Friday, December 11, 2009
In the morning I headed over to the AIFS office to give Paula and Inma these little “goodie bags” that Mom had sent over to me as thank-yous. They included some candy from MN and a homemade bracelet by my mom! Inma wasn’t there, but I gave Paula hers and she LOVED it! Well, first of all she said she loves Nut Goodies…who woulda known. But, she also said green is her favorite color, so I guess that made the bracelet even more perfect for her! She put it on right away and said she was going to wear it to our goodbye dinner later that night. I left Inma’s for her, so she’ll get that on Monday!
After that, I did homework for about 4 hours. I started working on my Literature study guide and only got 1/3 of the way done. Ick. I guess that will be what I do tomorrow too.
Then, at 7 we left for Neptuno to meet all the AIFS people for our goodbye dinner. There were 3 little mini-busses that were there to take us. There was a LOT of traffic, but somehow our bus driver managed to not go below 30 even in the tiny streets of the Albyzin (where our Flamenco restaurant was). It was crazy…and a bit terrifying!
Dinner was…decent. All it really was were a bunch of plates of tapas. First it was jamon Serrano, then we got little tortilla espanolas, then we had some fried shrimp, calamari and fish, and then some pork. There was a dessert tapa too! At around 9:30 the Flamenco show started. There were 4 musicians on the stage, 2 singers, one flute player and one guitarist. Then there were 4 dancers who came out and each did their own sort of “showcase”. I really liked it…but I actually think the show we saw in Nerja was better. Regardless, some of them were very talented! And I liked having the live music, rather than recorded music! After they finished, we left, but a lot of people took pictures with the band, etc. It was too crowded for me, and I sorta just got shuffled out the door. Oh well. It was probably good I saved my camera battery anyway, because…
We all got dropped off at Neptuno, and people were saying “come to Babylon, come to the Chup”, etc. but I just decided to go back to Jardines. I heard that Jardines was having their annual party, but it seemed odd that they had planned it for the same day they knew all of the Americans would be gone. We were all a little upset with them. We got there, and EVERYONE was in the lobby (Eugenia, Scarlett, Elena, Fig, Julia, ALL the residencia kids…) and there was music blasting from someone’s room upstairs. It was ridiculous. Florian answered the door and was super excited to see all of us, but it seemed like no one else was. People started shuffling into the comedor and I saw there were plates and plates of food. All sorts of appetizers. I was still hungry from the lack of food at our dinner, so it all looked good, but the Spaniards gave us weird looks, and Elena and them disappeared and didn’t say anything. I felt like the kid who didn’t get invited to someone’s birthday party across the street. Everyone was there and you can see them all, but you couldn’t go over there. Marisa, Adam, Daryl and Chryssi left for the Chup to meet up with people, but Merete, Will and I just hung out in my room for a bit. I decided I was hungry, so I went downstairs to leave. I was caught by Scarlett, Eugenia and Elena who were all like “porque no?” and said that they wanted us to join in. We kinda said that we thought it was just for the other kids, and they were horrified. Scarlett said she made so much food that they would never be able to eat it, haha. So, I kinda felt stupid not knowing anything about the party in the first place, but they really seemed to want us there, so the three of us joined in. It was totally fine by then, because a lot of the kids already had wine and beer and were up for chatting with whomever. As soon as I walked in, Elena handed me a glass with some yummy sparkling wine. Then, Florian made me a large plate of food (that I never finished). It was a LOT of fun. We literally spent about 3 hours just taking pictures with everyone, singing with the songs, and trying to decide what to do next. The 5 Jardines ladies were all dressed up. Well, everyone was really dressed up, but it was fun seeing Scarlett and Elena in their normal clothes for once! I gave the 5 Jardines ladies their little goodie bags of MN goodies (no bracelets though...), and they were SO happy. They couldn’t stop smiling, and Elena just started munching away on some of the chocolate I had added in.
There were some Jardines “alumni” who came over for the party. There were about 4 kids who had stayed here last year that aren’t here this year who know just about everyone. It was funny to see them come back. Then, Scarlett and Elena hosted the “Jadines royalty” election. I guess everyone voted for a king (rey), queen (reina) and orange (naranja…the person they like the most). Eloy (a boy) got a lot of votes for reina, because Florian and friends decided he needed to be treated like a queen (haha, they had already started treating him like one yesterday...bringing him his food, bowing to him, running him through "crowds" like they were his secret service, etc.)…but at the end, Isaac and Maria Ramos won. I’m pretty sure they’re sort of a “thing”, haha. Technically I got a ton of votes, because no on wrote down which Maria they were voting for. Haha, sweeeeeeet. Elena got voted the naranja even though it was a close match between her and Scarlett. I think some of the boys have third-grade-esque crushes on her.
As I said, we went around and talked with everyone, and took pictures with everyone. Elena told me she wants the one of us, so I’ll have to email that to her at some point. Scarlett liked hers too, and continued on to tell me that I look like Bella from Twilight (but Will doesn’t look like Edward…harsh). Haha, crazy lady. I have a lot of funny pictures. A LOT.
Then, around 2am, Daryl, Chryssi, Marisa, Adam and some other AIFS people came to Jardines. They were like “WHAT is going on” haha. Everyone was back out in the lobby dancing to ridiculously loud music. Armand showed up, and he hadn’t ever been to the residencia before, and we had to try really hard to convince him that this WASN’T how it was every weekend, haha. They left after a bit, but so did all of us. We walked up to El Camborio, up in the Albyzin…right next to our restaurant! Geez, what a long walk! Let’s see…it was me, Will, Florian, Merete, Marisa, Adam, Luna, Esteno, Ricky, reina Eloy, and Gerardo. Florian knew the girl who as working the tickets (go figure), so we got a discounted price. WOO! Anyway, Camborio was a lot of fun, even though we got back reeeeeeeeally late and my throat hurts from all the smoke in there! The walk home was a bit painful too, because the flats I was wearing didn’t quite agree with my feet during the 4 mile walk (there and back). Whew.
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