September
September 27, 2005
I went to Madrid to watch the World Championships of Cycling bike race this past weekend. It was really cool. At first its kind of weird seeing guys like Zabel, Petacchi, Vinokourov, the kind of people you only read about in magazines in person, but then you realize that they are just human. Only ones who can ride super fast.
I´m not going to write a big report about the race, I don't think that many people would find that interesting. I will however post a few of my favorite pictures I took from the weekend. A few more can be found in the photos section. I will add more later, I didnt have time before class today to add more.
September 21, 2005
UPDATE
Ok, I have a room, or at least I think I do. I had David call them and he says that everything is squared away. It might not be in that particular hostal, but it will be in a hostal within the same EDIFICIO (or building) From what I gather, it is common for multiple hostales to be in one building, each on different floors.
I attempted to ride my bike out of town to the East today, I managed to get lost leaving Granada. Getting lost is very easy, there are no street signs, the signs are on the sides of buildings. this cant always be counted on, so its easy to go for some time without seeing any marker to tell you what street you are on. I managed to figure out where i was and get on the road i wanted to be on. I headed out east, the roads were a bit busier than the ones heading up into the Sierra Nevada's. I got to this little town and was planing on continuing through the town and keep riding. the road wound its way up this hill and into town, i kept to what I thought was the main road through town (in this case all the roads were super narrow, steep and at odd angles diverting away from the center.) as i passed what appeared to be the town square for what seemed like the 5th time, and was gathering quite a bit of attention from the local old guys (more on them later) I decided to abandon this idea of trying to go through the town and just backtracked out of town and rode back to Granada.
It seems that in all these small towns that I go to, there are always the same old men in each and every town. they look like they are all about 80 years old, they wear pants and a sweater when in any temperature no matter how hot it is, a cabbie style hat is a popular accessory. they look well worn having the features one might get from a life long commitment to the olive tree groves that are everywhere around here. They sit by the fountains, on benches, on store stops; smoking, talking just watching the day go by.
On another note, the town of Granada has a million mopeds, or Motos.
I have seen kids doing wheelies down the street on their motos. I have seen people ridding with a cellphone wedged in between their helmet and head, carrying on a conversation while weaving in and out of traffic. People smoke while driving them. I have seen a man and a woman having a heated argument while driving through traffic on a moto.
As far as I can tell the motos have a licence to go wherever and do whatever they want. this includes but is not limited to: wrong way on one way streets, driving on sidewalks, driving on narrow lanes that have tables full of people eating dinner. If the light is red, they often dont stop. If the Light is red at a busy intersection, alll the motos drive up to the front and mass at the front of the cars.
Consequently I see alot of people around town with arms in slings and casts.
ok so here is the deal for the next 2 weeks.
this weekend I am going to Madrid to watch the World Championships of cycling. this is going to be extremely cool. I have my bus ticket, but am lacking housing, all the cheap Hostales (not the American idea of hostels, hostels here means basic hotel) seem to be booked. I just got off the phone with a guy who spoke English kind off well and I might have a room at this one hostel. its confusing, trying to find a room is just a matter of how much you want to pay.
the weekend after this one, I am going to the Canary Islands with some friends from over here. Details of this trip are not Finalized other than that we are leaving on Thursday and coming back Tuesday.
I have more to say but will write later, I have to head out to my roommates office (he is a travel agent) and he is going top give me a hand with the hotel/hostel.
September 14, 2005
La Gente
Had a close call at the bank. I went to use the ATM, put in my card and nothing happened. No message came up on the screen, the machine just took my card. I started at the machine for a few min and punched the key pad in a futile gesture hoping it would give me my creditd card back. by this time there was a line behind me of people wanting to use the ATM so I moved out of the way and the woman used the machine without any trouble. So wander into the bank adjacent to the ATM and wait in line for like 15 min to talk to someone (Banks, postoffices, things like that are notorious for taking for ever over here) i talked to a guy, then he directed me to someone else who I then waited for while he had a hushed conversation with some other dude. I finally talked to him and communicated that the ATM took my card. he then tells me to hang tight and goes off and talks to some other people and after 10 min came back with my card. It wasnt that big of a deal, it just freaked me out for a bit.
I think that's the scariest thing about not knowing the language well, if you get into any sort of trouble it can be tricky to figure out what to do, luckily all the people were nice.
some people I have talked to my in my classes have said that he Spanish are rude. I have no encountered this, all the people who i have dealt with in stores and on the street and in my apartment building have been super nice. when i try to talk most get a smile like "oh look at the cute American trying to speak Spanish" but they always repeat things if i ask them to. Some people have said that they asked for directions and people say "sorry i don't give directions to Americans" or when in a restaurant and ordering a dish the waiter said "that dish is only for Spaniards, i will bring you the American dish" now i don't know how accurate these claims are but i have yet to encounter something like this. I think a lot of how you perceive the people you interact with is based a large part on your attitude towards them.
