28 January 2009

Últimos Dias en Cai

Fran, Yo, Álvaro, y Bruno

On Friday night my gaditanos took me out to dinner for a cena de despedidas to this italian restaurant, Belle Italia. The place had some good pizza, but not near as good as the pizza Jesus's dad can cook. We went out at about 10:30, and then got done eating and chatting at about 12:30. . . then we decided to go out to Punta San Felipe, where all the discos are. Well it was raining so that plan got canceled and so we went to this garage where my friend Bruno has his practices for his Jazz Band. We hang out there, playing the piano and dandolo todo, jaja, then I looked down and it was 5 a.m. so we gradually got ready to leave. . . then the waterworks started. They were yelling "Mason no llores!" and then I yelled "No estoy llorando. . . tengo algo en los ojos!" That was pretty hilarious, and I got a few laughs out of it. It was a weird feeling, because I realized that I was leaving and it isn't as easy saying even "Hasta luego" to these people, because there is a highly likely chance that I won't. So then we walked home and I went to bed... there is a funny story about this, so I will save it for when I come back, lets make a lunch date. I will make tortilla de patatas or something. :D


Before you read the next two paragraphs you must know a few things about Cádiz. Carnaval in Cádiz is one of the largest, if not the largest, fiestas that is held in Spain. The population of the city usually doubles. The actually fiesta starts in the middle of February, but my last weekend was the kick off for the fiesta, where they had two introduction fiestas I suppose you could say.


The pestiño cookie.

This is the plaza after the Pestiña. Yikes.

Saturday was a fiesta known as the Pestiña, and there were a ton of people out and about throughout the day. I wasn't feeling so great in the morning, because going to bed at 6 and waking up early isn't the formula of a good nights sleep. We ate at the restaurant. . . but at night they had the main part of the fiesta in Plaza San Francisco, where they gave out a free pestiño cookie, and a free chupita of some anise flavored alcohol. Todo el mundo was there, it was crazy. . . and after the party I realized how much I would hate to be a street cleaner in Cádiz, ES. I can't seem to find a phrase to explain it, but if I could you would be scared and be happy with what you are doing. So after that I went out and said by to all of the foreign exchange students. . . called it a night because I was dead from the previous one.

Bienvenidos al Jurassic Park?

Me and my Spanish twin. :)

Sunday was also early for me as well, but it was my last full day in Cadiz so I am actually fine with it. I woke up at 8:30, and went to Jesus's house to pick him up because we were going to go drive his remote control car. Haha, I know it sounds kinda lame but I had a lot of fun. Its simple stuff like that that makes me not regret doing this. Then we went back to his house, and played some video games. . . Erizos de Mar, which just so happen to be delicious. It sounds kinda terrible when you think about it. . . you kill it and eat it all within a matter of seconds. :/
And they had to get a picture of me eating my first one.

Yo y Pedro. . . el padre de Jesús

After that we went out to the fiesta for this day called the Erizá which is the fiesta where you eat some interesting seafood like erizo de mar. His dad bought samples of every type of food possible as we walked around the streets of Casco Antiguo. I definitely loved it while we walked around the stage where there were the chirigotas perfoming. Actually, I don't know if they were the chirigotas or not, but there are 4 different types of the entertainment for Carnaval so it was one of them. We saw them briefly, and then we went to this restaurant. . . ate SOME MORE. Haha, I promise I lost weight while I was gone.A mixed platter from the Erizá

Yo, la hermanita de Jesús, y la madre de Jesús. :) Mi familia española, or so I say.

And so we went back to Jesus's around 6ish and then the other Jesus wanted us to go play some basketball again. Well, it was starting to get dark but I said the heck with it and we went out. We got a tiddle bit crazy and gave up playing basketball, we played some futbol with the little kids from our school. I also taugh Jesus the Tiger Beat, so enjoy the video at the end of this post. :) Before I knew it, it was about 9, so we jumped up and caught a bus to get us back into our own barrio. We get there, and some of my stuff was at Jesus' so we went back there, and as I was gathering it up his dad offered me to eat with them again since I had missed my own dinner with my host family (they eat around 9:00 and it was now 10). I couldn't say no, because I never could turn down a Spanish meal. =D So we eat at about 10:30, get done at around 11:30. Haha, I know, thats a bit late on a school night. We go back to his room, and start looking at old videos of Jesus, his baby pictures, and it was fun hanging out with his family. I hadn't really felt what it was like being with a family in a while, aside from when I was at Carla's. . . its not my host family's fault but they didn't have any younger kids. . . I don't know. I get my stuff together, and I realized it was that time to say good-bye to Jesus. Well, Jesus tells me that he, Fran and the other Jesus were going to accompany me to the bus station in the morning. Thats when I started getting sad. They had school, but they didn't care because they wanted to do it. . . but I just couldn't let them. I tried to be strong, but they won in the end. I went home that night at 12:30 a.m., and had some bags to pack.

Jaja, like I said. . . we went crazy during our basketball game.

When I got home, my host mother was standing in the doorway. Oops. I hadn't really kept in touch with them throughout the day, except I had told my German host bro that I wasn't going to be eating with them because of the fiesta. She made me feel bad, but I promised I'd wake her up in the morning before I left. So I went to pack my bags, but then she yelled at me because I was going to wake up Andreas, she told me to wake up early the next morning and pack them. So I set my alarm for 6, but I woke up at 7:30 and packed my bags. . . I had to be downstairs at 9:00 to meet everyone, and I finished packing at 8:55. Haha, I know, I cut that kind of close. Well that left a 5 minute good-bye time with the host mother. This was "Hola Isabel. Pues, ahora me voy. Gracias para todo, y espero que nos veamos muy pronto." I handed her the keys, gave her a hug, and left. I walked outside with my two large bags and backpack. . . and headed towards the bus station not thinking that I was leaving Cadiz. . .Me with 3 people who changed my life in less than 4 months.
Me with 3 people who will never understand why I said thank you so much.
Yo con las 3 pichas mas guays en to er mundo.

Here is Jesús and I's Tiger Beat. XD

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a lot of fun, Mas, aside from the saying goodbye and everything. You should probably explain the "porcupines of the sea," though. Had me kind of confused.

eMiLy said...

aww maason..i cant wait to say that for real to you haha. it sounds like you had alot of fun and i cant wait to hear about it..k love you miss you bye

Jen said...

I'm sorry that leaving is so hard. But really if it were easy than your experince would have sucked. ;) I hope your last few days are fab. Love all the pics!

Anonymous said...

I am just so proud to have a son that had the "Drive" to make every day there a learning experience in some way, shape or form. You not only gained friends, memories and lessons for yourself...but you also left those same memories and such...with them, :) BE PROUD & THANKFUL...See you soon Hon!! Love ya!..MOM