I’ve opened my home to all who wish to visit and people have actually said yes! Last month my Russians came to visit – that would be Evginey and his friends from Binghamton University. We were suitemates back in ’96. Well, they were studying in England for the semester and Spring Break brought them south to sunny Spain. I had a blast. I dragged them around to a few tourist traps and then showed them what the city was like behind the scenes (like only a local could show). I think they were really impressed with the tapas at this Basque bar I brought them to. In case you don’t know, tapas are kinda like hors d’oeuvres but they’re Spanish. In most bars in the south of Spain, if you buy a drink you get a tapa for free! You can actually have dinner without buying anything apart from a few beers! Some of the best places to hang out during the evening are the tapas bars. Oh, they’re so good. Anyway, after a few days of fun in the sun (and Evginey getting a really bad sunburn) they shipped off to France and I prepared for my next visitor: Shawn. I met Shawn on the plane to Madrid when I first arrived in Spain about eight months ago. We hung out for two days and then headed to different cities in Spain but we’ve managed to keep in touch and he stops by every time he travels through Barcelona. He was just wrapping up his seven month tour of Europe and decided to make one more stop at Chez Zamrycki. He’s a very cool guy with some life philosophies that I admire and he can kick my butt in chess (gotta admire that). I dragged him to a party at a friend’s house and marveled at his overuse of the Spanish equivalent for the word “dude” after he drank entirely too much wine. We spent the rest of the time playing Go on my new homemade board (he kicked my butt in that one too), playing volleyball on the beach, and playing You Don’t Know Jack on a borrowed computer (I demolished him in the latter two). All in all, a good time. I already have two more friends queued up to visit in the next couple months – Jennifer in June and Meg in July. When are you coming?