The Last Time I Mention the Holidays...until next December

Before I continue blogging and getting you caught up on my current life, I do need to write about New Year's Eve (Nochevieja) in Murcia because it was the best I've ever had.  You can't beat splashing around in a pool of lemons, eating sushi, and playing Guitar Heroes with Spaniards.

On the 31st, Adam and I rented a car and went to a town close to Murcia called Archena.  Settled in the mountains of Archena is spa with natural hot springs.  We put on our suits, mandatory bathing caps, and undersized flip-flops and spent the day getting dizzy in whirlpools, racing each other through the lazy river, floating in "Dead Sea" water, getting aquatic messages, throwing lemons at each other in the aromatic hot tub, roasting in saunas, and cooling down in an igloo.  Yes...an igloo.  To have a just a sneak preview of our fun, check out this site.  

Later that night we got dressed up for New Year's and wandered around to find a restaurant that was open.  We were told that we wouldn't find a restaurant open on New Year's Eve in Spain--a country where people stay out from 12am-8am on Christmas Eve.  Luckily the Japanese restaurant in my neighborhood was open, so we brought in the 2011 eating sushi in Spain.  The server brought us each 12 grapes for midnight since this is how the tradition goes: with every chime of the clock you put a grape in your mouth...until all twelve are in at once.  I've heard different explanations for this custom ranging from the tradition originally started with sips of wine until there was a wine shortage in the country to grape farmers encouraged the activity to resolve the surplus of grapes one year.  Whatever the reason may be, people look ridiculous when they do it.  (See photo below for proof.)

12 grapes at 12:00

Then around 12:30 we headed to a Spanish New Year's Eve party where we spent the night in an empty apartment filled with 50+ Spaniards overlooking the university.  We both stuck out as the tall blonde Americans who danced a lot and played way too much Guitar Hero.  We finally made it back and crashed at 6:00...an early time to end Nochevieja in Spain.  But we had to leave while the party was still on the rise.

The next day we made our way back to Madrid where we wandered about for a few hours before we spent way too many hours sleeping on the airport floor--dreading our goodbyes.  The following morning parted as Adam headed back to the States and I caught a plane to Greece.  (I'm hating the Barajas airport more and more.)

The next week I spent time in Athens staying my cousin Takis.  Like a good "uncle" he took care of me as I fought a cold.  After I finally recovered, we spent time with his girlfriend Eleni and our friend Grigoris.  During the week the four of us visited the new Acropolis museum (very impressive, I have to add), watched movies in Greek subtitles, explored the former king's abandoned estate (don't worry, it was legal), cruised on the bikes, ate Yia Yia's authentic Greek food, and enjoyed each other's company as always.  For more pictures check out my album at this link.  

Ok.  No more overdue talk of holidays.

I came back from Greece, worked one week at the university, and now I have a 3-week break while students take finals.  I've decided to take a week-and-a-half long trip from Alicante, Spain to Trier, Germany where I'll meet up with Rachael.  From Trier, we'll take a train to Amsterdam to spend the weekend.  Then that Sunday I'm going to take an overnight train to Warsaw, Poland to visit my good friend Steph and her lovely family.  (If you followed my Summer 2008 blog, she was my friend I stayed with in Vienna, Austria.)

I can confidently say I have the best job in the world.