Ibiza, or, the weekend we almost went clubbing

Ibiza is one of the Balearic Islands. As such, it's a prime vacation location, and apparently, the world capital of clubbing. We planned on going clubbing Friday night when we got in, and on Saturday night, because we wanted to dance. However, the four hour ferry from Denia turned into a 6 hour affair, plus a 45 minute meandering walk to our hotel (who knew that peach colored streets on the map meant that they were actually stairs??). Which means that we got to our hotel at 3 a.m. and decided that it wasn't worth it to go to a discoteca that night, because it was going to take about half an hour (at least) to walk to the nearest one. So we went to bed at 4:30 instead.

Saturday was a lovely day of luckily happening upon busses that took us first to Santa Eurália, where we enjoyed the beach for a bit, then to San Carlos, where there is a hippy market every Saturday. Hmm. We also wandered the country roads near the market, and saw some almond trees. Back in the city of Ibiza, we decided to go to the beach. Some crazy people with me wanted to go swimming (it was really only in the high 60s). On our way out, we discovered to our delight that our hotel had a pool, exercise room, and hot tub! After failing to swim, but finding an octopus in a tide pool, we were going to enjoy our hot tub. But, it was not hot. It was luke warm. So instead, we filled our bathtub with hot water and bathed our feet and shins for an hour. By the time we had showered and dined (at Pizza Hut/KFC), it was 11 pm.

Fatal mistake: we decided to nap for a bit. The plan was to nap until 11:45, then get ready, and go to a club. But when our alarms went off at midnight, we just kept hitting the snooze. Jenny and I hit ours, then we heard through the wall (not a whole lot of soundproofing in Spain) Katie & Cheri's alarm go off, and the snooze get hit. This continued until 12:45, when Jenny decided to go next door to see if we were actually going to go clubbing. When she still hadn't come back at 1 a.m., I ventured next door. With all four of us flopped dead on the bed, we decided that we did not have the energy to go clubbing. We asked Cheri to vote, and she said "I don't have the energy to vote." So instead, we went to bed.

That was a long weekend

Since we don't have class on Fridays, the weekends seem to go on for a long time, especially when we do a lot. This one:

Thursday:
- took random pictures around Dénia


Friday:
-trip to Javea, the neighboring town, with the group to see the cathedral, museum, and have tapas.
-watched my first fútbol game with Luis, a friend of Pepita's who was over for dinner
-went out to celebrate Drea's birthday, even though she's thousands of miles away, complete with 3 a.m. (our time) birthday phone call

Saturday:
-Denia's band's outdoor concert with some famous Catalán singer
-watched Chocolat on my laptop on the roof of my apartment building with about 10 other people, complete with bread, chocolate, and wine

Sunday:
-followed the falleras parade, official pictures, second parade, and ceremony in the theater

-went out for lunch to a Chinese place (good news: Chinese tastes the same everywhere) to celebrate Katie's birthday

-nap!
-Ciberdénia for a lovely chat with Drea over Skype, and some emailing

And now it's Monday. And I have lots of pictures for you. =)

Happy Birthday Drea!

It's Drea's 21st birthday today, and since Cheri, Jenny, Katie and I can't be there, we made her something very special instead.



Happy Birthday!
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I really wanted to go to class today

Today, we had a Monday schedule for classes to make for a Monday we're going to miss later in the semester. Mondays I have one class, Advanced Grammar, at 11:30. Or so I thought. I got to school at about 11:15 this morning and Cheri told me that advanced grammar was going on, and there were only 5 minutes left of the class. What? Class starts at 11:30! But no. Today, apparently, grammar was from 10:30 until 11:20. Since most of the Calvin kids have class at 10:00 on Mondays, almost everyone was there. But not me. Nope.

And then I found out that the director of our semester sent us an email about the schedule change last night. At 8:00 p.m. Now, a little lesson about my life in Spain (and most of our lives in Spain). I check my email once, maybe twice a day, usually in the morning between classes, and sometimes in the afternoon at about 5. Which means that an email sent at 8:00 p.m. is only received that night by the lucky few who have internet access in their houses. Which doesn't include me.

So that's my story. I guess I don't have class today after all.

The Rescue of the Socks

Yesterday, I realized that I was wearing my last pair of clean socks. Now, my mamá here does laundry pretty much every day, so I get clothes back about 2 days after I put them in the laundry. And I brought at least 7 pairs of socks to Spain. So where were my socks?? I thought that perhaps my mamá had accidentally given them to my sister. So I (feeling slightly guilty) went into her room to look for my socks. I opened every drawer and every closet, but couldn't find even one pair of socks. Maybe she doesn't wear socks. Maybe it's a Spanish fashion thing that I hadn't discovered yet. But I still like socks. And I wanted mine back.

So when my mamá got home, I asked her if she had possibly given my socks to María Jesús. So the two of us went back to my sister's room, in search of socks. Once again, we opened every drawer and every closet, but still, no socks. Finally Pepita says "¡Aja!" and pulls out of a closet a little trash can. Which is, conveniently, full of socks. And, what do you know, there were one, two, thre... six pairs of my socks. And now my socks are, once again, happily resting in the little drawer in the corner of my room. And I'm wearing a pair right now. Mmmm, socks.