Mindy comes for Thanksgiving!

For those of you reading whom I haven’t talked to in the last six months about this awesome girl, this is my wonderful girlfriend Mindy

(My dad and my Spanish mother, Carmen, both agree that she is much prettier than me!)

Funny story about how we met – it was in one of those all day driver improvement schools that you have to go to when you get a speeding ticket.  I noticed her from across the room and decided my goal for the day was going to be to get her number.  I almost chickened out as we were walking out of the class, but I went ahead and asked for her number, and I’m so glad I did.  That was in March, the Saturday after VCU had made it to the final four.  Seven months later, here she is in Spain! 

She got her on Sunday the 20th, and we met up in the airport in Madrid, as I was flying back in from Paris with the group.  She got into the airport about an hour before me, and I think I may have broken out into a dead run when I got off my plane, I was so excited to see her.  We had a nice hostel, which was more like a hotel for really cheap.  

View from the hostel

We didn’t get back into Salamanca until like 11:30pm, and were both tired from a long day of traveling, so we just crashed the first night.

I had classes, all week, so I would get up and go to class while she slept in (not fair).  If I had afternoon classes, she would go shopping...that girl can shop!  I have a break in my schedule around noon every day, so we would go get tapas at that point in time.  I have raved about the Spanish food in my blog, and Mindy loved it too.  Our favorite set of tapas actually included one I had never had – it was like a tortilla de patatas, but it had an eggs Benedict type taste with bacon in the middle, plus lox and bagels and two glasses of fresh squeezed OJ.

So. Good.

That night we went out to some authentic Italian pizza, and the owner of the restaurant was actually from Reggio di Calabria (where I visited during my break).  We got a Hawaiian Pizza, which was on point.

Wine teeth, whoopsie

 Not Spanish food, but still delicious.  After dinner we went to see the Cathedral at night, because it is really something.  I can’t remember if I have blogged about the frog wall or not, but here is a very famous facade of a university building with all kinds of intricate designs that has a small frog hidden on the wall.  If you can find it, legend says you will have good luck in your studies, life, etc.  I took her there and let her look until she gave up, then showed her where it was (it is REALLY hard to find).  It was a cold and snowy/rainy night, here’s a picture of Mind outside the Cathedral: 

All bundled up, it was freezing!

Up until Wed, the weather had been very cold; the coldest to date in Salamanca, but Wed was perfect.  It was probably about 65 and sunny, not many clouds in the sky.  After class, we went down to the River with a bottle of wine and my computer for some music and just laid around there all afternoon.  

Great afternoon by the River!

I was glad she got a nice day of weather in Salamanca, the river is probably my favorite place to go and relax in town.  

Thanksgiving was just a great all around day.  I can’t say how nice all of my classmates were (thanks guys) to Mindy, she loved all of you.  During the day I took her to the cathedral and we toured all around and got some nice pictures. 

Back at the Cathedral!

View out over Sally

From the cathedral we went to my football bar, St. Patrick’s Museum, and watched the Packers vs. Lions game (which was on at 6:30pm our time) before dinner.  We had a good time at the bar, some classmates came and joined.  Turkey dinner in Spain was pretty darn good, Tkac gave a nice speech and a very interesting method of carving the Turkeys.  It certainly wasn’t like Mom’s dinner, but it was dam good – they had all the regular trimmings and it was really nice to have Mindy here for Thanksgiving, since my whole family couldn’t come too.  

Yummmm

Just the person I wanted to share Thanksgiving in Spain with!

After dinner we went out with pretty much the whole entire group, and it was one of my favorite nights, if not my favorite, of the whole trip.

Saturday we were off to Toledo, for a day trip.  A huge thanks goes out to John Tkac, who translated all day for Mindy what Jesús was saying, she really enjoyed it.  We saw a Cathedral, some El Greco paintings (the most famous one which we couldn’t take pictures of), but my favorite part of the day was just walking around the city getting lost with Mind.  We got a nice lunch with Tanner and Megan (my roommate and his wonderful girlfriend) and then parted ways.  I was so happy that Mindy could come along on an excursion and see what we do and be able to experience that with me.  We also got some great pictures with the view overlooking Toledo, check em out: 

Old bridge crossing Toledo

Favorite shot of the trip, overlooking Toledo.

We got back to Salamanca, grabbed a quick meal and showered up, and headed out for her last night here.  My good friend Corey Pegram was in town, so we met up with him and his friends and just had an absolutely awesome night.  We bar hopped around going from place to place and it was just a blast having a great childhood friend AND my girlfriend there in the same night.  Great end to a great week.  Mindy’s bus left at 8am...YIKES, but we got her there in time, said our goodbyes and she was back off to the US of A.  She will be down in Richmond on the 22nd when I get back home, so for my friends from Richmond who are reading, I want you all to meet her!

This will most likely be my last blog about Spain.  The program ends December 11th, and Tanner and I will be heading to Northern Europe – Germany, Switzerland, and Austria for a ten-day train trip throughout those three countries.  We will see five or six cities in the three countries, in ten days.  I will post my blog about all that when I am back in the US. 

Thank you all for reading and following my journey throughout Spain, it has been a life changing experience and I am glad I had the opportunity to experience it.  HUGE thanks to my parents, for helping me fund my crazy European adventures and being so supportive throughout.  I can’t wait to be home.  See you all very soon!