Crystalized silicon presses against my flattened nose as I peer out of the window of our speeding bus. I wonder to myself if I will be able to eat a kebab at the same kebab shop that I ate at when I was in Zaragoza last time. Its really the first big orchestra tour of the year. We are going to Zaragoza and Calahorra. Well, It did turn out to be a pretty good trip. Actually it was GREAT. It was really fun. Made some new friends etc. I would´ve written a blog last friday, but I was on that trip and also my internet didn´t work anyway. So, I´m a week late, but I am going to try and write another one this week pretty close after this one to make up for the lost time.

    We played several well known pieces along with a musical that some professors here at the school wrote. In all we only had to concerts, but we were only there two days. On sunday we found ourselves in the town of Calahorra. That right. We wake up in the morning and ¨zap¨we were there. Just kidding, anyway. We were in Calahorra all day, but we didn´t have anyu concerts that day. Some guy gave a bunch of us a tour of the city. There is archeological evidence that puts the founding of this city well before the time of Christ, but legend has it that this city along with four other cities, one of which I already mentioned in an earlier blog, Toledo, was founded by Noah´s grandson Tubal. Not a very appealing name for those of you who know Pelawan, but that how legend tells it. Anyway, one major thing that this city is know for is that it was the first place in the world where autocannibalization was practiced. Actually I don´t know what the word is in English, and I forgot what it was in Spanish, but basically it is chopping of parts of people and eating it to stay alive without actually killing them. What apparently happened was that there was an army that attecked the city and the city was in a siege. They ran out of food, but they weren´t about to give up, so the cut of the inside the the childrens thighs, and the womens breasts and ate them to stay alive. Pretty gross. The worst part is that they all died anyway. Belive it or not but several hundred years later it was done for the second time ever in history in the exact same city. What a legacy to live up to huh?

    Moving along to more appetizing subjects; the guy who cooked lunch for us that day and made our ice cream was a world renowned chef has won numerous contests, and made the ice cream for the prince´s wedding. Yeah, Spain has a king if you didn´t know that. We had to start off with the first course marinated asparagus and red peppers in olive oil with bread. For second course we had the soup stuff with white beans in it. That was really good. Third course was ¨setas¨ which is a kind of large mushroom that groes her sauteéd with garlic and parsley. That was really really good. I was starting to get full by then though. For dessert we had some gelato that he had made. It was chocolate with chocolat bits in it. It was great. I am currently on vacation for five days in between the ending of last trimestre and the beginning of the last one. I have been at Las Fallas pretty much all day today. It would a while to explain what that is and why they do it, but basically it is a big festival where they make giant (like up to 70 feet) statues I guess you would call them out of plaster and wood, pick the best one and burn the rest down. Quite spectacular I´m told. I´ll tell y´all more about that in my next blog. Happy Sabbath!