Quiet...

It is lonely here now!

We have had a fabulous past three weeks, all filled with visitors. Some of our friends from Vanderbilt-- Phil, Becky, Greg, and Jamie-- came to visit on December 11. Jamie's fabulous Spanish friend, Maria, also joined the crew. We had a blast and spent a shocking amount of time in bars. Even for us, it was shocking. We had a great time. Luckily, we should be able to get together again in Nashville in late February. Awesome!

Our school (yes, we had school here) ended the day after our friends left, so we had a big dinner party with friends from school. School certainly wasn't the highlight of this trip, but I will miss some of the people we met. It was a very interesting group and I truly hope to see some of these folks again in the future.

John and Jas arrived the next day, after a hairy flight that involved waiting six hours on the tarmac before even leaving New York. Even though they should have been exhausted, they were troopers and we had a good two days before they ventured south. They are still in Morocco... I can't wait to hear about their visit.

My family arrived the next day and we had a great visit! They stayed from December 22 until today, January 1. We had lots of fun in Madrid... we saw the sights and had our first Christmas away from Massachusetts. We took a two-day jaunt down to Granada as well, and everyone loved the Alhambra. It was a great visit, and I am sad they are gone!

I will definitely be sad to leave Madrid, but now that we've seen so many of our friends and family, I am starting to look forward to going home. It'll be great to catch up with everyone we've been missing for the past few months! And to speak English. Oh, the joy!

In the meantime, we've got four more days in Madrid. It'll be fun to spend time alone with Steve, and to celebrate his birthday. Happy birthday, babe!