Adíos, Rocío

Rocío leaves for France tomorrow to be a nanny for 9 months. She only knows a phrase or two in French. I have confidence in her that she will learn really quickly because her English is pretty good and she spent only five months in Ireland as a nanny. She is signed up with an agency that matches au pairs and families in Europe. She learned about the opportunity only a couple of weeks ago. Both the Bucknell students and Rocío and her crew are so adventurous. When I was a young'on I was way too cautious and terrified that something bad would happen to me to travel much, plus I never had any money. It would have been really cool to do what Rocío is doing. She is an only child and loves kids and so the work is more fun than work for her.

She invited me to a concert that her friend Jimmy was performing in. I met her at Burger King and we walked over to a bar where her teacher from the Sports Activities class was along with some of her classmates, including her ex-boyfriend and her current boyfriend were hanging out. Yusef (current boyfriend of Moroccan descent) and I had sodas, everyone else was drinking beer and SMOKING like chimneys. I had a really interesting conversation with Caroline, an American student from North Carolina who is doing study abroad here, and Rocío's teacher. He traveled quite a bit to Morocco and was telling us which foods to try and where to go. I thought it was a little strange that Rocío's ex and current boyfriend were hanging out together with Rocío and everything was hunky dory. I would have been SO uncomfortable!

We went to Sugarpop, a club that hosts different musical acts. The doors were shut and tons of people were outside. They were supposed to open at 9. Three of Rocío's girlfriends were there-María, Mahou and I can't remember the other one's name. They totally had the typical Spanish girl look going on with their hair and clothes. Since the club still wasn't open an hour later, we went to another bar and had another drink and tapas. Everyone else had hamburgers and alcohol as their drink and tapa, but Yusef and I had tortilla and soda. Did I mention that Yusef is Muslim? I don't know a ton about Muslims, but he told me that they don't drink or smoke and that the meat they eat has to be specially prepared according to some strict rules.

I really like Yusef, not just because he was the only sober buddy I had that night, but also because he loves Doraemon just as much as I do. When we got to the bar, our table was filthy. The bar was packed, standing room only and the waiter was taking forever. The homemaker in me just had to clean that table. I swept all the crumbs onto the floor and then busted out a baby wipe from my bag and wiped the table down. Later, Yusef was coughing and I offered him a cough drop. I also had my camera which I kept busting out and some Advil for Rocío's headache. Yusef told me that my bag is just like Doraemon's magic pouch--I have something in there for every situation.

When we got back to the club, it was packed, barely standing room only. The first band took forever setting up. Luckily, the concert was free. The music was OK. One of the musician's was a professor of Rocío's. The girls all left and I decided to go too since it was near midnight and I couldn't call Collin because everyone claimed that their phones were unpaid for so they didn't work (young and irresponsible!). Rocío begged me not to go home since it would have been one of our last opportunities to hang out, but since I didn't really like the music and I knew that I was going to be dead tired the next day since I'm 31 and not 19 like her, I decided to call it a night. When I got home, I reeked of smoke, the only drawback to going out with Rocío. Yusef and I were conspiring to get her to stop smoking or at least smoke less. I told her she owed me a Euro for every cigarette she smoked in front of me and Yusef kept stealing the pack out of her purse and hiding it from her. Seriously, everyone smokes here. I'm surprised at how used to it I am. I don't like the smell and I would never do it myself, but a few years ago, I would never have been able to sit next to someone who was smoking.

Let's talk about the touchy-feelyness of Spanish youth. Rocío kept kissing me on the cheek, the big SMACKING kind of kisses. I had to do double cheek kisses all night to everyone I met and then when someone left they did double cheek kisses all around. I lost count around 20. Also, the boys would face each other and hold the backs of each other's necks while they were talking. They would also come up behind each other and hug or put their arms around each other's shoulders while they were talking. During one of the songs, everyone in our group put their arms around each other and swayed to the music. They also talk with their faces really close to each other. I just went along with it. I didn't want to stand out as the standoffish American in the group, Caroline had left earlier in the evening. Also, since we were all crammed together at tiny tables in both bars, people couldn't help but be sitting practically in each other's laps. Strange for me who gets irritated when family members horn in on my personal space at times. Maybe I will get over it from being here where none of my friends have a sense of what personal space is. I ended up giving Rocío a big smack on the cheek when we said goodbye and stroking her friend María's hair (I think it's contagious, I would never stroke the hair of a person I had just met in the states!). Look out American friends, I might come back as an overly touchy-feely girl with no sense of personal space who talks to you with our noses touching.

It was probably for the best that I didn't stay with Rocío when she asked me too since she didn't end up going home until 9 am. We were supposed to go to the Mosque with Yusef the next day, but since she hadn't paid her phone bill and slept in until 6 pm, we didn't end up going. She did swing by and I went to Café Fútbol with her and Yusef for a soda. Her dreamboat waiter with the blue eyes was there trying to flirt with her. As we left, he came out with a big plate of churros. I don't know if he had made them for us or was explaining with hand gestures why he couldn't hang out with her more. I bought her a Spanish to French phrase book as a going away present, but accidently got a French to Spanish version. She and Ysuef went to María's birthday party and I went and traded the book for the right one. I dropped it off at her house the next day after church and we said our final goodbye. It was sad. She kept hugging me and kissing me on the cheek. I told her that it wasn't goodbye, but rather see you later since we will be coming back to Granada in a few years. Whaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!! I hate goodbyes.