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2001-06-07 - 11:01 a.m. I cvanīt even remember the last time I wrote in this! I am going to try to run through all weīve been doing this week -- guess it will have to be the Cliff Notes version! This week has been fun, but very tiring. Monday the group went to a bullfight (Ļlos torosĻ). I didnīt like the whole thing too much -- ok at all. We got there and the beginning part was pretty. All these heavily decorated men on horses trotting around the stadium. But then the actual fight started. The actual thing was comprised of the fighting of 6 bulls, and we (a group of 5 of us) left after one bull, so after 20 minutes. We hated not to go, since it is such a large part of the culture, but I didnīt think I was going to like it. I donīt want to go into too much detail, but they just continued to torture the poor thing and it was like everyone in the stadium was cheering it on - and it made us feel sick. I was lucky enough to be behind a column and I missed the part where they actually finished the poor thing off, and then drug it off by horses. One girl in the group began to cry and we just had to leave. Afterwards, a bunch of us went to a cafe and sat and studied. It was relaxing and we felt much better from it all. The test was Tuesday, and was somewhat traumatic! It was comprised of a map, a set of identifications, and 2 essays. The map was all kinds of crazy because there was no outline of the provinces, just an open map with random circles (that could be either rivers, cities, or provinces). I mixed up two things and I knew them ... mixed them up just because there were no shapes. Whatever. I am interested to see how I did. Wednesday we went to Segovia-El Escorial. Segovia was so nice... I wish we had had more time. We saw the old aqueduct (I canīt spell it in English!) that used to be their water supply for about 200 years. We saw so many churches too. I got the prettiest ceramic bowls for dirt cheap too. El Escorial was beautiful too, but we were so rushed through it and didnīt get to see it all. That was somewhat disappointing. It was interesting though cause this courtyard area is used for a monostary, a university, and a library. It was funny cause we were learning about history and a student was playing rap music. The actual church was beautiful, and I think we might return. This weekend we are staying here. Weīd planned to go to Barcelona, but that kind of fell through. We are going to Portugal next weekend and are trying to figure out a way to get to a beach another weekend too. More later!
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