Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in esperanza's LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, December 14th, 2004
8:03 pm	So I´m done with everything! I woke up this morning thinking how I could technically stay in bed if I wanted to...but who would want to spend their last few days in Spain in bed? So I woke up around 930, laid in bed talking to liz for a bit, who had just gotten out of the shower. I eventually got up, ate breakfast, checked e-mail, showered, etc. The usual morning stuff. Oh except for I fell down in the shower... ouch. Slightly embarassing. About 11 Liz and I set out for town. We walked down to the Barrio de Santa Cruz and hit up every damn souvenir store in it. Awesome. Lots of them were generally unfruitful...but after souvenir shopping for like 3hours, I had made it out with a few satisfactory purchases, with a stop for ice cream in the middle :o) I even bought myself a cute Spanish thong with a rhinestone toro :oP Anyway liz and I caught the bus back for lunch - paella type rice and beans with meat. yum. After lunch, for me it was immediately back to town, where on the way I got distracted by shiny objects. A street vendor selling really cute jewelry. So i bought some souvenirs there. Anyway, got to school, spent the rest of the afternoon alternating talking onlin, talking to friends in the Cener, and shopping some more - more shopping success! It´s not too bad once you get the hang of it - this present shpping thing. I got my mom a T-shirt htat says "siesta" on it - she´ll get a kick of it . And my dad a Spanish worship CD that is really good. For corrie, I have a t-shirt that says España on it - she will be absolutely adorable in it. And I bought Steven that sword in Toledo. And Clare went to Jerez today so I got her to buy some horse stuff and she brought back some coasters with reallly cool pics and a poster. And then various regalitos for my amigos. Anyway after a generally satisfying conversation with Raymond, I walked home. Despite being home on time, Mercedes wasn´t, and dinner was not until 1030. However, I had a very nice chat with mercedes about some differences between the states and España and school systems and stuff. Liz was out to dinner with her Bible study group. About 1115 she wasn´t home yet and I was kinda trying to wait on her but I ended up leaving, walking to Plaza de Cuba, then Ilya texts me they´re not at Tex-Mex - so I go to the hooka bar where a bunch of people were supposedly going - but there was nobody ther e- so as I´m walking abck to Cuba, you´ll never guess what I saw - José and Katrina together, holding hands! Uh, whoa! Mr Player boy. And they were definitely surprised to see me and we had a few minutes of awkward convo - during which I found out everyone was at Madigans, so I went there and definitely everyone was - Tyler, katie, Adam, Edmundo, Katie, her 33 year old cousin Chris, Carli, ilya, Kevin, Danny, maria, Ashley, Deann, Chris, James, random Spanish guy, mary. So we hung out at Madigan´s for the rest of the night, till 3 when they kicked us out cuz it was closting tim.e We alternated being inside and outside - botelloning and chilling in the bar. Over the course of the night I had 3 tintos and a shot of Jeager, and then adam bought me a vodka y naranja when I ran out of money. Really fun night. Carli got too drunk to stand up again, fell down lying on her back and Katie straddled her and humped her; Danny told racist jokes an dpassed out kisses on the cheek - love his chicago accent; Kevin tried to hook up with mary and when she wouldn´t, stopped a random American girl on the street, made out with her, and then attempted to make out with her friend - who almost did then stops and goes "who the fuck are you?" - Hilarious. Then everyone with a camera video-taped him making out with Mary. Anyway we had to say our final goodyes to Chris and James - really fucking depressing. But overall it was a relaly fun night and really nice to be able to just *chill* with people from the center...before I never see them again. Anyway after the bar kicked us out, I walked home, halfway with Deann, and then came back, wrote a drunken e-mail to Raymond, had a croissant with our new Duo which is a different kind and disgusting, and passed out on my bed. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, December 13th, 2004
4:40 pm	wow. Did you see that date I just wrote? Less than 72 hours, i´ll be gone from here. Really scary thought. Moving on...so i´m back in my favorite spot - sitting at the head of my bed, curled up comfortablet o write, my pillow against the headboard against the wall, lamp on beside m. k, not really my favorite spot. I must say that though because I feel like I´ve been sitting right here for the past 4 or 5 days...mostly studying my ass off. Blah. But! It is monday night, approximately 1145 pm, and my last final ended over 3 and a half hours ago! yay for that! Now begins the daunting task of catching up 3 days in my journal, which would be far more daunting had I not already survived an ass-raping tonight, which was cleverly disguised in the form of an art history final exam...now I feel I can take on anything, including Ilya. so, Saturday, the 11th. Woke up a little later than I intended, studied for about an hour, then left to go to the center, where I met Raymond online and we chatted for some time. he must really love me to get up on a *Saturday* morning! So home for lunch, walked as I´m trying to conserve my rides on my bus pass. Once home, I ate, and essentially spent the rest of the afternoon alternating sleeping and studying, mostly the latter. Liz and I had dinner early around 9, so she could leave to go out. She left about 10 and I spent the next hour taking a nice long luxurious shower with the Cd player on and then took my time getting ready half - naked the majority of the time because no one was home. it was great! I got all cute - although i was slightly worried about my hair which had decided to go insane - couldn´t decide if it was sexy, wild Latina or scary 80´s... but calmed it as best as I could and left. Walked to Plaza de Cuba and met up with the crew, who while Liz and I were talking to laura and Andrea left to go to Alfalfa. So we said goodbye (probably the final one :o( to the girls, walked a few more steps and saw Antony and Zach, and so stopped and chatted with them for a while. We left them, went a few more steps and ran into some people from the Center - Matt, jessica, etc. We talked to them for a while, actually made it onto the bridge and then ran into John (the one we see everywhere) and chatted it up with him. Finally like 30 minutes later we were actually on our way. We get to Alfalfa, and the night officially begins. Chris offers me ad rink, and so I accept - ugh I despise whiskey. Only thing they had though, 5 or 6 bottles of it. So I stood around mostly talking to jennifer, amy, stef, marisol, lindsey, jc, etc. Actually had a real convo with Ilya for the first time in a long time. anyway, the real fun begins when guess who shows up - Ernesto! He is so much fun to hang out with! We all just stood around and laughed and talked half in English half in Spanish. Thom and Ernesto raced a beer (Thom won) and general merriment was made. Ernesto was like "stefanie you are prettier every time I see you" and then proceeded to explain to us how it seems girls in his class always get prettier over the course of the semester. I told him it was the atmosphere of Spain. Anyway so Ernesto is cool as shit and we had a really good time telling jokes and taking pictures - really cool to hang out with a teacher like that. And so other than Thom offering to make out with me, ew, everything was good. Ok, so here the night turns not so fun. I´d noticed Liz was gone and after almost an hour finally texted her - she said she was on her way back to Alfalfa. OK, now grandted we dont´have a contract or anything, but we both know that when we go out we usually stay together and if not, at least tell the other where we´re going. So I was confused and a little worried (girl was smashed after one drink), but no pasa nada. finally everyone gets ready to leave to go to the club - I´m like "Shit, where´s LIz" but go along anyway. WE get as far as the corner ands top to wait for people - at which point I see Ashley - girl I´d met that last wednesday night -cool. Anyway so Liz calls and asks where I am - I tell her and she says she´s coming - she doesn´t. We move the "party" to Plaza Nueva to catch cabs to the club. On the way Chris and ilink arms and he tells me as a persuasive writing major he thinks lit majors are sexy. Hah. anyway so at Plaza Nueva, Liz calls again. I tell her where we are and she says she´s coming. Everyone wants to move to catch a cab elsewhere - I´m like well I´ll stay and wait for Liz. So I do, and JC and her Spanish friend Mauel stay with me. Finally JC leaves and Manuel and I are left alone - he´s waiting for Jesús and Edmundo. None of them ever come - I call Liz finally and she´s drunk and says she´s at a burger king and doesn´t kno where adn when she starts being distracted by the people around her and talking about asses, I get frustrated and hang up. So manuel comes with me and we walk down Tetuan. X on that Burger King. So we walk down Reyes Católicos and nope, not that one either. At this point I both text and call Ilya - no answer. So we decide to go to Alfalfa - we find his friends there - drunk off their asses. I call Adam and Kevin, no Liz. So after we stand there for a while watching Edmundo and Katie make out and Carli not be physically able to stand up, we decide we´re not drunk enough for this - and leave. He walks me about halfway home and then catches a cab to La Macarena where he lives. i walk home extremely pissed at liz - like majorly - haven´t been straight up mad like that in a long time. I came home, checked my e-mail. Raymond had sent me pictures. So weired - I feel like I´m looking at someone I don´t even know. makes me confident in my decision to wait until january. Can´t date someone I don´t know...ps I hate fake plants. Anyway I went to bed still really pissed off. Liz comes in about 8 AM - I woke up around 1130 and study for an hour. Liz wakes up and we have a chat - she was completely oblivious but then really apologetic - made me slightly more bitter that she had an amazing time at a gay bar with Ernesto and a bunch of people (got a girls´number). but I mean what can you do... I´m over it no though I was slightly bitter most of the day Sunday. WAsn´t like a complete waste of time - Manuel is a sweetheart and a half - and not gonna lie - I spoke some kick - ass Spanish that night with him - as in possibly the best I´ve ever spoken in my life. Like, I was amazing, even and especially to myself. Ok, so sunday - I spend the majority of the morning studying for my damn lit final. Liz left for lunch with Javier, and the lunch we had here was striaght up disgusting. Garbanzo beans with this meat - some of it was smooth and some spongy - the only thing I could think of like that were liver and stomach - ew! And it tasted gross. Like I´m still not sure what it was, but I basically ate some beans and then told them I wasn´t hungry. After lunch I walked to the center and got online for a while. After like an hour and a half, 2 hours, i had to say goodbye to Gemela for the last time...such a weird feeling. Makes the whole i have to leave thing really hit home. I´m sad though... I love her so much! and she lives so far away! At least we have e-mail...I walked back, and Liz was just leaving to go to Tex- Mex with Ilya. So I took a short nap and then woke up and actually started studying for art history. Dinner was croquetas and french fries - after which I , guess, studied for more lit!! BUT I gave up early - so sick of it. I mean the subject matter is so interesting to me - but going over notes for like 3 hours gets exhausting even though you´re just sitting there. anyway so bed - fell asleep with clothes on. Today. monday morning - wake up about an hour and a half late - shit, I had totally intended to get up and study. Anyway I hurrily readied and then went to school and got in some last minute cramming before the test - the exam itself turned out not to be too bad. What I was really worried about was we studied 3 writers who wrote sonnets and it would be really hard to tell which was which. Luckily, there were no sonnets on the test and while I didn´t exactly ace it, I still think I did really well. I finished in a little over an hour and got online - where I found Christina had e-mailed me - yay for her! *plus* nina was online and IMed me! What a double treat - things like that actually make me look forward to going home. Anyway I cut myself short so I could come home and study, which I did. Then i took about an hour nap before lunch - which was much better today. So afterwards I studied and studied more - another almost 2 hours and then went to school, did some last minute studying while buying a Pepsi with Lauren, and then took the exam. The first part was ok - normal stuff that we always do - look at slides and write about them. Then she threw in som bullshit questions like "tell me about, generally, this kind of art" and "compare this and this" and "trace arte musulman in Andalucía over the course of 7 centuries". Geez! Anyway, barely escaping that one alive, and actually using almost the full 2 hour time slot - never done that before. Got online, feels so weird to not have to do anything. Like I got home, ate dinner, and then sat down on my bed for like 30 minutes with so much energy and nothing to do except talk liz´s ear off a bit. Anyway, I managed to kill some time and now I´m caught up in my journal - yay! Going to bed now to get up to go souvenir shopping in the morning - hope I won´t have any more weird dreams like the one last night that involved monkeys taking over the world with poison darts that kill in 30 seconds. (Comment on this)
Friday, December 10th, 2004
5:20 pm	This might also be a short, boring entry with a slightly amusing part in the middle. So I woke up early this morning to study some more - this i did, ate breakfast, showered, actually blow dryed my hair, and took the bus to school sporting my cute new sweatshirt. Checked my e-mail, then joined Ilya, tyler, Hannha, Pam, and Lindsey and Stef to study for the exam. WE sat for about 30 minutes doing some last minute reveiw and then went to Ernesto´s class to take the test. After group photos, he gave out the test and it felt really good t practically kmnow everything on there. i´m prety sure I did really well. so afterwards I went to exchange my travelers checks - $250 for 178€ . SUCKS! Then to a farmacía to weigh myself - essentially the same. Back at school and I sat down to talk to Ian who had just finished his last exam and was going to celebrate by getting high and did i wanna come? hell yeah! So i chatted shortly with Raymond and then Ian came and got me and we caught the bus to some park. There we found a bench, lit up the bowl of hash, and attempted to be nonchalant when people walked by - pretty funny. It was some really storng stuff - lasted forever! so we walked to the Amena store to talk to his friend who works there. While there I discovered the joys of the orange flavored candies in the bowl and took like 5 of them. ("wouldn´t it be funny if all the orange ones were gone?"). We chilled there fore quite a while and i tripped out over the holographic Shrek card and the magnetic pen-and-stand. Next we walked back to the center ("Congrats ian on having my being high during the day virginity" and "LOOK, Ian, a car!" followed by what at the time was a hilarious startled jump). WE both got on the computer and I got to talk to Raymond high which was fun and I got to walk home with Liz high, also fun , and get ice cream! Yay for getting high it´s been quite a while. anyway lunch was pasta with cut up salchichas and then I took a siesta - can someone please explain to me why I´m so damn tired all the time? Anyway so we woke up, ate some duo on bread and walked to the Center where I got to talk to Raymond for almost 2 hours. Also talked to José for the first time in a while - he flirted like usual. Then i found liz and we walked down calle sierpes with ilya to find the Christian bookstore - which was closed - so we went in a sex shop instead - with liz that was totally fun. Then we met up with Kevin at El Atún and you know I haven´t hung out with those 2 guys in a while and it was kinda nice. So we were there for 30 minutes or so and then we left, stopped by Café de Indias for a few minutes to chat with some other Center people. We saw the top of a bus sideswipe a tree which was weird. Liz and I walked home and saw a fender-bender - weird to see 2 things like that in one day. Dinner was odd - egg, onion, pasta and meat and then croquetas. Liz is now out (she just called actually to tell me Obsesión was on :o) and I stayed in to study, which I did for about an hour and ahalf but have I mentioned I hate studying? Anyway, about to go to bed but oh yeah I forgot . The first time Liz and I walked home together today some little Spanish 16 year old punk walked by me and said "suck my dick" (in english). At first it didn´t even register but then I turned around and yelled "fuck you." Grr i´m fucking sick of machismo shit i swear. A guy in the states would never do that, no matter how sleazy. That has NEVER happened to me in the States. Here it´s like a normal thing. ew. One more thing is that I do need to say I´m really beginning to look forward to seeing Raymond again and starting to really think it´s going to work... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, December 9th, 2004
