school. it started yesterday here. there’s some things i found out about it that i wasn’t aware of. we don’t have classes on fridays. ok, just in case you missed that: we…don’t…have…classes…on…fridays…!! i go to three classes monday/wednesday and two on tuesday/thursday. most of the classes are going to be good. i’m especially excited about my women and literature class, my contemporary spanish lit class, and my andalucían history class. those are the ones in spanish. the others are in english – international marketing, and global economics. i’m not too sure how i feel about those. i really don’t like that they’re in english. but whatever.

yesterday was fun. i went into the city and hung out with my friend bobby from DC. she’s pretty cool. we had some tapas and some wines. then when i got back it was party time on the balcony.

so that was fun. just hanging out. being goofy, saying spanish cuss words cause they don’t seem bad to any of us (funny how that works). all in all, they all drank too much and were really loud. some of our dorm neighbors came out on their balcony to tell us to be quieter. we didn’t get quieter, we just moved the party inside…and got louder. which probably didn’t do anything. it really doesn’t feel like i’m in school right now, and it probably won’t until i start taking tests and giving presentations. oh well, i’ll leave you with this. it’s a type of tree i’ve never seen. i was trying to do my most emo pose ever.

that’s the first picture i posted last time…

this is the second one…

this is the third one…

and i’ll throw in a fourth because i’m so generous tonight!… it’s a picture of the university of Sevilla main building.

well, here’s what’s been going on lately. i spent friday night out at bars and clubs in the city. it was pretty fun, but i just had arrived that afternoon so i was pretty tired and left everyone at 5 am. that’s actually kind of early to quit partying here. the rest stayed out til 8. but i got up at 9:30 on saturday and went with Cláudia (the Brazilian girl down the hall) around the city to see all the sites. well, we didn’t quite see all of them. but we saw a few. the cathedral, the alcázar, and the main park area were all really nice.

this is the south side of the cathedral. it’s hard to fit any part of it into one picture because it’s the 3rd largest cathedral in the world. so… http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v464/underboy777/DSC00459.jpg

this is the alcázar. it’s the oldest palace still used as a royal residence in europe (if i remember right). i haven’t been inside it, but i will go in soon… http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v464/underboy777/DSC00462.jpg

this was my travelling companion Cláudia. we’re at the plaza de españa here in the park… http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v464/underboy777/DSC00430.jpg

so tonight i went grocery shopping with my roommate Fabrício and Cláudia. we sat on the bus in traffic for about an hour on the way home. it was ridiculous. it should have been a 5 minute drive. there was some accident or something, but the streets were filled with cars pointed every which way. i was surprised we got through it in our big bus. ok, so i guess that’s all i’m going to write tonight.

aaron

i’m here in my dorm room with my roommate Fabrício from Brazil. he’s been very good to me, showing me around the place and stuff. right now we’re plugging away at our laptops. the trip here was long and very tiring but i’m glad that i can actually settle down in a place and not have to pack up my bags again the next day to go somewhere else.

paris was really nice. here’s some pictures of it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v464/underboy777/fa7834a5.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v464/underboy777/DSCF0004.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v464/underboy777/DSCF0011.jpg

the first one is me in front of the notre dame cathedral in paris. the second one is the louvre museum. the third one is some tower (maybe a telephone tower or something), but it looked really cool. so then i proceeded to fly out of paris to madrid where i stayed last night. then i took a train today to sevilla.

i had a little trouble finding the right bus to my university, but a helpful man showed me the way. thank you, man! then there was some trouble with my room and my class schedule, but everything should work itself out on monday. i made friends with the lady that monitors the desk downstairs because i sat with her for about 2 hours while things got sorted out. we talked about all kinds of things. she was really nice and helpful.

anyway, i think that’s all for tonight. count on updates as often as i can type them.

i am in madrid tonight at Los Amigos hostel. i stayed at this place in 2004 for a few days but tonight i´m just passing through. Paris was great, are you surprised? i spent one whole day sight seeing. i saw the louvre, the seine, eiffel tower, the notre dame, the arch de triomphe, roland garros, and lots of lovely french girls. seriously, they were everywhere.

marie´s grandparents were very good to me during my stay. i had more food than i could eat. plenty of cheese and wine. too much sometimes… tomorrow i´m taking a train to Sevilla where i will spend the semester. i would appreciate any comments. i don´t know who is reading this otherwise.

bye bye.

