And now you can see both the odd thorns that adorn the trunks and the fruits that hang from the branches.

Oh yay! Two more happily decided to upload...

To the left, behind the flower, is Joel's hand. Isn't it lovely?

According to what I've found online so far this tree might be a "Floss silk tree" either Ceiba speciosa, Chorisia speciosa, or Chorisia insignis. Also, it seems that eventually the fruits dry up and the seeds are released to float about freely, so I'll have to wait a while longer before I can collect some to send home. Does anyone know where I can find the explicit rules about transporting seeds or such into the US? I have more pictures, but blogspot and my computer aren't getting along, so I may have to wait a bit longer to post any more. I'm going to post this one by itself before it's deleted...

This is also a picture of Joel's hand, the flower was in the way.

I´m still here in Spain, merrily wandering about...or not particularly wandering about, as the case may be. Anyway, I´m here still. Joel was here too, but left as of Wednesday following a lovely afternoon walking around Valencia together while eating clementines, white chocolate, and bread. And in two weeks I go to Bologna! It´s all quite exciting.

Today I discovered the inner workings of the postal system...rather, I discovered that I can in fact buy envelopes at the little bookstore on campus and that I can buy stamps at the tobacco store a few blocks away. I have not quite figured out what to do with the sealed and stamped envelope that I now have, but plan on figuring that out within a few hours. I know that I could take it to the post office, but that´s inconveniently far away and would cost a bus trip. I think there are little boxes into which I could drop said envelope, but I haven´t found one since I´ve started actually looking for one. The stamps for the US are a different price than those for Italy, and I haven´t asked yet about postcards, but eventually I shall figure it all out and start sending postcards to all of those people I promised them to.

It´s less than two months until Christmas! And then I will come back, have a couple of weeks of class and then I have to take finals! Some of the classes I still don´t quite know what is going on and that´s kind of scary... I started playing with the idea of dropping my Letters major the other day. Why am I trying to graduate with both Spanish and Letters? What am I going to do with either one of them? And what would Letters add that I can´t accomplish with only Spanish and carefully chosing my free electives? I guess part of the answer to any of those questions lies in the answer to the question of what is my goal for my college education. The problem is, I don´t know the answer to that question. I mean, college is what you do after high school, right? Especially if they offer you a pretty shiny scholarship that effectively means that four years of going to college will cost you less than four years of living would... I knew I wanted to study abroad...so I´m doing that now. But after college? The rest of college? How much longer should I stay in college? I could probably graduate in only one more year after I get back to the US, but if I didn´t feel like it I would have scholarship money for three more years (the whole package only for two more, but still a significant amount for another after that). I know that I´m supposed to trust God with the plans for my life...put I always get confused on how to live that out. So, "Live today and deal with tomorrow as it comes..." But part of living today involves making choices about tomorrow. Oh well. I just felt like ranting about that for a little bit.

In other news, there´s an interesting species of tree that I have found here in Spain. I have no idea what it is called, but it is very intriguing. The trunk is a sort of lime green with greyish spikes, similar to the thorns of a rose bush. The trunk is always swollen near the bottom of the ground and sounds as if it is hollow. The branches don´t start until rather high up the trunk and look a bit scraggly, at least on the younger trees. The most intriguing things is the tree´s flowers. They look similar to stargazer lilies. Those are the ones that have the dark pink in the middle softening to a pale pink or white at the tips. They seem to have two types of flowers, one having longer, more scraggly-looking petals while the other type is smooth and rounder and normally brighter in color. The leaves are palmately compound with something like six leaflets per leaf. It produces a fruit almost resembling a pear, but longer and not as shapely. The fruits are either not yet ripe or just happen to want to stay attached to the tree as our efforts of retrieving one to investigate the seeds were to no avail ( and, yes the "our" does indicate that I dragged Joel into the observations). I took pictures and will load them on soon so that you can see what I´m talking about and maybe help me identify them. I guess I could try google...or ask someone that lives here..but it´s been fun just wondering.

Anyway, I should get around to studying as that was my original goal in coming to the university today rather than staying home...

10.10.06

Today is Tuesday, and one of the only two days during which I have class this week. Yesterday was a festival and Thursday is a festival and Fridays I never have class. Yay for no class! Yet, speaking of classes, they are going well for the most part. I have all of them approved to count at OU as what I want them to count for except for the botany course. And that one shouldn't be a problem. And if it is....I'll be okay with that. It only meets once a week and is a bit on the difficult side, one reason being that it doesn't start until 5:30 PM and my only other class that day is at 10 AM, so I'm a bit tired by that point and concentration is hard. Also...I don't know any of the other students in that class and it only meets once a week and I don't have any of the vocabulary that would be helpful for talking about medicinal and aromatic plants... On a happier note, I'm starting to understand the prof in Baroque Art. That class meets three times a week, so I have ample time to get used to his voice. I actually took some notes in that one today! The other ones are going well but no particular news.

I've hung out with the Italian bunch a little bit the past day or so. There are a lot of them and they quite often slip into Italian, so I never quite follow the conversation completely. I'm also bad with names...so if I see them across the way but they don't see me, getting their attention is a little hard. They're nice though.

I have a Spanish friend now! His name is Rafa and he's the only Spaniard friend I've made that doesn't work at the international office and/or isn't married with children. Living in Benicassim with a family is wonderful, but it makes it harder to get to know other students. Rafa is in two of my classes and has now met a nice little bunch of Erasmus students and taken us under his wing. I say Erasmus because the majority of the international students are in this program called Erasmus, which is actually only between European contries. So, technically I'm not Erasmus, but it's just easier to go along with that label because everyone knows what it is.

Yesterday was Begona and Danny's 7th wedding anniversary. (They are the husband and wife of the family of four with whom I am living.) We drove into the mountains and ate at a lovely restuarant on the side of one of these mountains along with Begona's parents and another family. I enjoy spending time with Begona's dad. I think he reminds me of someone, but I'm not sure who. Anyway, he's fun. Before eating we walked around the village and picked some almonds. Having tasted almonds freshly picked off of a tree, I have now decided that I like them...a lot. They're even better toasted with a bit of olive oil and salt. After eating we went to another mountain and watchd the munchkins play in a park. From that mountain you could see for miles. It was quite a view. I had left my camera at home, though.

After we got back from this adventure, I joined some friends on the beach at Benicassim. They had been there since one in the afternoon, so they were about ready to go. Wanting to spend time with them I walked back towards Castellon with them and then took a bus back home. It was altogether a long, but enjoyable day.

I'll try to post some pics of my room, house, family, and campus soon. For now, I'm off to eat some freshly toasted almonds. :-)