5:18 pm	So not a lot to write on today, but this journal is like an addictio now. haven´t decided if I´m still going to keep one when I get back...in a lot of ways I like having a journal. We´ll see...the main dilemma is online or written? Online is easier and faster; written is a little more personal an terapeutic. anyway, it is possible I´ve spend entirely too much time in this bed in the past 2 days... i both study and sleep here, and have done a lot of both. I journal her too. Oh well, in exactly one week from today - scary - I´ll never see this bed again, so why not enjoy it while I can. Speaking of time periods, Tuesday would have been mine and Raymond´s one year anniversary - kinda hurts to think about, so I´ll just not. Worth noting though...Will we ever have a real one year? Uh, that´s fucking scary pretty much not gonna think about that either. Ok, moving on. So this morning I woke up around 815 - showered, had plenty of time to get ready, which ironically I did absolutely nothing with my hair, ate a glorious duo filled breakfast, bought a 10 ride bus pass, and went to school. Once there I checked my e-mail, you know, Christa has neither journaled nor written me in over 2 weeks, wonder what´s up - and then joined the massive crowds in the study room. About 20 minutes later, Mila walked in and doom descended. No, not too bad - well I don´t know. Oddly and unfortunately I felt much more sure of myself taking the 2nd placement test than this actual exam whic is essentially the same stuff - i didn´t feel that great about this exam, although i´m sure I didn´t bomb it or anthing. We shall see. So afterwards I got online and spent quite some time talking to Raymond...and attempting to catch up my livejournal which is going to take me about 2 more days to do probably. I was late coming home for lunch because the bus was late. Lunch was good - some rice stuf. Anyway, so I entertained Liz for about 30 minutes, then took a substantial nap - like 2 and a half hours, then woke up and studied for 2 hours - then internet café for a break since the computer here doesn´t wokr - talked to Josh, Megs, and Bri. Josh was trying to make me jealous of Jeanette - not going to work, but amusing. So home for dinner which was "hamburgers" and since then I´ve been studying some more. I hate finals. This weekend shall not be fun. Blah. Anyway, to bed to rest before more studying in the morning. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 8th, 2004
1:48 pm	So today´s entry is going to be slightly boring and probably very short - because that´s how my day was - so I´ll follow it up with some contemplation adn then to bed I go - I´m so exhausted and really not all that sure why. So I went to bed at 8am today - planned to get up at 1230 but ended up getting up around 2, still tired. I tried the internet again, which actually worked this time, wrote Raymond a really long e-mail and my m other to tell her to tell my sister Happy 12th birthday - as I finally calculated that´s how old she is. Then I ate my lunch in here while Liz listened to music and unpacked - I joined her in the unpacking but we lamented we were just going to have to pack it all again in like 8 days...I got some studying done, wrote in my journal as I had gotten just about a day behind, and fell asleep. i ended up taking like a 2 and a half hour nap- waking up STILL tired, agian, but forcing myself to get up. More journal, more studying, and waiting around for what seemed forever for dinner at 10 - which was pizza that when I picked the pepers off most of the cheese came too and it really wasn´t very good. We talked Alejandro into keeping us company - haven´t seen the fam almost alld ay - they´re rather disinterested in us at this point I feel. Anyway - we were in a good mood at dinner, "had the giggles" you might say, thena fter dinner went to an i-net café for an hour or so - she teased me about being addicted but ended up coming with em. yay, my new sweatshirt is so warm! I actually had an e-mail from Diego - he´s too cute. nice Spanglish. And this cracked me up: "here´s a picture of the house we invited you to :o(" So apparently Raymond talked to my Stephanie from Village inn - he won´t tell me how but he did -and I¨m so confused - but she said she misses me - aw! And I miss her too and she said that i definitely have a christmas job! How exciting is that!? And apparently there was some drama with drew that I´m now really curious about... Anyway, it was nice to talk to Raymond and he keeps telling me I have surprises... I´m so curious. Anyway we came back here and quizzed each other for about an hour... now I¨m jouranling, drinking the Cola-cao she made me, and going to bed. I´m such a bum - the only time I chagned was to put o jeans to go to the café - I didn´t even put on a bra just threw my sweatshirt on. And the one right next to our house didn´t work -w e had to walk all the way down to the one across from the business school - I enjoyed the short stroll after being inbed all day. so, Liz made a comment the other day. We were discussing my situation with Raymond and after other, more serious, more sympathetic, more helpful comments, she said in an only somewhat playful tone. "well stef, you really cant´have every male on the face of the planet." I was sort of stopped short, had no clue how to take it, and was like "what the hell does that mean?" she was like "stef, if i see one more guy who´s hott hook up with you, or one more guy strain his neck to check you out, or one more guy give you something free, I´m going to throw up." We both just kind of laughed it off but it just struck me as so odd. I mean, yeah, i get a lot of attention from guys, but in all honesty Liz does too. She always has some guy in love with her or something. I dont´know, she´s good at making guys fall for her - not that she does it on purpose. I was just so taken aback to hera her say that. I hope she´s not actually bitter - i already know that she feels bad sometimes because I speak Spanish a little better - but I mean she really has nothing to be jealous of. It just worries me a little because I don´t want any resentment there - I love this girl so much and don´t know what I´m going to do without her. I mean, yeah I do get attention from guys, but not anymore I feel than Liz or Lauren or any of my reasonably attractive friends. And then at the bus station we walked by this guy and Liz goes " so I´m gonna need not every single guy to check you out." And then today in the elevator on the way down - wow I looked AWFUL and said so and she negated it and I said "whoa have you seen me today?" and she was like "yeah but did you see yourself all weekend? you looked adorable every day adn I looked like shit the whole time." eh, it makes me feel bad... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 7th, 2004
12:32 pm	Last day of our vacation! So sad! One of the greatest things abuot this trip has been my time with Liz - it´s sort of our last big hurrah together, and I feel like we´ve actually gotten closer than we were before. We´ve just chatted and talked and laughed and just enjoyed being together. i could not have picked a better roommate for this trip to Spain. I am seriously going to miss tihs girl when I get back to the STates. Another hting: I love travelling because of the people - you meet amazing people travelling and the few minutes, hours, days, or months you spend with them makes an impact on your life forever and makes the entire trip, and any problmes you´ve encountered on the way, compeltely worth while. On this 5 day sub-trip I´ve met so many cool people - all of them adding something important to the overall experience and making it unique. We woke up about 8 but only finally got out of bed aobut 830 - we just sort of laid there contemplating the cold. By the time we left the hostal it was 9. We left our bags and went to the Mercado de la Ribera, which is the biggest indoor market in Spain. The building was really cool - like an exceptionally well decorated warehouse. Inside, well as far as an experience goes, it was interesting. I love markets and hteir atmosphere. I dont´like being reminded that meat is actually dead animals. The concept freaks me out so much I really should be a vegetarian, but I like hamburgers and steak too much. Anyway, so things I did not like about the market: the giant racks of cow ribs, the skinned and earless bunnies, the giant cow legs, the cow tongues, the pig snouts, what looked like some type of large animal penis, the full pig heads (clean) and full goat heads (covered in blood and with some fur still). I think that about covers it. Oh yeah, and the furry bunny with its head in a plastic bag. Oh yeah, and the sketchy dude who could not have checked me out any harder, with the mohawk and the black leather. Ew. Anyway the produce section was much more pleasant. So finally we left there and headed to breakfast (after I got my appetite back) and went to Café Boulevard, which is the oldest café in Bilbao - we had cola-cao (of course) and I had tostada. That was the richest cola-cao I´ve ever had. They gave us so much chocolate and so little milk - really odd actually. Anyway it´s a huge café and really cute, so breakfast was pleasant. next, we headed off for the main reason we went to Bilbao - the Guggenheim Museum. Designed by Paul Gehrey, the first part of the building that we saw when approaching it from the river was 2 "towers" - really just panels constructed to a ppear so. The next thing that caught our eye was the giant sculpture of a spider, or maybe daddy-long-legs - huge! And a bronze or copper colored blcook with the vague outline of a man cut out. Next we saw the building itself - definitely hard to explain such magnificence. It´s huge, made on the outside mostly of glass and titanium panels, constructed to wave and wind and the actual roof is impossible to find. ON the other side stands an exhibit "quantum cubes" which are 2 huge cubes made of panels coated with some iridescent prism paint to reflect the light. WE walked around the side, amidst surprise bursts of water and steam, to the front where stands "puppy" - a giant dog sculpted entirely from flowers. WE finally entered, paid the 6 € admission fee which includes an audio - guide - cool! Never listened to one before. So immediately inside is what is called the "atrium" - a large room, sort of central starting opint of the museum. We turned on the audio guides and learned all about the structure of the museum. First we wlaked into this huge popular art room, with giant pieces of art work on the walls, screen printings and such, as well as in the middle a winding sculpture called "snake" which you coudl walk through, and giant half pocket knife, half boat thing; and 3 identical and giant "red spanish venuses". Back out into the atrium, and to the back patio - looks like the reflecting pond and the river out back are one - kinda neat. Anyway, there was a scrolling poem on a marquis - in one side in red in Spanish and Englsih but if you walk behind it -which at first you dont´even realize you can do, it´s on the back in euskera in blue. Also on the bottom floor were two exhibits by E. Viola. OK - he freaks me out. In one room a videoclip shows a man being consumed by fire and directly behind it like back to back it shows him being consumed by water, rain. "The Messenger" it might be called. Then there is the exhibit "going forth by day" which is a literal translation of the title of the Egyptian book of the dead. 2 of the 5 screens, just... I don´t know, left me with the weirdest feelings. One told a story of a man who dies...his wife is "waiting" for him on the shore and when he joins her suddenly is the moment of his death...they sail away on the lake while his son and daughter-in-law realize what has happened and ourn outside the door of his house. The other screen shows a rescue team and a mother draggina a lake for a boy...eventually, exhausted, they all fall asleep. After moments and moments of stillness, suddenly the dead boy rises from the water into the air, and hte water he´s dripping turns into a heavy rainstorm which wakes the others up, and they unaware of what happened, pack up and give upa nd elave, while the mother mourns. So freaky. On the second floor were several art galleries - a few with abstract art - i really liked the 3d German art; and then others - from a Renoi and a Van Gogh, to some Picasso, miró and Kandinsky. That was a gallery I really enjoyed. Also there was a small room of sketches by Chillida, and finally a wall painting - just giant blocks of color directly on the wall -a lmost blinding. Up one more flight of stairs and there were 2 exhibits - one of sculptures by by Orteiz - which was really overwhelming but sitll really cool. Hard ot explain: some of hacked shapes out of; then the others like sheets of metal welded together, often forming incomplete boxes whether simple or complex. And finally was a Michelangelo exhibit - of sketches from him and all of his contemporaries - Raphael, Fra Bartolomeo, etc. Really cool to see such old work by people so famous, but as amazing as it was to see the study of the human body and how in the Renaissance they FINALLY figured it out, after 3 hours I was exhausted - museums really take a toll on you. So I saw what I wanted to see and then sat down to wait a few minutes for Liz. When she finished we went to the gift shop - which was huge - and I bought a few postcards - as did she - and then we went and say by the Puppy. That was the scheduled meeting place at 130 to meet with Jorge and Iñigo. They walked up, we sort of had to re-introduce ourselves, adn then we walked ot their car where to the sounds of The Calling they drove us to pick up Reuben - the guy who had been especially drunk and friendly. OK, so to explain: Jorge I think is just absolutely adorable. He´s very Spanish, so so sweet, a little more mild-manenred but not in a bad way and has a relaly pleasant voice. Liz thought Iñigo was cuter (granted I like his name). He´s less stereotypically Spanish looking - in fact oddly reminds me of Ryan (bri´s ex). Also a little quiet but he was the one the other night who had all the fnny quotes. Then Reuben - hes´quite like a child- talks incessantly, asks a lot of questions, everything you have is free game for him to look at and explore - he looked at the stuff I got from the museum, in Liz´s bag, and later through the books and papers I had lying on top when i opened my bag. He´s hilarious. And knows the most English (which is still not much at all) but had so much fun throwing in random wors in conversation. So they took us to this small little fishing community like 15 or so minutes up the highway, right on the water - rich neighborhood, amazing houses, lots of boats - and to this little food court. i got pizza and they got "platos combinados" and we sat down and ate and talked and joked and asked each other questions - yay for all in Spanish. Liz got quiet which was ewird...she was sort of quiet the whoel afternoon. Dont´know why. Anyway so Reuben stole her camera and took a video - absolutely hilarious -a nd we generally had ag ood time. WE left and walked up along the water on this walk-way thing really high. We stopped a little old señora to take a picture of us - that was quite the experience -s he had to try like 4 times. She was so cute and so confused by the camara. Anyway, she finally took it and after admiring the coastline some more we walked back to the car. Next they drove us up a mountain next to the city so we could look out over it. cold, but BEAUTIFUL view. I love to be able to do that. Makes me feel like I really get some sort of graps - like I really *see* the city in its entirey. WE stooed up there for a good 20 minutes or more - taking pictures and talking. Funny: I asked the boys what was the name of the river, and Jorge responded: "well, it´s actually called the river ____ (can´t remember), but here we call it the River of bilbao." I rolled my eyes and said "of course you do" and gave him a look and everybody laughed. Then REuben went on about how much he loves his city and how he´s all about his city, etc. Cute. So at 415 I noted we needed to leave and they drove us back down the mountain. AS we were getting into town though the traffic became absolutely horrible and so that sucked as we were a little pressed for time. Also funny: so we´re driving by this church, and REuben goes "oh look! it´s the basilica! This si the pretties basilica in all of..." and trials off. I´m like "In all of ??" and he *strongly* finishes "in all of Bilbao." which makes everyone else in the car just lose it. After a while we decide walking will be quicker so Jorge pulls the car over and says goodbye with 2 kisses on the cheek, and leaves to go meet someone he already had a date wtih, and Iñigo and Reuben come with us. Theyw alk us ot our hostal, showing us a quicker way and wait for us downstairs, then show us how to get on the metro and we think that´s it: not, they pay our way onto the metro, accompany us onto it, give us company, and show us where to get off, and walk us to the bus station. Good thing, we would have been so confused. Liz´s usually stedfast compass was off all week and I HATE metros. So there´s a sign on the bus - one of those "don´t do this " signs that you can´t figure out what you´re supposed to not do. After some discussion, the general concession between the 4 of us was "People who are orange can´t sit down while Siamese triplets joined at the shoulders are on the Metro." Ok, maybe it´s funnier in Spanish. Anyway, they wait with us - we do get there in time to pick up our reserved tickets - yay! And then the guys waited with us until we boarded the bus and kept us company. We said goodbye (I bought that really good red sour candy with the white filling) and we got on the bus! 5 hours later, after journaling, sleeping, and playing what we´ve dubbed "the boy game" - where we exchange lists - pick a random anme off the other person´s list and they have to tell the accompanying story, which is exceptionally fun - I love both telling and hearing stories - we were in Madrid. This became a bit of an adventure because we didnt´count on not ending up at the same bus station we were departing to Sevilla from. But we didnt´- so we had to take : the Metro. Dun dun dun. We asked a few people and consulted a few signs and after a relatively long Metro ride we arrived at the correct bus station. We found out the 1200 bus was full but luckily there was a 100 bus, so we bought tickets for that. We were goign to attempt to get food but the 2 cafeterias were closing down so we ended up doing a vending machine dinner. We had to sit there for an hour and a half - the worst part being we were sitting across from these Asian people a- couple -who were fighting and it was awful - both their voices and their language just grated on our nerves so badly. "ni ni ni ni ni ni" in the middle of a bunch of other words could not possibly mean anything. Anyway, finally it was time to load, which we did, andstiting almost int he very back but surprisingly and unforutnately the bus was too crowded for us to have our own seats. I was so excited when I saw ridiculously hott Eduardo on the bus!! He was with Thomas and some girl. Anywya, I journlaed and slept badly till the rest stop , Liz and I bought chocolate milk and cookes to share- both of which were pretty gross but we ate them anyway - then I actually slept the rest of the way after being so tired everything was funny with Liz for a while. After we got back to Sevilla, I talked to Eduardo for a while - he had been in Italy, and then Liz and I caught a bus home, tried to get online but it wouldn´t work, had some Cola-cao and Duo adn crashed hard core. (Comment on this)
