|
OK folks, the time has come. The new is new and the old is old. Its time to move on (maybe). Check it out
Â
(5) Blogger comments
I have tried to get the blogger comments going, in addition to the other comments thing. The reason for this is that many people have complained that they cannot use the other one. Either way, I am sure that I have messed up the code for this page... hopefully everything runs smoothly.
Â
(1) Blogger comments
Turkey and potatoes and family and friends. Yesterday I had nothing of the sort. I sat on a plane the whole day. The flight attendant came by towards the end of the flight and asked me if I wanted a cheese or a turkey sandwich. I chose turkey, it being thanksgiving and all. Upon arriving in Boston I took the T (subway, for the non Bostonian) to the North Station and then waited there for an hour for the commuter rail to take me up to the north shore, where Gordon is. As I waited, I crossed the wet street and went into the 7-11 and bought a Slurpee and a bag of Doritos, a sumptuous thanksgiving feast. Naturally, I bought the largest Slurpee available, because it was Thanksgiving after all. As I exited the 7-11, I gave a buck to a homeless guy and I headed back into the commuter station. Once inside, I sat down on a wooden bench and munched on my ranch flavored Doritos. The cold slurpee cup kept leaving large water rings on the seat next to me, so I moved it to the floor. I noticed that many people came to sit down next to me, only to leave once they noticed the small pools of water on the wooden beams. It was a phenomenal discovery that I wish I had made in high school when I was always trying to find new ways to keep people from sitting next to me (yeah I know its a little schizoidal, sue me). So I sat there, eating my chips and reading a book. It was a book on the history of the Black Plague, a bit morbid I suppose, but interesting nonetheless. I notice that the stationmaster had a whole thanksgiving feast in his office, and his teenage daughter was there with him, it was nice. Finally I got on my train and rode to Gordon. I love train rides, I miss riding them more often. My friend Dave picked me up at the station, and we drove a couple of miles through the pouring rain until we arrived at Gordon. As we drove up to Tavilla Hall (my dorm building), I noticed that there are no lights on in any of the windows.  I went into my apartment and turned on the lights, making my home the only one around that was alive. After taking a shower and plopping down in front of a good travel documentary, I made myself a wonderful thanksgiving meal of taquitos, with which I burnt my tongue with the hot cheese filling. After enjoying the bounty of frozen Mexican treats, I headed off to bed. I lay in bed, under my feather comforter, gazing at the ceiling, waiting for the music of Queen to take me away to dreamland.
I suppose I cannot complain really. The day before I had eaten some poultry goodness with my family, in the motherland. It wasnt a big hoopla, but it was nice. Check out our little bird things... we couldnt figure out what they were, but they were small and poultry-like so we bought them.  By the way, my trip to Spain was successful, and I my residency thing went fine, which is good. I pick up my new DNI (ID card) when I go home for Christmas. It is a permanent residency, and it includes a work permit, so that is really great. Now when I go back to Spain after graduation (in aprox. 1.5 years time), I can get a job there or whatever I might want. I am considering the citizenship, but it depends on what plans I have for the future at that time.
Â
(1) Blogger comments
It was late in the evening...
(ten points for whoever can identify the title of this post as a song sung by ____________)
Monday I spent the day finishing up my Classical lit. paper. I thought it turned out decent, though maybe a bit too broad themed in nature. I highly recommend the Aeneid. It is so well written. Virgil has some of the most powerful similes and metaphors that I have ever read. His thematic symbolism isnt as subtle as we may like now a day, but I like it anyway.
Today is my last day here in Spain. I will be leaving in half an hour to hopefully finish the whole process of renewing my residency.
In contrast with my last visit, this time I have done very little. Yesterday I slept until 3:30 PM, which was heavenly. Then that night I went into Madrid and went to see a movie with Kenny. We saw an Argentinean film by the same director (and cast, pretty much) as "El hijo de la novia." It was entitled "Luna de Avellaneda." It was a bit too long and drawn out, but other than that, it was good. It had some really good moments where I laughed out loud for a while. I need to go to Argentina.
I leave tomorrow, on thanksgiving. Oh well. Today we are going to have some sort of dinner substitute, just the three of us (me, my sis, and mom). We bought three tiny little birds to cook up... not pheasant... but something similar. We will see....
Â
(0) Blogger comments
OK, here is the deal.I am in Spain. Yes, yes... I know. "In Spain again??" you cry outraged. Yes, when I was here last time I had to get my residency renewed, unfortunately they told me to come back this week to finish up the process. So, with little option but to come back.... here I am. On the negative side of things, I was going to go see my good friend Charles and his wife Jen in Florida for Thanksgiving. Alas, now I cannot. Maybe I will see them in the spring, my plane tickets will still be good. Another bad thing is that I have to go back to the states ON Thanksgiving Day, because it was the only way we could find a ticket that was cheap enough. So I dont get a thanksgiving at all.
This week has been a good one. No other way to look at it. It was packed with goodness and also a lot of work. In fact, I write this as I take a break from writing my Classical Lit paper on the Aeneid. I suppose that the fun really started on Wednesday when some of my friends, mostly international students, invited me to go out for dinner with them. I acquiesced, though I had quite a few projects coming up. After all, sometimes you just need to relax. We went to a very nice pub in Salem (yes, the witch hunt village). The service took a long time, but their beer tap kept everyone satisfied. I forgot my ID which though at first seemed like a curse turned out to be a blessing when we ended up staying there for 3-4 hours and my friends kept on ordering brew after brew. My forgetfulness gave me an excuse to not get smashed like they did, as well as saving me a good amount of money. My friends were smashed by the end of the night, but I still had a very good time.
