So again I blog while waiting for class to start instead of studying like I should be doing. But, I consider this trip to Africa quite blogworthy so that justifies my present nonscholastic attitude, right?
So last Wednesday the 16th of April I departed for Algeciras, the city in which I would catch a ferry over to Tangier and then take my first step on African soil. Algeciras is a pretty town and it has schawarma so theres really nothing I can complain about. Not much noteworthy went on there except stumbling upon a hidden plaza at the top of a hill full of old men shootin' the Spanish breeze. The next morning Ali and I woke up at an ungodly hour (only to be eclipsed by the last morning of our trip) to go meet with the group and catch the ferry. The boat trip over was a bit choppy but no one tossed their cookies and everything was fine. We got to Tangier and went to Darna, which is like a woman's shelter and took a tour. After that, our translators, students at the university of translation in Tangier, had a talk with us about Moroccan culture to them. Very interesting. Then, one of the highlights of this trip happened. We drove a really long time but in the middle of our drive the guide, Lindsey woke up, turned around, and asked "Hey, do you guys want to ride camels?" And of course we did so we pulled over to te side of the road and rode camels on the beach. No, not wild camels unfortunately, they had....handlers. But I prefer to call them camel shepherds. Then we drove to Rabat to meet our homestay families.
Ok, Im realizing if I outline everything we did that would take a really long time and you would all lose interest in reading. So Ill sum it up. We talked to lots of people, stayed with homestay families another night, went to a Hammam (a Turkish bath house where everyone scrubs eachother down, p.s. I have never felt cleaner in my life), visited a family that lives in a village in a really rural area, ate lots of yummy cous cous, adn went to a mountain town that was way pretty. I learned a lot on the trip and definitely recommend this program to anyone. Oh, I havent told you the program... its called Morocco Exchange. Props to it. Heres some funny quotes that I was very amused by...
Jessica: Did you know that there is DNA from every baby that a woman has had still in her uterus?
Ali: Wow, you gotta get that flushed out, man.
Lindsey: It's not called Pepno Bismo? (Pepto Bismol)
Lindsey: I studied primatology so I studied monkeys in Belize and followed them and collected samples and watched where they'd sleep and go back to camp and...
Sara: Samples? What do you mean samples?
Lindsey:..........poop. I'd go back to camp and sift through their poop.
lunes, 21 de abril de 2008
martes, 8 de abril de 2008
Bored and Procrastinating.
So here are a few observations I have to make about Spain. Granada in particular since its my home base on this side of the Atlantic...
1. I was rereading my blog entries (yes, Im that bored and that much of a procrastinator) and they are chock full of funny stories and opinions and are much lighter in tone at the beginning of this trip. Me thinks I am no longer in a light hearted vacationy mood here in españa. That is to say, I have kind of internalized Granada as my home. At least for now... weird.
2. Pigeons have LOTS of sex. My piso´s living room window opens into the square center of the building... its hard to describe but basically its an area protected from everything outside. The pigeons have found it quite nice for their home though, they fly in from above and settle down on window ledges and a small rooftop at equal height with the aforementioned window of my piso. Point is, the pigeons are always on it. Doing it. Always. I, in fact, have been woken up by the sound of flapping wings and sexually strained cooing noises.
3. The amount of cous cous I have eaten in my life has quadrupled just from this year. I dont think much more of an explanation is necessary.
4. People dont judge you for buying mass amounts of alcohol multiple times in the same day. Rather, they are more prone to judge you because your outfit is not monochromatic, as is oh so popular here in Spain.
5. Buffy is still amazing... even in Spanish audio. The DVD player I have automatically sets the language to Castellano of every DVD it plays. This has resulted in many episodes of Buffy being watched for the first 5 or 10 minutes without realizing that Buffy habla español. I still laughed and cried in all the right places.
Ok, I need to move onto my next procrastinating activity which will most likely be either buying a newspaper or taking a walk in the drizzly rain (yay drizzly rain!).
1. I was rereading my blog entries (yes, Im that bored and that much of a procrastinator) and they are chock full of funny stories and opinions and are much lighter in tone at the beginning of this trip. Me thinks I am no longer in a light hearted vacationy mood here in españa. That is to say, I have kind of internalized Granada as my home. At least for now... weird.
