Alma de Color

I went to try to get my bus tickets to the Alicante airport for Friday morning on Thursday afternoon, only to find that no buses run at that time. So I had to take a taxi. It was expensive, but it wasn't a bad way to travel at 3:30 AM. The taxi driver was very amiable, and we talked about the region, changing values among the different generations, agriculture, etc., the whole drive. It was raining outside, so it took a little longer due to poor visibility. At the airport, nobody was moving, so I slept on a bench for about 45 minutes, when things started opening up. I got my boarding pass, ate a croissant, cafe con leche, and a chocolate milk for breakfast...(at 5:20 AM)...and then passed through security and such so I would be ready for my flight to board sometime after 6:20 AM. I slept the odd hour to Madrid, where the sun was up and normal people where up and about their daily lives. I didn't feel like sleeping exactly, even though I only had cat naps since 6:45 AM on Thursd...

So...Erin and I went running Monday. Yep. That's great. We took a new route, too. This new route took us by the soccer field that we run by after dance class all the time. All the guys were out there, practicing as usual. It was a fine night for soccer. So when the guys "accidentally" kicked the ball out of bounds...over the 13-15 foot fence...I thought, "Ahh, yeah! Great time to show these Spanish guys what American girls can do". So ran over across the grass to retrieve the escapee. I ran back to the sidewalk, and that's when time slowed. It was cinematic, really it was. I poised myself for the best throw-in ever, moving toward the fence...arms behind the head...dragging the toe...dragging the toe.......SPLAT! I tripped. Flat on my face. In front of the entire football team. Yep. Smooth move, Exlax! The ball didn't even go over the fence. Nope, it bounced back at me, lying there on the chortling ground, mocking me. And then I promptl...

This weekend was my 22nd birthday. And what a birthday it was! I had originally planned to go to Granada with the rest of my classmates, but I had a nasty cold, so I decided to remain in Murcia. Laure and I went out exploring on Saturday afternoon, as I wanted to find an art store that I had seen in previous walks. However, we never did find it...(later, I discovered that we didn't find it on purpose)...but we did find Sirvent. I had strawberries in whipped cream and she had fruit with whipped cream. Both were amazing. We found many new streets and discovered that we liked Murcia even more. It's such a quaint place. We collected Iva later that afternoon and went out to dinner at Gran Mundo, a Chinese place downt the street. Good stuff! We went out after dinner for a stroll. We went to the plaza by the cathedral and they sang me happy bday when I was actually born. That was cool. We decided to get a warm drink, and were deciding where to sit when a sweet music drif...