Spain Update

I am finding this harder than I imagined to actually keep up with a blog. At my house, I am only able to access the internet roughly once a week.... I have to constantly wait for an open wireless signal. If only it were easier. I have internet access at school, but my days are usually filled with class, reading, homework and exploring Madrid and the surrounding areas. I have also been keeping a travel journal for my travel writing class. If time allows, I will take select writings from it and put them online.
Anyway, Madrid constantly amazes me with the plethora of activities to do. On Tuesday night I went to a Real Madrid game with a bunch of the other students in my program. They played against Real Zaragoza, but lost in the end. We sat up in the 7th tier, roughly midfield, and had a great view of everything. I didn´t think that I liked soccer, or futball, until that night. With over 85,000 people crowding the giant stadium, my enthusiasm for the game was fueled immensly by their excited cheers and overall passion for the game. At the game I sat next to a Spaniard and he explained much of the game to me. He pointed out Ronaldo, who is one of the world´s best futball players, and David Beckham. I expected more from Beckham considering his popularity. It seemed like every time he touched the ball, it resulted in a change of possession. I can´t wait for another game.
Last Friday I went on a day trip to Segovia, which is roughly an 1 1/2 from Madrid. While there I saw a cathedral, the best preserved Roman Aquaduct in the world, and a tremendous castle. In the castle, my friend Lindsey and I took the medieval helmets off the knights and tried them on. Luckily we didn´t get caught, but we did get some great photos. You can check them out on the picture website that´s listed a few blogs down.
I´ve have been reading a lot here. The weather is amazing and it is a great excuse to be outdoors. I read my first Ernest Hemingway book, Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises. It was amazing and I am excited to read another... there are so many to choose from. His writing style is simple, yet incredibly descriptive and it drags you into the story. I enjoyed reading small bits at a time because it would constantly bring me into the world he had created. Not that I have any desire to escape the reality that I am living, but it is always nice to see something different.
Spring break is all set. Yesterday, I booked a trip to Tunisia... Looks like this kid is going to Africa. The trip is for 8 days and 7 nights in an amazing hotel directly on the beach. I got an amazing deal because it is so cheap there. While in Tunisia, I will be able to explore via camel back, jet ski, swim, parasail, relax, and so on. I know it is weeks away, but I just can´t wait.

If you´re interested...

I am currently taking a class called Travel Writing and Modern Literature. I signed up for this class because it would further motivate me to write about my stay here... basically if I don´t, my grades plummet. I will truely appreciate it when I am old. My first assignment was to write about something that I have seen, done or experienced since my arrival in Europe. I wrote it over the weekend and it is a little blip about a jazz club I went to Friday night. It is under peer review now, so this is the first rough copy. Read on if you are interested...

“Her”

