This morning I volunteered at the Seville Marathon. I just signed up for the hell of it, and it was actually a lot of fun. It was held at the "Olympic Stadium" (another sad joke of Seville's recent past). Most of the CIEE volunteers were charged with guiding winners to the dope testing station, interpreting for them and getting them whatever they needed. A few others and I went with the female winner, a Portuguese woman who finished in around 2:30. She collapsed the minute she crossed the finish line and we had to go to the medical station with her. It was motivating and kind of terrifying to see what the winners put themselves through. Our supervisor told us that he had run ten marathons back in his athletic days, and showed us pictures in a book he'd written of him running along Central Park. "New York is nice, but we have better food."

School has been going well. The international students seem to take it a little more seriously than the Spanish students, but I guess it's the same way back home. They don't put too much stress on homework, so I end up having a lot more time for leisure than I would at Georgetown. I've been exploring Triana (my neighborhood) as much as I can. Uh, and watching a lot of "Lost." I'm excited for this week because my parents are visiting and I have a four-day weekend thanks to Andalusia Day (essentially a made-up holiday).

If you're bored you can read my column from last week. I also added a few pictures to this album. Hope all is well.