Got my chicas

Since I decided to move to Spain last summer, my friends Katie and Kristin have been planning to come visit me. About a month ago I met them in Barcelona. They're the kind of friends that whenever you see each other it feels like you're picking up right where you left off. And I do talk to Katie every single day so we never even left off. Spending the week with them reminded me how it feels to be with people who really know you. They made fun of me for taking too long to answer their questions (a bad habit I have when I'm thinking), that I keep things until they fall apart, and told me that I'm the same but I've changed. The weather in Barcelona was perfect. The first day we walked to Park Güell from where we were staying in Born.

Then we headed to the Sagrada Familia. We went up in the towers where Katie and I both felt a bit weak in the knees from the great heights and narrow, winding stairs. 

I've never seen anything like it. It's indescribable really.

The next day we walked around, chilled at the beach, and had tapas for dinner at Sensi.

After dinner we went to Bar Marsella. I tried absinthe for the first time and I absolutely hated it.

This picture was taken before I tried it, otherwise disgust would be written all over my face.

The next day we took the train back to Madrid and the first place I took Kristin and Katie was Bodega de la Ardosa, one of my favorite places in Madrid. The tapas are delicious. You know when you love eating somewhere because they make a kind of food that you've had a lot and you know what it tastes like and what to expect when you order it. But then you eat it there and it tastes so good like you've never eaten real tortilla de patata before. And they have vermouth on tap.

 We also went to the rooftop bar at the Cículo de Bellas Artes. The music was cheesy but the view and lounge chairs were perfectomundo. 

 We ate dinner at Bar Tomate and it was one of the best meals I think I've had in Madrid so far. 

After work on Thursday, we took the train to Sevilla. I love living in Madrid, but Sevilla will always be special to me since I lived there for a month when I first arrived. I was so happy to share the city with Katie and Kristin.

 We used the bike share and rode along the Guadalquivir River

 to Plaza de España

 and then to Las Setas.

 When we returned to Madrid, Katie had to catch a flight to Paris to spend the week with Elliott. Kristin and I had two more days together in Madrid. We went to Temple Debod and had chocolate con churros

 and back to Bodega de la Ardosa.

The week was full of serious conversations and laughing and inside jokes and hopes and dreams and fears. And a lot of listening to Barcelona by The Rentals.

Got absinthe Got Gaudi 

And I got Jamboree Got my chicas

Maria, Anna, Monica and I got Noemi

Got Picasso Blue and I got the Good Bar Crew

Got Bikkini and the New York disco

Got surreal Dali oh yeah

Lost and rollin', driftin' loosely on my own through

Barcelona, Barcelona Catalonia, take over Barcelona

because I don't like to forget my friends

Spain is lucky. They basically get two holidays to dress up. The first is Halloween, obviously. And the second is Carnaval. Carnaval is basically like Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras on steroids. And in some parts of Spain, they celebrate it for two weeks. So the last weekend in February, every grade at Antonio Machado dressed up like the characters from Peter Pan, Hansel & Gretel, The Pied Piper, The Wizard of Oz, or Little Red Riding Hood. My fourth grade class dressed up as the characters from the Wizard of Oz. Lia is the Wicked Witch of the West and I'm Glenda.

 We spent the morning showing each other our costumes and explaining how we made them.

 Then we all went out to the playground, had a parade, and each grade performed a song or dance. Here I am with Leslie, the 3rd grade teacher I work with.

 Justin was a lumberjack from Hansel & Gretel and Denise was Prince Charming from Snow White.

 That evening I took a flight to Venice, Italy with my friend Michelle. We spent the rest of the weekend celebrating Carnaval Italian style. It's much, much classier let me tell you.

 For some reason, the public transportation ferry boats were very, very confusing to us. I wish I could blame it on being jet lagged. Our first night there we missed our boat about four times trying to decide which one we were supposed to take to get to our hostel. By day two, we were pros.

 The entire weekend, we saw so many people dressed up like this. Head to toe. It felt like a dream, like we'd time traveled. Venice is a beautiful, and I mean beautiful city that is impossible not to get lost in.

 And yes, there are gondolas and gondoleers (isn't that what the men who drive the gondolas are called?) everywhere!

 And there are fancy, over the top Carnaval masks everywhere too.

 And shops selling chocolates shaped like masks.

 We got a recommendation of where to have lunch from someone who worked at the hostel. We sat outside, ate delicious seafood pasta, and drank wine which was cheaper than the water we ordered. 

Friday night, there was a party for Carnaval at our hostel. We sat in the photo booth for a while and here are the best takes.

 We went to see a jazz band play before the party started. The lead singer was a chick from Louisiana whose name I wish I could remember because she was amazing. 

 The next day it rained all day. and I mean all day. It poured and didn't let up before the sun went down. So we managed to make it to the Guggenheim, like everyone else in Venice, because what else can you do on a rainy day but go to a movie or museum. 

 We made it across the bridge with the locks of love or love lockdown, just like in Paris. The weekend was amazing despite the horrible rain on Saturday. It was bittersweet because after that weekend, Michelle moved back to Texas. But, as one of my students so poignantly put it, "I like my friends and I draw pictures more beautiful. I like my best friend and I like my friend feel happy and they tell me we are near summer so I like that they remember me and I remember them. Because I don't like to forget my friends."