2. Pigeons have LOTS of sex. My piso´s living room window opens into the square center of the building... its hard to describe but basically its an area protected from everything outside. The pigeons have found it quite nice for their home though, they fly in from above and settle down on window ledges and a small rooftop at equal height with the aforementioned window of my piso. Point is, the pigeons are always on it. Doing it. Always. I, in fact, have been woken up by the sound of flapping wings and sexually strained cooing noises.
3. The amount of cous cous I have eaten in my life has quadrupled just from this year. I dont think much more of an explanation is necessary.
4. People dont judge you for buying mass amounts of alcohol multiple times in the same day. Rather, they are more prone to judge you because your outfit is not monochromatic, as is oh so popular here in Spain.
5. Buffy is still amazing... even in Spanish audio. The DVD player I have automatically sets the language to Castellano of every DVD it plays. This has resulted in many episodes of Buffy being watched for the first 5 or 10 minutes without realizing that Buffy habla español. I still laughed and cried in all the right places.
Ok, I need to move onto my next procrastinating activity which will most likely be either buying a newspaper or taking a walk in the drizzly rain (yay drizzly rain!).
Champagne, Rummy, Sun and Snow - life in Pradollano
So this Saturday, after finding that Epsom salt, or Magnesium Sulfate does not exist in Granada (its a whole other story of why I was looking for it, but thats not today´s tale) there was an impromptu trip to Pradollano, the pueblo in the snow in the Sierra Nevadas. It was conveniently only a 45 minute bus ride away, but it was also, inconveniently, April. There was no snow in the town. So we decided to take a ride on the ski lifts to visit the snow. We were literally the only people not in snow gear or carrying skis while we stood in line. Then it turns out tickets were sold in a totally different place so we got out of line and went to buy a ticket or 3. Also turns out that they were 15 euros per ticket just for an up and back ride! Aw hellz no. So our snow plan was defeated. Instead, we bought some champagne and orange juice and made mimosas. We found a little corner where the Monachil five-O wouldnt disturb us and started up a game or 12 of rummy (thank god Emmy remembered to bring cards). We basically passed the whole time in that pueblo así. However, as nice as it was, the temperature was too nice and we didnt really realize we had been sitting in direct sunlight for like 5 hours. Yes, we are sunburned. And now my already gnarly farmer´s tan is even gnarlier. Do you spell narly with a g? I dont know, but I am a fan of silent g´s so Im spelling it that way. Deal with it.
Oh, and in two weekends from now I am goign to Morocco! My first time in Africa =) I´ve heard good things so I´m excited. Ummmmmm qué más? Not a whole lot, really. Ok, off to class I go. P.S. if you read tis please comment because the last and almost only comment I´ve gotten in the last like month was a spam comment. I know, I didnt realize they existed in blogging either. (See previous entry´s comments) Point is, I need to feel the love. Feel me it!....I think that sentence would only make sense to someone whose brain has been as warped by Spanish as mine has. Hasta luego!
Mateo
Oh, and in two weekends from now I am goign to Morocco! My first time in Africa =) I´ve heard good things so I´m excited. Ummmmmm qué más? Not a whole lot, really. Ok, off to class I go. P.S. if you read tis please comment because the last and almost only comment I´ve gotten in the last like month was a spam comment. I know, I didnt realize they existed in blogging either. (See previous entry´s comments) Point is, I need to feel the love. Feel me it!....I think that sentence would only make sense to someone whose brain has been as warped by Spanish as mine has. Hasta luego!
Mateo
miércoles, 2 de abril de 2008
Lolzasaurus.