Monday, December 6th, 2004
6:51 pm	So we got a lot of sleep last night. Bed at 11, woke up about 945. ´Tis ok, I think we needed it. Shower was pretty sketch though, so we opted out, both of us. Got dressed and packed and asked if we could leave our bags at the hostal. The crazy dude told us sure, but only if we returned before 2. So adamant - "be here at 2!!" OK, we will. So we left and walked towards Monte Urgell. WE found the stiars to go up and started the ascent, the stairs eventually giving way to what would become overgrown paths of stone and gravel. With a few stops to admire the view, one underneath the flag of "euskadi", we eventually made our way to the top, and in much less time than we thought. AT the top of the mountain is the Castillo de la Mota - we couldn´t get inside the main living part unfortunately, but just the outside areas were cool - lots of stone stairs, cannons, and look-outs over the city. And on top of the castle, the most big-ass statue of Jesus you have ever seen - "blessing" the city. WE saw it like as soon as we got off the train the first day as you can see it from anywhere in the city - not gonna lie it´s a little scary! This big huge Jesus on top of a mountain, almost foreboding. Close up it´s even worse. Anyway, so we looked down over the city and walked around the castle and saw the really old cannon from the 1500´s. WE peeked into the chapel and contented ourselves exploring - pretty cool place. Anyway next we walked ot this lookout kindof on the edge of the mountain "whole thing kinda made me want to go hiking) and looked out over the ocean and that city - just gorgous - the contrast of the sand, foam, and water - the land jutting out into the water, the city itself - everything beautiful. Afterwards, we made our way back down the mountain a different way. Interesting note: the signs on the mountain are in both euskera and Spanish. However, the spanish had been spray-painted out. example of all the things I´ve heard about the Basque country - strong "nationalism" and a desire to speak only their own language, to be their own country. Totally intrigues me. anyway we made our way to a café. Cool thing about Páis Vasco, they have just all these tapas, or "pitxos" sitting out on the bar all the time - just tons and tons. I had just a cola-cao and Liz had a cola-cao and a tapa. Then after sort of"not-interacting" with the cute earthy Spanish guys next to us - we left in search of more food. WE crossed the river - cannot get over how very different the buildings and arquitecture are here. So hard to explain though. Some of it looks Victorian. Anyway we got to wlak through a newer and different part of the city, where we saw those guys from the coffee shop again, in search of this pizzería in Let´s Go...which ended up being closed. So we just walked back, finding a CD store on our way, where we stopped and I bought 2 CDs in euskera, which I´m really excited about. Kepa Junkera and Fermin Muguruza - one more traditional and the other more modern - kinda rock, well really rock but kinda other genres too. Also at another sotre I bought a postcard. So then it was about time to head back to the hostal to pick up our bags - which we did - arriving at aobut 140. We ring the doorbell, wait a minute, knock - turns out there´s nobody there. WE waited till freaking 220 and when nobody was there siad "ok fuck this" and left. We ate lunch at McDonalds and the guy next to me had the coolest tatoo on his wrist of 2 eighth notes. Anyway then we set out on a walk around the perimeter of the beach - the Playa de la Concha. We stopped at the palacio miramar which you can´t go in but walked around the pretty yard that borders the ocean practically and admireed that contrast. Continuing on we ran into some people we´d met the day before - 3 chicks and one guy - crawfod, ashely, bailey and LIndsey. Really sweet but I wanted to walk more. Still, we chatted with them for almost 30 minutes probably - 2 of them studying in Granada and 1 in Madrid. We were standing next to this really cool nativity scene someone had made out of sand and then spray painted. Really neat. Anyway we left them eventually and continued our walk towards the base of Monte Igueldo, where stands Eduardo Chillido´s sculpture "El Peine de los Vientos". He´s a famous sculptor actually from san SEbastian. Anyway this sculpture is like a triangle (incomplete) of 3 pieces of molded twisted metal sticking out of 3 rocks. So we took some pictures there are well as the cool rock formations and colors of the base of the mountain, then walked back along the beach the way we had come. On the way, we saw those guys from the coffeeshop riding a little tour train aroudn - we were like gee no way not again - and they wved and yelled hello - so we determined that if we saw them one more time it must be that we have to talk to them. Anyway we amde our way back around and got to the parte vieja again, where we visited some tourist shops and bought soem postcards, and I got a sticker that syas "euskadi" with the background of the Basque flag. By then it was about 5 so we started back towards the hostal. When we got there, the lady actually was there and so we were ablet o get our stuff "relief". So as it worked out, it ended up being better because then we ended up not having to carry our stuff around - which I doubt I coudl have done. So we walk to the bus statoin and buy a 655 bus ticket to Bilbao. WE had to wait a little over an hour, so I went to get a Coke and find a cajero - turns out Liz and I underestimated how many eruos I had in my account by like 40 euros, so that was a very pleasant surprise. Anyway we caught hte bus sitting in front of 2 girls - one from Austraila and one American, who carried on quite the amusing conversation (I´m sure we have lots of stuff for an anthropologist to do in Australia, we probably have a lot of art that needs to get dated and stuff like that.) (Also side note: so País Vasco has a font. Salamanca had one, and now País Vasco has one. YOu see it everywhere - like in Salamanca it was always on the walls, here it´s to designate what kind of shops things are and other random things: the signs on top of city hall or whatever). Anyway so we arrive in Bilbao and ocne again, begin the hostal search. We take a bus to the Casco Vieja where we go to one hostal and decline to pay 35 euro. The next, right across the street, gives us the only room they had left -w hich was ridiculous it had like an extra room with a daybed, which we had absolutely no use for and she wanted to charge us more for - we talked her down from 35€ to 32€ - 16 a piece, not too bad. ON average we spent a little under 14 € a night on a hostal, and we had budgeted for 15, so not bad at all. We had a TV too, which I mean I never watch tV here but it was kinda cool. Right as we were settling I got a phone call from Raymond, and so called him back with my card. He needed to talk to me, and not gonna lie, it was good to talk to him too. really good. I like being able to make him laugh. So Liz went and got a shower and then we went to find dinner -w ouldn´t you know after trying 2 other places we happened upona shawarma place! And the guy only charged us 8€, instead of 9, which means he gave me my coke for free. :o) No discussion needed, just walked in. Anyway, next stop, internet café (so I´m addicted to my in-box, so?) Back to the hostal where I got a WONDEFUL shower and then see we had been trying to get ahold of the boys all night, the ones we´d met the night before, to go out. However first they were in a movie and then they said htey were too tired, so we ended up staying in for the night, watching a little TV and writing in our journals, and I got hit by a wave of exhaustion and passed out about 1. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, December 5th, 2004
2:00 pm	Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Fuck. I dont´knwo what to do. So I totally didn´t want to tell Raymond about the hook-up but of course i did... went over about as well as the last one. I don´t fucking know what I want - I want him but I want to take advantage of my time in Spain. And that´s not even it really - I mean I don´t know. That´s why we broke up. And then he fucked me over. And so in lieu of him... fuck I dont´even know. We broke up for a reason - I¨m not getting back wiht him before January. Good reason or not, that´s the decision we made and the consequences of his actions are such that i will not, can not, get back iwth him yet. I´m emotionally incapable of commitment right now, of any kind - including a commitment to him to not make out with other guys. My emotional stability and my own happiness are my number one priorities right now, because he took them both away but I´m the one who has to reclaim them. And so I´m doing what makes me happy -a nd in the moment, hooking up with Jon and Diego was what i wanted. And as selfish as it sounds, I can´t be with him until I´ve taken care of myself. He says my being with him would make him happy - I can´t be with him until I´m ready and re-ok with myself. i can´t make him happy until I make myself happy again, and stable again, andm yself agian. So my happiness is the only key to ensuring his. He says he knows exactly what he wants and that he´s willing to both fight and wait for me. And now he´s wanting to give up. I guess I should´t be surprised, as he´s broken every other promise he´s made to me. He´s known this whole time hw oudl have to wiat for January...nothing has changed. If he can´t and won´t stick it out until january, then I guess he´s proving he doesn´t want me badly enough. Oh God Raymond please don´t fucking give up. You promised me till at least January when I told you that´s how much time I´d need - not to mention I wont´know for usre until I´ve spent some time with you in person... you said you´d wait forever for me, take as long as I needed...now look at you giving up - please don´t give up I don´t want you to, I need you not to. I´m coming around I promise but I can´t do it without you. Let me fix myself in whatever way I see best - since you either won´t or can´t fix me... you say you´ll want me no matter what I do Raymond - prove it. show me. Show me you love me unconditionally. Maybe I´m subconsciously tesing to see if you reallya re in this like you say you are - you´re failing the test. I don´t want you to hurt but I´m just not ready yet... you´ve made me new promises... please don´t break these too... So today should be a short entry. Liz adn I woke up at 830 this morning to shower and get ready to leave. WE walked ot the train station and ate breakfast. How cool is this: somehow my toast, donut, and cola-cao only cost me 190. Awesome! So we boarded the trian, sat down, and it takes off and everything´s fine till the dude comes through to check our tickets. He says "This car doesn´t go to San SEbastian, you´re supposed to be on 21". WE have a moment of panic, until we realize he said "car" not "train" and all we have to do is move to a different cabin. *sigh* so we do. WE sit down and resettle when he comes back through and tells us we need to put our feet down and not have them on the seats. It´s only when he comes back through that he tells us we´re in the wrong seats and need to move. Blah, so we do, when Liz realizes some man´s stuff in her seat. So she asks the dude and NOW he says "oh, it doesn´t matter, they´re all equal." fuck that! We ewre frustrated and pissed but cracking up about it too, since he had also gotten on to us for having our feet on the seats. Geez. So we made a new enemy today LOL. Anyway, the train ride was long but I spent a good 4 hours of it writing in my journal because i kept not being able to concentrate and drifting off into dream world or I dont´know even know. Eventually when i finished i attempted to sleep but couldn´t because the mother with the piercing voice and the loud child who runs up adn down the aisle chose that moemnt to assume those roles instead of just sweet mother and child they´d been the rest of the train ride. So anyway I unsuccessfully slept for like 30 minutes, and when I "oke up" we were in País Vasco, which is so amazingly beuatiufl. It really is like a separate country. The landscape is like these rolling green hill-mountains - different architecture than the rest of the country - just a completely different feel but wow it is so beautiful. so I was enthralled with the countryside for the rest of the train ride and finally at about 430 we arrived in San Sebastian - known in euskera (the language of País Vasco) as Donostia. All the signs are in euskera and Spanish -r eally fun. It is a language that uses a lot of x´s and k´s, which is unusual to see. Anyway we leave the station and cross the river in search of a hostal - cool statue things stand in the 4 corners of the bridge. We found a cathedral which is Gothic style but I think was actually built recently - the Catedral del Buen Pastor. This is such a cool town - it´s so different than anywhere else i¨ve been -e ven the buildings are really different. Anyway we wander looking for a place to stay - all the ones in Let´s Go are full - because of the puente. WE finally find a place where the owner dude is quirky as hell i can´t even describe him and why he feels the need to speak his hilarious quirky English after he delightedly exclaimed "oh good you speak spanish" I don´t know. His originaly price was 40 for the room but I told him we´d give him 36 and he said fine but no less. Go me for bargaining! 18€ each is a little stepe but we knew it woul be damn hard to find a place - even the lady who accosted us at the train station offered us a place to stay for 44 € was like "well good luck it´ll be hard". So this room is actually really nice with a ghetto heater that doesn´quite work but doesn´t quite not work. WE immediately left to eat as we ewre starving and hadn´t eaten in forever - we found a place we agreed on relatively quickly and i ordered a cheeseburger and she got some pasta - that is, after the waitess finally decided serving us was more important than sweeping the floor. After dinner we just wanderedinto 2 really beautiful churches - one at the bottom of the mountain we´re probably going to climb tomorrow - and into several stores - clothes, souvenirs, and CD´s, didn´t buy anything yet. Anyway we just sort of tried to get a feel for the town and then walked by the beach - which is really low there´s like a plaza- place to walk way above it that encircles the shore - hard to explain. Anyway so we´re taking pics and this guy offered to take our pic and we said no thanks. But when another one of his friends offered the same we were like well geez ok and let him. So then this group of like 4 or 5 guys is surrounding us. They´re from Bilbao and drunk and psekaing to us in this hilarious mix of Spanish, english, and Euskera that made communication difficult but fun. Anyway so they´re taking picutre and chatting and highly entertaining - hard to explain exactly how but I was having a blas ttalking to them. Example: "So what type of music is it?" "Um...fuck, yeha fuck...wait...no... fuck? oh! funk! funk! funky! no... folk. sí, folk. I sorry..." and other example. "Your name is Iñigo? with an n or an ñ?" "with an ñ!! oh i´m so glad you know about the ñ! ti is so important to us here in España" "Uh, yeah i relaly like the ñ too..." Then they introduced us to these other 4 or so guys who are definitely nice but kinda sketch...so when they wanted us to go get a drink with them since the original 3 really nice guys weren´t going we declined. But the original 3 said to look them up in Bilbao and they´d show us around so that´s a real possibility. Anyway right then we ran into Trip - Liz´s friend from Portugal and walked with him to meet his Italian friend he met on the bus, who talks incessantely and speaks Spanish with an italian accent which is higly entertainign for me. We chat with them for a while, then decide to meet back up at 10. Liz and I came back here to our hostal but after my depressing conversation with Raymond and both of us realizing how tired we really are, it´s about 11 and we´re calling it an early night. (Comment on this)
