It sounded like a petrified E.T.

April 21, 2008

Camping in Covadonga

Sporadic decisions always lead to the best stories. This was the case last week, the weekend of the 11^th, when we decided that we should go on a camping excursion in the Picos de Europa. We decided this late at night while playing ping pong. Our adventure would commence with the 10:00 bus in the morning. It was a rushed morning. I woke up, showered, ate breakfast, tried my best to explain to Doris what I was about to do and tried to acquire the necessary equipment for camping in the mountains. I actually didn’t acquire the necessary equipment for camping in the mountains. Not a big deal though. Sleeping bag? Who needs one? Blanket - check, layers, two pairs of socks…problem solved. Doris still seemed worried. After stuffing my bag with all that I could, I ran to the bus station. I always seem to underestimate the amount of time it takes to get to the bus station. I did make it on time but I was surprised to find I was not that last of the trio to arrive. Kevin and I stalled the bus until Eric came sprinting up. He had to pick up two cans of fabada for the trip. Sometimes you have to use the confused foreigner card. At any rate, we all made it on the bus and we were off. We arrived in Covadonga around noon and somehow befriended a small, English, hobbit looking character also heading into the mountains. For some reason, he thought that we knew where we were going. He didn’t last long on our excursion. We actually just went to the bathroom and he was gone. Anyway, we had a look on the map and then started off. It was a pretty grueling start of a hike. It was an extremely steep switchback that lasted for nearly an hour. Once we reached the top of the switchback, we stopped to have lunch outside a super cool cave that starts the stream that shoots out a waterfall under the church in a cave in Covadonga. Following lunch we marched on while singing songs, telling jokes, throwing rocks, taking pictures, and other normal hiking stuff. This was the part of the journey Kevin and Eric learned of my powerful opera voice. We came to a split in the trail and we took a little rest to figure out which way to go. Kevin and I were sitting sipping on water while Eric was checking some alternative route. When Eric came running down the steep extremely muddy terrain and tried to stop, well, he fell and it was hilarious. His face was priceless during the entire thing. He wasn’t too happy about being muddy but it was fun for Kevin and me. We kept on trekking and kept on noticing that there were large rainclouds following us the entire time. We decided to start looking for a flat place to camp that might have some tree cover since our tent was only “semi water-resistant.” Which I think means “you will probably be very wet in the rain.” Eric and Kevin bought this tent for like 15 euros at Carrefour. Probably not the best tent in the world but we were hoping it would suffice. They had actually never even opened it up to see if all the parts were there or how big it was. This was not reassuring to me. Especially when they told me it was more or less a 2 person kid’s tent. Let’s just we got to know each other that night. We did find a great place to sleep and it had an incredible view of the Picos. The mountains were extremely snow covered and were an amazing sight. We set up camp, made a fire with wet firewood and cooked our fabada. I say this quickly when in reality it was not a quick process. We were extremely thorough about clearing a spot for our top, including collecting leaves to put down as bedding underneath our tent. Well, we only collected enough for ones elbow – the leaves weren’t that plentiful. Finding dry firewood was also a bit of a challenge since it had rained quite a bit in the previous days. Eric showed us what boyscouts was all about and explained to us how about we needed to create greater surface area on the wood so we could break the surface tension of the water and thus make the wood burn. It took a little while but it worked. It was really nice to have a fire even though it is pretty illegal in Spain (lots of wildfires). Needless to say, we were very careful and had a delicious warm dinner of Fabada. After dinner it started raining pretty hard so we went to the tent to sleep which was another task. This tent was so small. We honestly were like sardines. I was in the middle since I didn’t have a sleeping bag and we decided that we should alternate the ways our bodies were facing to maximize the space. My head was at their feet and vice versa. It actually worked, although, we could only move as one unit. This was fine until you had a cramp. Ouch. So we “slept” until about 2 when we all woke up and admitted that each of us had probably only slept 20min out of the 4 hours in bed (at least that’s how I was). I turned up my iPod and we listened to music for a while and eventually drifted off a bit. It was probably about 4a.m. when I was really about to get into some good sleep when I heard some rustling outside. I quickly turned off my iPod and saw that Eric had heard the same thing. We both had terrified looks on our faces because it wasn’t just rustling but rather footsteps. Being that we were camping illegally we were terrified that it was a human. We thought it might be an upset farmer coming to teach us a lesson or a ranger to arrest or something to that nature. We heard it right beside our tent and then make its way over to our fire and start, what sounded like, scraping at our cans of fabada. Eric woke up Kevin to inform him of the human situation and immediately his heart started racing in time with ours. At that moment, the “human” started coughing, almost in pain, in a way that no human could possibly cough and believe me Eric has tried to recreate it! It was the most terrifying noise we had ever heard. We had no idea what sort of creature could make that noise. It was completely foreign to us and we were completely terrified. It just kept making this coughing/panting noise, almost in pain that sounded like a cross between a petrified E.T. and a Velociraptor. It just kept making the noise. Then the noise started moving incredibly fast and started bouncing around like it was bounding in 15ft increments down the mountain. It was moving much faster than a human could move. It was also going down the mountain, which was a steep rocky terrain. Finally, the noise stopped. We were just stunned. We could not believe what we just heard and the guys will claim that my legs were shaking. I will defend myself and say that my legs were cold (no sleepingbag), but I will admit I was scared! We were all scared. It was such a bizarre sound. It will still echo in my ears! We got ourselves calmed down and then got a few more hours of sleep. What a long night. In the morning we examined the camp for any signs of what it might have been and really didn’t find any prints or anything like that, although, we did find that Kevin’s bag had been moved. His bag was about a foot from our tent and he said he had it upright the night before with the spoon we used for the fabada on top of it. The bag was knocked over and the spoon was gone. We examined our sight more and found the spoon 30ft away next to the fire and empty cans of fabada. Whatever that creature was, it had somehow picked up our spoon and used to it to scrape the cans of fabada (we had heard the scraping). This means that this creature most likely has opposable thumbs. Cave creature? Who knows? I began developing a theory of what might have occurred that dark rainy night. I think that the “creature” smelled our food or saw our fire and came up to our sight past our tent where it smelled the spoon we used for the fabada. It then took the spoon and traced the smell to the empty cans. After disappointed with the cans it followed the scent to the fire where we cooked the fabada and where lots of the fat juice spilled out of the can into the fire. I think the “creature” started sniffing in the fire and got embers in its nose (we had covered the fire with a large rock to contain the fire and preserve some coals for the morning), hence the terrible coughing noise. Then when the pain got to be a bit much it just took off. I think it is plausible. The only question is what the “creature” actually was. We will never know. After getting our site cleaned up and kept on hiking all the while discussing what the heck happened the night before. We had so many theories and thought every footprint looked like a yeti’s. I think we have been calling it a yeti actually. Anyway, we eventually made it to our destination of two beautiful lakes high up in the mountains. We spent some plenty of time there and then got a ride back into town to take the bus back late that afternoon. What a camping trip.

