That's right. K. Rums changed Enrique's catchy lyrics to make them better suit the life in Badajoz. In the month of April, I was lucky enough to have not just one, but three friends visit me in lil ol' Badajoz.
Danny and Santi were driving down from Galicia and stopped by for a night while traveling down to Benalmádena. They were fortunate enough to have a car, even if it didn't have a radio or air conditioning. Luckily for them, the Spanish heat had yet to settle in. And lucky for me, I got to see them twice within a two week period! When they got here, Danny told me he wanted to see all of the old stuff, so we ventured up to Casco Antiguo. After seeing the alcazaba, the cathedral, plaza alta, and torre espantaperros we went for some cañas. For dinner we went to la esponja, the cool hang-out for university students because they have large portions of beer and food for cheap, only to find out it was closed! So we went next door, where you can also get "a metro" of beer or sangria, which is something like 1.5-2L. The next day I showed them Valdepasillas, the newer part of town, and Puerta de Palmas. They were here for less than 24 hours, but it was really good to hang out with them. They are in for a big adventure in Southern Spain.
Three days after their visit, Katie came to visit for four nights. She had been woofing near Barcelona and took me up on my offer of visiting Badajoz. Her first day here she explored Badajoz solo and had some interesting encounters with locals. I was in Valverde that week, so she came with me to school and to explore Valverde. Until this point, I hadn't really explored Valverde except for the school trip to the new park to plant trees a couple of weeks earlier. The principal told us to sit down in his office and was very serious when talking to us. Katie couldn't understand all he was saying so wasn't sure if I was in trouble because I hadn't explored the town. Fernando, the principal, is from Valverde de Leganés and is very proud of his town. He went as far as calling the mayor, to tell him we were going to go to his office and that he should give us a map of the town. We ventured into town and found the building Fernando was describing. We walk inside, ask if we're in the right building and are told there is a line waiting to speak to the mayor. While we were waiting we found maps of the town and found other reading materials, such as the Rutas del Jamón for the Province of Badajoz. We felt silly waiting because we were able to find the maps ourselves but knew we had to wait to speak to the mayor because he was expecting us. After waiting for about 20 minutes, the mayor walks out of his office, walks straight towards us and says, "Son las compañeras de Fernando? Vengan conmigo." So we follow him all of six steps to another door where he tells someone who we are and that we need a map. The man then walks down to the table with the maps, gives us one and opens it. He tell us something like, "well here's a map of the town and the numbers correspond to different buildings." We thanked him and left the building, bursting out with laughter as soon as we exited because it was so official. We later went for coffee and saw the mayor and his workers at the one coffee shop in town. Too funny.
Katie was introduced to all but one of my classes. One of the teachers really doesn't like one class, so she told us to explore the school and told me show Katie pictures of the school's various celebrations that are on the school's webpage. We were both a little surprised that the teacher would go as far to not even have class with the children that day. She was working with another class so that they could finish bracelets for their mom's for Mother's Day. The English classes that day turned into a Q&A session. I don't know if Katie realized she'd be so popular with the children or that she'd be showcased. She didn't seem to mind though. All of the questions began with, "Do you like..." "What's your favorite...?" One of the best questions was "Do you like your sister's name?" I think Katie had just as much fun answering the questions as the kids did asking them. The next day and even weeks later the children asked me about my friend Katie and when she'd be coming back to visit. The other day someone asked me how she was doing. Sweet kids.
No comments:
Post a Comment