Crazy weekend

This weekend was go go go! Alicia was leaving so all her friends wanted to give her goodbye parties. Her friend from home, Erin, was supposed to be in Friday and had tons of flight delays and cancellations and lost her luggage and didn´t make it until Saturday. We just hung out with the kids most of the day Saturday, who went totally stir crazy. When Erin got here, she needed clothes, since she had no luggage. Alicia dropped Louise and i off at the mall, where the family´s store is, and took erin to get clothes, while Alexis stayed home with Alicia´s parents. The kids really needed some time apart, so this was great.

Louise and i had a blast shopping! She took me to all the stores she likes and bought some candy we don´t have in America for me to try. I was wondering who the au pair was for a while, me or her! The best part about the mall was discovering that they have an H&M! It´s my favorite store, that we only have on the East coast in the states. If I ever have a bad day, H&M will cure all my ills.

When we got home, Erin, Alicia and I hustled to get ready to go to Alicia´s goodbye party. This is when amazing things start occurring. Alicia´s friends Esti and Itheskun (ee-theh-skoon) went to the store and bought tons of food, then came to pick us up. We headed to Itheskun´s house ansd unloaded all the food into her family´s cocho, which is a spanish word for a kitchen many homes have in teh basement for big parties late at night. It was about 9 pm when we arrived. We walked through the garage and into a big wooden door in the back and there´s a huge wooden table inside with a stove and sink and commode.

Once we were all in, Esti went to work on the Sangria. She busts out a small, never used before, garbage can and starts pooring in wine, fresh cut lemons, peaches and oranges, various syrupy sweet alcohols and sugar. She just mixed and mixed until it was almost full to the top. It reminded me of Streganona and her magic pasta bowl. After the sangria was done, she started in on the food. Everyone had a job of either cutting, simmering, spreading, whatever. We were all busy making this wonderful meal. Itheskun´s parents came down to tell us good nigth and meet us. Her mother pops open a bottle of wine and starts pooring us glasses. I don´t even like wine, but this was wonderful. We just attempted to communicate with our hands and "si, si, si" or "gracias."

The table was covered in food by the time the girls were finished. We had jo jos with ketchup and mayo, baguet with soft cheese and roasted red peppers, the ones that are special to Navarra, salad with tons of stuff in it, breaded shrimp and fried fish raviolis, pickled white esparagas, and of course, large glasses of Sangria all around! We ate until 1 o´clock in the morning. They eat late over here, around 8, but this was extra late. All the girls just chatted and told stories. I couldn´t understand most of it, but, the expressions on their faces and the joy they felt telling the stories was amazing to see. They sang a bunch of songs to Alicia, begging her not to go and we just chirpped the night away. It´s awesome how a garbage can full of Sangria can break the language barrier.

At one, we went out to one of the festivals in Itheskun´s pueblo. The pueblos are like little towns or neighborhoods that surround the city of Pamplona. I actually live in Trajonar. Anyhow, each pueblo has a different time in the summer, usually after San Fermin (the running of the bulls), when they throw a huge street party with dancing and rides and lots of great fun. So, we went to one, but the crowd was a bit too young, so we headed to a small disco and danced until around 4. During this time, i was networking to find a basketball team and Itheskun said she´d help. No game today though, i guess it´s Thursday.

ASIDE: Whoa, just got a call from Lourdes and her friend came through and a coach wants to talk to me! And, I spoke Spanish with her pretty well! Liz, maybe coming here is the way to go... END ASIDE.

PICTURE: Me, Itheskun´s mom, Erin, Alicia, Itheskun, Arransa in the cocho, pre-party.

Long story short, Alicia´s friends are so wonderful. In Spain, friendship is truly forever. Just because I am an acquaintence of Alicia, her friends have completely accepted me into their group and say they will come watch me play basketball and will call me if I don´t call them. Good stuff. I´ll add more pics later, but I need to make some phone calls home! Love to all.