so i finalized the rest of my trip for those who care. . .i doubt any do but i'll write it down anyway for the sake of procastination from studying for finals. oh yeah, finals, those are thursday, and im going to san sebastian on friday. im spending all day friday and saturday there and going to pamplona from there at like 2am saturday night/sunday morning, depending on how you look at it. im gonna celebrate san fermin there and watch the running of the bulls, key word watch. my stupid american ass was thinking of running until i talked to pol (my señora's son, who is a bullfighting and bullrunning fanatic and runs like 12 times a year all over). he described the whole situation to me, and i couldnt get a clear picture of what it would be like until he described it. then i had a vivid image in my head, thousands of people, all crowded, cant see, cant breathe, some cant run fast. .. he told me you cant see the bulls most fo the time, you just run so in case there is one behind you, you wont get speared. his stories were crazy and the videos he showed me were enough to convince me to sit this one out and take pictures. .. maybe next time though. by the way, anyone who questions the manhood of someone who doesn't want to run should talk to this guy and watch these tapes. . .then we'll talk. anyway, im leaving pamplona on sunday at 5, comin back to madrid and stayin til tuesday, july 9. then im going to rome for 3 full days. friday morning im going to london but i switch planes in brussels. i decided to spend friday in brussels since ill be there anyway and im flyin to london friday late afternoon. then london til the 15th til i come back here and leave for home the next day. it's kinda interesting, the way my trip works out, im going ot pamplona with a bunch of people from the program, rome with a few new friends from here, brussels by myself, and in london i'm meeting chad, keya, and tyra (friends from u of m). i feel like i get a new travel experience in each city, so that should be nice. . .ok ill stop boring you. . .

so last weekend was my last weekend in madrid, and i wasn't even here for the entire weekend. it was both sad and scary at the same time. trying to take advantage of all the stuff i've missed thus far in madrid, it was a pretty hectic weekend. i saw a flamenco show and tried some new bars friday, the show was pretty good, but it was more contemporary flamenco and the dancers didn't even use castonetas one time, i was kinda pissed about that, but i'll get over it. saturday i went to segovia with what was suppossed to be the entire program. it was funny, only about 15 people showed up out of about 45, but it was definitely a worthwhile trip. there really wasnt much to see there except the aquaducts, which were pretty incredible considering they're 2000 years old and still look great and still work. damn those romans and they're good engineering. . .there were a couple old churches but nothing else really, except for the castle. it was on the opposite side of the city as the aquaducts, and as we started our trip with those, we ended with the castle. the castle was pretty unique, it wasn't typically spanish at all, as it had a lot of influence from northern europe. all this is basically nonsense to anyone who doesn't care so i'll save the trouble and just get to the interesting fact about it: this castle, along with one other one in germany, was walt disney's inspiration for the castle at the magic kingdom in disneyland. not something you hear everyday, so i definitely enjoyed that, haha. actually, when i first saw it, the first thing that came to mind was "wow, that looks like disneyland!" i felt like a stupid ignorant american when i thought that, but at least now i know my instincts at least had some truthful base. the bus ride back from segovia (hour and a half to madrid) was probably the most fun part of the day, and i can't decide if thats a good thing or not.. . basically i spent the entire time driving everyone crazy with those mind games (she had a baby. .. she had she had she had she had she had. . .. thanks to pz on that one, and the game of snaps, which i will explain if you really want me to). we tried to get a game of mafia going, but it wasn't happening given the lack of a sense of adventure among all the girls on the bus (i single out the girls cause there were only 3 guys and we wanted to play. . . ) that night was actually really fun. we chilled in sol (basically the social center of the city) for awhile, went to a few bars, then went to that huge expensive discoteque i mentioned in another blog called kapital. it was expensive, 15 € with one drink, but actually i had a lot of fun, music was actually decent, hip hop room was a little old and played out, but not as bad as others. i guess you cant expect too much in another country right? overall. . .a very successful last weekend in madrid. . .wow that sounds so weird