Kari Visits!!

Remember my friend from Norway that I went to visit 2 summers ago?  Well of course we've kept in touch so she decided to come and visit me in Granada for a few days!  She has been studying in Vietnam this past semester (crazy right?) so she decided to stop by Spain on her way home.  It was so nice to see her and catch up but unfortunately I had finals all this week and end of the year stuff to do so I wasn't able to spend as much time with her as we would have hoped :( but she toured a little on her own and was able to enjoy the city.  our other friend Timmy (who is studying in Barcelona that I met up with in Prague) was also visiting for the weekend with his friend Ian so Kari was able to spend time with them as well.


The week was really low key like I said.  I had school and stuff most days and the weather wasn't nice enough for us to do a lot of stuff outside.  Regardless, we hadn't seen each other in almost 2 years so most of the time we enjoyed just sitting in a cafe and talking about everything we needed to catch up on.  She arrived all by herself (without a cell phone!) on Saturday morning bright and early!   People must have thought we were slightly insane when we saw each other, but we made our way back to my house ... my senora offered to let her stay in our spare room which was really nice.  After she unpacked and got settled I took her around the city for a little bit.  We went back home for lunch and my senora made us lentejas (lentil soup) which is a classic dish in Spain so Kari could try it. After lunch we got ready and decided to head to the processions (for semana santa) but since it rained they were canceled.  Instead we went and got tapas and talked a bit.  Later that night we met up with more people in my program and went to Hannigans, typical.


Sunday we both needed a day of studying.  Kari is studying psychology and has final exams when she gets back to Norway in 10 days.  We pretty much spent all morning at a cafe close to my house called Noche y Dia.. the staff there are starting to recognize me I'm pretty sure.  For lunch I took her to Bib Rambla (the famous plaza) and we got a menu del dia so she could try paella.  Of course we went through the moorish markets and did souvenir shopping.  Since it was rainy out we went back to my house and just watched a movie.  Kari bought English movies while she was in Vietnam.  That's the first movie I had seen in 4 months, crazy right.  Timmy arrived that night so we decided to meet him at his hostel. His phone had died, so he gave us the address and we mapped it out.  The walk to his hostel was  supposed to take about 10 minutes from my house, perfect righy?  Wrong.  Kari and I got SO turned  around for some reason since I didn't know the area we were going into very well.  We kept asking people on the streets if they knew of the hostel but since it was so small they had barely heard of it.  Just about to give up hope, a nice couple asked if we needed help and when we told them the hostel name they actually knew where it was!! Thank goodness.  We got Timmy FINALLY and went to Calle Navas to get some tapas.


Monday I had school all morning so Kari and Timmy made plans to do touristy things all day like the Alhambra and Catedral.  I went to class and did my final day of volunteering (wahoo!) with Kelly at the school.  I met back up with them when I got back from the school and we hung out at home until dinner.  My senora made us tortilla espanola so Kari could try it also and surprised us with beers since she knew we were going out.  A bunch of people studying in Vienna, Austria from U of I were in town for the night so we met up with the group (Timmy and Ian came too!) at la chupeteria, the shot bar.  We decided to take them to another bar so we followed Ben, a guy on our program.  There was a guy on the street promoting his bar so Ben decided it would be a good idea to check it out. We got dirty looks as we walked in, everyone in the bar was wearing black and the music sounded like someone was dying a horrible death and screaming.  We turned around immediately and left haha.  The night was overall really fun and I'm glad I got to know the people from Vienna better! :)


Tuesday I again had school.  I left Kari at cafe futbol right by my school and went back to get her after I got done with class.  In that short time she made so many friends at the cafe - they loved her and she doesn't even know how to speak Spanish!  We decided to stay there and get a coffee and were treated like gold haha.  Leave it to Kari!  My senora made us fajitas for lunch (Kari's request) and we went out to shop for a little bit.  We met up with Timmy and Ian for some tapas again and  they hung out while I went to school for my night class.  I had 2 tests on Wednesday, so Kari stayed out with them while I went home and studied (yuck).  I'm definitely glad they were here this weekend because I would have felt so bad having her cooped up in the house with me while I studied!

Wednesday we said our goodbyes.. I had to go to class early and her flight wasn't until the afternoon so she hung out with my senora for a little bit and my senora saw her off to the bus stop to head to Italy to see Kelsey!  I'm glad I got to catch up with Kari, its crazy how much happens in 2 years when you haven't seen someone.  I think she enjoyed my city and Spain in general :)

As far as my plans, I was going to go to Portugal this weekend to head to the beach but the weather isn't supposed to be very nice so I didn't think it was worth spending the money.  A small group of us are gonna hang out in Granada and do everything on our bucket lists before we have to leave.  We're at the 11 day countdown - INSANE.  Dad if you're reading this, we're heading to Portillo's the first thing when I step off that plane...