Saturday, December 4th, 2004
11:20 am	Wait...anybody surprised that i loved Salamanca? I thought not...beautiful city, great feel with the whole town practically being centered around the university. So I guess yesterday´s entry left out exactly how cool the Convento de San Esteban was...just waned to clarify that is´really awesome...it´s so cool I feel like it shoudl be something other than a convent... I´ve always seen them much simpler and smaller...this one was huge and beautiful. OK, that said. So we had grand plans to wake up at 830...yeah so at 945 we roll out of bed, both shower and get ready, and step outside into the freezing cold day. WE had passed a churrería on the way into town, so we thought that would be a good place for breakfast. We walked down to find it, passing a street named "tostada" - which I found quite amusing, and sat down in this cute, tiny little churrería on a corner. MMM... churros and chocolate! With the chocolate so think and the churros so warm...so good! Sot hen we left and set off to find the Universidad. The universidad of Salamanca is one of the oldest in the world...famed back in the day (midieval times) as one of the most important universities in Europe - along with Oxford and a few others. How dorkily excited I was to visit this place. The University still exists, but the original building is now mostly just for tourists with a few special occasions where they still use some of the rooms. In the Plaza in front of the University is a statue of Fray Luís de Leon, a famous late midieval poet. He was also a professor at the university. He was arrested during the Inquisition for translating the Song of Solomon into Spanish - after 6 years of prison he got his job back and began his first lecture with "as we were saying yesterday..." I like that story. Anyway, the entrance is amazing, with a huge facade above. IN the facade is a small frog sitting on top of a skeleton head - skull, and supposedly if you can find it without help you will have good luck. We think we found it - not entirely sure. And frog trinkets are like THE souvenir in Salamanca. Anyway, we paid 2 euros to enter to Univeristy - which is essentialy sort of a rectangular shaped building with a square patio inside. There are several classrooms you can view, including that of Fray Luís de León, which is essentially preserved the way it was: big lecture hall, hard wooden benches. Really cool to imagine myself taking classes there back in the day... I loved the feeling of that place. Also you can see the room where Miguel de Unamuno taught. He was the rector of the university in the early 1900´s, and a famous writer. HIs political views (anti-dictatorship, what´s worng with that?) got him dismissed but he was eventually re-instated. Anyway, all the rooms you can go in are centerd around the patio, and they include several classrooms, the Parainfo (auditorium) which contains some beautiful Baroque tapestries and a portrait of Carlos IV attributed to Goya; the chapel, all decked in red - the altar, curtains, seats, which contains the tomb of fray Luís; and a mini museum where are paintings, a model of the human body they used to study, a few religious artifacts and some of the robes worn by the leaders of the school (like at graduation). Next we walked upstairs -the staircase is Plateresque - the sandstone molded into shapes and pictures that supposedly represent the jounrey through life to true knowledge. AT the top is the same structure and walking around looking down on the walk you can see names written in red - these are cool: after the sutdents passed their "exit exam" which was apparently hard as hell, those who passed would get a big party and a bullfight in their honor, and the town would take the blood of the bull, make a paste, and write their names (the graduates´) on random walls around town- mostly the university and cathedrals. WEird but cool story. anyway, my favorite part: the biblioteca antigua - one of Europe´s oldest libraries. I have never been so in heaven in my life. You could only sort of stand just inside the doors, but just wow - so many old and beautiful books line the walls, shelved by categories designated with sgins: poetry, philosophy, religion, psychology - the room had study tables and globes int he middle - the tops of the bookcases had statue-figures. As a literature major, I have never seen anything more beautiful in my entire life. I wish I could better express its eessence, the ambience - it was so amazing. So that´s about all there is to see in the actual building. If you walk though the plaza out front, it´s surrounded by the Escuelas Menores - can´t really get in. But thent hrough a small hall-like passageway you come to a really pretty little plaza with grass and a well and there on the other side you can access the University Museum, which often holds expositions (inside joke of the day: Salamanca is obsessed with expositions! There are posters for them everywhere and in our wanderings we must have walked by 5 or 6). but the coolest thing in it was the Cielo de Salamanca, a ceiling fresco of the zodiac that used to be in the library - by Francisco Gallego. Totally awesome. So next we walked over to the Cathedrals - there are 2, one from the 1100´s and the other Gothic from between 1513-1733. The nueva is totally amazing, Gothic but as it´s sandstone it doesn´t look like every other one I¨ve seen, espeically not on the oustide. WE walked in it because it was free - the coolest thing in it was the organ. I love big ass organs like that. We thought there were monks singing and then found speakers - cheaters. For the most part it was just a normal Gothic cathedral and the outside was much cooler - the retablos and timpanos above the doors are *amazing*. We tried to find the figure of the astronaut but couldn´t find it - apparently some modern renovators have left their marks. We saw a postcard of it though. We walked all the way around the Cathedrals - couldn´t find the way into the older one - but we did find this exhibition (surprise) on the Civil War of Spain. So we went in and looked around - at some of the propaganda and such. Makes me want to do a lot more research on it - I know almost nothing about it. Neither did I know that the Masons had anything to do with it. I don´t know how or why, but here was so much Masonic stuff and a video that mentioend them - now I´m really curious. WE walked in this weird art museum - Casa LIs Museo Art Nouveau y Art Deco - but just bought postcards of the front of it because itw as a really cool colored glass building. We stopped at the university gift shop - I bought like 7 postcards or something ridiculous like that. Then we stopped at a whole bunch of souvenir shops where at one I bought the cutest university of Salamanca hoodie - offwhite with Navy writing. Liz bought the most ridiculous CD holder - like this stuffed cheeseburger. REally funny. She eventually bought a sweatshirt too. So by now we were getting hungry for lunch - unfortunately, this decision took us until almost 345 to make - we looked at practically every restaurant in Salamanca (well I´m exaggerating) but could not find one that looked good! We finally settled on one after looking for like an hour - cute place with a painting exhibition - for 6 € I got grilled chicken with spices, french fries (the only option of a side) and a mini salad - aka some shredded lettuce and pieces of tomato. But it was good food and not epensive. So after lunch we wandered around some more - wandered into the Casa de las Conchas and took some picutres in the pretty patio inside (and looked at a damn exhibition). We wandered down the street a bit and found several more churches -a ll sandstone - really cool structures - exceptionally cute part of town. Plus a statue of Unamuno. Anywya, then we went back to the hostal and took about an hour nap. Not av ery good one, because although the bed is supercomfy the walls are so thin! Anyway we got back out around 7 and wandered some really cool souvenir shops - I got some earrings for my mom. Then we went to a CD store and browsed there - can´t wait to do that in País Vasco! Then we walked to the Train station to gauge what time we´d need to wake up in the morning and to buy our tickets. Um, it was FREEZING on that walk! We got a little confused but eventually found it, having to pass through a big blue pedestrian bridge. Fun. Anyway in front of the train station is a statue of a guy with talons for feet riding a unicorn and holding a medusa head - weird. Inside was a large furry orange suit person character thing playing with children accompanied by an elf - also weird. But we bought our tickets and walked back - sotpping at an internet café - I had lots of e-mails from Raymond -which really made me happy... I¨m so scared he´s going to give up... he can´t give up I´m so close... but I´m so scared he´s going to... So then we stopped at Pans and Company for dinner (wait, forgot, we had earlier stopped by the Clerecía - a Jesuit college - absolutely huge and beautiful, right next to our hostal essentially...anyway...) and i got a toasted ham and cheese bocadillo with french fries (of course) and a coke. Then Liz wanted coffee or cola-cao so we went to a café for a little while. Finally back to the hostal and essentially killed time for about an hour and a half until midnight when we got dressed and ready to go out! We began the night at this bar called La Chupitería - wow, totally cool place. It´s essnetially a shots bar - shots are between 90 cents and 1,30 € depending on what you got. So I started out the night with 2 90 cents shots - one of limón and one of strawberry licors. Yum! So we just sort of people watched a big - drunk people are amusing, then I went back for 3 more shots - 90 cents kiwi; 1 € conga which is vodka and apple, and 1,10€ strawberry cream with whipped cream. I go to pay the guy, and he tells me to keep my money - aka 3 free shots for me! Hell yeah! Liz is like - nice one -a dn the coolest part is all these shots taste good - especially the strawberry cream one - wow! So I´m feeling a little good and Liz and I groove just a little to the music - while laughing at the guy who came in and took shots with his parents - that was weird. Anyway, while I¨m debating spending the 3 € I saved on 3 more shots, we eventually decide that as cool of ap lace as this bar was -awesome atmosphere - it was club time. So we go next door to this club called Trastavere - thsi club with a half-ass greek theme. It´s early like 130 so there´s not a huge crowd, but we don´t care and juts get on the dance floor. Anyway, we´re dancing, having ag ood time,w hen these guys come up on the platform that´s like a step above us, separated by a little fence thing. They leaven over and start talking to us - Diego initiates the conversation. He´s totally adorable, 23 with a young face - great English. He lived in Kansas for a year - why Kansas, I have no clue, but anyway. So we alternate talking to him and his friend Paulo - very unattractive, kinda large, but nice, and just dancing. Diego says I muts be Latina - yes of course, and my favorite part was "I have a twin brother around here somewhere" and turns and looks, gets confused, then turns back and says, "well, he looks lik eme" Anyway,e ventually they invite us to come up there for drinks, which we do - they let us share theirs. Liz is so tall compared to all of them! Ha: Me - so how did you like the American girls? Deigo - too big. We meet his twin brother and some cousins - can´t remember any other names - so once we´re closer and can hear each other better he says "oh good, you speak spanish well, i´m embarassed by my english because i´m out of practice" - but I´m like no you can practice so we speak in spanglish all night - he speaks english adn i speak Spanish. Fun! so we alternate talking but there are som songs Liz and I HAVE to dance to: Dale, Yeah, Obsesión. Ohter favorite parts: when he used the word "absurd" - love it! Especially from a non-native speaker, and when he said "are you familiar with Don Quijote? Do you know hwo wrote it?" Ha... he did NOT know who he was talking to. I was like "Liz, you´ll never believe what he just asked me..." and she just cracked up. Anyway, he´s from a small town outside Madrid where Cervantes was born...Alcala de... can´t remember the name right now. Anyway, eventually we look over and see LIz and Paulo kissing. (I was actually really shocked) and kinda laugh about it, and a few minutes and some conversation later, we kissed ourselves. Without documenting every single occasion - after that it became a frequent occurance. Anyway we decided to leave that club and go to on called Camelot - oddly enough as soon as we stepped through the door the cousins all changed their minds - however Obsesión came on and we made them stay while we danced to it. So then we go to this club, don´t know the name just that it had "feliz navidad in big lights in the window - pretty cool place. We went downstairs where there were less people, and just interspersed kissing, Liz and i dancing, ánd lots of Spanglish. I love, I love, I love Spanish! Anyway, we were there for a long time, a few hours. We took some pictures and just talked a whole lot -s ometimes the brothers and cousins were there, sometimes just the 4 of us (dude could Liz not have picked any one of those other guys?" Anyway Paulo bought us drinks and they tried to convince us that we shoudl go witht hem to their grandma´s house where they´re styaing 20 minutes oustide of Salamanca. We were like sorry, we bought our train tickets already! Not that we would have but hey it was a good excuse. Anyway we finally left that place and they took us to another club quite a bit further away - paid our 3 € entrance for us - this club was really cool and there were a lot of people dancing, which is what we wanted to do. So Liz and I danced and I convinced Diego to come dance with me - he said he can´t dance - I told him he´s Spanish he has to be able to - he said he´s the exception. So anyway, but Liz couldn´t get Paulo to come dance with her, so when this other Spanish guy tried ot dance with her, she thought he was hott and let him. Paulo got all pissed off it was funny yet ridiculous. So Diego´s like "He´s being an ass but you might wanna say something to your friend in case he does something stupid." So i did and she was sad to leave the dude. Then it was so funny -she got the drunken bfight idea that she was going to slip him her number, so went off in search of pen and paper (which she never found) and I had to cover for her like "she´s in the bathroom" because Paulo got all worried - Liz is really bad with saying no to guys - like she wouldn´t actually have gone home with those guys, but she doesn´t know how to say no, so I always have to step in. It´s funny because I would say out of the two of us I¨m just a tad bit more wild or crazy, but then when it comes to the guy situations I always end up being the responsible one. So I see that Paulo´s getting ridiculous and tell Diego we´re gonna go - I mean it´s 530 anyway. So he gets my e-mail address and number and then I´m like OK, Liz, vamanos. So they walk us to the door, kiss us goodbye, and then we leave. The walk home was a - FREEZING and b - painful because of my heels. But by the time we get home and in bed, I´m still a little tipsy and it´s 6 AM so I just go straight to sleep. Overall we had so much fun! We heard "obsesión" like 3 times and "pump it up" like 5 times. LOL. It´s awesome to hang out with a bi-lingual person - I learned some new phrases because I can be like "how do you say____?" and it´s great. And the nice part was Diego was the first Spanish guy I´ve hooked up with that I´ve really thought was attractive. The rest were just ok... so 6 AM ends my day in Salamanca. (Comment on this)
Friday, December 3rd, 2004