Yesterday on my way to class I was walking on Gran Via, basically the main street of Granada with all sorts of everyone walking around. I was waiting for the stoplight to change so I could cross the street and I heard in the distance an electronic sound like a police or ambulance siren. But, it didnt quite sound like the Granada police or ambulance. I kept looking up and down the street keeping an eye out for any emergency vehicles speeding past, but to no avail. What the heck could it be? Then, as I made my way to the other side of the street, the sound was suddenly behind me! I spun to to see what was making this sound and then, I recognized the sound. It wasnt just prolonged, monotone electronic beeps... IT WAS CELINE DION! The noise came from a 50 something year old homeless ...er, excuse me, hygenically challenged... old man riding his bicycle and absolutely blasting "My Heart Will Go On", you know, the Titanic theme song, on his Fisher-Price or Playschool brand megaphone! Apparently the Spanish dont find this very amusing since they just cast a sideways glance and continued on their way. I, on the other hand, cracked. up. I think the others on the street saw me as crazy as the bike guy, but probably chalked it up to me being a guiri (foreigner). Anyways, if youd have been inspired to listen to that magical song by Celine Dion, heres a link to the closest sounding version I could find. Mind you, this version is about 40 times better than what was coming out of the megaphone. Imagine only the main tones and no embellishment. Ok, here it is. http://wilstar.com/midi/titanic.htm
Paz.
Paz.
martes, 25 de marzo de 2008
Semana Santa: Gypsy Jesus and Runnin' Mary
Over the Holy Week in Spain practically everyone I know took this vacation opportunity to travel to all sorts of fun places (mostly Ireland for St. Patty's Day) and I stayed here in Granada. I attribute this inability to travel to my job that has an insane payment system schedule so I get paid every 3 months. But whatever, I have complained about that way too much.
Anyways, there were a few of us here in Granada like Ashley and Elyse and Rachel who I went to see a Semana Santa procession with. We saw el Gitano Cristo (Gypsy Jesus) which is known as lo mas bonito de todo (the most beautiful of them all). I am no longer surprised by the pointy hats and robes that the people marching in the procession wear, which to all you American's look like KKK outfits; so instead of bewildering it was actually pretty. Now, as I mentioned, gypsy christ made an appearance there. No, it wasn't someone dressed in a crucified Jesus costume (although I would have had a great laugh at that), it was a statue that ~20 people stand under and carry along in the procession route. Its supposed to symbolize their penance and cleansing of sins or what have you. That's pretty typical of the Catholic religion, I'd say. But I digress, I wanted to talk about how special everyone considers the gypsy christ. Now, here in Granada there are gypsies that live in caves up on the hillside above the town so perhaps that unique characteristic of Granada lends some appeal to this statue. If its not that then it is merely the fact that Jesus's feet are not crossed. Yeah, there was a non gypsy Jesus statue the next night that looked identical except that the feet were crossed. Ashley even asked some people about why g. christ is so special and they said the foot crossing thing. Maybe this religious stuff is just a little too profound for me in a deceivingly simple sort of way.
The next statue following Jesus was of his mother, the holy mother that is. There is some sort of appropriate parental symbolism there I think. Anyways, the amusing part about the Mary float was not the ornate decor nor the plethora of candles threatening to burn down the whole float as it swayed back and forth with every statue-carrier's step, rather the way the statue moved. Now, each city does this differently, for example in Cadiz they arch slowly and in Sevilla they do it faster, but here in Granada... Mary had places to go and had no time for interruptions. The cariers would stop for a minute or two and rest up to get ready for their sprint to the next rest stop 500 meters ahead of them. Very amusing. The statue stopped, pictures were taken, marveling was done by the crowd, and then *UP* and *MAD DASH FORWARD*. The Granada gang (Californian's staying in Granada during Semana Santa) nick named her Runnin' Mary.
One last note, I went to see Como La Vida Misma (Dan in Real Life, as its known in the English speaking regions of the world) and it was a cute movie. Enjoyment was had and the soundtrack was very nice. Upon further research I found out that Sondre Lerche provided pretty much all the music for the movie. I guess Steve Carrel is an indie kid at heart. So I decided to download his music to enjoy it in a non romantic-comedy context. Its good stuff and it seemed like something that would score indie points for obscure band/musician name dropping... but I guess Im way behind the times. He was indie-cool back in like 2002 or something. I tried to boost my indie points by talking about him to someone and they basically responded something like "oh is that old music? does he have new stuff?" Oh... they've heard of him... I guess Norwegian indie rock/folk musicians are more well known than I thought. Sigh. Another step down on the wannabe indie ladder. And I know I said this was the last thing but something just happened that caught my attention. The spellcheck on my computer knows the word "wannabe" its like, oh yeah thats cool, but "indie" wtf is that? you made a mistake sir *red underlining squiggles*. Crazy...
