Hello all!I have had a jam-packed couple of weeks and it's only going to get crazier with my epic journey home for Christmas. But I am more than happy with things that way. It all started the last weekend in November when my sister, Leah, and my niece and nephew, Aly and Erik, came to Valladolid to visit. I couldn't believe they were actually here and I had so much fun while they were, and I think/hope they did too.
The highlight was definitely when we (and by we, I mean Leah) cooked a Thanksgiving dinner with Spanish ingredients in my seriously under equipped kitchen. We had all the typical Thanksgiving dishes, expect for things that are impossible to make/find in Spain, being the turkey itself (chicken instead), cranberry sauce (no cranberries on the Iberian peninsula), and pumpkin pie (totally impossible to make here). It was still so great. It was especially cool going out with Aly and some of my friends in V-town.
I think she liked it and I sure liked hearing everyone practicing their English with her. More than anything I enjoyed the act of just spending time with them. It was nice to have some relatives in town since I miss my family a lot.
Leah and the kids headed for Madrid that Monday and I followed shortly thereafter on Thursday to catch a flight to Lisbon! I had a five day weekend since I don't work on Fridays and we had vacation on the following Monday and Tuesday for "El día de la constitución" (Constitution Day), so I decided to take advantage of the free time and do some traveling, of course. I met my bff Lindsay in Madrid (she bused it up from Málaga) and we made the journey together. I lack the words to describe just how amazing that trip was so I will borrow them from a travel guide that we consulted: "Portugal is a quieter, calmer place than its exuberant neighbor, Spain. But it's far from dull." Totally agree. The people were so "tranquilos" and kind. What was the city itself was incredible. Again, I use the author's words: "Lisbon has a seductive melancholy charm and is more like a large town than a capital city." So true. There is something hauntingly beautiful about Lisbon.
It could be the perpetually overcast sky and antiquity of the surroundings, but the buildings are marvelous and the people even more so. We really had the time of our lives. It started with our arrival to Lisbon when two friendly police officers gave us directions to our hostel and offered to take us there on their motorcycles. I'm pretty sure they were kidding. They spoke perfect English, which we found be the norm there (eh-em, take note, Spain). That encounter seemed to set the tone for our stay because during our adventures through ancient castles, monasteries, breweries and the different boroughs of Lisbon we met many lovely tourists and natives alike. We also drank a lot of Port wine. My favorite lunch was one day when we ate at a small seafood restaurant near the port, a bit off the beaten path. We sat there for hours laughing hysterically, enthralled by each other's stories of life in our different parts of Spain. I noticed the waiter, quite taken by us, kind of chuckling to himself as he went about his work which I thought was really funny. And then later he came over and poured us another glass of wine, on the house! So nice. Our good experiences continued the next day as we ventured to the small but sumptuous town of Sintra.
It's culture landscape is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and rightfully so. Between the Roman palaces, Moorish castles and the Sintra mountain range, it was probably one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. On our last night, we went to listen to fado, traditional Portuguese guitar music accompanied by mournful lyrics (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fado). Very unique and very much worth the money we paid to see the show. Plus, I'm pretty sure the guitar player fell in love with Lindsay.
All in all it was was a magical trip. I returned to Spain a little worse for the wear, completely sleep deprived and having said goodbye to Lindsay and my new found love, Portugal. Luckily, because of the holiday, I only had to work two days last week and then I was off to Navarra, so my "tristeza" did not last for long. I headed up to my dear Pamplona for my friend Flor's going away party.
She is one of my Chilean friends who came to study abroad at the University of Navarra and now she's headed back to Chile. The weekend was absolutely wonderful since Flor's departure brought all of us "ex-foreign exchange students in Chile now living in Spain" together. I saw three of my good friends from that semester for the first time since I left. There was a moment at the party where I was so happy I literally had tears in my eyes, to look around at the 10+ of us who were always together there in Santiago and to think, wow, I never thought we would all be in the same place again. The really special thing about that party was that those friends who are so near and dear to me were only a dozen or so of the more than 30 people who were all friends of Flor and friends of each other as part of this huge Chile-Spain connection (and me, the random American who somehow got caught up in the mix). I can't tell you how many times I heard "it's just that, well, Chile is special" or "something happens to you there." I couldn't agree more. It was a very fun and nostalgic night.
And now as Flor prepares to return to Santiago and we all grapple with having friends and family scattered around the world, I start to realize that distances really don't exist. This is something I will prove on Tuesday when I start the two day trip back to Eau Claire for Christmas! Can't wait to be home!
Merry Christmas!!!
Love,
Katie
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