what better way to celebrate the finish of a long week than to take a trip to the pyrenees mountains. rushing home after school on friday, my host family and i set out for a weekend in seira, a small pueblo in the mountains. we packed up clothes, hiking gear and lots of food, and we were off. after a two and half hour drive we had arrived in a quiet town that was occupied by the same families lines that had first settled the pueblo. the night we arrived we spent a few hours searching for firewood to use for the barbecue i had been hearing about for the past week. we made a night out of cooking our dinner and finally sat down to eat at 10:30pm. the next day we woke up “early” at 10:00am and set off on our first hike, but not before taking a pitstop at another pueblo, el run. what was supposed to be a two hour and forty five minute hike took us nearly five hours. we picked mushrooms and apples, took lots of pictures, and stopped for a picnic. my host parents, who do not speak any english, were trying to learn sayings, which lead to lots of laughs and jokes. we got home in time for a quick siesta before we had to start preparing to barbecue again, a process that was slightly different than flipping a switch as we do in the u.s., but fun none the less. sunday we were up and out for another hike, this time slightly shorter. my host dad couldn’t stop telling us that we were late and had to hurry up. we barbecued one last time, they really enjoy using the barbecue if it wasn’t obvious, cleaned the house, and eventually ventured home. it was a really special and surreal weekend.