Anyways, there were a few of us here in Granada like Ashley and Elyse and Rachel who I went to see a Semana Santa procession with. We saw el Gitano Cristo (Gypsy Jesus) which is known as lo mas bonito de todo (the most beautiful of them all). I am no longer surprised by the pointy hats and robes that the people marching in the procession wear, which to all you American's look like KKK outfits; so instead of bewildering it was actually pretty. Now, as I mentioned, gypsy christ made an appearance there. No, it wasn't someone dressed in a crucified Jesus costume (although I would have had a great laugh at that), it was a statue that ~20 people stand under and carry along in the procession route. Its supposed to symbolize their penance and cleansing of sins or what have you. That's pretty typical of the Catholic religion, I'd say. But I digress, I wanted to talk about how special everyone considers the gypsy christ. Now, here in Granada there are gypsies that live in caves up on the hillside above the town so perhaps that unique characteristic of Granada lends some appeal to this statue. If its not that then it is merely the fact that Jesus's feet are not crossed. Yeah, there was a non gypsy Jesus statue the next night that looked identical except that the feet were crossed. Ashley even asked some people about why g. christ is so special and they said the foot crossing thing. Maybe this religious stuff is just a little too profound for me in a deceivingly simple sort of way.
The next statue following Jesus was of his mother, the holy mother that is. There is some sort of appropriate parental symbolism there I think. Anyways, the amusing part about the Mary float was not the ornate decor nor the plethora of candles threatening to burn down the whole float as it swayed back and forth with every statue-carrier's step, rather the way the statue moved. Now, each city does this differently, for example in Cadiz they arch slowly and in Sevilla they do it faster, but here in Granada... Mary had places to go and had no time for interruptions. The cariers would stop for a minute or two and rest up to get ready for their sprint to the next rest stop 500 meters ahead of them. Very amusing. The statue stopped, pictures were taken, marveling was done by the crowd, and then *UP* and *MAD DASH FORWARD*. The Granada gang (Californian's staying in Granada during Semana Santa) nick named her Runnin' Mary.
One last note, I went to see Como La Vida Misma (Dan in Real Life, as its known in the English speaking regions of the world) and it was a cute movie. Enjoyment was had and the soundtrack was very nice. Upon further research I found out that Sondre Lerche provided pretty much all the music for the movie. I guess Steve Carrel is an indie kid at heart. So I decided to download his music to enjoy it in a non romantic-comedy context. Its good stuff and it seemed like something that would score indie points for obscure band/musician name dropping... but I guess Im way behind the times. He was indie-cool back in like 2002 or something. I tried to boost my indie points by talking about him to someone and they basically responded something like "oh is that old music? does he have new stuff?" Oh... they've heard of him... I guess Norwegian indie rock/folk musicians are more well known than I thought. Sigh. Another step down on the wannabe indie ladder. And I know I said this was the last thing but something just happened that caught my attention. The spellcheck on my computer knows the word "wannabe" its like, oh yeah thats cool, but "indie" wtf is that? you made a mistake sir *red underlining squiggles*. Crazy...
lunes, 10 de marzo de 2008
Dude! I just remembered a funny story!
Ok so, over my blogging hiatus that was xmas break and the subsequent weeks, I fogot to tell you all this story! Its pretty much my favorite embarrassing moment ever. So...