Cuando regresé en casa (When I returned home).

Friday, March 21, 2008

Risky Business

Risky Business does not directly relate (in this blog) to our past actions of sleeping outdoors. The reference is to the beloved movie with Tom Cruise and his escapades while home alone. As of right now, I am home alone. After 9 hours of bus travel, 3 days of not showering, and going on about a day of eating nothing but bread and gummi’s, I was very excited to get home to Doris’ hospitality. “Familia! Estoy en casa! Comame!” Unfortunately, nobody is home. Not a big deal. Actually a great deal, I will go take a nice hot bath, make a bocadillo or maybe even heat up left-overs! I walk in put my bags down, shiver, and wonder why my window is open. All the windows are open. The house is freeeezing. I just got back from sleeping outside in the cold. The piso should be warm. Oh well, nothing a hot bath and blankets can’t fix. In the bathroom, ten minutes later, still no hot water. This is testing my patience. Did I mention there is absolutely nothing in the fridge to eat? I go check my email so at least I can utilize one comfort of home. Great emails. Still hungry tho. Still pretty cold. I decide to go handyman. First, I start my laptop, close off my room, and start making it work hard by playing music, movies, slideshows, you name it. I want that processor buzzing and HOT! That way, it heats my room. Heat – check. Water? Still working on it. Food? Found some spaghetti and tomato sauce in the closet. – check. Water? I guess I could heat it up on the stove. Probably would take too much time. I wonder if that porch-like room as anything useful. It does. The mini-fridge looking thing is actually the heating system. Crank it up. We’ve got water. Anyone impressed? I can rough the indoors. The night turned out well. Warm, fed, and sleepy. I have a bed to sleep in. See you in 13 hours. I’m out.