11:17 am	So Liz ended up coming back early last night and by the time I got off the computer she was back. So we chatted bu tI was asleep by about 115. 330 AM wake up time comes damn early - so 4 sounded better, though not much. got dressed, finished packing, and ate breakfast - DUO being my only incentive to actually get out of bed. About 430 we left and walke d- me with my awkward bag , to the bus staiton in Plaza de Armas, getting ther eabout an hour later. After a short wait, we boarded the bus and headed off to Salamanca! Highlight of my morning (other than DUO): finding my chapstick! So I slept the first 3 and a half hours of the rid e- the bus being empty enough for me to have 2 seats to myself. After waking up, stopping to pee, and eating a banana, I got to see the countryside of extremadura - which is absolutely gorgous! Random rocks and rock formations everywhere - snow capped mountains even! And the fog lurking at the bottom of th ehills - everything was just awesome. I spent the next 4 hours alternating scenery watching, reading the Valmos Bible, and reading don Quijote, and discussing the insanity of my father with Liz. Finally at about 130, we arrived in Salamanca! Liz said hey to some guys she knew - they got our number but Liz´s phone has decided to turn itself off and Liz knows not her numero de PIN to turn it back on, so guess they won´t be calling. We sat down and ate our bocadillos Mercedes made us, and then went to find a bus stop. We figured it out eventually and rode our way into town. Wow - Salamanca is quite something. Famous for its sandstone buildings, the whole city is a campus - makes me miss my campus actually. Anyway so we arrive at the Pensión where we made our reservations, and ring th ebell. No one answers. Again and again. No one answers. We call -no answer. We get let in the buliding by someone coming out - no answer at the actual door of the Pensión. WE give them like 15 minutes then left. So we wander around Salamanca for almost an hour - no room at the inn because it´s a holiday weekend. And one bitch actually told us if we were staying for 3 nights she´d give it to us but since only 2, no; and then "but you´ll hav eproblems finding a place to sleep." Geez thanks. Bitch. So we finally find this place we´re at now - Pensión Barez - nice old man opens the door and gives us this matchbox room with a small to medium sized bed -hey 11 euros per night -hell yeah we´ll take it! Between the chair and the bed - there´s barely enough room to walk in here - like I said, no complaints. So next we settle in, etc, and leav eto go explore Salamanca! WE walk by the Casa de las Conchas - a building decorated by sandstone shells. Really cool. Wandered some souvenir shops down to the plaza Mayor - surrounded by heads on the walls between th earches of important historical figures - amusingly enough th eone of Franco had definitely been hit by a red paintball. (this place used to be a bullring back in the day). Other figures included Santa Teresa de Jesús, a million kings, San Juan de Sahugán, and MIguel de Unamuno - the 3 named people really important in Salamancan history. Then we attempted to visit the internet café, but it was closed, so on ou rway to finding the other we stumbled across the Convento de San esteban but just took pictures mostly of the amazing retablo like thin gout front. Colombus once spent time there - speaking of whom we found a statue of him after we found a random building with a cool tower thing that isn´t anything. We stopped at an i-net café to check train and bus schedules and prices - I wa sso frustrated because Yahoo was acting up and I couldn´t check my e-mail. How annoying! But then I saw that they sell Amena phone cards so I bought one to remedy the lack of communication with Raymond. Next stop, the puente romano in front of which stands a headless granite bull from the Iberican times (even Pre-Roman) . Pretty scene under the bridge - pretty bridge - pretty sunset in the background. Cool thing is this bridge is on the same route as the one I saw in Mérida! There´s a connection. :o) The bull is important as it is mentioned in Lazarillo de Tormes - and oh yeah, it´sreally old. Anyway we just wandered about the city a bit more to get aquainted - found the science building of the university and a plaza iwth a series of vine covered terraces. We see th eDon Quijote Café, and have to stop - really cute moder n trendy plac e- she gets coffee and I ge tcola-cao to try to warm up - Cold outside! We just chill for a while and progress back to our hostal eventually, stopping at souvenir shops on the way. We kill time unproductively until about 815 when we left to go get dinner. Shawarma! We had seen it and had to have some. We did, and it was damn good. WE sat ther eand chatted foreve rbefore leaving to wander Plaza Mayor again before deciding it was way too fucking cold and came back here. i called Raymond - seriously worrie dabout his emotional and mental state...he sounde dso depressed...But I can´t do anything till january...and geez hello I´m not the on ewho had sex with someone else...he´s supposed to be taking care of me and my emotional state...when did this get switched around?I considerd saving the 5 € and just checking e-mail once in a while - glad I bouth it - and I bought it thinking he would need it... i think I´m right. anyway brushed my teeth and found a plasant text message from John - he´s in Italy till Saturday but said he´ll call me when he gets back. Glad he texted me, wasn´t sure h would. Anyway this lack of sleep is catching up to me and I¨m barely awake enough to write this entry...goodnight! *cuddles with Liz in small bed (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, December 2nd, 2004
12:43 am	So hard to write December rightthere. Whoa...just can´t beliee it. I wrote a blanket e-mail today to my 5 best friends... 2 weeks from today I leave España. I don´t know whether to cry or smile - both? neither? Such mixed feelings ...so many things , people, I´m looking forward to going back to...so many things Im apprehensive about...so many things I´ll miss about Spain. Just going to enjoy the time I have left and try not to think about it too hard between now and when I really have to. I have plenty to occupy my mind for the meantime- money problems the least pleasant, but also my big funtrip starting at 6 AM tomorrow and finals - yuck. Anyway, this morning I woke up with much, much effort - God it was awful. And my entire body is sore! I mean granted I dancedmy ass off but still it´s kinda weird - my neck, my legs, my sides and stomach, arms, and pecs. ow every time I move! Anyway once I got up I was ok generally. showered, brekafast (how is it that Duo tasted better than usual this morning?) and off to school where i was late but oh well. We watched David Bisbal - Bulerísa, which video Ernesto is in -cool huh. And reviewed for the exam and listened to our final funny Ernesto story. made a 92 on that test!! Awesome because I thought I did horribly. Mila´s class wejust listened to villancicos - traditional Spanish Christmas carols and ate candy she brought us. So I got online and talked to Raymond - yeah he didn´t take the story of my night so well. Not that i expected him to, or even wanted him to. I´m so glad he actually cares...I don´t know, we had some serious conversation today - I don´twant to hurt him but I´m not ready for commitment - I´m gettingmy commitment phobia back I can feel it. I´ve been hurt so badly the thought of a serious relationship - especially with the guy who hurt me, scares the shit outof me, clearly and simply put... So I came home for lunch - theyet another random strike in Plaza Nueva made catching the bus rather inconvenient. I wrote in my journal then had lunch which was this eggplant lasagna stuff that was actually really really good. Yay for finally enjoying a meal. Siesta afterwards - badly needed. woke up about an hour later than I intended to - 630. So after my trip to Corte to put money on my phone, andthe long wait for the slow bus, I was 20 minutes late for class. Oh,but on the bus - on the way to Corte I´m standing next to these 2 12 year olds who are sittingdown. They start talking about me as soon as I get on, noticably. My hand is holding on to the pole - one ofthe little punks moves his hand over mine. I give him a death look and move my hand - he goes to do it again but i notice this time and move it before he can. So I hold on with the other hand. Then when thebus gets a little less crowded and i go to walk past them, he like pets my arm as I walk by. I fucking hate machismo. I actually felt disgusting, as well as disgusted. They fucking think they have the right to do whatever they want. And we were on a crowded bus so I couldn´t tell them off or cuss them outlike I wanted. Anyway so i make a grand entrance to class 20 minutes late - catch most of the final exam review, and check my e-mail to find 2 responses to my e-mail - Lee andIna, which made me happy - but what made me ecstatic was the letter from the housing guy at Mercer - lee and I have our own Garden apartment! I´m so excited! Our own bedrooms, a kitchen, Rori, my counterpart- gonna be amazing! Aaahh can´t believe it actually worked out! Anyway, told my mom, and then had a last chat with Raymond before i leave - notsure if I´m going to get to talk to him while I´m gone or not. Came home - yuck it´s cold and wet outside - that bus driver had somewhere to be or something - he was crazy! And ate dinner, then packed for the trip. Liz went out - I thought about it but I want at least a little sleep. So onto the computer for me and then bed! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 1st, 2004
12:19 am	So it´s Thursday afternoon and I´m relaxing in my bed. Was way too tired to write last night, so here goes the update from yesterday. Woke up early enough to dry my hair straight for once - just something a little different. Ate breakfast, went to class, tookErnesto´s test - which he was like 15 minutes late for. Oh well no pasa nada - still finished first and left for Mila´s class next. Just reviewed for the exam. during the 20 minute break I fixed the errors in my paper and then went to Lit, where we reviewed and then she let us out early. Somecomputer time to type up my bibliography, then Grillo´s class to turn inmy paper, and all was well. Like, really well. as in, I got onthecomputer for a while, rode home, ate lunch which was fish for everyone except me, who got salchichas and french fries, got upfrom the table and walked in to my room to realize "I ain´t got shit to do!" Literally nothing. At all. So what do I do? Take a 3 hour siesta. That´s right ladies and gentlemen, a 3 hour nap. Wondrous. So I woke up, Liz and I chatted, then went to the discoversevilla office again (as I had gone twice earlier that day, the first time voluntairly and the second I was summoned for advice) to see if they had Boss passes, but no. Met a cool guy from South Carolina. Anyway, to the Center where I actually did get to talk to Raymond (didn´t think I was going to get to) and started readingover my opendiary from freshman year - got very depressed to see that my life - relationships specifically - repeats itself. I read a convo I had with Josh when he kissed Kim 2 days after we broke up and it sounds uncannily familiar to convos I have had with Raymond. And 3 out of my last 4 birthdays something really emotionally awful has happened to me - what a shitty realization that my birthdays always suck. Anyway, tried not to let that depress me too much and then came home for dinner - which was fish again and therefore croquetas and potato balls for me - and after a little while liz and I got ready to go out. so the night started out with Liz and I waiting 30 minutes for the bus and talking about disney movies -the busnever came. the frustrating thing was we watched like 8 go the other way. So at 12 I said I´m walking and Liz said she was going home. So I walked to Plaza de Cuba and couldn´t find Matt and his crew, who I was supposed to go out with, but did run into - surprise - John, and then Antony and Nick too. They said just join them and frankly my prospects of having fun seemed grealy improved with them than with matt´s friends. So even when I ran into them I just helped them get free passes and then told them I´d see them inside. So we eventually went inside boss, John and Antony quasi-work for boss and so got in free and me in free - no line - and other benefits I shall mentionlater. So it was early like 1245 and no one was yet there, so we grabbed a little box and sat down and John, who was surprisingly warm to me, told me a really funny story about Toledo and generally entertained the 3 of us. anyway when the crowd picked up a bit we walked to this table and stood around. There I met Ashley, Kathryn, and other girl I can´t remember, we´ll call her Des (for desconocido - ah so clever) and the guys Alberto from México, Ja___ah something and another John. So this John´s totally cute, pretty much all american little bit preppy frat boy (one we don´t have-I forget it) but not in a bad way, with a cartilage ring I was a big fan of. Anyway we´re all standing around and a perk of them working there is free champagne - of which we all split 2 bottles meaning approximately one glass for each of us. so we stand there and talk for a good while and the 3 guys I originally came with decided to leave. I´m like "No big thing" because Matt´s there as is Katrina, Keiko, etc. But then john´s like "well, let´s go dance!" and so we go out on the dance floor next to everyone and dance! He´s a really fun dancer - for one thing he can c-walk, not a whole whole lot but enough to be impressive; and also instead of just sandingthere doing the normal booty dance thing hewould dip me and twirl me and spin me - so fun! Something alittle different. Our joke the whole night: I´m terrible at following leads. I really think it´s my personality - I´m not a follower kinda girl. He´d every once in a while go "Hey, don´t lead! you´re leading again!" I think it also has to do with half the guys I dance with don´t know what thehell they´redoing so I always take charge! But I got better and then half thetime we would just dance back away from each other and do our own thing for a while then dance back together. Such a fun time. Anyway, he excused himself for a second to say hi to someone - so I went to the bar and got a free drink - courtesy of Antony´s coupon - another perk of being friends iwth people who know people :o) John joined me and got a drink too, and we went back on teh dance floorto find that everyone had moved to the stage. I´m like "we´re going?" and hedoesn´teven say anything just leads me up there. so at this point we´re with thegroup and I danced with the other 2 guys - okweird thing about this group of friends - they´re all good dancers. Even the girls can c-walk. Like; i was so impressed. And they´re so West Coast! They´re all from Cali or Washington or whatever and so John (from Jersey) and I had a little East Coast - West Coast war goingwith them. So fun. And then these 2 othger girls came up that are friends with them too - looked ethnic - one of them was the most amazing dancer I´ve ever seen she was adorable. So at this point I´m like "yay for my new friends!" Also we got to watch guys breakdance! So John and I eventually dance together again, after all of us girls tookover the stage for a while, and he seemed surprised like "hey that´s really cool that you´re ok up there dancing by yourself, a lot of girls get really embarassed." At some point while we´re dancing we kiss, and then over the course of the rest of the night it becomes a pretty regular thing. Everybody slowly trickles off. At 3 I´m getting tired and he tells me I´m not allowed to be and somehow next time i look at theclock it´s like 4. So the only people left are john and I and Des and Ja___ah - Des being a totally cool chick I got to chat with and dance with a lot. they decide to leave so we sort of walk them to the door - I mention class and he refuses to let me leave so we go sit down on some bar stools in the bar that just closed and make-out for about an hour. Not gonna lie -I can´t remember the last time I had a good old-fashioned fairly simple make out session like that. I loved it. I love make-out sessions. He told me I´m a good kisser (duh ;o) and makes jokes like "and you wanted to leave..." and after an hour at like 5 he´s like "let´s walk outside." so we do and it´s rather chilly and he gave me his jacket and we sat undersome awnings in the Plaza de Cuba and made out there for a while - finally I insist I have to go (partly because he was trying just a little more than I wanted to do) and then we argued for like 10 minutes about whether I was going to walk or take a taxi. He finally hailed one and gave me 5 € and was like get in and go home. Lol. So he got my number and I took the taxi home - 530 AM arrival time. I checked my mail and was going to do the journal thing but fell asleep instead. anyway, yay for a really good night. He was adorable and actually got my witty comments and laughed and just a cool guy. Kinda proud of myself - first guy since I´ve been in Spain that i haven´t kissed drunk (thanks for noting that Liz). OK so now for the bad news - my camera is gone. I set it down kinda in a back corner to dance and thought "who the hell would want this?" apparently somebody did. I´m really bummed about it - lost allmy pictures from classes and stuff and oh yeah, my camera´s gone! *sigh* At leastonly 2 weeks left here andI only lost like 16 pics... Yeah one thing I forgot - checked my mail mailbox today and had my paticipation grade form Grillo - a 90. Finally a grade I deserve! *and* found out that I got a 95 the second time on my placement test, as opposed to a 77 like I got the first time. Awesome! I feel really like I¨ve learned since I´ve been here, andthat makes me really happy. Thank you Ernesto and Mila - hopefully I won´t lose it all the second i step out of the country. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 30th, 2004
