So Monday May 19th I slept in till 1PM. It was great and just what I needed. I had planned to go on a walk with Emilio, but Pepa had called me around 9 and said he had to go do something for work and couldn't go. So I just kept sleeping. When I woke up I went for a run and then I had lunch with Pepa and Emilio because they invited me and I didn't have any food or wanted to cook. Then I went upstairs and showered and went to have class with the babies, only to get there and there were no babies. The director lady told me, "Oh I forgot to tell you, there's no class today because of Corpus, Oh well, more time for you to rest, right?" Hmmm well, I was not very happy about this, obviously, because 1, I had been resting all day, 2, I would have had more time to rest or do soemthing else if I could have planned for it, and 3, All my other students were doing the same thing to me, and I just wanted some money! So I called Veronica to stop by earlier, because I was supposed to take the kids pictures that day, for their end of the year certificates. So I went by and did my part of the certificate and then came home and talked to my mom on the phone. Then I went and got juice at a tetería with Michelle and then she came over for a bit. We talked and listened to music and then she left. Then I ate some dinner and blogged till about 2AM and went to bed.
Tuesday I was obviously really tired, and still sick and had a really rough voice, so instead of going in a half hour earlier to guitar as planned, I sent Antonio a message, (which he didn't get) and kept sleeping. I finally woke up a bit and showerd and went to guitar a bit late, which went well but I couldn't sing. Then I came back home and took the bus up to school. I thought we had set a special meeting for the 5th period to go over the translation I had been working on. There was the bus strike and some sort of demonstration going on in the center so the bus was taking forever. On the way, Michelle sent me a message, saying that everyone was there going over the translation the 4th period, so I continued on my way to school, got there for the last 10 minutes and then left. Apparently I didn't understand. But it was ok, because I obvioulsy wouldn't change my translation anyway. So then I hung around for a bit and looked for Fernanado to make sure we weren't having class the next day and walked back home. Pepa had invited me to eat lunch with her at the fair. The fair is made up of 2 sections: the rides and normal fair attractions you probably think of when someone says fair, and the Spanish section casetas. Casetas are booths for eating and dancing. Some are public and some are private. Pepa's friend from the gym had invited her and her friends to go up and eat with her on Tuesday and Pepa invited me a long. I was hesitant to go because I knew it would be awesome, but also awkward to spend so much time with Pepa and her friends. But I hurried home and we went to wait for the bus at the Palacio de Congresos. The bus never came, so we tried to take a taxi. There were 6 of us, so we couldn't all fit in 1 taxi, but found 2 other ladies to go up with us. Getting a taxi at that time of the day, when everyone is going up to the fair was next to impossible, but finally after almost 45 minutes we did and went to the fair, which is also fairly far away. Then we met up with the other 2 ladies who had gone before, and went to eat lunch. The food was ok, and the ladies were really funny. All fancy and dressed up, but nuts as well. There was one who said she went to bed at 5AM the night before because she was partying at the fair since Sunday. So it was fun, and I was glad I went, but I felt bad because I was late to my class with Carlos and Marta because we left so late, because we had gotten there late, etc, etc, I sent them a message telling them I was going to be late, which they also didn't get. I got to class about 30 minutes late at 6:30 only to find that Carlos was sick and going to the doctor, so I had 1 hour of class with Marta. Then I talked on the phone with my mom and Victor and walked around a bit and met up with my friend Jenny. We chatted over tapas in a couple different places and ran into Jenna and Raul at a tapas place and had a round with them. Then they left and Jenny and I had one more round and talked and went home and went to bed.
