for the update: well most of thursday afternoon was spent napping and trying to recuperate from this week's late nights. i can totally see myself living here and fully appreciating the national emphasis on napping. definitely suits my style when people are literally insisting that i take a siesta after lunch. although it is a little difficult since i leave my bedroom window open all the time to get a little air circulation (there's no air conditioning in my apartment) and the neighbors windows are also open. there's a bunch of younger boys that live next door i think because i always hear them all shouting at each other in really fast spanish. for instance this morning i was awoken by a yelling match about somebody's room being dirty and the sounds from my own apartment of my madre's 4 grandsons (4 year old twins, a 3 year old and a 6 year old) loudly joking with madre's youngest daughter Christina who seems to be the favorite tia around here. She's 22 and really fun, always joking and singing; she's studying to be a veterinarian and has a shepherd mix named Lou. He can always be found begging at the dinner table and will stand up on your lap until you give him the rest of your watermelon rhine. He's really well trained but christina seems to be the only one who can make him do anything because when i say "BAJA! " when he jumps up on me when i get home in the afternoon, nothing.

anywho, thursday chris, buehler, and i went back to a little outdoor bar that we like in el centro (next to the movie theater and a lot of awesome shopping that i need to check out) called casa blanca and met up with the rest of the crew. After a slight incident with kara, me and some schweppes, we ended up following two local guys to the bolseria again because i had so much fun there, but i was reprimanded by tony because it was a long walk and he refused to pee outside on beautiful national landmarks because he's a stand-up guy. Once again danced the night away to the music that I just can't get enough of right now and met a group of italians here for a bachelor party. it's a huge thing apparently to go to valencia for bachelor/bachelorette parties. i've seen lots of group bachelor party t-shirts and groups of girls in devil horns or fireman hats or bunny ears to celebrate an upcoming marriage. Ended up hanging out with a cute Argentinean all night named Yago who is sailing around the world but sadly had to leave him to catch a cab home. Friday was hilarious to watch people struggling for dear life to keep their eyes open in class but we all made it through since the teachers (who are probably used to this trend by now) made the lessons extra fun and a little easier that day.

Spent the afternoon on the beach con mis amigos and after finding out that chris and buehler's apartment has roof access (and deciding we need to invest in some lawn chairs), headed to the feria de las naciones again, which has become the perfect meeting spot for all of us in the program. not to mention it's really fun with dancers on stage and music and delicious food from all over. friday night was a little hectic, heading to what we thought was the huge beach discoteca Las Animas, but actually ending up in it's smaller counterpart in the city but with the same name. we stayed there for a while until realizing that there was an overwhelming majority of 40 something single men; it wasn't until the next day that we all had that epiphany that it was most likely a gay bar, which helps to explain all the strange looks we were getting. We spent some time laughing our heads off on some park benches near "the other" Las Animas before calling it a night to rest up before our trip to Peñiscola the next morning.

Everyone was looking rather bright eyed Saturday morning as we met at the soccer stadium to catch the buses. It was about a one and a half hour trip to peñiscola, but it flew by seeing as everyone on the bus was knocked out until we were woken up by Geraldine

welcoming us rather loudly through the bus microphone. Peñiscola has a gorgeous beach, but the best part of the trip was walking up through the little vendor-filled streets on the way up to the castle. The castle was built by the Knights Templar in the 1300's, to later be altered by Pope Luna, but it gave us absolutely incredible views of the Mediterranean and the gorgeous outlying hills of peñiscola. This trip made me want to go to Greece all day because it reminded me of the postcard worthy pictures i have in my head of little white neighborhoods littering the side of a cliff above the gorgeous blue mediterranean.

We all thoroughly enjoyed spending some time at the top of the castle in the breeze and saw a bride and groom heading toward a perfect grassy area laden with palm trees to take pictures before their wedding that evening. Talk about a picturesque wedding location. We wandered back toward the bus through the winding cobblestone streets, stopping for some souvenirs and to people watch the wedding guests who all had the hottest heels i've ever seen, even the older women, straight out of vogue i swear.

The bus ride home was kind of funny because we all just seemed like elementary school kids tuckered out from a big field trip, we all had packed lunches from our madres and fell asleep on the bus ride home.

Saturday night was really fun, I went with chris and buehler to a little resteraunt on the beach and had some mejillones (muscles) and pan (which apparently they charge you for by the person so watch out for that) and a carra of sangria. After turning down several men selling roses, who are apparently allowed to wander through restaurants here in Spain, we went to a club on the beach called High Cube, which is basically an outdoor dock on the water framed

by neon green lights. There were lots of cushions to sit on and some bubble chairs suspended from the ceiling which are a great place to sit if you want to attract a lot of attention. We danced and chatted up a lot of locals who all seem to know a good bit of english, but we always worked out a deal that i would speak in spanish and they would speak in spanish to level the playing field a little. there was a live saxophonist there for a while who killed it and two dancers with fans and big red flowers in their hair to get everybody going. We decided to save the discoteca adventure for another night seeing as it's typically 20 euros to get in on weekends, but i've heard there are discounts during the week and college exams are ending this week here, so that should be pretty fun too. i'm signing up for the intercambio program with a student from the universidad de valencia tomorrow, and really hope i get a chance to go out with christina once she's done with exams so she can show me her favorite spots in valencia