Not only would I not eat until 1:30 pm, but I woke up to a sopping wet pillowcase. Yep, I sweated so much last night that my pillowcase was literally damp when I woke up. My clothes didn't fare much better, in fact, it reminded me of when I was a kid and used to wet my bed. It is amazing how quickly those memories come back when you are a little damp in a bed even 6 or 7 years later.
My first thought was obviously to take a shower, so I did so. So now what? I had nothing planned for the day, and nothing to do, so I decided to put on some clothes (always a good idea in the morning) and go for a little exploration of the campus since all I had seen so far was at night. I walked all over the campus, and I discovered that it is much like my yard at home; it has hibiscus, impatients, bougainvillea, yellow bougainvillea, an olive tree, and tangerine trees. Even though it is much like my backyard, it surpasses my backyard in coolness because it also has a banana tree and three or four humungous fig tress totally stocked with figs. Mom won't let me have fig trees at home because she doesn't like them, but now, I may not ever need another fig tree again in my life. I could take figs from these trees and be set for the rest of my life (Mom, that doesn't mean I don't still want a fig tree).
I kept on exploring, and accidentally stumbled on a trailhead on the school grounds, and of course I had nothing else to do, so I started climbing on the trail. In about 20 minutes, I was standing on top of the hills I can see from my balcony. The view was absolutely breathtaking. Not only could I see the Mediterranean Sea on the horizon, but I could also see the school, the orange groves, most if not all of Sagunto, the Roman ruins on the hill, and part of Valencia as well. At that time, it was about 1:00, so I descended and reached the bottom in about 5 minutes.
Next thing on the agenda was lunchtime, something I was very thankful for. Remember when I talked about all of the olives between Madrid? I found out that they don't go all over Europe, but they must all go to Sagunto College. We had green olives in the salad, on the pizza, and just about anywhere else you could imagine, and we also had olive oil for salad dressing. It turns out my roommate, Erik Jensen, who I call Jensen so I don't confuse him with Eric Mathis, doesn't really like green olives. I don't really know how he will survive for the rest of the year.
After lunch, I took Jensen and my camera back up to the hills and took pictures of everything up there. It turns out that from that hill, you get a 360 degree view. On one side is the Mediterranean, on the other side is a mine of some kind complete with large dump trucks, and on two other sides, there are rolling hills with houses speckled throughout. We were only away from the dorm for about 20 minutes total, but we both came back sweating like pigs.
After our little adventure, I decided to cool down under a tree. I grabbed my hammock out of my room, strung it up in a huge Magnolia tree (I think), and read some of my Spanish books in preparation of tomorrow's placement test. After about an hour of reading and relaxing, I almost fell asleep, which I decided would not be a good idea because then I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight. I got up and put my hammock back in my room, and wondered what to do from there. I wandered down the stairs wondering if I could ask the dean if I could go with him to pick up Josh and Eric, but when I reached the second floor of stairs, up come Josh and Eric with their suitcases in hand and backpacks on their backs. Actually, it wouldn't be suitcases, it would be suitcase; Josh's suitcase was lost somewhere between Ontario and Valencia. Josh was worried about his suitcase, but said that they said it would come tomorrow. Eric, on the other hand, was as giddy as a school girl the whole day thinking about how his bike would arrive from customs tomorrow as well, and said today that his bike riding is an addiction.
Of course we all new this already, but admitting you have a problem is always the first step to recovery.
Interestingly enough, for dinner, they served salad, cereal, yogurt, and fruit, lots of fruit. They also had mashed potatoes and meatloaf that was made Walla Walla style; cold and nasty. I had another big salad, meatloaf, which I will never get again, yogurt, a peach, a plum, and a wedge of pineapple. That's right, here in the calf they serve a huge wedge of pineapple, how cool is that? More olive oil and green olives were consumed tonight of course. My dad told me before I left that I might come back fatter, and after all of that olive oil, I don't doubt it now.
After dinner, Eric, Josh, Chelsea (a girl from Walla Walla whom I had met there) and I sat around the gazebo area and talked for a while.
A little while ago, we were all just sitting around in the room minding our own businesses when the biggest grasshopper I have ever seen in my life flew into our room from the open balcony door and we all got very excited. Within a few minutes, I was able to get the trash can over him and get him out with Josh's help, but I am starting to wonder if this year is going to be more like camping than I was expecting.
It was a very full day, but now I need another shower because I sweated a lot while doing practically nothing.
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