This past weekend, Clay and I traveled to Pamplona to experience San Fermín (a week-long celebration including the running of the bulls). Like many of our experiences in Spain, it was pretty indescribable. Our first encounter with the celebration was on a walk through sticky, sangria-soaked streets, in which we eventually became swallowed by a welcoming parade of joyful, cheering, singing, and drumming residents. We witnessed the posts and railings for the running of the bulls’ track being placed every morning. This quick preparation was followed by a much-quicker run (2 to 4 minutes!), after which posts and railings were torn down again. Crowds dispersed quickly after each run, but the celebrations continued sporadically throughout the city all through the day and night.
Since this was the longest trip we’ve taken here, our return to Barcelona was accompanied by a feeling of reinvigoration. Within a day or two, I was able to finish a mostly complete version of my manuscript for my project from last summer. It still needs a little bit of an extra special touch to be considered complete, but after months of working at it, I’m content to say that it at least looks complete! Be on the lookout for Spitulski et al. (2019), (hopefully) coming soon to a journal near you!
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