I'm finally back in Spain, and boy, was it worth the wait. But I guess I should start in the beginning, since I did a bit of traveling before I got here.
After a nice, long relaxing break at home with the family, I hopped back across the pond to Madrid on January 13. First of all, my flight over here was heaven. I thought Aer Lingus (or as my dad likes to call them, Aer Fungus) was just an Irish airline, but apparently they fly to Spain too! The flight was completely empty so I could stretch out, and we had our own tv with on demand movies, shows, and music videos. Needless to say I didn't sleep much on that flight.
When we finally landed in Madrid, I went to the Consigna, or the luggage locker, and checked my huge I-could-fit-a-human-in-this bag. I had some free time to kill before my flight to the Canary Islands the next morning, so I had booked a hotel in Barajas, a town a little outside Madrid, but that you could still get into the city on the metro. I slept a little, then got changed and got ready to go meet my friend, Kaitlyn, who is studying abroad in Madrid. We spent the day seeing the sites, and thank god it was actually pretty nice weather.
Then I met up with my... ex-host sister?... I'll just call her my Spanish sister, Marian, and her boyfriend Mario. The month before she asked me if I could get her an MacBook Air in America, since it was cheaper, and then she wired the money over. I really felt like Santa Clause when I gave her the laptop ("Soy la reina maga" is what I kept saying over and over again), she was giggling like a little schoolgirl. Moments after they left at 6:30, I conked out.
I had to wake up super early the next morning for my flight, and met my friends Sam and Joey at the Madrid airport at 5 AM for our flight. We were officially going to Gran Canaria! The flight was surprisingly long, close to 3 hours, but I guess when you look at a map, it is closer to Africa than Spain. And oh man, when you stepped out of that plane, you know instantly you were in a different climate. So nice and warm! I can't believe I found a flight with Ryan Air for 8 euros to a different climate and time zone! Our hotel was called Apartamentos BlueBay, and it was really more like a resort. Our room wasn't ready until 4, so we just changed and went down to the huge pool. Me being a moron, I decided that because it was January, and I was only gonna be down for a couple hours, I didn't need sunscreen. Great life choice. 
We met the activities coordinator, and we asked him to repeat his name several times, but all I really heard was "Nono". So I guess I'll call him Nono. He asked, no, begged, no threatened us with suicide, to play a game of water polo with "anather naaiiice yung couple". The couple was nice. They were from Norway, and we also asked them to repeat their names several times, and all we heard was the man was named Kitten and the girl Lilo. Kitten & Lilo. Cute. Sam and I were hesitant, because the water was pretty bloody cold. But somehow, without us remembering saying yes, we found ourselves putting on this ridiculous-looking swim cap. I forced myself to get in the pool slowly, because I guess I like torturing myself. Joey was already in and swimming around. Sam decided to just jump in. HAH. When her head emerged from the water, she let out such a bloodcurling scream, literally every single person lying around the pool almost fell off their chaises. After an hour of water polo, we decided to call it a day, and went back to lying like vegetables in the sun. 
The nice part about our room was that it was an apartment with a kitchen. So we decided to go grocery shopping, and every night made dinner. Saves money, and it was fun. The first night we made spaghetti, the second was taco night, and then the third night was turkey burgers with leftover spaghetti. So yummy. Although our first night we just stayed in because everyone was so tired, our second night we decided to go out, because Joey absolutely HAD to see the Patriots play (sorry Joey, better luck next time). We actually managed to find a bar that played the game, and of course it was a British bar. What we didn't know prior to coming to the Canary Islands was that it is absolutely crawling with Scandinavians and Brits. Not a single American to be seen for miles. So when they found out there were Americans in the corner watching football, we were the butt of every joke from the DJ booth for the rest of the night (They played "Wanker with white socks" and dedicated it to Joey). That was a fun night. 
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and because Sam and Joey were taking a class in Granada, and they couldn't miss more than 2 days of class, we had to come back. But it wasn't that bad because I followed them back to Granada and got to stay with Manuela and Marian, my host family from last semester, again. It was so nice. She made my favorite salad, and then my favorite rice with her special curry sauce, and made sure to give me lots of avocados. I also had to pick up some things I had left behind at her house that I didn't want to America and then back again. The morning before I left, I was talking to her about what lies underneath her house (trust me, you don't even want to know) and she said that everytime they constructed a house, they found more and more things. So she took me to this construction site two blocks from the house, and showed me people who had torn down the house to rebuild it, and found ruins underneath (she says they were idiots to call the archaeologists, because now they can't build their house for 5 years, she just put the counter back down and stayed mum). You can see the windy road, the ruins of the house, and one of those big Amphora-looking things where they held food or drink. Super cool. 
Well, after doing some last minute errands and trying to cram everything I had left behind in my already bursting suitcase, it was time to leave for the next leg of my adventure. Anda, Cádiz!
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