Andalucia y el Principio de la Semana Santa (Amanda)

HI TEAM. It's been a while, like many many weeks, I know. How's it going, todo bien? Bueno. Good to hear. Well I obviously have so much to write about, I honestly don't even know where to begin. I feel like Corey covered a lot of what we've done in the past few weeks... our perspectives are probably pretty different but you get the general idea! Andalucia was great- I absolutely loved Sevilla and have definitely been considering going back there after I graduate to live for a little. I celebrated my birfday there (he cumplido 21 años! Felicitaciones!) which was really fun but not the typical 21st birthday celebration, which I was fine with because we were all so exhausted from the jam packed days that Maica planned for us. After the Flamenco show that night we went to a really cute outdoor cafe and drank wine and ate tapas for hours- it was great, and even though I didn't take 21 shots (I just typo-ed and wrote shits, which I almost kept but didn't... that definitely didn't happen either, sadly... I never poop in Spain, so 21 shits would have been lovely (I don't know who reads this blog but I assume it can't be more than 3 or 4 people, my parents included, so hopefully that was ok to say. I'm sure it's fine...)). ANYWAYS. At midnight, all I wanted to do was coger a McFlurry but they closed right as we were walking up so we had to settle with a shoddy Burger King one which was not nearly as satisfying. If I had my way, I would have eaten 21 McFlurries on my birthday instead of doing 21 shots, but as it turned out, I didn't do even 1 of either. Oh well, life is really really tough sometimes.

By the way, I think I had been to a fast food restaurant maybe 5 times in the past 5 years before I came to Spain.... Evelyn has converted me into a lover and I am so angry about it. We LOVE McD's here, especially the Toblerone McFlurries (yes, you read that correctly. TOBLERONE), and the euro cheeseburguesas are usually the cheapest and easiest option when hunger strikes/when I'm not hungry at all from stuffing my face with lomo and patatas but just feel like one.

So, yeah, Andalucia was great (sorry that was incredibly vague and I didn't really say anything about it... Corey's has more details) and everybody was really great about my birthday all weekend (Maica bought me cake and our big lunch together and everyone sang, it was so sweet)... so even though I didn't celebrate americano style, I considered the entire weekend an unforgettable birthday celebration. (Cordoba wasn't anything that great, but la mezquita was beautiful and Granada was MUY lindo, the Alhambra was incredible- the best tourist attraction I've been to, and Sevilla, well, I left part of my heart there.)

THEN, we had one day in Salamanca to prepare for our 3 week long (Corey's was 2 because he went back with everyone else a week before Evelyn and I) Semana Santa. This day was LOCO, chicos, let me tell you. First of all, I was running around all day trying to get everything together for the trip, had to drop off my laundry (which consisted of about 70% of my wardrobe), bought some shoes (sexay Converse to walk around in), had to go to class, had to spend time with Conchi before I left her for so long :(, etc. Funny story.... when I went to pick up my laundry, I was shocked to find out that place had closed. Before 8 pm. NOTHING closes in Spain before 8 pm. And even funnier, they didn't open until 10 am and my bus to Madrid was 9:30.

After panicking only slightly, selling Karen my bus ticket, trying to get a ticket for the 11 am bus with the boys, realizing they were all sold out, and then eating about 6 Principes to calm my nerves (they were necessary), Mark agreed to pick my laundry up for me in the morning and bring it to the airport. THANK GOODNESS. So the next day, I take the early bus with the girls, we get to the aiport, no pasa nada, then I get a call from Mark. "Hi. You're going to hate me...." As it turned out, he picked up my laundry no problem but accidentally left it on the bus. HA. Now it is really funny, but at the time I was about to go on a 3 week vacation with less than half of what I intended to bring, clotheswise, and worse, I was afraid I would never see the rest of my clothes again! Long story short (that's a lie, it's already been a long story), we called and email the bus station many times and finally, by the time we got to our hostel in Brussels, they said they'd send it back to Salamanca and Miguel ended up picking it up for me. It was a very stressful start to trip but turned out fine and the girls let me borrow clothes (and we went SHOPPING, claro).

Before I start talking about this adventure, I just have to say that this may have been the best collective three weeks I have ever had and as cliche as this sounds, I really think that these travels were lifechanging. I couldn't imagine our trip going any better, or, more importantly, spending that time with any other combination of people. We all got along so incredibly well, got so much closer, and had SO. MUCH. FUN.

So... Brussels was a really great city- I am glad we spent the least amount of time there and went there first because it was probably my least favorite place (which doesn't imply anything bad at all- it had really tough competition). We literally ate our way through this city. We did in every city actually, but our days revolved 100% around eating here. We had an ungodly amount of Belgian chocolates (really as good as you would imagine- I was thinking of you, dad, the entire time), a plethora of Belgian fries with their thick creamy sauces, many Belgian waffles (stop. just stop), and oh, maybe one or two Belgian beers. The beers were the best part, only because of Delirium. It is this very cool bar that has three levels (it's pretty huge) and over 2,000 beers on tap. We tried some pretty ridiculous beers. My favorite was this beer that was 11% alcohol but tasted great. We also tried some wheat beers, a few really fruity beers which were actually very delicious- my favorite of those was this coconut beer that tasted like heaven. Anyways, being at Delirium was very fun (we went a few times) and we met a lot of really cool people there. Also, I loved our little apartment that we had and we got to cook our own dinner one night FINALLY- yumzo. Overall, it was a good warmup for the rest of the trip...

So, as I am writing this, I am lying outside by the cathedral in the grass, the sun is shining, Jillian is eating an orange, Miguel is feeding me alimentacion at intervals, Mark is interjecting sexual inuendos at more frequent intervals, Corey is sharing his new speakers with the ENTIRE world, and Jackie is sitting on my butt giving me a back masssage. Life is WONDERFUL. I just wanted to paint you a little picture of what our life is like now that Cursos Internacionales is over. We still have Emory classes, but that is just one a day in the afternoon (Tuesdays my first class is 7:15 pm. No big deal). As excited as I am for this summer, I would be perfectly happy staying here for months. I am so so happy here. Yesterday I walked home from Cuatro Gatos (our favorite cafe that we spend maybe 5 days of the week at) listening to my music and I couldn't stop smiling. I would even start laughing sometimes thinking about something that happened during the day. I can't remember the last time, if ever, I was this euphoric.

Sitting by the cathedral on a beautiful sunny day. (Mark, Corey, Jillian, Jackie, and me)

Anyways, I have to go to class in a little and I have to do some work before it (I would complain right now but I haven't opened/touched/thought about a book for the past month. So I feel like that would be a little inappropriate). I will write about the rest of spring break and Portugal.... oh Portugal, the best weekend of the entire semester (I don't consider spring break as part of the normal semester) in a later post. Adios for now, I'll try to be more descriptive and post pictures in my next one. BUENAS TARDES todos, I hope everyone (all 3 or 4 of you) is doing well!

Besos,

Amanda