Pokemon and Tellitubbies ...

Instead of going to Cadiz dressed as "ice" and the mask and sparkles which that costume entails, I spent the weekend in bed with the stomach flu. For someone who never gets sick, and has never had the stomach flu before, this was miserable and I have decided to black out this weekend from my memory, so sorry, not exciting post detailing the play by plays of my near death experience :)

However, I did learn a lot. I learned that when you're on the verge of passing out from dehydration, Spanish skills are the first thing to go. After waking up from a dream in which my moo was bringing me a big glass of gatoriade, and realizing I was in Spain with access to only water and boxed milk, that I am going to learn a lot more about taking care of myself over here. And, I learned that if I ever fail in this department, I have Joya here to act as my quasi-mom (she brought us 7Up, chips, and chocolate while we were on the rebound back to health ... and the next day came down with the flu! Ugh.).

Trini's daughter just had this, so I'm assuming we got it through Diego somehow, but now that I have actually had the stomach flu, I now know throwing up is not going to kill me, even though my brain would like me to believe otherwise.

Judging by the stories I've accumulated so far from Carnaval, it was a mess. A lot of people had fun, a lot of people regret going. Most kids passed out around three am (the idea is to be awake and in the streets all night until 7am when the bus comes back to pick you up) on a beach, throwing up from too much alchohol, and freezing their butts off. While I know how to pace myself and most likely would not have been in that situation, I still would have delt with the gross aftermath on the five hour busride home ... so all in all I guess I didn't miss out on too much.

Sunday I ventured out of the den of disease that our room here converted into for the weekend to meet up with Joya catch some fresh air. Later we met up with Billy, got some gelato (mine was banana and fruiti tutti yogurt ... oh spain haha), and sat in a plaza to people watch. And oh, was it worth it. Everyone had their kids with them, so we watched some six year olds play better futbol than I'll ever be able to. A mom parade her kids by us: two little girls in matching bo-peep esque dresses, tan tights, and red shoes and a little boy in a white polo, bright red shorts and ... tan tights and tan shoes haha. We saw a woman dressed up like a Tellitubbi (the red one) trying to con little kids into asking their parents to buy them a balloon from her (she was terrifying, if I was younger I would have run the other way, I don't know why she though dressing like a giant tellitubbi would bolster her balloon sales ...). And during all this there was a bird, or machine that made bird noises because that's how surreal they sounded... Billy said he felt like we were in the Amazon or something, it sounded at sometimes like a crow, the like a macaw, and then like a hawk, then back again to the crow ... weirdest thing I've ever heard. And it was loud, the whole plaza echoed bird noises, and EVERYONE stopped to stare at some point which was hilarious to watch since we grew used to it.

After finishing our ice cream we headed out to Reyes de Catolicos (one of the main streets) to help Billy find the theatre of the play he was going to see for his theater class. On this street we saw a man with a sketchy mustache dressed like the Pokemon Pikachu ... honestly Sunday is THE day to go people watching. Pikachu was also offering a wide selection of colorful balloons for children to get their parents to buy, but failed with every attempt. I personally hate the sound balloons make so the fact that Pikachu was not supplying all the little hands with balloons to squeeze was perfectly fine with me. Later when I got home Amanda and I walked down the block to our local Paneria/Pasteleria and bought some fresh baked pastries filled with chocolate. So delicious. I'm going to be surprised if I don't leave here with some form of diabeties. But we'll see!

It's another gorgeous day here, I just spent over an hour with a big cup of coffee on a bench in my park reading some of my tarea. It's slowly becoming my "Lily-time" spot of preference. It's so nice to feel 100% again! I have my late class today so I need to do some homework now before hittin Gym Do It! so that's all for today.

Hasta Luegooo