On Wednesday, 6/29/05, I wake up with a pain in my neck from bad sleep, run some errands, like getting an oil change and trying t sell books back, getting gas and then I start my trip to Texas. I don’t get very far and get stuck in traffic so of the 1500 miles I had to drive, I got to 500 before I called it a night and stayed at a hotel to sleep.
On Thursday, 6/30/05, I take off at 10am and arrive at home at 4am the next day. The cats hated the trip, but made it and I stopped first by Ana’s house to say hello. I saw Rebekkah and Jamie and found out my boss Karen had her baby girl. It feels great being home and now I start my job at the Court of Appeals and wait to see if I get into any of my transfer schools.
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Goodbye Madrid
On Saturday, 6/25/05, I slept in due to the night of drinking and then made my way on the bus to Madrid. I wanted to spend my last weekend there. We had lunch at Burger King and then saw Madagascar. It was a lot of working trying to find it there in English. Afterwards I purchased 3 movies, all of which are in Spanish. At night, we went to dinner at this nice Spanish restaurant.
On Sunday, 6/26/05, I woke up early and the plan was to meet with Bianca, but she was not there. So we left a note at the hotel to come back and meet us at 2pm. After walking around town and such, we returned at 1:50pm and she had not come by. I figured she wasn’t coming, so I told the guy to throw away the note and walked out. Before I decided where to walk, I stopped because there was a fight ensuing between a homeless man and some jerk. I sat down at a bench and just watched. At 2:05pm, guess who comes walking? Yup, Bianca. Talk about fortunate.
We go to BK for Bianca and she catches us up on things. After, we walk to the palace, but once again it was closed. I didn’t mind because I didn’t really want to go anyway. Then we decide to go see Batman, but on the way, we stop by and do some shopping and run into a tarot card reader. We all pay for our fortunes and it was interesting. For Bianca, she knew about the two guys in her life, her father and that she had a little girl. For me, she said I was a good student, but I let my emotions affect my work and didn’t do well in college. Told me to leave my past behind and focus on the future. She did call out that I had a 3 year relationship and knew some key details about it. For Sarah Beth, she said how wonderful of a person she was and talked about her boyfriends. Overall I learned nothing, but it was entertaining.
That took so much time that we didn’t get to see Batman and then we got on the train to Ventas to see a bullfight in Plaza de Toros. It was quite the experience and once you get over the blood and unfairness of the whole thing, plus the killing part, it wasn’t too bad of a time. I’ll never go back though and after a while just got bored and was hoping to see the people hurt, which just isn’t right. Bianca enjoyed it and Sarah Beth complained the whole time, though she should of expected that a bull (well 6) was going to get killed. Sherry also enjoyed it and Rob got into it late.
After the fight, we picked our stuff up and took a bus back to El Escorial. The bus was full so we had to stand the entire time, but I just sat on the side steps for the whole bus ride (45 mins). At night we arrived, it was very late and everything was closed so when we arrived at the Chinese food restaurant past midnight, we were impressed that they were willing to still sell us food. Talk about hard working. We took the food back to the hotel and had a very large and very late dinner.
On, 6/27/05, not much happened. I spent the day packing and we had a farewell dinner with our professors.
My final day, 6/28/05, I overslept, but Bianca called me to wake me up. I checked out in a rush. I said goodbye to Sarah Beth, who had become such a wonderful friend during this past month. It was very hard to go, but the stress of missing my plane made me have to hurry. Sarah Beth is now going to travel Spain alone for the next 2 weeks, something I wish I could do, but I need to get back for my summer job.
Bianca also had to catch a flight, so she came on my same bus. We both made it to the airport ok, but man we carried a lot of stuff. I said goodbye to her in the terminal and then made my way alone to my ticket counter. After security, I ended up paying too much for a cd and dvd that I thought would be cheap because they were tax free, but nope. I applied for my refund from Italy and got on my flight.
On the plane I sat next to a Spanish lady who was a teacher taking all these kids to the US for the summer to study English. We talked in Spanish the whole time and it was probably the most I talked the entire trip. 9 hours goes by very slow. I asked her about the hard bread, and the styles in Spain. The kids told me how much they love Jamon and one girl even packed a sandwich because she feared America having bad food. I wanted to tell her our food was so much better, but I guess you like what you know.
I arrive in Miami and it feels like back into reality. Fed picks me up and we go by Pollo Tropical. I see my cats and they are happy to see me, but still very angry I left them for so very long. I sleep on the couch and not very well.
So here are my large generalizations about my experiences. The fashion is very different, but I started to get used to it. I can’t exactly explain how, but the guys do wear a lot of puma stuff. The girls not as attractive as I expected. Most don’t have hips and no asses, but most are very skinny, which is good. Spanish girls have very nice brown eyes, but though they are nice, I think they are somewhat close to each other compared to what I am used to. The food sucks, at least for my tastes. I didn’t get to see my band (La Oreja), but I tried very hard. I don’t know if I’ll get used to the sun not going down at 10PM. Your days seem so much longer, yet it explains why I always needed my siesta. I loved those.
On Sunday, 6/26/05, I woke up early and the plan was to meet with Bianca, but she was not there. So we left a note at the hotel to come back and meet us at 2pm. After walking around town and such, we returned at 1:50pm and she had not come by. I figured she wasn’t coming, so I told the guy to throw away the note and walked out. Before I decided where to walk, I stopped because there was a fight ensuing between a homeless man and some jerk. I sat down at a bench and just watched. At 2:05pm, guess who comes walking? Yup, Bianca. Talk about fortunate.
We go to BK for Bianca and she catches us up on things. After, we walk to the palace, but once again it was closed. I didn’t mind because I didn’t really want to go anyway. Then we decide to go see Batman, but on the way, we stop by and do some shopping and run into a tarot card reader. We all pay for our fortunes and it was interesting. For Bianca, she knew about the two guys in her life, her father and that she had a little girl. For me, she said I was a good student, but I let my emotions affect my work and didn’t do well in college. Told me to leave my past behind and focus on the future. She did call out that I had a 3 year relationship and knew some key details about it. For Sarah Beth, she said how wonderful of a person she was and talked about her boyfriends. Overall I learned nothing, but it was entertaining.
That took so much time that we didn’t get to see Batman and then we got on the train to Ventas to see a bullfight in Plaza de Toros. It was quite the experience and once you get over the blood and unfairness of the whole thing, plus the killing part, it wasn’t too bad of a time. I’ll never go back though and after a while just got bored and was hoping to see the people hurt, which just isn’t right. Bianca enjoyed it and Sarah Beth complained the whole time, though she should of expected that a bull (well 6) was going to get killed. Sherry also enjoyed it and Rob got into it late.
After the fight, we picked our stuff up and took a bus back to El Escorial. The bus was full so we had to stand the entire time, but I just sat on the side steps for the whole bus ride (45 mins). At night we arrived, it was very late and everything was closed so when we arrived at the Chinese food restaurant past midnight, we were impressed that they were willing to still sell us food. Talk about hard working. We took the food back to the hotel and had a very large and very late dinner.
On, 6/27/05, not much happened. I spent the day packing and we had a farewell dinner with our professors.
My final day, 6/28/05, I overslept, but Bianca called me to wake me up. I checked out in a rush. I said goodbye to Sarah Beth, who had become such a wonderful friend during this past month. It was very hard to go, but the stress of missing my plane made me have to hurry. Sarah Beth is now going to travel Spain alone for the next 2 weeks, something I wish I could do, but I need to get back for my summer job.
Bianca also had to catch a flight, so she came on my same bus. We both made it to the airport ok, but man we carried a lot of stuff. I said goodbye to her in the terminal and then made my way alone to my ticket counter. After security, I ended up paying too much for a cd and dvd that I thought would be cheap because they were tax free, but nope. I applied for my refund from Italy and got on my flight.
On the plane I sat next to a Spanish lady who was a teacher taking all these kids to the US for the summer to study English. We talked in Spanish the whole time and it was probably the most I talked the entire trip. 9 hours goes by very slow. I asked her about the hard bread, and the styles in Spain. The kids told me how much they love Jamon and one girl even packed a sandwich because she feared America having bad food. I wanted to tell her our food was so much better, but I guess you like what you know.
I arrive in Miami and it feels like back into reality. Fed picks me up and we go by Pollo Tropical. I see my cats and they are happy to see me, but still very angry I left them for so very long. I sleep on the couch and not very well.
So here are my large generalizations about my experiences. The fashion is very different, but I started to get used to it. I can’t exactly explain how, but the guys do wear a lot of puma stuff. The girls not as attractive as I expected. Most don’t have hips and no asses, but most are very skinny, which is good. Spanish girls have very nice brown eyes, but though they are nice, I think they are somewhat close to each other compared to what I am used to. The food sucks, at least for my tastes. I didn’t get to see my band (La Oreja), but I tried very hard. I don’t know if I’ll get used to the sun not going down at 10PM. Your days seem so much longer, yet it explains why I always needed my siesta. I loved those.
Friday, June 24, 2005
Last Week and Finals
On Wednesday, 6/22/05, my group had their presentation in Cyberlaw on the internet laws of the United Kingdom. I actually had to look up the exact definition of the UK, to know how it was different from England, Britain and Great Britain. The presentation went well and after class we took a full class/program picture out in the garden.
After lunch, I had a good nap and then went shopping for some food at the supermarket. While I was in line, there was an old lady only buying two things. The lady behind her let her pass and then I let her pass. She was so excited to go in front and made a comment in Spanish about having such great fortune. It made me feel good inside.
For dinner, I took the girls out for a goodbye/thanks dinner. They were great friends throughout the trip and I wanted to thank them for really making an impression on my life and being such great friends. The food was great and as always the conversation was entertaining.
At night, I finally got to watch the pirated version of Star Wars III. I’m sure I’ll see it again, but it wasn’t amazing, but it did keep my attention. All I got from it was, guys do dumb things for women.
On Thursday, 6/23/05, we had an optional class in Cyberlaw, which I did not go to. I was feeling a bit sick, but am hoping I don’t get sicker when the exam comes around. I had some transcript trouble with SMU, but finally got in all the paperwork I needed.
My last comparative class was uneventful and all I could think of was that all it meant was that I couldn’t be absent to that class again. Lunch was boring and then I when home and studied for my exam the next day. I put in a lot of time and tried to reread most of the cases, but did not make an outline like some of the other students. At night, we went to the bowling place and just like the place I buy my ice cream, they were on vacation. So we decided to try this other burger place where we had to argue with them to let us eat inside.
Friday, 6/24/05, I wake up early and take my final in Cyberlaw. The exam was hard, but fair and I really have no clue how I did. I am glad I am done now with that class and I can’t wait to be done with the semester. I found out after the exam that the Spurs are the new world champs in basketball. I was very excited to hear that, but it sucks that I didn’t get to watch the games.
After lunch, I start writing my final for comparative. I had to type it up and then handwrite it. I spent most of the day on it, but probably spent more time handwriting what I typed. It had been a very long time since I had done that. I finally turned it in before dinner and rejoiced to finally be done.
We went to eat at the Italian place, but they wouldn’t let us in, so we had some drinks at the blue frog. We returned, ate dinner and then went to the red frog. We saw everyone there and had a great time. We ended up at this pool hall place, where I found out a lot of information about students in my program and all the hooking up that took place.
After lunch, I had a good nap and then went shopping for some food at the supermarket. While I was in line, there was an old lady only buying two things. The lady behind her let her pass and then I let her pass. She was so excited to go in front and made a comment in Spanish about having such great fortune. It made me feel good inside.
For dinner, I took the girls out for a goodbye/thanks dinner. They were great friends throughout the trip and I wanted to thank them for really making an impression on my life and being such great friends. The food was great and as always the conversation was entertaining.
At night, I finally got to watch the pirated version of Star Wars III. I’m sure I’ll see it again, but it wasn’t amazing, but it did keep my attention. All I got from it was, guys do dumb things for women.
On Thursday, 6/23/05, we had an optional class in Cyberlaw, which I did not go to. I was feeling a bit sick, but am hoping I don’t get sicker when the exam comes around. I had some transcript trouble with SMU, but finally got in all the paperwork I needed.
My last comparative class was uneventful and all I could think of was that all it meant was that I couldn’t be absent to that class again. Lunch was boring and then I when home and studied for my exam the next day. I put in a lot of time and tried to reread most of the cases, but did not make an outline like some of the other students. At night, we went to the bowling place and just like the place I buy my ice cream, they were on vacation. So we decided to try this other burger place where we had to argue with them to let us eat inside.
Friday, 6/24/05, I wake up early and take my final in Cyberlaw. The exam was hard, but fair and I really have no clue how I did. I am glad I am done now with that class and I can’t wait to be done with the semester. I found out after the exam that the Spurs are the new world champs in basketball. I was very excited to hear that, but it sucks that I didn’t get to watch the games.
After lunch, I start writing my final for comparative. I had to type it up and then handwrite it. I spent most of the day on it, but probably spent more time handwriting what I typed. It had been a very long time since I had done that. I finally turned it in before dinner and rejoiced to finally be done.
We went to eat at the Italian place, but they wouldn’t let us in, so we had some drinks at the blue frog. We returned, ate dinner and then went to the red frog. We saw everyone there and had a great time. We ended up at this pool hall place, where I found out a lot of information about students in my program and all the hooking up that took place.
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Back to Rome
On Tuesday, 6/21/05, we woke up early and tried to get in some sight seeing before our flight. I had breakfast alone again, but the girls were very quick afterwards. We took the bus to the Vatican and waited in a super long line to get into the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. The problem was that we were in a rush so once we got in we had to zoom through everything. It was very important to me to see the Sistine Chapel, so we just kept walking and walking trying to get there. Of course, they make it the last stop of the whole museum, but when we got there it was worth it. You can’t take pictures in there, but all the Asian tourists were, so we took a few. I guess you always hear about how Michelangelo painted the ceiling, but I thought the picture of the two guys touching fingers would be much bigger. It was still impressive though.
We take a bus back to the hotel where our shuttle picks us up. We fly from Rome to Madrid where we take the metro to our bus and head back to El Escorial. My project is due the next day in Cyberlaw, so I have dinner alone as the girls go to Burger King and I work on my project. I finally talked to a group member and we plan out how we want to do it. Two of the cool things about Italy was our Ninja Turtle search where we tried to find art work by all the Ninja Turtles, which we were successful at. Also, we noticed all the different War of the Worlds Posters in all the countries in different languages, that was really cool.
We take a bus back to the hotel where our shuttle picks us up. We fly from Rome to Madrid where we take the metro to our bus and head back to El Escorial. My project is due the next day in Cyberlaw, so I have dinner alone as the girls go to Burger King and I work on my project. I finally talked to a group member and we plan out how we want to do it. Two of the cool things about Italy was our Ninja Turtle search where we tried to find art work by all the Ninja Turtles, which we were successful at. Also, we noticed all the different War of the Worlds Posters in all the countries in different languages, that was really cool.
Monday, June 20, 2005
Venice, Italy
The next morning, instead of going to see Florence, we decide to fuck it and take a train straight to Venice instead. So we cab it there and then buy our tickets. This train was not as nice as in we didn't get to lay down and sleep during the trip. We did have assigned seats though. When we get to Venice, we get off on the wrong station and have to get back on and get off at the right station.
Venice was by far the highlight of my trip. People say it is over rated, that it seems like sewer and terrible things, but I found the place beautiful, awesome and different from anywhere I had ever been. We stop at a pizza place and I have some great pizza. We then try to figure out the boat system so that we can get to our hotel. I purchase a map and as we walk to buy tickets, an older couple gives me two free all day passes for boat rides. The girls were finally seeing what I meant about being blessed on that trip. We split the cost of one more and we were set for the next two days of boat rides. We take the boat over to our part of the city and with a bit of maze walking, we arrive at our hotel. The guy working there was a great help in telling us what we could do.
