling and the economy and being young and single and good food and happiness. He ended the meal saying “CLAUS (the chef), cakes and coffee for everyone!” and paid for all nine of us! It was fantastic and so unreal. Also, I had one of the BEST meals of my life there… me and Carly split an avocado salad and then a seafood risotto with cauliflower. Woahh so good.
We then went to a bar for a drink before getting back on the bus to return to Sevilla, and ended up crashing a Welsh man’s stag party. THE rowdiest group of grown men I have ever seen in my life. It was pretty hysterical. And just unreal.
The next morning (Saturday), me and Carly and Katie got up early (again, sheesh) to catch the 8:00 AM bus to Madrid. After actually sprinting down Avenida de San Fernando (we broke a sweat) to flag a cab to take us to the bus station RIGHT in time, we made it on the coach bus and on to our 6 hour ride to Madrid. Carly and Katie sat next to each other and cried watching “Being Elmo”. I sat next to a lady with two magazines all about cats. Nothing more to really say about that.
But at 2:00 we got to Madrid! And after navigating the Metro for a bit, we met up with Clara at Plaza de Castilla (because she was already in town visiting her family). The four of us walked around the city, had AMAZING tapas, and then enjoyed some gin tonics and people-watching in Plaza Mayor. Madrid is amazing and big and beautiful and SO different than Sevilla, so it was a nice change and fun to observe and take in.
At like 6:30 we decided to head out to Clara’s house (about a 20 minute bus ride from the center of the city), but on the way in Plaza del Sol we stumbled into a giant fiesta! The whole plaza was filled with people and they had a Beatles cover band and it just felt like a huge rock concert, so as we were dancing and singing along to “Hey Jude” we’re all thinking “what in the world is this..?” and we look up to see a big sign that says “Día de la Vida” and pictures of little fetuses everywhere…………. oh well this is awkward. 

So we got outta dodge and finally made our way out to Clara’s house.
Sunday morning I woke up to AMAZING French toast and coffee, made by Clara’s mom. We then spent the morning listening to Clara talk to a family friend who is applying to American universities and giving him advice and her opinion on Tufts and what he can expect and so on. After he left, all of Clara’s family came over— her uncle, uncle’s girlfriend, her mother, and Clara’s cousin, María— and we got to be a part of their huge family meal. Clara’s mom is a FANTASTIC cook, and we had: rocket and tomato salad, huge paella, and homemade Cuban flan and chocolate mousse for dessert. Accompanied by wine and finished with coffee, of course. Everything was TO DIE FOR. And I fell in love with Clara’s family. They were SO kind and so hospitable and so smart and so funny, it was just an amazing time. And I could understand their Spanish better than anyone in Sevilla or Granada, which was really encouraging.
Finally in the late afternoon, we left Clara’s house for the main reason we went to Madrid: to see JAMES MORRISON. After a quick botellón by the river, we went inside the venue— called La Riveria— and pushed our way up front. It was be-yond. So amazing. And one of the happiest shows I have seen, ever.

We finished the night with some late night kebab (made a few friends, had an hour long convo en español) and made our way back to the station to catch the 1:00 AM bus back home to Sevilla.
We just got home at 7:00 AM this morning, and SHEW, what a weekend. That’s all I can really say about it. It was beyond amazing, and really just made me realize how happy and how lucky I am to be where I am and with the people I am with. Because there are a lot of experiences, I have found, that just couldn’t happen in any other context.
Wheeeew, but now I am tired and definitely need some sleep because BLAIR, CLAIRE, AND DABNEY come this week for Spring Break! Ahhhhh I’m freaking out! Okay, keeping yah posted. Love and miss you all!


C