Birthday, Sister & Lots of Sun

I have been so busy the last 2 weeks-and super hot....the weather has been absolutely beautiful the last 2 weeks. On the 18th I turned 24!! I had a really fun birthday weekend. We went out Friday night...well technically Saturday (the 18th) morning, so around 2 am Belen sang happy birthday to me when we were in the car driving to Noja...that was fun. She tried to sing in English but only knew the words happy birthday so she switched to Spanish, it was great!! On Saturday night/Sunday morning, we went back to Noja for more dancing. Sharon came for a week visit (the 21st-29th) and what a week it was. We were constantly busy, and I think I got maybe 30 hours of sleep total for that week. We were going to travel but decided to just stay in the Somo area. Sharon got to meet all my friends and see my life here. There were lots of parties going on here during the week. It's the beginning of summer so Belen had a BBQ at her house. It was so fun. Sharon and I helped make empanadas and the salads, while the guys BBQed a rack of lamb and sausages...so yummy!! Sharon got to try her first Callimocho and loved it....I mean who wouldn’t-cheap red wine and coke....liquid goodness, haha.
A skate park recently opened in Somo so we went there a few nights to hang out and skate....well I shot pictures while Sharon and the guys skated. It was really fun though. The 25th we went to Noja which is always super fun. We all had a great time dancing and partying Spanish style. The 26th we Sharon and I had a great day at the beach...it was a beautiful sunny day so we went into Somo and hung out at the beach for a few hours before meeting up with Belen & Marcello.
Monday, the 27th, was SO hot!!! Sharon and I went in to Santander for 6 hours (in between my work) and had a blast. We walked around for a while just seeing and photographing the city, then we met up with a friend of Sharon’s. Sharon met Nick on her plane from England to Spain....he's a NorCal guy who graduated from UCSB...small world. He's been a teacher assistant in Santander for almost a year so we met up with him and 2 of his friends. They were at the beach jumping of a building....it was a decrepit building on a small cliff. Since Sharon and I didn’t know we were going to be doing this we were not prepared with bathing suits. But Sharon still jumped!! I really wanted to but the shorts I had on bleed whenever they get wet and I didn’t want to walk around Santander with blue legs, so I just shot some photos on the beach and Sharon jumping. After jumping we stopped at a Tapas bar then headed back to the boat to Somo.
Well now it is officially summer in Somo!!! It is so fun; there are actually people here, haha. Normally when Belen and I go to our bar in town, La Mar Salada, there are about 4 people, but now it is packed all the time. It never made sense to me before, the people to bar ratio here. Somo is about 3 x 4 blocks....and there are 6 bars in town, and they are normally always dead. But this past week they have been crazy busy. Everyone comes into Somo for surfing so the town is filled. I've never actually hung out in Somo on the weekends; we normally go to Noja or another town nearby. But this past Friday I got to really experience the weekend night scene in Somo, it was really fun :) Last night (Saturday) Belen, Victor and I went to Villaverde in Pontomes to a street party. They had a stage, DJ and some fair-like game booths.
Friday I had my first real beach day in Spain. I went the kids and Marije to the beach in Loredo. Surprisingly the kids don't really know how to swim so I hung out with them in the water while we played and I worked with them a little bit on swimming. Carla was actually pretty good. Abraham got the doggy paddle down so that was good. It was a fun few hours.

If you want to see pictures, just click on one of the photo album links in the top right of the blog page.