Paradise, 2 Shirts, 20 €

So, before I could take off for the 4 day weekend. I had to go to work last Thursday, October 11th. I was terrified to say the least, because of what had happend the day before. But it was better. As the children got older, they acted better. Still nothing compared to what they should have, but ok. I had 3 classes, just watching and doing the introduction at the end. Mostly the kids don´t give a rip, but after talking with my father, neither do I. haha, in the sense that, if they want to take advantage of what I can offer....good for them, if not, bad for them. Its my job to do my best, to help them, and to try. So I got off work at 2:30ish, walked home (1hour ish) made lunch and Pepa came up to tell me that they were about already to do. I was not, as I was about to eat lunch, but quickly ate and got ready.

We left for the beach, me in the backseat of my newly adoptive parents´ car and Emilio said how great it was to be going to the beach again with me. He also mentioned that they wished I would stay in Granada forever. Victor later assured me that his father is like that, prone to spouting out very random statements of affection. It´s all still pretty ridiculous to me though. So we made it down there and stopped in Almuñécar before to say hi to Patricia and Adriana (Victor´s other sister-in-law and niece. I had never met Adriana as she was born when Victor spent Christmas in California and she´s adorable, but kind of a brat/spoiled. It was good to see Patricia, she is really nice and sweet and although I don´t know her as well as Alicia (other sister-in-law) she has always been really, really nice to me. I gave her my presents and helped Adriana with her magic washcloth and then we left to go to La Herradura, and waited for Victor to come from Málaga for dinner. He came, we ate, and went to bed. It had been raining all afternoon, so I wasn´t sure what kind of a weekend at the beach it would be.

Friday morning it was nice and sunny and we ate churros and chocolate milk for breakfast, ( a beach speciality,) lounged around and finally Victor and I left to go visit Nerja, another tiny beach town that Pepa reccommened we visit. It is really awesome that Victor has a car. There is a whole ´nother Spain to discover in your own car. We walked around Nerja, and visited "Europe´s Balcony" a thing with a pretty view and bought a magnet. I love doing touristy things and buying magnets so it was pretty exciting. Then we went back, and I tried to get Victor to walk around the beach, or go swimming or something since we still had a while before lunch. He is a lazybones on the weekends and just wants to lay around (he does work a lot) but dang.... How often am I in paradise, in a beachfront appartment, on the Medeterrainian, (I have no idea what is going on with my spelling) in the middle of October¿?¿?¿ So Pepa says to me, there is a little market that I was at this morning and I almost bought you a green shirt, but I didn´t know if it would fit, do you want to come see? Umm,, trick question, but I said ok, and left lazy bones to read the paper. So we went down, and the green shirt didn´t fit, but the long sleeved red one did, and the red and navy blue striped hoodie shirt did as well. She asked me which one I liked, and me being indecisive made the mistake of saying "both" outloud as i processed. So she grabbed them from my hands and proceeded to barter and pay for them both before I could say no, or here, let me pay. Back home, mini fashion show for Victor and Emilio, Emilio said one made me look too young. You gotta love how honest that man is.... Then, paella for lunch. I´m kinda learning, but not all the way. Since Pepa pretty much cooks all day, she just tells me what she´s done and then I help with the finishing touches. Then Victor wanted to have another siesta. I said, no this siesta we were going to have on the beach. I tried on my new swimsuit and hit the beach! Its lovely! I didn´t swim, the weekend before I came to Spain there was some seriuos flooding all over southern Spain so there is a lot of debris in the water and on the beach, but it was nice none the less. Then we came back, and got ready to go to Málaga, where Victor works. Its not too far away, I saw his appartment, his roommates, and we bought tickets for the movies that night. His mom had given us some money for the movies and dinner, because moms like to give away money, but Victor paid for everything with his card. We drove to the theatre, which is so big, its outside the main city and drove through serious ghetto at night to get there. I don´t think I´ve ever seen real prostitutes before but now I have. So we finally arrived to a giant mall in the middle of nowhere, and ate some tapas for dinner. Then we went to see El Orfanato, the latest scary Spanish film. It was amazing, and if you have ever seen a scary movie with me, you can guess how I reacted through the whole thing. Its a good movie when you scream outloud even though you are in a huge theatre surrounded by 100s of Spanish moviegoers, who then proceed to laugh at you. On our way home Victor showed me where he worked. Then bed.

Saturday, wake up, breakfast, and back to La Herradura. Malaga is a great city, lots of sights and stuff, and although Victor´s appartment is new, he lives far away from cool stuff and its nothing compared to the amazing house his parents have. So we went back for some home cooking, and family time. Raul, Victor´s oldest brother, Patricia and Adriana (2yrs) came over again for lunch. We had garbanzo soup stuff, not my favorite as I don´t like garbanzos, and it also has stomach in it, I had never eaten that before. The Spanish (at least the ones I know) are so sneaky about wierd foods, "here have some garbanzos, (and stomach), big smile." Anway, lunch, more siesta, Adriana wakes up crying and wakes me up with her, and a while later we all go down to the beach and sit and chillax for a while. I like building little stone towers on the beach and Adriana likes to push them over. I like Raul, but he´s more serious and introverted than Nacho, and pretty much scares me to death. Victor swears that he likes me, but I can´t tell at all. He likes to ask me about the morgatge crisis, the stock market, politics, September 11th (on which he has very controversial opinions) light stuff like that, so basically, I don´t know what he´s talking about, what to say, or how to escape. So Raul and I have some getting to know eachothering still to do before we start telling jokes.... So they leave and later Victor and I go out for dinner. His mom again gave us 10€, we went to a bar and had some tapas, ham and meatballs, and a rosca, a big round sandwich, Victor paid again with his card, then we walked up and down the beach, and stopped in another bar to drink some more (I had a chocolate milkshake immitation thing) and to watch the end of the world cup rugby game. It was a good one, we walked home and went to bed.

Sunday, we woke up, and had churros again for breakfast, I took a walk with Pepa, and then later Victor and I went for a drive to Almuñécar, walked around there, looked for a magnet but didn´t find any, drove back to La Herradura, stopped by Marina del Este, a really expensive port, and back home. For lunch we had migas, which are also delicious, but even after all that walking, I wasn´t very hungry. I did my best but I couldn´t eat very much. Then we had our siesta´s, then left. I tried to give Victor back his mom´s money I had been holding for us, as I become Victor´s purse when we´re together, but he wouldn´t accept it. Victor went to Malaga, and we stopped by El Rancho, Patricia´s parent´s country place just outside the city. We were there for a while, I shared some more intimidating conversation with Raul, and then we left after the grandparents had chatted enough and gotten all the grandkidness they could get. Then all the way back to Granada. Pepa and Emilio had me translating songs from Casablanca and the Beatles for them almost all the way home. They have very ecclectic tastes in music, and Victor had made them a mix cd, that kept me busy interpreting and learning abount 60 year old Spanish music. When we got back to Granada, it was all wet and rainy. I never thought I wouldn´t be happy to return to Granada, but after you spend the 3 day weekend in paradise,,,, even if you come back with more clothes and money than when you left....

I came home, glad to be in my own home, tried to eat something, do a load of laundry, unpack and got to talk to both my parents. I then went to bed tired, and sore and a little feverish. I sent a message to Victor and he said he didn´t feel great either, but not to worry we had just eaten too much all weekend. So I went to bed.

I have to stop here, because they are closing the CLM, and I´ve been here way too long. I´ll try to continue tomorrow.