The last moments

I don't have a Twitter. However, I felt some twitter-like inspiration on the last leg of my journey back home from Spain in late May.

I had a notepad with me and decided I would write random thoughts down as they happened. I just found this notepad while cleaning my room and realized that I didn't post any of this here on my blog.

Before I write this, I wish I had written "tweets" about the "morning" before traveling. I put quotes around "morning" because I had to leave my host family's house at 4:30am. I ate dinner as usual the night before around 10pm, then said goodbye to Rocio before she had to go to sleep around 11:30. Carlos stayed up, watching TV, while I sat in my room and packed my bags until 2am. Thinking that I should get SOME sort of sleep before leaving, I took a nap until 4am, then made sure Carlos woke me up if I wasn't in the kitchen by 4:10am. Luckily he didn't have to, and I ate my "breakfast" then got ready to leave.

I remember that the first thing on my mind at the moment was how much I would miss my host family and my Alicante home in which I had lived for the previous 5 months.

The second thing that was on my mind was how I would miss the live broadcast of the series finale of LOST, which would be at 6am Spain time. It was devastating, really.

Anyways, on to the "tweets," which are un-twitterlike in their order, because I wrote them in the order they occurred, the newest posts at the very end.


May 25, 2010
(Alicante airport)
6:15am: Just saw a guy make the last call for boarding on his flight. He ran to the gate and chucked his papers at the flight attendant, in a rush.

6:18am There seems to be 2 types of people at the airport: those with some sense of style, and those who equate "travel clothing" with "mountainous terrain clothing."

6:20am There is a woman dragging her duffel through the airport. Someone needs to tell her it doesn't have wheels.

(Madrid airport)
8:55am You know Security's having a good day when they are whistling Duran Duran.

9:04am Airports everywhere are collections of people looking around aimlessly and being confused.

9:15am Asked if the toy store clerk would take a picture of me and a lifesize cardboard cutout of Pocoyo. He said taking photos isn't allowed. Jerk.


Pocoyo.

9:35am I just got abnormally excited for a tortilla bocadillo. I'm gonna miss those.

9:36am Received a plastic cup for my squirt-top Evian watter bottle. Way to be wasteful, Spain.

9:45am Just got a call from Katie [Blubaugh]. It was a much-needed surprise after not talking to anyone in the past 5 hours.

10:15am Why is that man holding a woman's legs in the air at the bookstore? Oh, I just noticed 2 EMTs leaning over her. Sure took me a while.

10:20am I am BALLIN' with $400 cash. Looks like funny money after a semester of dealing with a rainbow of bills.

10:25am Why does the Chupa Chups machine appear to me now, when I am fresh out of Euros?!?!

(on Madrid-Chicago flight)
7:15pm Snack box time on the plane! Unfortunately, due to orange allergies and refusal to eat marbled deli meat, I only scrounge the 1-inch candy bar and small palmeritas cookies.

(Chicago)
2:30pm Back in the good ole US of A: where sedate people ironically wear athletic clothes on a daily basis.

Tenth Radio Broadcast!

I felt like the Spanish never enforced the law. Either that, or they didn't have laws. They drink in the streets, the kids don't have curfew, the cops don't enforce drug laws, etc etc.

This broadcast talks all about law.

Song: "I fought the Law"--The Clash

Ninth Radio Broadcast!

Living with Lola the dog was something new for sure, since I never had a pet in my life. The way Spaniards treat their dogs and how they walk them around without leashes inspired my ninth show on pets...which are called "Mascotas."

I have a couple interesting things to say about this broadcast...

You would wonder what they call mascots...they call them "mascotas" also. Although, mascots truly are an American concoction since their sports really don't have mascots.

The song used is "The Underdog" by Spoon. They don't have a translation for an underdog because it really doesn't exist. They don't have that cultural idea of surpassing mediocrity to get to greatness. That's an American concept.

Eighth Radio Broadcast!

Clearly schooling was different in Spain. Not just the education, but the culture of how to address teachers, how to dress in class, or whether or not it's okay to eat!

