“You know Spanish is taking over when you spell wonderland as o-n-e-d-r-l-a-n-d,” Emily.

Valentine’s weekend I met up with my friends from college, Emily and Richard, in northern Spain…

Just to catch ya’ll up: Emily and I met at UMD and during Christmas break we went to Tunis. Last year she graduated from UMD and since October has been teaching English in the Spanish city, Arnedo; which is in Spain’s famous vineyard region, La Rioja. The best description of this region would be the southwestern part of the United States: red rock, hot springs, mountainous land, and clear starry nights. Anyways, last weekend was my first opportunity to check out her stomping ground. Well actually, Emily and I made a pact over Christmas break to celebrate Valentine’s weekend together: a romantic getaway to celebrate our single-hood (wink wink). Richard (our Australian friend that and has been dating (on and off) a friend from Duluth) decided to join our celebration.

and it was wonderful! We rented a car and road-tripped to San Sebastian, Pamplona, and southern France. The three of us explored the cities, cooked feasts, took all kinds of crazy pictures, watched the stars in the hot springs…but most of importantly we had the best conversations (about love, life-abroad, and God)… solid fellowship was exactly what I needed…