La enfermedad

Well after only 2 days in the country, I ended up with a sore throat and a bit of a fever. Part of the problem is that it gets so hot here during the day that the bedrooms don't really cool down that much at night. Anyway so on Thursday night, I had taken some cold/ flu medicine and planned on going to bed early. Except I couldn't stop sweating and I don't think I have ever felt so hot in my whole entire life. Trying not to be the whining, annoying American, I was all prepared to tough it out. Until I started thinking about swine flu. In my feverish state I was convinced I had swine flu and had a high fever and would therefore die and/or suffer brain damage. Suffice it to say, I was a little delirious. So I finally asked my host mom to take my temperature and told her what I was afraid of. She just laughed and offered me some water and yogurt or food when it turned out I had a temp of 37 degrees celsius. So basically, I was going to pull through.

Anyway, the rest of the week passed without any problems other than the heat and my seemingly super effective cooling system (I sweat a lot here). Friday night we went out for some early tapas and sangria before going to bed since we had an early day in Ronda planned for Saturday. Ronda is an amazing city perched over a precipice, with an old bullfighting ring, whitewashed houses, and amazing gardens. The most interesting part was learning about bullfighting which most Spaniards are actually rather conflicted about. I mean, it really is an art form but at the same time brutal. We learned that the bulls used live in complete freedom for 5 years and are well taken care of. And if a matador thinks that they are of good quality, he can actually stop the fight and petition to save the bull for breeding purposes. The reason why the bull is killed is because they are so smart, that if they were around longer than 20 minutes, they would figure out the matador's movements and could kill them instead. Still though, it will be interesting once we actually get to see a real bullfight in Sevilla. I'm not sure how I'll feel about it.

All of this we learned on our long tour, and we had plenty of time to appreciate all the beauty of Ronda. Seriously, I could see myself living there. Unfortunately I am becoming rather good at embracing this whole Spanish sense of relaxation. So instead of spending our free afternoon wandering around and visiting museums and other points of historical interest, I took a nap in the park. Then I went and spent two hours sitting with some of the other students at a cafe. Oh well, as they say here, no pasa nada.

On Saturday night it was finally time for us to go out and explore. I am coming to realize that most of my money here will be spent on drinks: either water or alcohol. It is much cheaper to drink a glass of wine than basically anything else here but still adds up. After checking out a few bars, we decided to go dancing for a little bit before calling it a night. Even though it was 1 AM, the place was completely empty! I was coming to find out that nights don't really actually start here until early morning.

Today was the day for the beach, which was an hour's bus ride south to a small Mediterranean town called Salobrena. Basically the Mediterranean was everything I expected it to be: beautiful, warm, clear, salty and crowded. It was amazing how buoyant I was and I literally just floated in the water for most of the day, only pausing for a bocadillo of ham, tomatoes, olive oil and cheese and to drink some more water. It is amazing how the Spanish sense of having a good time transfers to the beach -- everyone was there, from topless sunbathing grandmas to tiny tots, jetsetting yacht owners to vendors from Africa selling sunglasses. Needless to say, coming back to my homework was a disappointment.

Oh yeah, and as to my flu: I feel fine. Other than losing my voice yesterday, getting a red sunburn on my back today, and feeling really tired, I'm fit and in fighting shape. I miss you all!

Jenny