Well today was a day of many farewells and an emotional day for some, especially my mom. She is/more emotional than anyone else today which was quite funny. After our short jont in El Rastro this morning we headed out to the Vegas house, my other family.

My family(immediate) and I took the bus there because I had some left over bus passes. Now normally on my trip to Santo Domingo I almost always fall asleep, this time not the case, however some on my family members were nodding off or sleeping.

We arrived to the Vegas and greeted the dogs first. I didnt hear anyone outside, when I entered the house still didnt hear anything. I said hello and Miguel answered, my entire family was greeted with hugs from him.

He then went to find the rest of his family to tell them of my arrival. It was great to get a hug and to see all of them again. It has only been a week and it feels like something much longer.

After all the introductions were out of the way I went right to work. I was in charge of making the paella for this meal. I got to work preparing some things with Miguel while everyone else chatted. Oscar came in and started helping me along, his commment was "If this process goes any slower we wont eat until tomorrow." Im guessing that he was hungry but this was actually great. He ended up helping me out with the paella quite a bit.

The cooking actually went quite well, I received some great tips from Oscar(who makes some of the best paella) and well I cooked. Throughout the process the kids were popping in and out; checking on my progress and tasting the food, making sure that it was up to par with their fathers.

Dinner started with some of Oscar's home made gazpacho, which was excellent. Then we had a nice lunch. Although Oscar helped me a bunch, it didnt turn out as good as his, it was still great, just not the same as his.

We talked about various thing over the meal, from politics, to Oscars work, economy, mischief that finds me, activities with the kids, etc. We finished and moved onto dessert. As soon as that was all finished the playing began. A squirt gun found its way out, we played basketball, soccer, had piggy back races, and other activities.

Eventually we had to start winding down which was very sad. I gave the family/kids their last presents, mostly candy and some corpus cristi cookies. The kids then had to go, tenis and swimming after. So I said my last goodbye's to them and Irene. Oscar was very kind and gave us a ride to Madrid.

He was heading to the airport because he had to leave for Paris around seven. As I took my last looks around, gathered my things,(almost left without my main backpack) we headed towards Madrid. It's hard to believe that I have spent three months with this family. I was very lucky in coming across them. They are great and this was such a great experience.

It was a bit sad leaving the neighborhood, knowing that this is the last time that I will see most of it again. Oscar dropped us off at the metro and we said our last goodbye's. Like I mentioned before was my mom gets to emotional and almost started crying. Some brighter news is that Oscar would love to come visit in Montana, so we will be in touch and hopefully one day soon I will see them again

Well this trip is coming together great. My family has came to visit, I havnt seen them in almost 4 months. I got one of the best hugs from my brother when he came running out of the airport terminal on Saturday.

However I was thinking about leaving the exit, they took about an hour to get their luggage and find their way out. After about a half hour I was thinking: "Man, did they exit from another terminal and are wondering around lost in the airport?" Luckily I stuck it out for a bit longer and they made it out.

We have been quite busy walking around the city and trying to fit in as much as we can. We have already hit some of my favorite things: ice cream, churros, pastry's, Plaza Mayor and part of the Retiro.

I feel a bit bad because it seems as though some of my bad luck has been rubbing off on my family since they got here. First, we can never get a waiter/server to take our order, after about twenty minutes or so I have to ask(which I hate but they always stand their and wait for new customers. I guess I will just have to start yelling obscene things.). When I tried to take my brother to the zoo, it was closed for cleaning the park/pens.

But the most frustrating thing is that we were trying to buy tickets for Sevilla. When we tried to buy them online it failed, when we tried to buy them at the station, after waiting for about forty minutes for our turn, it failed. So we spent about an hour(most of it spent on hold) with the credit card company trying to figure this out. We were told to wait an hour and everything should be fixed. Before you know it an hour rolls by and we are anxious to purchase the tickets(we dont have hostel reservations in Madrid, only in Sevilla). Well sure enough it doesnt work.

After another strenuous process on the phone we concluded that the internet just wants to play games with us. So my dad and I return to the station, pick are number and wait. Finally when all is said and done we now have tickets!

This is kinda going backwards a day but o well. On Monday, I left my family to fend for themselves in Madrid. I had one day left with the kids. I didn't have to pick Sofia up because she was at her end of the year field trip to Valencia.

As soon as Gonzalo went off to tennis lessons, Miguel and I started some summer redecorating. We cleaned my old room and moved in the pool table, new computer desk and tried to fit the foosball table in their but their just wasn't enough room.

We just hung out and had a good time for the remainder of the evening. Miguel gifted me some of his shirts, one of them being my favorite shirt. Filled it with sports and FIFA.

Dear Landlord was playing in Madrid that same night, but I chose to stay with the kids and have one last dinner with them. After dinner I said my good byes and expressed my gratitude and returned to my other family.
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Well we are here in Sevilla right now in the south of Spain with my family. We took a the AVE Highspeed train down here; it was sweet, this was the first time that they had been on a train.

Being only my second time traveling by train, I still haven't found any flaws in taking a train, its just a great/relaxing time