Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Stir Crazy

So my holiday trip around Spain seems to be a plan for another holiday. Thus far I have accepted the fact that I need to save money and be productive with my time and, despite a ridiculous sleep schedule, I've done pretty well with this goal:

Flies gone from kitchen: Check
Find where to buy soap: Check
Order transcript: Check
Work out: Check
Keep myself alive: Check
Learn Spanish:...next on list


However, while going through this list one slow step at a time, I have had a little extra time on my hands. In addition, no one is back in town yet so this has all been a solo mission and anyone who knows me I don't do that well bummin alone for days on end. And did, I mention I spent 3 hrs one day finding a movie theater so I could see Transformers in English? Well it was definitely and adventure in disguise and I was thus inspired to make my own transformations:



So I hadn't shaved in over a week and it was getting a bit ridiculous....




So I shaved...but left the mustache, but it wasn't a very good one. (ps: I look kinda weird with my hair back like that huh?)










So since the mustache wasn't good enough I figured I'd go for the Captain Morgan rather than the handle-bar mustache









But that picture made me laugh alot.....like this:





So I though maybe if i trimmed it more I could pull off a Captain Morgan pirate look...











The answer was an obvious NO and it made me make this face...







But then I thought...what might help?








This made me laugh again, but then I started twisting my newly drawn mustache and thinking of new ideas....








Although as soon as I saw these I ideas all I could think was "why does anybody ever do this?"




But at this point I had to go ahead and see what the mustache looked like...

Which turned out to be terrible, maybe I shaved too much, maybe its not grown out enough anyway, probably both...so....I guess there is only one thing to do...


Oh, I know you are can't wait to see what I look like....keep in mind, it's been like 4 years...4 years, since anyone saw me clean shaved, 4 years since I even touched my chin....

Crazy I know, just to think about.....its so crazy...

I wonder what I do look like....

Ok ok, here it is....


And I don't even think it looks that weird...could be worse...



And just so you can compare...



So thats what I did with my spare time. First time in sooooo long! Many of you who actually read this have probably never seen me without it, insane I know. So what ya think? could be worse huh? Maybe next I'll shave my head....could be a bit extreme. Well anyway, I've accepted it, and now I'm looking for more exiting things things to fill my last days of holiday, I've been hitting the beaches a bit more so hopefully I'm a little more tan than I am in these pictures. Well for all those back home, I hope all is well and Texas and all of the South isn't falling apart without me.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

NOT DEAD!

Now I know there were some worried folks out there but I assure all I am still alive and kickin. This has completed the Sarah portion of my holiday which means I now am not playing tour guild and bouncing around Barcelona all day everyday and can update my public on the adventures...and reassure all that I am still breathing and haven't wandered off the map.

I'll try to sum up the ten days with Sarah here without being overly detailed and such but I'll start by saying much fun was had. I got off work early the last Friday of work to go meet her at the airport...which ended up taking over 2 hrs because of some bad directions I got from some metro worker. Which also means it took me longer to get to the airport from Premia than it did Sarah to get there from Madrid.....ridiculous. But I did make it, and only about 5 mins after she had gotten there so that was good. That night was interesting. We went to a work dinner at a pretty cool restaurant that I cannot now remember the name, but it was good. We got there about half an hour late after hanging out with Adrian and then trying to rush showers and such which didn't work too well. Once getting there however, we had a relaxed and Spanish-length dinner which was nice because there were like 3 appetizers which meant Sarah got a nice taste of all Spanish had to offer...or at least everything that didn't have meet. Toward the end of dinner James even showed up with his newly arrived friends from England. Sarah and I finished our time at the restaurant at the English speaking side table talking to James and his friends and having some drinks. The after dinner adventure was interesting. We headed to some bar that was doing some kinda weird karaoke and had overpriced drinks but it was nice enough and everyone had a good time talkin and hangin out for a bit. We ended up next door at some dance club but more or less took over the upstairs bar above all the dancing craziness. We spent the time bouncing around all the work folk and James' friends just talking and drinking and goofing around, but it was in the end a good night and I think everyone had fun.

For the rest of the week Sarah and I did everything we could find to do around Barcelona. We went to the beach here a few times, we bar hoped in Barcelona. We had a few lazy days, that helped up prep to go adventure to some places that I hadn't been. That turned out to be nicer than me trying to play tour guilde because I didn't feel any pressure to find cool stuff to do because we were both equally lost. We found a very cool national art museum that was huge and as any good Spanish attraction had a bar/cafe to recharge half way through. We were there for about 5 hours but really only saw about half. I ran through most the the rest, but Sarah , hung out and bought some gifts at the gift shop. It was a good change from bars and wandering...however after we took the bus down and ended up back at Las Rambles for a little dinner and bar hopping on our way home. In the same area we found a cool Greek garden that I forget the name of but apparently the do little plays and stuff there and it was really cool just to spend an afternoon walking though some really nice gardens with statues scattered about.