We didn't agree on what we wanted to do that day, but Sarah Beth really wanted to go to the beach. It meant a lot to her, so we finally gave in and off to Venice beach we went. Well not really, we took the wrong boat the wrong way and 45 mins later, off to Venice beach, from where we had started. When we get to the beach, I find the place horrific. It was dirty and littered and the sand wasn't fine like I am used to. Even the water looked dirty. Well Bianca and Sarah Beth start walking in to test and water and low and behold, they end up swimming. I leave and go have a few beers at the nearby bar place. Once they were done with their fun in the no sun, we work our way back to the area of our hotel and eat a nice restaurant. Here I have pizza again, and I have to say it was even better. After our meal, we are so beat that we just go home to sleep.
It is now Monday (6/20/05) and I am dead tired as we walk up. I was snoring which didn't help either. I go down and get some breakfast alone and then come back and shower. The tub had a handle shower head so that made it hard to shower. I had to rush so we could make it in time for the glass tour, which ended up being half an hour late. So this guy comes and walks us to this boat and the boat takes us out to Murano and we visit a glass factory. It was nice and we got to see how glass was made. Murano is famous for its glass. It is its own island and after seeing the glass place, we took a boat back to Venice. Well two of our 24 hour passes has expired and only one was left. The trip was very long so a crew member went around asking everyone for their tickets. We had our 3 tickets which I was holding, but 2 had expired about 3 hours before. So I put the unexpired ticket on top and handed all 3 to the lady. She inspected the top one with much scrutiny and after it passed the test, she assumed, like I was hoping she would, that they other two were similar. So took a breath of relief and saved 10 bucks that two new tickets would cost.
We arrive in San Marco square which is the main tourist spot here. There was a tower and a church and it was packed with tourists. It was a pretty amazing square. I went shopping for some gifts and ended up buying a tapestry of San Marco square that cost me a lot of money. I also purchased some glass items for friends from home. The girls went to the Cartier store, but didn't buy anything. After all the shopping, and taking a break to check email, I buy some more gelato. That is some good ice cream. We walk back to our hotel and pick up our stuff and work our way back to the boat station. We take our final boat over to the train station and before we get on the train, have a final dinner at yet another pizza shop. After eating, I took our last half hour to shop even more and buy a lot of my gifts and postcards.
The train to Rome was long, I mean long, probably like 7 hours or so. When we just got on, I ran out to get some water and snacks and literally made it back less than a minute before the train left. Talk about cutting it close. The trip went by slowly and not having much to talk about anymore, we just sat there trying to listen to music. We wanted to watch Sex and City, but we figured the sound would be rude to the other people on the train. At one point, we ventured out on the train to try and find the food car. When we got there, most of the stuff was sold out, but we were able to get some snacks to hold us over. Later, we tried to practice speaking spanish so that Sarah Beth could learn, but we really didn't get anywhere except looking like a bunch of idiots to the people sitting next to us who spoke spanish. Once we got to the train station, they were cleaning the floors and there was this loud sound that was very annoying We took a cab to our first hotel we stayed at and this time our room was not as nice. It was late so we quickly fell asleep.
Venice was by far the highlight of my trip. People say it is over rated, that it seems like sewer and terrible things, but I found the place beautiful, awesome and different from anywhere I had ever been. We stop at a pizza place and I have some great pizza. We then try to figure out the boat system so that we can get to our hotel. I purchase a map and as we walk to buy tickets, an older couple gives me two free all day passes for boat rides. The girls were finally seeing what I meant about being blessed on that trip. We split the cost of one more and we were set for the next two days of boat rides. We take the boat over to our part of the city and with a bit of maze walking, we arrive at our hotel. The guy working there was a great help in telling us what we could do.
We didn't agree on what we wanted to do that day, but Sarah Beth really wanted to go to the beach. It meant a lot to her, so we finally gave in and off to Venice beach we went. Well not really, we took the wrong boat the wrong way and 45 mins later, off to Venice beach, from where we had started. When we get to the beach, I find the place horrific. It was dirty and littered and the sand wasn't fine like I am used to. Even the water looked dirty. Well Bianca and Sarah Beth start walking in to test and water and low and behold, they end up swimming. I leave and go have a few beers at the nearby bar place. Once they were done with their fun in the no sun, we work our way back to the area of our hotel and eat a nice restaurant. Here I have pizza again, and I have to say it was even better. After our meal, we are so beat that we just go home to sleep.
It is now Monday (6/20/05) and I am dead tired as we walk up. I was snoring which didn't help either. I go down and get some breakfast alone and then come back and shower. The tub had a handle shower head so that made it hard to shower. I had to rush so we could make it in time for the glass tour, which ended up being half an hour late. So this guy comes and walks us to this boat and the boat takes us out to Murano and we visit a glass factory. It was nice and we got to see how glass was made. Murano is famous for its glass. It is its own island and after seeing the glass place, we took a boat back to Venice. Well two of our 24 hour passes has expired and only one was left. The trip was very long so a crew member went around asking everyone for their tickets. We had our 3 tickets which I was holding, but 2 had expired about 3 hours before. So I put the unexpired ticket on top and handed all 3 to the lady. She inspected the top one with much scrutiny and after it passed the test, she assumed, like I was hoping she would, that they other two were similar. So took a breath of relief and saved 10 bucks that two new tickets would cost.
We arrive in San Marco square which is the main tourist spot here. There was a tower and a church and it was packed with tourists. It was a pretty amazing square. I went shopping for some gifts and ended up buying a tapestry of San Marco square that cost me a lot of money. I also purchased some glass items for friends from home. The girls went to the Cartier store, but didn't buy anything. After all the shopping, and taking a break to check email, I buy some more gelato. That is some good ice cream. We walk back to our hotel and pick up our stuff and work our way back to the boat station. We take our final boat over to the train station and before we get on the train, have a final dinner at yet another pizza shop. After eating, I took our last half hour to shop even more and buy a lot of my gifts and postcards.
The train to Rome was long, I mean long, probably like 7 hours or so. When we just got on, I ran out to get some water and snacks and literally made it back less than a minute before the train left. Talk about cutting it close. The trip went by slowly and not having much to talk about anymore, we just sat there trying to listen to music. We wanted to watch Sex and City, but we figured the sound would be rude to the other people on the train. At one point, we ventured out on the train to try and find the food car. When we got there, most of the stuff was sold out, but we were able to get some snacks to hold us over. Later, we tried to practice speaking spanish so that Sarah Beth could learn, but we really didn't get anywhere except looking like a bunch of idiots to the people sitting next to us who spoke spanish. Once we got to the train station, they were cleaning the floors and there was this loud sound that was very annoying We took a cab to our first hotel we stayed at and this time our room was not as nice. It was late so we quickly fell asleep.
Saturday, June 18, 2005
Rome, Italy
The new updated plan. We leave Friday to Madrid and catch a flight to Rome. We sleep there and take a train to Florence Saturday and then to Venice Sunday, back to Rome on Monday and flying back to Madrid on Tuesday.
So the day has come for real. I have another day of class, but a lot of students were missing because they were out on trips. The atmosphere was pretty relaxed. Our professor told us a story about a student he taught in West Africa whom he gave homework to and didn’t know they he didn’t have lights in the house, so he had to do his homework under a lamp or something. He said he didn’t feel too bad later when he ran into him many years later in Germany and the guy had a hot wife (don’t know how that matters, but it does) and was on his way to buy a Mercedes. He came a long way.
I got an email from Fede today. At first I was worried and was hoping it was not bad news about Koki or Mia (my cats), but instead it was about an article his niece wrote for NPR. It was about the Taco Bell boycott and how it worked out. It was cool reading about how everything worked out.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4706271
The Spurs are up 3-2 (3-3 as of this writing) and I’m still rooting for them from way over here.
Our plan was to leave early, but Bianca could not get out of class. My theme for my travels has been to not worry or stress, but trust and faith that things will work out. We end up getting on the long bus, which delays us even more. We take a cab instead of taking the train, but we get caught in traffic. I start to worry we won’t make it, but say nothing and just trust it will all work out. We finally get to the airport with less than an hour to go before our flight (need 2 hours), but we find one of those self-service lines and check in very fast. So I am glad I didn’t stress out. We even have time to get some food, and it was lucky because the only food on the flight was food you had to pay for.
The flight was about 2 and a half hours, but I didn’t find it too bad. I keep trying not to think about crashing when I fly, but though I don’t show it externally, somewhere in the back of my mind I have to release control and accept that if I die at that moment, I’ll be at peace with it. I keep telling myself (well God I guess) that I’d rather not though.
We get to Rome and we don’t have to go through customs. Sucks I don’t get an Italian stamp on my passport. The place is full of hustlers and cab drivers trying to make money off of you. There is no shuttle to the hotel, so we get offered a 55 dollar ride and then a 45 dollar one. They get a good system where they are dressed nice and have these official signs around their neck (licenses to let them solicit) and they come up to you and offer information. Who doesn’t need information? Before you know it, you are in a cab/shuttle with that same "information guy" driving. The guy we let take out money was actually a pretty cool guy. I have to admit that the Italian men do dress well, but they still stink like BO. We get to our hotel and I saw a stray cat outside. Little did I know there would be many more stray cats in Italy.
We unpack and then take a bus to find a place to eat. It was an ordeal and we ended up at this very expensive place that served a lot of seafood. The food was good, but not exactly what we were looking for. I had the calamari, but it was the actual squid, not the savory fried pieces I usually get. I was hungry so it worked out. We didn’t know Italian, so talking was hard and at one point we really wanted our check. We asked the waiter how to say check and he didn’t understand us, so he said "Prego". We didn’t know what that meant, so we assumed it was check. No check came. So like idiots we kept saying "prego" to all the employees and still no check. Prego means "please" or "if you please." We finally got the check like half an hour later. We took a cab home and found out that cabs in Rome cost a lot.
Saturday morning (6/18/05), we ate breakfast and caught the bus to the Vatican. The place was great and I am very happy I went. I guess it like the Catholic Mecca, and I always felt like it was a place that I would need to go to at least once in my life. Kind of ironic that the person that my family sees as the least religious, is the one that actually goes and visits the Vatican. We went inside the Basilica and then go on a tour of the treasury. There was a lot of art work with fragments of the real cross of Jesus. I wonder if they know where all the fragments are. Afterwards, I bought something from the gift shop and we tried to make our way to the Sistine Chapel. It had just closed, but I really wanted to go, so we kept it for another day. There were some really cool water fountains that were like mangeras (water hoses)/fountains that you just drink out of. We then went to the tombs of all the popes and I got to see where Pope John Paul II was buried. I never saw him in life, but did get to visit his grave.
Afterwards, we went to the Vatican post office and sent post cards home. We then walked around more and had some gelato ice cream. It tasted great. We then took the metro to the train station. The metro in Rome is not as complicated as the other cities I have visited. There are two crisscrossing lines and that is it. We purchased our train tickets to Florence and it was time to eat. We decided to try out the McDonalds in Rome (this is like a Coke and McDonalds tour). After we ate, we took the train to the Coliseum.
The Coliseum was definitely a highlight of the trip. It is funny because I feel like most people think of the movie Gladiator and I heard a lot of people mentioning it. We paid the 10 bucks and walked around. The first thing I noticed was all the stray cats living there. When you see a lot of old building and churches, it is hard to appreciate how very old they are. Here, because of the state it was in, you really get that historical feel.
We tried to figure out the best way to get home and we decided we could take a metro stop somewhat close to our hotel and then walk from there. Well I must have been tired because my map skills were not at their usual top and we ended up walking in the wrong direction. Then we couldn’t catch a cab for the life of us. We finally end up on a bus that gets us to the hotel, but we were really crunched for time. We get out luggage and then take a cab to the train station. Just like everything else in our trip, things worked out perfectly and we were very fortunate, especially that our train was running late.
We finally get on our train to Florence and it was an overnight train. There were 4 seats 2 and 2 facing each other. We were able to pull the chairs out. We tried to sleep on the way, but we didn't get much rest on the 4 hour trip. We arrive in Florence and get off the train in the middle of the night. There are no cabs there, so we wait and through some mix up, we end up getting a cab. We get to our hotel and the price was expensive for a short ride. The hotel is nice and there are all these cats living there. There is a cat just lying there in the lobby. We put our stuff away and decide to find food. The guy at the front desk tells us of this pizza place/club and we take another expensive cab there. Well I'm wearing shorts and this place ends up just being a club with a closed kitchen. Considering how expensive the cab was, we decide to instead walk home.
On the way home, we notice our good fortune when we run into a street vendor open at 2am at night. He knows no English, but somehow we manage to get our orders in with a lot of painting. I got to practice a lot of my "caveman" Italian, which consists mainly of grunts, spanish/english words and many hand signals. After we enjoy our meal, (I had a burger, well similar) we start walking home. Probably not the best idea walking in the middle of the night, but we really didn't want to pay. We must of been in the red light district because we ran into at least 5 prostitutes. At first I wasn't sure, but after like #3, we knew, especially with all the cars stopping. After a long walk, we finally make it back ot the hotel and get to sleep.
So the day has come for real. I have another day of class, but a lot of students were missing because they were out on trips. The atmosphere was pretty relaxed. Our professor told us a story about a student he taught in West Africa whom he gave homework to and didn’t know they he didn’t have lights in the house, so he had to do his homework under a lamp or something. He said he didn’t feel too bad later when he ran into him many years later in Germany and the guy had a hot wife (don’t know how that matters, but it does) and was on his way to buy a Mercedes. He came a long way.
I got an email from Fede today. At first I was worried and was hoping it was not bad news about Koki or Mia (my cats), but instead it was about an article his niece wrote for NPR. It was about the Taco Bell boycott and how it worked out. It was cool reading about how everything worked out.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4706271
The Spurs are up 3-2 (3-3 as of this writing) and I’m still rooting for them from way over here.
Our plan was to leave early, but Bianca could not get out of class. My theme for my travels has been to not worry or stress, but trust and faith that things will work out. We end up getting on the long bus, which delays us even more. We take a cab instead of taking the train, but we get caught in traffic. I start to worry we won’t make it, but say nothing and just trust it will all work out. We finally get to the airport with less than an hour to go before our flight (need 2 hours), but we find one of those self-service lines and check in very fast. So I am glad I didn’t stress out. We even have time to get some food, and it was lucky because the only food on the flight was food you had to pay for.
The flight was about 2 and a half hours, but I didn’t find it too bad. I keep trying not to think about crashing when I fly, but though I don’t show it externally, somewhere in the back of my mind I have to release control and accept that if I die at that moment, I’ll be at peace with it. I keep telling myself (well God I guess) that I’d rather not though.
We get to Rome and we don’t have to go through customs. Sucks I don’t get an Italian stamp on my passport. The place is full of hustlers and cab drivers trying to make money off of you. There is no shuttle to the hotel, so we get offered a 55 dollar ride and then a 45 dollar one. They get a good system where they are dressed nice and have these official signs around their neck (licenses to let them solicit) and they come up to you and offer information. Who doesn’t need information? Before you know it, you are in a cab/shuttle with that same "information guy" driving. The guy we let take out money was actually a pretty cool guy. I have to admit that the Italian men do dress well, but they still stink like BO. We get to our hotel and I saw a stray cat outside. Little did I know there would be many more stray cats in Italy.
We unpack and then take a bus to find a place to eat. It was an ordeal and we ended up at this very expensive place that served a lot of seafood. The food was good, but not exactly what we were looking for. I had the calamari, but it was the actual squid, not the savory fried pieces I usually get. I was hungry so it worked out. We didn’t know Italian, so talking was hard and at one point we really wanted our check. We asked the waiter how to say check and he didn’t understand us, so he said "Prego". We didn’t know what that meant, so we assumed it was check. No check came. So like idiots we kept saying "prego" to all the employees and still no check. Prego means "please" or "if you please." We finally got the check like half an hour later. We took a cab home and found out that cabs in Rome cost a lot.
