Road Trip!! Part II

Ok so now I´m back. We woke up early Saturday morning at 8 and drove to meet Deanna´s friends and teachers who go hiking on the weekends at 9. It was cold and we met everybody and went in cars to La Alberca, a pueblo about 1 hour away from Salamanca. Then we started walking. Today there was going to be a hard hike and an easier one. The leader guys recommended that Victor and I not go on the more difficult one since it was our first time. I paid attention but Victor didn´t. I should have gone on the more difficult one because it went to a cool monastary way up on top of a hill but oh well, I´ll do it next time. I had a great time with De, walking and talking on our intermediate hike. We started walking around 1030 or so and stopped at 2. We walked to La Alberca and visited a museum about the forest and trees in the natural park. Then we explored the town, which was really unique, but typical of the area. I had never seen anything like it. There was a ton of people there as it was a holiday weekend, but it was really cool. The whole group met back up and then we ate lunch in this nice resturant. It ended up being really expensive, because they just split the bill between everybody, even though we didn´t get drinks or desert or as expensive things, which was unfortunate. I felt/feel especially bad because it was mainly me who wanted to eat there. (Sorry again guys. :( ) But I also bought a magnet and it was a much needed rest. Then we started back. So the cars were exactly where we had left them that morning, but we weren´t going back the same exact way. Regardless, we walked for at least 2 more hours, first down and then straight uphill for a long time. I got really determined at the end that these 2 French girls were not going to beat us, and De and I ended up being the first girls and the second group of people to finish! Yay USA! haha Anyway, then we loaded back up into the cars and drove the hour back to Salamanca. It was an amazing day, a beautiful hike and although I am super sore, I am so glad we went because it was great to experience what Deanna does and what her life in Salamanca is like. So all in all, we walked for about 6 hours, and did around 18K which to my calculations is 11.25 miles. We were exhausted so when we got home we just showered, looked at pictures and listened to music, Victor and Deanna made pizza and salad for dinner, I did the dishes, we watched tv and went to bed. My mom and sister also called me and I was bummed because I was such a zombie I could barely talk to them. :(

Sunday morning Victor and I woke up early to start back to Granada. It was sad to leave Deanna. Its really funny because whenever the 3 of us are together, it seems completely normal, even though its truly rare that we are all in the same place at the same time. I love Deanna and it was great to see her. We left at 8 or 830ish and got there at 230, with 1 stop in 6 hours. It was a good trip back, we were both really tired, but we made really good time. There was beautiful scenery in the morning and we didn´t even hit traffic in Madrid. When we got to Granada we ran into some of Victor´s old friends and Adri and his friend in front of our house. We chatted for awhile then went upstairs to eat paella with Victor´s mom and dad. Then nap time, this time I took the couch. The rest of the afternoon was composed of unloading the car and getting things in order and then Victor left for Malaga around 8. My roommate Zore had come back Friday for a job she had found and Rosa also came back Sunday night after 8. We all went out for tapas with their friend Raquel who is a character. It was good to hang out with them, but Rosa and Zore have the tendency to talk nonstop about their friends from home and not really include me in the conversation. Sometimes that´s frustrating. Then we we got home, this boy called Rosa and she put him on speaker phone for us to hear. Then afterwards I listened to the two of them talk about that conversation for quite a while. I said it was like watching The Rosa and Zore Show, but that I had seen enough episodes for the day and was going to bed.

This morning I woke up and listened to some music for my guitar class and then went running, ate breakfast and took a shower. Then I went to the bank, and then to the CLM to use the internet. I left early because Rosa and Zore were making lunch for me, Raquel, and their 2 friends from home who were stopping by to visit. They made a yummy pasta with meat, but it was a lot more of listening to other people´s stories instead of being included in them. Then I rested and watched Friends and finally came back out to use more of the internet and this catches me up! Photos soon to come. Love and miss you all, Love, Rachel