My travels during Semana Santa

It is official. I am terrible at blogging! I have a heck of a time trying to keep up with this thing, so if anyone is reading this I apologize for the sporadic entries. Sin embargo, here is a recap of my spring break.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Sometimes good ideas only last so long. My traveling buddies and I found that our idea to just “rough it” and sleep outside (due to the lack of hostiles) escalated into a long, cold, frustrating 3 nights. Let’s not jump right into the exciting parts tho. We will start from the beginning. Sunday morning (March 16) we were meeting at the bus station for our trip to Madrid. I was running a bit late so I jogged most of the way, but still made it in plenty of time. I arrived thinking I was the last person. That was not the case. Kevin actually never came. We called him a few times and when he picked we had to inform him that we were on the bus leaving the station. “Kevin, where you at?” “ugh, still in bed” “really? Cause we are leaving on the bus.” whoops. We told him we would just meet up with him when he got to Madrid. After we made our way to our hostel and got settled in Kevin arrived a short bit later and we went to the big park in the middle of town and watched a big drum circle perform. I guess every Sunday night people will gather in this park and just have huge jam sessions with the all of the drums they bring. It was a pretty cool sight. Everyone there seemed to be having fun. After leaving the park we walked around the city for a while but everything was either closed or had no people in them, so we eventually headed back to the hostel to play cards. The next day we woke up, made breakfast, talked with a guy from New York, and then went to Puerta del Sol for a free walking tour. It was a fairly good tour. We went around and saw the Cathedral, the Royal Palace, the oldest restaurant in the world, etc. and eventually made our way to a little café for some tapas. Our tour guide said this place was the best because it was really cheap. Only 4 euros for tapas and a drink, what a deal. . As we sat waiting for our tapas we discussed how this tourguide made money. We figured it was from the tips at the end because the way these tours work is that you are supposed to “donate” what you think the tour should be worth. We knew that we didn’t have much money to donate so it was really confusing to us how he was able to only have this as his job. About at that time Kevin overheard the waitress tell Victor (our tourguide) in Spanish that the price was 2 euros a person. Shortly after that Victor came up to us and said that he had paid for everything, just so it was easier, and that we could pay him the 4 euros when we got outside. I don’t think he knew that we spoke Spanish. That was about the time we learned how he made the rest of his money. There were about 20 people in our group so if you do the math that is 40 euros in his pocket for doing nothing! Not too bad of a deal if you don’t mind cheating people. We decided to pay him the extra two euros and call that his “donation.” We left the tour shortly after that. That night we made spaghetti and it was delicious. I was in charge of the sauce and it was actually quite tasty. So tasty in fact that an Italian guy that was also at the hostel tried it and agreed that the sauce tasted wonderfully. That night we met a bunch of people in our hostile’s kitchen. We met people from Portugal, New York, Italy, Germany, Austria, and Michigan. Quite the group. It was a blast.