As an extremely thoughtful and sweet christmas gift, Max and Laura picked out a pair of fuzzy tiger handcuffs for me. Classy, I know. So, they gave them to me in Zurich from where we took a train to Budapest and then another train to Vienna. Upon returning to Granada, Emmy and I bussed it over to Bratislava to catch a Ryanair flight. In the airport we were waiting and waiting and finally our flight started letting people into the holding area otherwise known as the boarding gate area (its a pretty small airport, and I think the only one in the western half of Slovakia or something...) Anyways, we are packing up our things and heading through the security check when my bag is stopped. The woman asks me in the English she knows to open the bag to check it and I thought that my shampoo bottles or deodorant was too big so Id have to throw them away. I opened the backpack and apologetically pointed to the shampoo when she told me, no, not this pocket. The other one... wtf is in the other pocket? I open it up and she reaches in and pulls out the tiger print fuzzy handcuffs. OH. SHIT. I forgot those were in there... I laugh nervous and embarrassedly and she smiles at me with this look on her face like, "lolz, really? you freak." And in my embarrassment I come back with the line, "they were a gift." which is what any person caught with handcuffs for kinky sexual practices would say. That just made her start laughing at me. Then she said we had to throw them away to which I quickly responded, ok. thats fine. So that was taken care of and she let me go on my way and as I was picking up my belongings in the gray plastic tub I looked back over to her at the xray station where she continued to laugh to herself. Glad I could make someone's day a little more humorous.
Just wanted to share that story with you guys since I find it very storytelling-worthy.
Paz y amor,
Matt
As an extremely thoughtful and sweet christmas gift, Max and Laura picked out a pair of fuzzy tiger handcuffs for me. Classy, I know. So, they gave them to me in Zurich from where we took a train to Budapest and then another train to Vienna. Upon returning to Granada, Emmy and I bussed it over to Bratislava to catch a Ryanair flight. In the airport we were waiting and waiting and finally our flight started letting people into the holding area otherwise known as the boarding gate area (its a pretty small airport, and I think the only one in the western half of Slovakia or something...) Anyways, we are packing up our things and heading through the security check when my bag is stopped. The woman asks me in the English she knows to open the bag to check it and I thought that my shampoo bottles or deodorant was too big so Id have to throw them away. I opened the backpack and apologetically pointed to the shampoo when she told me, no, not this pocket. The other one... wtf is in the other pocket? I open it up and she reaches in and pulls out the tiger print fuzzy handcuffs. OH. SHIT. I forgot those were in there... I laugh nervous and embarrassedly and she smiles at me with this look on her face like, "lolz, really? you freak." And in my embarrassment I come back with the line, "they were a gift." which is what any person caught with handcuffs for kinky sexual practices would say. That just made her start laughing at me. Then she said we had to throw them away to which I quickly responded, ok. thats fine. So that was taken care of and she let me go on my way and as I was picking up my belongings in the gray plastic tub I looked back over to her at the xray station where she continued to laugh to herself. Glad I could make someone's day a little more humorous.
Just wanted to share that story with you guys since I find it very storytelling-worthy.
Paz y amor,
Matt
domingo, 9 de marzo de 2008
Bulgarian Gypsies are pretty guay
Hey yall! So, the last two days were pretty eventful here in Granada. First, I´ll tell the story of my trip to the airport...
So, I booked my roundtrip ticket for Spain through a travel agency and it turns out that they have some ridiculous rules that (aside from not telling us about) forced me to take a trip out to the airport to book a return ticket a few days before my ticket would have expired. I wont go into details, but suffice to say that it was a stupid rule and I would write them an angry letter if I werent so lazy. So, Ben and I paid the 6 euros to take the bus to the airport and got there before siesta to go to the only Iberian Airline office in Granada. We got to the window and it was freakin closed. I then saw a man coming out of the office so I ran to him and bombarded him with frantic questions about if the office were open that day, when, how can i get a ticket, etc... to which he responded, I dont work here. I just handle the baggage. Oops. Embarrassing. Anyways, we waited half an hour and finally a woman came to the window. We asked her about the tickets and she told us we need to go to the other Iberian office window that didnt open until 5. We waited 4 more hours. We didnt want to have to pay 6 more euros to take another trip out to the airport and we really wanted to just get this done with so we hung out in the food court area and ate airport food for lunch. We also made our own deck of cards instead of paying for the expensive packs they had in the gift shop. We tore up pieces of printer paper I had in my backpack and wrote numbers and suits on them. We managed to play go fish, jacks and five, crzy 8s, war and soem other games before getting really bored.
