When I left for Spain in January, my parents weren't intending to make the trip over here to visit...but the weeks went by, they met my host parents via Skype and read my world-famous blog to discover how much fun I was having...and next thing I knew flights were booked. Last Wednesday, I waited for them to arrive at the same hotel I had stayed at my first couple nights in Alicante...and sat in the exact same spot where I had waited for my host parents to come meet me for the first time (insert chills here). Anyway, reuniting with them and having them in Alicante was the greatest feeling, and I got to play tour guide and translator the entire time. We stopped at several little places around town or along the beach for coffee or wine, ate tapas in El Barrio, and climbed up to the Castle for the full view of my favorite city. It became a joke of the trip that I'd make them climb a mountain in every city we went to...because the first full day we drove an hour out to Calpe to really hike. I've been to Calpe and blogged about it, but as a refresher- it's quite the rocky hike around a steep mountain (might be considered a tad bit dangerous to some..) and has the most breathtaking views of surrounding cities, mountains, and the Mediterranean. Needless to say, Vic and Steve loved it. We rushed back to Alicante that afternoon to have comida with Pedro and Asuncion, the moment we've all been waiting for (or I have)! They had the table set up beautifully, and we had seafood paella (of course) with all the usual extras - salad, Spanish ham, roasted almonds, and cinnamon-drizzled oranges and strawberries - and then all kinds of sweets and coffee and wine for dessert. As you can tell life has been really hard over here. Anyway, seeing the four of my "parents" interact was priceless, because of both how special it was to me and how hilarious the language barrier was. But with my help and a whole lot of facial expressions and hand motions, they were able to communicate pretty well! And I spent a lot of time just going on in Spanish with my host parents like usual, forgetting that my real mom and dad weren't really catching on. It was honestly so funny and pretty awesome being the one person in the room to understand everything and going back and forth. So of course I also made my parents spend a good amount of time in Austin Bar, meeting my friends and getting the real Alicante experience. The last night we went there and were surprised to have Pedro and Asuncion there (that never happens!), Sami's mom and grandma that were visiting, her Spanish madre, AND Katie Link who came over from London! We sat in a big group outside switching back and forth from Spanish to English with this big mixture of new friends; it was the best. Seville After our three days in Alicante we set off in a rental car for Seville. There's a few things in the rest of the story that I need to be brutally honest about. Number one: I am never renting a car in Europe after this experience with my parents. And if I do, I'm investing in a GPS that doesn't need cell phone data and not listening to anyone but her (the GPS). Number two: my family is weirdly obsessed with Rick Steves...a series of countless travel guide books written by the world traveler himself. Instead of mapping out the city, giving several suggestions, or whatever, he pretty much tells you exactly where to go, and the readers (us...) eagerly follow. So we decided to follow the Rick Steves' Southern Spain book (that of course I made fun of my mom so much for bringing...why am I putting this in my blog again?) and it led us through alleyways to an unmarked door where apparently we would find some flamenco dancing...which brings us to the third point I need to be brutally honest about: this place was flat out strange, the people were dead serious, and my parents and I could not keep a straight face. It was flamenco dancing at it's weirdest; think close to a hundred Spanish people in a bar all facing the front watching a manly woman with an angry face dancing while a man plays guitar worse than I would...and they'd "Shh!" us when we'd make a comment. That's the short version; it was hilariously odd. After that we found a different bar with impromptu flamenco that was literally the complete opposite and one of my favorite Spanish bars I've seen all semester. There was a band playing awesome, upbeat flamenco music and men and women of all ages flamenco dancing like performers right there on the dance floor - it was romantic, it was fun, it was brimming with great vibes. My parents and I danced of course but had more fun just kicking back with a cerveza watching everyone do their thing. The next day we went to the Cathedral and then Real Alcazar, the beautiful ancient Moorish palaces of Seville. We literally got lost in the painted tile-covered palace buildings and seemingly endless mazes of gardens - it was very cool. The whole place was a representation of Seville's evolution over past centuries all the way up to today, as now it is the oldest royal palace in Europe that is still in use. I wish we would have had more time to wander the gardens and to wander Seville in general, because after that were already off to Lagos, Portugal. From the small taste I got, Sevilla was incredible and I'm going to have to go back sometime in my life to get the full experience. Lagos One more thing I need to be honest about: It rained almost constantly from here on out, but still didn't dampen our vacation (dorky knee slap followed by crickets). We met up with my mom's friend/coworker's daughter who lives in Lagos for coffee our first afternoon, which was very cool to have some input and suggestions from a local. The main square of Lagos was quaint and cute, with all the streets made of patterns of little white square tiles. There were plenty of little shops and restaurants leading down to the port. After meeting with Emily we ate at Linda Beach Bar, an enclosed porch restaurant right on the beach - wouldn't that be a perfect place to be during a storm? Because good news - it started pouring down more then I've seen all semester (it truly doesn't rain in Alicante). But it didn't bother us. There's something incredibly relaxing about not rushing to see the sights and not being able to do anything but just sit there and enjoy the sangria and time with family. What else? We had some amazing fresh seafood, we watched the Cardinals' opening day on my dad's "Girlfriend" (his tablet), went to nearby pubs, and we took advantage of our hotel's amenities...yeah, I'm studying abroad and going cool places all the time, but that does not mean I'm used to anything close to a hotel. I mean a big bed...and a pool and a WORKOUT ROOM...I haven't seen any of that stuff in ages, so I happily took advantage. Lisbon When we got to Lisbon I felt a little more like I was actually in Portugal. The rain held up enough for us to get a good walk around town with our umbrellas readily available...and by town I mean huge city. Lisbon is all around sweet - the steep, narrow cobblestone streets, the castle, the clock towers and churches, and the old yellow trolleys whizzing past us gave it a colorful personality. We wandered up through the streets, past casual guitar players and countless cute restaurants, and made it to a panoramic vista of the city just in time for the rain to stop and the sun to set. We went to a restaurant that's apparently the oldest one in Lisbon called Martinho da Arcada, where we were given Port (traditional Portuguese liquor...can't say I loved it) and "pasteis de nata," custard-filled pastry cups that tasted like heaven. We actually went back to that same place later for a very nice dinner, stopped for a couple drinks at the Beer Museum and headed to Bairro Alto for the nighttime bar scene. I'm really just putting all this in here so that I remember, but everywhere we went was great and the company even greater. The one thing that really surprised me about Portugal was how incredibly similar the language is to Spanish. I could almost understand people and could read it to a certain extent. And our cab driver communicated full stories with me, in kind of a half-Portuese half-Spanish language while I spoke Spanish...it was hilarious. The whole time having my parents in Spain and Portugal definitely made me realize how much my Spanish has improved. Maybe it was just because it was being compared to my dad's confident but mispronounced one-liners with my host parents, but I like to think it's more than that. I get to help my parents out every step of the way, which was a pretty cool feeling. After Lisbon, we drove back to Madrid and spent a night there before my parents flew back in the morning and I hopped on a train back to Alicante. It went by so fast but I am incredibly thankful that my parents could come over here and see what my life is all about. And my host parents won't stop talking about them, so that's a good sign. I've got a whole lot more stuff to blog about so we'll see if I can crank one out in these next few days...life in Alicante has been better than ever. It's starting to scare me that there's only about 5 weeks left and ton of my friends in other programs are already leaving this weekend. I'm never going back! At least now my Mom and Dad might understand why. Hasta la próxima, ciao!
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