Wednesday morning I woke up early and went for a run. I didn't have to go to work because I only had 15 minutes of class with Fernando, which I had cancelled with him the day before, before they cancelled the rest of the classes because of the holiday. Then I showered and got ready and went to see Pepa, because she had given me a toque. I told her I was going to see La Tarasca parade and she invited herself along. La Tarasca is a silly parade for children, with a dragon that explodes and shoots confetti, huge Catholic and Arabic kings and queens, large headed figures, and finally a manequin lady, riding on another dragon, whose hair, clothes and makeup are done by leading stylists in the lastest fashions of the year. We got there a little early, but there were tons of people in the streets. We found a little spot relatively close to where it was going to pass by and tried to hold our own. We were in the sun, and with a group of people on a corner where a lot of people wanted to cut through. The people around us, didn't want to let people cut through as it was annoying and bothered their kids so they tried to not let people pass. For some people that worked, but for others, it just made them angry, and through the course of the hour and a half we were there waiting, children started crying, people were yelling, a lady pushed through like a psycho and at the end of all the madness, Pepa and someother people got fed up and went home. I stayed, since I had already battled for so long, but of course, right as the procession was about to pass by, tons of people pushed in front of me, including tall dads with kids on their shoulders. So I didn't see a whole lot but I lasted and then walked home. At home, I tried to start getting things ready to cook lunch for my friend Jenny, who I had invited to lunch. Rosa and Zoriada had left last Friday but came back Tuesday and went straight to the fair, so I hadn't even seen them till I got home and they were making lunch. I told them that my friend was coming over for lunch, but they didn't tell me that Raquel and Mari were also coming over. So I did as much prep as possible and waited till they were out of the kitchen, and finally started cooking. Then Jenny came over and I finsished cooking and we chatted and ate with Adrian, over the din of the other 4 ladies. Then Jenny who is a bike enthusiast helped Adri patch a flat in his tire. Then I played the guitar for her for a bit and then she had to go and I took an hour nap. Then I went out for a 3ish hour walk around the city. I looked in Plaza Bibrambla at all the Corpus festivites going on there. I also got crapped on by a bird again. I was walking around and all of a sudden I was like, oh no it didn´t, but 2 seconds later it was confirmed. The main drop hit almost on top of my head, and then hit lower in my hair with the black part. Then there was a huge drop on my shoulder, then at my waist on my tshirt, hit 2 of my fingers and a final drop on my shoe. I couldn't believe it. You may think that I am exaggerating, but I am not. Its hard to believe it was only 1 poop, and not thousands, but I´m pretty sure it was just one bird with a vengance and paerfect aim that had to drop a huge load. Thankfully the plaza I was at was right next to Soufian's store so I went straight there and asked him for some napkins, which he found somewhere and I used a mirror to try and fix the damage. Then I went to the town hall where they big heads and La Tarasca and kings and queens from the parade that day were on display, along with a potted plant, bonsai, and caged birds competition. Then I just kept walking around the city, and I ran into 5 students. They were actually all really nice and friendly. They are nice kids when you don't have to teach them anything, or make them do something. So I walked from around 7:30 to 10:30 and went home and ate some dinner and maybe tv and internet and went to bed fairly early....
