Study break
Trip Start
Feb 09, 2007
1
29
35
Trip End
Aug 13, 2007
Malaga,
Spain
Sunday, June 24, 2007
The weekend after the rugby tournament in Marbella, the rugby team threw a birthday party. There were two girls on the team that had birthdays that week, but apparently they throw a party for the entire team once a year. Everyone bought a gift for someone else on the team, kind of like a Secret Santa, and we had a rooftop barbecue. Good times. The weekend after that (16th-17th) we had another sevens tournament, but in Madrid this time. We came in 3rd again - bronze seems to be our lucky color. I had a lot of fun hanging out with the team, and I'm getting better at understanding spanish when the lips don't match the words - since we spent both 6hr bus rides to and from Madrid watching dubbed movies. Yay! On a side note, Chris Rock is much less funny in spanish.
This past Friday, we had our farewell dinner for everyone in the IFSA-Butler program here in Malaga. The program doesn't technically end till July 13th, but a bunch of people are leaving early for summer classes back home, internships, etc. So we all went to this great restaurant on the beach that had some seriously delicious paella mmmmm. I still need to learn how to make that... Anyway, it was nice to get dressed up and see all of them, since we all kind of went our own ways after our grammar class ended.
Yesterday was Saturday the 23rd, which is the patron saint day for John, aka Día de San Juan, and the first day of summer. I joined in on the tradition and went to the beach where everyone barbecues (a barbecue on the beach has it's own word - "moraga") and lights bonfires and such. At midnight you're supposed to jump over the coals and go swim in the ocean in order to have a year of good luck. I didn't jump the coals since we were using a barbecue pit on a stand - could've been disastrous - but I did go for a swim. Which was reeeaaally cold haha. The beach we were at had live music, and they also had a giant effigy of a beach bum that they lit on fire at midnight. And they set off fireworks at midnight as well. This may seem like a whole lot of things all going on a midnight, but the spaniards aren't really known for their punctuality so the festivities stretched on for quite awhile. And a lot people camped out on the beach as well. I decided to skip that part of the tradition haha
So now I'm recovering from the weekend of fiestas and avoiding studying for a little longer. After finals are done, hopefully I'll be working as a waitress - still working on finding a job to keep me occupied for the rest of the summer. I'm staying in Malaga until August 8th and then it's back home to unpack and pack again for Ithaca 9 days later. So if you have any souvenir requests (stuffed bull anyone?) get them in soon because I'll be home before long! weird
