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...
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