the spain game was awesome on monday, we had to pass up like 3 bars because they were so packed with people and there was nowhere to go but we ended up at a place called a lo loko, casi un bar haha which means almost a bar. strange. but it was so fun with all the rowdy university age kids yelling at the tv and freaking out when we (i'm gonna go there and call myself a spainard now) scored. we got some free tapas from the nice bartender since the only seats were bar stools at the back next to him, delicious. i'm going to miss tapas a lot. and paella. anywho, we tried to learn some of the songs and chants they were singing but the only one we picked up on was "maravilla villa, villa villa villa." he's somewhat of a hero around here. which reminds me, there's a commercial here for something that i can't remember but the guy in it goes "soy batman" and goes around the city telling everyone he's batman, which i find hilarious. i've also fallen in love with piqué on spain's team as a side note

tuesday was spent napping on the beach to celebrate the completion of my toros en españa project that went well, but i found out there's a sucio meaning for corridas (bullfights) so i gave a presentation that turns out was a little scandalous.

wednesday tony sam lauren kyle and i had our last shindig at casa blanca, and amad showed up (claro) and gave me the good kind of mixed nuts, which weren't even available that night. talk about vip

and then the usa game was last night, i met up with a bunch of people at portlands but they were playing the inglaterra game live, and the usa game was being streamed in online so it was very stoppy and frame by frame. this was excruciatingly painful to watch and we were about 18 minutes behind. i got an update that the score was 0-0 at 89 minutes so i called it quits and assumed we lost and were out. so two hours later when i found out we won in the 91st minute, whoooowhee!

last night was also la noche de san juan. i'm so glad it lived up to its rep. thousands and thousands of people gathered on the beach with bonfires and a huge concert. we got there to post up a spot around 7 after a mile long search for firewood. lauren and i were disappointed to see groups with legit setups when we got to the beach with our two parcels of wood and our towels. like one group of high school aged boys beside us had a shopping cart full of wood and herbs and stumps to sit on and everything. we met some really nice guys from madrid who kind of showed us the ropes and shared their cheetos, not to mention all the practice we got in for our oral exam today (that's what she said). no but really, it was really fun to speak in spanish for a couple hours and learn a bunch more slang words and find out which words we learn in class that are too formal for everyday life. we successfully got a fire going and hung out until the rest of our friends got there around 10 and chaos ensued for a bit. there was a big caricature sculpture (think fallas) of a guy smoking that they blew up around 11:30, and i mean exploded. at midnight it's tradition to jump over your fire and then go jump in the ocean and wait for seven waves to hit you so lauren and i led the pack of people into the ocean. it really looked like we were about to go to war or something, just a line of people waiting at the water's edge as far as i could see in both directions. it was just such a cool thing to be a part of, this huge tradition celebrating the summer solstice. and there were all ages and types of people there. abuelas with their herbs to burn and families with little kids and gothic teens and drunk middle aged women. too much fun. i ended up walking toward the stage at around 2 or 3 to hang out down there and dance and swim a little more. that's when my bookbag got stolen when a guy from the program decided not to watch it for me anymore. luckily there wasn't much in there because i knew there was a chance it'd get taken in such a crowd, just my old busted camera and my polaroid camera : ( and my keys. so i had to call katrina in the middle of the night yet again to let me in, bummer. she's the best such a sweetheart. but my madre wasn't upset since there was no identifying info in the bookbag with the keys so i'll just have to get copies made, not too bad. but my shorts were in the bag so i had to walk home in my swimsuit and a flannel, crying of course, but my friend ben was my knight in shining armor last night and rode home in a taxi with me and walked me to my door. so not too shabby in the end, certainly not enough to tarnish the good time. oh and i even aced my oral exam today, but i think everybody in the class did too, pelaez is such a terrific summer school teacher.