Week 1 (mom and dad)-
Allow me to begin this blog by saying that this vacation went nothing as planned. I've actually really began to question the use of making plans, for so often they seem to fail. And its not to say that we didn't have a good time, in fact we probably have more stories/memories now than we would have if things had actually gone according to plan. I think that one of the best parts of plans is the stories that come about upon their falling through. So, with plans in my mind, I'm am going to divide this part of the blog into 2 versions - 1) the plans or, how the trip would have been had everything gone according to plan and 2) how it actually went down.
1) My dad would arrive in Sevilla at 2. My mom would arrive at 3. I would go to the airport to pickup my dad and then we would wait until 3 for my mom to arrive. From there we would take a bus to the hotel where I work.
2) We would spend tuesday and wednesday in sevilla and take in as much of the Semana Santa as we could - we would also eat lunch at my host parents house/take them out to dinner one night.
3) Thursday morning we would go to Granada where we would see the Alhambra and spend one night
4) We would go to Ronda on Friday where we would spend two nights
5) Still partly related with number 4, Saturday we would go to Gibraltar for the day and then go back to Ronda for the night
6) We would return to Sevilla Sunday and my dad would fly out Monday
There were also 2 things that my dad simply had to do: 1) Go to Gibraltar 2) Eat the infamous Iberian ham (and, if we go back about 2 weeks, he was also set on making it to Africa).... lets see exactly which one of these was accomplished...
Now, for the real version...
1) I waited in the airport for an hour and the first parent of mine that I saw coming through the gates was my mom. What happened, one might be so inclined as to ask?? Well, my dad had a problem with his ticket and had to change everything while in Mexico, 2 days before coming to Spain. Did I have any idea of this? No. Does it matter? Not really. I mean I could go into more detail about how I spent an hour running through the airport, looking for him in every corner, getting chased by the security guards and hiding in the bathroom, but that wouldn't be altogether factual.... Seeing my mom walk through those doors was a cool feeling. It had been so long since I had seen my parents (since August 18) and upon seeing her it felt like it had been a matter of years and a matter of minutes since I had last seen her all at the same time. She told me that my dad would get in in about two hours, so we decided it would be best to take the bus to the hotel and then for me to come back and get him later. The bus, however, didn't exactly go according to plan (haha). It was supposed to drop us off at about 5 minutes walking distance from the hotel, but due to Semana Santa (which consists of parades all throughout the city for one week) the route was cut way short and we were forced to find other modes of transportation. We got a taxi, there's probably never been a taxi driver in a worse mood than this one, and he took us another half of the way there then demanded that we exit the vehicle as he couldn't go any further (a lie). But we really didn't want to be in there anyways so we did as told. And, what did we exit that taxi to??? A furious flurry of ferocious formidable rain. Lowering our heads into the head on rain, we made the push towards to the hotel (about 10 minutes away walking). From there I showed mom the the best room in the hotel (that my high ranking stature in Hotel Murillo had won them) and then went to pick up my dad. His flight arrived on time, the bus went all the way to the stop closest to the hotel and the sun was shining. About a stark a contrast as one can find to that first journey to the hotel. From there both of my parents were exhausted, and rightfully so, so I decided to be a gracious guest and let them rest until the following day.
2) I guess, to my astonishment now that I think about it, that Tuesday actually did go more or less according to plan. The first part of the day we spent walking around some historic sites of Sevilla (places that I hadn't even been) and ate lunch at a restaurant that I had made reservations for at 3pm. Following lunch my dad and I went shoe shopping and my mom went back to the hotel to rest a bit. I never realized that my dad knew so much about shoes, but he analyzed those things like a Darwin must have analyzed those animals when forming his theory on evolution. Lets just say that I have absolutely no doubt that I got the best pair of shoes available to me in all of Sevilla. That walk back to the hotel though, it was like trying to get through wall upon wall of Denver Broncos lineman (they best of the best). We kept running into procession after procession, each time having to back track and find a new way of getting around them. The walk there: 15 minutes. The walk back: 1 hour and 15 minutes. The shoes: 90 euros. Sevilla: crowded. Sevilla during Semana Santa: well not priceless, but thanks to hotel murillo not too bad either.
