Monday was eventful because I had a paper due in class, and after using internet in El Centro, I had to bike home for lunch and then back for class. However, I went the wrong way out of my study center, and found myself pedaling around thinking I knew what general direction I was heading. I remember seeing a tapas bar called “Levies” and thinking to myself, “Why do I know that place?” The answer should’ve been a resounding, “That’s the last thing you remember from last week when you got lost and wandered for an hour”. Unfortunately, I had no idea and forged ahead. After about 10 minutes on bike, I realized I needed to find a street sign, but that’s not terribly easy here. So I biked on for a while and then saw a sign ahead. Unfortunately the sign was for “Rhonda de Cappucinos”, which to my chagrin placed me about twice as far from my home as I was when I left the study center.
I’m not sure how I did on that paper, but the miscalculation ended up being a blessing in disguise because although it was stressful biking all the way down to the river and following that for what would end up to be a half-hour sprint, I found the greatest bike/jogging trail so far, which rolls on right down at the riverfront through a park. Although in very different circumstances, I kind of felt like ****** with ET riding in the basket of his bike, that I was going to take off into the air at any moment.
I literally have no idea what I did Tuesday, which is a little scary. But I think that means it’s likely I just played guitar all day except for when I went to class.
Wednesday was a great day because I got a birthday package from my mom. It was only just a little more exciting than the email I would receive a few days later giving me the details of my birth. But here’s the contents of the package spread out on my bed.
It contained a few good books (it got really painful not having good books…in English…over here), a box of chocolates, some candy, a LOT of fruit leather, and some birthday trinkets, my favorites of which are pictured below.
Also in the package was a new camera! And I must say I’ve been using it a lot and it’s incredible. I’m really glad I decided to ask for one and gladder my parents decided to send me one. It should make the pics much better.
Probably my favorite gift from the package was a cd of pictures my sister compiled for me. I didn’t realize before I came that my laptop doesn’t have a whole lot of family pictures on it because it’s mostly pictures of landscapes of taken on trips. It’s weird how quickly it affected me, but I love being able to browse through family pictures when I’m so far away. I read one of the books, and the chocolates, candy, and a lot of fruit leather are gone, but I’ll always have those pictures.
As you saw from one of the pictures above, I hadn’t shaved for a while, so Thursday morning I gave in and must say as I took to the streets, I felt like a new man. My mom probably wants me to put up more pictures with me in them so here’s the proof…
Much of Thursday and Friday was spent reading the book “Water for Elephants”, which I would highly recommend, but it is necessary to point out that Friday my professor, Jesus, wore one incredible Canadian tuxedo. I wanted to get a better picture of it but he seemed to be pretty fond of me and I didn’t want to ruin that. But here it is…
Saturday: Studied all morning on the rooftop for my final, took the final, and then went home. Later that night I had what you could call my first real night on spanish time, which means that everything was shifted way later. I was hanging out down by the river and an incredible thing happened: I made my first spanish friends. Four engineering students from the University: Miguel, Carlos, Alex, and Daniel. They were incredibly nice and although my friend Mark and I were skeptical at first, it seemed like they genuinely enjoyed talking to us, which is rare at times.
So we went with them to a bar called “Al Capone”, which to them doesn’t have a whole lot of significance other than the fact that “Capone” is a play on their word “copa”, which means “drink”.
At “Al Capone” something almost as shocking as making friends occurred: I first encountered the spanish elite. I came to spain with a picture of high fashion and very dark jeans, but what I found at this bar was basically a frat party. I would say 90% of the guys there were wearing a button-down shirt underneath a v-neck sweater. And nothing but the lightest of pastels. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but regardless I was very disappointed that I didn’t have my camera or phone to capture it. Moral of the story: Conformity is not solely an American epidemic.
After the bar we went to a discoteca called “Elephunk”, which still had some of the v-neck crowd, but also blended in some of the dark jean/euro-mullet crowd. It’s probably hard for a lot of you to see why or how, but I did have fun at the place, even though I spent most of the time just people watching.
Around 4am, Mark and I were dead tired, and ready to leave, but the night was not yet complete. The only way to end a night here is with churros, and that’s what we did. The most well-known churro stand is right by one of the bridges we use to cross the river and get to Triana (our neighborhood), so we figured why not?
When I crawled into bed at a quarter to five, I was definitely ready for a long sleep.
…Antonio woke me up at 9:30 to let me know that it was my birthday, which in hindsight was very endearing of him, and further illustrates why I love my family, but at the time wasn’t very pleasant. But after I didn’t move he said to me, “Yas, we breakfast”, and I had no choice.
Here's a picture of Antonio holding his 4th grandchild, Noelia. The picture's blurry because he's dancing with her. He's not the most descriptive man but when I was watching them dance he said. "We're dancing. It's what I do with all my baby grandchildren". I love him.
I’m not much for birthdays and had a good time the night before, so Sunday I took our dog to the park and hung out by the river with my great Mizzou friends, talking about our families here and at home. I went to bed early to prepare for the first day of semester-long classes, and was very thankful to be alive, in Spain, but with people like you at home who care deeply for me.
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