Saturday morning (6/18/05), we ate breakfast and caught the bus to the Vatican. The place was great and I am very happy I went. I guess it like the Catholic Mecca, and I always felt like it was a place that I would need to go to at least once in my life. Kind of ironic that the person that my family sees as the least religious, is the one that actually goes and visits the Vatican. We went inside the Basilica and then go on a tour of the treasury. There was a lot of art work with fragments of the real cross of Jesus. I wonder if they know where all the fragments are. Afterwards, I bought something from the gift shop and we tried to make our way to the Sistine Chapel. It had just closed, but I really wanted to go, so we kept it for another day. There were some really cool water fountains that were like mangeras (water hoses)/fountains that you just drink out of. We then went to the tombs of all the popes and I got to see where Pope John Paul II was buried. I never saw him in life, but did get to visit his grave.
Afterwards, we went to the Vatican post office and sent post cards home. We then walked around more and had some gelato ice cream. It tasted great. We then took the metro to the train station. The metro in Rome is not as complicated as the other cities I have visited. There are two crisscrossing lines and that is it. We purchased our train tickets to Florence and it was time to eat. We decided to try out the McDonalds in Rome (this is like a Coke and McDonalds tour). After we ate, we took the train to the Coliseum.
The Coliseum was definitely a highlight of the trip. It is funny because I feel like most people think of the movie Gladiator and I heard a lot of people mentioning it. We paid the 10 bucks and walked around. The first thing I noticed was all the stray cats living there. When you see a lot of old building and churches, it is hard to appreciate how very old they are. Here, because of the state it was in, you really get that historical feel.
We tried to figure out the best way to get home and we decided we could take a metro stop somewhat close to our hotel and then walk from there. Well I must have been tired because my map skills were not at their usual top and we ended up walking in the wrong direction. Then we couldn’t catch a cab for the life of us. We finally end up on a bus that gets us to the hotel, but we were really crunched for time. We get out luggage and then take a cab to the train station. Just like everything else in our trip, things worked out perfectly and we were very fortunate, especially that our train was running late.
We finally get on our train to Florence and it was an overnight train. There were 4 seats 2 and 2 facing each other. We were able to pull the chairs out. We tried to sleep on the way, but we didn't get much rest on the 4 hour trip. We arrive in Florence and get off the train in the middle of the night. There are no cabs there, so we wait and through some mix up, we end up getting a cab. We get to our hotel and the price was expensive for a short ride. The hotel is nice and there are all these cats living there. There is a cat just lying there in the lobby. We put our stuff away and decide to find food. The guy at the front desk tells us of this pizza place/club and we take another expensive cab there. Well I'm wearing shorts and this place ends up just being a club with a closed kitchen. Considering how expensive the cab was, we decide to instead walk home.
On the way home, we notice our good fortune when we run into a street vendor open at 2am at night. He knows no English, but somehow we manage to get our orders in with a lot of painting. I got to practice a lot of my "caveman" Italian, which consists mainly of grunts, spanish/english words and many hand signals. After we enjoy our meal, (I had a burger, well similar) we start walking home. Probably not the best idea walking in the middle of the night, but we really didn't want to pay. We must of been in the red light district because we ran into at least 5 prostitutes. At first I wasn't sure, but after like #3, we knew, especially with all the cars stopping. After a long walk, we finally make it back ot the hotel and get to sleep.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
The Mix-Up
Thursday morning I woke up and got ready for class knowing that today was going to be a big rush. I talked to my professors about the absence situation, and well I got very circular explanations. My professor said it was an admin issue and to talk to the Monsignor and the Monsignor said that whatever my professor said was fine. So I’ll take that as “don’t worry about it.” I attended my two classes and left a bit early in my second class. My left eye is really bothering me and I think I have an eye infection. I have been very blessed in my life to where I haven’t had many. I wear the same contacts for months upon months more than I should yet still no infection. This infection, I got when not wearing my contacts, but now I must wear glasses until it gets better. You can’t see anything wrong, but it hurts like no other when I blink.
So let me tell you the plan again for the Rome trip. We leave Thursday to Madrid and catch a flight to Rome. We sleep there and take a train to Florence Friday and then to Venice Saturday, back to Rome on Sunday and flying back to Madrid on Monday. Now that you have the short version, let’s get into the long version.
NOT SO FAST. LOL. So there was a pretty funny mix-up. I leave class, run and get my laundry, pay the travel agent for the extra day in Paris and then get all our bags and rush to the bus station. Well the first mix-up is that we find out our flight is at 4:10pm not 3:10pm. This really helped, but it was not the significant mix-up. I had this weird feeling, so I checked the tickets and notice a 17th, but from that morning I remember putting 16th on my notes. We check and double check and then looking at a calendar notice that the flight is for Friday not Thursday. Note that we are on a bus to Madrid. We then jump off at the next stop and catch a bus back to El Escorial. I was kind of happy because I was not ready to take off on such a long trip. It was very embarrassing though, but we honestly thought it was Thursday, maybe because we switched plans so often, we just forgot.
We then have lunch at this hamburger place and then I took a great nap. I wake up to go horseback riding, but the place was closed. Instead, I went to get ice cream and use the internet. Sarah Beth, Bianca hung out outside and had a few drinks prior to dinner. We then went to eat at this Italian restaurant where it seemed like everyone from our program was eating. The food was good and I had a few more beers. It was a nice and relaxing evening. At night I tried to watch Star Wars Episode III a guy had on dvd, but it didn’t work on my laptop.
So let me tell you the plan again for the Rome trip. We leave Thursday to Madrid and catch a flight to Rome. We sleep there and take a train to Florence Friday and then to Venice Saturday, back to Rome on Sunday and flying back to Madrid on Monday. Now that you have the short version, let’s get into the long version.
NOT SO FAST. LOL. So there was a pretty funny mix-up. I leave class, run and get my laundry, pay the travel agent for the extra day in Paris and then get all our bags and rush to the bus station. Well the first mix-up is that we find out our flight is at 4:10pm not 3:10pm. This really helped, but it was not the significant mix-up. I had this weird feeling, so I checked the tickets and notice a 17th, but from that morning I remember putting 16th on my notes. We check and double check and then looking at a calendar notice that the flight is for Friday not Thursday. Note that we are on a bus to Madrid. We then jump off at the next stop and catch a bus back to El Escorial. I was kind of happy because I was not ready to take off on such a long trip. It was very embarrassing though, but we honestly thought it was Thursday, maybe because we switched plans so often, we just forgot.
We then have lunch at this hamburger place and then I took a great nap. I wake up to go horseback riding, but the place was closed. Instead, I went to get ice cream and use the internet. Sarah Beth, Bianca hung out outside and had a few drinks prior to dinner. We then went to eat at this Italian restaurant where it seemed like everyone from our program was eating. The food was good and I had a few more beers. It was a nice and relaxing evening. At night I tried to watch Star Wars Episode III a guy had on dvd, but it didn’t work on my laptop.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Paris, France
I’m sitting in the Paris airport on Wednesday 6/15/05 when I should be in Spain getting ready to go to Rome. I guess that is what happens when you make plans. Traveling is always an adventure, but I don’t mind when things go according to plan.
It is Friday, 6/10/05, and I attend my two classes as they are setting up for the King of France to visit San Lorenzo del Escorial outside our window. I know I’m not going to be here when he comes, but I’m sure I wouldn’t of got a good view of him anyway, though I might stay if I would get to meet him. I head to lunch where were go through our 3 course ordeal where I try some new foods and get reminded that American food is by far my favorite…even American versions of other countries foods. I end up taking a siesta like the rest of the town and waking up ready for dinner. The girls are still at the gym, so I walk around the town for awhile, but the grocery store is already closed. I’m starting to get a good internal map of the place, of course now that the program is almost over. We end up having dinner at the hotel restaurant. Expensive, but convenient…that is probably the motto of this entire trip. We then go over to the Red Frog to have a few drinks. Most of the students were gone, so it was somewhat quiet there. I had a few beers and played darts (can you say undefeated), while Bianca and Sarah Beth shared two bottles of wine. Needless to say, Sarah Beth got sick that night and threw up over the floor. I’m glad I’m still not a wine drinker.
On Saturday, we made our way to the bus station and took the bus to Madrid. On the bus were two of our professors who were going to Madrid for the day. Bianca talked to them for a while about France, but I just napped. When we got there, we jumped on the metro and figured our way over to the airport. We were flying a little known Argentina’s airline, but the check in wasn’t too bad. We got some food and there were two American girls in line in front of us. It was funny because they were the stereotypical rich white American girls, acting all Paris Hilton like doing their European Travels. I judge people quickly I think, but they lived up to this. We go on the plan and the stewardess looked just how you would imagine them, tall, skinny attractive and French. There was a problem with the plan and we had to go back to the tarmac, but though Sarah Beth argued it was her bad luck, I viewed it as my good fortune that they caught the problem and we did not crash. We showed up to France two hours later than we planned, but it was no big deal. I was really worried about the language problem, and I did not even know how to say hello or thank you. Luckily, most people speak English, even though a lot won’t talk to you out of spite. Some people were really rude, others were very nice. I guess it is like the rest of the world. The first thing we noticed was how cold it was, something none of us were prepared for. Women were wearing scarves. We found a bus that took us to the center of town since the airport was somewhat far. We then take their metro system (which I have to say is complicated, mainly because of all their other non-metro lines) to our stop. We then find our hotel and check out our room. It was much nicer than our hostel, but my allergies didn’t like it much. Everywhere in Europe, you need a key for your lights. Man they are all about conserving energy and saying money. We then decide to go and eat at this Tex-Mex restaurant we saw called El Rancho. Who the hell goes from Texas to France to try tex-mex, but we were hungry and it was fun. The food was ok, very non-tex mex, like the chips were like fake Doritos…but I have to admit the food was filling and better than anything I have eaten in Spain. We go home, watch the Chappell show we had on DVD on my laptop and went to bed.
On Sunday morning, we got up early and I took a shower. The water was cold and I guess it took a long time to warm up, but all you could hear was me yelling fuck as I tried to clean myself in a very small shower. It finally got warm and the pressure was good, but I like Spanish showers better. We went and had our free breakfast, where I had a lot of crossants and boiled eggs, cheese and oj. I also had some French toast.
We started our tour for the day. So Paris is known for Fashion, but it didn’t impress me too much. It just seemed very European. I do admit that the women are a lot more attractive than the Spanish women, but I still think American women are better…though, they were all skinny. The guys pants were too tight and a lot of girls had the Ashley Simpson haircut, but there was a lot less of that mullet cut.
We start off at the Arc de Triumph, which was the main place I wanted to go. Over 5 years ago, I got a postcard of it and knew that one day I too would get to visit it. It brought a lot of things full circle for me. It as pretty awesome and though I have seen the replica in NYC, it was awesome seeing it here. We ran into a guy who was a law studying working in London visiting Spain and chilled with him for a while as we did our sightseeing. Sarah Beth got into an altercation with a French man over throwing away some batteries and was introduced to French people being assholes. Bianca went over and gave him a piece of her mind, to the point where he pushed that security button and two guards came over to make sure everything was ok. The guy defended his actions of telling her to say please and may and all this crap, while being an ass, while Bianca let him know that he can’t be a jerk and get away with it.
We then jumped our tour bus that you hop on and off from. I totally recommend paying for this. You get ear phones if you want to hear the audio tour, but mainly, it gets you where you want to go. We got to see many sights and got off at the Effiel Tower. I was at the fuckign Effiel tower, how cool is that.
Before we got in line, we went to eat at a local restaurant. It was some of the best food I have had on this trip and by far was not one of the most expensive. It was filling, but didn’t weigh you down. Now part of my trip is going from country to country trying all their cokes since they have different formulations. The coke in France is similar to that of Spain, maybe a bit sweeter, but expensive as shit. I’m not even going to say how much I paid to drink coke, but it was much more than I could ever justify.
We went back to the tower and it is very large and we got in line to go to the top despite my fear of heights. It was a many hour ordeal to get to the top, but it was well worth it when you are up there seeing the entire city and knowing you are on top of one of the top sightseeing spots in the world. Oh, since Paris is in the running for the Olympics, they had signs everywhere of Paris 2012. They are in the lead and I hope they win. They had a sign on the tower as well.
We then took the tour bus to Notre Dame, by passing the Lovue knowing we would be back, and when we got there, it was closing, so we decided to come back later. We got some ice cream, and bought souvenirs. We then decide to try and walk to our boat cruise. It was a long walk and right before we got there, we were almost killed by a huge tour bus as we were crossing the street. The driver wasn’t looking as she turned left and the guy in the front with her made her stop, as we started like deers in headlights at the huge bus coming right at us. But, we were ok. We got on our boat at 11pm for the 1 hour tour. It was nice that it was night time and you could see things all lit up, but it was most of the stuff we saw that day. There were many Asian tourists on there with us, and by many, I mean almost everyone on there. It was a good time to relax our feet from walking all day and just enjoy the sights.
Afterwards, we decided to eat at the McDonalds in Paris. The food wasn’t too bad and man all the ones we saw looked really awesome. They look all fashionable and cool, not like a fast food restaurant. We then called it a night and went home.
On Monday, our last day, we started even earlier with breakfast and headed out to our tour bus that dropped us off at the Louve. I really wanted to go to this museum. The place was cool, we saw a mummy, lots of famous sculptures and paintings and the Mona Lisa. Like everyone else who has seen it, I took thought it was much smaller than I expected. I really don’t know exactly why it is so famous, but not it is even more famous for being famous. I saw it and took a picture. After, we went to Notre Dame and had some lunch at a French restaurant. The food again was good, and I had my first try of French Fries. I forget the story, but I remember something about them not being French I think…are they from Idaho? We then toured Notre Dame and even stayed for mass. Because we stayed for mass, the girls missed out going to the Cartier store, I did not mind. We then went shopping, something that is always fun for boys. I was a good sport and they looked around for hours, but the places we went to were very expensive. I did get to go to Virgin Records and purchased La Oreja “Paris” cd, which is cool, mixing Spain and France in that purchase. After waiting on a bench for an hour as they looked for stuff, we headed back toward the hotel so that we could eat. We found a nice tavern and ate there. We became friends with a drunk guy who didn’t know English, but was really drunk. There was this French couple we talked to who told us the whole don’t like Bush, but like Americans thing. He was a cool guy who had just come back from visiting LA. We were invited to go out, but decided to go home instead and sleep so we could catch our flight.
Tuesday morning, we woke up and caught our shuttle to the airport. Once again, we paid more money for the convience. We get to the airport and find our check in counter. Here we were reminded what jerks the French can be. Long story short, we are getting our tickets to board our flights and the people decide to be dicks. They say we need proof we are leaving Spain, proof we have in Spain. Since we only have etickets of our flights to the US, we offer to show them on the internet downstairs, but they decline. Sarah gets proof from her airline which was close by, but for Bianca and me, ours was in a whole other terminal and there wasn’t time to get there and back since it was so fucking far. We fight with them, they pretty much say fuck you and we sent off Sarah alone back to Spain. They told us if we got the proof, we could fly on Weds at 6pm and pay an extra 50 euro fee. We are now stranded in Paris for another day. So we call our travel agent to book us a hotel, she does and it’s expensive. Well we find our way to the hotel, which took forever and guess what, they have no rooms. We make another expensive call to our agent and she told us they same thing, (you’d think she would of told us on the phone originally) and all the hotels were booked in Paris, so she got us a hotel by EuroDisney, now Disney Paris. So we pay 70 euro (fuckload) to take a cab out there and finally get to sleep. We wake up and eat dinner there at the hotel. We met this African guy who moved to France to study business and he told us what he thought about America. He says he wants to go, but only when he has money because he thinks America does not care about its poor. That everyone has money or is poor. I guess to an extent all he was saying was true, but not entirely, but it cool seeing how people from different parts of the world see your country. He kept making it seem like we were rich, which we tried to tell him we were not. After dinner, it is too late to go to the park, so we just go to Disney Village at night. It was an ok experience, but I would of rather been back in Spain getting ready to leave for Rome. We try to find internet, but to no avail. We then buy a few beers and watch Chappel Show.
