Monday, February 11th, 2008, 5:56pm (Spain), CC-CS, Seville, Spain

Hello all!  Just wanted to update the blog here with news on my weekend.  It started out with me waking up around 10:30 on Saturday morning.  I called up Roderick and asked if he'd want to walk across town with me to pick up my guitar, and he said sure.  We met up and set out on foot across Seville.  It was gorgeous... about 75 degrees fahrenheit.  We trudged across the city for about an hour... got a little lost (but saw the soccer stadium, way cool), and eventually made it to the guitar shop owned by Antonio Bernal.  He remembered me, and quickly whipped out the guitar I had him put away.  I played a few licks, picked out a case, and payed for my new treasure.  I'm not usually one for naming my guitars, but I decided to name her Sophia... she's a beauty.  Afterwards, I hit the gym (back and biceps) with Rod, and then headed home.  After that, it was time to prepare for Carnaval.  I bought the coolest Gladiator costume, complete with shoulder pads, chest plate, arm and shit protection, a cape, a skirt (a manly one) and an AWESOME helmet.  We headed out a little early, a group of us, so we could grab a bite to eat before the bus left.  It was quite a site to see... A Roman, a Tiger, a Gangster, and a non-descript green haired guy in a cape (Rod had an interesting getup) wandering through the city.  In transit I was mobbed by two vans full of soccer players from Portugal, all wanting to take pictures with me.  It was ridiculous... they loved me and spoke English.  We got to the bus and had just enough time to grab some pastry before we left.  The bus ride was decent... an hour and a half... so I grabbed a quick nap.  When we first got there, the first thing I noticed was how cold it was.  It was windy and really cold, especially for a man in a skirt.  We found some of the outdoor bars and got a few drinks, and started to wander around.  It filled up quickly; before we knew it the whole place was packed with people in costumes.  They were dressed in every imaginable costume... firemen, chefs, mammogram machines... everything.  And everyone was stoked to be there.  We took pictures with a whole ton of people, and they were all so nice.  I had a long conversation in spanish with a guy who was dressed as Julius Caesar, and we talked about the empire and fighting battles and service and all that stuff... quite interesting.  It was insane... people just peed all over the street, and by the end of the night Cadiz had become a giant pile of trash, glass, and urine.  We finally headed back to the bus around 4am, and got back here to Seville at 5:30.  It was wild.  I slept until noon yesterday, and didn't do a whole lot more than watch scrubs and hang out for the rest of the day.  I'm trying to plan a trip to Germany in April to visit my good friend Mark Dowdell, so we'll see how that goes.  Stay tuned.... same bat time, same bat network!  Hasta Pronto!