Christmas 2009 - Our Spanish/Moroccan Adventure

Due to horrible flight connections, fares and Kelly's short Christmas break, we decided to stay on this side of the Atlantic for Christmas 2009

Our friend Anuca lent us her family's condo on the beach in southern Spain in the small town of Mazarron. This was our view from the balcony.

Sunrise on our first morning of our holiday.

Our first day happened to be the day of their big Sunday market. Lots to see. This would be the busiest we'd see Mazarron. As it's more of a summer destination, there were very few people around and many of the shops and restaurants were closed.

Kelly shopping for boats at the marina.

We decided to get out of town and check out some of the secluded beaches and try to get in a hike. If rental car companies saw how we treated their cars we'd be blacklisted.

Hiking up to an old pueblo overlooking the Mediterranean.

This would be the last time we saw the sun in Spain.

Off to Granada!

Out of our 7 days in Spain it rained 5 and a half. This really crushed our hopes of skiing if there was snow or hiking if it was dry. We really could do neither.

So we ate tapas.

And went to the baths.

We went to the Alhambra. (The last Moorish stronghold on the Iberian peninsula, a UNESCO world heritage site)

From the Alhambra you could look across to the Albaycyn. Our restaurant for Christmas Eve was right in front of the church at the top of the picture. GREAT views during dinner. (Special thanks to my friends (and sort-of students) Guillermo (from Granada) and Salvador who arranged and booked our dinners and provided us with customized maps of the city of Granada)

Begging the rain to stop!

The view of the Alhambra from our Christmas Eve restaurant.

Christmas morning we woke up and exchanged stockings and gifts. We quickly ate breakfast after hearing that the ski hill had just reopened after 5 days of closure. (Due to high winds and rain)

There was very little snow at the base of the resort but we decided to go for a ski anyway. There was only 1 lift running but they were doing safety checks with hopes to open another one.

They opened the other lift for about an hour before having to shut down the whole resort because of more high winds. We got about 6 runs in. Total. Burn.
What do you do on Christmas Day when the ski hill shuts down?

You go for shots in the local ski shop.

Even though we only skied for an afternoon it was still nice to get out of the city and up to the mountains.

Because of the rain, our visit to Granada mainly consisted of walking, shopping, and eating tapas.

Mmmmm. Sizzling tapas and beer....

Mmmm. Olives and wine...

Really nice Christmas markets.

Our Christmas Dinner starters. Lettuce hearts with walnuts and calamari.

The city was really beautiful with all the Christmas lights set up!

More Awards
Remember the awards that Kelly won a couple years ago? Well she won them again. She won the Henry Hutchinson Scholarship awards for Medical Microbiology and Public Health.

The awards were in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham.

For the awards, 3 of the top students from each university in Ireland (in a range of faculties) are required to write extra exams in each subject. The awards are given based on the results of these exams. She had to study for these exams on top of her "normal" coursework so needless to say she's been working ridiculously hard!!

Sushi Party!
In December we had 3 of my long-term students over for dinner. I had been teaching them for the past 3 months, as they were preparing to write an important English exam.

Yukari, Magda, Kelly (not writing the English exam) preparing the sushi. Magda had make Polish pastry rolls filled with cabbage and spinach that were delicious.

and Cristina!

Cristina making German Christmas cookies. We had to lend her a t-shirt as she was getting covered in flour.

A real feast! (I ate sushi for about 6 straight meals)

Such a great evening, nice to get together outside of the classroom before everyone departed back to their respective homes.

This fall we were pretty close to Galway as we were both extremely busy; Kelly with school and me with my Masters and work.

But Kelly did find time to train for her first triathlon up on Achill Island.

And we had a big group of friends over for Canadian Thanksgiving.
Gearoid was in charge of dessert. He did well. As did Aidan with his Poundcake (pound of sugar, pound of butter, pound of chocolate)

We were also lucky to have Lyndsay visit us!

And I ran the Dublin Marathon.

I didn't win. Everyone got a medal. Just like elementary school.