alright had to make a new entry, too much has happened since my blogging got a little relaxed before my granda trip. so here goes, part two of my little hiatus:

i slept most of tuesday recovering from my very uncomfortable train ride home, until the soccer game that night. we played portugal and i watched it at an outdoor bar with a new friend named jaime since i couldn't get in touch with my friends to find them. everyone was in a great mood after the win so we went out with some new friends from the program to, where else?, la bolseria. after some fun dancing and classic bargaining with the moroccan salesmen outside in the plaza, we all found our way home and to class the next morning. i'm in texts and interpretations and spanish culture and civilization. they're both a little intimidating as higher level classes with a lot more work than my first session classes (we're talking several papers each week), but i think i'm really going to enjoy them. no better place to learn about spanish culture than in spain, and the class covers history, night life, food, family, geography, language.. everything. and we get to take two fieldtrips! to the cathedral and mercado central. texts is really fun actually because i've been wanting to buy a book in spanish to get some extra practice in anyway, so this is perfect. we read a short story, poem, or play every night and discuss it in class the next day. i haven't taken a literature/english class since high school so it was actually nice to do some literary analysis, ok call me dorky.

headed off to the beach that afternoon with some new girl friends from the program after classes and pulled the cool card, knowing where to go and which buses to take. the next night we met up at plaza de la virgen and ended up meeting pretty much everyone from the program at fennigans and rambling around carmen for the night. that was cool, this session is far more open to everyone hanging out together, which i like. we ended up talking to some british guys until way too late in the morning and my alarm clock sadly failed the next morning, so i woke up and freaked out, already 10 minutes for class. my panicked mind misread the bus number so i ended up across town and had to take a taxi to school, luckily i got there with enough time left to only be counted late, not absent, so i've still got my freebee absence if i need it to travel one weekend. i've currently gotten into a gym mode again, which is nice, and the guys that work at the gym are starting to learn my name and joking around with me. hey, i'll take any opportunity to speak spanish.

friday night was awesome, chris took me with him to meet his intercambio diego and some of his friends, who are all students at the universidad de valencia. we hung out in a little park near the school district, which is apparently an extremely popular hangout because come 1 am, it was packed with spanish kids my age and there was an amazing late night pizza place that we stopped at once.. or twice. (note how much miguel on the far left looks like aaron varnell). we made our way around valencia all night laughing hysterically at our language errors and got back late so that i spent all of saturday sleeping and trying to recover from my throat/ear ache.

saturday night was absolutely absurd, since spain won yet again in the

mundial. we watched the game by the stadium, where there was an outdoor tv and streets blocked off for standing viewers. there were people EVERYWHERE. and i mean, in the streets, in trees, and even on top of the plaza statue. it was an insanely good time with tons of singing and chants of "yo soy español, español, español" which we changed to "no soy español" discreetly. we learned some of the other songs too and sung them all night through the streets to see how many honks we could get waving our spain flags. the game was intense with a goal taken back from each team and then finally an official goal from who else but villa maravilla. that night was also our welcome to valencia party in corona 15 so after a brief dinner stop in plaza de la reina and some directional difficulties, we started out the night with some dancing and american music and made our way to las animas later. it was awesome, this open air disco on the top of a building with tons of stages and bars and couches and whatever you could want, with a great view of the ocean. all was great until i realized that my iphone had been stolen out of my purse, along with my spain flag. i really must have the worst luck in spain to get robbed three times in a month. maybe i just scream tourist when you look at me or something. i don't know but i'm going to be so stealthy with my possessions from now on, look out pickpockets. so some new friends helped out a ton and got me home and calmed me down until i could talk to my parents about a plan of action for the phone, but nonetheless it was still a fun night and at least it's just stuff. still got my health and my memories, and now an excuse to maybe upgrade when i get home...?

one of my only regrets about being in spain all summer though is missing the fourth of july yesterday, i spent it catching up on some leftover work and leftover sleep but i hope all of you had a great ol american time. oh and i do regret that i won't be joining the rest of my team/friends in boone tomorrow for summer school, don't forget about me guys : (