Next day, we caught our flight to Valencia and we were exhausted. In Valencia we found the beach and decided to nap for a while. While napping, I caught a bit much sun and turned a nice shade of pink. Whoops. After the nap we walked around saw the huge science museum, The City of the Arts and Sciences, and then made our way to the main plaza that night for the biggest fireworks show I have ever seen. It was a pretty crazy crowd too. People were just throwing fireworks everywhere and explosions were going off all around us. It blew my mind actually when I noticed that a lot of these explosions were coming from the hands of 8 year olds! Parents would just hand there small children firecrackers to throw and would just laugh when it almost blew up their childs feet. Unreal! When the fireworks ended the huge crowd started moving out and it was the biggest crowd I had ever seen. Things started to get a bit crazy though, people started throwing fireworks that would shoot and spin around into crowds of people! One of the fireworks shot and bounced off of a girl a foot in front of Jon and me! It was pretty insane! We got out of there and then went to find a café or somewhere to pass the time since we did not have a hostel. After a while we started getting pretty tired so we headed home (the beach) and tried to get some sleep. Unfortunately, the beach patrol was out and was not letting people sleep there, so we had to be sneaky found a nice hidden shadow to sleep in for the night. That was probably the longest, coldest, most frustrating night I have ever been through! Haha. It actually was a terrible time. We laid out there for 3 or 4 hours until 6am when the metros started running again and slept on it while we tried to get warm for the next 2 hours. When the sun came up we headed back to the beach where it was warm again and then slept a bit then. After we woke up we went to find food and to take part in the Fallas celebration. We stopped at a Burger King for some familiar food and while eating (the most delicious whopper ever) some huge explosions started erupting outside and soon after the entire street outside filled with smoke. It was crazy! The explosions was how they announced they were about to burn down the falla. There was soo much smoke tho. Burger King had automatic doors and people kept standing in front of it and thus allowing billows of smoke to enter the restaurant. I’m sure the workers were happy. After we ate we walked around and some some sites until the huge celebrations took place that night. We found the biggest falla in the middle of the city and ended up watching it burn in a crowd so jam packed that we could barely move! I have never been that squished in my life! It was a blast tho and luckily I had all of my valuables safeguarded so I had nothing to worry about. I still can’t believe the crowd of people. When the burning was over everyone tried to barge out and it was just a mess of humans pushing and shoving and screaming in 3 different languages. It was wild! We eventually made it out and then headed to the bus station to pick up our bags in the lockers so jon and I could head back to the train station to wait/sleep. Once we arrived at the train station we had to wait 5 hours before the train would leave and I had to wait 3 hours before I could buy my ticket. That time was spent trying to sleep, moving around to get warm, watching people vomit, and seeing the guards kick people to inform them to not sleep on the floor. Three hours later I found out that they all the trains were full for that day and there was no way for me to get to Madrid via train for 2 days. I decided to take the bus. I then parted with Jon and found Eric so that we could hopefully get a ride on a bus. Luckily, we did find seats but it was not as direct as we wanted. We had quite a few layovers but we eventually made it home. It was quite the trip!

Backtrack to PARIS

March 4, 2008

Wow. Sorry I have not blogged for some time! Here is a blog from a week or so ago.

Whew. It has been quite an exhausting few weeks or, more or less, last week. Last Tuesday, I began getting sick with a cough and sore throat and immediately started taking the corrective measures to prevent myself from getting sicker. Especially, since I would be going to Paris that coming weekend. I did manage to get rid of one symptom, but I managed to add a runny nose to the mix. Runny nose and cough for Paris. Oh well. The trip to Paris was quite the adventure. I went there with my buddy Jon and met up with another friend, Rémy, who actually lives just outside of Paris. Jon and I’s adventure began Thursday night with a bus ride at 1:00 am. We found it was cheaper to travel that way. We rode that bus for 4 hours to Bilbao where our flight would be leaving at 7. We did not get any sleep that night. I’m not sure if it was because the bus just didn’t ride very well or if the driver was terrible, but needless to say I had a terrible time trying to sleep. We did get there with no problems and made our flight with no hassle. We arrived in Paris at the Charles d’ Gaul Airport around 9 and went searching for tickets to take the train into town. This turned out to be more confusing than we had expected. In our Let’s Go! Travel book we read that the tix should only be like 1.50E or something and the ones we were seeing for sale were much more expensive, like 8E. We searched the kiosk screen and found the cheap ones we thought we needed and headed towards the train. Unfortunately, we did need the 8E ticket because the tickets we bought were for every other type of transportation (metro, bus, etc). So, all we could do was jump train with the old British lady. After trying to small talk with some Americans from Notre Dame, who turned out to have terrible social skills and actually a bit arrogant, I noticed an old English woman part from her group and end up on the other side of gate. Curious, that she was able to do that given the current state of panic and frustration in the increasingly long line. She informed her group that she went thru the open swinging gate and did not use a ticket (all in a killer accent mind you). Haha. It was hilarious. She was so matter of fact, like it was not a big deal, which made it even more comical because people were freaking out about these other gates were getting super upset. Knowing that my ticket was not going to work, I nudged Jon and was the first to go through the open gate. This caused a chain reaction of another 20+ people to follow suit thru the gate and board the train sin billete. Ha. Probably wasn’t the idea the train station had in mind. But jon and I were on our way. We did get slightly nervous when we saw that we needed a ticket to leave the station again. We rode the train for a while. Got off too soon, got back on, and eventually arrived at our hostel in the projects of Paris. Sort of a scary location, but the rooms were clean and the guy at the desk was pretty friendly. After dropping off our stuff, Jon and I spent the rest of the day at the Louvre. Very impressive. We also walked around the park just outside of the Louvre and watched some little kids play with sail boats in the fountain. We retired to our hostel early and didn’t do too much that night. We wanted a goodnight sleep for the next day with our tour guide, Rémy. Rémy is a friend from high school who is from France. We picked him up at the train station at 10:30 and then hit the town. We stopped by his sisters flat, went to the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Sein River, the Basilica, the artists square, a piano bar to eat crepes, and Moulin Rouge. We accomplished a lot in the day! That night we had subway (delicious) , met up with one of his friends, then went back to Eiffel Tower at night (beautiful) and Jon and I went up to the top. It was a pretty impressive view. The next day our flight left fairly early so we had to be up and running at 6am….yuck. we made our flight and everything and got back to Spain around 11. We flew into Bilbao, which is the home of the Guggenheim Museum, and spent the day there. The museum was INCREDIBLE. This was probably my favorite museum out of all. It had a lot of modern art and I especially like the Andy Warhol inspired work. It was just super cool. Around 6 we headed back to the bus station, at 6:30pm we missed our bus due to some incorrect info we received from the Info Desk. We then had to wait until 1:45am for the next bus. Haha that was sooo miserable because we were already exhausted from not really sleeping and it was Sunday and nothing is open in Spain on Sundays. Luckily we found an internet café and we cut some time down there. We ended up making it back and all was well.

