Updated plans for August 13th-15th

Ok. Good morning. I know where we are now; we are in Mostoles. But in a few hours we are driving to Tornavacas, the small town where the wedding is being held. It is about 3 1/2 hours east of where we are now, and halfway between Madrid and Portugal. There is a ton of family here from Poland, and some from the US... most of them are renting a bus to take them to Tornavacas, but since Tom´s mom and dad rented a minivan, we might drive in that. Tom and I can choose which vehicle we take. I´m opting for the minivan, because then I can listen to some English music in peace, without appearing antisocial. Mind you, last night I was pretty social... with warm vodka. But his uncle and aunts and other relatives were impressed at how "easily" I can down a shooter. It´s all in keeping a straight face, and not inhaling until after you´ve swallowed some of a chaser drink. Now you know the secret. ;)

Back to today, once we get to Tornavacas, we are going out for a big dinner and getting checked into the hotel that the groom`s parents own. Then theoretically we are going to sleep. We don´t yet know how many people will be sleeping in a room, so it could be pretty cozy.

Last night was so hot that Tom and I didn´t fall asleep until well after 4 a.m., then we were awakened this morning at 11 by Tom´s mom coming into the room and telling us to come and eat breakfast because it´wasn´t going to wait around for us. I hope the rooms will be a little cooler where we are going now.

Tomorrow morning we are having a big breakfast, and then we are changing into our wedding clothes and going to the wedding mass at noon. After that, we will change into less formal and cooler clothes and go to the reception until about 7 p.m. then we are going out on the town, which has it´s fiesta for it´s patron saint, to "party with the locals" as Tom puts it. Sometime later we will have dinner and then theoretically everyone will go to sleep.

It´s going to be interesting with all the food because the bride is Polish and the groom is Spanish; but we are going to the groom´s hometown so the food will probably mostly be Spanish--just when I´ve been getting used to and have come to really enjoy Polish food. Darn.

On Monday we are driving out to Lisbon and Fatima, both in Portugal and then back to Madrid. We´ll have to find out which roads might be closed because of forest fires, and then there is the chance that I won´t be allowed into Portugal. If I´m with tom´s parents and the vouch for me though, I don´t think it will be a problem.

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Yesterday it was really fun to hang out with a bunch of Tom´s cousins who were all around our age. A few of them spoke some English and Tom has been doing a great job of translating for me, plus Magda (the young girl in some of those pics with me) would speak to me determinedly in Polish and we´d either figure out what each other was saying, or turn to Tom for help.

I couldn´t believe how many times we stopped for a beer, though. 3 or 4 times... and some of the glasses were huge. I don´t know how they found it refreshing; I kept asking for water, and only had a beer at the 2nd to last beer stop because Tom ordered one too many. I drank half of it and he finished it off.

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I think the one thing I´ve seen that has left the biggest impression on me was seeing the way Tom and his grandmother greeted each other. His grandmother is tiny, but so full of life, dimples, twinkly blue eyes, bright smile. She chattered away in Polish, alternately hugging him, kissing him and patting his cheeks. Then when it seemed she was done, she would hug him hard again, and tell him she loved him; she was laughing but almost crying, and seeing the exchange between them brought tears to my eyes, even though I could only understand a few words.

A close runner-up to that was seeing Tom´s mom pray in St. Paul´s cathedral--it gave me chills. As I mentioned in the caption under one of the pics of the cathedral, it must have been so incredible believing in something so strongly and then being inside one of the greatest tributes to that belief.

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I really don´t feel like Í´m in Spain yet. I mean, yes, everyone drives crazy and no one speaks English, and there are no houses to be seen... but still. It doesn´t feel like I´m that far away.

And speaking of crazy driving, we got a ride with Marik (Magda´s dad) to the train station yesterday, and he was going 160km on the highway when the speed ¨limit¨was 70. Hé´d ride people´s asses till they moved over then he´d floor it again. Yikes... I think I popped all of Tom´s fingers I was squeezing his hand so hard. I was holding on to the door handhold so hard that part of it came off in my hand. Oops!