I´ll start by catching everyone up since Saturday.

Saturday was a great day. I went wish my group from OSU to the Picos de Europa, which are these alp-like mountains in the northwest corner of Spain. They were absolutely gigantic. Probably the biggest mountains I´ve ever seen, but when I asked someone if they were as big as the Alps, they said no way. But we drove through some really amazing small towns to get there, and when we finally did, we took one of those lifts up to the top...you know, the one where it´s just your boxcar on this cable with thousands of feet below you. It made one of the girls in our group cry just looking at it. Right before we were about to go up she lost it. No one told her we´d have to do anything that scary today. She ended up making it up, but once we got up there, we were actually in the clouds, so we looked out into fog more or less. It´s strange to be deceaved like that, thinking that you´re not that high because you can´t see down through the fog, but realizing that you could throw something down and it wouldn´t hit for a solid 25 seconds. But we had lunch up there, and headed back down only to look up again 5 minutes later to see the clouds break for a moment, revealing our once hidden observation deck. Oh well.

Actually, I think I should catch up on something I did Friday too. A bunch of us walked with our new Italian friend, Manuele, out past Santander city limits to a lighthouse. The journey there was way more worth it than the actual lifehouse was. There were some spectacular view from dangerous cliff around every corner. I fed everyone the last of my red vines midway through.

On Sunday, I relaxed all day and went to this small evangelical church service I stumbled upon. Cooped up tiny building they meet in, all smashed between two towering apartment building, I actually felt more like breathing in fresh air again. The saints are here in Spain too! Although the service was more the style of the older American generation, with hymns (mixed with a few more modern songs, played on a classical guitar), the fact remained that I was experiencing godly fellowship after what seemed like forever. And it´s an answer to prayer too. The only thing now is to figure out which one I´ll go to, having now discovered that ther´s a few more in town. I think I´ll try each one out. But everyone at the service was super friendly, and, talking with some afterwards, I learned a lot about Catholocism here in Santander...which is a whole tragic book in itself. But I´ll move on to Monday...yesterday.

I got online and posted a bunch of new pictures on my website. I put them in a folder entitled...New Pictures! Imagen that. But if you didn´t have that website, and didn´t see the addresss in earlier blogs, here it is...

http://oregonstate.edu/~normansj/pictures/

or the link directly into the New Pictures! folder is

http://oregonstate.edu/~normansj/pictures/New%20Pictures!/

Monday was back to school, but this time the entire student body was back (They start late over here...first day of October), so the halls were CROWDED! I still don´t really have homework ever. Sorry to all you Antioch guys struggling through 3rd year Engineering right now...not fun. I´m pretty much on vacation, trying not to spend too much money. Gotta make it last. Last night I watch the Fellowship of the Ring here in Spanish with my host mom. She´d never seen it. I was quoting it in my mind, overlaying the Spanish dubbing with the actual voices that I imaged I could hear. It was a strange way to watch a movie. Oh and Frodo Baggins was called Frodo Bolsón...which mean Frodo Big Bag. HAHA! But we didn´t end til 2 am or so. I was a bit tired for school this morning, but I just woke up from my 2 hour nap (Jon you would have been proud).

Oh, and one more thing, I have a bag of loose leaf yerba maté from Brazil here with me, along with a gourd and bombilla (specialized drinking straw) on load from Phil Lund. I took it out on the town on Saturday night, and got in the gourd in a pretty chíc Spanish café. Again, Jon, you would have been proud. Shoot, I should´ve taken a picture. Oh well. And after that, I managed to meet a bunch of local high schoolers and we hung out and I talked with them all night. We went to this Irish bar called Tir Nan´Og, where I paid an outrageous 5€ (roughly $6) for a pint of Guinness.

Well, that´s all for now. I suppose I have a checklist for pictures to take and post. The Euromullet, my host family, my class/school, and whatever else anyone wants to see pictures of. For now, I´m outta here. Ciao.