Laughing, Dancing, and Loving Life

So I’ve been meaning to write on here for the last couple of days, but kept running out of time. But I find myself with a free afternoon, so here’s to a little pre-nap blogging! I should be doing literature homework, but oh well. Cortázar is just gonna have to wait.

Last week was alucinante (really awesome)! You already know about my grand adventure in the park and beyond. I’m afraid I waxed a bit maudlin during that post, but I’m sure you’ll get over it. Anyway, we’ll skip to Thursday – what a fantastic day! I kept feeling like I might explode, I was so happy. After our two classes, we Concordia gals (sans Lauren) went to Carrefour to buy some delicious chocolate to give to Lauren, because Thursday was her birthday! After lunch, we all met at the Café Florida to have café con leche and give Lauren her gifts. She loved them, and seemed staggered by the amount of chocolate now in her possession! She’ll be set for a while. And we had such a great time at the café – I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard! What with all the funny stories about host family shenanigans and with Skyla entertaining us with “the Classic” Skyla-expression (I’ll have to get a pic of that at some point…it may be one of those you-had-to-be-there things, though :-P), the other patrons were no doubt wondering what the waiter had slipped into the crazy American girls’ coffee. But we didn’t care; we were having way too much fun! We decided that we definitely need to get together as a group more often – it seems like we’re hardly ever all together, but whenever we are we have a blast.

After our coffee, we headed to dance. It was fantastic, as usual – it was a small group that night, and we always seem to have so much fun when that happens, probably because it’s more casual and we can switch things up if we feel like it. For example, instead of working on the tango, we learned the base for the salsa! That was such fun. It’s pretty similar to the cha-cha, so it wasn’t too hard to catch on. Some of the turns were a little tougher, though – we were struggling with one where the guy (or rather, in everyone but Ruben and Javi’s case, the girl who’s leading) has to put their arm out nearly straight to direct the girl around. This proved difficult for all of us, for some reason, and then Kristen M. decided to really get into the move by thrusting her arm out forcefully, Power-Ranger style, and singing part of the theme song under her breath…oh man. Lauren and I nearly died laughing!

When class was over, Lauren interviewed Ruben for her conversation class, and Kristen M. and I hung out with them since we were going to Lauren’s piso afterward. We all talked for a while, and had fun getting to know each other a bit better. After that, we girls went to Lauren’s and had some delicious tarta (cake) that Lauren’s host mom made for her. So yummy! Julia (Lauren’s host mom) even gave us a little alcohol to go with it, so that was fun. I had something that I believe was peach schnapps, or at least really similar. And I discovered (re-discovered? I’ve had it once before) that schnapps and I don’t get along so well – i.e., I get really red-cheeked and a bit dizzy. Something to remember for the future…Anyway, after a bit, Julia’s daughter Maribel and grandson Iñaki came over to visit, and we had a great time meeting them and talking with them. Maribel is one of the nicest people I’ve met here, and we all seemed to hit it off right away! And I was having one of those moments where I can speak pretty darn fast and well in Spanish. Always a great feeling :-) I’m hoping that will start to happen more often.

Friday was not too shabby either – I recited my poem for literature without any problems, so I was pretty proud of myself. And I got a fair bit of homework done in the afternoon. We seem to be getting a little more lately, but it’s still nothing compared to back home, so I can’t complain one bit. And it’s sort of nice to have something to apply myself to.