The next morning, we have our breakfast and then take the Disney bus to the airport at noon. We arrive and our counter is empty and we have to wait until 4 pm to check in, so we write our post cards and just chill for 3 hours in the airport waiting to check in. We find a spot by McDonalds and spend hours there, reading, listening to music and writing post cards. We finally go check in and guess what, they don’t even ask for our proof that we are leaving Spain, the very reason we stayed an entire day, but they did remember to charge us money. The flight was delayed of course, but after a long day of travel, we finally made it in right before midnight.
I went straight to my room and started to unpack. I then went to talk to Sarah and Bianca about our plans for Thursday and what we were going to do. I then got a quick bite to eat at the bowling alley, watched the end of the Chappell show season 2 and went to bed.
It is Friday, 6/10/05, and I attend my two classes as they are setting up for the King of France to visit San Lorenzo del Escorial outside our window. I know I’m not going to be here when he comes, but I’m sure I wouldn’t of got a good view of him anyway, though I might stay if I would get to meet him. I head to lunch where were go through our 3 course ordeal where I try some new foods and get reminded that American food is by far my favorite…even American versions of other countries foods. I end up taking a siesta like the rest of the town and waking up ready for dinner. The girls are still at the gym, so I walk around the town for awhile, but the grocery store is already closed. I’m starting to get a good internal map of the place, of course now that the program is almost over. We end up having dinner at the hotel restaurant. Expensive, but convenient…that is probably the motto of this entire trip. We then go over to the Red Frog to have a few drinks. Most of the students were gone, so it was somewhat quiet there. I had a few beers and played darts (can you say undefeated), while Bianca and Sarah Beth shared two bottles of wine. Needless to say, Sarah Beth got sick that night and threw up over the floor. I’m glad I’m still not a wine drinker.
On Saturday, we made our way to the bus station and took the bus to Madrid. On the bus were two of our professors who were going to Madrid for the day. Bianca talked to them for a while about France, but I just napped. When we got there, we jumped on the metro and figured our way over to the airport. We were flying a little known Argentina’s airline, but the check in wasn’t too bad. We got some food and there were two American girls in line in front of us. It was funny because they were the stereotypical rich white American girls, acting all Paris Hilton like doing their European Travels. I judge people quickly I think, but they lived up to this. We go on the plan and the stewardess looked just how you would imagine them, tall, skinny attractive and French. There was a problem with the plan and we had to go back to the tarmac, but though Sarah Beth argued it was her bad luck, I viewed it as my good fortune that they caught the problem and we did not crash. We showed up to France two hours later than we planned, but it was no big deal. I was really worried about the language problem, and I did not even know how to say hello or thank you. Luckily, most people speak English, even though a lot won’t talk to you out of spite. Some people were really rude, others were very nice. I guess it is like the rest of the world. The first thing we noticed was how cold it was, something none of us were prepared for. Women were wearing scarves. We found a bus that took us to the center of town since the airport was somewhat far. We then take their metro system (which I have to say is complicated, mainly because of all their other non-metro lines) to our stop. We then find our hotel and check out our room. It was much nicer than our hostel, but my allergies didn’t like it much. Everywhere in Europe, you need a key for your lights. Man they are all about conserving energy and saying money. We then decide to go and eat at this Tex-Mex restaurant we saw called El Rancho. Who the hell goes from Texas to France to try tex-mex, but we were hungry and it was fun. The food was ok, very non-tex mex, like the chips were like fake Doritos…but I have to admit the food was filling and better than anything I have eaten in Spain. We go home, watch the Chappell show we had on DVD on my laptop and went to bed.
On Sunday morning, we got up early and I took a shower. The water was cold and I guess it took a long time to warm up, but all you could hear was me yelling fuck as I tried to clean myself in a very small shower. It finally got warm and the pressure was good, but I like Spanish showers better. We went and had our free breakfast, where I had a lot of crossants and boiled eggs, cheese and oj. I also had some French toast.
We started our tour for the day. So Paris is known for Fashion, but it didn’t impress me too much. It just seemed very European. I do admit that the women are a lot more attractive than the Spanish women, but I still think American women are better…though, they were all skinny. The guys pants were too tight and a lot of girls had the Ashley Simpson haircut, but there was a lot less of that mullet cut.
We start off at the Arc de Triumph, which was the main place I wanted to go. Over 5 years ago, I got a postcard of it and knew that one day I too would get to visit it. It brought a lot of things full circle for me. It as pretty awesome and though I have seen the replica in NYC, it was awesome seeing it here. We ran into a guy who was a law studying working in London visiting Spain and chilled with him for a while as we did our sightseeing. Sarah Beth got into an altercation with a French man over throwing away some batteries and was introduced to French people being assholes. Bianca went over and gave him a piece of her mind, to the point where he pushed that security button and two guards came over to make sure everything was ok. The guy defended his actions of telling her to say please and may and all this crap, while being an ass, while Bianca let him know that he can’t be a jerk and get away with it.
We then jumped our tour bus that you hop on and off from. I totally recommend paying for this. You get ear phones if you want to hear the audio tour, but mainly, it gets you where you want to go. We got to see many sights and got off at the Effiel Tower. I was at the fuckign Effiel tower, how cool is that.
Before we got in line, we went to eat at a local restaurant. It was some of the best food I have had on this trip and by far was not one of the most expensive. It was filling, but didn’t weigh you down. Now part of my trip is going from country to country trying all their cokes since they have different formulations. The coke in France is similar to that of Spain, maybe a bit sweeter, but expensive as shit. I’m not even going to say how much I paid to drink coke, but it was much more than I could ever justify.
We went back to the tower and it is very large and we got in line to go to the top despite my fear of heights. It was a many hour ordeal to get to the top, but it was well worth it when you are up there seeing the entire city and knowing you are on top of one of the top sightseeing spots in the world. Oh, since Paris is in the running for the Olympics, they had signs everywhere of Paris 2012. They are in the lead and I hope they win. They had a sign on the tower as well.
We then took the tour bus to Notre Dame, by passing the Lovue knowing we would be back, and when we got there, it was closing, so we decided to come back later. We got some ice cream, and bought souvenirs. We then decide to try and walk to our boat cruise. It was a long walk and right before we got there, we were almost killed by a huge tour bus as we were crossing the street. The driver wasn’t looking as she turned left and the guy in the front with her made her stop, as we started like deers in headlights at the huge bus coming right at us. But, we were ok. We got on our boat at 11pm for the 1 hour tour. It was nice that it was night time and you could see things all lit up, but it was most of the stuff we saw that day. There were many Asian tourists on there with us, and by many, I mean almost everyone on there. It was a good time to relax our feet from walking all day and just enjoy the sights.
Afterwards, we decided to eat at the McDonalds in Paris. The food wasn’t too bad and man all the ones we saw looked really awesome. They look all fashionable and cool, not like a fast food restaurant. We then called it a night and went home.
On Monday, our last day, we started even earlier with breakfast and headed out to our tour bus that dropped us off at the Louve. I really wanted to go to this museum. The place was cool, we saw a mummy, lots of famous sculptures and paintings and the Mona Lisa. Like everyone else who has seen it, I took thought it was much smaller than I expected. I really don’t know exactly why it is so famous, but not it is even more famous for being famous. I saw it and took a picture. After, we went to Notre Dame and had some lunch at a French restaurant. The food again was good, and I had my first try of French Fries. I forget the story, but I remember something about them not being French I think…are they from Idaho? We then toured Notre Dame and even stayed for mass. Because we stayed for mass, the girls missed out going to the Cartier store, I did not mind. We then went shopping, something that is always fun for boys. I was a good sport and they looked around for hours, but the places we went to were very expensive. I did get to go to Virgin Records and purchased La Oreja “Paris” cd, which is cool, mixing Spain and France in that purchase. After waiting on a bench for an hour as they looked for stuff, we headed back toward the hotel so that we could eat. We found a nice tavern and ate there. We became friends with a drunk guy who didn’t know English, but was really drunk. There was this French couple we talked to who told us the whole don’t like Bush, but like Americans thing. He was a cool guy who had just come back from visiting LA. We were invited to go out, but decided to go home instead and sleep so we could catch our flight.
Tuesday morning, we woke up and caught our shuttle to the airport. Once again, we paid more money for the convience. We get to the airport and find our check in counter. Here we were reminded what jerks the French can be. Long story short, we are getting our tickets to board our flights and the people decide to be dicks. They say we need proof we are leaving Spain, proof we have in Spain. Since we only have etickets of our flights to the US, we offer to show them on the internet downstairs, but they decline. Sarah gets proof from her airline which was close by, but for Bianca and me, ours was in a whole other terminal and there wasn’t time to get there and back since it was so fucking far. We fight with them, they pretty much say fuck you and we sent off Sarah alone back to Spain. They told us if we got the proof, we could fly on Weds at 6pm and pay an extra 50 euro fee. We are now stranded in Paris for another day. So we call our travel agent to book us a hotel, she does and it’s expensive. Well we find our way to the hotel, which took forever and guess what, they have no rooms. We make another expensive call to our agent and she told us they same thing, (you’d think she would of told us on the phone originally) and all the hotels were booked in Paris, so she got us a hotel by EuroDisney, now Disney Paris. So we pay 70 euro (fuckload) to take a cab out there and finally get to sleep. We wake up and eat dinner there at the hotel. We met this African guy who moved to France to study business and he told us what he thought about America. He says he wants to go, but only when he has money because he thinks America does not care about its poor. That everyone has money or is poor. I guess to an extent all he was saying was true, but not entirely, but it cool seeing how people from different parts of the world see your country. He kept making it seem like we were rich, which we tried to tell him we were not. After dinner, it is too late to go to the park, so we just go to Disney Village at night. It was an ok experience, but I would of rather been back in Spain getting ready to leave for Rome. We try to find internet, but to no avail. We then buy a few beers and watch Chappel Show.
The next morning, we have our breakfast and then take the Disney bus to the airport at noon. We arrive and our counter is empty and we have to wait until 4 pm to check in, so we write our post cards and just chill for 3 hours in the airport waiting to check in. We find a spot by McDonalds and spend hours there, reading, listening to music and writing post cards. We finally go check in and guess what, they don’t even ask for our proof that we are leaving Spain, the very reason we stayed an entire day, but they did remember to charge us money. The flight was delayed of course, but after a long day of travel, we finally made it in right before midnight.
I went straight to my room and started to unpack. I then went to talk to Sarah and Bianca about our plans for Thursday and what we were going to do. I then got a quick bite to eat at the bowling alley, watched the end of the Chappell show season 2 and went to bed.
Friday, June 10, 2005
Valley of the Fallen
As you can tell, I write my entries every morning in class on my computer and then I copy them to my website. This is why I usually start each entry with lunch and then work my way through the rest of my day.
On the way home from class, Sarah told Sarah Beth about a tour she went on where the big cross was. Sarah Beth, who is always wanting to do something, tried to convince me to go. I told her that Bianca would want to go, but she too was too tired and wanted to stay in. I said we should go ride horses instead, but after thinking about what would make me more tired, I agreed to go with Sarah Beth. We work our way to the bus station and ask for tickets to the Valley of the Fallen. The bus ride wasn’t too far, and they dropped us off and were to come back and pick us up at 5:15pm. The place was pretty damn awesome, it is like a large mountain, with a huge (480ft) cross on top with 4 large statutes at the base. Franco is buried there. Inside the mountain is a basilica. The cross was built I think in the mid 1500s with prisoners of war from the Spanish Civil War, and it took 20 years to build it. I can’t explain how enormous the cross was, it has to be the coolest thing I have seen thus far. When we get there, my camera runs out of battery. So I decide to use Sarah Beth’s camera, but guess whose camera runs out of battery after two pictures. So now we have two cameras with no charge. We buy tickets for the trolley to the top and when we get up there, it was a great view. There was a nice breeze and we could see all around. Being close up to the cross really let you see how big it was. We then took the trolley down and walked around to the Basilica. It had a large courtyard and though it’s claim to fame is that I is inside of a mountain, to me it looked like every other church I have seen thus far. The dome on the inside is lined up with the bottom of the cross. We then waited for the bus and came back to El Escorial.
I went and got some ice cream and we picked up our tickets for Rome from the travel agent. I then went home and though I planned to take a nap, I ended up listening to “Your Best Life Now,” by Joel Osteen. So far, I think it is a good audiobook. I then decided that I really wanted to listen to La Oreja de van Gogh, that Spanish band I saw in Miami. I went to the internet cafe and looked up their concerts. They are playing in Madrid, but I’ll be in Rome. I’m going to try really hard to get to see them in Spain, and though it is going to be a long trek, I think I’ll be able to make it work.
In the morning, I went to check my emails, and I checked CNN to find out how my Spurs did in Game 1 of the NBA finals. So now they are up 1-0. I guess if the games were on TV, they would be too late for me to watch them anyways.
Ok, back to the Van Gogh concert talk. Well guess what, the schedule I was looking at to figure out when and were I could see the band, was for 2004 (FOUR!). That sucks, now I have to go and find out where they are in 2005. This is going to be much harder than I thought.
I worry about my capacity to listen in class. In law school, I tend to chat on IM during class and listen at the same time. Here, I tend to write in my journal, play games and do other stuff while class is going on. The problem is that guys brains are not wired to multi-task, so it isn’t normal that I keep doing things to keep my mind occupied. I feel like my brain gets bored and I just keep an ear out for important facts, but there are times I totally phase out and there could be important stuff I’m missing (of course not here, but in real school yes). From what I read, guys tend to focus on one task and can usually only concentrate on one thing at a time. Yet, when I do anything, I do a little here, a little there a little more here, until they are all done, instead of picking one thing and just pimping it out. Of course this is just a generalization, but it makes me wonder how my learning process works and what is actually best for me. I think participation keeps me more involved, but there is only so much you can participate and I don’t like to participate when I’m not interested anyway.
I’m drinking a diet coke right now, but like I think I have said, they call it Coca-cola light here. I actually went to buy a water, but the machine was out and my money was in. I don’t like to start with caffeine too early because then I feel the need to have more caffeine later in the day. Dude, I drank a coke and just told you about, I must be really bored in this class. At least I can bring those of you reading down with me.
Yesterday as I was listening to Joel Osteen, I learned a good lesson. He talked about roots and fruits. Yeah, he makes shit really simple, but I don’t mind it. He says that a lot of people work on fixing their problems by attacking their fruits (imagine you are some sort of tree) and once they fix all their problems, then well the fruits just grow back over time. You cut them down again, but whenever you relax, back again because the roots are bad. He said if you really want to focus on your problems, you should attack them at the roots and hence solve the problem once and for all. I’ve actually heard this lesson before, about how will power is great and can help you change for a while, but if you don’t make real changes in how you think, then you will always go back to the your old ways. For example, working out, I can work out for 12 weeks and eat right by sheer will power. But, then when I let my guard down, I go back to my old ways, as I am now, in not working out and eating what I want. I attacked the fruits, but not the roots. Here is my problem, I don’t know what the real root of a lot of my issues are. I mean I don’t know the root of why I enjoy sleeping in, or not getting to the gym or not always being in the most happy positive attitude. I have fixed all those problems, but if I let my guard and will power down, I know I can slide right back. Maybe it is just because sleeping feels good, eating bad food feels good and not working out is easier than working out (even though I like how I feel so much more after a good workout, it is still tiring at times). I guess you will always by default take the easy road, eat the fast food, sleep rather than go do something, watch tv rather than go for a walk. Maybe I don’t think that is a problem, that is probably my real problem that it doesn’t bother me on one level, but on the other level, the level in which I write this and say I would like to change that, thinks it is a problem.
