Journal 8 -Alicante

November 13, 2010


I've got a lot to write about tonight. Right now Jago is insisting that we sit in the living room and listen to keltic-chant music becuase he doesn't want to wake Maria. So we're sitting here in the dark listening to sleepy-keltic flute music with the intention of putting to sleep his grandmother who is currently asleep in the next room...
I've tried telling him that it would be better if we just went outside on the balcony with his music like usuall so she didn't hear anything at all, but no me importa. At least writing in the dark gives me an excuse for my shitty handwriting.

Anyhow I've been meaning to write about the local phenomenon I've noticed with people and their dogs here in Spain. It's completely normal for two people walking their dags to stop and let their dogs sniff and play with each other. In America it seems that people try to keep dogs seperated more. I pulled Beto (Maria's dog) away from another little dog he was trying to get at and the other owners looked at me like I spit on thier dog.

*I didn't remember much about this night the next morning, but apparently that was what I had "a lot to write about."

Foreign Behavior -Journal 7

November 4, 2010

Something I should have guessed would exist in this world but never did has now happened twice to me. Not directly, but twice I've seen where an old man/woman throws water down from their window onto the street to quiet the people below.

The first night Julia, Craig, and two spanish friends, Charlie and Raquel tried to go to a concert. Turned out the concert was canceled but the band did a little acoustic set in the street. They played about 5 songs then an old man threw water down onto the crowd. We all dispersed pretty quick after that.

The second sighting was in Barcelona. Going from bar to bar with 5 girls and a couple guys, I fell behind to tie my shoe. The guys continued ahead and the girls stopped to talk and wait for me/adjust their outfits and hair. Just as I finished tying my shoe I looked up and saw the vase hanging out the window. I said "look out" just a little too late and only made the girls look up into the oncoming water.

Of course the old people -viejos- in Spain throw water from a vase down from thier windows to quiet the kids below. What else would an old person in Spain do?

Journal 6 -Galicia

CAMINO DE SANTIAGO
October 10, 2010

Today we started the Camino de Santiago: yesterday was the 12-hour bus ride across Spain to get us to the starting point of our five day pilgrimage. My guess is that the valley girl Allison will be the first to go. She's from Santa Barbara California and says "so" and "like" more than any other words in the English language. Sadly, she was the first person to finish today and I was about 15th. I'm not worried though, she annoys me and I'm sure she won't last long. I'm feeling good today after 21km and am ready for the longer day tomorrow. No blisters but some pain on the soles of my feet at the end of the day.


October 12, 2010

Today we walked 30 km and I'm about to die. My feet, knees and back all hurt. Still no blisters.

October 13, 2010
Second to last day of the Camino: we walked about 20km. Allison said every step she wanted to cry. Today I was ready to write "Tengo Exito" but she limped up about 45 minutes after the rest of the group had finished. -Damn. Today we were walking and one girl, Ashley, got stung by a bee. She screamed out and kept walking while rubbing her leg and cussing under her breath. The other girls insisted she stop: "Ashley sit down! don't be brave you just got stung by a bee! you need to stop for a while and sit down!" So after the bee sting the guys continued the trek alone without the girl accompaniment. "Don't be brave, you just got stung by a bee!" became our quote of the trip and it would be heard about 20 times daily.

October 14, 2010
TENGO EXITO!!!!!! Today Allison got to breakfast way late cause she cried every step of the way. After breakfast she got as far as the sidewalk outside the cafe before she just broke down and started bawling. She sat on the stoop and bawled for about 30 minutes while the professors decided what to do. Eventually she called a taxi and we went on without her.
The gang of friends that I walk with have tribe names. Today after I proved my hypothesis and showed everyone the proof in my journal I got my tribe name: Nostradamus.




*The Camino de Santiago was a 5-day pilgrimage through the north of Spain to The cathedral of Santiago in Compostela Espana. These journal entries say nothing of the journey itself and and the religious experience of a 5 day hike through beautiful northern Spain to the intimate and breath-taking town of Compostela de Santiago and it's crowning jewel and the third most holy place in the world: the Cathedral de Santiago. I decided to exclude these aspects of the camino because they cannot be related in words: spoken or written. The Camino de Santiago is something that needs to be experienced in person. I also have no biases towards women; I just though the bee story fit in with the general trend of the story that would be most bloggable: my Nostradamus story.

Journal 4 -Alicante

*In Alicante I lived with a spanish woman named Maria. She's 74 and as loving and caring as my own mother. She lives in the city central and doesn't speak a word of english. Her grandson Jago is 18 and lives outside Alicante central in a seperate neghborhood.
He used to come by and stay in the spare room on the weekends becasue the bars and his friends are all in Alicante. This picture is of my parents (in the middle) and Jago and Maria. I sometimes refer to Jago as "my nino" and to Maria as my mother for future refrence.


