La Playa Herradura

July 3rd 2010
THE BEACH!
Breakfast at 9:30... toast and some bread that had a sort of cinnamon flavoring on it. The milk was not room temperature this morning, but cold, thank goodness. I noticed that Conchi had boxes of milk stacked up in her pantry, so I guess she sticks them in the fridge only once they're opened. Having cold milk was better, but it still tasted way different from my beloved Publix brand skim milk back home! Thankfully,  Monique got two pieces of toast so no more trouble there.  :)
After that, we headed out to meet up with the group at 10 for LA PLAYA!!!!... Of course, we didn't actually leave until 10:30. The beach was about an hour away but there was some pretty cool scenery along the way.



Surprisingly, it was sort of windy and overcast which is pretty rare for Spain at this time of year. It was perfect for me though because I didn't have to worry about getting sunburned! There was no sand on the beach, but instead there were rocks.

Group shot!

 I went kayaking with a girl named Haven who, coincidentally, is going to be my roommate next year at school. We made it all the way out and almost all the way back before we flipped. What was funny about flipping was that it was so sudden we hadn't even really realized what was happening then BAM!.... in the water. The COLD water. After we got back, we spent about thirty minutes looking for Sea Glass and then walked over to a little sea side restaurant to eat. Apparently, our House Moms are supposed to pack us picnic lunches for things like this but ours hadn't bothered. Instead, I got Rosada Frita and then some chocolate ice cream.

La Playa Herradura

My Rosada Frita

A pic of the shore... you can kind of make out the rocks.

After that, we pretty much headed back.
At 8:30, though, Spain was playing Soccer so Monique and I went out to watch with some of our other group buddies. Since we would be leaving around 8 and dinner is usually around 9:30, we asked Conchi if she would maybe make something for us before we left. She refused. "Spanish people only eat at 9:30" she insisted.

Game day spirit was pretty intense. Now this is July 2010, so the World Cup is going on and Spain is still in the running. We went to this one place where they broadcasted the game live on a HUGE screen inside a tent. It was packed! On top of that, any restaurant, store or bar with a tv (which was almost all of them) had crowds. Everyone was cheering and decked out in red and yellow. Wherever we went, we could hear the people's reactions to whatever was happening in the game. Once, when we stopped in a Burger King for one of the girls with us to use the restroom, and while we were there, an enormous roar came from the kitchen and one of the workers burst out front yelling that Spain had scored. Everybody eating started chanting, cheering and singing.
Even as Monique and I were walking home (the game was not over yet) the cars in the streets were honking the tunes to their favorite fight songs back and forth to each other. When we turned onto our street, the children were all running around with their flags shouting "Viva Espana" and kicking their soccer balls. I have never experienced anything quite like this is America... things like the Superbowl don't even compare!