2:07 pm	What a good day - granted normally people with 4 page papers to do and tests to study for don´t say such things - but the goods definitely outweighed the bads today. Woke up, showered, LIz kindly offered me some of her own personal Duo for breakfast as we´re out, and off to class. Yahoo was acting up today so despite arriving early enough I still couldn´t check my m ail. Ernesto´s class was quite pleasant - good music video, reviewed for the test, then ate typical Christmas sweets he brought in - the only one I can remember the name of is mazapan; one was like Nestle Cruch, and another was this white cruncy stuff with almonds - and Hannah brought m&m´s, we had quite the feast! I made i through Mila´s class and then spent entirely too long on the computer - talking to Raymond of course but also Josh who is not hiding the fact that he wants me back; Lee - housing situation not looking so wonderful; my parents - who told me in return for the "use of my car" during the 2 weeks htis semester the van was broken, they are going to give me the $250 dollars i asked for - as in i don´t have to pay them back. That´s just like my dad - to make up random lame excuse to give me money when I ask - this summer he made up something where I didn´t have to pay them for a cell phone bill or something. Anyway...convo wiht Raymond was great - unfortunately I got zero work done on my paper. Right before i left, I checked my mail and had a package from Raymond! I caught the bus home, ate 3 meatballs and a shitload of cabbage for lunch, cold cabbage. Liz and i sat down and for whatever reason decided to make lists of the boys we´ve hooked up with. I had to cheat and look up my opendiary from freshman year. LIz´s list quite competes with mine. She started asking me quesitons like "How many were you drunk when you hooked up with them?" but I told her to save them and we´d tell fun stories on one of our long ass bus trips this weekend. Anyway so I was just about to leave but definitely wanted to listen to my tape first (for that was what Raymond had sent me). Wow...made me feel so amazing. he told jokes and played songs and just talked to me from his (scripted) heart - I laughed hysterically and cried all at the same time. I coudl literally fell so much resentment melting away. It was incredible. Made me happier than I´ve been in a very long time...so I went to school and got about 2 pages written, even while chatting some, and got 3 lines into my 3rd page when I found out it had to be 3-4 pages instead of 4. See! Good day! I went to pick up some film and then went to class - Lauren skipped and that sucked because Clare ws possibly worse than usual - but she´s doing me a favor looking for a souvenir for my sister when she goes to Jerez...so now I have to be nice. Anyway,c lass was fine, then back on the computer to finish up my paper - which I did, but it´s absolute shit and unfortunately I know it. I can´t help it, I just don´t care at this point. It will be all I can do to pull myself together for finals. Anyway I came home for dinner - Ángel ate with us for the first time in forever, and it was nice like old times - Ale asking questions and him just astounding me with how much he knows about everything. Anyway, we had noodles and that disgusting meat, but chopped up in the noodles I tried to down some but oh God - it´s so gross. So I just poured tomato sauce on it and only ate the noodles. Since, I¨ve been sutdying for my test in the morning. I had Alejandro come in here and correct my paper (well after I listened to my tape one more time) - yeah it´s all torn up now. I knew it would be. Liz is out with an intercambio so I¨m cihllen - while I¨m chillen, how about something that bothers me: since her abuelo died Mercedes has started smoking. So now the house often smells like smoke - ew. And she always smokes in the computer room and then gets embarrassed when we go in there and see the ashtray...uh, don´t smell up the house and there is no need for embarassment! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, November 29th, 2004
12:19 pm	So first, general observations about travelling alone. First of all, it´s really nice to be completely in charge of your shcedule and not have to negotiate with anyone. There´s a big sense of adventure. However, if somtehing oges wrong you have to deal with it by yourself, which sucks. Also it leads to a lot of thinking - generally this wouldn´t be a bad thing, except with the state I´m in any serious thought makes me really depressed. Thena gain, at the same time I´m agonizing over Raymond´s relationship with megan, I´m aslo slightly lonely, wanting someone to be with me, and after little thought i realize who I really want to be there is Raymond. It´s a terrible, painful paradox. I do´nt know. I´m much to social to do it often, but for what it was I enjoyed it alot - nice to be totally and completely independent for a while. One other problem - pictures - stupid as this sounds there´s never anyone in your pictures! Including yourself! But really, I enjoyed it and as long as it was not a terribly frequent occurance, I´d love to do it again. Anyway, so I´ve been on the verge of miserable all day. I was ridiculously exhuasted for no good reason, hungry most of the day, and then had a random headache - which I never get without it being a hangover so I don´t know what caused it. I woke up late - went to class. Ernesto highly tripped me out today. WE discussed circumcision and all the vocab that goes along with it. And i did NOT know or WANT to know ever that Ilya is not circumcized. Don´t want to thin about Ilya like that at all. Anyway, Mila´s class, we began reviewing for our exam. Oh, speaking of - ERnesto kindly told us today about our test on Wednesday. blah. Anyway, lit was a pain in the ass. For some reason that class tooka bsolutely forever ot get over with. The exam in there is going to be so hard. Anyway after that class I got onlin and had a lovely fight with Raymond - which when we got to the end of turned out to have been compltely pointless - he misunderstood something I said and reacted harshly which pissed me off and it just escalated and became absolutely ridiculous. We ended on an ok note though - even if I did hae to be 15 minutes late for lunch to ensure it. I¨m worried aobut his court date today - hoping when I check my e-mail in a little while I´ll have something. So I was 15 minutes late for lunch and promptly scolded by Alejandro. We essentially had rice - good flavored rice granted, but just rice with some vegetable shreds and like 3 small pieces of meat. Afterwards I took a siesta - was so tired. Slept for 2 hours and woke up feeling about as bad as I had before. Went to school and didn´t get much done, just some research for my Grillo paper - the original goal was to actually do the paper today...picked up my study guide for Ernesto which I had been hoping because he told us so late would be reasonalbe - no not really - just as long as always. So after being a little worried about this whole housing thing - the guy e-mailed us back and said essentially it´s nearly impossible to give us what we want - so I don´t know if we should go with a 6 month lease off campus or not. I would hate to live with anyone else. Blah... so at like 9 I was home doing work , dinner was a chickenburger - we always have those when we have "hamburgers" - they taste funny by themselves but with bread, cheese, and ketchup, not too bad. Unfortunately today we had no ketchup and some sort of ghetto cheese spread. So yet again, another unsatisfying meal. And I hate instant mashed potatoes. More homework and I´m about to make an early night of it hoping i¨ll feel better tomorrow in order to write that paper and study for that test. I just want the schoolwork to be done! Granted, only 3 days left of class, but then the finals which are going to be horrid but then I don´t really want to leave yet, or maybe I do. I odn´t know. Anyway so Angel´s back - saw him for the first time the day I left for Toledo and he´s been around a little more since then - hasn´t eaten with us yet or anything. Sometimes I wish I had a clue what the hell is going on around here. (Comment on this)
Sunday, November 28th, 2004
2:24 pm	So, weird feeling today: I had nothing to do! The first time in forever I´ve felt that way. I woke up at 1 - had my alarm set for 2 and was tempted to go back to sleep but figured why not, and got up. Actually, after I went to bed last night I was, what felt like, too tired to sleep. Completely exhausted but couldn´t sleep. so I was still lying there awake when Liz´s alarm clock went off at 600 so she could go see Jordan off. So I talked to her while she got ready and we shared stories of our weekend - she and Jordan had been to Granada to see Jeff. So anyway after she left I finally fell asleep, then got up at 1, made myself some cola-cao and got on the computer - read e-mails from Raymond and Lee - so glad she´s ok and that she doesn´t hate my guts and that she still likes Spain. Began typing up entries from the weekend when I decided I was hungry. mercedes had left Liz and I lunch on the table. Liz woke up from her nap and joined me. On one side of the plate was pisto - yum. On the other...some sort of mystery mean patties - were some of the most disgusting things I´ve ever had in my life. EW! Dark mean - Liz said they tasted like a mix of uncooked chicken and fish. Disgusting. We each had 2 on our plates - all 4 went to Jaco. We were just waiting for him to throw up or convulse and die or something. Needless to say, lunch was rather unstatisfying. Next I get a shower and get dressed and catch the bus to Plaza Nueva. On my way to the Real Betis Balompie game! I was trying to take bus number 34 to the stadium but it never came while I was waiting, and it was almost 415 and I was worried. Then I saw someone with a Betis scarf on (green and white) walking to another bus. I reasoned he must be going to the game, so got on the other bus, and usre enough, we all made it to the stadium! RIDICULOUS amount of people. I finally find the ticket window, pay 25 € and make my way to my seat, which I stronly suspect wasn´t actually mine but whatever. I talked to Raymond for a few short minute, then the game begins and everybody goes crazy and proceeds to remain crazy for the next 2 hours - I was sitting next to a very large, very old Spanish man with gross nosehairs who yelled a lot of strings of obscenities. I don´t know a lot about soccer so I won´t pretend to analyze the game, but it was a good one meaning I was entertained the whole way through it, and Betis won 2-1 against Villarreal - saw some people get hurt, some really good goalie work, and lots of fun soccer stuff. Really glad I went. If i knew more about soccer I would say more but overall it was a really enjoyable experience and you know sometimes I forget I do like sports. Upon leaving I promptly got myself lost but after asking only one pseron I sort of got myself back around where I knew where I was - even when I was lost turns out I was going the right way. I was really depressed on the way home - he´s always occupying my thoughts and how frustrating is that because I don´t know if I want to hit him or hold him...anyway arrived hom, unpacked, and at about 815 realized I had just nothing to do. So weird. So i read some Don Quijote and when Liz got home she joined me with her book. Dinner at 10ish was soup and that shit again, which we didn´t eat this time either, and even Alejandro said it smelled like death and wouldn´t eat it. So we were unsatisfied once again but came to the room adn began planning our trip and before we knew it almost 2 hours had passed! so now it´s journal time and bed time right after this. Yay for finally going to a soccer game and yay for a relaxing day. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, November 27th, 2004
2:09 pm	So my day seemed so long yesterday - one of the longest I´ve ever had I think, but my journal entry was so short! I read back over it and I think I actually did cover everything. let´s see - waiting at the bus stop is boring (what I¨m doing right now), I hate Metros. I was so confused, I had to ask like 3 people for help. Trying to sleep in a bus station ismiserable. Oh, it´s really cold here. And the taxi driver offered to take me to Toledo for 70€ - apparently some couple earlier that day had missed their bus and couldn´t wait 30 minutes for the next 4 € bus and so instead took a 70€ taxi ... must have been really important...like their wedding orsomething. That´s insane. Anyway so this morning I woke up at 8 instead of 715 like I planned - though I didn´t surprise myself it was slightly inconvenient. So I got myself together and took a taxi to the station. I left my bag in a little luggage drop place taking just my camera and film, ID, debit card, and Vamos bible with me. Impressive! PS it was freezing this morning! So i got a donut and cola-cao for breakfast and caught my 900 bus to Toledo. I looked over my travel guide and took a short nap and 20 minutes later I was there! ah...Toledo: Home of and famous for Don Quijote, mazapan, El Greco, and narrow winding midieval streets. Let´s just say Spain did it again. I loved it. So I take the bus into the main part of town, getting of at Plaza de Xocadover in the middle of downtown. Um, I was completely freezing my ass off, but forced myself to not take refuge inside andmake my way to the cathedral, which I did sort of a lap around and then went inside. The Catedral de Toledo is a Gothic cathedral, but unusual in that it only has one tower. Not as huge as Sevilla´s, but still giant. Unfortunately, they were doing a whole lot of construction work inside. Still amazing though. So I spent quite a while in there wandering around. Point of note: so Toledo was hugely important in the reign of the Visigoths in spain, who were here before the Arabs. Their language was Mozárabic, which I believe is a mix of ancient Spanish and Arabic. Anyway, they were Catholic, and the Capiila Mozárabe inside the Cathedral is the only place in the world where the Ancient Visigoth mass in Mozarabic is still held. AS far as cool cathedrals go, it was pretty typical. However, there was one thing I absolutely loved that is going to be hard to explain. IN the Capilla Mayor, the altarpiece is huge - stretches all the way to the celing and is covered with amazing sculptures of Old Testament stories, saints, etc. But then at the top it opens up into this dome - the bottom of the dome isn´t though a true cirlce- it´s carved,like, there are amazing sculptures of people kind of "sitting" on the edge. And above it, inside thedome are more sculptures as well as paintings, and the whole thing is like this burst of radiant colors and intricate artwork. Really, really awesome. Anyway so I decided the 550 would be worth it, crossed the street to buy my ticket, and so I had access first to the Sala Capitular, which holds an intricately carved wooden retablo, a whole bunch of squares of carvings put together, if that makes sense. All of pear wood, as i overheard a guide say. Next room in has an amazing fresco on the wall, thatincludes portraits of all of the archbishops of Toledo up to the point it was painted, after which is a row of actual retrato-portraits in frames of all the archbisops since. Next I went to the sacristía, which holds an admirablecollection of art, including Van Dyck, Rubens, and of course, El Greco. His portraits of the saints and apostles are there, as well as his famous El Espolio, which depicts sort of one of the stations of thecross, and has a really fun story behind it like the Catholic church commissioned it then ddint´like it and wouldn´t pay him and they went to court and worked out a compromise but the attention earned him fame and more commissions. Also a rather large collection of robes, whichI´ve come to decide, along with the hats, are rather ridiculous. Some of the portraits of the archbishops were almost laughable as they looked so pompous. Anyway, next and final stop - the treasury. This includes a sword donated by Franco, a copy of an old Bible, one of Isabels´crowns, and a big huge ass gold thing - can´t remember what it´s called but they drag, well, tote it throughthe streets during the Corpus Christi celebration - 400 pounds of gold, from the 16th century and it holds the host. So on my way out I see this girl who looks familiar and I´m trying to place her when all of a sudden I see Jorge - the guy I always have to look twice at to make sure it´s really him cuz he looks different everytime. Anyway so discoversevilla has a contract with one of the programs in Sevilla, and they take them places, this weekend Toledo. So i chat with him for awhile - he invites me to hang out but I´m kinda starting to feel the do-my-own-thing thing, and so decline but get his number in case. He says I should stick around Toledo for the night but I already have my ticket home. So I leave the Cathedral finally, still absolutely freezing, stop outside to buy a pck of Cathedral postcards (because no pictures inside allowed) and start wandering in the general direction I think things I want to see are in. Toledo is confusing as hell - I sort of bump into the Sinagoga del Transito after a while - cool cuz I wanted to go there. So Córdoba has one old synaguge still standing, Toledo has 2, and that about covers it. This one was way cooler than the one in Córdoba. It was built in 1366, during atime when the Jews were actually a large population in Spain, as well as a fairly powerful one. Cute and simple oustide, beautiful Mudejar interior - inscriptions in Hebrew all over the place - mostly Psalms. So what´s also cool is the Museo Sefardí inside -Sefardí referring to Spanish jews. Really cool artifacts - books, decorations, a beautiful set of wedding outfits, gay to day items. Just really interesting. A place outside with tombstones from Toledo and a few other places where the Jewish presence was strong. Upstairs dedicated to explaining the festivals and their everyday life. Then they were expelled. Way to go Catholic church! I decided not to go to theother synagogues as that had been cool enough, plus the other had been changed once into a mosque and then into a Cathedral, and now is secular, so it wouldn´t have been much of an actual synagogue I saw. OK, next stop, the Casa Museo