Sara: Visitors, 10K, and CaRnAvAl

Well, this weekend started off being a busy one. Javi played on Friday and his mom and sister, Rosa and Ainara, came to visit for the weekend. Javi's dad and Ainara's fiancé were both out of town so they decided to come see the other male figure in their life! I think they had a good time even though we didn't do a whole lot, but I think they were content watching basketball and lounging on the couch. Plus Javi won his game on Friday so that made it even better. My friends Chiska and Anneli also made it to the game with their significant others and another couple so Javi had a whole cheering section. After the game, the four of us went to dinner--the normal routine--then Javi got blessed to be joined by Dumb and Dumber (that is what he calls my friend Chiska and I) for the rest of the night. We went out to celebrate the victory for a little bit, which resulted in Chiska and I ripping on people the whole night. What can I say--I was slightly annoyed this weekend for some reason and the people were getting on our nerves! We did have fun though so that was all that mattered!

Anneli, Marc and their friends, Marc and Emma

Rosa and Ainara at the game

Javi and I

'Dumber and Dumb' :)

Saturday was uneventful and I relaxed because I had a big day ahead of me on Sunday. We basically stayed home all day and I went to watch my other friend, Bonita, play volleyball.

Sunday, on the other hand, was hoppin! I ran another 10K in a town nearby called Balaguer and coaxed Chiska and her dog, Daisy into coming with me at 8:30 a.m. Javi had practice so he wasn't able to come. I didn't want to go run a race all by my lonesome and I knew if Daisy could come, Chiska would definitely come! :) The race went awesome....there were 1,000 people and you could choose between a 10K or half marathon. 220 people did the 10K. Lately, I have been getting bored running really long distances so I am just sticking to 10K's. I prefer to run fast and get it over with. So I ended up getting 2nd in the 10K (female division), 38th overall, and ran a PR of 39.40 and was really happy overall. It was the first time I broke 40 minutes in a 10K and now I find myself getting a little addicted. Everyone who ran also had to wear these sweet NIKE, red, dry-fit t-shirts they made for us with our number on it. I was pretty pumped about the nice shirt we got.

Steven, one teacher at my academy, and I at the race. He did the half.

Daisy making friends with other dogs at the race

Balaguer

Afterwards, I had to hurry home and get my stuff packed because it was off to Sitges for CARNAVAL. I will give a brief run-down on Sitges and Carnaval first. First, Sitges (Seech-es), is a little town located outside of Barcelona on the beach maybe 20 minutes by train. It is also known as being a 'gay' town. Literally, a lot of gay people live there and it is a beautiful place. Second, Carnaval is kind of like Halloween for us except it lasts for a week. Last week in some of the schools, for example, the children had to dress up in different costumes every day. I think it's more popular in South America, but the Spaniards celebrate it too. More in some places than others. Well, Sitges, happens to be one of the towns in Spain with the biggest Carnaval party. One is on Sunday night and another is on Tuesday. Supposedly, it is so well known because the gays take a lot of pride in the parade, costumes, etc... and a ton of people go there for it. My friend, Bonita, invited me to go with her and another friend so we booked our train tickets and off we went on Sunday. It was a quick ride to Barcelona and then we switched trains for another 20 minutes to Sitges. We met another one of Bonita's ex-volleyball teammates, Alex, at 8:00 pm and went to our hotel and got dressed up for the parade which started at 9:00 pm. I just wore a Venecian mask and dressed up accordingly with the mask, Bonita was a viking, and Alex was a sexy nerd because what isn't sexy when it comes to dressing up these days??! Also, a friend of Javi and I, Paul (Javi's old teammate from last year in Menorca), met up with us there with his girlfriend because they are in Barcelona for the next month. I must say that the fiesta in Sitges was everything it was cracked up to be. There were a ton of people, the parade was very impressive, and the costumes were awesome. We had a lot of fun and I was really glad that I went because I wasn't feeling too anxious to go after the 10K. On Monday morning, Bonita and I were able to get up and explore Sitges since Alex had to leave right away. We were both dead tired of course and it was also nice because we could actually walk and not fight through a ton of people. The only bad thing that happened on the trip was that someone stole Bonita's or she lost it, but we are gonna go with the story that someone stole it. She lost all her credit cards, money, and her driver's license so that was a bummer.