June 24, 2010

Wow. This was a crazy adventure. The 23rd was the unofficial start of summer and the Festival of San Juan; we arrived in Aigua Blava around 5:30 and Paul immediately jumped in the pool and stayed there for hours. When it was time to get out and have dinner he of course put up a fight, and when I finally got him in the shower he stood there naked and peed on Alexia!!!! He stands in the bath and doesn’t realize that he is aiming straight at our legs… After Alexia’s foot was drenched in urine I scolded him for peeing on his sister and he laughed hysterically in our faces. Naughty.

We had a simple dinner with Paul’s grandparents, who own the house and are here with us for the same amount of time, and when the sun finally set around 10pm Ignacio started the night off with throwing a popper at Leila’s feet and scaring the crap out of her. He really gets a kick out of it all and really giggles the way she explained it. We joined the neighbours outside and lit all kinds of small silly fire crackers for close to 2 hours. Some were pretty cool, but most were just really loud for no reason. It’s a Catalunyan tradition to set off firecrackers on this night, but there are no fireworks like we have in the states for July 4th. We ate special dessert called Coca which is a bready cake with candied fruit on top and cream in the middle… delicious. And everyone drinks cava which is like champagne but it’s more like sparkling wine.

Around 12:30 Alexia went to a party with her cousin Laura and I waited for Toni to come pick me up. Coincidentally he had been invited to a party in the next town over and invited me along for the night. Little did I know… it was going to be a very, very long night.

I got picked up around 1am and we went to Toni’s friend’s house and they are their coca and had more cava and we got ready to leave around 2am. Toni’s friends were Juan and Mireia and they have known each other for a long time and were hilarious with each other. When we got to the beach we hung around the street where we parked and had some drinks while we waited for Mireia’s friends to come. Juan, Toni and I had great talks about history, fireworks, how yellow Toni’s pants were, and the crazy drunk people who were all around. We went down to the beach around 3:30 and it was really packed. We all held hands as we walked along the path and down the stairs in the pitch black, and when we finally got to the party it was a madhouse. The party was located at the end of a small beach that was surrounded by tall cliffs. A tall rock island was right off the beach and we sat right in front of it. There were people everywhere and everyone was drinking and dancing and having a lot of fun. There was a live DJ who played techno and reggae and other kinds of music all night and there were occasional big fireworks that would shoot up and make everyone oo and aaahh and cheer. We finished our drinks and walked through the crowd of people and sat up on a rock and watched all the people dance. We stayed at the beach for so long that the sun started to come up. It was nice seeing the sunrise but all I could think about was how Paul would be up in a couple of hours. But this was a once in a lifetime experience.. even though I’m hoping to experience it again. We waited an hour for Juan to sober up and talked about the crazy night. Juan was hilarious and was very concerned about a purse that was floating in the water. O, by the way, the worst part of the night was having to use the bathroom. Everyone went in this one area at the end of the beach… the girls popped a squat by the rocks and the guys just went in the ocean. So the sand was just FULL of urine…and you couldn’t even wash your feet off because the ocean was full of it as well! Good thing I’ve been cleaning up after Paul’s bad aim the past month, and had been drinking, or else I might have been disgusted. I was cold for some of the night but when it came time to go pee I was sooo glad I had on that skirt! On the way home they stopped for a quick breakfast and when I finally got back to the house it was 8:30am and I was thoroughly exhausted and dreading the day with Paul.. and I was scared everyone was already going to be awake and see how late I got back when I had THOUGHT I would be home by 4am. Everything in Spain starts late. It’s the Spanish way, as Toni always says. It was an amazing night and something I had never ever done before and I’m so glad I went.

Alexia and I slept until about noon and then Leila came in and woke us up, Paul had been in the pool since 10. We had breakfast and around 2 we went to a beach down the road called Platja Fonda. It was gorgeous, no sand – just small rocks and some larger rocks and they were so hot that Paul stood on other people’s towels to escape the heat. The water, since there was no sand to muck it up, was a crystal clear turquoise and pretty cold. I hung in there with Paul for a while and admired the boats coming in and out and wondering why so many large women prefer to walk around topless.


Paul didn’t really swim today, he pretty much sat where the small waves could break around him. He was getting pretty noisy at the beach and I went and got him out of the water to head home to the pool. He stood in front of 3 topless women for a long time before trying on one of their flip flops so that his feet wouldn’t touch the hot rocks. We got his crocs on and walked home but he insisted that his mom carry him across the scolding rocks and up the stairs, so Leila had a nice workout. At the top of the stairs he stopped and started digging in the back of his pants and pulled out 5 full handfuls of the tiny rocks he had been sitting in while Alexia, Leila and I cracked up and made jokes about not wanting to hold his hand for a while.




Ignacio called Leila to inform her and everyone else that he had set the table on his own. So impressive. When we arrived he told me that he indeed set the table and didn’t have any help and that I should inform Fouad, his brother-in-.law, of his accomplishment. I tell you, these Spanish men are quite useless. =) We had a nice lunch and Paul swam a little more than fell asleep in the sun on the terrace. Alexia and I took this opportunity to catch up on our sleep as well and I took a well needed 3 hour nap and woke up to the eee-ing sound of Paul enjoying the pool. We had pizza for dinner and Paul was so ready to eat that he put the oven mitts on because he wanted to take it out already and then he actually set the table. Brought the plates and silverware out and sporadically placed then around, and then chucked a handful of napkins and went back to carry in the pizza. It was adorable and we all cracked up watching him. He was great during dinner and we had ice cream for dessert and relaxed until it was time for bed. Alexia and I chatted for a while about her summer plans, future goals, school, friends and social groups before finally falling asleep.