A visit from the Mams...

It was fast and furious... the Murphy women took the city of Santander by force!

Mom, Nana and Mary arrived in Santander while I was still in class, unfortunately for them, taking a test. I felt my phone vibrate, but when I finished the test and went outside to call them, they couldn't answer! Finally, I got ahold of them on Rachel's phone, and Mom, with her newly developing Spanish skills  had, albeit a detour in the opposity direction, landed them at their hotel. 

We spent the first day just wandering around Santander. I took them to Cafe Alaska, where the waiters are like the glaciers in Alaska, but they serve good Sangria nonetheless. We finished off the day at the hotel cafeteria with a nice dinner, and got to bed early for a good day Friday. 

Rachel and Joe, her boyfriend who was visiting, met us at the bus station, and all six of us headed for Santillana del Mar, the city of three lies. It's called that because the name inferrs that there is a saint: sant, that it's flat: llana, and that there's a sea close by: del Mar. But there are none of these, so they say ni Santa, ni llana, y ni tiene mar. We though we would only spend an hour or so there, but after wandering through all of the 11th century buildings, the iglesia y claustro, and eating churros con chocolate and drinking sangria, 5 hours passed pretty quickly.

Violeta had a wonderful cena prepared for us when we got back. We spent a lot more time there too than we expected. Damian and I translated back and forth, and Nana, Mom and Mary had a wonderful time. Not to mention, Violeta and Mom are two peas in a pod, anyway. 

Saturday, we spent the day visiting the college, the Palacio de la Magdalena and SHOPPING! Nana definitely found her favorite store, Zara, and Mom and Mary found a few things (claro) too. We met up with Rachel and Joe later that night again for Sangria. We headed, a little tipsy, for Antonio's, a great Mexican place. It was WONDERFUL to eat spicy salsa, and the salsa that we are used to, with tomatoes and jalapenos, not a spanish salsa. But it was so much food, I did not want to eat for almost three days afterwards... But the corn tortillas and guacamole made it worth it!

The three amigas headed out late Sunday morning. It was tough, of course. Even though it's only three weeks to go for me, it was still hard to stay. Especially because I'm ready to head home. I mean don't get me wrong: I've had a FABULOUS TIME. And I'm going to absolutely lose it when I have to say goodbye to the Barcenillas. But at the same time, my life is in Oregon. My family, my boyfriend, my friends... those are the people that are my life. And while I love this inter-cultural experience, it's time for me to get back to my life, my career and my future. This has been a trip that has, bar none, been one of the most relaxing and focusing experiences of my life. I am so ready for the rest of my life, and I'm focused on my goals. It's not the perspective that I was expecting, but it's how it ended up. I'm so thankful for the host family that I got placed with... if not for them, my experience may have been far different. 

But it's getting close for that time for me to come home...

Greek Holiday

So! A little belated but here goes anyway...

I was worried the day that Russ was supposed to arrive in Greece. Worried, of course, because number one, I love him terribly and was worried for his safety, but also worried that he would have trouble getting through the airport/finding the hotel/taking the hour long bus ride into Athens, and he was going to hate travelling. I had midterms all that week too, so I definitely did a lot of ab workouts to relax inbetween memorizing my three hundred word vocab list (for the rest of my life, I will never forget the word that I missed... lentillas... contacts!)

Much to my surprise, I received a text at about 8:30 on Thursday morning, saying "I'm here!"... who? Oh yes, Russ's phone not only worked, but he had completely and utterly mastered the bus system, gotten to the hostel, checked in, and made friends with some Greeks, all before he came BACK to the airport to pick me up at one in the morning.

Our weekend started out with his new friend, a matre'd at a restaurant only a few doors down from the hostel. He spoke six languages, and it goes without saying that he was CHATTY. I mean, call me selfish, but I was a little excited to see Russ after 5 weeks, and this guy was taking up my ME time! But he was incredibly nice, his restaurant served great food, and he gave us free shots of ouzo at noon... but I made Russ drink mine :)

We walked around that day, Friday, trying and failing to find an open entrance to the Acropolis. A museum. ANYTHING. But nothing was open. We made almost three complete laps, and from afar saw some amazing four thousand year old buildings and ruins. It was a great day, and even though we didn't actually make it in, we got a lot of walking in... and I bought a pair of Gladiator sandals, so I was happy!

Saturday started out bright and cheery like Friday, so I promptly put on my swimsuit and loaded up on the sunscreen... only to find out when we went outside, that a huge cloud mass was headed our way, following the brisk breeze that was leading it off. So I threw on my jacket for good measure :) We picked a few parks out on our map, after nixing the beach idea. For one, Athens is NOT a tourist friendly city, if you can't speak Greek. Nothing is written in English, and when it comes to finding out directions for the metro, bus system, taxis... you won't find it. Period. No matter what language you speak! But it was all right, because in our search, we found a gorgeous national garden, complete with a animal exhibit (farm animals: goats, donkeys, a horse, chickens, peacocks) and a turtle pond, which naturally was my favorite. But Russ shot down my idea of bringing a turtle back with us...

