So I went to Easter mass at the cathedral here with my non-Catholic friends to teach them what was going on. My one friend couldn't stop laughing when they talked about Mary Magdalene (Maria Magdalena [magdalena= cupcake in Spanish]). After mass two of my best friends pulled out huge tablets of chocolate. I died inside. Ate about half of one as we made our way to McDonalds for our McFlurries. Amazing. Had some salty french fries (Why do we call them french fries and have such a big fuss over them being 'french'? In Spanish they are just fried potatoes [potatas fritas] how hard is that? And why do we have to change city names?! Sevilla/Seville, Londres/London or Deutchland/Germany how hard is it to say the native name? Grrrr) and then went to the fancy bakery to get fancy chocolate. I forget how but I ended up staying out with my friends for 8 hours. I finally came home and was too lazy to make dinner so... I ate one of the tablets for dinner. I was literally belly aching and all Tom had to say was, "Serves you right, you had chocolate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner..." However I can't complain because he was a wonderful boyfriend and accompanied my mom to the Easter Vigil in Iowa City! Yay Tom!! They had a great time and some Village Inn afterwards!
Wednesday I went with Jessica to Madrid to get her new passport. Our friend Deanna ended up coming too. "You guys are skipping school on Wednesday to go to Madrid? Hmm.. I haven't made it there yet and it would be a shame to say I came to Spain without going to Madrid... Can I come?" Three's a company! We took the Midnight bus so that we'd arrive around 6 am, we relaxed at the bus station for a while before separating. Deanna went to do the touristy stuff while Jessica and I found the Embassy. Jessica was a little upset with me (and I in myself) that I didn't bring my camera, because a picture in front of the Embassy would have been cool... sigh. I brought my brick named Harry Potter y el cádiz de fuego instead. It only took two hours (though my host mom scolded me when I said I'd be home at 11 pm "You need more time than that! I've had students for years and they've always spent the night!") We met some girls who were also studying abroad and also had their purse stolen.
After our appointment we cooled down with a snack in the sun and looked up what I had researched to do (that we didn't last time). I had a traditional dress of Spain museum, two parks, and a movie theater with movies in English. It was a beautiful day so we chose the park Casa de Campo. If you mention it to ANYONE in Spain they will ask, "You went to the prostitute park?". Yes, it even says so in my guide book (Thanks Chris!). But, the city has cracked down and the real problem is at night. We just soaked in the sun around the lake, it was so relaxing. A friend I graduated with, Sabrina, is currently studying in Madrid and was sufficiently disappointed in me for not visiting her when I took my Madrid trip early on. So she came to visit us in the park and we caught up while playing on the BEST PLAYGROUND EVER. It was for big kids, a sign said "12 years and up". There was a zipline and monkey bars and trampolines and THE COOLEST SEE SAW EVER. Jessica and I got on it before Sabrina showed up and I have not laughed and screamed so hard in such a long time. It was legitimately frightening at times. It was feet off the ground, so you never had the scrunched up legs, and it turned! We were on it for a good 5 minutes and this cute family with a 2 year old couldn't stop staring and laughing. We got back on the bus and watched two movies on the way back home Life is Beautiful (One of my favorite movies of all time, and of course I was crying at the end, on the bus, and Deanna and Jessica laughed at me) and Disturbia which I also screamed twice during. Luckily our bus mates found me funny and not annoying.
We only went to school Thursday and Friday of that week. That weekend Sunday was mother's day here in Spain. My madre is a great subtle hinter. She always complains about things that I do, but that other people are doing. For example, "Pedro (mi hermano)'s girlfriend's hair all over the house!" When I point out that my hair is probably all over the house or that I do the same things she assures me, "No no no, you are wonderful". Hmm... Anyways, about two weeks previous, she mentioned offhandedly that one year her student disappeared and no one knew where she went. Then she came home with flowers for Mother's Day! K, got it. Flowers on Sunday. I woke up early and went down to the market, I got her flowers and then two romantic comedies from the library. I came home and no one was home so I went to nap. When she came home she was probably the happiest I've ever seen her, reading my note and looking at all the flowers she received. She said "Hop in the car!" And I went with her and my padre to their favorite restaurant in a small town near by. She was singing in the car and I was just enjoying driving in a car! I haven't done that (save for a few taxis and when my padre picked me up the first day) since the USA! After lunch we went to the beach and it was just a relaxing day. We were going to go to a museum but I guess I fell asleep in the car so we just went home and watched Nights in Rodanthe together.
Didn't have school on Monday. I had papers due on Thursday and Friday though. Honestly, it is sooo hard to do homework when you haven't really for 5 months! After school on Friday I hopped on the bus, and then plane, and then taxi and landed in my apartment for the weekend in Gran Canaria! My group was wonderful and we had a great time! It was interesting because a lot of Germans go to Gran Canaria so people didn't assume we were American, however German. There was a lot of Northern Europe things there even though we were technically off the coast of Africa. Interesting. We pretty much just beached it up. The beach was really cool because there was no space for huge hotels to ruin the view. There were SAND DUNES all over, very cool. Saturday we were at the beach from about 12-5 and then went to the Gay Pride concert in the middle of town. Sunday we took a camel ride and then were at the beach from about 1-8 so we could see the sun set. My friend Danielle blew my mind with, "The sun isn't going down, we are just rotating around it". Ah! Mind blown! Then Monday we packed and cleaned and were at the beach from 11-2 before traveling back to Oviedo. We were very skin conscious though and finished off two bottles of sun block. We all just hung out at my apartment a lot and sat around the bed talking at the end of the day. I was able correct my friend Tyler who thought during this entire 5 month experience that my name was 'Sara Ardino' (For the longest time I thought he had a cold). The trip was similar to flying from Iowa to Miami for a weekend but it was totally worth it. We all said we were the perfect group on the perfect last trip.
Back to real life (Or as real as it gets in Spain). Jessica and I are going to do the Camino de Santiago after school ends so we need to plan that. I asked my padres if I could leave my things at their house and they said yes, but I might want to ask if I can actually stay a couple days too (my contract ends the 20th). I need to do a trial packing to see if I need to get another suitcase (doubt it). I need to finish on my souvenir shopping. I need to send my final postcards. I need to look into going to Cali in August. And I need to stopping thinking about the conversion rate (1.5 OMGOSH). These are not things to stress about right?
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