Come EGGain?

Jan 6, 2009

Today I got egged. Not once, not twice, but three times. Yup. Egged. I can honestly say that this is one of those things that I know happen to people but I just assumed (and hoped!) I would never experience. But, indeed it did.. I still can’t believe it.

Today is the day of Kings in Spain which is when they give presents, some give a few presents on the 25th now due to cultural influence but traditionally it is done here on the 6th. Today is a religious day. Families are together, people go on walks and hang out with their friends, more or less like our Christmas day.

The weather was pretty nice so my roommate and I decided to go sit out and read on the beach. There is an elevated area with benches near the beach that a lot of kids sit on and I had noticed that there was a huge group of young guys sitting there...they were probably 15-16ish. I could see them looking at us which I’m now quite used to since I’m pretty much the only redhead in town but I’ve had young guys come up to us on the beach and harass us before so I was a little leery. A few minutes later something hit us, at first I thought it was sand but upon closer inspection, I realized we were getting pegged with eggs from about 15 guys, in the middle of the afternoon, in front of everyone out with their families on the boardwalk, on El dia de los Reyes Magos. 

The first time it happened I thought it was hilarious and just about died laughing since never in my life did I think I would be able to say that I actually got egged, and my roommate and I were pretty stunned but decided to keep on reading to A) make a statement and B) enjoy the nice weather since we had been cooped up in the apartment due to rain. A few egg stains never killed anyone. 

But then they came back. With more eggs than before. This time not quite as hilarious since 15 high school guys with an unlimited egg supply can be a little freaky and very messy. I did find one egg that hadn’t broken and gave it to Mirna since my aim is terrible and I was kinda shaky..she did manage to hit the ring leader, one tiny piece of dignity restored! 

So we packed up and headed back to the boardwalk with as much pride as we could muster up, and they continued pelting us with eggs...thankfully you can dodge eggs pretty easily so it was just annoying at this point. Also a bit embarrassing since this was clearly causing a scene and it seemed like everyone in Barbate was out with their families. Some older people were nice enough to comfort us and call the police while we tried to quickly dodge the scene and get home and wash our clothes.

We didn’t recognize any of the guys and they most likely wouldn't be any of our students since they seemed a little older. So we don’t know if they went after us because we were 2 girls alone on the beach and easy prey, or if they knew who we were and wanted to torment the foreigners. Who knows?

Either way, it gives me a priceless memory and comic story...teenage boys will be teenage boys I suppose.

The day that I got egged...ohhh man. Just another day in Barbate. ;) 

New Year New Beginning

Happy New Year!

The last weeks before my family came to visit were getting pretty rough and I was finding myself in a place I truly didn’t want to be in. So the 2 weeks in Malaga traveling with family were therapeutic and allowed me to re-evaluate my time in Spain and make a plan to improve the situation. 

I fell in love with Malaga while I was traveling around with the fam and am going to plan a time to go back and visit to spend more time there and feel it out some more. Malaga has a beautiful center of town, is near the beach (the med!), and has 2 vegetarian restaurants! Mainly Spaniards live there and there are few English speaking tourists but in the 3 towns nearby do have a good population of English speaking tourists for the times you need to be around the native language. 

My Mom and Mike and I had a wonderful trip and did a lot of traveling as well as a lot of chilling out, something that was desperately needed. Our hotel also had some English channels on TV which meant a fun surprise for me, American movies...in ENGLISH!!!

We also visited Cordoba, Granada, Sevilla, and Gibraltar. In Gibraltar we traveled up to the top of the “Rock” and went into an incredible cave and then took a tour of the WWII tunnels that were occupied by the British military who actually lived in the Rock for about 3 years. No map has ever been made of the tunnels so that no one will know their exact locations. We learned that the American military used these tunnels to practice when they were preparing to go search for Bin Laden. 

There are also 300 monkeys living in Gibraltar and we got up close and personal with them as our driver had one jump on me without telling me first, after he had just told the tour group not to touch or feed them because they bite. So I was not too pleased with the surprise but gave the monkeys a second chance for a photo. 

Coming back to Barbate was a bit of a struggle as I was already missing having my family with me but I tried to be positive and optimistic. The evening I got back was a Saturday night and I had planned on going out with my roommate Mirna. She was not feeling well though so she gave me Mario’s number, one of the guys I had met before I had left. So I went out with him and his friend to a bar that a bunch of their friends had rented out for the holidays. I was able to make some new friends and get a lot of Spanish practice in and actually stayed out late and had a great time! I also befriended a guy that I had seen at the gym and am working on making him my new Spanish friend! :)