They told us never to go to Plaza del Sol while in Madrid. They said, “You’ve heard about the Bermuda Triangle, right? Well Sol is part of the Madrid Triangle; all of your possessions just seem to disappear.” They even went so far as to map the no-go area out for us. Sometimes I can be a punk-ass kid and ignore authority figures. It’s true; I always want what I can’t have. It is said that curiosity killed the cat. I thank God that I am a human. Scoffing at their comparison, that night I hopped on my high horse and headed to Sol to check out the night life. Honestly, the Bermuda Triangle, not to say that I have actually seen it, could not possibly have this much culture. Sol is the Times Square, La Rambla, Champs Elysee, of Madrid; the drinks are pricier, the people are louder, it is a place you just have to see. A ‘necessity.’ With my wallet in my front pocket and a clear head, I step out of the metro and into life. To my left a band plays loudly. It is a tune indigenous to South America, which there is quite a bit of in Madrid. The song attracts a melee of locals and tourists alike. Looking into the street, cars whiz by, weaving between pedestrians and each other, carrying the patrons of the night to their own personal destinations. As a fellow night patron, I too have a destination, more exact than the whole of Sol.
Entering the smoky bar, jazz floods my senses. I can hear it; I can see it; I can smell it in the air; I can taste it; breathe it in. The walls are covered with pictures of the greats, retired instruments, and flyers for both the past and the upcoming events. This place is clutch and I am in gear. I am one Cuba Libre down and I see Her. Had I listened to them earlier, I never would have gone to Sol. More precisely, I never would have seen Her. At first glance, she is nothing special. She is no more than a middle aged woman who has let the years affect her no more than a normal human. She does not interest me by any means. But, as with anything and everyone worth noting, there is a clear-cut, defining moment that elevates a mundane existence to that of a superior status. Out of no where, this woman had it. She made that leap to superiority. I watch her rise from halfway across the smoke filled bar. I watch her through the haze as she begins to dance. I watch her dance and I want to be in her head, walk a mile in her shoes. At this point I only have my imagination. With no more than my imagination I venture inside my head, attempting to get inside her head. Dancing like no one is watching, she moves to the beat, lives the groove and allows the flow to penetrate her every nerve. She knows she is aging, but why let that stop her. Those hips can still carve curves into the smoke filled air. She sees herself in a red Spanish dress, the type with the ruffles that flood to the ground and the bells that clink with every minute movement. She’s wearing her favorite dancing shoes; their broken in from countless nights on this same floor. Young again and without a care she is in her head, she sees herself as perfect as ever. Provoking these feelings, these emotions, the music continues to play on. Instantaneously, she catches the beat of the bass. The musician’s fingers meander over the strings and she sways, dips, stomps her feet to his tune. She remembers a club that is not much like this one, way back from her youth. Only the music is the same. She is in her head with no more than her imagination and she has returned to that club without a physical sense. Familiar as ever, the faces smile as she takes center stage. The dance floor clears and the light strikes her every movement, accentuating her youthful beauty. Continue to move, graceful, yet forceful she is strong with a sense of empowerment. She has the power, the power of attraction. She knows everyone is watching, but continues to dance as if no one is. The night is growing late, and the jazz musicians puff their last cigarettes and finish their final cocktails onstage. I can feel their music coming to an end, and I believe She can, as well. She shakes those hips, cuts them sharp in one final twist and her night of dancing is over. Sitting with an overwhelming sense of enjoyment, her eyes are beautiful and beaming. As she takes her pack of Ducados out of her little Spanish purse, she waits a moment to light one up and glances around the room. With a little smile, I wink and she knows I’ve been watching her dance. She turns back towards the stage and I can see the flicker of her lighter. Inhaling deeply, she smokes her cigarette with great satisfaction. She has earned this moment. The cloud of smoke crosses the threshold of her lips into the air and it lingers a moment before mixing into the haze, just as this She and this night will mix into the whole experience of my stay in Madrid.

I finally motivated my self to put some pictures online. Check them out at: http://community.webshots.com/user/travelkid101

A little more Paris

I definitely fell behind in terms of blogging here. I don't really have much to say about Paris. We went to lunch at the Louvre, which was great. My only complaint was about the salad and the amount of time we had to venture among the art. The salad sucked... the combined three of my least favorite foods in one plate: olives, vinegar, and shrimp... and put it in front of me. I tried it, but there is no changing these tastebuds. After lunch we checked out The Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and countless other impressive statutes, paintings, carvings, etc. We only had an hour and a half, but I could have spent days there. From the Louvre, our group took a boat tour of Paris on the river Seinne. We passed the Eiffel Tour and it was lit up against the night sky. Amazing to see.
Paris was a beautiful city and great to explore (I even got a pretty good graps of their metro system in a relatively short amount of time), but the night life wasn't really for me. Some friends and I went to a discoteque that was supposedly the best in Paris. Listening to the incessent thumping of house music for hours on end just left me with a headache. Now, the people in Paris are like non other I have ever seen. First off, being an American guy, it is virtualy impossible to speak with the French girls; they seem to have nothing but contempt for Americans. The style there is also overwhelming. I wore a sport coat and jeans. Bad idea... the key is to blend in and I stuck out like a sore thumb. I couldn't blend into Paris unless I had a cockatoo hair cut or mullet (I have no clue why Europeans rock the mullet... reminds me of 80s hair metal or maybe some hicks in Arkansas.) and wore the trendiest ripped up clothing possible. The wierdest part about the experience was the dancing, which is not necessarily a shared experience. Everyone seems to dance by themselves, zoning out to the house music while staring at the DJ.

That's really all I have for Paris. I saw the sights. The Louvre, Eiffel Tour, Notre Dame, countless bridges. But, I don't really have any knack to return any time soon. Maybe when I am old and married.