I thought about my grandparents yesterday and where I am in life and I have gotten to this point. I am not of the belief that I am where I am at through my own hard work and good fortune, but I know that others have played an important role in how I think and where I am. I’m not discounting my own efforts, but I know there is so much more to me than just my own thoughts and actions. My grandparents gave me unconditional love, that was something I have talked about before and I think everyone should have, but more importantly, they instilled in me something that has really helped me, they made me feel like I could do anything I ever wanted if I just worked hard. They never limited me, they never had expectations for me, but they always made me feel like I had all the opportunities in the world. I have put limits on myself, which explains why I don’t have a business right now and am following the generic path of college, law school lawyer, but I have also done a lot more than others around me have done. Then you have my parents. I don’t ever give them enough credit, maybe because growing up I always saw them as in my way. They were in my way of freedom, fun, etc. You know, like they made the rules. It must be a normal child thing, so I pushed every boundary that was given to me and made me respect authority, but not give up my goals because of it. In 1st grade, I choose not to be in my mom’s class, in direct opposition of my parents wishes. I got into a new class. My parents did not want me to go to the GT school, but I went nevertheless. My parents wanted me to stay in TX, but I choose NY instead. Here is something I never noticed, they let me choose, they let me make decisions they did not agree with and let me have my autonomy. They could have kept me in my mom’s class, or not let me go to the new school, but instead they saw it was my life and let me make decisions about it. I respect them so much for that because I learned responsibility for who I was and what I did. I had no one to blame if I failed, but myself. I had no ones expectations to meet, but my own. So ironically, the parents who I used to see as holding me back, were exactly the ones who were propelling me forward.
Now I’m living on my own, going to school far away and doing what I want each day. I’m living the dream I had as child who so wanted a car so that he could drive anywhere he wanted whenever he wanted. Another thing I owe my parents, is for example, my mom’s belief that God was always going to find away. Anytime I want something, I put my mind to it and I just know it is going to work out. It is not always exactly what I had planned, but I’m always grateful for how it turns out. I just know and have faith that everything will be ok. I wanted to go to law school, I didn’t get in, but somehow I still ended up in law school. I’ve moved places without an apartment, but yet I still found one. I always wanted to study in Europe and here I am. Right now life is so much in the air, yet I know in the end it will turn out to be better than it was before. It is this faith and not worrying that I got from my Mom that has really affected my life in positive ways. I do admit that I tend to run up debts at times by taking trips I probably shouldn’t take, but I am still somewhat reasonable and as long as I still have control, I’ll push the envelope as far as I can. When my brother told me he wanted to go on a cruise, I knew he couldn’t afford it, but I was proud he was doing something he could enjoy, memories he would have forever and knowing that he works his ass off at his job to make money, I did what I could to help him out.
On the way home from class, Sarah told Sarah Beth about a tour she went on where the big cross was. Sarah Beth, who is always wanting to do something, tried to convince me to go. I told her that Bianca would want to go, but she too was too tired and wanted to stay in. I said we should go ride horses instead, but after thinking about what would make me more tired, I agreed to go with Sarah Beth. We work our way to the bus station and ask for tickets to the Valley of the Fallen. The bus ride wasn’t too far, and they dropped us off and were to come back and pick us up at 5:15pm. The place was pretty damn awesome, it is like a large mountain, with a huge (480ft) cross on top with 4 large statutes at the base. Franco is buried there. Inside the mountain is a basilica. The cross was built I think in the mid 1500s with prisoners of war from the Spanish Civil War, and it took 20 years to build it. I can’t explain how enormous the cross was, it has to be the coolest thing I have seen thus far. When we get there, my camera runs out of battery. So I decide to use Sarah Beth’s camera, but guess whose camera runs out of battery after two pictures. So now we have two cameras with no charge. We buy tickets for the trolley to the top and when we get up there, it was a great view. There was a nice breeze and we could see all around. Being close up to the cross really let you see how big it was. We then took the trolley down and walked around to the Basilica. It had a large courtyard and though it’s claim to fame is that I is inside of a mountain, to me it looked like every other church I have seen thus far. The dome on the inside is lined up with the bottom of the cross. We then waited for the bus and came back to El Escorial.
I went and got some ice cream and we picked up our tickets for Rome from the travel agent. I then went home and though I planned to take a nap, I ended up listening to “Your Best Life Now,” by Joel Osteen. So far, I think it is a good audiobook. I then decided that I really wanted to listen to La Oreja de van Gogh, that Spanish band I saw in Miami. I went to the internet cafe and looked up their concerts. They are playing in Madrid, but I’ll be in Rome. I’m going to try really hard to get to see them in Spain, and though it is going to be a long trek, I think I’ll be able to make it work.
In the morning, I went to check my emails, and I checked CNN to find out how my Spurs did in Game 1 of the NBA finals. So now they are up 1-0. I guess if the games were on TV, they would be too late for me to watch them anyways.
Ok, back to the Van Gogh concert talk. Well guess what, the schedule I was looking at to figure out when and were I could see the band, was for 2004 (FOUR!). That sucks, now I have to go and find out where they are in 2005. This is going to be much harder than I thought.
I worry about my capacity to listen in class. In law school, I tend to chat on IM during class and listen at the same time. Here, I tend to write in my journal, play games and do other stuff while class is going on. The problem is that guys brains are not wired to multi-task, so it isn’t normal that I keep doing things to keep my mind occupied. I feel like my brain gets bored and I just keep an ear out for important facts, but there are times I totally phase out and there could be important stuff I’m missing (of course not here, but in real school yes). From what I read, guys tend to focus on one task and can usually only concentrate on one thing at a time. Yet, when I do anything, I do a little here, a little there a little more here, until they are all done, instead of picking one thing and just pimping it out. Of course this is just a generalization, but it makes me wonder how my learning process works and what is actually best for me. I think participation keeps me more involved, but there is only so much you can participate and I don’t like to participate when I’m not interested anyway.
I’m drinking a diet coke right now, but like I think I have said, they call it Coca-cola light here. I actually went to buy a water, but the machine was out and my money was in. I don’t like to start with caffeine too early because then I feel the need to have more caffeine later in the day. Dude, I drank a coke and just told you about, I must be really bored in this class. At least I can bring those of you reading down with me.
Yesterday as I was listening to Joel Osteen, I learned a good lesson. He talked about roots and fruits. Yeah, he makes shit really simple, but I don’t mind it. He says that a lot of people work on fixing their problems by attacking their fruits (imagine you are some sort of tree) and once they fix all their problems, then well the fruits just grow back over time. You cut them down again, but whenever you relax, back again because the roots are bad. He said if you really want to focus on your problems, you should attack them at the roots and hence solve the problem once and for all. I’ve actually heard this lesson before, about how will power is great and can help you change for a while, but if you don’t make real changes in how you think, then you will always go back to the your old ways. For example, working out, I can work out for 12 weeks and eat right by sheer will power. But, then when I let my guard down, I go back to my old ways, as I am now, in not working out and eating what I want. I attacked the fruits, but not the roots. Here is my problem, I don’t know what the real root of a lot of my issues are. I mean I don’t know the root of why I enjoy sleeping in, or not getting to the gym or not always being in the most happy positive attitude. I have fixed all those problems, but if I let my guard and will power down, I know I can slide right back. Maybe it is just because sleeping feels good, eating bad food feels good and not working out is easier than working out (even though I like how I feel so much more after a good workout, it is still tiring at times). I guess you will always by default take the easy road, eat the fast food, sleep rather than go do something, watch tv rather than go for a walk. Maybe I don’t think that is a problem, that is probably my real problem that it doesn’t bother me on one level, but on the other level, the level in which I write this and say I would like to change that, thinks it is a problem.
I thought about my grandparents yesterday and where I am in life and I have gotten to this point. I am not of the belief that I am where I am at through my own hard work and good fortune, but I know that others have played an important role in how I think and where I am. I’m not discounting my own efforts, but I know there is so much more to me than just my own thoughts and actions. My grandparents gave me unconditional love, that was something I have talked about before and I think everyone should have, but more importantly, they instilled in me something that has really helped me, they made me feel like I could do anything I ever wanted if I just worked hard. They never limited me, they never had expectations for me, but they always made me feel like I had all the opportunities in the world. I have put limits on myself, which explains why I don’t have a business right now and am following the generic path of college, law school lawyer, but I have also done a lot more than others around me have done. Then you have my parents. I don’t ever give them enough credit, maybe because growing up I always saw them as in my way. They were in my way of freedom, fun, etc. You know, like they made the rules. It must be a normal child thing, so I pushed every boundary that was given to me and made me respect authority, but not give up my goals because of it. In 1st grade, I choose not to be in my mom’s class, in direct opposition of my parents wishes. I got into a new class. My parents did not want me to go to the GT school, but I went nevertheless. My parents wanted me to stay in TX, but I choose NY instead. Here is something I never noticed, they let me choose, they let me make decisions they did not agree with and let me have my autonomy. They could have kept me in my mom’s class, or not let me go to the new school, but instead they saw it was my life and let me make decisions about it. I respect them so much for that because I learned responsibility for who I was and what I did. I had no one to blame if I failed, but myself. I had no ones expectations to meet, but my own. So ironically, the parents who I used to see as holding me back, were exactly the ones who were propelling me forward.
Now I’m living on my own, going to school far away and doing what I want each day. I’m living the dream I had as child who so wanted a car so that he could drive anywhere he wanted whenever he wanted. Another thing I owe my parents, is for example, my mom’s belief that God was always going to find away. Anytime I want something, I put my mind to it and I just know it is going to work out. It is not always exactly what I had planned, but I’m always grateful for how it turns out. I just know and have faith that everything will be ok. I wanted to go to law school, I didn’t get in, but somehow I still ended up in law school. I’ve moved places without an apartment, but yet I still found one. I always wanted to study in Europe and here I am. Right now life is so much in the air, yet I know in the end it will turn out to be better than it was before. It is this faith and not worrying that I got from my Mom that has really affected my life in positive ways. I do admit that I tend to run up debts at times by taking trips I probably shouldn’t take, but I am still somewhat reasonable and as long as I still have control, I’ll push the envelope as far as I can. When my brother told me he wanted to go on a cruise, I knew he couldn’t afford it, but I was proud he was doing something he could enjoy, memories he would have forever and knowing that he works his ass off at his job to make money, I did what I could to help him out.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Itinerary
We drop by the travel agent’s office after lunch, but some other students were there, so we decided to return later. We go to lunch and they serve Paeita (sp?). All I know is that is a Spanish dish that is very good. It is like yellow rice, chicken and ours had a mussel. After lunch, it was siesta, so I decided to get a good nap. After my nap, we go over to the travel agent and booked our trips. Our first trip is to Paris, France. We leave this Saturday and return on Tuesday. Then we attend class on Wednesday and Thursday, leaving early on Thursday so that we can fly to Rome. We will spend Thursday night in Rome, then take the train to Florence and spend Friday night there. Saturday we leave for Venice and then on Sunday we head back to Rome. We return on Monday. I have class from Tuesday – Thursday and my final on Friday. I might fit in one last trip that weekend, but I’ll be back in Miami on Tuesday. This trip has gone by fast. So that is the plan from here on out, but knowing that life is life, I don’t know if everything will go to plan.
The travel agent and online travel booking took a long time, so by the time I got home, it was late and I ate my chicken nuggets and chips for dinner. I called home and talked to my sister Ana, my Grandmother and my friend Rick. I then did my reading for class and looked at the magazines about Paris and Rome. I am a bit worried about not knowing French or Italian, but for the first time in my life, I won’t feel embarrassed for not knowing those languages as I do with Spanish. I won’t feel like people will expect me to know them.
Being this far way has made me think about the whole alone and lonely topic that is a reoccurring theme throughout my life. You don’t get more on your own than halfway across the world (where would I have to be to be fully across the world?) all on your own exploring unfamiliar places. It is weird, I guess I’m here alone, but considering I have friends here now, I don’t feel alone. Calling home makes me feel less lonely sometimes, but when I remember being in high school living at home, I don’t think I felt any less lonely. I guess the key is keeping busy and having good people around you.
This program reminds me the summer camps I attended when I was younger. I don’t think there was a camp that I did not enjoy. Even boys state, where we were all guys, I had fun exploring, making new friends and I think one day we ended up in a water park or something that was really fun. They are always great experiences and have been due to the cool people I have met. This is shown by the fact that I am still friends with people from those camps today. I guess all I have to look forward to like this is going to be business trips. I’m having lots of fun and hope that it continues.
It has come to the point where I need to do laundry. There is one place where you take your clothes, they weigh it and you get it back in a few days. The problem is that they are known to mess up your clothes. So I worry if I should risk it or try to wash them on my own. Yeah, hearing myself say wash them on my own makes me know that I’m just going to have to risk it.
Class on Thursday was not too eventful. I raised my and in class and talked about a case about this guy who had someone put up a message on aol saying he was selling shirts that promoted the OK city bombing and to call him at his home number. People would call him up calling him a fucker and giving him death threats, even though it was just some prank. The fucker ran a business so he couldn’t just change his number. What it really showed to me was what jerks people can be, meaning the people calling. What do you get out of threatening to kill him even if it was true. Oh yeah, so a radio picks it up and it gets much worse. Since I won’t be in class a lot from here on out, hopefully I’ve covered myself in class participation, but I’m sure I’ll still talk because I have problems keeping my mouth shut.
Comparative was exactly the same as every other class, so I don’t have much to talk about. I did play some good games of hangman during class. A owes X to B…yup that is my class in a nutshell.
The travel agent and online travel booking took a long time, so by the time I got home, it was late and I ate my chicken nuggets and chips for dinner. I called home and talked to my sister Ana, my Grandmother and my friend Rick. I then did my reading for class and looked at the magazines about Paris and Rome. I am a bit worried about not knowing French or Italian, but for the first time in my life, I won’t feel embarrassed for not knowing those languages as I do with Spanish. I won’t feel like people will expect me to know them.
Being this far way has made me think about the whole alone and lonely topic that is a reoccurring theme throughout my life. You don’t get more on your own than halfway across the world (where would I have to be to be fully across the world?) all on your own exploring unfamiliar places. It is weird, I guess I’m here alone, but considering I have friends here now, I don’t feel alone. Calling home makes me feel less lonely sometimes, but when I remember being in high school living at home, I don’t think I felt any less lonely. I guess the key is keeping busy and having good people around you.
This program reminds me the summer camps I attended when I was younger. I don’t think there was a camp that I did not enjoy. Even boys state, where we were all guys, I had fun exploring, making new friends and I think one day we ended up in a water park or something that was really fun. They are always great experiences and have been due to the cool people I have met. This is shown by the fact that I am still friends with people from those camps today. I guess all I have to look forward to like this is going to be business trips. I’m having lots of fun and hope that it continues.
It has come to the point where I need to do laundry. There is one place where you take your clothes, they weigh it and you get it back in a few days. The problem is that they are known to mess up your clothes. So I worry if I should risk it or try to wash them on my own. Yeah, hearing myself say wash them on my own makes me know that I’m just going to have to risk it.
Class on Thursday was not too eventful. I raised my and in class and talked about a case about this guy who had someone put up a message on aol saying he was selling shirts that promoted the OK city bombing and to call him at his home number. People would call him up calling him a fucker and giving him death threats, even though it was just some prank. The fucker ran a business so he couldn’t just change his number. What it really showed to me was what jerks people can be, meaning the people calling. What do you get out of threatening to kill him even if it was true. Oh yeah, so a radio picks it up and it gets much worse. Since I won’t be in class a lot from here on out, hopefully I’ve covered myself in class participation, but I’m sure I’ll still talk because I have problems keeping my mouth shut.
Comparative was exactly the same as every other class, so I don’t have much to talk about. I did play some good games of hangman during class. A owes X to B…yup that is my class in a nutshell.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Monastery Tour
The days are so long here, and it makes the month seem that much longer. I feel like time here has stopped and I’m in a whole different world, feels weird that I don’t have my old world to return to, but I guess a familiar world of Texas and then that wonderful question of where I’ll end up.