Trucos en Cangas de Onis

This past weekend our group took a trip the mountains for our American Dinner in Cangas de Onis. Our whole group was super excited for this trip because we were going to be preparing a bunch of “American” food that reminded us of home. We had to do all the shopping for food and everything. On Saturday, the group drove to Cangas at 10 while Kevin, Jon, and myself were voted to take the bus since there was not enough room in the cars. Not a big deal. Sort of funny tho. “Hey we are driving to the mountains! Meet at the hats at 10:30…except Kevin, Blake, and Jon you guys need to be at the bus station at 930 and pay 10E to take the bus.” Ha. We made it worthwhile. Bought some donuts and oj for the trip and just popped in our ipods and we were set. When we arrived in Cangas de Onis we called for someone to pick us up for the station and then started planning out what trickery we were going to play on some people in the group. Our house that we stayed in was pretty spectacular. Nothing extremely fancy but incredibly beautiful. After setting our bags down, we were informed that we didn’t have enough room in the cars for everyone to go hiking. Kevin, jon, and I volunteered to stay back and just relax. Sort of an ongoing theme, huh? It was great tho. We went inside and my mind immediately started scheming as to how we should play tricks on the group. Since there was already an issue on the number of beds we were going to have we decided to be sure to label our “beds” since we had already had to take the bus to Cangas and then stay back from the hike. This idea progressed into stealing all of the other mattresses and sticking them in the rafters. It was pretty ingenious and a lot of fun. we were very pleased with our work! After our deviance, we headed into town for some snacks. Upon returning, we just sat outside, played some guitar and soaked up the sun/spectacular view. When everyone got back from their various activities we anxiously waited for the moment when they noticed their beds were gone. UNFORTUNATELY, that moment never came. Somehow, Luna got the idea that it was the landlord who put the mattresses up in the rafters. To keep them dry or something like that. Serious? Luna, come on, why would someone do that? Haha ridiculous! Let’s look at the facts. You left 3 boys at home along with the key, the mattresses were there when you left. All of the mattresses are in the rafters when you return, minus the 3 beds that are labeled with said 3 boys. The large ladder is missing. It seems like something should add up. But it never did! Hopefully, the album I put on facebook with pictures of us in the act will show them! Nonetheless, it was very fun committing the act! The rest of the weekend was a blast too. Lots of dancing, good food, guitar, and french toast in the morning! All around fun.

Another day in the mountains and a bit of lounging.

