Chloe said that Rotary forbids exchange students from staying in Pamplona during San Fermin (running of the bulls, every July 6-14). They must not want to be in any way responsible for them during this time of Bacchanalian debauchery. I can't wait to see what it's actually like. Although I won't be debauching, I'm not above a little Bacchus-like revelry.
So they can't be there for San Fermin, but if you read Chloe's post today, the high school - the private Catholic high school - sells dance tickets that include a coupon for two free drinks, and I get the impression that they're not talking Pepsi or Mountain Dew. I'm guessing that with San Fermin, though, all bets are off and that it's impossible to supervise anyone.
That's all very interesting because I got a call from a travel agent saying that he'd booked Chloe's return flight - without contacting me first - for July 19. I didn't talk to him long because I told him I'd already made the arrangements ("How'd you do that?"), but I'm guessing that's the soonest he could get her a seat home. If that's the case, if I hadn't been coming over, she would have been in Pamplona for more than three weeks after school is out, and for all eight and a half days of San Fermin.
Which brings up another point. The travel agency requested return dates for our kids before Christmas, but said we had until the middle of March to get them in. When I called the travel agent in March, only to find out that she was no longer with the agency, the message from the guy taking her cases saying he was going to be gone for almost a month (he left before the middle-of-March deadline) said to not panic, because he'd extended the deadline until near the end of April. But these bulk tickets are very restricted, and there tends to be a lot of travel between Europe and the US in the summer, as well as sports events that fill up planes with European fans. If you have one of these open-ended bulk tickets and you know when you want your kid home, it would be a good idea to make the reservations sooner rather than later, otherwise you may be waiting for weeks before a seat opens up.
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