Monsieur's still AWOL.

hello all. i know that many of you are all desperately waiting for another Monsieur post--and when i say many, of course i mean just you. hey. how's it goin'. that's cool. me? oh, nothin much. 'kay. have a good one.

well, faithful reader, get used to disappointment. no genius teacup poodle musings today. on the upside though, he did happen to send us a letter earlier this week. apparently his AWOL adventure has taken him to Europe. the letter arrived with no return address with a spanish postmark...postage due. thanks, pup.

here's a few photos that he sent along. i've also included each photo's caption which he had supplied on the backs.

hemingway inspired greetings from Plaza de Toros in Pamplona. Marco, Esteban and i arrived on day four of the eight day Running of the Bulls during Fiesta de San Fermin which honors the town's patron saint. here, Marco is about to about to be rescued by yours truly from a horrendous goring while Esteban confuses his "escape being stampeded" strategy with "how to survive nuclear fallout."

ultimately, one can't expect to leave spain without over-imbibing in the finest madiera for an embarassingly touristy drunken shaming photo opportunity with an blank expressioned mannequin bearing a slight resemblance to the city's hero matador, Eusebio "El Maravilloso" Marvilla. Some say Marvilla hypnotizes even the most ferocious of bulls intto submission with merely his vacant stare.

La Tomatina. Bunol, Valencia. site of the world's largest annual food fight -- certainly the messiest. in excess of 240,000 pounds of tomatoes are hurled from 11 AM to 1PM, then together we clean the mess. the streets are literally flooded with tomato juice, pulp, seeds, skins -- the slop is ankle deep throughout the town square. fortunately i never travel to Bunol without a fresh application of Scotchgard to my downy soft fur.

i meet up with fellow american travellers--NYU grad students and kindred spirits abroad for the semester-- for cervezas y tapas at Dulcinea, a local Bunol hotspot. pictured here are: (from far left, counter-clockwise) Anya, Sumeet, myself, Geoffrey, Yvette and Meredith. mere hours before, we were hysterically gleeful, primally revelling, and covered in tomato flesh. now, freshly showered, i find the perfect occasion to sport my new matador cap.