K, so i leave for Spain monday and i’m not really sure what to think. i’m just going to another part of the world. i’m going a long ways away from all of my friends, but i’m not leaving the world. i’m still in the world. this is to tell myself and all you that it isn’t a big deal. i just won’t see you for a while.

i’ll be back.

the title of this entry shares its name with the saddest song i know of outside the works of elliot smith. the song is by starflyer 59 and i´m glad i don´t have that disk with me because i would listen to it and be even sadder. now, i don´t really understand this about myself, but i have this tendency to want to become sadder than i already am when i´m upset about something (i.e. friends leaving). strange.

thursday was the farewell party for all of us students. the party was fine, and what followed it adds up to be what i believe to be the best night of my life. yeah, really. there are many factors, not just because we went to my favorite bar or club (we didn´t). but here´s some reasons why:

– it was spent with my newest and best friends from all over the world

– it was two days to the end so we went nuts

– the group that i went with included my two best friends from france

– we danced lights out

– we laughed til our stomachs hurt, all smiles all night

clearly, it was incredible. we went to a bar to get some drinks to start. i had some good conversation with a couple students from slovakia that were really cool. cool people all over, man. i tell ya. after maybe an hour or more at the bar we went to Picaro to take some people with us to our favorite dance club. well, we ended up just staying and dancing there. and let me tell you how glad i was that we did. they played great music, not just the techno dance crap, but really good songs. as i mentioned before, we danced lights out. but the highlight of the night by far (and maybe of the trip) was when “message in a bottle” by the police came on. holy crap.

a) i love that song so much.

b) with all my best friends in spain

c) i love that song so much.

i can´t put it to words. i felt so alive for those 3 minutes. it was perfect. absolutely perfect.

last night we went out to hang out in a bar with less craziness. it was good to be with the french girls for the last two weeks. basically it was just the three of us most of the time. they´re my favorite. they read my journal at the bar and found some incriminating things that i had hoped they wouldn´t be able to read since they can´t speak english, but it was funny. we exchanged several farewell notes during the last week about how much we had enjoyed each other´s company. makes me really happy to know them. happy beyond english, spanish, or french could comunicate.

they left this morning and i sent them off with hugs and kisses and wishes of a future reunion. sigh. i have prayed a lot today that we will meet again. praying is good. i´ll be back on tuesday. i´ve got 3 days here in Madrid to relax and sight see. much love to all the world.

aaron

my right foot looks like a casualty of war people.  the left is fine, but my right really took a beating in barcelona.  i´ve got a band-aided blister on my fourth toe, i stubbed my 3rd toe today, a cut on my second toe, and i broke the nail in half on my big toe.  now, it´s true that i´m new to this whole sandal wearing deal, but i really find it hard to believe this happens to everyone.  my experience must be unique, or i just don´t want to admit that i´m clumsy.  one of the two.

the last day in barcelona was really nice.  we went to an IMAX that was also a 3-D showing.  it was incredible.  IMAX is cool enough, but in 3-D it was like drinking a huge Coke after a Super Size fries.  which is awesome.  maybe my favorite part of eating food.  but i digress.

we went our seperate ways after that for some solo time.  i went to the F.C. Barcelona fútbol museum.  it was very interesting although i wish i´d have paid attention to the team for the last 20 years.  then it would have been more meaningful.  but it was cool nonetheless.  after that i took the metro down toward the sea to go to the beach.  it was pretty crowded.  lots of topless ladies around and for some reason i didn´t even think twice about it.  it didn´t bother me at all.  maybe i´m too adjusted here or something.  if i was a girl i think i would have gone topless just because: how many chances will you have to do that when no one will care!?  c´mon ladies!  spain!

after a swim in the mediterranian i layed (lain?) on the beach for a while and then headed to a café along the boardwalk.  i had some potatoes and a couple very tasty drinks.  man, they were really good.  really expensive, but really good.  low alcohol content and high flavor content. 

i called my mom after that and headed to our bus station where we were to meet to get our luggage out of the storage facility.  so we arrived and got it out and headed to the bus stop.  our bus was leaving at 10 and it was about 9:15.  so we´re good, right?  good until we find out at 9:30 that we are at the wrong bus station and need to be across town in half an hour.  now that´s a lot of time, but for riding the metro that´s about 12 stops or more.  so we went into panic mode and hailed a cab which got us there in plenty of time.  yay!  i was relieved and a half.

