¡FELIZ AÑO NUEVO!

fun fact: Christmas eve is noche buena - good/new night and New years eve is noche vieja - old night

So New year's eve was just like every other day; hung out at home for the morning, made a cheesecake and then went to meet friends in the afternoon. We went to watch the "marathon", which really was only like five and a half kilometers, but it's a tradition and Pamplona had the third highest number of participants in all of Spain, more than Barcelona! So you have your legit runners who sprint the whole thing, there were little kids doing it, some of my teachers and classmates, my brother and my cousins, old people and then people who look like their just out for a jog but with the hundreds of other people running and hundreds more watching. Oh and most are in costume. it was a lot of fun to watch and I'm kind of upset I didn't do it but my friends said they were next year so I can just come back and do it with them :)

Then I left to catch my bus - which was twenty five minutes late on a route that comes every twenty minutes... and went home to get ready. We went to my aunts house again for dinner which was nice. We ate a lot, danced around, watched the Madrid ball drop, drank champagne had noise makers and threw grapes down our throats. On the tv they count the twelve seconds for you, I was a little early for some and late for others but I got all the grapes down in time. These aren't seedless grapes and I was trying to chew really fast but I think the trick is to swallow them whole or something. That was fun and I believe I'll have good luck in the following twelve months. I loved our countdown. It was traditional and fun and very celebratory, everyone wished each other a happy new year and it really was a happy time, it reminded me of a kids birthday party except with parents. My previous experiences involved fireworks, counting down, sometimes a minute or two late and apparently north american tradition is to kiss someone - that happened to.

I'll explain; everyone was wishing each other happy new year and giving each other the two kisses on the cheek. Well Lucas I guess was just giving hugs so when I went for his other cheek and he didn't move his head I kinda landed basically on his lips. Oh and did I ever play it cool after. Nope not at all, I tripped over his feet trying to make it seem like I was still going to his other side to get to Sandra. We're cool though, actually he wants me to stay here all year and have all the other students rotate families around me.

At 12:40am I left my aunts house to walk to my friends house to get ready for the night. Pamplona is the only city in Spain where their tradition is to dress up on new years eve and party in the old streets of town. I had been a little confused about what to go as for a costume. A big group of my friends were all going as the same thing but I didn't really want to so I went solo. I figured with my dreads I had two choices - Bob Marley or Jack Sparrow. I went as Jack Sparrow throwing on layers of my clothing and lots of jewelry, I like that I didn't have to buy anything for my costume as a pirate. I wore a skirt and called myself Jacqueline Sparrow. It was "geneal!" there were a lot of pirates that night on the streets but I'm pretty sure I was one of the best with my inner woman of the sea and bottle of rum in hand. It was part of my costume, and I was making perfect Jack sparrow impressions all night. I got home around 6:30am and went right to sleep.

New years day we went to Sandra's cousins place, where before I had amazing tomatoes, which was really nice. It was a family day and we ate good food again and I now have places to stay in Ecuador, Chile and Colombia for my south america tour. Berta, Sandra's cousin, is really nice and told me I can come to her place anytime. I really love her house, it's so old and interesting. the bathroom is outside and they're stripping some of the walls to show the original stone and wood walls and window/door frames. It's beautiful.

Welcome two thousand and eleven, everyone says hope the new year is better than the last but this last year was awesome so I'm only excited for what the new one will bring.