Friday evening was a bit of an adventure – Kristen M., Lauren, and I went to a play in which Nerea, our dance teacher, was one of the actresses. She had told us about it a week or so before, and we thought it would be fun to take in some Spanish theatre and go support Nerea. The play was called Lisistrata and was in the theatre in Ansoain, which is a little pueblo just to the north of Pamplona (I think it’s actually what I was seeing when I found that great view on my walk), so we went with Leire (pronounced “Lay-ray,” more or less) and Kova, two other friends from dance, who drove us there in Leire’s car. It felt so weird to be riding in a car – something I hadn’t done since mid-January, believe it or not. It felt kinda nice, though. However, riding on the roundabouts was a rather new experience; I’m just glad I don’t have to drive on them. Anyway, we found the theatre without much trouble and got our tickets (a bit expensive at 10 euro, but we figured it would be worth it). We also saw two other people from the dance class there – Javi and his girlfriend whose name I can’t remember – so that was kinda fun. After figuring out the hard way that the theatre seats were assigned (oops…) – a couple told us that we were in one of their seats, but they were nice about it – we found our spots and waited for the play to begin. Nerea had told us that it was a cabaret-type production, but other than that we weren’t really sure what to expect. The set looked cool, at any rate; it was a Greek theme and had a big curtain with the words “Club Acropolis” painted above it.
The play consisted of five actors – two men and three women – with two other guys who made up the band (one played guitar and piano and the other was on drums). The play was…rather raunchier than we were expecting. We’ll leave it at that. But it was still really fun – we understood most of what was going on, which was nice. It was apparently about soldiers who went off to war at the same time that some feminist ideas were cropping up, and the ensuing tomfoolery. Though we didn’t get some of the jokes - they say that you know you’re really fluent when you start understanding the humor in a foreign language…apparently we’re not quite there yet. But Nerea was such a hoot! We couldn’t believe some of the funny voices and mannerisms that she could affect. It was definitely worth the money just to see her. We laughed so hard! And we decided that Nerea looks like the Spanish version of Kirstie Allie sometimes. And she also has a phenomenal singing voice! That was cool. After the play, we were able to talk with her a little and get a picture with her. She seemed really happy to see us!

On Saturday, we did a bit of traveling – Lauren, Megan, and I headed to Olite for the day. Olite is a pueblo about half an hour from Pamplona by bus. Since it’s so small, it’s not necessary to go for more than a day to see the main attractions, so we decided it’d be a nice way to spend a Saturday. We saw the castle there, built circa 1400. It was so gorgeous! It reminded me of a Disney-ish castle from the outside. And there were lots of spiral staircases, towers, and courtyards inside. We had a great time exploring for over three hours. After a lunch of bocadillos, pastry, and a glass of wine in a cute little café, we headed to the Museo del Vino (Museum of Wine). Olite has a big vineyard, which I’m guessing is the town’s primary source of employment, and so they have a little museum dedicated to all things wine-related. It was really neat – the displays were beautiful and it was a lot of fun to learn more about wine. There was a room with displays about wine and the senses – it told all the different ways that wine affects our bodies, and had a section about the proper way to do wine tasting. There were even little candies in there to show the difference between sweet, salty, bitter, and sour, of which we took full advantage, of course. There were also rooms about the history of wine, different types of grapes, the planting, maintenance, and harvest process, and the methods for making wine. It was all so interesting! Definitely worth our time. And we got free bottles of wine at the end, so that was pretty exciting. After the museum, we were able to catch the 5:00 bus back to Pamplona. And we happened to meet a really nice Australian man when we were waiting for the bus to come. He told us that he’s teaching English for a semester in Bilbao but was visiting Pamplona and the surrounding area for the weekend. It was fun learning a bit about his family and his perspective on Spain. It just goes to show that you never know when you’ll meet someone really neat.

On Saturday night, we went out to celebrate Lauren’s birthday since we hadn’t been able to do so on Thursday. We had tons of fun! I went with Lauren, Megan, Skyla, Silvia, Valentina, and also Davíd and Rafael, who are two of Sivlia and Valentina’s Colombian friends. We also met up with Marion, Saskia, Eva, Ellen, and Janic (I hope I spelled his name right…) later on. Quite a group! We went to a couple three different bars and I decided that Bailey’s is my new favorite drink. Sooo yummy! We talked and danced and just generally had a good time. Most of the group was going strong long into the night, but Skyla and I were ready to leave by around two, so we walked back together. I slept quite well that night, though I only got about 5 hours or so. Ah well, that’s what these long afternoons are for, I guess.

Sunday was fairly chill; I went to church with Megan in the morning. It was pretty nice, and I like that church (and the fact that it takes me like, two minutes to get there), but the fact that the Sunday service is three hours long just seemed a liiiittle excessive to me. Especially since I was fighting sleep for most of it. I probably won’t be making it a weekly occurrence, but I’m glad it’s there when I want it.

And today was…well, Monday. I’ve been feeling none too well, so it’s time for me to take a nap and check out of life for an hour or two. But at least I’ve only got four days of class this week! I’m going to Barcelona for the weekend on a school excursion and we leave on Friday. Can’t wait! Everyone says that Barcelona is pretty much the most gorgeous place ever, so I’m so excited to see it for myself! If I don’t post before then, stay tuned for some lovely adventures in Barcelona :-)