Where are you going? The soccer game is THAT way!

February 7, 2010:
I’ll get to the soccer match in a minute. First, I want to say a little about the past week. I think the whole problem with choosing classes thing has worked out. We don’t officially sign up until next week, but I’m pretty sure I’ve found enough classes to transfer. (But I was very stressed out during the week, going to classes that no longer exist and trying to find SOMETHING that would transfer to Maryville.)
My friend Brian from back home is studying in Zaragoza, so he came to visit Friday and part of Saturday. I couldn’t give him a very good tour of the city, though, because it rained the whole time! We still had a good time, though. And then yesterday afternoon, I finally got around to trying out the university’s gym. It’s really nice, but on top of all the daily walking I do, I’m quite sore today!
So last night, I tried to do the Spanish custom of staying out all night, but I didn’t make it. I went out with my friend Alexa from Seattle, and two girls from Poland and a girl from Mexico. We had a lot of fun, but by 3:30, I didn’t think my eyes could stay open any longer. I got up for church this morning, and then went back to bed after it was over. Obviously, I’m just not cut out for the night life! Haha
Okay so this afternoon, I went traipsing across the city in search of buying internet. I have been here long enough to know that everything is closed on Sunday. But I remembered that the mall is open on Sunday afternoons here. So I walked the 35 minutes to the mall, hoping and praying for a Vodafone shop to be open so I could buy internet, only to discover that only the movie theater and food courts were open. So, I bought a café con leche and walked 35 minutes back home. Obtaining internet seems to be a very difficult task around here!
But when I was walking back from the mall and toward my school, I saw many people heading toward the huge futbol arena across from campus. Apparently, today is game day, and the entire city is going to the game. Everyone had their team’s flag draped on their shoulder, or were dressed entirely in the color of their team. I even saw a man with a huge, decorated bass drum. I feel sorry for whoever is sitting around him! But as I kept onward toward the apartment, I realized that everyone was looking at me funny. Then I realized that for the past 1.5 or 2 kilometers I had been walking, I was the ONLY person walking in that direction. There was not a single person going my way. Talk about going against the crowd! At a crosswalk, there were almost 200 people on the other side waiting to cross, and when the light turned green, I was the only person who walked across the street the opposite way. People were just looking at me and thinking, “Where is that girl going? Doesn’t she know the stadium is THAT way?” Apparently, in order to be a real Pamplonean, I need to find a way to get tickets to next week’s game.