Thursday was Jamnesty. Jamnesty was a benefit concert put on by the school charter of Amnesty International. I have some very good friends that are involved with Amnesty so I was excited to go. Not only that, but several good bands were playing that night. All the groups were from Gordon, but there were several good ones. One of them was RayNco, a group headed up by Ray, an Indonesian student, whose music reminds me of a more reggae band charged Ben Harper. They invited me to play the trumpet with them for a couple of songs. Of course, we didnt practice the music at all beforehand, but that was ok. I am used to just improvising anyway. I did fine on the first song, but completely bombed the second song. I am not used to playing Reggae. Fortunately, I had a chance to redeem myself with the final song, which I think I did. I wasnt happy with my performance that night, but it is to be expected. When you are playing with a band, and you dont have a mic, you are forced to blow with all your might to make yourself heard which kills any possibility of having a nice tonal quality to your playing. Besides that, I have lost all my range and technical speed so I had to keep my playing very simple. BUT it was fun.
Another good band was one called the David Ellis Trio, even though they have 7 members and I have no clue who David Ellis is... They remind me of my old band in Madrid, Funkurogallo, a (as the name implies) Funk band. These guys were really good, and very very danceable. They invited me up to play a bit for their last song, but their trumpet player was better than me. It was fun.
OK, I am tired of writing; here are the pictures that I promised from when we got our first snow a week ago (incidentally, it is all gone now). Click on them to see a larger version.
 Here is a picture that I took in the woods the day after the snow.
 I love the way that lamplight catches falling snowflakes.
 C'est moi!
 The campus was starting to feel the effects of the snowy night.
Â
(0) Blogger comments
Teaching... the way it should be done.
This is the way teaching should be. I hope I make as good a teacher as this lady. My respects to her.
Â
(0) Blogger comments
I had a really odd dream last night. I was at my house in spain, and I went outside and saw a very large rat. It was very hostile and I worried that it might bite me and give me some diasease. I tried to kill it. I caught it but it would not die. I tried choking it to death, stomping on it and even beating it to death, but nothing worked. The more I tried to kill it in vain, the more frightened of it I became. Finally I let it go and watched it scamper down into a hole it had dug in the ground. When I told people about it, no one really believed me. I took them over to see the hole, but it still wasnt proof enough (my dog digs holes after all). As we were looking at the hole, it emerged, but it had changed. It had grown bigger, about the size of a dog and had grown more hair. Everyone thought it was a dog, and everyone was delighted by it. I tried to explain things, but no one was listening. I pointed to its sleek rat-like tail, but no one seemed to notice. It gave me a look as if to say "you will never get rid of me." Eventually in the dream, it changed into a man and I kept trying to get my mother and sister to see that it was wicked, but they were blind to the truth. It still retained its tail, but it wore a trenchcoat, which hid it. My final attempt to unveil his true nature also failed when I yanked off his coat, revealing his tail, and everyone simply thought it was odd but kind of cute. They fawned over him even more. In despair, I woke up.
Freud would have too much fun with my brain.
Â
(0) Blogger comments
Esto es demasiado bueno para no ponerlo aqui. Jeje, mi madre esta mal de la olla... anda que no mola la tia. En vez de escribirme y decirme que ha roto otro movil me lo pone asi...
"Lamentamos reportar que despues de meses sin rastro, la asesina de moviles se ha hecho sentir de nuevo en las calles de Madrid con maneras nuevas y creativas de quitarle la vida a moviles inocentes. La ultima victima ha sido un pobre Nokia trabajador, que vivia una vida tranquila. No frequentaba clubes nocturnos, ni lugares de marcha. Iba del bolso al escritorio, cumpiendo como buen ciudadano movil. No se sabe el motivo del asesinato, ni el porque de la mania que tiene la asesina con estos aparatitos que no hacen mas que el bien. No quedo satisfecha arrojando la victima como en otras ocasiones desde grandes aturas al duro pavimiento del garaje, ni matandole gota a gota estilo tortura china, con botella de Fontvella, ni dejandole morir paultatinamente por falta de bateria y abandono en el Talgo Barcelona-Madrid. Este movil valiente se agarro hasta el ultimo momento a la vida, pidiendo ayuda a gritos parpadeando auxilio, SOS en morse, desde el cristal de la lavadora donde se cogia desesperadamente de la puerta intentando salvarse de las aguas y del detergente barrato del Lydl. La hija de la asesina al ver su grito de socorro y movida por misericordia actuo , lo rescato, lo seco y le dio boca a boca mientras le hablaba palabras de aliento y vida. El esfuerzo del movil fue de ejemplo para todos...poco a poco su luz de vida se apago, pero no sin mostrar corraje y valentia ante la muerte repentina e inesperada. Aunque la asesina sigue suelta, se ha mandado su foto a todos las tiendas de Movistar y Amena. La sociedad no puede evitar que ocurran estas tragedias, si puede hacer todo lo posible para proteger a los inocentes. Corre el rumor de que esta busando la garantia para reavivarlo, solo para matarlo de nuevo esta vez dejandolo caer "inocentemente" a la freidora con las croquetas de jamon. La capacidad del ser humano de hacer el mal nunca dejara de asombrarnos."
No me direis que esto es normal...
Â
(1) Blogger comments
For those of you who abhor the pop music industry and its various equivalents on television, etc... Click HERE. Some people hate it just as much as you do.
Â
(0) Blogger comments
|
Here is a picture that I took in the woods the day after the snow.
I love the way that lamplight catches falling snowflakes.
C'est moi! 
The campus was starting to feel the effects of the snowy night.