Last night was our last dinner with the Spanish boys. We ate at Raschofer's Rossbräu, which is one of our favorite restaurants here. Just down the street from I.K., Caroline took all of the I.K. Americans there on our first night. I even took my parents there when they came to visit. It's one of our faves.
It was raining that night, so the four of us walked arm-in-arm down the street, as the restaurant is only one bus stop away. Roman and I shared an umbrella and Sergi and Caroline shared another. Once we got to the restaurant, Sergi and Roman acted just as childlike as ever -- playing with the salt and pepper shakers, having "moreno/morena" contests (to see who is the tannest -- a game I always win), shouting "Compadre!" at the waiter in attempt to get his attention, trying on hats from the restaurant's hat rack and posing for photos (obviously none of the hats belonging to them). Remind me again, how are they 24?
I ordered my signature Rossbräu meal: the gemüse spätzle. As soon as the waiter set it down in front of me, the boys exchanged a glance and then yelled at the waiter to bring them one too. Luckily, the waiter didn't hear, so I scraped my meal into thirds to share with them in attempt to repay them for the months of food Caroline and I stole (borrowed?) from their kitchen.
We didn't rush through dinner; we were all acutely aware that Caroline was leaving in less than 48 hours. We just enjoyed the food and each other's conversation and then when all was said and done, the four of us just sat there, like, "Do we have to go home now?" Sensing the bittersweetness of it all, Roman asked, "Mac-Donal?" (aka McDonald's) and we all jumped at the offer. I had to give a 10-minute presentation in German due the next day, and I had a 10-page paper due (also in German) as well. And I had 2 other papers due (in English, thankfully) along with 2 tests -- all the next day! So of course I should have declined the offer, but this was our last evening with the Spanish boys, all four of us together, and I wasn't ready for it to end just yet.
The boys paid for our dinner and then bought us McFlurry's at McDonald's (or rather, at Mac-Donal). We finished the evening there and, after about another hour of conversation, walked home again in the rain, arm-in-arm, under both umbrellas (and I did, in fact, finish my work that night).
But perhaps the most memorable detail of all was that Sergio wore his "storm" graphic tee, one of the 5 t-shirts he wears regularly. When we asked him once why his shirt said 'storm', he replied, "Because I am one Spanish storm."
And that's fitting, in and of itself, because this past semester has been one Spanish storm for us.
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