Malaga & Dia del Pilar

So - we were on the bus for about 2 hours - the last 30 minutes of which was actually spent sitting in stand-still traffic waiting to get to the bus stop, which is right on the boarder of the city limits (and shouldn't have taken any time at all...). Antonio called me while we were still on the bus, and said that he would pick me up right from the bus station and take me to class, instead of from the hostel (or me trying to find it on my own). Turns out traffic was so bad he had me run up and jump in his car while he stood outside his door and waved at a red light. He just got a new car, and he was pretty proud of it. :) Just saying, Antonio is probably one of the nicest guys I have ever met. Very funny, very sweet. I think he is about 28, and a pediatrician. He is supposed to go to England to practice medicine for about 3 months on an exchange, but the government lost his paperwork for a VISA, so we shared frustrations about the governments and their processes. :) His English is excellent, although he doesn't seem to think so.

Practices are held in a primary school in the middle of town, because they don't have an American Kenpo school of their own. The night I was there, there were 10 guys practicing on some PE mats they lay down in the gym for that purpose. Modesty there was non-existent - upon walking in there were two of the guys changing, and another began fixing his groin protection just after I was introduced to the main instructor (Eduardo de la Torre). Sadly, his mother-in-law just passed away, and her funeral was just after class (he had to leave with his son, who also practices, about 10 minutes early). Because of this trauma, class itself was very relaxed and unstructured, almost like an open practice session. However, I still enjoyed watching (I knew all of the techniques except the first, with slight variations), and since Eduardo de la Torre didn't spend all his time on the mat, he was able to talk to me a little (as long as he spoke slowly, since he doesn't speak English) and show me pictures on his iPhone of him and Mr. Sepulveda, and of different classes and seminars. He also gave me his card and an image of their school image. All American Kenpo has a dragon and a tiger 'facing off' somehow in an image, usually associated with the Universal Circle (a black and white design illustrating all possible patterns of movement). Well, this school's image is a tiger and dragon sitting across from each other at a little round pub table, which has the Universal Circle at it's top, each drinking a pint of beer. :D Oh, I love Spain! I saw it and laughed so hard!! Edwardo de la Torre said if I return to Malaga and give him enough notice, he will get me a shirt (which has that design on the back and Bart Simpson on the front in a karate gi)!! He also invited me to go with his school to the big seminar that is held in Ireland (basically for all the schools in Europe - I get the impression it's a pretty big thing) with Mr. Sepulveda!!! It's in April, but OH I WOULD LOVE TO GO!!! We'll have to see about the specifics, but I need to email him and stay in contact. :D

Antonio drove me back to the hostel after class (The Melting Pot), where the other girls were already hanging out. We had to drive around twice to find it... but we did! I checked in (I'm in a different, more expensive room than them since I booked late), then joined them on the patio outside where they were eating tapas and playing a drinking game with some of the drinks they had ordered. Large cocktails were only 5 Euro, so they had taken advantage and all got something different. I ended up trying a small Long Island Iced Tea, which has WAY MORE bang than I expected - I got lightheaded after a small one (but I was slightly dehydrated, which didn't help), so I ended up downing my water bottle and just going to bed to sleep it off.

Next morning I was up for the breakfast served from 8-11am, consisting of bread, small biscuits, and drinks. Couldn't figure out how to open the coffee pot to pour myself some, so I ended up just upturning the entire thing over my mug when nobody was looking so it would trickle out of the drip hole in the top. Ridiculous. I was done eating before any of the other girls were up, so I took my mug outside and watched the sun continue to rise over the wall surrounding the patio. I haven't mentioned anything about the hostel - this is my first time staying in a hostel, which is SO much cheaper than a hotel! Hostels run from 10-30 Euro a night, where hotels are 60+ Euro easily. I'm paying 20 for a room downstairs with only 4 beds (whereas the girls upstairs are sharing a 10 person room). Everyone has their own locker for their things, but it's pretty communal, which is a lot of fun! Each room here is a different color, and there are three levels of rooms, along with a kitchen, bar, 'lounge' and the patio area, where they light tiki torches and candles at night to light everything up. It is also RIGHT on the beach. You can't really see it because of the wall, but if you climb up and look over, it's about a minute walk straight to it. :) It's about a 20 minute walk to the city center also, so it's a nice location in general. This was a beach day!! We packed up all our things and wandered along the sidewalk bordering the beach, looking for a spot. They are in the process of reshaping the beach, so there was some large equipment moving dirt around in some spots, and if you walked down far enough, that's where all the little restaurants on the beach were. We walked down, bought lunch at a Mercado (I got a baguette, Brie cheese, and water for less than 2 Euro), then walked back the other direction. We didn't realize this at the time, but we ended up being essentially RIGHT across the street from our hostel. Heh. Walked forever just to end up there. Kinda funny...