Oh Spain. Some days I love it and some days I just don’t understand it (or what’s being said in it). Last Saturday, some people from our group went hiking in Teverdga with Luna and Paula (they are our advisors here). This is the same place we went hiking before although we did not hike the same peak. There are so many mountains in this part of the country. I love it. This hike was much more fun than the last one we went on because we took some harder routes and were able to find a few faces to climb. We peaked at one of the highest in the range and the view was fantastic. There was actually a bit of calima (fog or haze) lingering so it wasn’t perfectly clear but nonetheless enchanting. On the way down to this very small lake Luna and Paula kept talking about, my impulses got the best of me when I jumped down to surprise Sean while he was taking a picture of a flower. I rolled my ankle. So the rest of the hike was more of a hobble for me but it was still enjoyable. While hiking back we came to a snag in the trail or rather a cliff that would not allow us to take the short way back to the car. This meant we would have to hike all the way around and up and over a peak. This did not sound like an awesome idea for a weak ankle. So, Kevin and I found a place on the cliff where we would be able to shimmy down the side and take a v-line to the car. No one else thought it looked like a good/safe idea but it really wasn’t too bad…just a lot of thorns. It was a lot of fun hiking down with Kevin. I felt like I was actually on a hike because from then on we were more or less just making our own path thru woods, thorns, pastures, and rocks. We also only sort of knew where the cars were parked. Our directions were: Go over these mountains find the road and go up. Ha. Sounds like a plan. Kevin and I didn’t even bother finding the road. Our sense of direction proved to be phenomenal and after braving the thorns and cliffs we came over a hill straight in line with our cars. It was a fantastic feeling. We then sat, enjoyed a bocadillo (a delicious sandwich), listened to music, and waited the hour and a half that it took the other group to arrive. Our way was much better. That night we were planning to go to an Opera at Teatro de Campoamor, which is a large performance theatre in Oviedo. Unfortunately, we called and most of tickets were sold out and the only seats left were very bad. we decided to wait since we were all exhausted from the hike. Instead, I met up with Sean and Jon at Isla de Cuba, our favorite hangout, and just geeked out and played with my laptop. It was nice to just hangout, search the web, and drink some coffee while waiting for the ibuprofen to kick in. The next day was pretty low key as well. Slept in a bit, ate breakfast, then went to an auto show outside Catedral (huge cathedral in the downtown area). This was no auto show, by the way, it was a Volkswagen auto show – made my day! Even though the long walk wasn’t the best on my ankle, I really loved getting the chance to see how Spaniards do Volkswagens. There were some really nice buses and beetles there. No buses pre-1968 so they were all very similar to mine. It was a fun time. I took lots of pictures. The rest of my Sunday consisted of rest and a bit of studies. I did watch Terminator 3 with Manolo for a bit. He likes action movie; Rambo, Terminator, Walked Texas Ranger, you name it. Today, I went to the gym, forced myself to work out, then came back for lunch. Margarita and her son Gabriel were there (M is Doris’s daughter-in-law, and G is her grandson) and they were talking with Doris about some problems Gabriel was having at school. I think they were talking about how kids were teasing him about his weight. I felt bad about the situation. I guess those sort of issues happen everywhere in the world. I remember learning in one of my classes in the states about Spain and there openness in describing people. The lesson was that the it is acceptable to describe people as gordo (fat), but I guess it is not always the case. I wish I understood more of the conversation. Oh well. Right now it is just about 2:00. I have class from 4-7 tonight, exciting. Bueno, me piro a Isla de Cuba. Hasta Luego . Pasalo bien dia!

Backtrack to Saturday.

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Today is one of those days where I just coast along. Last night I left early from hanging out with the group. We had played ping pong and it just wasn’t the same with this new paddle I bought. It is heavy and the handle is not easy to maneuver. I really like my old paddle. So I left to go home early because of that and I just had stuff on my mind and didn’t feel like hanging out with other people. This morning I woke up early to go to the gym which was a pretty good workout. Came back to the house ate lunch and then Manolo went to work and got our hands dirty (or gluey) fixing the paddle. I have high hopes for this paddle. I think it is going to pull through. I was freaking out tho when Manolo was helping. He kept pulling the handle where it was cracked and was making the crack bigger! I was getting so frustrated and kept trying to grab it away from him so he wouldn’t make it worse. Cuidado Manolo! I said that a lot. I would have much rather had the paddle in my own hands. I hated the idea of having the fate of my paddle in another person’s hands. I think it should work tho. Cross your fingers. This afternoon I am heading to play some fùtbol with some guys from Oregon and the guys who I played with in Iowa, it should be fun. I haven’t actually ran and played in quite some time so this might be interesting.

A new day.