We decided also to give the Acropolis one more try. And this time it worked, and EVERYTHING was free! It had been a labor day on Friday, and so today they were giving the locals and tourists a day off too. It was amazing. The temple of the Olympic Zeus, where once stood nearly 100 pillars, only 25 remain, but they are completely intact and truly amazing. The gate to Athens, and in the distance, the beautiful Acropolis. We walked through the entire park, and spent a ton of time just WATCHING the history of humanity. Although we were a little late and missed the museums, we definitely decided that this was a city that needed far longer than two days to explore.

And the gyros... let's just say I'm in love. I think I had a gyro for every meal, except when I just had straight lamb. Russ, feeling adventurous, tried the barbequed octopus... EXCELLENT CHOICE. 

All in all, and excellent weekend: I was with the man that I love, in a city full of the history of humankind, eating tzatziki... how much better could it get?

Well, I guess another few weeks could have been better... but not by much :)

Munich

How wonderful it is to see family! I started off early Thursday, thinking incorrectly that if I took the 'elevator' down from the school it would be faster. But of course, whenever you are in a hurry, everything seems to take forever. This time, I had the elevator pick me up on the lower of the two upper levels (if that makes sense), with the elevator headed in the upward direction. But unfortunately for those who had just ridden the elevator upward... we headed back down. It seems that someone forgot to push the 4 button. So down we went. I laughed a little on the inside, thinking that I definitely got the better of this joke. I was going to the very bottom 1 level, and we made a stop at two. But then, as fate would have it, we started up again. I had forgotten to push the one button! At this point, the elevator was VERY crowded. Up we go, and more and more people seem to be crowding the elevator. 

We finally make it to the top, and the man who has been waiting for nearly a half hour because of our little button mix up finally makes it on. As we are going down, he accidentally starts to step off on the two level. Once he realizes that he's on the wrong floor, he gives a little curse (joder) and hops back on. My completely sometimes partially idiotic compatriots from the USA (whom, I might add are also in the twenty-somethings age range) think this is funny. It's like saying the name of male or female genetalia to a class of 15 year olds. They begin giggling, and repeating the word (which translates roughly to F***). Now, I might add, there are several other older people, and other people in general who don't find it funny to be screaming a bad word in a small and very cramped and very hot elevator. Especially when we are in a hurry. I just tried to look as Spanish... and non-American... as I could. It's probably the only time when I will try to deny myself my citizenship: when my fellow Americans are being complete knuckleheads. 

The rest of the afternoon passes without incident. I made it to the busstation, with minutes to spare, but good minutes they were. Once I finally arrived in Munich, I can't even describe the wonderful feeling of getting off the plane after 5 weeks and seeing someone you know. I ran over and gave them a hug. Maria, Sep and I chatted all the way back to the wonderfully cosy house, and then I kept them up for another hour, talking and chatting and sipping on Sep's refreshing citrus drinks. 

The next day, Maria and I had breakfast and took a tour of the booming metropolis of Maitenbeth. It took all of 15 minutes. We had lunch with Peter, Christa, Sylvia, Stephan, Christian, Timmy and Alyssa. When Tanya was done with school she met up with us and we headed to Wasserburg. It's a beautiful almost-island town, almost completely surrounded by the River Inn. We climbed up to a high vista and looked down... and then walked down through the old town. We had some great ice cream, and Maria introduced me to fresh whipped cream with gelato (dangerous).

Saturday morning, the Eisenauers (minus Michael, of course) and I headed to Munich again. We shopped, climbed to the top of a ridiculously high bell tower in an old church (it was incredibly packed with people who didn't understand which way to go around the tower, and so everyone was squished against the safety screen for at least a total of five minutes of the 50 foot tour around the top), and had some more gelato. I found a few gifts for the fam, and a cute vest for myself. I had gone shopping on the good graces and wishes of Tante Ana and Maria, who demanded that I find something nice in Munich :)

That night, my crazy cousins took me to a 30th birthday party. Stephan and Sylvia had asked me the day before if I thought I could handle a German birthday party. 'Of course!' I had told them. That morning, I hadn't even been hungover after schnapps and a few thick, amazingly delicious German beers. We got to the party, which served dinner along with the festivities, and I mentioned to Stephan, around midnight, that this wasn't so bad. 'Just wait till the older folks leave' he told me. 

At three thirty that morning, Stephan and Tanya walked home with me, thoroughly buzzed and happy. Those Germans can sure drink. And without releasing any gory details, let's just say that they drank me under the table. Literally.

But all in all, it was an amazing weekend. I had a very difficult time getting on the plane and leaving, especially after Maria and Sep dropped me off at the airport and waited to leave until I had gotten past security. A few tears rolled by... how am I supposed to do this next week with Russ? But I guess this is what life's lessons and learning to grow up are all about. At some point, you have to learn to say goodbye, only for a little while, and go do something completely on your own. Although, I think they next study abroad will be for a language other than Spanish... in two  years, I'll be back to Germany... finishing my German minor maybe? I mean heck, why not... pre-med students are in school for forever anyway.