Sunday Funday

(suppose to be posted last Sunday)

The morning started bright and early. We had to catch the very first bus to Huelva so that we could spend a decent amount of time at the beach. Since Kate and Corrie live a little farther away we each got on at different stops in Valverde. Once on the bus we were happy when the bus didn’t stop as many times as it usually does making the trip a lot quicker. We got to Huelva in 40 minutes (record time!) and were able to catch the 11a bus rather than waiting a full hour for the 12p bus. The trip to Punta Umbria was a short one, only 15 minutes. We got off and let Corrie lead the way since PU was her stomping ground. I forget if I mentioned this earlier but she spent six weeks this past summer in PU being an au pair so she was familiar with the area. The beach was barren at 11:20a but what can you expect it is October. I can honestly say I’ve never been to the beach in October. Well I’m not going to exaggerate and say the water was crystal clear and sand was white like snow but it was smooth and the water was the perfect temperature. Corrie told me that they don’t get jellyfish here so that made me feel better. I had thought of a name for jellyfish just in case: jelly = marmalade, fish = pescado ipsofacto = pescado marmalade! Haha Most of my time was spent lying out but I did take a walk down the shore and I attempted to read this book Claire gave me but it was too weird for me. I did go in the water and it was very refreshing. Earlier there were waves and surfers but by the time I got in it was very calm and relaxing. Not cold but not warm, perfect temperature.

While we were on the beach Corrie’s two friends (twins) met her on the beach and invited her to lunch. Corrie invited me to join but I wasn’t in the mood to focus on fast talking Spaniards, plus I wanted to take advantage of every minute I had at the beach, so I declined. Kate and Corrie left and I was in charge of everyone’s stuff. All was going well but I noticed the tide was getting closer and closer. I was paranoid of the water swishing away our stuff so I couldn’t really close my eyes. I even thought in my head what I would grab if that was to occur. My shoes b/c I need to get home, and my bag because it has my wallet and I can’t get that wet. Well when I thought I was in the clear I put my sweater over my face and of course at the moment the tide decided to pay me a visit. On first impulse I did just what I had thought, grabbed the bag and my shoes and even had time to drag my towel away before the water got all of it. I was actually more worried about my friend’s stuff but luckily the water only soaked their towels and not their stuff. THANK GOD or they would have been really mad. So the rest of the time at the beach was a game of continual movement farther back on the beach to avoid the tide. I swear we were like the only people who had to keep moving back. This older couple was next to us and the whole day they watched us almost get wiped out. I was too bust grabbing my stuff but I’m pretty sure they were laughing at us. Other than that the day was great. The best part was the whole day there was this light breeze so you never had to sweat yet it was warm and you got a tan. For me to not sweat is a BIG DEAL so I was really happy about that.

We took the 4:30p bus back to Huelva but we knew that we would have to wait until the last bus for Valverde which was at 6:60p. So annoying. We got some coffee and a snack as we waited for the bus. When we were close to Valverde, Corrie got a text from a teacher friend Reuben to come over to his house for informal coffee and meet some of his friends. I was so tired and I just wanted to sleep but I told myself I needed to be social. I quickly showered, changed, and then I walked back down into the city center to Reuben’s apartment. I met other teachers that work at the same high school as my roommate Elisa and are actually her inner circle of friends. They were all lovely and I was glad I met them. The best was when Kate mentioned that in the USA we have a sandwich called a Reuben but she didn’t know what was in it, so it was my job to enlighten him. I tried to explain all of the components but he didn’t know Russian dressing was or sauerkraut. Oh well, he thought the idea that he was named after a sandwich to be quite hilarious anyhow. When I mentioned Elisa Reuben informed me that someone in her family was ill and that’s why she was in Sevilla for a long time. He didn’t know she would be returning so that was still a mystery to me. It was a lovely night out but I needed to get some sleep. I still hadn’t prepped for my tutoring sessions that start tomorrow and I had no idea how many hours I would be working tomorrow so I called it an early night (at 11p).