Well, I have slept off my devastation of the fallen paddle and have taken a positive outlook on the day. I recruited Manolo's help in repairing the paddle and we are going to borrow some tools from Juan (Manolo's son) tonight and see what we can come up with. We found some wood glue that should suffice but what we really need is some clips that we will be able to hold the paddle in place while in dries. It is going to be a very delicate process. I am indeed very nervous about it. Surgery is a scary thing...
Anyway, at this moment i am sitting in a nice little cafe using there wifi and drinking an incredibly (and delicious) coffee. Chris Sparks, you would love it. The only problem is they only give you enough for 5 sips. I am enjoying the day though. I have put on Ok GO and it has put me in a great mood. The bright warm sunshine is also helping. I have one class today --- Gramaticas. I enjoy that class alot. The professor is super nice and easy to understand. After class, i will probably go paddle shopping. not saying my paddle will not be repaired, it is just to have a backup. So that is my day.

A little about my thoughts on living in this country:
This country is incredibly beautiful. My favorite thing right now is hopping on the bus for 3 euros to Gijon and spending the day on the beach. It is only a 20 minute bus ride. Soon i will surf there. I am finally comfortable at home and am talking more with Manolo and Doris. I still think Doris is very hard to understand. She talks very fast and has poor diction. I sometimes feel as though she is just yelling at me while speaking. I am coming to find i enjoy Manolo very much. He is easier to understand and likes to joke around. I think he enjoys having another guy in the house (i am the first male exchange student they've had). I am growing accustom to the food as well. Not a day goes by though that my friends and I talk about our American food cravings. I think I am learning alot as well. It doesnt always feel like it because i am still so far off from being fluent but everyday i learn something new so as long as i can remember what i learn i should be in good shape. The biggest thing i have learned here though is perspective. A perspective on how much i love home and my country and my culture. I have found that alot of the practices here seem a bit ridiculous to me. For example, water is super expenisve here. Before leaving my classmates and i were informed to be mindful of how much water we use in the shower. Thats legit. But the thing that confuses me is this: They hose the streets down with thousands of gallons of water EVERY night. They also have drinking fountains spouting out water 24 hrs a day. Seems strange to me. The working hours are also very strange to me. Their day does not start until very late in the day and then they take a break midday (closing everything) and then opening up again for a few hours. It just does not seem very efficient nor effective to me. Oh yea, and grocery stores do not stay open past 9. Crazy. Cheers to Hy-Vee. One last thing, people aren't able to hang out at other peoples house. You always must meet at a cafe. I like hanging out at the house. Mostly because you not have to pay to do it. Anyway, my two cents. I do like spain tho. Very beautiful. AND they have ping pong tables OUTSIDE! cant be that.

Glasses, paddles and more...

Feb 6

I am incredibly frustrated right now. Apart from having the overwhelming feeling of not understanding the majority of things people say to me and emotions that are coming out of right field, I just received word from UPS that they tried to deliver my glasses today but Doris was unable to receive it because she had to pay money for the package. Ok , legit. How much was it Doris? Ciento tres. Que? She said 103.23. That is in euros. So I have to pay roughly $150 to receive my blasted glasses! Unbelievable!!! The Spanish government is having its way with me with these taxes. That is absurd how much they want!! I could have bought glasses here for that amount of money!!! This was not good news. I am furious. Spain, you are not impressing me.

Feb 7

A terrible thing happened tonight. The night actually started out well. Ping pong at the park. Jon was the only other one who showed up. For those of you who do not know, a bunch of the guys usually meet up at parque de San Francisco and play ping pong before we go out. we have some intense games and it is a total blast. if you have never played outdoor ping pong i would suggest it. But anyway, tonight it was just me and jon. It was a good time though, a good chance for me to run some ideas by him and get his opinion. We talked about the apartment for next year, the wild dance parties, decorations, just the regular stuff. After that, we walked to meet up with our group to go over our plans for the upcoming weekend with our group for the American Dinner, which is where we go out into the mountains and prepare a bunch of American cuisine for ourselves and indulge. Pretty normal night. Luna couldn’t make it. Paula was late. We played a terrible game of pool. Ok, skipping ahead, I had my ping pong paddle in my back pocket, forgot about it when sitting on a couch and cracked it. CRACKED IT! It might not be repairable. Tomorrow I will be going to corte ingles to find some glue and then resurrecting my beloved paddle. Honestly, it feels like a part of me has died! I am so devastated. I left salsa dancing early in respect of the fallen paddle. Way to go Blake…sitting on your paddle? Lame.

Oh yea. My glasses arrived again today and I ended up paying them the absurd amount of money they asked for. Hopefully mis padres en EEUU will give UPS the peace of mind they deserve. I really like my glasses tho.

