Barcelona, Ireland and more Madrid

To start out, apparently living in Madrid can be as crazy as some of the silly soap operas we watch midday!

Missing abuelo: Our family is very close with a woman named Mamen, and her father (who is 103 years old!) down the street. Mamen also hosts two BC students and we enjoy getting together as families every once in a while. Unfortunately let's see...two weeks ago, we received a phone call at the house from one of students at Mamen's house, Amy, saying that her spanish grandfather was missing! Now, considering his age, he never leaves the house, except to go to church on sundays with his daughter, get a cerveza (beer) on the way back and go straight home. Everyone was worried sick and we literally formed a search party looking for him around the neighborhood and in every restaurant and bar we could find in a mile radius. After calling the police and the only other relative in town, the grandfather came walking back into house, complete with sweater and cane as if nothing had happened. Apparently there had been some dispute earlier in the day, and he refused to tell anyone where he had been.

El Diario: The day before, my spanish sisters were both involved in the equivalent of a less trashy Jerry Springer. They told Meghan and I that they would be on a talk-show and we were already shocked. Elvira and Belen had no idea why they were going on the show but knew that they were going to be used to interview. Apparently, we find as we're watching Elvira live on TV from Mamen's living room, Elvira has a friend whom she grew up with that is living with her boyfriend who has two children by another woman, one of them very sick with leukemia, and refuses to pay any bills. The goal of the host was to have her friend's mom and Elvira (best friend) confront this girl and tell her to leave her boyfriend. Get that? I sure didn't at first! Especially when it was explained in Spanish.

After these two days, Meghan and I pondered whether or not we were actually on some kind of reality show ourselves.

Barcelona=absolutely gorgeous! Friends from BC, Matt, Mike, Sam, Jenny, Caroline, and I explored one of the other biggest --*cities in Spain two weekends ago from now. Highlights included visiting:
*the architecture of Gaudí
*a huge market with fresh seafood, fruit, candy, and everything else one could think of
*attending mass in the Cathedral of Barcelona with at least 10 priests, incense, altar boys, all in the language of Barcelona, Catalán
*two amazing mornings relaxing on the beach, complete with much more nudity than on your average US coast and some amazing, clear, blue ocean
*watching beach volleyball in the Olympic village with helado (ice cream) as the sun went down
*trying to sleep on an overnight train twice, and getting to know each other better in the process
*sampling local tapas with two locals that we met


Ireland:
Probably the most pleasant and effortless trip I will go on while here. Being raised a Sweeney (and Caffery) I felt a bit as though I was going home when arriving in Ireland. I stayed with a wonderful friend from home, Rosemary, to whom I will forevermore be indebted. Her host family let us stay in their beautiful house in the small, charming town of Enniskerry, right outside of Dublin. Again, there's so much to tell later in pictures and stories, but here are a few highlights:

*the first morning we were there, we had some coffree and hot chocolate in a place named Poppies café in downtown Enniskerry (about the size of a very small neighborhood) where Rosemary had been able to get to know the owner, Peter.
*finding an adorable restuarant named Quay's in the Templebar area of Dublin for a filling meal and some Irish music-"Galway Girl" was what was playing as we walked up the stairs to our seats
*going to get my "first proper pint" in a dublin bar called The Celt Pub with Rosemary, and meeting some of her lovely friends.
*visiting an amazing property of gardens and a cute giftshop called Powerscourt where we witnessed one of the most beautiful views of Enniskerry seen thus far and once again sipping some coffee and eating a glazed chocolate croissant...gosh, life is hard
*Saturday we took on the task of driving from coast to coast, which our host family thought was ridiculous, in order to go from Dublin Sea to Galway Bay and see County Clare (for which I was named), the town of Quin, and the adorable streets of Galway. The drive did not dissapoint either as we saw beautiful countryside, cows, and some castle ruins.
*The last morning, Rosemary's host mom, Maeve, made us some fresh Irish Soda Bread before our trip home. We enjoyed it with some jam sitting in the kitchen complete with beautiful hardwood floors and a big green warm stove heating the room.

Well, I hope to update more frequently from now on, so as not to let entries pile up like this. I do apologize for I'm sure the many spelling and grammar mistakes, but I have so much to say and not enough time or patience to make it perfect. I hope everyone is doing well in the States. I've been enjoying keeping in touch a bit by watching the SNL clips on-line and the new episodes of the Office when possible.

Love,
Clare