catch up #2

Ok, I'm going to try to catch up to at least London.

First:  San Juan festival.
The San Juan festival is more or less a huge party on the beach and I guess Malaga is the place to be for it.  The whole beach along all of the city is completely full of people..for the entire night.  We met up with our group around 8 or 9 after dinner and just hung out on the beach, did a little swimming (well me, Jill and Marcus did....it was a little cold), and socializing.  We played some cards and talked before the big concert started.  Around 11 was the Carlos somebody-or-other concert.  I lovvveee live music, so even though I'd never heard of him before and couldn't really understand him, it was still a lot of fun.  Then, at midnight, everyone gets in the water to "cleanse" themselves.  It is part of the San Juan tradition.  So, we went swimming again.  We stayed up all night and it was just a blast.  Probably one of the most fun nights here!  A few of us ended up staying on the beach because the buses weren't running yet and we didn't want to get a taxi.  It was an interesting experience to sleep on the beach being all wet and sandy from swimming and being on the beach all night.  Can't say I need to repeat the sleeping on the beach part, but it was fun.

Mom and Lindsay's visit (it seems silly to write about this since Mom and Lindsay will be reading this but ooo well)
I headed to the train station around 5 the day they came (I get my days so mixed up here and the last two weeks has gone by so fast with so many adventures its a bit of a blur!).  I was soo excited to see them but worried that I wouldn't be in the right place, they would be on a different train, and I would have no way to contact them.  However, shortly after the train I thought they were on arrived, I saw them walking through the doors!!  It was soooo great to see them.  We walked a ways from the train station to get a bus to their hostel.  It was a really weird feeling to have been living here a month with strangers (well friends now) and all of a sudden be riding the bus I ride almost everyday with Mom and Lindsay!  We got checked into the hotel then went to my neighborhood so I could show them the school and take them for tapas!  After dinner we walked along the beach for awhile just enjoying the beautiful evening (the evenings really are perfect here!).   Lindsay came out later that night and got to meet some of my friends here so that was a lot of fun!
The next morning we went to Nerja I think...  It was a fun day and I got both mom and Lindsay to jump off the rocks!!  (no injuries this time, although mom did say that she didn't like me anymore)  It was a beautiful day relaxing on the beach!  For the life of me, I can't remember the time sequence of the rest of our events, but we went to the museum at Picasso's house, did some shopping so Lindsay could find her awesome Spain-stylin pants (I'm going to have to find a pair too so we can wear them out at home :D ), some relaxing on the beach and a little swimming in the hotel pool, and interesting eating out adventures.  I was just so happy to have them here!  On Tuesday I had to go to class to take my final, so Mom and Lindsay went to Granada for the day.  They'd have to tell y'all that story!  On the same day as the final is when all the new kids got here and all the old kids left.  It was a busy busy day! (more in a sec)
On Wednesday afternoon, mom and Linds came over for lunch at my house.  It was fun to show them my room and where I've been living, and of course have them meet my Senora!  We had paella (no shrimp eyes this time) and talked.  It was really interesting because the two girls from Canada where still here and they speak french (and english), then we speak english, and there was a lot of translating going on between all of us so we could all communicate!  That night we went to the center again and met up with my friend Tony and his girlfriend, who had just arrived as well.  We got ice cream from Smooy, which is just the best ice cream place ever.
It was very sad to have to leave them at their hotel that night and know that I wouldn't be seeing them again for another month!!  If anyone else feels the need to visit please do :)

eating our dinner

in nerja!

more nerja pics!

before jumping

waving from the rock

me!

lindsay!! (I think Lindsay has the picture of mom jumping!)

Lindsay and mom swimming.

Spanish Dylan.

Spanish JC (I saw a Spanish Cali-cat too but didn't have a camera with me at the time)

Near the main street (calle larios) in Malaga

It was hard to get a pic of all three of us!

So we took turns...

Eating at the telepizza, yum!!

Having a tinto de verano!

again...taking turns.  we must be looking into the sun!

On the Tuesday that Mom and Lindsay went to Granada, I had my finals, which went well (at least well enough that I'm in the next level of classes now!) then went to the center with Amber to go for a boat ride with the new group of kids.  It was nice to meet all of them, they are are all really nice, but its just not the same as our old group!!  After the boat ride, we went to Cheers (yep, they have a cheers bar here) to meet up with the old kids before they left for their bus ride to Madrid.  It was really hard to say goodbye to everyone!  I'm really really missing the group a lot!  I really made a lot of good friends!  At the beginning of the program/before coming I never really anticipated that it would be so hard once everyone left!  Me and Amber (and the other 8 people that stayed) always talk about how it still feels like we're going to see them waiting at the bus stop or at school!  

whew...that was a lot of blogging in a few days, but I think I've caught myself up to London!!  So tomorrow I will hopefully be writing about that!  Love everyone and miss everyone a lot!!  Really wishing I was home with everyone right now.