October 7, 2010

Today Jago was sitting in my room and he started coughing . He coughed so hard he gagged and started to dry- heave. I asked him if he was alright and he laughed and said yes. Then he got up and scurried to the bathroomand, (which is right next door to my room)stayed there for a few minutes, made no noise whatsoever then returned with his eyes all watery. He's pretty weird.

Spanish people have no reservations about pointing out things on faces or around the nose or mouth; it makes me realize how oftern Americans will allow someone to continue on looking foolish.

Journal 3 -Boulder

January 23, 2011

THE LIST

I've put this off long enough: It's time to compile a list of times I've done ridiculous things because of marijuana.

1. Trip to Greg's where I smoked then bolted but sat in his driveway for an hour cause I couldn't drive.
2. Christmas break 2011 when Mitch's friend was out of town but had a "fat sack." I crawled through a dogie door into his garage to find the Tupperware where the weed was hidden.
3. Woke up at Jake and Justin's and since they weren't awake yet smoked a small bowl of their weed then left.
4. BAMA

The list could go on and on but as of right now I can't remember another crazy story and I want to get to the point:
Marijuana is amazing, It enhances emotions and the imagination. I love listening to music, drawing, cleaning... anything on marijuana. But the fact is it's hampersome.

Aside from all the wonders of this drug I've noticed a couple things about pot: It makes it ok to be alone and it makes me very inefficient because too many things are going through my head at the same time. For instance, yesterday I went to get a cup of water and realized I could take my shirt and put it in the laundry on my way to getting my drink. I took care of my shirt then went back to my room to fold the old laundry. I remembered my drink and went to fetch it. Once in the kitchen I put together an array of snacks to bring back to my room. I forgot the drink, went back to get it then sat on the sofa because I remembered that the new Parks & Rec was on. Sitting there with my drink I remembered the laundry I'd started and the snacks I'd piled in my room. While I did have fun that night and every time I use Marijuana, I've decided to stop smoking it. -Today is day 1 and I'll keep you updated...

Journal 2- Boulder

My birthday was January 19; 3 days ago. I went to happy hour with a couple kids and then back to their house. There we continued to drink and indulge.

When away from my journal I take memorabilia to remember and to put into my journal. I ripped off the label from a Pacifico Clara bottle and began taking notes on the back of it- so I'd remember what to write about in my journal/blog.
One note on the way my journal and the material inside it are composed: I'm usually under heavy influences while doing so. This leads to some interesting entries sometimes but usually a lot of nonsense.




If you can't read that I'm not even going to write what it says cause even my shitty blog is better that the ramblings of a drunk kid reminiscing on the back of a beer bottle label. Couple of points on my note though:


1. After the first very small top line of writing I decided to insert a note to self which I've highlited. The note kept extending so I continued writing from top to bottom/right to left. That is read as this: "*At this point I recounted what I'd been wrighting to everyone and they..."

2. I have numerous spelling mistakes such as "sublties" for subtleties (highlited for refrence)and "Wrighting" in place of writing.

3. I comment on how my english is shit after a semester with only spanish but accidentally write that my spanish is shit. I tried to write oops in regards to the mixup of spanish and english and spelled oops "opps."(also highlited for refrence)

In hindsight I don't know if my english is shit because I spent time in Spain or cause I'm a drunken dip shit.

Journal 1- Intro and Alicante

To me, blogs and tweets are everything that is wrong with the world today and are the epitomy of mindless misuse of precious time and energy. I could write a thesis on the stupididy of tweeting what your doing or thinking for others to see. I could write an entirely seperate thesis on the stupidity of the population for following and caring about what others are thinking and or doing. If I had a dime for every time I gave a shit that Rome thought Cutler was faking his knee injury I'd be a very poor individual.
With that said, Blogs and twitter are some of the fastest growing modern applications this world has ever seen. I've sworn I'd never become my father, but as he constantly bitches about kids and "their damn texting" I'm getting an ominous reflection of myself... Besides, with over 200 million bloggers updating and tweeting constaltly, I'd better grow up, take the bad with the good and explore this fast-growing phenomenon before It passes me by. As a smart man once said, successfull companies listen first and sell second.
-Just to clear that up

But with a blog in mind I've decided to blog my journal. I studied abroad in Alicante Spain last fall and my parents gave me a journal to keep while there. I actually used it a lot and am keeping up with it in Boulder this semester. I've decided to blog about my journal and all the work I put into this damn thing.
*One other note; I decided to keep the etchasketchpro title cause I want to keep that up as well.

I started with the Journal timidly, not knowing what to write really. The first story with any significance was this:

I forgot to write about this when it happened, but a few days ago when coming home from the post office, un hombre se callo en la calle -a man fell in the sidewalk in front of me. I helped him up, asked him if he was ok and told him to be careful- all in spanish. I walked away pretty cocky after a clean, all spanish interaction. About a block later I thought, "hmmmm, I'm all sticky." Apparently when the hombre fell he severed a pretty major artery, because my hands and shirt were covered in blood.