In the end, it was 5 and we went to get the tickets fixed. Ben had no problem since he had his booked in advance and just had to sign some papers. However, when I went to do mine, the woman couldnt find any dates open in July for me to return as I had been planning this entire year. Instead it took her ages to keep telling me theres nothing. Finally, frustrated and just wanting a way back to CA, I asked her what about his flight? He just made it so it must still be open, right? And so it turns out I will be goign back to CA the 26th of June instead of the 15th of July. Iberia, YOU SUCK.
Ok, now abotu the Bulgarian Gypsies. Ali and I heard about a concert of Bulgarian Gypsy music yesterday and went to check it out with Isaac and Laura. It was up in the Carmen de somethin or other by the Alhambra and that place is realy pretty at night. You should all take a trip up there sometime. Anyways, we get to the ticket office and it turns out its not free like the band´s manaer told Isaac on the bus earlier that afternoon. So as I was about to peace out with Ali, the manager came out and saw Isaac and magic was worked and voila, 4 free tickets. Score! It was a really fun show, although I dont think Im totally used to Bulgarian gypsy music, but fun was had nonetheless. A big gracias to Isaac. Afterwards we made some mac and cheese (since my mom sent me 7 pounds of it in the mail) and watch Love Actually. It was a good night.
And now, I have nothing to do since I was actually productive this morning and wrote my essay and read what I needed to read for class. Now, Im off to watch the Simpsons. Later!!!
So, I booked my roundtrip ticket for Spain through a travel agency and it turns out that they have some ridiculous rules that (aside from not telling us about) forced me to take a trip out to the airport to book a return ticket a few days before my ticket would have expired. I wont go into details, but suffice to say that it was a stupid rule and I would write them an angry letter if I werent so lazy. So, Ben and I paid the 6 euros to take the bus to the airport and got there before siesta to go to the only Iberian Airline office in Granada. We got to the window and it was freakin closed. I then saw a man coming out of the office so I ran to him and bombarded him with frantic questions about if the office were open that day, when, how can i get a ticket, etc... to which he responded, I dont work here. I just handle the baggage. Oops. Embarrassing. Anyways, we waited half an hour and finally a woman came to the window. We asked her about the tickets and she told us we need to go to the other Iberian office window that didnt open until 5. We waited 4 more hours. We didnt want to have to pay 6 more euros to take another trip out to the airport and we really wanted to just get this done with so we hung out in the food court area and ate airport food for lunch. We also made our own deck of cards instead of paying for the expensive packs they had in the gift shop. We tore up pieces of printer paper I had in my backpack and wrote numbers and suits on them. We managed to play go fish, jacks and five, crzy 8s, war and soem other games before getting really bored.
In the end, it was 5 and we went to get the tickets fixed. Ben had no problem since he had his booked in advance and just had to sign some papers. However, when I went to do mine, the woman couldnt find any dates open in July for me to return as I had been planning this entire year. Instead it took her ages to keep telling me theres nothing. Finally, frustrated and just wanting a way back to CA, I asked her what about his flight? He just made it so it must still be open, right? And so it turns out I will be goign back to CA the 26th of June instead of the 15th of July. Iberia, YOU SUCK.
Ok, now abotu the Bulgarian Gypsies. Ali and I heard about a concert of Bulgarian Gypsy music yesterday and went to check it out with Isaac and Laura. It was up in the Carmen de somethin or other by the Alhambra and that place is realy pretty at night. You should all take a trip up there sometime. Anyways, we get to the ticket office and it turns out its not free like the band´s manaer told Isaac on the bus earlier that afternoon. So as I was about to peace out with Ali, the manager came out and saw Isaac and magic was worked and voila, 4 free tickets. Score! It was a really fun show, although I dont think Im totally used to Bulgarian gypsy music, but fun was had nonetheless. A big gracias to Isaac. Afterwards we made some mac and cheese (since my mom sent me 7 pounds of it in the mail) and watch Love Actually. It was a good night.
And now, I have nothing to do since I was actually productive this morning and wrote my essay and read what I needed to read for class. Now, Im off to watch the Simpsons. Later!!!
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