If I'm not online by 8 am, I receive a friendly little wake-up call from my favorite Romanian. I then click, “ignore” and peel myself out of bed and over to Kiwi to get my computer time in for the morning before getting the bus at 8:38 am. So when L called me this morning at 7:15, I figured it was an unusually early wake-up call, and clicked “ignore” and continued snoozing. So when she called a second time, I made myself answer.
“Hello sleepyhead! Somebody here wants to say 'Good Morning' to you!”
I waited for a voice and next thing I knew, Sam was greeting me!!! ^_^ OMG!
I was so excited Grandma and Sam were actually in Spain and that Larisa had picked them up so early (6:40 am – damn) that there was no way I could go back to sleep, even though I had been up late worrying a bit about my finals. So I showered. ^_^
Just as I was drying myself off, Jesus knocked on the door to tell me he'd woken up early and gone and got me a bag full of churros and a cupful of dipping chocolate!! Cruz came over and told me to hurry and get dressed so I could enjoy them! When I told them both that Grandma and Sam were here, they both became very excited. :)
While I was eating my churros (YUMMY!) my madre asked me when my bus left for school, 'cause she was comin' with me!! Aww – she took me to school the first day, and was taking me to school the last day! ^_^ Cute! She had to go to the CIEE office to drop of her student evaluation (I wonder what it is families write in those evaluations and what the purpose is? It's not like I could call Cristina up and ask her to fax it over to submit to my new landlord? Nor can she submit it to my school to say I could never study abroad again because my family wrote a bad evaluation...?), and while she was in the office, got to meet “Angel” Dave!! Hee hee hee!
(Later I'd ask her what she thought of him and she remarked that he was VERY attractive – LOL.)
I went into my Spanish Business test having studied for a grand total of 7 minutes (and that's a bit of a hyperbole) and just started filling in answers. Where they all right? Probably not. But sometimes I believe confidence is key – lol. Taking an hour with a test that takes ten minutes to fill out is not going to guarentee you a better score if you just simply don't know some of the answers, so let's just not waste everybody's time pretending, kthnxbai.
Getting done with the test so quickly allowed me time to explore Alcala for a good few hours! I went to the store on Calle Mayor that has Muppets, but of course they only muppet they DIDN'T have was Kermit (wtf?)... so I journeyed on and stopped in Cervante's house to take a quick tour (something I'd been meaning to do since the first day of school!). It was fairly small and completely restored so it didn't even almost feel like a house from half a milenium ago... but I felt complete having lived in Alcala for so long and finally visited it! When I was done, I went to sit on the bench with Don Quijote and Sancho to begin studying for Ernesto's test, but quickly realized I was markerless!! HOW could I take an Ernesto test without many, many colors?
I'd lent my markers to Megan for her hobby horse project and totally forgotten to get them back from her (and, at this point, I'd forgotten I'd even lent them to her, so I just simply had no idea where they were, period.)... so I did the only rational thing I could think of – went on a mission to Folder, the nicest papeleria in town, to buy more!
Copious amounts of colorful markers secured, it was study time in the courtyard garden on campus. I tried to focus, but between knowing that was the last time I'd be in that beautiful place and the ants that were going up my shorts and biting me in inappropriate places, it was all for naught. Before I knew it, it was noon and I packed up my literature packet and pouch of markers and hoped Ernesto had been serious when he'd promised us the day before that this test would be embarrassingly easy!
And it was. (Thanks, Ernesto!!)
I answered every question in a different colored marker, drew three fancy top hats and a nice big Kermit the Frog on the back page before turning it in, assuring Ernesto that I'd be in Madrid for another few weeks and that we'd see each other before I left for the US, and ran out of the classroom and down the stairs doing a jig, singing to myself, “I'm done with college! I'm done with college!! Tra lala! Tra lala!” until
*KERPLOP*
I got so into my song and dance that I missed a stop and
toppled
down
the stairs!!
>_<
FAIL.
I sat there for a moment on the ground, a little stunned by my clumsiness and wondering if L hadn't rubbed off on me a little too much. People passed by and I just looked up and smiled at them, as if I were supposed to be sprawled on the floor for some academic reason, all the while grateful as could be that Ernesto hadn't seen it go down (I prefer to believe I come across as a fairly put-together individual around the man, and this surely would have given it away – lol).
When I finally got my butt off the floor I was once again doing my jig, bounding out the door and making a beeline for the RENFE train station to go into Madrid – 'cause after all, Grandma and Sam were WAITNG for me there!!!
First stop? KFC for hot wings for L. :) Strangest guilty pleasure I've ever heard of, but after waking up at 5 to go to the airport to pick my family up from the airport and take them to their hotel, it seemed like the perfect mini “thank you” lunch I could think of considering my time crunch! I met her at the park near her work to trade hot wings, Aquarius (it's like Gatorade) and a cute little chocolate tart from the market tied up in strings for stories about Grandma and Sam's arrival that morning! ^_^
Before I knew it we were knocking on their hotel room door and there they were! Right in front of me, in Spain!! ^_^ L hung out for a little while with us while G and Sam slowly roused themselves from the jet-lagged slumber. After she had to go back to work, the three of us went to Atocha to buy train tickets to Barcelona (I got them in Spanish. It was a huge WIN for me, but a huge annoyance to G who demanded the woman repeat everything that had just gone down before turning over her credit card.), to McDonald's for a quick snack and then Starbucks for free internet to book the hotel in Barcelona for the two nights we'd spend there after the cruise.
L met up with us again at that point...
... and we took G and Sam on a mini walking tour of central Madrid from Atocha to Sol (Sam was on a mission to buy a Spanish fan, as he saw everybody using them and was roasting in the Madrid heat) to Opera to the Royal Palace (where he was mesmerized by a man making huge bubbles on the street for money) to a stop in a garden for little flowers...
...to Templo de Debod to a hole in the wall place for a light Spanish dinner and back to their hotel to drop them off for the night. :)
It was quite the whirlwind of a day and left me ridiculously pooped by the time the night bus dropped us off at home around 3 am. >_< DAMN!
XOXO
Jet-set Cupcake
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