Getting home from Paris last week, I was exhausted and spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday catching up on school and sleep.
But Thursday, despite more rain here, was great and I spent the late afternoon wandering around with Mark and our Brazilian and Italian friends, Enrica, Stephanie, and Roberta, who continue to surprise with their willingness to spend time with us. We wandered around the center of town through all (not even close) the narrow streets, had some coffee, and then a couple beers at a little pub, waiting for the rain to die down.
It feels odd in a way saying this with all the new experiences I've had in the last month and a half, but the time I spend with these friends, just talking about life, Sevilla, Italy and Brazil, has been some of the most valuable in terms of personal growth. It's hard to put into words but just learning through experience how to talk to people and what makes us all tick once you strip away the convenient conversation topics like sports, trivial news, etc. I feel like in the past there have been a lot of times where I've just felt bored talking to people, but here I'm constantly reminded of the value in just spending time with people, now that it's not quite as easy.
Later that night I met up with my "intercambia" or basically the one Spaniard my program sets you up with, for the first time. Her name is Paula Prieto Gil and she's a student at the teaching vocational school here preparing to teach english. I went out for tapas (appetizer dinner for all you who are just tuning in), and then to a bar afterwards with her, a friend Luis, and two other Spaniards with their American intercambios. From the Americans I learned that in fact, there are people who live in Rhode Island, and from the Spaniards I continued to be convinced that there's not a single mean-spirited student here. (I think non-students dealing with the "crisis" have a right to be a little cranky.)
It was a great time and Paula's low-cut shirt gave me a night-long exercise on eye-contact, which though painful at the time, makes me feel like a stronger man now.
Friday brought a day free of class perfect for getting a lot of studying done, but unfortunately I used the morning and a large part of the afternoon to play guitar. I'm going to have to limit myself because I'm getting a little better which makes playing more appealing, but once the rain stops I'll probably just bring my guitar out into the city with me, let my facial hair grow out, and play a lot of Cat Stevens (Before he became Yusuf, of course).
Friday night brought Mark and I to our favorite flamenco bar, Carboneria, where we enjoyed a show, and then headed out to the Alfalfa bar district.
The notable thing about Saturday was that I met up with my intercambia again, and went to see "The Men Who Stare At Goats" with her and some of her friends, which as some of you know is written and directed by the Coen brothers. For all of you who saw Big Lebowski and left feeling like somebody must've slipped you some acid, or maybe saw Burn After Reading and couldn't help but be a bit surprised that Brad Pitt was killed off in the first half of the movie, or that George Clooney turned out to be a raging sex addict...Let me just tell you that you have no idea how unbelievably weird a Coen brothers movie is until you see one in spanish with no subtitles. The entire time I could understand a lot of the dialogue, but had the ironic contrast of understanding zero of the plot. I couldn't even fake a conversation about it afterwards other than, "Man that was crazy when the hippie was in the military."
Either the best or the worst part of the experience was that I proved yet again to myself that I am a complete idiot, and in the thirty minutes between buying a ticket and going into the theatre, I managed to lose my ticket like a child. Thus, I paid to see the movie twice.
Sunday night was my "brother's" girlfriend's birthday, so we had a little celebration with a cake and their baby Noelia, of course, who didn't mind being the center of attention.
An interesting thing happened to me Sunday; I spent more than just 30 minutes at a time studying, and actually managed catch up a little bit. The interesting thing is that although I don't study a tremendous amount, the 3-4 hours a week I spend studying seems to dwarf every other American. In fact, in my history class Monday, the image of the US took a a drastic hit when one of my colleagues asked the professor, "What centuries are we talking about?". Considering that the name of the class is "Introduction to Modern Spanish History: 1492-1716", that's just ridiculous.
Tuesday brought a warm day of absolutely incredible sunshine...
And Mark and I spent the late afternoon relaxing at a little bar overlooking the river. The city came alive with people and I can't wait until the weather stays like that.
Earlier in the day, I had lunch with Paula and her friend Cristina, and then Paula and I walked around Parque Maria Luisa, which was very peaceful and even though it is nothing like my house, the sunshine and little ponds made me think about sitting by the lake at my house in late spring, and made me a little bit homesick. But the park was very beautiful and I can't tell you how great it is to have people to explore with.
Me...
Now Paula...
And some other sights...