del Greco. His old house has been conveted into a museum of his work. I walked in and as confused, because a lot of the paintings were the same as in the cathedral. So I asked which were the originals and she said both, then proceeded to explain to me thathe did a lot of his paintings more than once - why I don´t know, but if I knew enough about art I bet that´d make a really interesting study, like to compare his paingings. Anyway, there were other artists represented, less famous but the same style, like how all famous old artists have "schools." But the highlight of the museum was dfinitely Vista y Plano de Toledo, in which he paints a gorgeous view of Toledo but also a boy in front holding a map of it. And the museum did an exceptionally good lighting job. bought a postcard of it. PS Mannerism is really cool. So I walk out, wander to a plaza a little bit away, and then sit down to get my bearings, and make some small plans. Next, who do I see but JOhn- boy I see *everywhere*. I´m totally not surprised, then I recognize antony, Nick, Jamiah, Zach, and blonde dude, then Eric. So they´re all in the same program here with discoversevilla. So I go to talk to them and they think it´s so cool that I´m travelling by myself and John and I laugh cuz I always see him! So i walk and chat with them for awhile - turns out they´re going to this place Iglesia de Santo Tomé, where I wanted to go anyway, so I went with them, sort of tagged along and gotin free. Cool deal! The attraction of this place is that it holds one of El reco´s most famous painting, El entierro del conde de Orgaz. It has El Greco and his son painted into it, and they are the 2 figures looking out from the canvas. OH my God - their guide is so annoying - she could not have spoken any slower Spanish - then translate about half of what she said into Englihs. Maybe if I´d been in Spanish 2 that would have been appropriate, but GEEZ. So Antony and I made fun of her. Oh so John andI finally carried on a decent convo - I have the feeling there´s a possibility he´s an ass , but i´m still not sure what it is that, well, attracts is good but not descriptive enough, draws isn´t right, intrigues maybe, but that´sa littlestrong.... can´t think of a good verb, that _____ me to him. As we were leaving a choir was singing in the actual church part so that was cool to get to hear. Bought a postcard there too. After chatting oustide for a few, I said goodbye when they went to lunch, and went to find my own lunch, stopping at several souvenir shops to browse on the way. Something I didn´t know - Toledo is for whatever reason obsessed with weapons, mostly swords and daggers. So I got my brother a little mini-dagger thing he´ll love -just not so sure about getting it home. I´ll figure something out (Grr to this terribly bumpy bus!) (and shitty pen!). Anyway so I headed to McDonald´s (gotta really start watching the money) and filled up on 5 €. Good deal. So I left and walked by the Alcázar, which I didn´t really want to go in but wanted to see - good thing as it was closed for construction. Then I suckered some poor people into taking pictures of me with the Don Quijote statues I kept finding. So then I wandered and got lost on purpose. So fun. See, Toledo is absolutely precious. It´s this midieval feeling city - it looks midieval, everything´s stone, big walls, almenas on top, muralla mostly in tact, etc. And there are actually those sort of off white buildings with brown trim you think about when you think midieval. Anyway, so wandering around semi-lost is a completely valid and fun thing to do, because the whole town is so damn cute. And I found kitties! They were having a kitty conversation! One was sitting in the windo ledge and one was in the street below and they were meowing back and forth. Then the one in the ledge jumped down to play with me and let me pet him. Yay! So I wandered down to the "edge" of the city where you can see theriver Tajo off the side and walked along that for a while. Gorgeous. Got back to familiar territory finally, walked past the other snagogue and the monastery "de San Juan de los Reyes" which I decided was not interesting enough for my money. I got stuck behind some houses with some old Spanish lady and stuck in the garden of the old Art school which I didn´t know you weren´t supposed to go in till the construction workers closed the gate behind me. anyway, I found my way down to the cute midieval bride Puenta de San Martín, and took some pics andthen up to find the Museo de los Concillos y de la Cultura Visigoda. This time I got lost on accident. Couldn´t find the damn place for the life ofme. Saw a lot of Toledo though. When I stumbled across it totally by accident, it was free to get in which was nice. The stuff inside was really old - the jewelry was interesting, the columns less so. The cool parts were the buliding - a gorgeous 13th century Mudéjar church, and the bell tower. Some of th steepest steps I´ve climbed - definitely a little scary, especially on the way down. But the view from the top was so cool, the tower beinga lot lower than the ones I´mused to climbing (Sagrada Familia, Giralda) so the view was, I don´t know more detailed...more, personal? Really cool. One of my favorite parts of the trip. So after that I wandered some more - stopping at a shop to buy some mazapan (marzipan) - like half candy half pastry thing made from almonds - don´t like almonds, really like this stuff. Toledo is famous for it so I had to try one. Very glad I did. Anyway, stopped at another souvenir shop to buy a postcard - didn´t mean to but when I saw what it had on it I had to have it - from a little town south of Toledo called Consuegra - and it has windmills! Yay for Don Quijote!! So I made my way back to the Plaza, and discovered that where I wanted to go was where I had just been, *sigh* after wandering a little more to find a cute random street (I say that as if they´re not everywhere in Toledo) - went back the way I´d been and out the main entrance to Toledo, the Puerta de Bisagra. Somehow, I thought it would be a good idea to walk back to the bus station. First I tried to find this cemetery I kept seeing signs for, but failed and so took the hike back, which took me both down a main highway and through some sketchy area that wasn´t a road at all. Anyway I made it in time to catch the 630 bus back to Madrid, after chatting witha really cute American chick who is studying in Paris and visiting madrid with her family. So the ride back was a full hour (why the different I don´t know) so I claimed my bag (slept from Toledo to Madrid) and wanted to change my ticket from 11 but the earliest they had was 10, so I did that and then had a 2 hour wait. Bought a coke and read Don Quijote for an hour (I am newly inspired to finish it) and wrote in my journal some. Right now I am on the bus and it´s already been an adventure. Loaded it like 15 minutes early, ended up sitting with this guy who wanted the window seat and go there first damn him but then when I realized thebus wasn´t full I moved to the back and therefore have a seat to myself - yay. But so like not even an hour into the drive we stop at a gas station and I´m like "already?" then the bus driver gets out and proceeds to tinker with the bus for like 40 minutes - and keeps trying ot start it and it won´t start. Should´ve taken the 11 I guess, might as well have. Anyway he finally got it to work and we´re not back on the road except when he was working on the bus he cut allthe isnide lights so I´m practically writing in the dark. (Terrible handwriting sorry! guess that´s what I get for writing in the dark on a bumpy bus). I just got off the phone with Raymond which was overall an extremely pleasant conversation except he rudely cut me off at the end,when I was trying to say something sweet nonetheless, which I rarely feel like doing so that really upset me and I¨m trying really hard to not let that put the whole conversation in a bad light - I´m so unstable it doesn´t take much and the little things piss me off a lot more than they usually would. *sigh* No... it was a good conversation... Anyway so now I´m going to attempt to get some sleep. Ok so the end of the story. Now I´m home, it´s like almost 6 in themorning. I slept most of the way back - the way back taking till 5 to finish, same time as if I had left at 11. Oh well, when it´s this early in the morning that doesn´t really matter. Dinner was some Chips Ahoy I bought with the last money I had - pathetic. Anyway so sleep sleep and get back to Sevilla around 5. I totally mooched a ride home with these 2 American girls and one guy who were onthe bus with me that I struck up a convo with in the truckstop. When they said they lived in Nervion I told them I´d give them all the change I had if I could jump in the taxi with them. So that´s what we did, only all the change I had turned out to be a little less than I´d though - 10 cents. Guess some fell out when I was sleeping. Anyway I asked for their numbers so I could give them 2€ sometime but they said not to worry about it. So I got a free taxi-ride almost home. I got off at the mall and had to walk another 8minutes or so but that´s nothing compared to what it would have been. Then the guys on the street yelled "I´min love!" at me - obviously they couldn´t see because it was dark. So yeah, on that note, the piropos were worse than usual in Toledo - I don´t know what it was, if it was that I was alone or I have no clue, its proximity to Madrid? Definitely wasn´t that I looked better than normal. SEriously, why they yell at me I´m not sure. Granted I have my good days, but the Spanish girls look absolutely impeccable all the time- I only look impeccable aobut once a month. Ok, enough contemplation, it´s bed time. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, November 26th, 2004
1:58 pm	¡Ay! ¡Que noche tuve! - This is what I said to the hostal guy on my way in. Oh but there´s so much more than just getting to the hostal. OK. So my morning starts out great. I wake up at 10 a little tired, but feeling good - eat breakfast - lovely DUO - get on the computer, shower, get ready, and pack while listening to music. All is well. At about 12 I leave the house and drop my bag off by the Center. I mail Josh´s postcard and then catch a bus to the plaza de America to go to the Museo de Artes y Costumbres Populares. Really cool colorful Mudejar building. Anyway, inside is a good picture of Andalusian life from the late 1800´s to the early 1900´s. Really cool clothes, accessories, religious items, farming equipment, ceramics, toys, kitchenware, decorations, etc. They have rooms set up as they were. I got in trouble twice for taking pics (hate it when musuems won´t let you.) But when I saw the painted tile sign that said "Prohibido Blasfemar" I had to sneak one. There was a wapons room my brother would have liked. a big section devoted to Díaz Velazquez, who I think was an embroiderer but they had rooms of his house set up too. A few cool paintings, posters, etc. Glad i went, for the most part it´s really interesting. Wish I could play dress up in there! So I catch a bus back and get my stuff from the Center, then walk over to Plaza de Armas. And it begins - 300 bus is sold out. As isthe 400. So I buy a ticket for the 5 and try to get on the 300 anyway - some guy happened to approach the bus driver first so when there was one seat left he got it. I ate my lunch, called Raymond, tried again at 4. No luck this time either. So I resign myself to the fact that I´m going to have to catch the 5 and sit down - make some lists, which I like doing, and read some Don Quijote. 500 comes around and I get on, unfortunately have an aisle seat, but ball my towel up as a pillow and got about an hour and a half of sleep. For the next 4 and a half hours I alternated reading, trying to fall back asleep and being unsuccessful, and being depressed because travelling alone leads to a lot of thinking and some hurts decided to make their way to the forefront of my thoughts... I hate that even while I¨m crying over him the only comfort I want is him holding me. Anyway at the rest stop I didn´t bother getting off because I didn´t want to fight the crowd. So at 1105 or so we arrive in Madrid. Last bus to Toledo is 1115 and I can´t get on it because it´s already full. So i think I´ll go find a hostal in madrid. i buy a Metro ticket - and proceed to ride around Madrid for a while very lost and confused - I hate metros I never can figure them out they´re horribly confusing. Anyway I decide I don´t want to pay for a hostal anyway and resign myself to the plan of sleeping at the bus station - very college-student-travelling-Europe-esque. So I buy chocolate milk, Sprite and doritos for dinner, sit down, eat, read some more Don Quijote while avoidin the stares and comments of these 2 guys across from me. I try to sleep but it´s so cold and I can´t get comfortable. Next thing I know there´s this male voice yelling so loud I can´t understand. I asked the guy next to me and he didn´t know this either. apparently thebus station is in fact not open all night. So we walk out into the freezing cold - start talking. He´s romanian, probably 35 or a little less, speaks English ok but Spanish fluently. He struggles with English for a bit while I answer him in Spanish and then kinda sighs relief and says "Ok, we´ll speak in Spanish because you´re pretty good." He offers to hang out with me for my protection and when I mentioned a hostal said maybe we could share a room - I declined politely even though I honestly think he was sincerely nice I didn´t want to be stupid. So he got embarassed and left - sad. Anywa I called around, turns out Villar where we stayed last time had a room - several other places closer didn´t. Took a 7€ taxi - nice young cute taxi driver though - we chatted a lot and he ended my ride with "adios guapa" - so here I am in my 23€ hostal room going to wake up in 4 hours to go back to the bus station... ¡Que noche tuve! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 25th, 2004
10:44 am	HAPPY THANKSGIVING! ¡FELIZ DÍA DE ACCIÓN DE GRACIAS! So I slept in till about 10 this morning, which was absolutely wonderful. I took my time eating breakfast, getting ready, etc. Left the house to go to school, taking my manchego cheese and baguettes with me. Unfortunately something was going on with the busses today, not sure quite what (yeah I never know what the hell is going on in this country) so Lindsey G and I walked to school together. I dropped off my stuff in the office, got on the computer for a while, and at 12 took the segunda prueba de nivel. The assessment test they gave at the beginning of theyear they offered (this time optional) again so we could see if we´ve made progress. So I finished the written part 25 minutes before time was up and rather than sit and be bored instead got permission from Pepa to go type up my Ernesto composition. I returned for the listening section and overall feel really good about it. Here´s the thing - I´m a really good test taker which means I did well on the first one, not definitely but possible did better grade wise than the material I actually know. So I don´t know ifthere will be a huge improvement but this time I felt it was relatively easy instead of relatively hard like before, and more importantly I knew the reason behind the answers I chose instead of just guessing well. So I killed time for a little while on the computer and talked to friends until... Thanksgiving Dinner! We all started out on the patio eating aperativos (including my manchego cheese!) and I had a tinto. After pictures with Lola and lots of talking, meeting some people´s parents, etc, the line formed for the buffet. There was a whole lot of food - some definitely the Spanish touch to our holida, but my meal ended up being something like turkey, really good stuffing, cranberry sauce, a deviled egg (mm I love those), some pasta stuff, some weird mashed potatoes and bread. Sat down at a table with Liz, Jordan, James, Lindsey and JC and we actually did say some things we were thankful for - one of them being tinto de verano (which I continued to drink), one being nutella, and we all dove in and ate way too much, especially when dessert time came around which included some nutella and crackers, no bake cookies, pastry with chocolate, amazing banana pudding courtesy of JD, and grapes. After we were absolutely stufed to the brim, Lauren and Kim joined us and we moved upstairs to one of the computer labs that has a couch and the lab chairs aren´t bad either. This whole scene which lasted an hour or so (we weren´t allowed to leave the building till 4) seems like a dream - everyone was so out of it, both from alcohol and too much food. At one point Jordan went downstairs and stole the big ass vat filled with wine bottles and brought it up and we had a mini-botellón. So funny - especially when he went back downstairs and returned with 3 forties of Cruzcampo. We became kind of legendary for a botellón in the computer lab. The teachers found us, gave us funny looks, started to get on to us then changed their minds and just said to be careful with the computers. At one point I went downstairs and danced the sevillanas, once with random alumni of the Center and once with Matt who looked entirely too feminine doing it (especially with the flower behind his ear) and then went back upstairs. Finally at 430 or so I left and walked, very tipsy, to the Plaza de Armas to get bus schedules. meanwhile I called Raymond, we had a weird convo. Gonna be pretty hard to have a good relationship with him if we can´t even have a decent phone conversation. Yet another thing I´m really