The whole next week was midterm week. I absolutely could not believe that considering that we had only had two and a half weeks of class because of Semana Santa (a week and a half off). There was barely even any information to put on the tests! Anyway, all of them went pretty well. On Friday, we had our second excursion and we went to La Rioja which is a neighboring autonomous community (basically province). First we went to a monastery called San Millan where they found the first proof of written Spanish and Euskera. La Rioja is really famous for its wine so after visiting a few other cities and churches we went to a bodega to do some wine tasting. I don’t really like wine very much, but it was a pretty cool experience even though we barely understood anything that the owner was telling us because he used a bunch of technical wine terms and stuff in Spanish.
That weekend was a four day weekend for Labor Day (I swear that we do a little bit of work even though it seems like we’re always on vacation!). Anyway, I didn’t end up making any plans, but I decided to hang out with my family in Pamplona. That weekend we took a trip to my parents’ pueblos (hometowns) in the country. First we went to Miguel’s house and I met his brother and he gave me the grand tour of the house (which he was really proud of). Afterward we headed to Tafalla which is where Amparo grew up. Miguel and I walked all around the town and he showed me everything before we headed back for lunch. We ate with Amparo’s sister and dad. Later that day we went to visit another one of Amparo’s sisters who lived close by. She had two kids, a girl who was twelve and a boy who was seven, who were really cute. The girl was studying English so I helped her with her homework and it was really fun! I would really love to move here someday and get a job teaching English to kids. Man, I would love that so much. Well, I still have some time until I need to start thinking about that kind of stuff (even though it’s going by really fast!). That night there was a big procession in the town called “La procesion de los doce (The procession of the twelve)” that is in honor of the twelve disciples. There’s a big pilgrimage from a church, and the people walk all day until they get to Tafalla at night. There was a huge procession of people dressed in all black with the black hoods that they use in Semana Santa. It was fun to spend the day with my parents and I’m glad that they liked me enough and felt comfortable enough taking me to meet their families!
The next weekend was “El día de la madre (Mother’s Day)” in Spain. I couldn’t figure out what to get Amparo so I asked Miguel and Maite. They laughed and told me about how she never likes anything they buy for her, and she’s really hard to buy presents for. Anyway, we decided that I would get chocolates and Maite would get flowers because there’s no way she wouldn’t like that stuff. That morning we got up and gave Amparo the presents and she seemed to like them. Later that day Maite had a water polo game at the Club Natación (basically a small country club). We went to watch her game and then ate lunch at the restaurant there. The food was really good and I didn’t have to pay for it which is always great! It was the first time I had seen a water polo game, and I had a lot of fun watching even though they ended in a tie 4-4. It was great being able to spend the day with all four of us together the whole time like a family. I love that they treat me like a daughter because it makes everything so much more comfortable and fun. Amparo always says, “Oh, mis dos hijas (my two daughters)” which I think is really cute and makes me feel really welcome in the family!