We also spent some a day doing some of the Goudi things I had done with the Frenchies. We didn't get to go up inside the Sangra Familia because one of the elevators was broken and the wait was over 2 hours. But I think Sarah still enjoyed it and then we went to the Parc Guill (think that is how it is spelled, minus some crazy punctuation) which was alot nicer with Sarah than with the French family, it also helped that it was after one stop, instead of 5. We ended up finding it by fallowing some equally lost tourist up a giant hill which was not the way I went last time but it was cool to see a different part of the park and be able to rest and have a expensive sandwich and some sangria as we were attacked by pigeons.

So at this point I think I've given most of the highlights. Once I get some pictures from Sarah's camera I can put up some photo adventures. As for now I've finally come out of vacation stupor and managed to clean the apt, the disgusting fridge and even go to the store so I can have a dinner that doesn't involve pasta and tuna....not that there anything wrong with that. As for the rest of my vacation...which is until September 3rd...which is amazing. So I think I'm gonna take a day trip to Tarragona, unless I can find some cheaper trains to Malaga where I would really like to go. Unfortunately, even staying in Barcelona for ten days has sucked out alot of my money so we'll see what I can work out. But now that I have come out of vacation coma for the last 2 days I have even got a few emails out so hopefully I can graduate soon so I'm thinkin anything is possible.

Hope all is well back in the US of A and everyone feel free to email or get in touch whenever, I should be around for the next day or two at least and I'll probably even take the computer if i leave town so I hope to hear from ya soon.

Hasta luego!

Monday, August 6, 2007

Almost killed a man in Barcelona, just to watch him die

Ok, this is attempt number 2 for this particular story so we'll see how it goes.

So last Friday was pretty lay back and I just hung around the house. Although, to Adrien's surprise I did make dinner, chicken tacos for all!

Saturday I met up with James and Helena and her sister and went to the beach for a few hours. It's always a good day when your biggest concern is trying not to get sunburned. There was also some beach Foosball involved which is always good, although James actually beat me a few times so I guess I'm gonna have to go practice or somethin, cause that just isn't right.

After hitting the beach I came home, showered and napped. When I finally got movin again Adrien was headin out to play tennis and wasn't planing on comin back till late. So once again I was home alone and that means only one thing...Barcelona trip. I had a quick dinner and grabbed a few things; Zune, the $200 American I found in my backpack that needs to be exchanged, all the important stuff, and I headed out.

The trains are still messed up but I am now an expert so I headed to Clot to grab the subway to Placa de Catalunya and to see where the night leads. Then in Clot I had a new first time life experience; I got pick-pocketed. That's right you read correctly, pick-pocket attack.

Let me set the scene. So I'm waiting around the subway listening to music and double checking to make sure I'm headed the right way and all that. I also tap my pockets, little travel routine to make sure I have everything, and all is well. So the train comes and there is only one kid in front of me but as soon as he steps on the train he stops and starts looking at a map so I'm trapped in the door. I go to walk around him and he sways, so I move to go the other way and he sways back. I'm already pissed at this kid for not just getting on the train when someone behind me starts pushing to get on. So now I'm irritated and just put a shoulder down and push past the kid in front of be while nearly running over the kid behind me as well. I tap my pockets...no wallet...my heart jumps...I spin around fast enough to see my wallet disappearing behind the backpack of the kid behind me and before I think about it my hand juts out and grabs his wrist hard. I yang his hand up and it's empty. "Give me my f%#king wallet" (in English) and the kid looks at me not surprised or at all concerned and then looks and points at the ground where my wallet lays as if gravity had reversed itself in my pocket causing the wallet to jump out on its own. I release the kid and snatch up my wallet and check it. Everything is there.

I'm so unbelievably pissed. I feel totally justified in throwing these two little punks out the closed windows of the train as it rockets down the track. I want to just grab the kid and lift him off the ground and shake him, and I'm pretty sure I could, both of these guys are tiny. But I don't.

Ya ever wish you could just summon up a few notoriously aggressive friends? Some that maybe would have enacted a little of their own justice. I dunno, I guess it's better I didn't damage the two kids and drag them to the police by their hair in the middle of a crowded train.

Anyway, I had all my stuff but I was in a pretty crappy mood by the time I got to Barcelona. It was already later than I had hoped it would be so I only had a few hrs before I had to catch a train back. I headed over to my favorite bar and had some sangria but I didn't even really feel like finding and fast friends so I just hung out for a little over and hour and people watched. After which I just headed back home and got some sleep.

Well that's that story...unfortunately I think I told it better the first time, but that version was lost to the interweb. So as far as I'm concerned the subway is an evil place that gets me lost and steals my money so I can't wait for them to fix the trains. As for this week I have 3 and a half days between me and a 3 week vacation! Also Sarah is coming to visit Friday so it'll be cool to have someone to hang out with and hopefully do some traveling around Spain with. Well, until next time,

Adios amigos

Almost killed a man in Barcelona, just to watch him die

BLARGA FAM EDJN: FDS J:O.....So I just spent my whole lunch break typing out the weekend and then highlighted it to spell check it and accedentally hit the "k" button and now the whole thing is gone. I will rewrite it today but wanted all to know my frustration.