Here is my 8th radio broadcast on schools.

The song is "Me and Julio Down by the School Yard" by Paul Simon (one of my faves!).

Seventh Radio Broadcast!

I finally got around to uploading more of my radio shows. Not all of them are up yet, but at least I got to number 10!

Loly (the radio director) suggested I do one about women, since it was women's month in March. So here is my 7th broadcast, on women.

The song is "Just a Girl" by No Doubt.

Sixth Radio Broadcast!

Perfectly in time for earth day, I have uploaded my week six broadcast of my radio show (this was from over 6 weeks ago!) on the topic of the environment. It's so old, that when I uploaded it I cringed at how American my accent sounds. I think I improved...or so I hope.

I used TV on the Radio's song "Staring at the Sun."

This fire is outta control, we gonna burn this city! Burn this city!

My trip to Valencia with Sarah and Carly during the weekend of March 19th for Las Fallas is documented in this video:



Notice the song and lyrics: "We're gonna burn this whole city down!"

Like I said, these people are CRAZY. The city could catch on fire any minute, as shown by the raging flames. How this never actually happens, I don't know.

Shopping carts with booze

Today I woke up at 7:30am during vacation days to witness the pilgrimage to Santa Faz. It begins in Alicante at 8am, where people gather (with bamboo walking sticks with evergreen poking out the top) at the church, then they walk onward, about 6 miles or more, to Santa Faz or something. The people who do it, however, vary in age. There are elderly people, there are parents with kids, and there are loads of teenagers. And since there are teenagers, there is booze.

There are loads of teens doing this, clearly many of them underage. But there are cops everywhere directing traffic (of which there is practically none since it's a holiday) and they sure don't give a damn.

I was walking out my door at 7:50am and saw a group of three teens. The boy was drinking a 40oz bottle of Amstel beer, the girl was carrying grocery bags, and the other girl was pushing a stolen shopping cart filled with more grocery bags filled with liquor, Fanta, Coke, and a cooler of food.

Rocio told me she used to do it as a teenager, where her and her friends would get up early to walk there, bringing food and drinks for the whole day. They would walk all the way there, then spend the entire rest of the day on the beach having a party, then take the bus home at the end of the day.

But now that I think about it, people probably look back on this event like this:

"Remember back in high school, when we would wake up at 7am on a Thursday, fill up a shopping cart with booze and food, and drink 40s of Amstel on the 6 mile hike up to the beach? Those were the good ole days..."

Where they put those shopping carts when they reach their destination, however, is unknown.

Does that really work on the ladies?

If I haven't already mentioned, catcalling here is ridiculous. Catcalling, or when guys whistle/holler/make noises at women as they walk by, is very common here.

Yes, you may see it in the city, or even in the suburbs I hear the occasional drive-by catcall. But what is more common in the states is just staring. Guys simply stare at the women.

But the Spaniards love to make it a little more verbal. Thank goodness I am not blonde, where the catcalling is a little more ridiculous since they all know you aren't a native Spaniard. Being brunette has helped it be less of the "you're a foreigner so I will make you super uncomfortable" type catcalling.

So, what exactly do they say/do? Well, the most common is "hola chica" (hey girl) or "guapa!" (beautiful girl)

Or, in the case of my Granada trip last year, in the area called Little India, the storeowners said "por favor! Quiero saber tu nombre! Solamente tu nombre!" (I just want to know your name! Just your name!)

Or, in the case of Carly while waiting at the bus station to go to San Sebastian last weekend, a homeless man, in English, said "I LOVE YOUUU"


But they also make sounds. They whistle sometimes, but what's more common is random noises, like kissing sounds, this hissing "SSSSTTT" noise, or this odd sucking noise you make to get peanut butter off the roof of your mouth. Except I think they do it to attract women. Ew.

I have the unfortunate walking route between my internship and school that goes right through road construction. That, of course, means there are construction workers, the most infamous catcallers. I usually ignore them and act like I don't hear them at all. I especially try not to smile, even though it's hard not to when they say such ridiculous things.

