Monday after Madrid was rough. I could barely keep my eyes open. I laid down on the bus seat with the intent of falling asleep in the morning, but it didn't happen. Before I could sit back up, Maribel the bus monitor covered me with her jacket. It was not cold on the bus by any means. But it was so sweet of her that I just stayed under the jacket on the seat until we got to school. My teacher wasn't there on Monday, so I was the sub. When I got home Monday afternoon, I laid in bed and waited til the sun went down...waited until I could go to sleep.
Tuesday was my evaluation. Went fine. Tuesday night I could sleep with that behind me.
Wednesday I was finally awake. And Valencia is beautiful right now. The weather, the smells, the sounds. We're all trying to soak it up and aprovecha these final days in our Spanish home.
Thursday
Some pictures of my kids at P.E.
Take note of the girl in the wheel chair (below). She sprained her ankle on Monday. It was legit and swollen. Then, every day since she has been using the school wheel chair to get around...with all the other girls in class fawning all over her.
"Can I push Candela? Candela needs help. I can help Candela? Candela needs to go to the bathroom. I can take her?"
Candela was eating it up. The first two days she also wore short short skirts...and had to prop her leg out. We saw Candelas knickers all week.
Thursday was also the terrace party. The FSU faculty and staff threw it for us on the roof of our building. It started at 4:30 so I missed the first hour. There were snacks, drinks, and music (the music teacher playing his trombone)... I got there --lookin like a teacher-- but everyone took the party as an opportunity to get dressed up. They all looked so nice!
I showed up and had just enough time to make all my roommates retake pictures with me.
Here we are... all my Valencia family.
Big Chris, Melanie, Matt, Lillie, Little Chris, Me, Tara, Freddie
Melissa (adopted), Kelly, and Alessandra
Then I wanted a picture with each of them.
Freddie is fired from picture taking
Mateo... My Mississippi Spaniard. He grew up mostly in Jackson.
Alessandra ... Ale. All the way from Miami. Cubana.
She had never had a sloppy joe before living with us.
Lillie we know.
Big Chris... Big Sweetheart
Favorite Chris story: Went in a restaurant to ask for napkins. "Tienes pañales?"
Pañuelos are napkins.
Pañales are... diapers
They laughed at him.
Melanie ... Big Chris's girlfriend. She is only 17 and she's gonna graduate next year.
She has been one of our main chef's. Girl can make some serious mac and cheese (especially given the lack of cheddar cheese here)
Little Chris
Frederico
Melissa
Tara
Then some other pictures...
Ignacio y yo
Favorites
Hanah and Jimmy
Andrew (Lesh)... He broke his leg playing soccer right before Barcelona. Had to have surgery and everything. Feel soooo bad for him. In his boredom, he has taken to growing out a creepster mustache.
Becca (and DJ creepin over my shoulder)
Carmen... she can pull off the most outrageously trendy outfits.
The terrace party ended and we all went out for happy hour at....
Yeah, I know. We're Americans and we can't help it. Plus it was 6:30. Spanish restaurants aren't even really open yet AND Spain doesn't really do 'happy hour' (after all, "afternoon" lasts until 8:00 here). Plus plus, Friday's takes cheques.
After a few minutes (and after my second nacho) I kind of forgot I was even in Spain.
There were NACHOS! And Michael!
It's a good thing I didn't find out about Friday's until this night.
Freddie's parents were in town. So some of us went to dinner with them. They are as cute as the Spanish day is long. From England originally (Don't worry...I refrained from practicing my British accent on them) but moved to the states when Freddie was a baby.
We went to La Negrita restaurant and had several tapas then hopped over to La Negrita bar and had Agua de Valencia (an orangy flavored drink made only in Valencia.. I hadn't had it yet). So we made up for our American happy hour.
Plaza de la Negrita ... yep. That's Negrita as in Negra. This plaza is called the little black girl. And there is a fountain in the middle with a little black girl statue. Spaniards aren't exactly what we'd call PC.
Britain comes to Spain.
Now our turn
Y ya está. That's it.
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