Catching you up

Saddle up, boys and girls. This is a long one. You might have to read it in a couple of sittings.

So we spent Wednesday mostly in Córdoba touring. Let me tell you…it was sooooooooooooooooooooooooo hot! Even in the shade. I literally had sweat dripping down my back and face. But so did everybody else. We were all miserable, and it was such a long day. We visited a cathedral and other stuff that I don’t remember. The cities and what we did are all mixed up in my mind. Anyway, at night we went to a flamenco show in this tiny hole-in-the-wall place. It was awesome though. The dancers were amazing. It was a narrow room and the audience had to sit in chairs bordering the walls. I was seated right smack dab in front of the dance floor. There were so many times that I thought that I was going to get whipped in the face with one of the dancer’s hands. Because sometimes they have convulsions….well, not convulsions, but it’s kind of like Krump dancing sometimes. It’s really hard to describe. Forget the convulsion thing. I’ll put up some videos that I took of this happening.

After the show, we took a night tour of the area because it was famous for something, which I don’t remember. Anyway, the streets are pretty narrow and dark. We were walking past these two guys with dreads, smoking, and right after I walked past them (I was on the outside), one guy started following me….like right behind/beside me. My stinkin’ purse was on the outside arm, and I didn’t want to move it to the other arm because that would have been a wonderful opportunity for him to steal it. I held it really really tightly and he eventually walked away. I know for sure that he was going to try to steal it. That scared me, and he wasn’t being discrete at all, which made me wonder if he’s one of those guys who takes a knife and cuts off the strap of the purse and runs off with it…of course stabbing the person a little bit as well. I’m glad that didn’t happen.

So the next day we went to Toledo. We stopped at the place that has all of the old windmills that Don Quijote was based off of. It was pretty cool. Off in the distance you could see brand new windmills just like those in Pigeon. It felt like home…except hilly and very pretty (no offense home).

Today, we spent the day touring in Toledo…another cathedral and other places. At this point, everybody in the group just wants to be in Valladolid. We’re all sick of taking tours. Our tour guide is some kind of genius. He literally knows everything….every date, every famous person to ever live in the world, ever y historical fact about every place in the world, etc. He’s been with us this whole time. But the thing is…he never stops talking! When he says that a tour is going to take one hour, we know he means 2 because we stop at EVERYTHING. In one city we stopped at stores with postcards for sale outside to talk about the pictures on the postcards…4 times! He’ll say, “And now we’re on our way to the cathedral,” and 20 seconds later we stop and he talks about a window of a house that’s right there for 10 more minutes. Then we’ll be on our way again, and we stop to talk about a pebble on the ground for 5 more minutes. It’s ridiculous. Everybody was complaining today (only behind his back of course).

But we ended up back in Madrid this evening. Tomorrow we’ll be heading to Valladolid, but we’re stopping in Segovia to do more tours…ugh. I want to see the aqueducts and everything, but how about we just stay there for 15 mins., take pictures and go, eh?

Anyway, overall, I really have enjoyed seeing everything. I really do feel lucky to be here. It’s a beautiful country…especially outside of the cities. Take a look at the pictures I’ve uploaded on Facebook. My favorites are of the countryside. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2326372&id=21705746&l=44874849c5

Side story: For some reason I always end up seated at a table with our professor (and nobody else) for breakfast. It’s really annoying and awkward. It’s just that all of the other tables are filled…or I arrive early and he’s the only one there. He doesn’t talk very much, and neither do I when I’m around him. The end.