We 3 on Week 3

Week 3 came and went with an unbelievable speed. That means it's July. And after July is August. And please don't keep turning pages as there may be a monster at the end of this book. Anyway, though it was a little rainy all week, it was still so good! We spent our days together exploring Coruna a little more, drinking coffee at cute cafes, checking out the nearby mall, and enjoying some well deserved (sort of) ice cream cones. As always, our food has been delicious, and we all realized we've bought almost nothing but food this entire trip, but it's been worth every penny.

Just a little view from a cafe on the beach

In general our classes our going well. The afternoon class is rather interesting, as we sometimes try to discuss controversial topics, but only in Spanish. So, it sometimes becomes Spanglish as the conversation gets more intense, or the Spanish words get bigger, which is not great news for me. One day we were talking about a more relaxed topic of movies and at the start of class Maria (our instructor) had us write our favorite movie title on a piece of paper. I maturely picked one of the greatest classic tales ever written, one of great adventure and those deep underlying lessons that make a story worth telling - yes, you guessed it, as it could be none other than the Guardians of the Galaxy. What I didn't realize was that by writing that title she was going to make me write an essay (in Spanish, of course) about it. I literally could not even say the title. Or spaceship. Or raccoon. Or nearly anything else. By the time I was done she had a new story about how a boy was now called Star Lord and had a pet ferret and traveled with a talking stick. Nailed it! At the end of class she was reading through them and I know that chuckle belonged to me, and not because of the heroics of our dear Guardians.

Despite my obvious flops, Addy and I are learning, slowly but surely. Nicki is, too, but she's no doubt the star student in our morning class. That means Addy and I are battling for last. So far we've both embarrassed ourselves enough times to call it almost even - I tried to tell my roommates "I am embarrassed by..." by saying, "estoy embarazada," because I was just grasping for the closest homophone. Little did I know that "embarazada" actually means pregnant, so I told my roommates that I'm pregnant, while I was slightly chuckling and probably turning red, but all for the wrong reason. At least now I have an excuse to be moody? Addy's experience is less embarrassing, but she doesn't think so. One day her roommate asked her how her Spanish was going, but Addy didn't understand the question, so she just nodded and smiled until she realized that wasn't the right answer. In some ways, though, it was the answer her roommate needed.

Speaking of roommates, one of mine is gone. Poof. Lost Juliet one day and I didn't even get to show her how I am able to say, "Adios!" with lots of expression. I hope she ran off with her dear Romeo and had a better end than her name's literary persona. Her room has already been filled by someone new, who I currently know as Juliet 2.0 (name is in the works, you know I need time for these things). I'm yet to have a conversation with her, but I hope my other roommates have filled her in about speaking slowly and expecting nonsensical answers from me. Reputations are very helpful sometimes.

The coolest part about last week was the trip we took with our morning teacher, Eugenia. Out of the goodness of her heart, she invited Nikki, Addy, Victoria (because we talk about her in class all the time), and I to see her home city of Ferrol. We thought she was going to just take us to the city and let us wonder, but she went far above and beyond. First, she picked us up in her button-sized light blue car (very her) and we started towards Ferrol, which is about 40 minutes from Coruna. The highway reminded me of those in Virginia, with endless green forests on either side of the wide road. She eventually took a turn off onto a windy, 1 (and I mean 1) lane road into the trees. She eventually pulled to the one side spot in sight and we began to hike into the trees. Just a short ways up we came across a waterfall, with white water rushing down the huge moss-covered rocks. It was very unexpected - now I realize she may have told us, but I probably didn't understand. No matter, it was amazing.

They were made for each other.

Adventure buddies!

Well...

Maybe just Eugenia and I.

Eugenia is basically the coolest.

From the waterfall we hopped back into the car and started for another unknown location. This time we had to be heading for town, right? Nope. We crossed a large countryside of colorful houses and striped fields until we reached another long, winding road through another forrest. We drove until we reached what seemed to be the end of the world. When we walked to the edge, we saw what looked to be the staircase into Mordor. Of course, we made our way down into the rocks (don't worry Mom, Eugenia told us to be careful plenty of times) until we literally found the sword in the stone on the tip of the last rock. The view was worth every step we had to take all the way back to the top.

My hero, here to pull the sword from the stone.

"Wait...what?"

We mermaid for each other.

This time when we got back in the car, we were ready for anything. Our fearless leader Eugenia took us to a super cool castle from the 12th century (I think), complete with turrets, cannons, and a moat in the middle that Eugenia was worried we would jump over.

You make me giggle. 

After some sea glass hunting by the castle dock, we got back in the car once more and drove to downtown Ferrol, which looked much like the older portion of La Coruna. Once we lapped around a good portion of it, we got dinner at Eugenia's boyfriend's restaurant, which was very delicious. After dinner, our adventure was sadly over, and we boarded a bus back to La Coruna. That day was completely unexpected, but so, so fun!

That's about it for the week! Soon we will share about our weekend in Porto, Portugal, Vigo, Spain, and the Islas Cies! Love you all!

Other funnies from this week:

Addy and Nora accidentally twinning.

They actually re-set the bushes everyday. It's impressive.

True love.

The most attractive picture of Victoria ever captured.

And us too, I guess.

She finally got the sword out of the stone.

We found some pretty great shirts at the mall.

If you sweat in a sweater...

I'd never felt cooler.

Quote of the Week:
"Maybe we should dress up as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum for Halloween." - Victoria
"I call the Dee." - Lauren, demonstrating she doesn't really think before she speaks.

Pun of the week: "Once you get through the rocky part, it's all fine after that." - Addy, talking about eating sand.

New phrase learned this week: "estoy avergonzado" --> I'm embarassed.