3) If Tuesday went more or less according to plan, Wednesday made up for the rarity. Although we did actually spend the whole day in Sevilla, as planned, the place where we spent the day wasn't exactly what we had in mind... la urgencia. The emergency room. My mom had been having respiratory/fatigue problems and we decided that the best thing to do would be to go the hospital and see if we could get any oxygen out of them. That was the main objective: the oxygen. 7 hours later we would achieve the goal. We went through the entry phases incredibly fast. Within 30 minutes of entering we were already talking to a doctor although there looked to be people who had been waiting for much longer than us (something we would soon understand). I learned that being able to speak/understand spanish in daily life and being able to do the same when it comes to medical issues are two entirely different things. Via my dads vast medical knowledge (the doctor actually asked me if my dad was a 'medico' back in the US), my moms spanish and my translating we were able to get the main points across. After about a 20 minute meeting we were sent back into the waiting room where we would realize the true function of the 'waiting' room. We had to be in there at least 4 maybe 5 hours. The waiting room was a complete contrast to a waiting room that one would find in the US. There were no cellphones. There were no books/magazines. There were no impatient people. There also weren't, oddly enough, anybody that looked to be in dire, 'emergency room' conditions. We came to the conclusion that we had been seen so quickly because we could have had a very serious problem, but once the doctors realized that it could wait, they felt content with putting us where everybody else with the 'it can wait' problems were. It actually seemed to be more of a social event than anything. The patients were all there with there family members or friends, chatting and chatting and chatting as if they could go on forever. Nobody, aside from my dad =), was showing any sort of impatience and they all seemed to be perfectly content where they were. Anyways we were eventually called in again and the doctor told us that she wanted to do a scan of my moms lungs to make sure that something wasn't wrong (i wish I could say that in more sophisticated terms, but I forget all of the medical terminology - maybe when my mom and dad read this they could put a little comment down there at the bottom of the page describing what the doctor was actually worried about). We weren't too excited about doing the scan, however, and considered calling the doctor back in the US. That seemed to throw our doctor off a little bit (no questioning the doctors knowledge) so we decided against getting a second opinion and did what was recommended. Luckily nothing was seriously wrong and we eventually left the hospital with what we had came for - the oxygen. That experience, to say the least, isn't one that any of us will forget, and all in all we were actually pretty impressed with the Spanish health care system. They had treated us foreigners with as much care and attention to detail as if we were any normal Spanish patient, they didn't skip any steps, they gave us the oxygen without any problem as well as gave my mom a steroid shot without telling her anything (that shot made her feel great for the next 8 days) and all for free (my dad estimated that in the US that day would have cost us $3000).
4) We actually made it to Ronda this day! My mom decided that she was feeling up for it and we took a 2 hour bus ride from Sevilla to Ronda friday afternoon. And it was definitely worth it. Ronda is an absolutely awe-inspiring, take your breath away little town. It is built on a huge cliff with a river running through it (though it is 100 meters below town level). I could describe it more, but I'm going to adhere to the saying that a picture paints 1000 words and just put up a couple of pictures here..... We even stayed up late (in American terms) to see the procession pass through town! My parents sure adapted quickly to the Spanish lifestyle - siestas during the days, 'late' nights and sleep in mornings - if you know my parents very well be careful what your around because your probably about to throw up your arms and fall over backwards in your chair out of amazement, but they slept until 10:30!!!!!!! that morning. At least 12 hours of sleep. I have never been so surprised in all my life.
5/6) Gibraltar never happened. My Dad's flight was changed to Sunday morning so we left Ronda saturday afternoon to get back to Sevilla. That night we had a few guests over and we had a fun discussion about the differences between Spain and the US in terms of taxes/health care/ect. The next morning my dad had to wake up at 5am to get to the airport for his 7 o'clock flight.
And that concludes week 1! My mom stayed an extra week but I don't think I have it in me to do 3 blog updates in one day, so I will get to that later. You will also notice that there are not any pictures (even though I specifically said that there were in the ronda blog) but that will change here in the near future. I would give an exact date on when the future updates/changes will be, but that would be a plan and I'm just not into doing that sort of thing! Though it could make for a good story....
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