GLADIATORR

Sunday was Tarragona day. It was awesome to see a city that dates back to 218 BC. We checked out the city walls, Roman ruins of the circus (chariot races) and ampitheater (where the gladiators casually fought lions...and eachother), and had lunch and tapas at two little local restaurants. When we got back, a lot of the people from the residencias went to watch the Packers vs. Giants game at George Payne's, an American sportsbar not too far from here, but since I'm not a Packers or Giants fan, I stayed in caught up on episodes of Dexter (so. addicting.)

Monday was back to classes again and catching up on a lot of sleep, and today Cara and I went to classes and then went to check out Holmes Place (the gym) with our free pass we got from CIEE. It was gorgeous inside and reminded me of the posh Chicago gyms with jillion dollar membership fees (it costs about 300 euro for 3 months). If I thought people stared a lot on normal occassions, holy Jesus do they stare a lot at the gym. I mean, even in America you always get the girl next to you that checks up on your treadmill screen at least once every five minutes, just so she can either increase her speed by .2 mph so that she's going faster than you, or gloat that she's already going faster than you and obviously more athletic. Today was even more ridiculous than that! The guy on my right legitimately had his head OVER my screen for approximately 90% of the time he was on his treadmill, I could conveniently see through the mirrors that cover the entire front wall that the Spanish guy on my left was looking at me for about 90% of his workout. I ignored it for a while, but it got to a point where I was seriously laughing out loud. I couldn't believe it. Needless to say, I think I'll stick to running by the beach and doing my P90x ab workouts rather than joining Holmes Place.

Other than that, we planned out first weekend trip...to Portugal! We're going the weekend of January 27, and I. can't. wait.


Here are some pictures of Tarragona...