Carrera, Beisbol, Playa

The run on Friday night started at 10 p.m. on the far north side of the city. We had to walk several miles to get there. There were lots of teams in the race and lots of serious-looking runners. The race has always been 10 kilometers but they changed the course this year. The fliers said it was going to be 11.4 km whereas the website was more up-to-date and said it was 12.06 km. We made team t-shirts for the race that said XVII Carrera Nocturna Sevilla 2005 12.06 km on the back. No one was sure about the actual distance. Minutes before the race started, it was announced that the new course was 11.4 km. Our confidence was boosted after hearing that we were going to run 0.66 km less than we thought. The start was really crowded, it was hard to move in a crowd of 6,000 runners. Lots of people were watching along the way - there was a number of people banging on drums along the route and one group of guys in drag playing random instruments. The runners were hootin’ and hollerin’ the whole time too. Our group was nine students and two young guys (one Spanish, one American) who work for our program. Four of us stuck together for most of the race, including me and a girl who runs track at Santa Clara University (I beat her) and a girl from Georgetown who runs marathons (I finished about 2 minutes behind her). We started near the back but passed a lot of people throughout the run. The route went up and down the river, crossing it several times. The race ended in a big soccer stadium called the Estadio Olímpico that was built for the 1992 Expo. It never held an Olympic event and it doesn’t seem to get any use nowadays but it was a nice stadium. My goal was 70 minutes; I finished in just under 63. There were bars set up at the finish line serving free soda, juice and beer.

We had to walk several miles again to get home, this time with sore legs. And then we all went out at 2 a.m. to celebrate. A bunch of American students from Salamanca were here for the weekend. Two of them knew one of my friends and went out with us. We went to the Mexican restaurant that is open late for some food at 5 am. I slept until the early afternoon on Saturday, of course. I bought a University of Sevilla t-shirt at the only store in the city that sells University apparel – they aren’t very big on college gear. I went to the Texas Saloon bar near the cathedral to see if they had ESPN 2, which was broadcasting the Wisconsin-Indiana football game. They didn’t, so we watched baseball and soccer instead. It was really weird to watch american television. The bar’s menu and décor was very American too and a bunch of US Marines stationed in southern Spain were there. I ate there and then went home, ate some more and then went out with my hermanas Lola and María and a friend of mine. We went to Jesus’ friend’s apartment near the university. There was about 10 Spaniards there, 3 French students and 6 Italian students, all of whom study at the University of Sevilla. It was a cool experience to hear four languages spoken. One of the Italian students did not know much Spanish so her friends translated Italian into a mix of Spanish and English for us. We talked in spanglish with most of them. My friend and I went home at 2:30 when most of them were about to head out to a discoteca.

I caught an 11 o’clock bus to Matalascañas on Sunday morning to go to the beach. I went with seven girls. My program is about 75% girls so every once in a while I end up being the only guy in the group. My Spanish classes at Madison were the same way – mostly girls. Choosing to major in Spanish was a pretty good idea. I got pretty tan today, we were on the beach for over five hours. I got some homework done and swam out to a huge rock sticking out of the water. Right now (Sunday night) I am exhausted.