Ronda

We spent a fabulous day in Ronda. The drive alone was beautiful. When we got to Ronda we met up with Inma, Jose, Maria, Lucia and Marta in Ronda. They had met up with some friends from Jose's high school days. We took a walk around Ronda and ate at a great restaurant that was a favorite of their family. It was delicious! My favorite thing was the goat cheese wrapped in fillo dough with molasses sauce and roasted sweet potato pieces. But all the food was awesome. The company was great too. Inma and Jose's friends were great conversationalists. Afterwards we took another long walk around Ronda. It is a gorgeous city. The next time we go on study abroad, we would like to take the students there. I loved it. There were some tears when Emma had to leave Lucia and Marta. It was pretty heartbreaking. The kids all fell asleep on the way home. It was so nice to end our stay in Spain with a such a great day.

The Rain in Spain Falls Mainly in Fuenjirola

My mom got us a timeshare at Costa del Sol resort in Fuejirola for the week of Christmas. Unfortunately it rained for 8 days straight. And when it wasn't raining it was super windy. We were trapped in our hotel room (nice, but small and poorly sealed so there were pools of water on the floor everyday). We ended up playing a lot of card games. We did get a chance to swim a few times during the week and luckily there was a kids club every day. We watched more TV in the time we spent in Fuejirola than we probably did the entire six months we were in Spain. Christmas itself was fun. The kids opened their presents, I made a couple roast chickens with potatoes and carrots, gravy, and roast cauliflower. We drank mosto and Collin made a cake and we also had tons of turron.

Collin and I did go out on a date to the resort restaurant and

Our only outings were to the mall and grocery store. It was raining so hard that Collin didn't feel comfortable driving in the rain and I didn't blame him. Collin bought a Christmas lottery ticket and faithfully watched TV to see if he won. He didn't, of course.

If only we had had decent weather, our vacation would have been a blast. The day my mom left was sunny and beautiful. After Collin dropped her off at the train station we went to a flea market and bought some scarves. The kids also played at a cool playground shaped like one of Christopher Columbus' ships. Then we went on to Ronda.