Tuesday night, Mark and I wanted to take it easy so we just went to this little teteria for tea, which was not quite to the level of Granada, but still much better than western teas.
Wednesday night, Enrica (Italian) invited the group over to her apartment again for dinner. Last time: pasta. This time: pizza. We met their friend Henri from Finland, and Nate, a junior at U of Michigan. Nate's spanish was unreal and for the first part of the night, Mark and I felt like neanderthals speaking in grunts and burps in comparison. But like I mentioned earlier, to our astonishment, these girls still haven't realized how lame we are.
We had pizza and some sangria, and then headed out to the discoteca Caramelo. It was a fun time, but I'm honestly a little burnt out on the discoteca scene, though I haven't even been that often. I'm pretty steadfast in my position that trying to sway in a semi-rhythmic manner while dealing with complete and total confusion about what to do with my hands, is not the best way to spend a night. There are very very few guys who don't look like idiots when they are dancing in a discoteca, and those lucky few usually are wearing leather, which I don't have.
Here's a little side-note for you. Wednesday I needed to shave but our hot water here is currently not working. It wasn't a big deal for me to shave with cold water, but Antonio insisted that cold water would not do. So while dealing with the baby, he heated some water for me and although it wasn't necessarily the hardest thing to do, I felt like getting a picture of the hot water to give proof that I'm being very well cared-for.
Another side note, I love walking past this book store every day, in which it would be absolutely impossible to find anything, but is just so quaint. I've been in a couple times just to smell it.
Final side-note: I think the turtles can sense the warm weather coming because lately they've been doing a lot more climbing on each other in an effort to escape their porcelain prison.
Last night I saw yet more flamenco at Carboneria, my favorite spot, and it was an interesting night because a section of the crowd actually got called out by the guitarist for being too loud, ignorant of their art, and implicitly, for being American.
Afterwards, went to the Alfalfa district for a while with my good friends from Mizzou, which was interesting because although my spanish is sub-par by most standards, I know more than my friends, so I served as translator off and on. Ended up hanging out with a group of spanish guys that was really cool, one of whom has a small obsession with the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team, which is strange in a region of Spain where snow is viewed with animosity at best, terror at worst.
Today, after breakfasting with Antonio as usual, I did some reading and podcasting in the park of princes near my apartment. It was absolutely beautiful and I couldn't begin to count how many people were out. It was warm, sunny, but with a great Mediterranean wind, and gave a really great taste of what's in store in the coming months.
After lunch, I met up with Mizzou friends and hung out by the river, like we sometimes do. But this time, I finally gave in to what I've been wanting to do for a while, and I brought my guitar. With the sun sinking down over the brightly colored buildings and the Guadalquiver river, surrounded by friends, and playing some music, I could not have been more content. It was a few hours getting in touch with my inner hippie, and though he's from a slightly different genre, I definately could understand the blissful simplicity that inspired John Denver in "Sunshine on my Shoulders".
Enrica met me down by the river just before Haley and Tricia and Nick were leaving, so I kept right on playing. After an afternoon of songs, it was nice to be playing for Enrica both because she is foreign and beautiful, speaking 3 romantic languages, and moreso for the fact that she doesn't know hardly any of the songs I played, and therefore, no clue when I start making up verses.
She wanted a good hang before her flight home to Italy tomorrow morning (for 10 days), so we went to a little bar near the grand cathedral, had a beer and a little tapa. I find myself wanting to say this over and over again, but it's great to both have people to spend time with and talk to, and also to realize the value behind doing so.
Walking home in the cool air, guitar in hand, thinking about the day that was coming to a close, I realized something that a lot of you probably have decided at one point: I want to be forever young. How many times (after this semester), will I get to play guitar by a river in a mediterranean city, with a setting sun, and beautiful, intelligent girls? I'm 21 and at the rare and precious time in my life where I want to be exactly the age that I am. I don't have terribly stylish clothes, six-pack abs, and frankly my hairstyle right now waivers in between marginally acceptable and atrocious, but I never want to lose that spring in my step when I leave my apartment and think, "Yeah, I can take on this world."...It's that idealistic confidence and the fresh eyes that can only come from facing the weight of how many incredible things are right in front of me, and when I was walking home tonight, I couldn't help but think that I could literally fly up into the stars if I felt like it. But like I said, I want to be exactly where I am, so I kept on going until I found Dolores and Antonio singing quietly and folding socks together on the couch. Life is incredible.
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