2013 was a wonderful year.
A year lacking in blogging, but a wonderful year nonetheless. After summer came to a close, I jetted back
to my beloved Spain mid-September. Juan
met me at the airport and we stayed in the Puerta Silken American...a super
modern, super funky hotel in Madrid.
Then, for a week I went to a beach town in the south, called Sanlúcar de
Berrameda, with Juan and his parents.
The beach house they had rented out was just steps from the water and
between our lovely evening dinners on the front patio to flying kites on the
silky white sands of Southern Spain, I had an amazing time. Juan and I took a little field trip to Cádiz
one of the days when it was a bit cloudy and overcast and another day the whole
family went to Rota, aka American Central.
It was so strange to walk around and see more American military men than
Spanish people around. I also learned
that week that one must shake sand out from a towel WITH the wind and not
against it...or else sand will fly into your eye and you’ll think you’re going
to go blind...
After getting very tan (and maybe a little burned), we went
back earlier than Juan’s parents so we could be in Navalmoral for San
Miguel.
After Carnaval, San Miguel is my
favorite weekend in Navalmoral.
The town
comes alive and people stay out drinking beers all day and move on to mixed
drinks at night.
We did all of our usual
stuff: cañas, lunches, dancing, bumper cars... although we did it all Friday
night, so Saturday and Sunday was pretty rough for most people.
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| Reunited! |
School started in October and it was great going back to
Zurbarán. People welcomed me back with
open arms and it was like I had never left.
Private lessons also started full force and by the second week in
October I was booked up, working until about 9pm every night.
In summer, when I was going stir-crazy, Whitney and I had
planned a trip to Paris in mid-October.
The trip was incredible. I was a little skeptical about how I would like
it, as everyone had always said the city was “overrated” and “very dirty.” But
I found it to be perfect. We just spent
two full days there, but we didn’t rest and managed to see everything. We went to Versailles one day, saw all of the
obligatory tourist traps in Paris, and ate our weight in crepes. We also had some interesting experiences with
the public transportation system, involving free metro rides, transport police,
and hopping over metro gates...you know, just normal Paris stuff.
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| I want this right now. |
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| Love locks! |
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| Obligatory. |
November went pretty slowly, as I knew that Christmas break
was right around the corner. At the end
of the month, Whitney and I hosted our annual Thanksgiving dinner. This year was the best. Our apartment is so much bigger than it has
ever been and we did it on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so there was no
rushing around. I made all of the food:
deviled eggs, French onion dip, turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato
casserole, green bean casserole, cranberries, gravy, pumpkin pie, and apple
pie...and it was all deeeeelicious.
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| <3 |
For the entire month of December, I only worked for 5 days.
And got paid in full. I love my life. In
November, Whitney and I wanted to book a trip for the December puente.
Everything was looking expensive, so we had
resigned ourselves to staying at home.
One week before puente, at 1:30 am, I was looking on a website and found
a relatively cheap flight to Romania.
Before we knew it, we had put in our credit card info and booked
it.
So, in the beginning of December,
Whitney and I went to Timisoara, Romania.
Everything there was insanely cheap.
Our 5-star hotel cost the same as a shared-room hostel in Madrid.
One taxi ride from the airport was the same
as a cheap lunch in Madrid.
We would
look into a restaurant, say, “Eeee, that looks expensive...Let’s go!!” and it
was still cheaper than what we’re used to. It was a great weekend. We drank
mulled wine, wore 324876 layers of clothes to keep warm, learned some Romanian,
and braved Romanian trains to visit a nearby town.
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| Like going back in time 100 years. |
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| When pigeons attack. |
After returning to the reality of Spanish prices (who am I
kidding, Extremadura is still ridiculously cheap), I coasted through
December.
On the 13
th
(Friday...but my plane landed safe and sound), I made the long trip back home
to Virginia.
It was wonderful to be back
in my house with my family.
Over the
break I hung out with my nephew, the cutest baby on Earth, as much as I
possibly could, did a cooking class with my sister, ate tons of sushi with my
dad, and drank wine, wine and more wine with my mom.
After three weeks of relaxing, I hopped on
the plane back to España.
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| The CUTEST. |
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| A wine themed cooking class...just up our alley. |
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| And the Polar Vortex strikes. |
Once over the jetlag, my first weekend back Juan took me to
two towns in Portugal as his birthday present to me. The first town, Monsanto,
was incredible.
I had never seen
anything like it. It was a small town made entirely of rocks. We make the long
trek up the steep hill to the top of the town where the castle and some great
views were.
We also went to the city of Castelo
Branco, which besides some pretty gardens, was nothing special.
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| Yes, that's a rock ON a house. |
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| Rey Juan David |
Saturday night Whitney and I went to our first rehearsal for
Carnaval. After having watched the
parade for two years, we finally decided that this year we wanted to be in
it. The group we’re going with is known
for their spectacular dancing (they’re mostly people from the gym we go to). The costume is very top-secret, but I can say
we’re going to look awesome. After rehearsal, we went out a tope that night for
my birthday. One bar played “Cumpleaños Feliz” over the sound system for me and
bought shots for me and my friends...which ended up being the entire bar, and
another bar dedicated “Bohemian Rhapsody” to me. This is why I love Navalmoral.
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| Birthday festivities! |
Whew. I’ve finally caught up. Maybe my 2014 resolution should be to blog
more often.