Thursday I woke up kinda early, went running and showered and went to the parade, later than I had planned to. Todays procession was of the Santísima Corpus Cristi, or the Very Holy Body of Christ. I started out in the sun, more or less where I was the day before but I ran into Alfonso, Isabel and Alfonsito, Pablo's family, the kid I have class with on Fridays. We went up to the town hall and found some shade and chatted and waited for the parade. We waited a long time, and the parade consisted of the same stuff as the day before, lots of the groups from semana santa, minus the suits, music and lastly a big silver thing with the communion bread in it. Also the mayor of Granada and a bunch of priests and people singing. It was good to be with Alfonso because he also knows a lot about Granada, and they are very religious, so he could explain a lot of the things like that. The parade ended around 1:30 or so and I had to walk a long way to the bus station, and back track a bit as I ran into the parade again. I took the bus to Michelle's house where we were meeting up with Jenna and Samar to go to the fair. We walked there and ate lunch at a public caseta resturant and shared a tomato salad, potatoes and steak and fried eegplant iwth honey. Brad also came and shared with us. Then we walked around and visited some of Jenna's friends from school then Jenna and Samar went to see the bullfight, and Brad, Michelle and I went to Brad's student Isidro's caseta. They treated us to everything and Isidro and his girlfriend and everyone was so nice. We stayed there for quite a while and finally left and left the fair. Then we stopped by the bus station and bought tickets for us all to go to La Herradura, Victor's beach pueblo for the next day. Then Brad went to meet some other freinds and Michelle and I went to her house where she changed and we ate a snack. Then we took the bus to my house where we went to visit Emilio to ask for the keys to their beach house. Pepa wasn't there so we shatted for a bit, and then came upstairs and made dinner, Kraft Mac and Cheez. Then I showered, changed and packed to go to Michelle's. Then we stopped by Pepa's again, got the keys and the house instructions and took the bus to Michelle's. Then we waited to meet up with Brad and Jenny and went to the fair. We went straight to Isidro's caseta where they were having a Mexican themed party. It was really fun and once again we were treated very well. Around 1 or 2, they decided to go for a walk to all the other casetas to show off their great costumes. Thankfully we were arriving when the casetas were giving out free snacks and drinks. We got this milk and flour snack with black honey on top with crunchy things and in another one, ham sandwiches, cheese sandwiches and gazpacho. My personal favorite!!! Then around 3 after our route we went home, Our group had grown and shrunk to include Jenna and Samar and Kristen but now it was just Kristen, Michelle, Brad and I. We went home and Kristen went to catch the bus, and the 3 of us had planned to spend the night at Michelle's. Later Kristen called saying that her bus never came and if she could sleep there too around 4.
Friday morning we woke up and got ready and went to the beach. Kristen went home. We met Samar and Jenna there, took the bus there and visited the bakery, for some delicious, fresh, snacks. Then I went and showed off my amazing beachfront house, which they all thought was amazing. Then straight to the beach where we stayed untill about 6 o'clock. We ate sandwiches and sunbathed till we couldn't anymore. Then we cleaned up the house and left, stopped by the bakery again, and the equivilant of a 99cent store. Then we caught the bus back, got home at 9 and I went home. I showered and Victor came over for a bit, we went downstairs for dinner and used the computer and then I went upstairs and went to bed.
Saturday I woke up and cleaned my room a bit and then went to meet Kristen, Brad and Nick to go to Las Alpujarras, the mountain pueblos of Granada. I had never been and had wanted to go for a long time. We drove there in a car Nick and friends had rented and we first tried to find El Suspiro del Moro, but I don't think we ever did. Then we drove to Lanjaron. At each pueblo we stopped, looked around, I bought a magnet and had a good time. At Lanjaron we got tourist information for the rest of the pueblos. Then we went to Pampaniera, then Bubión, walked to Capiliera ate lunch and back to Bubión. Then we drove to Trevélez which has delicious ham which I bought some for Victor and his parents. It is also the highest pueblo in Spain. We had a great day and I had a really giddy time and a lot of fun. We got back to Granada around 9 and I showered and went to meet Victor and some of his friends at the Andrés Calamaro concert. It was pretty good, once again I didn't know all the songs, but at least I didn't have a fever this time. It started really late so we didn't get done till 2 AM and then we went home and I went to bed.
Sunday I didn't feel like going to church so I showered and cleaned up a bit and went out to enjoy the last of the Corpus festivities I hadn't seen yet. I walked around a pottery fair for a while and then Plaza Bibrambla again. Then I went over to Brad's for a bbq. Samar, Jenna and Michelle also came over. It took a long time to get the coals going but in the end we had delicious bbq chicken and hamburgers, tortilla and potato chips, guacamole and salsa and mixed nuts, which we mostly threw at people from the balcony. It was pretty good and later Victor came and picked me up and we talked before he left for Malaga. Then I came home, cleaned the house, talked on the phone to my dad and Samar and went to bed. That was the end of my week long vacation, celebrating Christ's body.
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