Day at the Beach

On a scale from 1 to lame, I´ve got to say that my blog is heavily weighted towards the lame end. This is for various reasons, but probably the main one is that I left my chord to transfer images from my camera to the web somewhere in Scotland. Therefore I have to do a lot of writing (approximately 1000 words per image), and I don´t always feel like sitting in the computer lab all day. Now, I am certain I could find this cord at any camera store in town, but that would require that I remember to do that. However, despite my interest in a life outside the blog world, there are some extenuating occasions that are too great to go undocumented.

After that buildup, I should let you know that I have to go to dinner in 15 minutes so I probably won´t get anything good written down in the remaining time, but rest assured that I will complete this entry sometime in the next 3 months.

Last weekend a couple of friends and I took a trip to Nerja. Nerja is a beach on the Med. coast. Every week our school has an organized trip that you can take part in if you want to, but you have to pay an exorbitant price to do so. Nonetheless, I decided to go with a couple friends, if for no other reason than to see if I´d end up meeting some other cool people. On the first leg of the trip we stopped at some town and went to some market where we could buy food for lunch later in the day. I used this time to size up the group and see who might be interesting to talk to and also to go to the fish market and see all the crazy shit they pull out of the ocean. It seems that there were some cool people to talk and eventually I´d end up talking with them. However, it also became very clear, that one person didn´t really belong in the group, and for that matter, I´m not really sure where he did belong. It was this obese forty year old guy that reminded me a lot of Milton from "Office Space" He wore a tropical flowered shirt with shorts to match and he was always lagging behind the group and around here and there like he had lost he group that was five feet in front of him. When we made it to the beach he immediatly stripped off his hawaiian camouflage to reveal a yellow speedo. Good God man. Now here's the kicker, after hanging out at the beach for a few hours it was time to go. We're all heading back to the bus when this guy comes running over in the yellow speedo and tells the leader that he's lost his clothes, that he had been swimming along the shoreline and then forgot where he entered and couldn't find his clothes after looking all over beach. Eventually we were able to find his clothes much to everyone's relief.

Some of you may be aware that I´m speaking some Spanish here, and it turns out I've made some progress. My vocabulary and understanding of the language has improved quite a bit in the last few weeks. When I stop trying to simultaneous translate in my head I understand nearly everything that´s being said. Speaking Spanish on the other hand is a bit of a problem.

Gotta go, I´ll write more later.

back to school

Well, for those of you who have completed spanish 1 or perhaps read a menu at a mexican restaurant, you may already know that the spanish word for egg is huevo and not uva as I referenced in my last entry (an uva is a grape). I swear my Spanish is improving. I begin my second week of classes today.

The mullet is in with a passion here.

hablando en contrasenas

I´ve got 8 minutes to write a quick entry here before the close of their four hour midday nap. I seem to have 8 minutes or so to do anything in any of these stores; I´m still trying to figure out the hours around here. Anyway, back to the title subject.

Obviously in Spanish we´re learning to speak Spanish. So, for example, I´m learning that the white oval shaped thing that chickens hatch out of is called an "uva." It is no longer an "egg", but an "uva" and I want to say, "all right, seriously, lets cut the crap this "uva" stuff is great, but what we´re talking about is an "egg." It´s not that I´m think everybody should speak English by any means, what I´m realizing is that my mind makes absolutely no abstraction between the white oval thing that hatches birds and the word "egg;" An egg is the white shelled object. With a second word for the same object it forces me to distinguish the word from the object and perhaps in a sense, actually see the entity as an object in itself. This all may seem a bit platitudinous, but just something interesting that occurred to me. I would guess that raising a child to belingual would be invaluable to their cognitive development.

hasta luego.

Will

dia 3

Hola, tengo poco minutos antes de mi clase empieza. Asi, escribo un entrada rapida. Espana esta buy bueno. Me gusta ser en una pais otro de los Estados Unidos. Tipio, tengo classes para seis horas cada dia, pero ayer fui a la clase para ocho horas porque estaba? una clase de "corrida de toros." veimos una filma de una corrida de toros y estaba muy interesante. Lee Hemingway´s "Death in the Afternoon" antes de venido y creo el parte muy malos de corridas es el muerte de los caballos; si, los caballos no los torres. Los picadores mandejan caballos y los caballos frequentemente reciben dolor de el toro.

Mi espanol necesito mucho trabajo y el fin frase estaba malo, sin embargo en la futura es mas bien.

mi cabeza se duele.