frustrated about...ugh. Regardless, unfortunately I´m so damn desperate for him I´ll keep calling him despite how shitty I feel after we talk. I´ll take about whatever I can get... sat in Plaza Nueva while on the phone then caught a bus home and took a lovely wine-buzzed nap, which really are the best. Matt was supposed to go to a play with me tonight, but backed out (he´s really weird and I don´t know what "I REALLY do want to go to see a play with YOU sometime" means - especially when he was backing out). I wanted to go anyway so went to town, bought my ticket, and spent 30 minutes or less on the computer at school where THANK GOD Lee is back safe and sound. I still feel so horrible but I´m so glad she´s ok now and she had a "spanish angel" like JC did in Barcelona. Also had an e-mail from Adam G back home with info on a Christmas party I´m invited to - um don´t really wanna deal with him - how annoying my dad forced this on us and now he´s being nice and I´m feeling obligated. So I went to the play at 900 which was interesting. Called "La Calle del Infierno", not even sure I could tell you the plot. Set in the Feria de Sevilla, 3 coworker women who are employed by a supermarket are the only characters. They talk about sex and men a lot, and they´re all really quirky. One´s single - Toni; one´s divorced - Paqui; and one´s happily married - Juani. There´s a sevillanas contest and both Toni and Paqui want Juani as their partner. When Juani picks Toni, Paqui tells Juani that Toni is having an affair with her husband (I nver figured out if this was true but I think so) and so Juani gets insanely drunk and depressed and falls off of something and gets hurt but doesn´t die and they´re all fine, sort of, in the end. Part of it was the language barrier and part of it was that it was a weird play. But I enjoyed it - good acting. Bare set - 2 sets of huge vertical blinds one side white the other painted to look like a supermarket. Anyway it was definitely refreshing to get to go see a play I miss being around theatre. So i came home, skipped dinner as I was still full from lunc, did nothing and left the house again at 1120 to go out. After waiting 30 minutes for the bus I walked to Plaza de Cuba. Finally got there a little before 1220. Lindsey wasn´t there so I walked up the street to find her and JC having their own botellón. I talked to them for a few minutes then they went to Catedral and I went back to Plaza de Cuba. There I hung out with Adam, Tyler, Edmundo, Carli, Tonya (her b-day), Maury, Ashley, and girl named LIsa. We were there for a little over 30 minutes then lef to go to this bar called The Clan - which is a scottish pub. There we met both Katies, one of whome was drunk off her ass, and Thom, Jessie, Kara, Nicole (also b-day), and Beth and Ilya and his visiting friend Alexi (also Ukranian). We stayed there a while and just talked, people drank (not me) and the crowd dwindled down to just a few people. Edmundo took one Katie´s drunk ass home while Ilya, Katie, Carli, Alexi and I went to get chocolate and churros from the all night stand by the Triana bridge. Mmm! So good! So Alexi is one of the most obnoxious people I´ve ever met, pushy, snobby and negative but plays it all off. Unfortunately I´m starting to get a stigma against people from the Ukraine. Carli was cracking me the hell up making subtle and not-so-subtle references (not to their faces) to them being homosexuals all night (ironic as she´s dating Ilya) but dude, if I didn´t know they were Ukranian I´d swear they were gay. Next on to Merchants´to meet back up with everyone. After a slice of pizza and being really warm there, Katie, Tyler, Adam and I went back to thechurros place (while Ilya and Carli fought) and the boys got some. Finally, Tyler, Katie and I made the ridiculously long trek home together - so cold outside. Tyler´s actually cool when he´s drunk - sucks that he has a shitty personality sober. Anyway it´s almost 530 and I´m exhausted and only going to get a little sleep, which is totally my plan so I´ll be able to sleep on the bus. And I didn´t miss home too badly today. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 24th, 2004
1:24 pm	Oh my God I feel so bad and I´m so worried - I got an e-mail from lee sayins essentially that she´s stuck in Spain and I have no way to help her! I don´t know if I should have stayed and saw her on the tarin or if that would have helped anyway because regardless she probably would have missed it and still be in this situation. but blah I know she was already worried about the language thing and ugh I hate being so helpless because I don´t know wehre she is or why she´s not in Jerez and I hate this for her! And I haven´t heard from here since 2 today so hopefully that means she´s back in the UK ... *says a prayer*. Anyway so I woke up early to study and liz made me some breakfast when she woke up (have I mentioned I have a wonderful roomie?) and I crammed a little and showered and set off for school. I got there early enough to start a convo wit Raymond, and then got to finish it because class was canceled! Lucky for me since i didn´t do his composition :o) So I chatted (blah to the tough convos) and studied and at 950 went to take my test in Mila´s class which was easy but that doesn´t mean I did well. We´ll see. So I finished first and went to get my paper from Ana - 89. Not too bad. She likes my way of strongly supporting my points with the text (thank you Great books but says I missed the most important theme which i think is a little to subjective but oh well. Anyway so i did some last minute cramming for her test, which turns out was also pretty easy but again, you never know. So I had an hour free as I finished early and used that time to catch up my journal. At 1245 I went to Jose Grillo´s class where Ian´s presentation was on...nobody will ever guess... drugs. Then we filled out a survey about the Center and the only thing I really complained about was the computers. So back on the computer for a bit and then home for lunch. Lunch was really good - cabbage and meatballs. Then finish catching up my journal and siesta time! 2 hours long - so wonderful. i went to SuperCor after I woke up to buy manchego cheese and baguettes as what I´m bringing tomorrow. I threw in a pack of Skittles for me and put it on my parent´s credit card. Dropped it off at the house, then to the Amena store in the most confusing intersection ever to buy a phone card, with which I called Raymond to tell him I bought it. Walked through Santa Cruz to school, stopping to buy Josh a postcard on the way. ARrived at school and spent the next few hours messing around on the computer, typing up my journal and talking to Josh among other things, who wanted to play the "let´s be obnoxiously ambiguous" game when I asked him for commentary on the picutres I sent him and the only thing I could get out of him was "Now it wouldn´t matter..." Anyway and I talked to various relatives (mom, Aunt Joyce, Bri) today about Thanksgiving and while I didn´t think it was going to e a big deal I think I will miss it. Don´t envy Bri having to deal with Alicia, Tommy, Tiera, and David though. So i came home to dinner with Alejandro y Álvaro - dinner was rather bland that pasta stuff again. I filled out Josh´s postcard while listening to Alejandro Sanz and then forced myself to do Ernesto´s composition which mercedes corrected for me and didn´t tear completely apart so I´m hoping that means I´m gettin better. Debated going out but decided against it for no good reason and Alejandro showed me some optical illusions on the computer until Liz came home, and we´ve been talking and organizing and eating duo and I´m tired and therefore going to bed early. It´s frustrating that every time I feel that wonderful relief you know after you finish something big - for example my 2 tests today - it´s tainted by thinking of what else I have to do. Like I couldn´t relax I had to write Ernesto´s parrafo and now I have a 4 page Grillo paper due next week. This shit almost makes me look forward to the end...almost... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2004
8:40 pm	So my beautiful Lee is gone now - I miss her already! I cannot even say just how amazing it was to have here here. While we went and did some stuff , the best part was just being around her and getting to talk to her all the time and enjoying her company. So let that be the basis behind all the entries about her being here, because that made the whole thing awesome, even the parts where we weren´t doing anything. Monday moring I woke up early, intending to first go home and then go back to school - so I could get some clothes, etc. Well, what actually happened was I decided to skip my first 2 classes. So since I had a test in lit on WEdnesday though I needed to go. So I got up at like 9 and left and went home. I told Mercedes I was sick - my throat and she was like "should I call the doctor?" and such. I warded that off, had her yell at me for walking the 2 steps from my room to the bathroom barefoot, and tried to avoid her till I left for school (after breakfast of duo and cola-cao!) The internet was down, which sucked, so I couldn´t check my mail. Went to Lit, where it was parents visit class day and none of them knew what the hell was going on it was rather comical. So I elft and went back to the hostal - met up with Lee, and we were quite hungry and therefore decided to have an early lunch (100 or so). We stopped at a more authentic spanish restaurant in Santa Cruz, each got a tapa of Manchego cheese and split a plate of croquetas. Mmm! Good, Spanish lunch. WE played with the little fiches who came and hung out by our table and watched the big ass pigeon chase them around which was really funny. Next visit - the Cathedral :o) My favorite place. WE spent some time debating really hos important is Christopher colombus, trying ot take just the right picture to capture how big it really is, etc. We climbed teh Giralda of course and told "one time when I climbed up a lot of stairs" stories (including fondly remembering sophomore year). I´ve talked about the Cathedral before so I won´t bother but it´s really nice to see everything through the eyes of someone who it´s all new to. Makes me refall in love agian - much as I already love SEvilla. So anyway after that we tried to get on the net at the school but it was down still, so we went to an Internet Café, where i discovered Raymond had been freaking out worrying all weekend even though I thought I told him I would be busy with Lee. He´s so confusing. He was desperately missing me but apparently not missing me enough to keep him from sleeping in the bed with Amanda when she visited. Ugh - the most frustrating feeling in the world. I start to trust him, start to make progress, and then he does that. I feel like I¨ve backtracked to the beginning. I can´t explain what a frustrating feeling that is - he pushes me to work on it and I do and then he fucks it up. A - we´ve had amanda issues before; B - he has slept in the bed with her before and we fought about it then, C - I brought it up and implicitly stated i didn´t want him sleeping with her. what the hell is wrong with his head?! And if he repeated the same mistake twice one time, that means he doesn´t learn like he says he does and I can´t trust him adn who knows what other things he´ll do again...^*sigh* I want this to work so bad. he says he does but then picks me up and throws me back to square one. Ouch, damn it, ouch. Fucking hurts. As lee was having Clayton problmes we were both sufficiently depressed when we left - goddman boys we were having a good weekend. should´ve stuck with my original plan not to get in touch with him until lee left. Anyway we met up with liz and Jordan, walked to the Plaza de Toros to show them, decided the 4 € tour wasn´t worth it and left. Next stop: El Atún my favorite day bar. WE all sat down and Lee and I went through about 3 tintos each. Gotta love it! That has to be one of my very favorite activities. so they left and Lee and I made plans to go back to my house. We caught the bus then I realized I didn´t have my key - so we got off the bus and trekked back to the hostal - as we were definitely tipsy off the tinto - it was quite a fun pointless little adventure. By the time we got back it was too late to run by the house so we just went to dinner. We tried Azucar de Cuba which wasn´t serving dinner yet (it was 7 PM) and Habanita which also wasn´t open. Since we were right there, we just ended up at La Mía Tana again with Liz and Jordan. Great deal - the menú - garlic bread, pizza with 3 toppings, dessert and drink for 6.50€. Amazing pizza, amazing cheese bread, amazing chocolate mouse = amazing meal! Lee and I left and hurried to the Casa de la Memoria to get there before 830. WE picked up our tickets and waited around a bit. Liz and Jordan got there a little late so they sat behind us instead of next to us. The Flamenco show was absolutely amazing as usual. A woman singer this time instead of a male - and only a girl dancer but she was first of all beautiful and secondly a great dancer, much more sexual than the last. She came out first in a crazy blue dress with white polka dots and later in a dark green tassled dress. And oh yeah it was freezing in that room! The guitarist´s solo was one of the most beautifully played pieces of music I´ve ever heard. I love flamenco! I think lee really liked it too. So we split from Liz and Jordan and hit up the hooka bar. Now there was a good time! Cute fun Spanish server and good apple hooka, plus tea, Lee´s caramel which she fell in love with. It was so chill but one of my favorite things we did because it was like "just get a little goo feeling drinking tea iwth my best friend". So nice. We stayed there probably 2 hours. I tried ot write in my journal when we got back but was for whatever reason really exhausted. We were woken up by some really loud American next door who cam ehome at 3, apparently had an orgy (not kidding -used condom in their trashcan the next day and theere were definitely more than 2 people in that room) and left really early like at 6. Poor Lee they really disturbed her. The next day it was pretty funny though. Tuesday morning I forced myself to class - the Dr. Pepper that my friend hannah had given me Monday from Gibraltar definitely helped. 2 classes and an intense discussion with Raymond later, nothing particularly noteworthy in class, make my way back to te hostal. We packed, checked out, took our stuff to the school and walked up the street to a cafetería for some chocolate and churros - chalk up yet another authentic Spanish experience for Lee. quite enjoyable. Anyway, then we went to teh Alcázar, did lots of explorting, took pictures of painters, picked flowers for our hair. lee preferred the gardens to the rooms, so we spent a lot of time out there. So we get adventurous - there is this wall that like half way up has like windows - hard to explain but you can go up in the wall and walk down the length of it. you can also go up some more stairs and get on top of the wall, except that was gated off. Eh, we´re not beig fans of gates. We climbed it, went up the stairs to the top and then walked the length on top of the wall. Way fun! Felt so conspicuous! And definitely looking down people were looking at us. I guess luckily no security people. We took pictures of us being "sneaky" reached the end, this side was blocked off by a door gate, so we had to walk, conspicuously, all the way back (our plan was to just play dumb americans if we got caught) and then go back down the way we came up. So that was our fun rebellious adventure at the Alcázar. We left and went to do a little souvenir shopping for her family and then went to eat lunch to eat lunch at Habanita - finally on the 3rd try we actually got to eat there! Got several tapas each and had a nice ltitle meal - good food. we then went to the Museo de Bellas Artes at Lee´s request. After about 45 minutes there and accidentally sneaking into an exhibit (we went under the thing thinking we were going to more museum not an exhibit) we walked back to teh Center and on to teh Plaza Nueva where we caught a bus and I took her to the train station, had a hurried goodbye as her train was about to leave and then I left and took my stuff back to the house, unloaded a little, and made it to thes chool to go to class at 710. Lauren and I decide we´re hungry and jokingly ask Conso if we can go get food. She actually said yes! We sit in disbelief for a second and then run downstairs and to an Alimentacion down the street - buy Doritos, Chips Ahoy and Pepsi and hurry back to sit and be exceptionally grateful in class. AFter class I got on the computer and talked to josh a little, who´s really starting to weird me out with his Bri chatter - not gonna lie it would be weird and I think would upset me if something happened with them. Anyway so I left, came home, ate dinner with Alejandro while discussing religion and machista in Spain, and then sat down in my room to do homework which didn´t go so well for the first while. Eventually I settled and right when I´m switiching from studying for Mila´s class to Ana´s, Liz shows and 5 seconds later Raymond calls. His tone on the phone weirds me out - hes´so animated online and sounds disappointed or depressed on the phone. Overall, a nice convo anyway if only 20 minutes and Liz brought me cola-cao half way through it. I finally study some more - ugh can barely stand to. I´ve definitely lost my motivation again, and at 130ish say screw this and go to sleep. 2 tests on Wednesday, Ernesto´s composition just won´t happen. (1 Comment |Comment on this)