After class on Tuesday, there was lunch, where nothing too interesting happened. We had salads that were actually normal, but mine didn’t have any ham on it, so it was just lettuce. That kind of sucked. Oh yeah, one girl said we all got a free coke with our meal, but it was a secret. So the whole table ordered drinks and when we got them, guess what, no free coke included with our meal. The girl offered to pay for the table because it was her idea, but they ended up giving them to us for free for that day.
I was very tired after lunch, but Sarah Beth and Bianca wanted to tour the Monastery. We went over and paid about 8 euros. We decided to do the unguided tour, but the girls got those audio tour guides you carry around. I passed and figured I’d be fine just reading the descriptions. I took Diego along to take pictures, which was fun, but I think the people there saw me on the cameras and would follow me a lot when I was taking pictures of him. It was a very long tour, I think we were there at least 2 hours. There were lots of art work and let me tell you right now, I’m Christian and all, but there are only so many pictures of Jesus and Mary that I can handle. Did people paint anything else? What bothers me, is that I can’t look at the painting and think, oh wow, look at Mary….I just think, so some dude was like, I hear/read about this Mary chick, let me draw a picture of her in whatever way I want. So when I look at it, I don’t feel like I’m getting any insight in what she looked like or went through. My personal feeling is that these paintings are like gossip, and people start to believe them and think that is what these people looked like and what exactly happened. We all know what happens in the telephone game. Of course, looking at it just as art, it is interesting, but usually what moves me is what is drawn, not how it is drawn.
At one point we ended up down in the tombs with coffin after coffin of kings and their wifes, children and the like. I thought the tombs were really awesome looking, but I just got this gloomy feeling down there and wanted to leave. Maybe it was the idea of being in the presence of dead bodies and lots of them. I usually don’t feel this way in cemeteries though, but maybe that is because people are under the ground.
We finally got to the basilica, and by this point I was very tired, and ironically, the free part is the highlight of the tour. I should probably attend church there since well the monastery is right across the street. After the tour, we headed out to talk to the travel agent to plan our weekends.
The lady spoke some English, so this helped a lot. We were there a really long time and reserved a trip to Italy, which we are planning to go and pay for today. We almost got a flight for this weekend to the Canary Islands, but it didn’t work at the end. We hope to go to Paris this weekend, but we are having problems finding a good price.
After that, Sarah Beth went to Church and Bianca had a group meeting and I went to nap. Sarah Beth didn’t actually make it into church because they thought she was a tourist and would not let her in. I ended up not having dinner that night and instead ate my chicken nuggets I had bought at the store and watched Run Lola Run.
I don’t know why, but in the morning I felt really tired and thought about sleeping in, but I only have 3 absences and don’t want to waste them. I got to class and at least 3 people were drinking red bull. I am impressed on their ability to go out and wake up, but I’m glad I’m not having to drink red bull to stay awake right now.
In my comparative class, my professor told us a good story about Mother Teresa. She was a dignitary at a function sitting next to a millionaire. The man turns to her and tells her his life story and how he was down to his last few dollars and he donated them to the Salvation Army and God repaid him 100 fold and now he was in this position of being really rich. She turns to him and tell him, “Do it again, God has proven he can be trusted.” Well this just made the rest of the evening awkward.
After class on Tuesday, there was lunch, where nothing too interesting happened. We had salads that were actually normal, but mine didn’t have any ham on it, so it was just lettuce. That kind of sucked. Oh yeah, one girl said we all got a free coke with our meal, but it was a secret. So the whole table ordered drinks and when we got them, guess what, no free coke included with our meal. The girl offered to pay for the table because it was her idea, but they ended up giving them to us for free for that day.
I was very tired after lunch, but Sarah Beth and Bianca wanted to tour the Monastery. We went over and paid about 8 euros. We decided to do the unguided tour, but the girls got those audio tour guides you carry around. I passed and figured I’d be fine just reading the descriptions. I took Diego along to take pictures, which was fun, but I think the people there saw me on the cameras and would follow me a lot when I was taking pictures of him. It was a very long tour, I think we were there at least 2 hours. There were lots of art work and let me tell you right now, I’m Christian and all, but there are only so many pictures of Jesus and Mary that I can handle. Did people paint anything else? What bothers me, is that I can’t look at the painting and think, oh wow, look at Mary….I just think, so some dude was like, I hear/read about this Mary chick, let me draw a picture of her in whatever way I want. So when I look at it, I don’t feel like I’m getting any insight in what she looked like or went through. My personal feeling is that these paintings are like gossip, and people start to believe them and think that is what these people looked like and what exactly happened. We all know what happens in the telephone game. Of course, looking at it just as art, it is interesting, but usually what moves me is what is drawn, not how it is drawn.
At one point we ended up down in the tombs with coffin after coffin of kings and their wifes, children and the like. I thought the tombs were really awesome looking, but I just got this gloomy feeling down there and wanted to leave. Maybe it was the idea of being in the presence of dead bodies and lots of them. I usually don’t feel this way in cemeteries though, but maybe that is because people are under the ground.
We finally got to the basilica, and by this point I was very tired, and ironically, the free part is the highlight of the tour. I should probably attend church there since well the monastery is right across the street. After the tour, we headed out to talk to the travel agent to plan our weekends.
The lady spoke some English, so this helped a lot. We were there a really long time and reserved a trip to Italy, which we are planning to go and pay for today. We almost got a flight for this weekend to the Canary Islands, but it didn’t work at the end. We hope to go to Paris this weekend, but we are having problems finding a good price.
After that, Sarah Beth went to Church and Bianca had a group meeting and I went to nap. Sarah Beth didn’t actually make it into church because they thought she was a tourist and would not let her in. I ended up not having dinner that night and instead ate my chicken nuggets I had bought at the store and watched Run Lola Run.
I don’t know why, but in the morning I felt really tired and thought about sleeping in, but I only have 3 absences and don’t want to waste them. I got to class and at least 3 people were drinking red bull. I am impressed on their ability to go out and wake up, but I’m glad I’m not having to drink red bull to stay awake right now.
In my comparative class, my professor told us a good story about Mother Teresa. She was a dignitary at a function sitting next to a millionaire. The man turns to her and tells her his life story and how he was down to his last few dollars and he donated them to the Salvation Army and God repaid him 100 fold and now he was in this position of being really rich. She turns to him and tell him, “Do it again, God has proven he can be trusted.” Well this just made the rest of the evening awkward.
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Return of the Cap
On Monday, I dragged myself to class in a cap and glasses. We heard about everyone’s weekend trips and heard a funny story about some people that put diesel fuel in their unleaded car. Class was a blur and then I went to lunch.
I sat at a table with some new people, so the conversations were different and on this day I found really interesting. There is this married couple from Brazil and they have been together for 4 years. They were talking about the difference between marriage and living together and then just about living with another person. They agreed that similarities were important, but that you can’t help but be different. For example, she was from the beach part, so she would wear a bikini a lot and one day she was in the pool and got out and said hello to his visiting friends. Well to him, women did not receive men in their bikinis, so he was bothered, yet he didn’t say anything, just made faces and was like, well if you think its ok to be like that then fine. Later the mom explained it her…and that is because they come from the same cultures. Then everyone jumped in with stories how little things just drive you crazy. Especially the toothpaste tube issue, which I’m glad I don’t have because I use Mentadent. One girl said she was a lawyer and her bf an engineer and how they don’t know anything about their work, but she said it was important that they shared the same values and beliefs. They talked about some people liking to wake up early, others late, some love outdoors, others indoors, some hotels, some roughing it. It is good to hear that all this stuff is normal, but it seems like the married couples are better are working that stuff out. It was fun to hear everyone complain.
After lunch I took a long nap, but it wasn’t long enough. I then went to buy some groceries. I mainly bought water and silly things like chips, which are such a bad idea because you just eat them and eat them. After shopping, I caught up on my class reading.
For dinner, I ended up going really really late. I waited for the girls to finish working out, so we got to the place at like 11pm or so. It was my first time at the bowling alley. It is not really a bowling alley, but more like larger scale skeball. The food was cheap and was good and I can see myself eating there again in the future. I ate too much of course, but my stomach pains didn’t last too long. After, I just crashed and went to bed.
On Tuesday, I went to class on the way noticed that in my haste, I put on shorts, even though we can’t wear shorts to the monastery. I thought about going back to change, but it was too far and my feet still hurt, so I just risked it. I have followed this rule every day, until this morning. I just plain forgot. So far no one has told me anything, but I am the only person wearing shorts. I don’t plan on doing this again though.
In my morning class, one student was in the back behind his laptop and the professor asked him if he was ok. He got offended and an argument started which led to him getting kicked out of class. I think he was right, but his approach was wrong and hence I thought the professor was justifying in asking him to leave.
I sat at a table with some new people, so the conversations were different and on this day I found really interesting. There is this married couple from Brazil and they have been together for 4 years. They were talking about the difference between marriage and living together and then just about living with another person. They agreed that similarities were important, but that you can’t help but be different. For example, she was from the beach part, so she would wear a bikini a lot and one day she was in the pool and got out and said hello to his visiting friends. Well to him, women did not receive men in their bikinis, so he was bothered, yet he didn’t say anything, just made faces and was like, well if you think its ok to be like that then fine. Later the mom explained it her…and that is because they come from the same cultures. Then everyone jumped in with stories how little things just drive you crazy. Especially the toothpaste tube issue, which I’m glad I don’t have because I use Mentadent. One girl said she was a lawyer and her bf an engineer and how they don’t know anything about their work, but she said it was important that they shared the same values and beliefs. They talked about some people liking to wake up early, others late, some love outdoors, others indoors, some hotels, some roughing it. It is good to hear that all this stuff is normal, but it seems like the married couples are better are working that stuff out. It was fun to hear everyone complain.
After lunch I took a long nap, but it wasn’t long enough. I then went to buy some groceries. I mainly bought water and silly things like chips, which are such a bad idea because you just eat them and eat them. After shopping, I caught up on my class reading.
For dinner, I ended up going really really late. I waited for the girls to finish working out, so we got to the place at like 11pm or so. It was my first time at the bowling alley. It is not really a bowling alley, but more like larger scale skeball. The food was cheap and was good and I can see myself eating there again in the future. I ate too much of course, but my stomach pains didn’t last too long. After, I just crashed and went to bed.
On Tuesday, I went to class on the way noticed that in my haste, I put on shorts, even though we can’t wear shorts to the monastery. I thought about going back to change, but it was too far and my feet still hurt, so I just risked it. I have followed this rule every day, until this morning. I just plain forgot. So far no one has told me anything, but I am the only person wearing shorts. I don’t plan on doing this again though.
In my morning class, one student was in the back behind his laptop and the professor asked him if he was ok. He got offended and an argument started which led to him getting kicked out of class. I think he was right, but his approach was wrong and hence I thought the professor was justifying in asking him to leave.
Monday, June 06, 2005
Weekend in Madrid
It is 10pm Sunday night and I have just got out of the shower after returning from my trip to Madrid. The trip was great, but though I may of complained about how little I have here in San Lorenzo de Escorial, my room now feels like a palace compared to the hostel and my feet are still pulsating from all the walking I did.
After class on Friday, I went to lunch to get one last free lunch before we embarked upon our trip. I’ll spare you the details of the menu. I then went upstairs and finished packing, knowing that I was probably forgetting something. Angela was thinking of going with us, but decided to stay and relax.
Sarah Beth (Her actual name, but I’ll call her Sarah because I don’t want to type the extra four letters), Bianca and I walked down to the bus station. We had no clue where to go or how the bus process here worked. We knew we had two buses we would take and one was the short one and the other was the scenic long one. Well we got on the first one that got there and guess what, it was the scenic one. There were two other students on the bus with us, Katya and Katie. The trip over was uneventful and then we arrived at the Moncloa bus station. We had to meet up Sarah’s friend Greg. Sarah had problems working the payphone, but somehow Bianca made it work. It wasn’t too much trouble to finally meet up with Greg. Greg goes to school with Sarah in Seattle, and is studying in Madrid through the St. Louis school of law, and is in his 3rd week. He was a great guy and was a really great tour guide.
Our first matter of business was finding a place to stay. This is what I was most worried about. Not less than 2 blocks away, we found a hostel. We went to talk to the man and rented out a triple for 2 nights for a fair price. The man was creepy looking, but the place served its purpose. It was not a hotel room, but a small room with 2 beds, one was larger than the other. Bianca and Sarah shared the large bed and I got to have my own bed. We had a sink in the room and that was about it. No air conditioning, a shared restroom/shower. This place made my hotel room, which I thought was weak, seem much better. We left our stuff and ventured out into the city, having no idea that we would walk at least 15 miles (and I think maybe more) during that trip. At first the tour was just getting a feel for the city and seeing how closely it reminded me of a mix of London, NYC and Boston. For the first time I was able to really see what Spanish people looked like. The haircut that is in right now for girls and guys is the mullet. It is hilarious. The girls wear it very fashionable, but in my opinion it is terrible looking and my God, it’s a mullet. The women were very skinny, but being a boy for a second, they were not as impressive as I would of thought. There were some very attractive women, don’t get me wrong, but generalizing, the women were skinny, average height, had small or no backsides and there was not much plastic surgery when it came to their chests. Everyone had that disillusioned look that models have, but overall, it wasn’t anything that one was too impressive. The men had bad teeth, and a lot like the open button look. There was a lot of Beckum type haircuts and Puma wearing. The older women and men looked like what you would expect.
I first went to convert some of my American money. The price is 1.22 and I got the terrible rate of 1.35. Of course they just told me .74 cents and my being bad at math didn’t figure it out. What can ya do I guess. We started taking pictures of sights we saw. I need to find new poses because you have, picture of a building, picture of other building, oh now marty and building, oh a statute now. As cool as the sights are, I could see that being boring. Oh, my name for the trip was Don Martin, I like the sound of that. (said in Spanish of course). I decided to take a page from the book of I think one of Rick’s friends I don’t remember, so I purchased a small man animal, which was a dog in the Plaza del Sol. He was made in Souel, South Korea, so I named him Don Diego de la Sol. There is actually a store called “Casa de Diego” in Sol. We tried to do some shopping, but it ended up being siesta time, so a lot of stuff was closed. We then went to a church (San Lorenzo) and attended mass for a while. I took the time to pray about some thing going on in my life and to marvel at the architecture of the church. We saw the palace and many other sights I don’t know the names of. We stopped at a Spanish place that was set up like a dungeon. We ate tapas there. I had chorizo and it was very good, but it really wasn’t enough food. At night, we stopped at this plaza for drinks. It was nice to sit and talk outside over a few drinks. I really felt like I was in Spain then. After, we went to a bar and met 2 Americans and sat down and had drinks with them. They were from Ohio and were fun to talk to. We did get into some boring legal talk, which probably bored them a bit, but we can’t help it I think.
After, we called it a night and took the Metro back home. The metro was similar to DC in the coloring, but more NY like in the condition. It wasn’t too complex to figure out though. Sarah was worried the trains would come off the tracks, but they seemed pretty normal to me. Once we got home, we tried to get in the door was locked. We didn’t understand that because the guy told us that we could come home at anytime. We rang the door bell and he let us in. I guess that is what you meant, but that sucks having to wake him up each time. I went to bed after a long day of walking.
Outside our window as construction on the metro so we woke up early with the sound of jackhammers and noise. I took a shower and noticed I forgot my soap. Luckily, I was able to borrow Sarah’s. There was only warm water in certain hours, but I got in at the right time. We were hungry so we decided to eat at burger king. A lot of people hate eating American food in other places, but I think that doing normal things in other places is part of the fun. I’ll watch tv in a hotel, watch a movie in another city and eat BK in Spain. I ordered mine “Gigante”. Greg met up with us there and then we walked to do more sight seeing.