Today, however, I couldn't help myself.

I walked by the construction site and hear a group of guys yell "guapa! chica! ey! ey! guapa!" at me, but one voice strains to stay above the rest, reciting a whole paragraph of things...
"hola! Chica guapa! Que tienes mi corazon en tus manos! Mira! Te quiero! Que quiero casarme contigo! Podemos tener una vida maravillosa! Guapa! Por favor!" (Beautiful girl! You have my heart in your hands! Look! I love you! I want to marry you! We can have a wonderful life together! Beauty! Please!)

After the first couple sentences I was biting my lip not to smile because it was so weird. Then I just full on broke out laughing and smiling, but still kept looking straight ignoring whoever was talking. His friends started laughing at him as he continued his rant.

Did you know?

Did you know that not only is it highly looked down upon to eat in the park/in public, but it also is illegal in certain parks?

You can get a fine for feeding pigeons!

And people think you are homeless if you unwrap a sandwich while sitting on a parkbench somewhere.

The ugly...Englishman?

Why be an ugly American when you can be an Englishman!

There is a kid in our program, Andy, who lies to people who look down on what he's doing, by putting it on the British.

Example:
He does something looked at as a bit strange, like exercising on the beach. If someone asks him condescendingly where he is from, (or accusing him of being American), he just says "No, I'm BRITISH!"

As he says, "I am sick of the Americans getting a bad rap...so I'm putting it all on the British from now on! Soon enough, people will start to think the British are the loud, crazy annoying ones! HA!"

Happily living with squirrels in your house

About animals...

I learned today that (spanish) people willingly have squirrels as pets...that live in their house. Ohhhhkay then.

Secondly, I learned the word for sloth in Spanish, which is "perezoso", which means lazy. Like, if I were to say "he is lazy" I would say "es perezoso." Apparently that is what sloths are called. I mean, it makes sense since sloth means laziness as well...but it's just funny!

TODAY! RADIO! ME!

Listen to me on the radio! Today on Generation Y (a university student program about stuff we're interested in), we talk about childhood obesity. Of course I mention the obesity of America. GOOOO AMERICA!


(listen live at 1pm Chicago time TODAY MARCH 3RD at www.radiosanvicente.com under "eschucanos"...my segment is around 1:20)

Fifth Radio Broadcast!

This one is about the previous weekend's two big holidays: Carnaval and Valentine's Day.



The song is "Celebration" by Madonna. Of course.

Fourth Radio Broadcast!

This one is about fashion, clothing, and style.




Of course, the song is "Fashion" by Lady Gaga. It was very distracting trying to speak over that audio. Very, very difficult.

Who cuts the cod 'round here?

"Quien corta el bacalao aqui?"=My new favorite Spanish colloquialism, both for its use of my favorite Spanish word: bacalao, and it's odd meaning.

Significance: Who is in charge.

Literal translation: Who cuts the cod around here?!

Third Radio Broadcast!

A little side note: The song I used, "Wheels" by Cake, contains an amusing lyric (PS: The group is from Sacramento)...

And the muscular cyborg German dudes dance with sexy French Canadians
While the overweight Americans wear their patriotic jumpsuits

If only I could just do a whole program on hating on Americans. It wouldn't be very hard!

Fact of the Day

Today, when I asked Carlos why Lola didn't have identification tags on her collar, he told me that all dogs are required to have a chip installed in their inner ear.

If a lost dog is found, or something bad happens to it, the police have a machine that scans the ear, and on the screen it shows the name of the dog and the address of the owner.

I feel like I'm in I Am Robot or something!!!

Can you repeat that?

Rocio and Carlos were telling me how their parents would mispronounce old movie actors from back in the day, and it was pretty funny...

John Wayne---Yon WHY-nay
Cary Grant---Cahr-ee Grahnt
Gary Cooper---Gah-ree Cop-poor
Humphrey Bogart--HOOMP-hay-ray BO-gurt

Second Radio Broadcast!