Feb 23rd – Day of Fun Lunches and Dinners

When I woke up and came down to lunch, we had a new guest with us (I know…a lot this week!). It was Ana’s younger sister who came to visit for the day and lives in Guadalajara. Today we actually were having a big sit-down lunch in the dining room where normally we eat in the kitchen. We all helped set up the table for lunch, we had spaghetti, while the boys were finishing eating their lunch in the kitchen. It was weird seeing that both Ana’s sisters looked like each other here and there and they all had the same strawberry-brown color hair. Once we sat down to eat, Pepe had asked if I had fun out last night and what time I got in. I told him about 5:30-6am, but we had to walk our friend home. After making sure I was safe coming home by having my friends walk me, they asked ‘did you go to Can-Can?’ ‘No…’, they we shocked and said, ‘no?! You didn’t go to Can-Can? Are you sure?’, ‘Yes, I’m sure!’. ‘Where did you go then? Did you have a good time?’, umm, well yes I did have a good time, but no I don’t know where I went. They laughed for probably a good solid 5 mins. Haha, thanks Spain family. What was it called? Or what did it look like? Did you know where-abouts it was in Alcala or wait, was it even in Alcala? Hmm, no to all the above, we were in a big group of all girls and guys we were friends with and we didn’t pay attention. But I do remember that I didn’t know where I was in Alcala until we decided to go to Cabana. We were walking, I don’t know how long, and then poof!, we were on the main street in downtown Alcala and I knew where I was. They laughed at me again, which I then reassured them I was safe, traveled with my friends, and not alone. I think they think I’m funny. Then Ana said, well we went out last night and we went by Can-Can to see if you would be there and you weren’t! In my head I breathed a sigh of relief because had I seen her yesterday, I would’ve embarrassed myself because I was pretty buzzed and would’ve never lived it down. Funny timing. Then Pepe and Ana’s sister were discussing the main running candidates for president in Spain and their views over each one. Then somehow her sister got onto the topic of Paris Hilton and her antics and how they view her from Spain. Seems that no matter where you go, everyone has the same opinion about Paris; she is a pampered poodle who doesn’t know much of anything except for how to waste money on a lot of nothing. Then talking about the Harry Potter movies and why Pepe and Ana like them and why Ana’s sister doesn’t and the book versus the movie. The best part to the conversation was that I understood almost all of it! After lunch, I took another siesta and came to meet Rachel in the plaza for some ice cream. She was feeling down and I thought it would help. When I was waiting to meet up with Rachel, Olivia had called saying that Sarah decided to do her birthday dinner tonight instead of tomorrow because we start midterms on Monday. So after I met up with Rach, I need to run home and change to be back in the plaza to go to the Chinese place she was craving. Rachel was doing much better than the night before, but still down and feeling out of place. Sarah had called her a little earlier to tell her to come tonight but hadn’t said what time. I was glad she was coming since the best thing to do is to be around friends. I went back to my host home to get dressed and made it on time to meet up in the plaza. And I realized that so far, I have done really well with Lent! I haven’t stressed out, or packed things too close so that I am rushed and I feel like I’m getting some patience. But then again, I’m not the best at patience so I think I’m getting better at it, haha. Once the birthday girl arrived, we all walked down to the Chinese restaurant which there was about 14 of us total, so when we walked in to see how long it would be to get a table, the Chinese woman’s eyes got really big. Then she said umm, 15-20 mins. She actually set us up a big table downstairs so that we could have more privacy especially for the birthday girl and because we were a loud group. They actually had sushi here so I ended up trying some. It wasn’t the best I’ve had but it was okay, plus the group of friends I was around were really a fun, light-hearted group. We joked around and laughed the entire time, which would normally be great, but we didn’t realize that we had been at the restaurant for 3 hours and it was 1am. The actual restaurant was closed and they wanted us to hustle. For looking so rude, we started to clear up or at least consolidate the mess of plates and wine glasses. We figured it was the least we could do. Then to treat the birthday girl, they brought the table a bottle of China Plum, which is an apple flavored wine, I think. It was on the house! So after a couple of birthday toasts, we finally left. Even though we had stayed so late, they still liked us and hoped we would come back again soon. Then the birthday crew was on their way to take Sarah out for more drinks but I needed to be more productive tomorrow since midterms were starting Monday and I had two. So I told them to party hard and I went to go wait for the bus. Rachel was nice enough to wait with me. Once I got to my host home, I realized it was the earliest I had come back on a Saturday! It was about 2am, and normally I wouldn’t even think of the faintest idea of returning yet since the night would just get going. Weird. Going back to the states will probably be a little difficult at first to get used to the earlier schedule since back home, the bars close by 2am and the night is most definitely over by 3am unless you are at a party; even then it starts to wind down by then.