Will

Primer Dia En Espana

Hello World! Good lord I´ve got a lot to write about, however, I can´t spend all night here; only 58 minutes and 13 seconds before my time expires. So, I´m in Granada and have met my host "family" that consists of one woman named Mercedes and two other students at the Don Quijote School. She is awesome. She only allows Spanish to be spoken and written in the house so hopefully that will help with the learning curve. my two housemates are both out of town; one in Cordoba with her class; the other I´m not sure; Mercedes told me but I couldn´t translate. My first day of school is tomorrow so I assume it will be like any other first day of classes consisting of comparing trapper keepers, scoping out the cool kids lunch table, and stuffing the smallest kid in his locker. I think I´ll tell you all more about this experience as it continues, though honestly, I´m really excited about the speaking and writing all in spanish thing. So I may be doing some entries in Spanish. However, for now i´m okay with English. So much to say about my travels to New England and UK though. A quick shout out to those who were so generous to put me up for a few days. These don´t constitute thank you notes, but just a brief expression of my appreciation for accomodations. In New York, Mike and Emily, thanks for letting me stay with you guys for a couple nights. Norm, our conference call was enjoyed and am glad you´re doing well. Much thanks to Emily in particular who gave me an awesome 2 day tour of the city and did really good job of pretending that she really enjoyed seeing ground zero for a 50th time. In Vermont, Melinda you´re awesome. I really enjoyed the brief time we had; the boat trip, our pathetic attempt at salsa dancing. It seems that you are well on your way to being the smartest person alive. In Boston, Kate and Christina, I´m glad we were all able to go out for beers that first night. Also, Martha´s vineyard was great. Christina, It sounds like you had a great time jumping off the bridge while Kate and I were watching some freakshow frisbee guy (I´ll try and get the footage online somehow) and being lost in the bus system. Nonetheless, Kate it was great to see you; it´s nice now that you have officially blown your 3 years senior brother out of the water career wise; now I can´t even try and compete; it makes it much easier to accept. In Invermoriston, Cameron, Andrea, Merian, Denis, Alistair, Sarah, it was great to see all of you, what a great few days that was. I believe one of the nights was particularly spectacular, but I can´t remember and am doing my best not to. I hope everyone´s baggage arrived safely or at least arrived and I´ll give you a call Cameron when I get into town; maybe Andrea can instruct you on the use of a telephone. by the way, for everyone who´s interested in where I was on Loch Ness in Invermoriston, it was absoluely phenomenal and because I didn´t take any photos you can check it out online at: www.oldfarmcottages.net In London, thanks to Ed and his housemates for letting me crash on the couch for a couple nights. Great to see all of you and look forward to seeing you on the slopes this winter. Roger, Liz, and Nikki, it was great to be able to see you the other evening. So many problems with the world; so little alcohol to solve them with. Adam, great to see you and meet Diana. Thanks for letting me stay at your place. Great to see Doug and Andy that night as well. Hey, so I just went over to give another Euro to the lady working at the front counter and just started speaking to her in English because I´ve been writing in English and totally forgot I was in Spain; not good; not a good sign for this blog. Really briefly, some highlights. Ireland: the nicest culture of people I have ever met ever. Dublin was a stunning city, a metropolis actually (Ireland apparently is the fastest developing coutnry in Europe), that doesn´t have Starbucks and it does have extremely friendly people. I spent a day there and then took the DART (Dubiln Area Rapid Transit) to Howth. I spent a day in Howth which is a small sea town with sandy beaches that are four miles long in one direction (I know, I walked them) with water that is warmer or as warm as a swimming pool (someone explain this to me) and verdant, foggy, sheer cliffs with a lighthouse. Beautiful houses built on these cliffs as well. I visited Belfast in Northern Ireland for a day. An interesting place with an interesting history. I can´t explain who hates who there or why, but it has something to do with protestants, catholics, the English, and Independece from the English. Scotland, or at least the area immediatly surrounding Loch Ness (I didn't get travel from the estate much). Lots of greenery. London is a neat city. Obviously I didn´t go during the best time, but, I should note, that in spite of the recent tragedy the authorities did and are doing a phenomenal job of evacuating and isolating particular areas and getting mass transit back up and running only hours after the event. Obviously some transit lines remain closed, but their quick response and organization kept London´s populace relatively calm and by the time I arrived to the accident areas at around 2:00 pm, there was no visible damage (they had stragically closed blocks and hung sheets do block views). Thus, there were no crowds gatherered around the sites, and thus no mobs; virtually everyone continued about their business as usual. Also, apparently a fiscal plan had been devised for such an incident that was carried out and has apparently done a good job of minimizing the impact on the strength of the pound and the economy in general. I went to art galleries and all the other sites around the city and drank much beer (American beer kicks the shit out of beer in the UK; maybe its an acquired taste, but it seems that there is at least 10 times the variablility in the beer selection and taste at a bar in Colorado; it´s all Lager or "cask conditioned" (flat) IPA; if this doesn´t spur blog comment or two then I give up). Well, I´m going to bed. Will