Old friends

When I was in Argentina I met a girl named Roree from California. She was blonde, beautiful, and she turned me on to a bunch of new musicians. We laughed a lot and spent summer afternoons tumbadas in the hammock my family had hanging on the back porch. Sipping on terere, a form of Mate that is cold, we would talk about anything, laugh a bunch, listen to good music and enjoy spending time with each other. We saw the world in a similar way and so we quickly grew close. As life has moved forward for both of us, we have gone in different directions (quite literally) but still have kept in touch. We discovered recently that we were once again in the same continent. A visit was in order without a doubt. Obviously, I thought of going to Florence, but what ended up working better was for her to come visit. As planning usually goes for me, we powered full steam ahead and she had her ticket the next day. That Sunday, we picked her up from the bus station and gave her her first taste of the south of Spain. TAPAS. Yum!

Now a few sun rays, a dip in the ocean, and an incredible weekend later we are back in my bed reviewing all of the great pictures she captured on her fancy camera. A fun loving group of us took a trip to the south coast where many Granadinos have beach apartments. If you are middle class family here it is quite common to have a weekend place on the south coast because it is only about an hour from here. Roree, Juan Mi, Vitty, Paula, Rafa (a new friend), and I spent one night at Rafa's place and the next at Juan Mi's. When we got there we enjoyed Rafa's guitar playing and duets with Paula, while I joined in here or there to ruin a song.

The next day we woke up fairly early and traipsed to the beach to soak up the rays. It was a mind blowing kind of day. Warm wind, sunshine to boot, and a calm Mediterranean Sea. That night we raced back there after a trip to the supermarket to pick up Sangria ingredients. Wily Rafa whipped it together in less than five minutes and we spread out on towels and watched the sunset. Guitar was played and soon enough we were dancing to the beat of a very popular song, Danza Kuduro, that was blasted over ipod speakers.

This song Danza Kuduro is quickly becoming the theme song of this abroad trip, as overly played club songs tend to do. So, of course, the only logical thing would be to make a music video. The starring actors: four very foreign girls. The video clip had to include a bit of dancing so we decided to film on the beach today. It was deserted because it is still not tourist time. Quite honestly though, half of Spain's population decided to drive by as we were trying to film this scene. Embarrassing is an understatement. Whistles. Honks. Shouts. In the end, we finally did achieve our goal.