Our "last meal" just the three of us, C, MC and I, couldn't have been a better story. One night when I wasn't eating in, they got pizza from the new pizza place downstairs. Cristina has been raving about it. "I get the pizza simple!" She announced to me as soon as we decided we were going to eat out for our last dinner together (When we got to the place and she tried to order it, it wasn't even on the menu...she had just made that name up, but was so confused when she tried to ask for it and they asked her to describe what a 'pizza simple' is). But before this, MC and I had gotten dressed up (at least more so than our usual sweatpants/t-shirt/slippers get-up) because we were going out to meet everyone after at Alfalfa and Cristina took pictures of us with the rose garden background in our complex. She loved her photographic skills and considered the pictures to be a great work of art. We walked out of the apartment gate, took a left, walked about 15 steps, and turned left again into the pizza place. Which is more of just a counter where you order the pizzas to-go. We did, and they said it'd be 30 minutes, so we decided to take a walk while we waited. First stop, a Chino, obviamente, to get Mary Carr a Coke Zero, and then we started meandering down a street that Cristina led us toward.
We thought we were strolling, but we couldn't have been more wrong. All of a sudden she turns to face a gated lot with overgrown vines hanging over the entire length of the fence and begins to shout "Maria Carmen!?!?" We looked at each other like, "I'm sorry, is someone expecting us?" Sure enough, after a minute we hear locks being slid back and un-clicked, knobs being turned and bars being lifted and finally, the gate opened slightly to show the face of a very old, white-haired woman. And then her cats spilled out onto the street. Kittens. Everywhere. She immediately yelled for us to grab them, and while I'm not a cat person myself, MC absolutely wouldn't touch them, so I was left scooping out the cats oozing out onto the street. I awkwardly dumped them into Maria Carmen's arms, at which point she pushed the gate open all the way, motioned us inside her yard, shut the door and dropped all the kittens to the floor, where they all went sprawling across the lawn. Who was this woman? Why were we here? Should we know the answers to these questions already? It turns out, Maria Carmen is the mother of the boy who was the friend of Miguel Angel, or the mother of one of his novias, or maybe nothing like that, but anyway she is old and not Cristina's family, but Cristina loves and admires her.
First thing I notice (after the fact that she is a real live cat lady): She's got a house. A real house, not an apartment building. First one I've seen. Second: She doesn't speak directly to either of us, only asks Cristina questions about us, even though I know exactly what she's saying. And Cristina answers for us without looking to us to give her the reply we might want to be given. Again, why are we here?? Still, the old woman invited all 3 of us inside and I noticed the third major thing going on here: She is rich as all get out. Paintings on paintings on paintings, covering every inch of the wall, both staircases (because its not just a house, its a 3-story house), all surfaces of every table, and she's got bowls of jewelry in random places like on the living room coffee table. Diamond earrings. I don't doubt that they're real. All of a sudden, Maria Carmen starts to cry. Apparently her husband has just died (as in like past few days) and she's super triste. Obviously, we learned her whole life story after this. And even more obviously, its been way more than 30 minutes. Our pizzas are undoubtedly getting cold.
MC captured the "what the heck are we doing?" moment perfectly
Por fin, back at the pizza place
We made it back to the house by 10 to finally eat our lukewarm (but still delicious) barbecue pizzas. 6 euro. Great call Cris.
It wasn't our last night together, but Rach was coming the next day and I wouldn't have any more meals with the 3 of us. Right before MC left, though, when Rach was sleeping in at the hotel I biked back home to grab a few things and we snapped one final photo together.
Day #121
And it was the perfect last photo to take, because it resembled another one taken just a short time earlier...
Day #1
I lucked out big time with an awesome roommate, an awesome senora, and, I think most importantly of all, the combination of the three of us together. I don't know if I could have gotten through some of the more frustrating days without MC to mediate, and I know I've learned so much from both of them over these 4 months. The last month is no doubt different, living in a different room, living with new roommates, living without the old one, but there's something to be learned from everything. I've got the best memories, frozen in photo-form (and video) for the most part that can never be taken away. The last month is a little bit more of me-time, which I think I can take full advantage of. It's already brought me closer to my entire host family. I'm thinking aboutcha all the way back in Carolina, MC, since its not even 2 pm for you there and I'm sitting on my yoga mat, waiting for dinner all the way across the ocean. I wish you were going to be sitting down beside me at dinner to laugh at whatever our plate might consist of tonight, and then to cover up our laughs with me, changing the subject muy rapido to something Cristina can go off on a tangent about for the entire dinner conversation. But I can't wait to see ya back in Chapel Hill where we can re-watch all our hilarious videos, and think back on times like this last day with all the cats and gold paintings...so random. And it so describes our entire semester. Wouldn't have wanted to close it out any other way!
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