Crazy stories

Well, this past week in Alicante has flown by. I had two very big presentations that I had to prepare for, and they both went well. I feel more and more confident in my Spanish; I was comfortable enough to get up in front of the class and talking about gastronomy in Spanish for almost 30 minutes. It was a bit hard to speak Spanish with mi madre right when I returned home, just because I was a little out of practice. However, I already feel like I am right where I left off, which is encouraging.

Well, I have more to share about the end of our trip… I am sure most of you have heard the stories… but Ben and I had quite an adventure, thanks to my stupidity (or “mistakes I have since learned from”). The last day of our cruise we stopped in Split, Croatia. Croatia was very different from other European cities, especially since they only recently became a country. There are many historical sites to see, but not many that Croatia can call their own. Ben and I had an excursion booked through our ship to go see Krka falls, supposedly the tallest falls in all of Europe. The 1 ½ hour bus ride to get to the falls was great; we got to see so much scenery that we would have missed if we had stayed on the coast. Croatia is pretty, and a lot greener than Spain. We made it to the falls and went on a 2 hour hike up and around them. There are little bridges built over some of the smaller falls so we were able to actually go over them and see some gorgeous views. We also saw water mills and other ways they use the falls to obtain energy. On the way back to our ship, we passed a huge Croatian palace and the city of Split. Croatia is so different, but I really enjoyed my time there.

Of course our last night on the ship was spent playing scrabble, and going to the last dinner so we could say goodbye to the people we ate with every night. It was a great experience to live on a boat for 13 days, but I was a little tired of it by the end, so I was glad to be going back to Alicante. Little did we know, when we got off our ship and headed to Venice, that was when the adventure started.

Venice was great; it was our second time there, so we had no trouble navigating our way through the city. I really like Venice; I think it might be my favorite city in Italy, so I was thrilled to go back. Although very touristy, it’s so different because it’s all on water, and I just love all the boats and that the city has one constant blue tint to it. We went to a very local pizza place, found out that we still don’t know any Italian, and made our way to the main square. We had 6 ours in the city, and managed to find our way to the airport no problem. All was going well, until we realized that we were at the WRONG AIRPORT. We should have researched it a little more, but now we know that Venice has two airports, one that was basically built just for the airline we were flying with aka where we were supposed to be. Fortunetly, the problem was easily (yet expensively) fixed, and our 70 euro taxi ride allowed us to catch our flight to Barcelona. We though that we were on track, until we flew into Barcelona (trying to catch our next flight in 65 minutes) and realized that we were in the WRONG AIRPORT. Of course, I felt very dumb at this point, and really regretted that I didn’t take the time to mapquest these airports. This is what I learned: Just because the airport name has the main city name in the title, doesn’t mean that it is remotely close to the main city. We found out that 1. The airport we needed was 2 ½ hours away on a good day 2. A new plane ticket would cost 300 Euros, Each. 3. A car was the best option. Of course I was upset and was feeling stupid and helpless, but I could see the thrill in Ben’s eyes when we decided to rent a car.

Our goal was to make it back to Alicante by 11:00 AM the next morning, just in time to head to the country house with mi familia. By the time we left, it was already almost 10 at night, and we were literally a 30 minute drive from the French border. If you have seen a map of Spain, you understand that we had basically the entire East coast to drive in 13 hours. Nonetheless, Ben and I proceeded to get directions, and were advised to follow the coast, and stay off the A-7 tollroad. My favorite part of the entire 3 weeks with Ben in Europe was this car ride. I hate to admit that I am thrilled that our mistakes led to this. We drove (we may or may not have drove fast) and follwed the coast. We stopped at a McDonalds (with fear of every source of food closing in the next few hours), ate dinner, and got 6 burgers to go (just in case we got hungry, you never know). We were doing fine, until Barcelona. I would love to be able to say that getting lost in Barcelona for 2 hours was frustrating, but I loved it. We seemed to be going in circles, but at the same time, we got to see all these famous sites from such a new perspective. After asking for directions, messing those directions up, getting more directions, messing those directions up, and getting more directions, we were on the road again! We drove until 3 AM, until we decided to stop and sleep in our car. Ben really wanted (and in my opinion needed : ) ) a shower, so we decided to stop in Taragona and see if any hotel would let us shower for a few Euros. Maybe it was because it was late, or maybe because we couldn’t find any non-ritzy hotels, but the kindest response we got was (in a thick accent), “You just want to shower?” We decided that we needed to rest, so we parked on the side of the road and took a two hour nap. Don’t worry though, I was very hesitant about this part of the trip, so we picked the safest spot we could possibly find. At 5 AM, we got back on the road, stopped for Red Bulls, and continued our journey. We drove on all these roads that swerved through the mountains while the sun was rising. It was breathtaking. My eyes kept shutting, so it was a good thing that Ben was wide awake. We passed through Valencia, and all mountains of eastern Spain. We passed the fields of windmills, the town where I got my best half marathon time in, an amusement park, the rock of Benidorm. We basically drove through all the towns I wanted to show Ben. We made it to Alicante and mi madre generously offered Ben a shower, and after we were both clean, we headed to the country house with mi familia!

It was such a relief that we had made it to Alicante, and the afternoon made every trouble of the trip worth it. Mi famila ADORED Ben, and Ben definetly spoke better Spanish than everyone expected. We played with Claudia y Kay, gave Ben a tour of all the houses, ate an amazing oven cooked meal, went on a walk, and spent a great day with mi familia. My Spanish family invited Ben to stay in the extra room we have here, so he wouldn’t have to stay in a hotel. It was already quite an honor that they invited him to the country house, but the fact that they invited him to sleep at our house meant that they considered him family. The next morning, I went with Ben to the airport, and although we were both sad to say goodbye, we were thrilled that Alicante has only one airport, and we definetly got that one right…

So needless to say, after all that adventure, Monday afternoon I took a 5 hour nap. Tuesday was a busy day, and I was still recovering a little. Wednesday I had my interview with Operation Christmas Child. It went fairly well, and I will find out within a couple of weeks if I get a second interview. Although I REALLY want this internship, I also realize that I will end up where God wants me. But, everyone keep praying por favor!

I can’t believe I have only about two weeks left here in Alicante. I am a little homesick now, but I know I will miss Alicante one I am home. It’s weird having two places that I call home now. But I will see you all very soon! May 18^th!

¡Adios Amigos!

¡Tened un día bueno!

¡Disfrutad vuestro tiempo primavera!

¡Y cuando yo llegare a Los Estados Unidos, mi gustaría pasar mi tiempo con todos de vosotros!