I'll start with the arrival of my mother. For the sake of Jesus (fellow co-worker) I'll forgo the horror story of getting to the airport—but I learned my lesson—never rely on a Spaniard for
anything—when your country's motto is "no pasa nada" it's a red flag that promises mean nothing and being able to rely on someone for a favor is near impossible.....afterall who doesn't respond "no pasa nada" when 2 hours before your supposed to be at the Sevilla airport your ride tells you he can't take you....when he knew ALL day he couldn't take you! For my Mom's first night in Spain we decided to throw a Christmas cocktail party to introduce her to all our friends and more truthfully it was a great excuse to throw a party. I mean who doesn't wana host a party when they live in a 9 square foot mansion...our piso is just begging us to show it off and be play party hosts. Especially with our fine china and all (compliments of the Chinese bizaar....5 plates for a euro...what a steal! I
f you're lucky they will last at least four washes). We could invite all of 20 people (given they all had a BMI of under 25) to our party which made making the invite list very difficult. Now I know you're thinking, yes, having a party with only 20 people must've been hard to pare the list down however since we could only think of 6 friends, including the doorman and milkman it was quite a chore trying to think of enough people to invite. After scrolling through our phones six or seven times, hoping some new numbers belonging to some guapo hombres would miracusly appeared, we somehow manged to fit quite the crowd into our piso. As you can see from the photos, we only have male friends, the reason being obvious--Spanish women are mean and jealous. If you want to argue that this is a gross generalization than 1) prove me wrong and introduce to be a nice Spanish women because I'm yet to meet one in my 6 months in Spain 2) I just lost my best tennis partner because his girlfriend was jealous of me...point proven. Back to the point, it was basically a man party and quite 
entertaining. The Brazilian crew were our honeary bartenders and free entertainment for the night. Mixing drinks strong enough for even the most advanced alcoholic to enjoy---inhibitions were loosened and fun times followed. Henrique left his shy side behind the door, Angelos showed off his dance moves and Alexandro put the mistletoe to good use. Unfortunatly, Elvis decided to wear a shirt, the first time I've seen him clothed, and it really was such a shame with a body like his. I know PDA and Spain are pretty much synonymous but I was hoping people would at least take into consideration m
y mom was at the party and restrain from the standard Spanish behavior of getting it on infront of everyone. Not for our English guest and her Bralizian babe. No, they didn't believe in the art of decscrition and wanted everyone to see their foreplay fun, in fact, they made quite the dramatic exit, no one had any doubt about what they were going to do later, or who they were going to do. Blame it on the bartenders, I guess.My mom and I went on a day trip to Ayamonte which is a small town an hour or so away from Huelva. It's unbeli
evable how easy and affordable it is to travel over here rather than the States. You hop on a bus, train or plane for a couple euros (sometimes a few hundred....but who's counting) and your in a whole new city or country. We had a re
ally fun day exploring Ayamonte and even took a ferry ride over to Portugal. The highlight was probably a zoo we accidentally ran into while walking through a park. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed sun filled skies while riding the ferry. We enjoyed a delicious dinner along the Atlantic sea and of course the company of one another.
One of my English students, Juan, was gracious enough to play tour guide to us for a day and took us all over Huelva. We went to Aracena, a small village up in 
the Sierras (mountains). On our way we stopped to admire Rio Tinto where NASA is currently doing research on the water. We took a tour of these amazing caves in Aracena which words simply cannot describe. Absolutely unbeliebably beautiful. I also worked my charm and scored us a nochebuena (Christmas Eve) invite, which I would like to recive props for because this was harder than you think. Ngoc and spent several days debating over who we could possibly talk into inviting us over for nochebuena which is the biggest dinner and most important night of the year, because w
e really didn't fancy sitting in our piso when the rest of the country was celebrating and eating their best meal of the year. We were fortunate enough to have dined on some of the best ham in the world and the dinner was probably the best dinner I've ever had. I can only imagine how many hours were spent in the kitchen going into this elaborate meal, there was enough food for the Red Army and its enemies!! My favorite part of the night was when the guests came over at, drumroll please.....2 AM.....only in Spain does company come over to say hi at 2 am.
We left for Granada early on Christmas day and saw the entire town of Huelva coming home from the night before at 8 am....again, ONLY in Spain to people party on Christmas Eve and until 8 am the next morning. I didn't mind being away from home on Christmas given I've spent the last 15 years of my life on the road playing tennis tournaments, eating three week old bounceable hotdogs, if lucky, and rarely spent Christmas with my family in front of the tree so I have no sympathy for people complaining about missing home. I wouldn't exactly say I'm the most financially independent person around town, I fully enjoy the luxury of being blessed with generous parents, but after hearing about how much people complain about missing home I've realized I'm far more independent than I gave myself credit for. Anywho, we arrived in Granada to a B&B that the owner should be embarassed to call a Bread & Breakfast. I think "The Dump" would be a more fittig name. I guess you get what you pay for...needless to say, the poor life is not for me. Better I learn that young though. I prefer a hotel in which cockroaches
do not roam free, breakfast is served free of moldy bread and hot water is a commodity included in the price of the room. Ok, so slight exaggeration but the place wasn't one of our best hostel experienes. Nonetheless, it was fun to visit Granada, where I studied abroad in undergrad, and show my Mom all the places we we went out (because really no one goes to Spain to study). Too bad there isn´t a major for nightlife expertise. We went to the Science Park, Alahambra, Sierra Nevadas and walked all of Granada (let me repeat ALL) of Granada during our time there.We came home fro
m Granada, exhausted, and enjoyed our last day in Huelva at Parque Moret which is up a on hill overlooking the city. We rented some rowboats and spent the afternoon picnicing in the park, rowing a boat through the lake and enjoying the warm December weather. It was a wonderful 2 weeks.Besos
Allison
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