It's been a pretty normal week. I've actually slept at night, twice this week, and Eddie has been sleeping well too. Not going out during the school week sure helps. There are only a couple of happenings and thoughts I'd like to relate right now:

First, I have an incredible opportunity here I wasn't aware of until today. For those who don't know already, as part of the Ashbrook program at Ashland every scholar is required to write a thesis on an approved subject of their choice. During our Juinor years we begin thinking and probing subjects and collecting information, and then spend most of our senior year writing and revising and re-writing and on and on. It is quite the process and quite the opportunity to truly dig into a topic which fascinates us. We have a ton of professional help on hand int he form of Ashbrook professors and outside advisers etc. Long story short I'm set on writing about Islam, specifically what is know as Islam's "golden age" of tolerance in medieval Spain. In talking to one of my professors about a paper for my 3 cultures (Muslims, Jews, Christians) class today she informed me I could go down to a library in the city center here in Seville and get my hands on original documents. Not copies or transcriptions. The documents themselves, proclamations of new laws, edicts, government records. I about fell out of my chair. Once I calmed down I realized they're probably all written in Arabic so looking at them might not do me much good but it just seemed like another example of how blessed I am to have been given the chance to study here. I'll have a little more to say and show on the subject after we visit Cordoba Saturday. Cordoba was the center of the Andalusian Caliphate for a little over a hundred years way back during the 10th and 11th century. Much of the architecture survives from the era.

Secondly, Eddie and I experienced an......explosion.....earlier this week that truly demonstrates some things about life are just universal, no matter what country you're in. Pablito, our little brother over here, had his phone taken away before school started because his parents wanted him to focus on his studies. Could be any teenager in the states right? Well he made a drastic error in judgement Monday. Reme brought him home from band practice around 5 and they needed to make a quick turnaround to get him moving towards water polo practice. Instead of putting away his band stuff and changing to get ready for practice Pablo made a beeline for his computer first thing to check his Facebook and communicate with all his little girlfriends. Big mistake. While he was at practice, Reme and Juan Antonio told us they thought it was a problem so they were changing the network password for the wifi and if we told Pablo what it was they would hang us up by our thumbs, or something like that. I understand most of what they say and the sentiment there was more important than the specific threat. Now, if it was me I would have told Pablo when we were driving home from practice what the deal was. You have the kid enclosed in the car and he can't go off. Juan Antonio elected to wait until after Pablo had finished eating at 9 45. Eddie and I were doing homework in the living room but even if this apartment were ten times as big we would have heard Pablo's eruption. He's 13 so I can relate to some degree. I certainly remember thinking there were unfair happenings that would effectively end my life. That being said, Pablo just went off. Before Juan Antonio could even finish explaining the why to Pablo he had jumped up and locked himself in his room. Juan Antonio calmly told him to open the door and let him finish speaking to him for at least ten minutes. Pablo adopted a tone which Eddie and I agreed without a shadow of a doubt would have gotten us kicked out of our houses or worse. As Eddie put it, "I used that tone with my mom. Once." Now possibly this is just a difference in parenting 'technique' deal, but Pablo never unlocked his door until the next morning and he quite literally screamed at his parents through the door for half an hour. Not quite insults but what I picked up was typical teenager stuff, "you've taken everything from me, my life is over, you're horrible parents," etc. Eddie and I remain incredulous that Pablo retains the use of his motor skills after his performance. Neither of our parents would have put up with it for more than a few seconds. Life in the apartment is pretty normal once again; Pablo simply has to ask one of his parents to use a netbook when he wants to. It's odd but not really my business.

I'm thinking I'd like to have Eddie do the blog a couple times this semester because while we're taking in the same experience I know his perspective will be distinct and interesting for you all. Since I've been slacking the last couple weeks with posts I'll have him do his first one tomorrow.