How I celebrated my Dia de Andalusia

Tuesday, Feb. 28 was el Dia de Andalusia. Who knows what that means, but it's the reason that we had the long weekend. Here's how I celebrated:
Woke up in my Portugal hostel at abour 8am with a terrible hangover going on 5ish hours of sleep. Ugh. Did some last minute packing, checked out, and we were off to catch the Metro to the bus station around 8:35. Walking there was not easy with my hangover and lack of food and water that morning...I was pretty out of it. On the Metro car a kid of about 17 or 18 had a fat chihuahua. He put it on his shoulders, strung an accordion around his own neck, put a small pail in the dog's mouth, and started walking down the aisles playing the accordion. Honestly, it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Imagine a kid walking around the Metro car playing the accordion while a fat-as-hell chihuahua with droopy eyes sits upon the kids shoulder with a pail in its mouth for collecting money. I can't even begin to tell you how hard I laughed to myself and how disappointed I was in my lack of spare change. We got to the bus early, boarded around 9:15 (it was scheduled to leave at 9:30). The bus was full, I mean literally full of American college students. There were maybe 5 Spanish people on the bus. There was some confusion about stations so we didn't even leave until 9:45. Before leaving who else walks on the bus but Jamie Pell! Ran into her AGAIN! But this time in Portugal. Who knew? Like I've said, it's seriously a small world after all. So that was pretty funny and coincidental. It was just a funny morning. On the bus I ate some fruit n fiber, these "energy crackers" we bought in Portugal (pretty good, like a healthy Pop-Tart), an orange, and chugged a bottle of water. I felt a little bit better. Then for the first 2 hours of the ride I passed out listening to my iPod. Around noonish we made a 10 min. pit stop where I bought myself some lunch. After eating I was kind of awake so I did some reading...I finally finished Like Water for Chocolate and I definitely cried at the end. Oh me. Around 2:30 we made another stop which surprised me since on the way to Portugal we only made one stop. The driver told us that this stop was for 50 min. What?? If I had known better I would have waited to eat. I was not pleased, nor was Courtney cuz we had nothing to do but be bums for 50 min. Since I was still a bit hungover and due to a lack of anything better to do I bought a tomato juicebox. Woooo. Finally we got back on the bus and finished the journey. I started reading Harry Potter 2 finally. Ain't y'all proud of me? We got back around 4:30 Sevilla time (it's an hour earlier in Portugal) and it felt way good to be back. It was overcast, yet warm and nice outside. The overall feeling in Sevilla was very relaxed. For the first time I saw people sitting and relaxing on the streets, benches, and at outdoor cafes. It was exactly how I had pictured Spain would be. Gotta love the Dia de Andalusia...there was just an overall feeling of relaxation everywhere. At the bridge Courtney and I parted ways. I ran into AnnaRose (an academic yearer and a former RC Players comrade). She, as well as many others in the program, had gone to Cadiz to pull the 12 hour thing I had done a month earlier, since it was actually Carnaval that weekend. I then took a very surprisingly relaxing walk back to my apartment...I think that I was influenced by the overall feel that day. The streets were basically deserted, but every confiteria (confectionary/bakery) and cafe that I passed was teeming with families. It was very tranquil. It was also nice to see such unity and relaxation among a typically uptight population. I came home to an empty apartment which was nice, I was able to settle in myself. So I turned on the iTunes, chilled out, did some major blogging, unpacked, etc. Then Maria del Mar and Maruja came home. We ate dinner early since it was just the 3 of us: some ham dish with carrots cooked in olive oil, garlic, salt, and cumin (I asked cuz it had such an interesting taste), and an olive oil sauteed green bean and onion dish. During dinner one of Maruja's sons and daughter-in-law stopped by and were talking up a storm. The Spanish love to talk, and loudly at that. It was kind of awkward since nobody introduced us. They kept talking about Maruja's couch since they were thinking of buying one just like it. They sat in it and measured it, which was awkward since I was sitting on it and didn't really understand what to do. I also didn't know whether I should continue eating or not. Maruja did, but Maria del Mar never served herself, so I waited, then ate a little. Then Maruja put the oranges on the table signaling that the meal was over and it was time for dessert...my plate was basically full! Turns out Maria del Mar wasn't even eating dinner...this sort of worries me because she had talked about how her friend was not eating to lost weight and Marta had to explain to her what an eating disorder was. Then Maria del Mar made a comment about her own weight gain today. Oy, let's hope it isn't that and that she just wasn't hungry. Oh, I was happy at dinner that there was pan integral (wheat bread) served with it. We always get a slice of white baguette bread, but this time it was wheat, woohoo! So I hurried up and wolfed down my food. Then we cleaned up, but in the middle of cleaning Maruja got into this long, loud, drawn out debate about her medicine and the problems she's been having with it. I've started to think that she may have some sort of heart thing going on which explains all of her pills and the lack of dessert at meals. Finally her family left and the awkwardness ceased. What a weird interaction that was. We cleaned up and I went back to the computer...so much to do online! Then Stacey came home. Her dad and sister were in until Thursday. She was back to pack a bag so she could stay in the hotel with them that night. We did some brief catching up and she was out the door. It was good to see her, though! Then I did more computer stuff, got ready and called it a night. Oh man, I had a rough night, it's probably best that Stacey wasn't there. You see, for the past week and a half I've been fighting a cold and doing a hell of a job with it. My birthday and Portugal didn't help much, though. Although I never truly felt sick, come Tuesday I had a sore throat and a stuffy nose (though not bad). Once in bed my nose would not unclog, you know that feeling? I just couldn't sleep because of it. I finally gave in and took some Sudafed which knocked me out, but I woke up a few times irritated and unable to fall back asleep for awhile. So I'm not really sick, but still struggling a bit. But I'm a fighter! I was officially asleep around 1ish. And THAT's how I celebrated my Dia de Andalusia.