A whole year?

Some video clips

Here are some random videos that Chloe took, in no particular order. Give them time to download, but if you have a dial-up or otherwise slow connection, it's definitely not worth the time to view them. How and if it works depends, in part, on your computer configuration.

Here's a mini bull run in Peralta, Chloe's first host father's home town. This was the first or second weekend Chloe was in Spain.

A parade of the big figures, might have been in Pamplona. If not, it's Peralta.

Strangers immediately after their wedding ceremony. Somehow, Chloe and her family crashed the wedding of people they don't know and took photos and videos of it. I wouldn't be happy if it was my wedding, but I'm glad she did it.

A tour of a host aunt's summer house, including a shot of the family gathered for a meal.

Sidewalk Skynyrd

Spain has a rich musical history. But you won't see evidence of that in this video Chloe took on her trip to the south (I don't know where - perhaps she can tell us). But it does show four bums playing Freebird. Chloe said they have a Web site (she didn't provide a URL), and the one playing guitar is German and the guy in the middle who says, "Rescue the bee-uh" is Welsh. Note the signs they have out in front of them (and the dog and puppy). You can probably guess what para vino and para whisky mean. Sort of like United Way, except you can decide how your donation dollars will be divided among the various worthy causes. I'm a big fan of Lynryd Skynyrd, but not of Freebird (yes, I know, that's grounds for expulsion from the Red Neck Southern Rock Fan Club). But I would have donated five euros to the Para Whisky fund for The Ballad of Curtis Loew. Sidewalk Skynyrd video

Photos

Add new photos to photo album. Right. Until then, here are three. The first is, I think, from when they went to the hills with Ana's friends and their families.

The next is from the sleepover in October (until the photos came, I didn't know that Chloe had played Twister in Spain).

In San Sebastian.

New photos

More photos from Chloe in the In Spain 2 album on the right, and there will be more coming. There are no captions yet because I don’t know what any of them are of. Here’s what I do know: Madrid, Olite, Chloe, Abby, Vicente, Ana, some old buildings, a palace, a menu, John Deere, some nuns, and a Lancôme display.

For now you’ll have to sort them out from there. I’ll have to ask Alicia for some caption clues when we have time.

The weekend

Chloe is done with her second day of school and she said she’s so lost because she can’t begin to follow what they’re saying, although she hears an occasional “Americano.” Listening to Alicia talk to her sister gives me a tiny glimpse of what she’s going through, but I can tune it out and not worry about learning from it. Chloe is supposed to have a Spanish tutor instead of French class, but today she found out that the tutor can come only after lunch and sometimes her French class is before lunch, so she just sat there. Abby (A2) doesn’t start school until Monday. Chloe talks briefly about her first day of school and getting bopped with pillows on sticks by strangers in town here. There’s even mention of a topless woman on top of a church.

This morning Chloe called briefly to say they were going to the host father’s parents’ house for the weekend for some sort of festival, like a mini San Fermín (when the Running of the Bulls takes place in July). She’s excited because they get to wear the white pants, white shirt, and red scarf that you see at the Running of the Bulls. Maybe she’ll be dancing in the street, which she’s never done here.

San Fermin

This is a photo I found on the Web. I don't know who took it or when, but next year I hope to post my own photos of this event. This site tallies the destruction: 56 hospitalized, 16 gored, but 0 dead.

There are more 2004 photos here at San Fermin.com.