Its true when people say that simple Courtesy goes a long ways
PS. the cafe con leche is sooo good.
September 13, 2005
update 2
Growing up in Seattle I have only existed with a Garbage disposal, moving to bellingham i found my self without one but soon realized that just shoving food down the drain worked out well. I tried to use these same tactics over here, but that tactic didnt work so well. I had rice and had a significant amount left over so i just started cramming it down the drain. i turned on the water to wash my pot and soon the entire sink was full of water and it wasn't going down any.
So I went and hid out in my room for a while then came back out and the water had receded to acceptable levels. but the problem was still there, evey time someone used the sink it would fill up with water. so I went to the store and looked around and finally found something similar to Draino, to hopefully unclog it. I tried it but it didn't work.
I then consulted Abdallah as to what we should do. we came up with this elaborate plan of taking apart the sink and purging the piped of the filth. as we were clearing out the space below the sink Abdallah come upon this little black plunger thing. Apparently he had seen something like that before because he immediately used it on the drain and within 15 seconds, water was flowing. Imagine a plunger for the toilet, but just miniature in size, this is what he used to unclog the sink. I couldn't believe it and stared in disbelief for a while then started laughing uncontroably for a few reasons. 1. how was i going to explain in broken spanish that I the young American had clogged the sink with rice. and 2. the thought of a little mini plunger for a SINK struck me as absurd.
I have a break from school in 2 weeks, I am trying to figure out where I should go. I would really like to head over to Eastern Europe, but logistically this might be tricky. I might just fly to London (suuuuper cheap round trip tickets, like $60.) and see if i can get a bus up to the town of Bath which is really cook and just check out the city of London. Any ideas on where I should go let me know.
There are arab tea (teteria) shops alll over Granada, I went to one last night with some friends, I had some Mango tea. They have a massive menu with different teas. Walking the city at night is a satisfying experience, there are always tons of people around to look at. you meet a lot of people, i have met people from Germany, Puerto Rico, Bulgaria, England, Holland, Palestine, Japan etc..
On Sundays EVERYTHING closes down, there are very few stores open, just the little convince stores and that's it, same thing Saturday afternoon, everything is only open half day. Its hard to adjust to not being able to just to by grocery's whenever. Also, often you have to go to multiple stores for things, they don't have the massive supermarkets that have everything. mostly the markets are small. often just a square room with a single isle thing down he center. very very small. there are separate stores for bread, fruit, meat. Over here you don't get to pick out your own fruit or vegetables., you just say "4 apples please" and you are at the whim of the produce person as to the quality of apples you get. one of the apples I got was bruised, had I been able to pick them out my self i wouldn't have bought it.
September 09, 2005
Final roommate
My final roommate showed up. David, presumably from Spain, speaks English. He was on vacation, then came home for a night then was off on another vacation to the Balearic Islands. Sounds nice.
September 08, 2005
Bike
I got a helmet and went out biking the past few days. its super nice riding. headed out of town to the east with a general idea of where i was going, i turned down a road that had a sign saying "Warning, cyclists" so i figured it would be a good place to go. it was. it climbed up past this big damn and accompanying lake, kept on climbing through some small towns up to a pass 5200ft+. both times out I met some Spanish people along the way, both times they didn't speak any English, but they were extremely nice. I rode a ways with them both times. I took my camera and took some photos which i have posted, check them out.
September 05, 2005
update
Ok so, since i last wrote i had only met 2 of my roommates, 1 of which was sketchy, the other old. another roommate has arrived and he is very cool. Abdullah from Libya, he doesnt speak much english, but is verrrry nice. when i first met him we "talked" as best as we could with each other for probably like 2 hours which was very cool, he is alwayes willing to explain everything that I dont understand with the language. the Other older roommate is also cool, its just that he is 42 and at first it was quite a shock. the other random guy who i have seen for a total of about 15 min, and when he is home is running around the appartment smoking a cigarette and singing italian opera is still a bit of a mystery.
So I will not be moving from my appartment, the only crappy part is that I have to cook my own food, my friends over here talk about the massive spanish meals their host family feeds them. And they HAVE to eat it all, that sounds nice at times, but the flexibility of eating whatevever whenever is also nice.
I have not gone biking yet, still need to buy a helmet.
Granada as a town is very cool, So much to see, I have walked more miles in the past few days that I have in a long long time.
Sorry for bad spelling, the computer I am using is all in Spanish and it the spell check thinks that ever word is wrong.
I am slowly getting photos online, there should be a Link to the right labeled Photos, also you can go here. I am still not very good with my camera so some of the photos may be blurry.
http://www.scottmclean.net/photo