The Rain in Spain...

                             [Jessi & I at the dolphin show at the Madrid Zoo! FANTASTIC!]
     [Jessi, Whitney & I before going to see "Carmen: The Flamenco Ballet." It was amazing!]
 [Strange creatures in the square... these people are everywhere! The rabbit scared me. I had to walk very quickly away.]

...hasn't fallen at all!

This place is so strikingly beautiful. Everywhere we go, we see couples in love. It's so wonderful to witness! Except for the ones who decide to get a little frisky on the beach... notice bottom photo for an example of that. We have spent a lot of time walking, eating, sleeping, drinking delicious wine, walking some more, falling asleep on park benches, grass, cement blocks, the metro... oh wait, that's just me. I really think I have narcolepsy... must figure that out when I get back to The Gambia! 

INTERESTING THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED IN SPAIN:

1. Freaking out about seeing McDonald's then promptly having a photo shoot at 5am. Tammy & I both nearly teared up over our meals. Then I immediately had diarrhea. Standard.
2. Stepping onto the Metro and greeting everyone with a big "Salaam maaleekum." It was very embarrassing.
3. Speaking Mandinka and not Spanish. It happens ALL THE TIME!
4. Going to the zoo with Jessi and watching her ask the man, "If we rent a buggy, do we have to be disabled?" After having rented the buggy, she attempted driving it down a wheelchair ramp and broke the fence on top of getting stuck. A nice Spanish dad helped us push it back up the hill and his daughter sobbed the entire time.
5. Watching the people be painted with silver and gold paint and then taking pictures of them as they pretend to be statues.
6. Getting free shots everywhere! What is the sense in that?! Do people know we are poor? We sure aren't attractive OR clean! OR healthy, for that matter.

[the south of France... yes, I went there! For free! I'm so lucky!]
[beautiful San Sebastian... again, I could live here]
[ a couple getting it on on the beach!!!! yikesers.]

Time To Catch Up...

[first stop in Spain? MCDONALD'S! Tammy & I had an entire photo shoot at 5:00am. It was fantastical.]

It has been much too long since I have sat down and written a decent blog post... so I will begin with our trip to Dakar. As my family so conveniently realized after they landed in Senegal, Air Senegal was bankrupt and there were no flights into Banjul. The crew decided to leave at 5:30am to make sure we made it on the first ferry and into Dakar. We flew out of Senegal at 10:20pm, so we were giving ourselves quite a bit of leeway.

Everything went perfectly, including the horse cart all 7 of us took across the border. We were piled on the wooden crate [literally, that's what it looked like] with an enormous mountain of luggage. I felt really bad for the horse.

I slept in the car into Senegal with my head nearly out the window. When we finally got to Dakar around 5:00pm, I used the bathroom and my entire face was gray thanks to the filth that is pollution/exhaust/dirt. I looked like Bert from Mary Poppins.





Anyway. We get on the plane, all of us are ecstatic, including Tammy who was vomiting yellow froth in the bathroom thanks to the Doxy [it's okay, she ate 2 airplane meals later on, including my turkey]. Never have I been so happy to be on a plane, even though our meal was cous and turkey... of course I devoured the cous and wouldn't touch the turkey. I had some leftover water in my cup so I decided to wash my white headband in it... not thinking anything strange of it until Jessi starts elbowing me and Tammy starts laughing hysterically. But it worked! It was clean!

We arrive in Spain and our first stop is McDonald's, of course. Hotcakes? I THINK SO! Absolutely delicious, even though they don't have syrup here. I was absolutely okay with it.

[Jessi & I after our new haircuts in Madrid! The woman worked miracles!]

Family Was Here!

I just spent the last 2 and a half weeks with my incredible family. I am awaiting Marsey Jo's email from the book/journal she kept while they were here. It was pretty amazing to have them experience The Gambia with me. I wanted to post a few pictures while I had the chance... I am currently sitting in the Dakar airport with 6 other amazing PCV's. We are on our way to Spain! Where I will be clean [let's hope], slow down the diarrhea [probably will get worse... what up Mickey Dee's], and attempt to dress pretty [again, not going to happen]. ALSO, our hostel has wireless, so I will be able to write more about what it was like to have my family here.

Now, the girls want to check their email/facebook. It's amazing how fast wireless is here! I am in awe.

[and as far as the sleeping-on-the-boat picture goes, I don't sleep a lot here, but yet narcolepsy hits me at the most random places. Nice.]