Hi from León

And I've glued myself to a computer for the afternoon because I'm sick. After 4 weeks of no problems with any food or drink here, it finally caught up with me and my stomach is being just annoying enough to keep me from thoroughly enjoying this town.

Last night was Salamanca, which is an insanely cool town. It's a very college town, the people are young and fun, and the places to go have plenty of variety. I was shown around the town by Soph, who was a fantastic tour guide for dinner, ice cream, coffee, and one of the coolest clubs I've ever seen. I had a blast that day. Thanks, Soph!

Unfortunately, I think either breakfast or lunch in Salamanca did it for me, and by the time I got to León by bus I was in sick mode. Unfortunately, I spent the night in a hotel room watching a Jackie Chan movie in Spanish while the whole town celebrated outside, with tons of fireworks, fiestas everywhere, and the stories the next day definitely sounded interesting.

Regarding the previous post, I don't want to give the impression that I'm being an ugly American. I was given permission to start being more comfortable by my surrogate parents here through a series of small lectures - 'you say thanks too much,' that kind of thing. Carlos, my father, isn't anything like an evil guy, anyway. The relationship seems to be very give-and-take: he'll lecture me on something, or request something specific (usually about not making noise, I'm not a noisy person but the walls are all paper-thin), and because he's a very assertive guy by default it seems a little authoritarian to the average American dude. But then he'll turn around and do me a great favor, like help me arrange travel plans, make me food to take on trips, or drive me to school in the morning.

It is, very much, a 'live and learn' kind of situation. I'm still learning new things every day, my family is much more comfortable asking things of me, and when I get home tonight it'll be the first time that I request a specific food - a soup not unlike chicken noodle.

Santander, 2 weeks remain

spinning: Common - All Night Long

2 weeks until I leave, as of today. To look back and realize I've been here for 3 weeks is confusing - I can't decide whether it feels like a long or short 3 weeks. Either way, this weekend will be long and short all the same.

Tonight: Festival of San Juan on the beach. I'm off in a couple hours to eat Chinese with the UT crowd and then go see the festivities. Tonight is the longest night of the year [whoops - actually it's the shortest] and the Spanish celebrate it appropriately. There's a large bonfire that starts at 2AM, with plenty of parties leading up to it.

Tomorrow: wake up crazy exhausted at my usual 8am. Despite no class, I show up at UC at 9am to take a bus to Salamanca. Lots of history to see there, and it's the biggest college town in Spain. There I'll meet up with Soph and help her celebrate her being done with finals. Assuming I'm still conscious, it may be the best night of the whole trip.

Saturday: Leave Salamanca, probably early, and head to Leon to see some histor. Who knows what else is there. My family hasn't told me a word about Leon, which is alarming because they always give good descriptions of the places I visit.

Sunday: back to Santander, exhausted and not ready for crunch week in school.

Sounds like from here on out I don't even have the option of sleeping. Nothing but fun and work from here on out. After the first couple days I should be fine running on the adrenaline. Two weeks of insanity, here I come - but only after getting my requisite dose of Chinese food.

Santander, 3rd week

spinning: Dharma - Transway (BT's R&R mix)

Conditions are worsening here in paradise town. Not for me personally, but the weather's been mostly cloudy all week and now that I've written all my postcards and checked my email more often than usual, I'm bored.

Today there was a break in the clouds, so I walked down to the beach. I was hoping to find a volleyball or soccer game, and I joined a small group of friends for 4v4 volleyball. I enjoyed myself, but their speech was nearly incomprehensible. Just like how a foreigner wouldn't understand my speech, loaded with slang as it is. As such, my game of volleyball devolved mostly to non-verbal communication. Thankfully, beach volleyball is a fairly universal language. After about two hours without sunscreen, the clouds came back, the game finished, and I returned home alarmed by my lack of redness. I had nothing. No sun. Fortunately, or not so, depending on your POV, the sun isn't very intense here. You can easily spend an afternoon on the beach, sans-sunscreen, and come home unburned or untanned. I kinda like it, it makes the beach feel cool so you don't need to go in the sickeningly cold water, but I might disappoint a friend or two when I come home very not tan. It doesn't bother me - in Europe it's ok to avoid skin cancer!

Later that night

A quick note on music: seriously, virtually half of it, whether on the radio, in bars, or on TV is in English - and of that, most of it's American. The other half is predetermined pop music from here in Spain. Somebody, I don't know who (probably The Man), decides what the songs of the summer will be, and then you hear them everywhere. Roberto was the first to explain this concept to me, and I was amazed to find he was right. ClearChannel haters, I have bad news for you: it may not be as obvious here (commercials aren't coordinated), but media conglomerates exist here all the same.

But an hour ago, I saw Vanessa Carlton's video on the top 40 video channel. I fell twice as in love. She's *way* more beautiful (and my type) than I remember. And, being the only still-single woman on my Top 5 list, she advances to the top. I think I need to pursue a career as a famous musician.