We stayed on the beach and just hung out - some of the girls brought books or music - jumping into the water when we got too warm or were about to apply more sunscreen (so we wouldn't wash it off after). We were there from about noon until 5 or 6 that afternoon, and it was awesome!! Everyone except me went topless at some point, to say they had and to avoid the tan lines. I actually got a tan line again! REAL brown-white-brown goin' on!! A little pink in one spot, but not bad. Them being topless was really funny though when we recognized some of the guys our age from the hostel down the beach... ;)

Drama: while hanging out in the hostel we met two girls studying in Madrid (from CA) that were in the same room with the other girls - Amy and Annie. Kelsey, btw, is from Alabama. Kelsey had gone inside for a moment when we first met them, but Annie had been talking about her sister. And how she just moved to Alabama with her boyfriend, and Annie was bitter about it and hatin' on the south. Kelsey comes back, and mentions that she is from Alabama, and Annie just jumps all over that with, "No offense, but there is fucking NOTHING to do in fucking Alabama. I don't know why ANYONE would want to move there! Especially from San Diego, which is so AWESOME!" No joke, after Kelsey just SAID that's where she was from. Poor Kelsey got mad (obviously), so that night we ate what was left of our lunches and walked down to a market way the other direction so she could vent and get away from them. We bought bottles of wine (I got Tinto de Verano for under 2 Euro) and walked back to chill at the hostel. Annie came up and tried to apologize to Kelsey with "I'm sorry, I'm just bummed I don't get to see my sister any more. But really, if you wouldn't have said anything, I never would have known YOU were from Alabama!" Kelsey was so disgusted... she was like "THAT is insulting too!" Ugh.

Sunday morning Ellen had wanted to go into town and see the Picasso Museum (the one here in Malaga is all his personal stuff donated by his family after his death). They beat ME up this morning, so we ate and marched ourselves into town. Visited the Museum, then wandered around the long way back towards the hostel. We thought of going to the castle there, but it was really warm, and we didn't really want to walk up there. Along the street though, there was a man painting with his fingers - could come up with a little 4x6 painting in 3 minutes!! So I requested and bought one of the mountains, since Granada is at the base of the Sierra Nevada range and all. :) I always get a picture when I go somewhere, so this will be the first one I can't frame and hang on a wall (it's painted on glass with a glass 'cover', but I wouldn't want to frame it). Dropped our stuff back off at the hostel and changed back into swim suits, then Alyssa and I tried to find a place to buy food for lunch... but since it's Sunday, nothing was open. We finally found a little bakery near the city center, so just shelled out the money for some bread and chips. I got little muffins that I can take home with me if I don't finish. Met the other girls back on the beach for another relaxing, lovely afternoon of doing nothing! Except that the bartenders from the hostel had brought out a girl that had drunk herself stupid by 1pm, and was CRAZY! The owner said that she couldn't stay inside in that condition... crazy. She cleaned up later and ended up being very nice and experienced, so not sure what caused her to start drinking so early, but wow. Those poor guys watching her...

We went back around 6 in the afternoon (with more of a tan!). I sent a request with Amy and Annie for a small pizza at the store since they were going. The owner actually cooked it for me, which was really nice of him, and I got a large Green Jamaica cocktail - not sure what was in it, but I know there was coconut, banana and some other fruit liquors, then something green and lots of orange juice. But FYI, the drink is NOT green. I was very disappointing. ;) Really sweet though, it was definitely my favorite.

Up the next morning so we eat before checking out. Walked to the main bus stop (about 30 minutes) and bought tickets for our return trip. For some reason we had to pay with cards though, so they all paid me cash and I shelled out for everyone's tickets. The return trip was so much shorter!! It was nice. At first we were concerned about the buses running, since today was Dia del Pilar - a holiday (which is why we had a four day weekend). Get back to Granada, and on the public bus towards home Chris calls me, wondering if I wanted to go to the ren fair market with him that afternoon. So I dumped my stuff and hung out with him looking at stuff all afternoon. We split some cake (similar to tirimisu, but different) and a snickerdoodle cookie, which were both were awesome!! On my walk home, I encountered the parade that was going up one of the main streets, and snapped some pictures, but kept going so I could be home for dinner. Had to be up tomorrow for school.