As I mentioned last time I went to the mountains with the fam this weekend. The town is called Arcos de las Salinas (Search it on Google Images if you want). It's tiny and precious. There was only one bathroom in the house. The whole place is heated by a fireplace in the kitchen. I wore wool socks (thanks Mom!) and a flannel all weekend (yes, I loved it.)
Friday we arrived in time for lunch (2pm) and got all our stuff situated. I got a room to myself and a queen bed-- both were happy surprises. We watched a bit of tv and cuddled to keep warm and then Sofia and I went out to explore a bit. We walked a little ways up one side of the mountain, enough to be able to see the whole town. Stunning. Wow. I wanted to go back up there by myself (Sofia is sweet, but she likes to talk) but I never got a chance. We explored a bit more, and looked extra awkward while waiting for Begoña to finish talking with friends and go home for dinner. After dinner, Sofía and I watched a movie while Monica, Guillermo and smoked hookah in the basement (Side note: I've never understood the point of that). Then we all went out and chilled for a bit. Nothing was happening so in actuality it was an evening of walking from place to place, sitting down and talking for a bit and then walking somewhere else. SOOO Friday overall was a lot but not really anything at the same time. Highlights from Friday were the incredible beauty of the mountains, Star gazing (because you could actually see them), and the overall precious-ness of the town.Saturday, was the crazy day. I had lunch with Monica and Guillermo and their friends (20-something of us total). The thing is I didn't know what I was getting myself into before hand, I just knew that potatoes and hamburgers sounded better than chicken and rice. So we got to this park, just a little outside of town, around 12:30 with a crate full of potatoes and packaged meat and 20 some high-schoolers to make it all into a meal. I don't think we ate until 3:30. And the whole time the only person who tried to talk to me was Monica. Which was fine. But also not. I did go exploring a bit while they were making food, since there was nothing for me to do. I felt a little bad because I didn't tell anyone where I was going, but I needed to get away from their eyes and M and G didn't really care where I was anyway. And that was fun. I took lots of pictures and it was nice to just not be around anyone for a bit. There's nowhere in the city where that's possible, so it's been a while since I've been able to get completely away from people. So yeah, we ate. Then the bull festivities began at 5. They had a little square of the city blocked out and they would let a bull loose and people could go inside the barriers and try to run close to the bull without being impaled. It was cray. I felt bad for the bulls. People would kick at them and hit them with sticks if they got close enough. I was not a fan. But when in Spain...
In the evening there was more crazy. They let loose another bull and attached balls of some flammable material to the horns and lit them. Then people would again try to get close and touch the bull.. but considerably less than before. Then after this ended there was a live band that came and played all sorts of "Rock" covers. I can not express to you how happy I was. There were a few in Spanish but mostly english. And after that day I was happy to hear english.Sunday I got up around 11 and went on a walk with Begoña (mom) and Titín (dad). It ended up being a lot better than I expected. Sometimes I get nervous around Titín because I think he doesn't really know what to do with me and so we end up both feeling awkward. Plus his accent is semi difficult for me to understand. BUT, it was so good. I got to relax and just laugh with them a bit at stupid things like creepy footstep echoes. We came back for lunch, I ended up sleeping and working on school work most of the afternoon and then hanging out with Begoña and Titín and their friends a bit more in the evening before we came back to Valencia.
Today is a national holiday. Turns out Columbus day is also celebrated in Spain because duh he came from here. So Happy Columbus day.
This week I have all my midterms. So if you think about it, shoot up a prayer for memory and for understanding.
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