Sarah complained a lot about the garbage. She felt that the town did not do a good job at keeping things clean. There were actually people in neon green suits whose job it was to clean and I saw a lot of them, but I guess Seattle is much cleaner. There was a lot of trash and graffiti though, but I didn’t find it too distracting. I think there was a lot of pollution because my allergies where bad there. Not as bad as in DC, but I did sneeze blood a few times, which you probably don’t need to hear about.
One interesting thing about Spain is all PDA. There is so many public displays of affection and it isn’t all junior high kids. There are people laying down in parks just going at it. You kind of get used to it after a while, but it is very common.
We wanted to return to the church to take pictures, but it was closed. Diego did take a lot of pictures today though. Everyone needed shoes and I guess Spain is known for their shoes, so we went shoe shopping. Converting sizes was hard at first, and I had fun doing some translating for Greg. We probably spent 3 hours looking at shoes. I didn’t need shoes, but I guess all the shopping from days past with girlfriends, let me get through it. I almost decided to buy some shoes myself, but I decided to wait. Everyone found what they wanted, Greg got some cool brown shoes, Sarah Beth got two pairs of shoes, one for going out and another for walking around. Bianca got two pairs as well for those same reasons. I saw this pair that no one got, but I thought looked nice with like jewels on them or something…you know I’ll stop, boys shouldn’t talk about shoes.
A cool thing we noticed was all the street vendors selling bootlegs. They had this cool set up where they all had like sheets with ropes tied to all 4 ends in an X shape and the movies laid out. So when the cops came by, they would pull on the center of the X and it would make like a bag and they would run. It was awesome watching this actually happen when the cops raided the area. They were not raiding the vendors but these two girls that we think got caught shoplifting. A lot of cops came though and these guys jetted. We stopped at a department store, which reminded me of Hechts/Macys.
More walking and then we went into this church they made for Pope John Paul and there was an exhibit on Mary. A lot of pictures on her standing on a snake and cherubs. Some where little cupid looking folks and others were baby heads with wings. We debated what they were, like the history and if they were bad or good and why some where just heads with wings. I don’t remember anything from the Bible saying heads with wings.
We saw a cool Egyptian pyramid thing that was moved from Egypt to Spain block by block in the 1950s as a gift or help Spain gave them. We had a long discussion (mainly me) on whether they used chalk to mark and number the blocks. I think they did, they think that chalk would be a stupid idea.
We caught dinner at a random restaurant, but they were not serving full dinner yet so we got tapas and the food was way too little. We also drank Sangria. I don’t really like it but others like it a lot. It was ok. We noticed on TV how there was a super huge protest march in Mardid (other side of city) about some bombings. I guess there has been bombings in the city recently that we didn’t know about. That can’t be good. We then walked around again seeing more stuff and decided to have another small meal to complete our dinner. We ate at a place called Pan. I got a free wallet with my meal, but others who got the same thing, didn’t, so I think I got it because they girl thought I was cute. We were near the gay district though, so the people there reminded me of Southbeach.
More things happened these past few days, but I don’t remember it all right now. We returned on the metro to rest up. After a few hours of rest, we got dressed to go out to a club in Madrid that I guess a lot of Americans go to. The club is called Kapital. We stopped at a nearby bar and had a couple pitchers of beer. We were trying to save some money.
We had to pay 18 euros to get into Kapital. The club was like 5 stories tall, with an awesome outdoor bar/lounge on the roof. I didn’t much care for the music, but I am not much of a dancer, so it doesn’t really matter much. The drinks were very expensive, about 10 euros a piece and you had to buy tickets and then pay with them. So I decide to take a picture of Diego and the drinks and the bartender, who I don’t think liked me much, called management on me. I guess they thought I was trying to take a picture of the girl, but I didn’t even care about her, I wanted one of the dog and drinks. So I had to talk to the manager and delete the picture in front of her. I got over it though and tried to have a good time. There were actually a lot of Americans there, but I didn’t really talk to them. Then we ran into all these people from our program who where there too. It was a cool reunion and everyone had a great time. I guess after spending the weekend with the same people, it’s nice to see some new people. I had an interesting incident. I was dancing and I noticed this taller local black guy who was well build walking around through the dance floor just kind of pushing people out of his way. He had bumped into me on the way to the other side so when I saw him coming back, I just stopped dancing and stood still as he walked into me and did not move. So now he is pressed up against me and I’m just there standing my ground making the point that he doesn’t have the right to have people move out of the way for him. Well instead of going around like I was hoping, he decided to establish dominance and push into me and then he started to talk shit. I did not move and many thoughts were going through my head. I knew this guy could kick my ass and I knew we were on his home field. So, had I been at home, I would of probably been more assertive in telling him how he was wrong and standing up to him more, but instead I just bowed out and put my arms up in the white flag sort of way, looked down and stepped aside. He continued to talk shit in Spanish and I just stood there out of his way giving the impression that I wanted no trouble. It pissed me off I had to be such a pussy, but it was the smart and right thing to do. Later, Bianca went to go dance with the guy, which I thought was cool.
Greg had a great time dancing it up with Sarah Beth and other people from our school. Later in the night I mainly chilled and hung out with friends and talked. I switched to water because I knew I had a long day coming, but I did have a good buzz. At about 5:30am, I rounded up the troops and called it a night. We left the club and the trains didn’t open until 6am, so we took a cab to the hostel. When we arrived, the creepy guy let us in and later when I was going to the bathroom, he yelled at me to tell my friends that in Spain they turn off the lights. She said she did, so I don’t know what the deal was. We had to be out by 11:45am, and it was now 6 to 6:30am and I knew that if I feel asleep I would never get up. So instead, I laid in bed and rested, still awake. I got up early and took a shower and then rested. We were finally all up and ready by 11:20am when the guy comes in and gets our keys trying to push us out. We leave our bags with him and go see the city. He said he wouldn’t be open until after 6pm, so we had to find stuff to do during the day, which didn’t seem too hard.
It was our first day without Greg, we went to BK and it was closed so we took the train to the Prado museum. Once we got there, we walked around for at least an hour looking for BK. When we finally gave up, it ended up showing up right around the corner. We were really tired, and walking slow took our time and ate slowly.
After lunch, we went to the Prado Museum. It is free on Sundays. There were a lot of religious paintings and the main artists we saw were Goya, Rafael, El Greco and a few others. I was looking for one particular Goya painting and of course it was the last one I found. After, we all decided we were so tired that we should just watch a movie and relax and then head back to the hostel to get our stuff and go home. After much debate, we decided to watch Matagasdar, so we walked around for hours looking for a movie theater, when we finally find some, then we walk around again looking for the movie. Guess what, the movie is not out in Spain yet. So we failed in our pursuit and then got ice cream and relaxed. After, we just walked back to the Hostel and got our stuff. We walked over to the bus station and napped on our trip home. The walk from the station to our home was long and hard, even though it isn’t that far, but we were beat. I caught dinner outside the hotel and then crashed, not doing any studying. And there ended my trip to Madrid.
After class on Friday, I went to lunch to get one last free lunch before we embarked upon our trip. I’ll spare you the details of the menu. I then went upstairs and finished packing, knowing that I was probably forgetting something. Angela was thinking of going with us, but decided to stay and relax.
Sarah Beth (Her actual name, but I’ll call her Sarah because I don’t want to type the extra four letters), Bianca and I walked down to the bus station. We had no clue where to go or how the bus process here worked. We knew we had two buses we would take and one was the short one and the other was the scenic long one. Well we got on the first one that got there and guess what, it was the scenic one. There were two other students on the bus with us, Katya and Katie. The trip over was uneventful and then we arrived at the Moncloa bus station. We had to meet up Sarah’s friend Greg. Sarah had problems working the payphone, but somehow Bianca made it work. It wasn’t too much trouble to finally meet up with Greg. Greg goes to school with Sarah in Seattle, and is studying in Madrid through the St. Louis school of law, and is in his 3rd week. He was a great guy and was a really great tour guide.
Our first matter of business was finding a place to stay. This is what I was most worried about. Not less than 2 blocks away, we found a hostel. We went to talk to the man and rented out a triple for 2 nights for a fair price. The man was creepy looking, but the place served its purpose. It was not a hotel room, but a small room with 2 beds, one was larger than the other. Bianca and Sarah shared the large bed and I got to have my own bed. We had a sink in the room and that was about it. No air conditioning, a shared restroom/shower. This place made my hotel room, which I thought was weak, seem much better. We left our stuff and ventured out into the city, having no idea that we would walk at least 15 miles (and I think maybe more) during that trip. At first the tour was just getting a feel for the city and seeing how closely it reminded me of a mix of London, NYC and Boston. For the first time I was able to really see what Spanish people looked like. The haircut that is in right now for girls and guys is the mullet. It is hilarious. The girls wear it very fashionable, but in my opinion it is terrible looking and my God, it’s a mullet. The women were very skinny, but being a boy for a second, they were not as impressive as I would of thought. There were some very attractive women, don’t get me wrong, but generalizing, the women were skinny, average height, had small or no backsides and there was not much plastic surgery when it came to their chests. Everyone had that disillusioned look that models have, but overall, it wasn’t anything that one was too impressive. The men had bad teeth, and a lot like the open button look. There was a lot of Beckum type haircuts and Puma wearing. The older women and men looked like what you would expect.
I first went to convert some of my American money. The price is 1.22 and I got the terrible rate of 1.35. Of course they just told me .74 cents and my being bad at math didn’t figure it out. What can ya do I guess. We started taking pictures of sights we saw. I need to find new poses because you have, picture of a building, picture of other building, oh now marty and building, oh a statute now. As cool as the sights are, I could see that being boring. Oh, my name for the trip was Don Martin, I like the sound of that. (said in Spanish of course). I decided to take a page from the book of I think one of Rick’s friends I don’t remember, so I purchased a small man animal, which was a dog in the Plaza del Sol. He was made in Souel, South Korea, so I named him Don Diego de la Sol. There is actually a store called “Casa de Diego” in Sol. We tried to do some shopping, but it ended up being siesta time, so a lot of stuff was closed. We then went to a church (San Lorenzo) and attended mass for a while. I took the time to pray about some thing going on in my life and to marvel at the architecture of the church. We saw the palace and many other sights I don’t know the names of. We stopped at a Spanish place that was set up like a dungeon. We ate tapas there. I had chorizo and it was very good, but it really wasn’t enough food. At night, we stopped at this plaza for drinks. It was nice to sit and talk outside over a few drinks. I really felt like I was in Spain then. After, we went to a bar and met 2 Americans and sat down and had drinks with them. They were from Ohio and were fun to talk to. We did get into some boring legal talk, which probably bored them a bit, but we can’t help it I think.
After, we called it a night and took the Metro back home. The metro was similar to DC in the coloring, but more NY like in the condition. It wasn’t too complex to figure out though. Sarah was worried the trains would come off the tracks, but they seemed pretty normal to me. Once we got home, we tried to get in the door was locked. We didn’t understand that because the guy told us that we could come home at anytime. We rang the door bell and he let us in. I guess that is what you meant, but that sucks having to wake him up each time. I went to bed after a long day of walking.
Outside our window as construction on the metro so we woke up early with the sound of jackhammers and noise. I took a shower and noticed I forgot my soap. Luckily, I was able to borrow Sarah’s. There was only warm water in certain hours, but I got in at the right time. We were hungry so we decided to eat at burger king. A lot of people hate eating American food in other places, but I think that doing normal things in other places is part of the fun. I’ll watch tv in a hotel, watch a movie in another city and eat BK in Spain. I ordered mine “Gigante”. Greg met up with us there and then we walked to do more sight seeing.
Sarah complained a lot about the garbage. She felt that the town did not do a good job at keeping things clean. There were actually people in neon green suits whose job it was to clean and I saw a lot of them, but I guess Seattle is much cleaner. There was a lot of trash and graffiti though, but I didn’t find it too distracting. I think there was a lot of pollution because my allergies where bad there. Not as bad as in DC, but I did sneeze blood a few times, which you probably don’t need to hear about.
One interesting thing about Spain is all PDA. There is so many public displays of affection and it isn’t all junior high kids. There are people laying down in parks just going at it. You kind of get used to it after a while, but it is very common.
We wanted to return to the church to take pictures, but it was closed. Diego did take a lot of pictures today though. Everyone needed shoes and I guess Spain is known for their shoes, so we went shoe shopping. Converting sizes was hard at first, and I had fun doing some translating for Greg. We probably spent 3 hours looking at shoes. I didn’t need shoes, but I guess all the shopping from days past with girlfriends, let me get through it. I almost decided to buy some shoes myself, but I decided to wait. Everyone found what they wanted, Greg got some cool brown shoes, Sarah Beth got two pairs of shoes, one for going out and another for walking around. Bianca got two pairs as well for those same reasons. I saw this pair that no one got, but I thought looked nice with like jewels on them or something…you know I’ll stop, boys shouldn’t talk about shoes.
A cool thing we noticed was all the street vendors selling bootlegs. They had this cool set up where they all had like sheets with ropes tied to all 4 ends in an X shape and the movies laid out. So when the cops came by, they would pull on the center of the X and it would make like a bag and they would run. It was awesome watching this actually happen when the cops raided the area. They were not raiding the vendors but these two girls that we think got caught shoplifting. A lot of cops came though and these guys jetted. We stopped at a department store, which reminded me of Hechts/Macys.
More walking and then we went into this church they made for Pope John Paul and there was an exhibit on Mary. A lot of pictures on her standing on a snake and cherubs. Some where little cupid looking folks and others were baby heads with wings. We debated what they were, like the history and if they were bad or good and why some where just heads with wings. I don’t remember anything from the Bible saying heads with wings.
We saw a cool Egyptian pyramid thing that was moved from Egypt to Spain block by block in the 1950s as a gift or help Spain gave them. We had a long discussion (mainly me) on whether they used chalk to mark and number the blocks. I think they did, they think that chalk would be a stupid idea.
We caught dinner at a random restaurant, but they were not serving full dinner yet so we got tapas and the food was way too little. We also drank Sangria. I don’t really like it but others like it a lot. It was ok. We noticed on TV how there was a super huge protest march in Mardid (other side of city) about some bombings. I guess there has been bombings in the city recently that we didn’t know about. That can’t be good. We then walked around again seeing more stuff and decided to have another small meal to complete our dinner. We ate at a place called Pan. I got a free wallet with my meal, but others who got the same thing, didn’t, so I think I got it because they girl thought I was cute. We were near the gay district though, so the people there reminded me of Southbeach.
More things happened these past few days, but I don’t remember it all right now. We returned on the metro to rest up. After a few hours of rest, we got dressed to go out to a club in Madrid that I guess a lot of Americans go to. The club is called Kapital. We stopped at a nearby bar and had a couple pitchers of beer. We were trying to save some money.
We had to pay 18 euros to get into Kapital. The club was like 5 stories tall, with an awesome outdoor bar/lounge on the roof. I didn’t much care for the music, but I am not much of a dancer, so it doesn’t really matter much. The drinks were very expensive, about 10 euros a piece and you had to buy tickets and then pay with them. So I decide to take a picture of Diego and the drinks and the bartender, who I don’t think liked me much, called management on me. I guess they thought I was trying to take a picture of the girl, but I didn’t even care about her, I wanted one of the dog and drinks. So I had to talk to the manager and delete the picture in front of her. I got over it though and tried to have a good time. There were actually a lot of Americans there, but I didn’t really talk to them. Then we ran into all these people from our program who where there too. It was a cool reunion and everyone had a great time. I guess after spending the weekend with the same people, it’s nice to see some new people. I had an interesting incident. I was dancing and I noticed this taller local black guy who was well build walking around through the dance floor just kind of pushing people out of his way. He had bumped into me on the way to the other side so when I saw him coming back, I just stopped dancing and stood still as he walked into me and did not move. So now he is pressed up against me and I’m just there standing my ground making the point that he doesn’t have the right to have people move out of the way for him. Well instead of going around like I was hoping, he decided to establish dominance and push into me and then he started to talk shit. I did not move and many thoughts were going through my head. I knew this guy could kick my ass and I knew we were on his home field. So, had I been at home, I would of probably been more assertive in telling him how he was wrong and standing up to him more, but instead I just bowed out and put my arms up in the white flag sort of way, looked down and stepped aside. He continued to talk shit in Spanish and I just stood there out of his way giving the impression that I wanted no trouble. It pissed me off I had to be such a pussy, but it was the smart and right thing to do. Later, Bianca went to go dance with the guy, which I thought was cool.
