Man, it's been a while since my last post. I'm going to blame it on the fact that it's been a really, really busy couple of weeks and leave it at that. But suffice to say, I haven't had a ton of time for blogging.
I guess first and foremost, I should start with my trip to Valencia. On the first weekend of the month, I left school on Friday afternoon, headed straight for the bus station, and readied myself for the 4 hour bus ride from Madrid to the Mediterranean coast.
I've made the trip several times now to visit my Valencian friends that studied at OU and I've gotta say, I kind of enjoy the long bus ride. It gives me some solo time to just read, or listen to music, or just kick back and relax and ponder things. Alone time is something that I never really appreciated before coming to Spain, but I've found it to become some of my most treasured time.
Anyway, I arrived in Valencia around 11:30 at night and my friend Dini was nice enough to pick me up from the bus station and take me to my friend Xamu's house. We were having a mini-OU reunion because our friend Susana was going to study in Australia for 6 months and it was kind of her goodbye dinner. Naturally, I arrived just in time for the end of dinner. Typical.
But they were all happy to see me, mostly because I brought presents. Specifically, I brought bags and bags of candy brought all the way from good old Oklahoma.
Here are my friends Paz and Susana holding up the Twix, Reese's cups, Butterfingers, and Almond Joys that I brought to everyone. I was definitely happy to see that they were such crowd pleasers.
After everyone finished up eating, we hung around Xamu's place for awhile so that we could all chat and catch up on things. Lots of gossip about old OU friends and lots of chatting about what we're all doing with our lives. We're all in our mid-20s and few of us are very certain about where our lives are going. So it was nice to relate with everyone on that. Here is a picture of Susana, me, and Dini (the one who picked me up from the bus station).
Later on, we decided to go out on the town. I let the Valencians choose all the places to go because there is honestly no better way to see a town than with a native leading you around. Here are my friends Cobra (real name is Alejandro), Xamu (real name is Jaime, Spaniards love their nicknames), Paz, and Susana. We ended up going out to a bar mostly populated by 40 to 50 year old women, so things were pretty interesting. We stayed out until around 5, fairly early for Spaniards. But Sus had a long goodbye weekend with all of her family and friends, so we had to get her home and rested up.
The next day I spent with another friend of mine from Valencia named Koke (real name is Jorge). We both were pretty tired and didn't feel like doing much, so after a much-needed siesta, we drove out to a place called the Albufera. It's this HUGE salt water lake that is kind of an inlet from the Mediterranean and it's a famous spot for going at sunset. The next picture proves why:
Seriously one of the most picturesque places I have ever been to. Absolutely gorgeous at sunset. Really breathtaking in person and, as with so many other pictures, this picture just doesn't do it complete justice.
The weather was so nice that after seeing the Albufera, we also went on a little stroll on the beach. Yes, folks, that is the Mediterranean and a completely deserted beach. But it was beautiful and it is always so refreshing to be near the Sea. For both the body and the soul.After coming back, I had to face some changes that started speeding my way. Basically, a lot of it revolves around moving to a new apartment. No, it has absolutely nothing to do with fighting with my roommates or my landlord. I won't go into it too much on here, but when I get moved in to my new place, I'll throw some pictures up of it all. Maybe I'll explain later, but I promise, it's actually a very boring story.
And other than that, we've had a rainy spell here in Madrid. And I mean really, really rainy. Rainstorms in Spain are not at all like rainstorms in Oklahoma. In OK, the storm comes in, floods us with rain, and goes away all in the span of a day. In Spain, it's a slow steady rain that lasts for days and days and days at a time. And winter is unfortunately the rainy season in Madrid. So mix the really cold weather with tons of rain, and it gives you a lot of depressing weather.
So I guess that's it for this update. I maybe did a few other things throughout the last couple of weeks. Went out on the weekends and met up with friends here and there. Hung out with my friends Robin, Rachel, Lupe, and Lizzie. And maybe those stories will get told later. But for now, I'm done and done.
Expect my next update to include lots of pictures of Amsterdam because my trip to the Netherlands is this weekend! Woo hoo!