the ride home was OK.  it was an overnight bus so you´re supposed to sleep, but as far as i could tell many people couldn´t.  at least i couldn´t sleep well.  i listened to music most of the way.  we got into madrid at 6:30AM and ran our butts off to the bus terminal to get tickets back to toledo as early as possible.  we got on the 6:45 bus which actually left on time.  we got to toledo around 7:30 and i walked home to shower and eat breakfast before getting to school by 9.  quite a night/day.

today after school i took a nap and then went to the pool.  i finished reading Telling the Truth again at the pool.  i think i´ve read that book about 6 or 7 times now.  it´s nice when your favorite book is only 99 pages.  you can read it a lot.  tonight we´re heading out to party hearty again.  you know how we do it in spain.  well, i think i´ll keep making my way around the net.  see you later.

aaron

i´m on my second night here in barcelona.

the town´s pretty cool.  the ramblas one of the main streets of the town and basically the walkway around here.  tons of little shops line the strip during the day, and street performers bring their goods at night.  from minarret dolls of the beatles playing a show, to gimnastical impossibilities, the ramblas is the place.

i´ve seen quite a lot in my two days here.  the sagrada familia, all other guadí related sights, an old castle that overlooks the port section, cathedrals, the aquarium, and the picasso museum.  there´s a lot to do and see.  my two companions this time are eric and josh.  i think they´re both from NU.  anyway, it really hasn´t been the fun time i´d expected.  when we decided to go together i knew it wasn´t going to be the greatest.  they´re both really quiet guys that don´t really talk and thus far haven´t really had opinions on what to see.  so i basically decide.  sigh.  most of my friends are either in madrid or valencia this weekend.  but i´m looking forward to a fun last week with them when we return tomorrow night.

let´s see.  i´ll be heading back to my hostel soon to take a shower.  it´s across the street from the peir section, right on the sea.  it´s basically just a few rooms with a bunch of bunks.  and way over priced, but i have to deal with it.   i won´t have a problem sleeping bad though, the days wear me out a lot.

i knew i would say this near the end anyway, so here goes.  i cannot believe it´s already almost over.  this has been the fastest month of my life i think.  it makes me a little sad.  i wish for the world i could just find a job and live here.  but with USA obligations that is an impossibility.  another thing is the friends i have made out here, particularly the two girls from france.  we´ve been together quite a bit and it´s going to be hard to see them go knowing that i will not likely see them again, or if i do not for a long while.  maybe if i save up enough money i can come back in a couple summers.  gosh i hope so, but that seems so far off right now.

see you all in a week or so.

aaron

yes, last night was derrick´s birthday party here in spain. it was number 21 for him and let me tell you, it was a bang and a half.

alright, not quite a bang. but lemme hit you with some story time. we met at the plaza de zocodover (the main square in toledo) at 10:45 to prep for a crazy night with some beers. i had a coke because you all know i like to kick things off right! right? right. so i drank some coke and the group had beers. we were there until about 11:20 or so. derrick´s beer count at this point: 2. so we headed to another bar called boveda. cheap wine, cheap food. i had a couple tinto de veranos. it´s definitely my favorite drink so far. it´s tinto mixed with fanta limon or kas limon. very tasty. everyone else was taking shots of absinth at the bar. that stuff is illegal in the USA for a reason, people. it was ridiculous. derrick´s beer cout: 3. absinth shot count: 4. now, i´m not an expert by any means, but that is a TON of alcohol. seriously.

we went back across town to a dance club coyote. i danced some and then hung out around the exit from like 1:30-2:15 helping a couple drunk girls from our group get their heads back on. then at 2:45 derrick came stumbling toward the exit. he went out and i followed a couple minutes later. i saw him drunkenly amble up the road towards who knows where. so i followed him and we walked up the hill where he had some throw up time. i´ve never really been around drunk people before. at least not this drunk. so he layed there on the ground for a few minutes and then we walked back down to the club and i got him some water and napkins to wash his face off. he was so out of it. saying all kinds of random things. kinda sad.

he got home alright though. crazy night. 3 throw ups. 4 absinth shots, and probably 5 or 6 beers. happy birthday indeed.

aaron