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Well this is my first entry into my laptop blog for Spain. Right now I have been here for about a month and I think I am finally getting the hang of everything. This, though, is not saying that I am getting the language down! True, I understand more and I am able to communicate but not near to the extent I would like to be able to! Yesterday was a good day. Sean, Jon, and I called it an early night on Friday after a nice little laptop party at Isla de Cuba, a nice little café with free wifi. Saturday morning I woke up early (for Spain) at 9:30 and went to Los Prados to mail some stuff and look for some swimming/shower sandals. I didn’t really find any sandals that I liked or a price I was willing to pay for so I made my way to some of the chino stores they have around town. I found one store with sandals but the sizes were small and they looked like they were stocked in 1997. I left. I didn’t get far though because I really wanted to go swimming at the gym I workout at and I knew that if I didn’t buy any sandals there I would not be able to swim. At that realization, I turned around and bought the overly colorful sandals that were a size and a half too small for 2 euros. A great purchase I thought. This purchase led to one of my most uncomfortable situations in Spain. When I arrived at the gym I did not really feel like working at all so I got on a bike for a little bit until Sean was finished with his cardio workout and while Jon was still arriving (we all obviously workout at the same gym). I was on the bike for a maybe 6 minutes before Jon arrived and after that I justified stopping because I was incredibly sore from the last 4 days of solid workouts. I stretched for a bit and then told the guys I was making my move to try the pool. This is an intimidating thing because nobody in our group knows exactly how it works down there or what you are supposed to do to be able to enter. We tried to go in one day and were quickly shooed out. I had figured out that you must wear sandals to enter the pool area and so that’s what I was gunning for. Just get in and go from there. With the a confident attitude I changed into my suit (in the wrong locker room mind you) and walked down the stairs in my over colored sandals and very blue flowery shorts. I was looking good. I made my way thru the correct locker room to the pool entrance and was home free. I went thru the doors and was immediately stopped by a girl about my age, who immediately starting rambling something out in Spanish. She was talking soo fast I had not a chance to comprehend. I eventually told her I am a beginner at the language and luckily she knew some English so we could communicate efficiently. With a common language, she explained to me that her dad was in the locker room I just left and that he had her shampoo that she needed and that she wanted me to go to ask him for it. I told her I had no idea who her dad was and thus would not recognize him. She said that’s not important just go in and ask for shampoo. Being a valiant dude, I decided to give it a shot to help her out. I went into the locker room of half naked Spaniards and said, Hay un padre que tiene una hija? porque ellla necessita shampoo. I thought I said it well and had high hopes for a response. Everyone stared blankly at me. Haha. I tried again. Same reaction. “Who is this gringo?” they probably thought. I tried the other side without success and had to return a disappointed dripping wet damsel. I felt bad I was unable to retrieve her shampoo. But it is so strange to me sometimes. I speak in their language yet everyone looks at me like I was speaking in Elfish (or some other very foreign language). A very strange feeling. I sometimes doubt that this language works! When it does tho, it is a fantastic feeling. So after parting ways with Noella I went to mull things over in a gigantic hot tub which I think is similar to the prefects bathroom in Harry Potter (mom you would love it). As I get in and sit down, I look around and realize everyone seems to love to wear those silly little swim caps. Not one person is without one. Except me. Oh. I get out of the tub. I find one of the workers and ask them about it and luckily this guy took care of me and gave me a silly cap. It was probably from the lost and found. Gross. Oh well. I returned to the hot tub and enjoyed the lukewarm water and the massive amount of bubbles. It was actually pleasant. I couldn’t stop laughing about my recent encounters. I couldn’t stop picturing the confused faces of everyone in that locker room. It was hilarious. I got out of the hot tub and was going to try the sauna but I decided I had had enough excitement for one morning. I showered and called it good.

Carnaval in Aviles: After the gym, Sean, Jon, and I walked to find a costume for Carnaval, which is a celebration in all of Spain and people dress up in costumes for it. We decided on some some Chinese hats and these white paper suits that we would draw on the characters to spell out PING PONG. We looked good. Carnaval was wild. Crazy costumes. AND there was foam in the streets! During the parade that have some kind of foam machine and just soak everything .Kids, adults, everyone puts on ponchos and just slide thru about 2ft of foam in the street. It is quite a sight. It was all in all a lot of fun!