Greg had a great time dancing it up with Sarah Beth and other people from our school. Later in the night I mainly chilled and hung out with friends and talked. I switched to water because I knew I had a long day coming, but I did have a good buzz. At about 5:30am, I rounded up the troops and called it a night. We left the club and the trains didn’t open until 6am, so we took a cab to the hostel. When we arrived, the creepy guy let us in and later when I was going to the bathroom, he yelled at me to tell my friends that in Spain they turn off the lights. She said she did, so I don’t know what the deal was. We had to be out by 11:45am, and it was now 6 to 6:30am and I knew that if I feel asleep I would never get up. So instead, I laid in bed and rested, still awake. I got up early and took a shower and then rested. We were finally all up and ready by 11:20am when the guy comes in and gets our keys trying to push us out. We leave our bags with him and go see the city. He said he wouldn’t be open until after 6pm, so we had to find stuff to do during the day, which didn’t seem too hard.
It was our first day without Greg, we went to BK and it was closed so we took the train to the Prado museum. Once we got there, we walked around for at least an hour looking for BK. When we finally gave up, it ended up showing up right around the corner. We were really tired, and walking slow took our time and ate slowly.
After lunch, we went to the Prado Museum. It is free on Sundays. There were a lot of religious paintings and the main artists we saw were Goya, Rafael, El Greco and a few others. I was looking for one particular Goya painting and of course it was the last one I found. After, we all decided we were so tired that we should just watch a movie and relax and then head back to the hostel to get our stuff and go home. After much debate, we decided to watch Matagasdar, so we walked around for hours looking for a movie theater, when we finally find some, then we walk around again looking for the movie. Guess what, the movie is not out in Spain yet. So we failed in our pursuit and then got ice cream and relaxed. After, we just walked back to the Hostel and got our stuff. We walked over to the bus station and napped on our trip home. The walk from the station to our home was long and hard, even though it isn’t that far, but we were beat. I caught dinner outside the hotel and then crashed, not doing any studying. And there ended my trip to Madrid.
Friday, June 03, 2005
Hard Chairs
Later in the day I made my way to the computer lab and I connected my laptop into the jack, but though I can get the internet to work, I can’t get aim to work. After a good half hour of reading news and checking to see who has written me, I decided to go and find some hangers. I ended up finding this dollar store where I got my much needed hangers. I returned home and not yet being completely better, I decided to nap…well that nap ended up being the end of my day.
Friday has finally come, the end of the first week. The plan is to attend class and then venture out to Madrid for the weekend. This is a bit spontaneous for me, so I’m sure it will end up being quite the story. In the morning, I was feeling a lot better, but there is still some residue of pain in my head. I thought my class would more empty, but I guess people are saving their 1st of 3 absences for other Fridays.
I have not been eating dinner. I have my breakfast bar in the morning, a 3 course lunch at 1:30 and then I have been falling asleep early and not eating dinner, but most people are eating late like at 10pm, so I guess that is good. Maybe I’ll eat dinner more in the weeks to come. Let me tell you about our lunches. We first start out with a piece of bread on the table. The bread is very hard on the outside, but the inside isn’t too bad. Then 15 mins after lunch should of started, we get some sort of soup or salad or pasta. It is always something similar to what I have eaten before, but still different. So far it has been edible and filling, but nothing amazing. There is wine with every meal, but I usually just drink water. Then we get our main course which is brought out on a central table and then served to the plates and brought to us. I’ve noticed that guys tend to get more food than the girls. Then we finish up with some sort of dessert which usually happens to be fruit. Either an orange, banana, or canned peaches. I’m still waiting for ice cream. That was a lot about the food.
One funny thing about this trip is that everyone I seem to meet reminds me of someone I have previously known in my life or someone from TV. I have a friend that reminds me of Maria, Iris, know a girl who reminds me of Kelly Clarkson and some people who I can’t place, but know that I know them from somewhere.
Our comparative professor made a funny joke today. He was talking about us not listening to him and how they told us places to avoid in El Escorial and like moths to a flame, a lot of us have already been there. There was a story about a kid who got into a fight with some locals and got his face bashed in and stabbed. Yet when they told us about the bar, it now became one of the places we knew, so it gave more reason to check it out I guess.
Classes are somewhat long, almost 2 hours each so pretty much 9-1pm. I have class in the same classroom, so I get no change of scenery, but some of the students do change, so that is good. The chairs are very hard, not cushy like the ones from home. I guess I could find a lot to complain about, but yeah, I’m not happy with the hard wooden chairs.
Friday has finally come, the end of the first week. The plan is to attend class and then venture out to Madrid for the weekend. This is a bit spontaneous for me, so I’m sure it will end up being quite the story. In the morning, I was feeling a lot better, but there is still some residue of pain in my head. I thought my class would more empty, but I guess people are saving their 1st of 3 absences for other Fridays.
I have not been eating dinner. I have my breakfast bar in the morning, a 3 course lunch at 1:30 and then I have been falling asleep early and not eating dinner, but most people are eating late like at 10pm, so I guess that is good. Maybe I’ll eat dinner more in the weeks to come. Let me tell you about our lunches. We first start out with a piece of bread on the table. The bread is very hard on the outside, but the inside isn’t too bad. Then 15 mins after lunch should of started, we get some sort of soup or salad or pasta. It is always something similar to what I have eaten before, but still different. So far it has been edible and filling, but nothing amazing. There is wine with every meal, but I usually just drink water. Then we get our main course which is brought out on a central table and then served to the plates and brought to us. I’ve noticed that guys tend to get more food than the girls. Then we finish up with some sort of dessert which usually happens to be fruit. Either an orange, banana, or canned peaches. I’m still waiting for ice cream. That was a lot about the food.
One funny thing about this trip is that everyone I seem to meet reminds me of someone I have previously known in my life or someone from TV. I have a friend that reminds me of Maria, Iris, know a girl who reminds me of Kelly Clarkson and some people who I can’t place, but know that I know them from somewhere.
Our comparative professor made a funny joke today. He was talking about us not listening to him and how they told us places to avoid in El Escorial and like moths to a flame, a lot of us have already been there. There was a story about a kid who got into a fight with some locals and got his face bashed in and stabbed. Yet when they told us about the bar, it now became one of the places we knew, so it gave more reason to check it out I guess.
Classes are somewhat long, almost 2 hours each so pretty much 9-1pm. I have class in the same classroom, so I get no change of scenery, but some of the students do change, so that is good. The chairs are very hard, not cushy like the ones from home. I guess I could find a lot to complain about, but yeah, I’m not happy with the hard wooden chairs.
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Rehab
"Rationalization may be defined as self-deception by reasoning." - Karen Horney
Let me finish on what happened on Tuesday. I made it through class and then went back to the hotel for lunch. We had fish for lunch. I don’t like fish, nor eat it much, but figured that I would try something new. It actually wasn’t too bad, except for the bones. I sat with a table of new people, but didn’t socialize too much because I was feeling like shit. I then went to my room to nap. I took some medication and slept. I woke up and took more med and slept some more. I was sick as a dog and honestly felt like I was locked in some small rehab room with no contact with the outside world going through detox. It was horrible and considering how thin the walls are, I’m sure my neighbors were not too happy with my blowing of my nose. I finally ran out of medicine and couldn’t sleep anymore at 5am so I just got up and took a shower and then read for class.
I showed up to the lab early and found out that Deep Throat came out. I sat through class where we were broken up into groups. We talked about regulating the internet and the debate was loud, but I stayed out of it because I wasn’t feeling well and it was just going in circles. It was hard for me to stay quiet, but I mumbled to those around me enough to get it out of my system. There is this girl in my class that I met early on who I thought was cool, but the more I hear her talk, the more I know she is really mean. She isn’t mean to me, but mean to other people and I tend to judge people based on how they treat others. She is condesending and and very full of herself. She is nice to me though, so I won't complain too much.
In Comparative, I started to feel sick again. I had ran out of medication, so I’m hoping to go to the pharmacy and try to buy something. It going to be hard because if I translate wrong, I might end up with cough medicine instead of cold medicine. My professor is a priest, so as I sit here, I pray that I might feel better, hoping that God will listen a little closer because a priest is near me. Seriously, this class is lasting forever. I feel like I am just staring at the clock watching minutes tick.
After class I rushed out and ran to the pharmacy. I tried to explain to the woman what was wrong and she sold me some medicine. I went upstairs and compared it to my multi-symptom Tylenol and most of the ingredients matched, so that was great. I took two and went to lunch. At lunch I met a new guy named Holt from Arkansas. He was a nice guy and actually reminded me of my friend Jerry from Texas. After lunch, I went and took a nap and then tried to get a poker game together. We didn’t get enough people, so we decided to do it another day. I brought poker chips and cards, you should never leave home without them. I then decided to go for a walk to the monastery and took some pictures. Look at me taking walks in the middle of the day. I returned home and took another sick nap. I woke up at 10pm when Bianca called to invite me to dinner. They reason we went so late is that places don’t open for dinner until 9pm here, or at least that’s what I hear.
I went with Bianca and Sarah to a Chinese restaurant. We ordered a meal for two and it easily fed three. I’m not too much of a Chinese fan, but the food was good and the place was very nice. The people working there were Chinese and worked very hard to learn Spanish, so its funny how a person like me who doesn’t speak Spanish too great is trying to talk to a waiter who also doesn’t speak Spanish well either even though our original languages are much different. After dinner, it was a little past midnight and I saw a group of students going out. I haven’t gone out since the first night, but I figure it’s more important that I get healthy right now.
6/2/05 the next day
I am having to deal with St. Thomas Fin Aid from Spain. This is hard considering the distance, the time difference and my not having easy phone nor internet access. They gave me too much money in my refund because they didn’t plan on my getting a single room in Spain, so now I owe them money before they will release my transcripts which I need for my applications. I hope to get that all taken care of soon.
I woke up on Wednesday feeling much better, but still clearly sick. I took some medicine and feel like I can beat this with one more day. One thing I have noticed is that I have not had too terrible of a time getting up in the morning. I’m one of those people that sleeps a lot, but here I have been able to get up in the morning and despite the health thing, have felt really awake. Now, I do admit it might have to do with the many naps I have taken and the fact I haven’t really been up late.
I ran into Sarah on my way to class and we get to the computer lab early, but the lab was not open, which sucks because it makes coming early to class useless. They finally opened it and I sent my St. Thomas emails out. I hate not having interent, have I mentioned that, well I will, and many times.
My Cyberlaw class, well I don’t have too to say about what happened today, just that my cyber class seems to deal mainly with porn. It is kind of funny how we talk about porn so much, but never really talk about porn. The class is interesting, but the same people talk too much, so I try to keep my mouth shut, but I don’t think I’m doing too good of a job at it.
My other class, Comparative, is hard to explain. I worry that I am not worried about this class. I am usually pretty tired in this class and all I can think about is what I’m going to get for lunch. Look at the thoughts that are in my mind, food…talk about focusing on the minute.
Lunch was a bit empty because a lot of people left on their weekend trips. Some friends I know left for Portugal. The food again was unqiue, but I ate it. After, I walked down with some friends to Burger King. It was a few miles away, and I didn't go to eat, but to find out where it was and shop at a supermarket. Well I get my water, but totally forget to get my hangers, so I still need to find those.
A well needed hiatus
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Madrid
"Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, you'll be a mile from them, and you'll have their shoes." --Jack Handey Deep Thoughts
It has been a while. Finals are over. I am now completely moved out of my apartment and am sitting in class in Spain drinking an orange fanta. Koki and Mia are staying with Fede and Frank (took over my lease) until I return a month from now. My truck is parked and waiting for me to take a 2-3 day road trip to Texas to work at the Edinburg court house. I have sent off a few transfer applications out, but all I can do is plan to be starting St. Thomas in the Fall.
I arrived at the airport in Miami and noticed my toothbrush was on, so now I can’t recharge it until I return. My flight was 9 hours long and I didn’t get much done. I saw the movie Ocean’s 12 again, but didn’t get much sleep. I arrived in Madrid early in the morning and there was a taxi driver holding a sign with my name. I love it when I get to an airport and there is a driver holding a sign for me. The first time this happened was when I was working in DC. So he drove me to Escorial 45 mins, and I practiced my broken Spanish. When I arrived, I was one of the first people at the hotel. I got a single, but the room was more like US motel standards. The bed is small, there is no internet, no cable tv, and other amenities I have so gotten used to.
I had lunch with my comparative law professor whom I randomly met outside. He is a priest, so I had a good conversation with him about his class about the separation of church and state. I then went to my room and slept. It wasn’t a good idea because I woke up at midnight all awake. I got dressed and decided to explore the town. I ran into a classmate and met like 6 new people. We drank, talked and then went to a disco. I lost at foosball to some Spanish girls. I finally went home and slept in.
On Sunday I walked around town getting a feel for where things were. I found the bus station, a supermarket and a sign for a burger king. Then in the afternoon we met up for a tour of the school and the city. I met a few more friends there who were students that didn’t go to my school. They were nice, but I don’t yet know who my friends will be, but everyone so far is really nice. I can’t believe how much people still smoke. You’d think that in this day and age it would be much less people, but so many people I have met smoke. At night I went to bed and didn’t go out.
Monday was my first day of class. I woke up at 6am, and read until 8am. then I showed up to class early so I could check out the computer lab. Computers are in Spanish and the keyboards are different, similar but different. I had my first class at 9am which was Cyberlaw. I find it somewhat interesting. Then at 11am I have Comparative Law. After class I went with Sarah to find the gym. We found it and it was really crappy. Some dumbbells and a broken treadmill. So I won’t be able to run. Then we went to the hotel for our one free meal a day. We get wine with each meal. The meals are not bad, but they are not very good either. After eating I went to town to find a new adaptor. Did I mention I bought a us European converter and plugged an extension cord to it. Well it popped and turned off all the lights and started to burn on the inside. My room smelled terrible. So I went to buy a converter and everything was closed. From 1-5 everything closes for siesta. On my walk back home I ran into Bianca and Sarah who were trying to find the gym you pay for. Later I find out it is 45 euros to sign up for the month and the girls signed up, but I’m not sure if I’m going to. I decided to walk with them and look for this place. Well guess what, the gym is closed too. I then just went home and went to bed. I had been feeling sick and noticed that my tonsils swelled up. I got some throat drops and then went back to bed. I didn’t sleep well but got up at like 7am missing my entire night. Another night of not going out and having fun, but right now I need to get healthy. I show up to my second day of class and am just hoping to get home so I can nap and try to feel better. I bought a Fanta to keep my throat. I haven’t had one since I was a child, so it brought memories back. Here they have Coke Light instead of Diet Coke. I had one yesterday. There is no wireless in the classroom, which means that I am going crazy of boredom, because I like to multitask and listen when I feel its important. I don’t have plans right now for what I’m going to do with my weekends, but I hope to get all that stuff sorted out soon.
So one thing I am noticing here is the pace of my life. Here I feel like time passes more slowly. This is going to be great for me, as I get to sit down away from the world, away from the ones I love and really start to look at myself and where I want to go. I don’t feel like I’ll have this reflection time again for some time because I have the next two years mapped out and that 3rd year somewhat mapped out as well.
far far away
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